Hometown History

March 30, 2023

125 Years Ago
People say prices are inflated now and that we are overdoing it. Such critics should have been here sixteen years ago. Why, there is any quantity of well-situated property in the central part of the town that doesn’t yet command the figure it was held at in 1872. The change of recent years, the advance in value, has been largely felt along Main Street, and in the outlying districts. Main Street frontages are pretty high, it is true; but they will probably never be lower. As for property in the new tracts, prices are very moderate as compared with those commanded in 1872, when Oneonta had less than 1,400 in population and lived mainly on hope.
The impression seems to prevail about town that but one sort of table is turned out by the Oneonta factory. In point of fact the product ranges from an ordinary dining table in various styles and materials, to a very handy folding table for general purposes and stands of several sorts, all of them models in their way. A shipment of tables was made to Montevideo, Monday, which may prove the beginning of a lucrative foreign trade.

March 1888

100 Years Ago
“In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” says the poet, but in Oneonta, it would seem to be true that the attention of a great majority of them is directed to the prospects of baseball for the summer if one may judge from the conversation heard about the clubs and streets where they gather. Is Oneonta to have a summer team the coming summer? And, there seems to be but one answer. All are agreed that the season would be quite dull and the city quite dead without baseball here during July and August at least. The directors of the association incorporated last season have not held a meeting this spring. Several names have been suggested for manager. It will not be difficult to secure a good manager and a good team, the chief question being the financial support, for it is an impossibility to maintain a first class team in the field without a liberal fund. The city has always responded generously and it is believed the money will be forthcoming. One thing is needed to make the grounds at Neahwa Park attractive. It is believed that a new and suitable grandstand seating at least 300 people would increase the attendance considerably, as the present stand is not suitable for ladies, among whom there are many fans in the city.

March 1913

80 Years Ago
With smiles, the Roosevelt administration today formally authorized the sale of beer. The bill legalizing both the amber brew and also wine of 3.2 percent alcoholic content became law with the signature of President Roosevelt at 2 p.m. “And I hope you got the smile at the end,” he remarked to photographers who recorded the signing in the cabinet room at the White House executive office. Fifteen days hence – or after midnight on April 6, beer may be sold in the 14 states permitting it. The bill provides for a tax of $5 on each barrel of 31 gallons. Federal license fees of $1,000 will be required annually from each brewery; $50 from each wholesaler and $20 from every retailer.

March 1933

60 Years Ago
An educator reported today that 81 teachers have been separated from New York City’s public school system in a campaign to oust communists. Another 180 teachers are under investigation. William Jansen, New York City’s superintendent of schools gave the figures to the U.S. Senate’s internal security sub-committee which is studying Red influence on American education. “The number of Communists among New York’s 37,000 teachers is small,” Jansen said, “but they exert an influence far beyond their number. Since 1950, 81 teachers have resigned, retired, or been removed while under investigation, or after charges of Communist affiliations had been brought against them. And, “we are by no means satisfied that we have cleared up the situation,” Jansen added. Jansen said the problem of Communism is not confined to New York City, and that he had found school authorities across the nation increasingly concerned about Red infiltration.

March 1953

30 Years Ago
President Reagan was urged Monday to mount a federal crackdown on producers and distributors of pornography and “put a torpedo into the whole sex industry.” Reagan discussed the issue with members of the Morality in Media, an anti-pornography group whose members include religious leaders, officials of the publishing and broadcasting industries and conservative groups. “We all leave very much encouraged that there will be an effort to move after this $6-billion industry, 90 percent of which is controlled by organized crime and which is having a real bad effect on the future generations,” said Cardinal John Krol, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia. The Rev. Morton Hill, president of the group, said members urged Reagan to name a national coordinator for an anti-pornography campaign. With proper coordination, he said, the problem can be solved in 18 months.

March 1983

20 Years Ago
Gov. Mario Cuomo is calling for buttressing family care, encouraging regional health networks and moving toward setting fees for doctors. The Democratic governor is releasing his plan while President Clinton is sifting through national health care proposals. Cuomo said he will leave the burden of paying for coverage of New York’s estimated two million uninsured residents to Washington. Cuomo wants to build a health care system that provides better primary care, takes quality into account, and begins putting brakes on costs.

March 1993

10 Years Ago
Former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a part-time Pindars Corners gentleman farmer who became an iconoclastic scholar-politician serving four terms in the Senate, died Wednesday at the age of 76. After retiring from the Senate in 2001, Moynihan was succeeded by Hillary Rodham Clinton. As a candidate to replace Moynihan, Ms. Clinton announced her candidacy at a news conference at Moynihan’s farm in July 1999. Senator Clinton also announced Moynihan’s death Wednesday on the Senate floor, saying that the country had lost a “great American”

March 2003