Bound Volumes, Hometown History
May 15, 2025
110 YEARS AGO
Mayor Joseph Lunn and 46 former Oneonta boys gathered last Friday evening in New York City and sat down to a tempting dinner, smoked some fine Doyle & Smith cigars from the old home town and then proceeded to have a rousingly good time talking over the old days spent on their native heath. Four hours of chumship and friendship reigned as of old and everybody had a real enjoyable time. The occasion was the second annual reunion of native Oneonta boys who are now engaged in pursuits business and professional walks of life in Greater New York and vicinity. There are known to be upwards of a hundred former Oneonta men now doing business and living in the great Metropolis. The fact that 46 of them could assemble for a reunion speaks volumes of the spirit of mutual interest in which these former Oneontans hold each other. The event was chaired by T.D. Tallmadge.
May 1915
50 YEARS AGO
The proposed New York State Equal Rights Amendment cleared an important hurdle on Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 14-1 to report the measure to the full Senate. The Equal Rights Amendment would ban discrimination against women in New York State laws. Opponents have expressed fears, however, that the ERA would mean an end to separate restrooms, a loss of financial support for married women and a downgrading of job safety for women. John Calandra, Bronx Republican, described the ERA as a “ballyhoo type of proposition,” and said it was not needed. Calandra cast the only “no” vote in the Senate Committee. He accused some of the other members of the committee of not having enough courage to vote the way they felt. “We don’t know what the impact of this legislation will be – but we’re passing the buck because we don’t want to stand up and be counted.” Another member of the committee, Joseph Pisani, Republican, Westchester, said he voted “yes” simply to get it out of the committee. “If it was kept in committee, it would have been branded a Republican move.”
May 1975
40 YEARS AGO
The head of a coalition of New York State gun groups said Tuesday that Governor Mario Cuomo would likely be hit with a $30 million libel suit for uncomplimentary remarks about National Rifle Association members. “We’re shooting for March of 1986,” said Jerry Preiser, Chairman of the Coalition of New York State Sportsmen. What had gun club members so upset is a remark by Cuomo, published last month by the Los Angeles Times, in which the Democratic Governor said the strongest complaints against New York’s new mandatory seat belt law had come from “NRA hunters who drink beer, don’t vote, and lie to their wives about where they were all weekend.”
May 1985
20 YEARS AGO
Eleanor Kilmer, 83, a Hamden woman will celebrate 50 years as a 4-H leader next week. Over that time, more than 200 children have been members of the Country Cousins 4-H Club since it began in 1955, and many of those 4-H’s are related to one another. Kilmer credits Bill Ives, a neighbor, with the suggestion to start the Country Cousins 4-H Club. The original members included Kilmer’s five children and two of the Ives’ children. “We named it Country Cousins because most of them were cousins, no matter which way we went,” Kilmer said. Kilmer’s own family grew and three more of her own children became Country Cousins members along with 29 foster children whom Kilmer and her family took in over the years. Now there are three generations of Kilmer-kin with Country Cousins experience.
May 2005
