HOMETOWN HISTORY, June 15, 2012

125 Years Ago
The Local News – In noting last week some of the greater improvements to be made in Oneonta this year, we said nothing of one of the most noteworthy among them all – the increase in the water supply in the village. Not many of our people, we opine, have an adequate conception of the extent of the work now being done, nor of the great advantage its consummation will be to the village. An abundant supply of pure water with no fear of a shortage even in the severest drought is a Godsend to any community. And this is just what Oneonta will soon be the happy possessor of.
The contract for building the Delaware & Otsego railroad from Hobart to the Oneonta line has been let to Curran & Dockstater, and work is to begin at once. Mr. Cornell writes that if the people of Oneonta will raise $150 to defray a portion of the expense, he will immediately send to Oneonta a corps of engineers to make a map and estimate the cost of the road from the town line to this village. The Delaware & Otsego railroad is to be extended to this village in the near future, the company only requiring that the right-of-way shall be furnished by the people of Oneonta.
June 1887

100 Years Ago
Evidence was uncovered Monday by Fire Chief Crotty after two months of persistent effort and careful investigation of the Broad Street fire Easter night last which warranted the arrest of Mary Abounader, known as Mary Koury, and Moses Koury, charged with arson in the first degree in connection with the mysterious fire which broke out in front of the candy and cigar store conducted by the woman at 32 Broad Street on Sunday evening, April 7, Easter night. The lives of a dozen sleeping inmates of the building, some of whom were aged and crippled, were endangered by the fire, several of them narrowly escaping suffocation and being assisted from the burning building by firemen and policemen.
June 1912

80 Years Ago
Emphasizing the need for principles, faith and obedience, Dr. O.M. Norlie, retiring Dean of Hartwick College, was heard in the first baccalaureate sermon to the members of the first graduating class of the college at the First Presbyterian Church Sunday evening. The church was filled to capacity. Opening with the processional to the strains of the organ played by Dr. Matthew N. Lundquist, to which the members of the faculty, board of trustees and graduates marched into the church, a hymn “Praise to the Lord, followed. The academic procession marched from 17 Maple Street, the home of Dr. Charles W. Leitzell, president of the college, to the church. Rev. P.M. Luther, field secretary of the college, presided. In his talk, Dr. Norlie said: Four years ago on this day there were no teachers or students here, no buildings or equipment, no accreditation or standing anywhere for Hartwick. Today, Hartwick is a high class accredited college with a graduating class of 73, 37 men and 36 women.”
June 1932

40 Years Ago
The three-day Festival of the Arts, which ended Saturday with a massive demonstration of area arts and crafts, drew upwards of 10,000 people according to unofficial estimates. The program was the second annual festival sponsored by the Upper Catskill Community of the Arts council. The high-point of the three-day program, Saturday’s demonstrations and exhibits, was dampened somewhat by high winds and unseasonably cool temperatures amid the threat of rain. The exhibits, which had been slated for display on the quadrangle behind Oneonta State’s fine arts and administration buildings, instead were moved inside the fine arts building. Nevertheless, a throng of people turned out, included busloads of area students. Co-chairs for the festival were Dorothy and Leonard Ryndes.
June 1972

30 Years Ago
Six Oneonta area residents, all members of the Foothills 14, an anti-nuclear weapons activist group, were arrested in New York City on Monday during organized mass protests calling for disarmament. The local contingent joined about 1,600 other anti-nuclear protesters in the city. They were arrested along with hundreds of other protesters when they blockaded the United Nations mission doors of France. Ticketed and charged with disorderly conduct were Jim Everts, Daniel Birenbaum, Helen Friedman, Jennifer Bernet, Charmi Miller, and Valentine Green.
June 1982

20 Years Ago
A federal agency has granted $115,000 to the State University College at Oneonta for an education program directed by three local professors – James Ebert of the SUCO Earth Sciences Department, Reuben James of the Physics and Astronomy Department and Lawrence Heldman of the Education Department. The program, titled “Reinforcing and Expanding a Statewide Network of Regional Teacher-Mentors in Earth Science and Physics.” This year, 70 secondary school teachers across the state will participate in the mid-July training session. The teachers will update academic knowledge and teaching skills so they can become mentors in their home schools and areas.
June 1992

10 Years Ago
On Friday, the U.S. postal service will issue a stamp that honors Oneonta native Carleton Emmons Watkins known locally as a premier landscape photographer. The Watkins stamp is part of a 20-stamp block titled “Masters of American Photography. The 37-cent stamps can only be purchased by the sheet which costs $7.40 and accommodates a three cent first class postage price increase effective at the end of June. Other photographers featured in the set are Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Minor White and Dorothea Lange. Watkins’ photo stamp is titled “Cape Horn, Columbia River and was taken in 1867.
June 2002