Bound Volumes, Hometown History

May 8, 2025

110 YEARS AGO

John Paddock, aged about 54 years, a carpenter by trade, living at 63 Gilbert Street, where he conducted a lodging house for railroad men, took his own life about 7 o’clock Tuesday morning by shooting himself twice in the head with a .32 caliber revolver. Paddock was alone in the house at the time. When Paddock’s wife, accompanied by Mrs. Edward Aylsworth, a neighbor, entered after hearing the shots, he was found lying on the floor of the kitchen. Paddock had been a heavy drinker for many years and when under the influence of liquor often pounded and otherwise abused his wife. Monday afternoon, after becoming intoxicated, he went home and unmercifully pounded and beat his wife, blackening her eyes, tearing her ear and bruising her body. Mrs. Paddock has always been a hardworking woman, slaving night and day for the man who repaid her with curses and beatings and no one blames her.

May 1915

50 YEARS AGO

The Oneonta School Board will be presented with several proposals at its May 21 meeting designed to relieve the overcrowded conditions at the Center Street School. School Superintendent Dr. Frederick Bardsley said administrators at the school are studying as many as sixteen various plans to eliminate the overcrowding. Bardsley told the citizens’ task force last night that “the guiding light of the plans will be consistency.” “We would like to have it guaranteed that each student will attend the same school for at least a five-year period,” Dr. Bardsley said. Some of the plans to be presented to the board call for the reinstatement of the Sixth Grade at Center Street. Last August, the Board voted to take the Sixth Grade students out of Center Street and bus them to Greater Plains School where there was more room. The decision led to heated protests from parents of the students affected. The problem the district faces, Bardsley said, is trying to keep the neighborhood school concept, trying to keep all children in the same family going to the same elementary school and keep classes at sizes agreed to in the district’s contract with the Oneonta Teachers Association (OTA).

May 1975

30 YEARS AGO

Teachers across New York report that students brought weapons to schools in all but five counties outside of New York City during the last academic year. Guns were found in school buildings in 40 of those counties. The survey of 445 teachers showed that weapons and violence in school is no longer a problem confined to inner cities. “Suburban, rural and small city districts can no longer bury their heads in the sand and minimize these problems,” said Alan Lubin, executive vice-president of the New York State United Teachers. In 52 of 57 counties teachers reported students being caught in school with an assortment of weapons including bats, clubs, pipes, knives, brass knuckles, razor sharp box cutters, and pepper gas.

May 1995

20 YEARS AGO

Jack Messina, 80, who lives on East Street, said he has 85 families living in his 19-acre trailer park who each pay between $400 and $500 monthly to rent a trailer and lot. Messina has owned and operated the property for 40 years. A recent stabbing incident involving two men has raised questions about conditions and security in the trailer park. “By and large, the tenants are fine, upstanding people,” Messina said. “They’re not representative of this incident.” But, domestic squabbles and trouble with young people are frequent occurrences that require an almost daily visit from state police,” Messina admitted. His efforts to weed out problem tenants are hindered by a high turnover of residents and a two-month eviction process.

May 2005