Hometown History

January 5, 2023

110 Years Ago
The dance given Miss Ella Deitz Bull by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bull at the City Club ballroom at The Oneonta Monday night proved delightful in every way. Miss Bull, one of the season’s attractive young debutantes, had as guests about 60 of the younger set, all of whom declared the event one of the happiest occasions imaginable. Mr. and Mrs. Bull were assisted in chaperoning the party by Mr. and Mrs. Perry R. Young. The music for the event was furnished by Gardner’s full orchestra and the music was enticing. The young folks found keenest pleasure in the merry dance. During the intermission a delicious collation was served in the club dining room by Mssrs. Millard of The Oneonta.

January 1913

90 Years Ago
A 13-year-old mystery was solved yesterday when the skeletons, one of a young girl and the other of a man, were discovered near Mount Upton yesterday. Identification of the remains revealed that they were Beatrice Deforest, 15, and Harry Gardner, 27, who disappeared in 1919. At the time it was thought they had eloped. Dr. E.W. Wilcox of Norwich, coroner, yesterday afternoon gave a verdict of murder and suicide. The verdict was based on the fact that an axe and a number of bottles which had contained chloroform, carbolic acid and paregoric were found with the remains. The skull of the girl appeared to have been beaten in. The gruesome find was made by George Miner of Johnson City, a pitcher of the Newark, New Jersey International League baseball team. While hunting in what is known as the Michigan swamp, two miles from Mount Upton, just at dusk the day before, he stumbled over a skull. He hastened back to the village, but it was too dark to return to the scene until yesterday morning. Identification of the girl’s remains was made from papers in her pocketbook. Other articles found with Gardner’s skeleton were taken to his wife, who is now living in Franklin, and she identified them as belonging to him. The girl’s parents are both deceased.

January 1933

70 Years Ago
There was one inch of snow on Oneonta streets yesterday morning, costing the city an estimated $135 to clean up before pedestrians could walk, or automobiles could ride, without slipping. “People don’t realize how much money it costs just to clear a light snow such as this, just to make it passable so people can get around,” said Edmund Shultis, Sr., foreman of the Department of Public Works. “The snow was just enough to make it slippery and greasy,” Shultis said. He estimated other costs as follows: Nearly three tons of salt, at $50; four loads of stone grit (20 tons) at $32; labor cost for three men on the salt truck and three on the sanding crew, $35; plus equipment wear and tear covering items as tires and chains at $18. “You can just imagine what it would cost if the city had to dig out from a heavy snowfall,” Shultis added.

January 1953

50 Years Ago
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller asked the legislature Wednesday for mandatory life sentences for all hard-drug pushers and was met with prolonged Republican applause and negative Democratic murmurings of “concentration camps.” Saying that attempts to rehabilitate drug addicts have accomplished little, Rockefeller called for tough new measures against addicts and pushers alike. “Our neighborhoods have been effectively destroyed by addicts as by an invading army,” he declared. Immediate reaction from the Democrats, who sat in silence as the governor delivered his annual message to a joint session of the legislature, was negative. “When are we going to open the concentration camps?” asked Assemblyman Manfred Ohrenstein of Manhattan.

January 1973

40 Years Ago
Penn State’s Nittany Lions, who have been playing intercollegiate football since 1887, were crowned national champions for the first time Sunday according to the final Associated Press poll. Penn State defeated number 1- ranked Georgia 27-23 in Saturday night’s Sugar Bowl showdown and moved up from the number 2 position to claim the national title with an 11-1-0 record over undefeated Southern Methodist University, which took second with an 11-0-1 record. The Lions were defeated 42-21 by Alabama in the fifth game of the season. “Obviously, we’re all thrilled at Penn State,” Coach Joe Paterno said when informed of the final rankings. “This kind of makes up for the times we didn’t get it.”

January 1983

20 Years Ago
The creation of a county executive, Medicaid reform and a reduction in New York State’s health care costs are among the issues on the Otsego County Chamber’s 2003 agenda, chamber officials said Friday morning. The seven initiatives on the agenda emphasize change “over the long haul and sustained economic growth,” said Rob Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the chamber. “We’re facing this year the biggest challenge we’ve had in years, maybe decades,” Robinson said.

January 2003