HOMETOWN HISTORY

November 19, 2020

150 Years Ago

Oneonta Local: J.P. Van Woert is preparing to erect his house on Dietz Street. H.M. Brownson is the builder.
A.G. Shaw has sold his home to J.M. Watkins for $4,000. Mr. Wells, 0n Centre Street, intends to build a very superior house. S.M. Ballard has bought the house of Dr. Reynolds on Chestnut Street. J. Alger has purchased a lot of Isaac Peters, and intends erecting a house soon. McDonald & Brewer have the frame up for A. Morris’s new house on Walnut Street. John Dewar has bought a house of N.I. Ford, and moved it on a lot in the rear of T.J. Gildersleeve’s.
J.H. Ostrander’s new house, which is nearly completed, improved the corner above the creek on Dietz Street.
Stephen Bull’s fine house presents a very picturesque appearance. A portion of it can be seen so far up the road as J.W. Jenks’s. The Brewer Block is nearly completed. Six nice homes are thus offered for sale or to rent. Rents will not be less than $250 per year and at that price the owners will not realize more than ten percent on cost. If a few more houses could be built so as to rent for about $150 it would be a good thing. In a few years Oneonta will be the largest town in the county, and houses will be needed.

November 1870

125 Years Ago

In 1893 the Democrats had a clean majority in both Houses of Congress. President Cleveland and Secretary Carlisle had urged Congress to give them authority to sell bonds at a low rate of interest and having a short time to run, in order to replenish the dwindling gold reserve. They treated this recommendation with absolute contempt. The reason was that the Democrats were not willing to recognize the right of the Executive Branch of the government to preserve the public credit. This was itself a monstrous outrage on the decent sentiment of the country. But, it was emphasized and burned in when the House refused to save $16,000,000 on the last issue of bonds by making them payable in gold. It was mainly the folly of that Congress which caused the subsequent defeat of the Democratic Party.

November 1895

100 Years Ago

The Internal Revenue Bureau confirms reports that a crusade against home brewing of alcoholic beverages is planned by the U.S, Government’s prohibition enforcement agencies. It was not revealed, however, what means would be employed in the campaign. “If malt extract, hops, is in the glass, gelatin or other materials are sold or advertised for sale in circumstances showing that they are advertised or sold for use in the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor, it is the purpose of the bureau to prosecute persons so offending. The so-called “Home Brew” – beer manufactured in the home for beverage purposes, even though for the sole use of the family and bona fide guests, is under the bureau’s construction of the law, illegal. Also, the sale of material for the purpose of such manufacture is likewise illegal.”

November 1920

60 Years Ago

One of the most interesting museums in Central New York has its headquarters at Hartwick College in Oneonta. It is called the Yager Museum and is devoted to the collection and display of Indian artifacts and relics. The collection is known as the “Upper Susquehanna Collection.” Dr. H. Claude Hardy of Hartwick College is the museum’s curator. Willard E. Yager of Oneonta was an amateur anthropologist. He spent most of his life collecting and classifying more than 6,000 artifacts identified with American Indians. These he housed in a fireproof building similar to an American Indian “Long House” at 19 Ford Avenue in Oneonta. When Yager died on March 4, 1929, he bequeathed the Long House and its contents, along with a residence to Hartwick College. Mr. Yager’s sister, Miss Marian Yager, died February 22, 1959, and she bequeathed to the college, the major portion of her estate, the income from which is used for the maintenance and educational use of the collection.

November 1960

40 Years Ago

The Great American Smokeout is now in its fourth year. This is an educational campaign to get smokers to give up the habit for at least one day. However, for many smokers, even a few hours without a cigarette is very difficult. Tomorrow, Thursday, November 20, is this year’s date. If you quit smoking as a result of this American Cancer Society event, you are invited to contact the Otsego County Unit at 432-9990 (no longer a current number) and get a handsome “Smoking Stinks” button or decal. To keep from smoking, nibble on carrots, celery or gum instead of smoking. Keep telling yourself, “I don’t really need this cigarette, and believe it!” Last year, a survey showed that five million cigarette smokers did not smoke at all on Smokeout Day. A total of 2.3 million were still not smoking a week later. Smokers can break their habit.

November 1980

20 Years Ago

Gretchen Sorin and Cynthia Falk of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of SUNY Oneonta will discuss the sociology of collecting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, November 22, on the Northeast Public Radio Show “Vox Pop.” The live call-in show originates from Albany and can be heard locally on translator station 88.9 in Oneonta. Sorin and Falk are authorities on American Material
Culture. A Professor of Museum Studies, Sorin serves as Director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Falk, an Assistant Professor, holds a master’s in Early American Culture from the University of Delaware and is working on a doctorate.

November 2000

10 Years Ago

Otsego County Cuisine – The other afternoon, pie-maker Ben Rogers was about to pop a mash-potato pizza into the oven at Sal’s Pizzeria, 285 Main Street, Oneonta. Ben’s brother, Justin Haynes, 8 years younger, was maintaining the patter with customers, Theo Van Gogh to his brother’s Vincent. The artistic allusion is apt. Enter the cavernous pizza parlor and approach the counter. You’re quickly confronted with creativity: Chicken Caesar Pizza, Turkey Biscuits and Gravy Pizza, Chicken Spiedie Pizza. But, the craziest is the mash-potato variety, a big seller. “Some college kids asked for it and I did it,” he explained.

November 2010