Bound Volumes, Hometown History
October 29, 2026
135 YEARS AGO
The Local News—“What a fine-looking body of men!” was the general remark last Friday when the McCammon hose company, participating in the annual parade of the fire department, passed along Main Street. It was the first opportunity most of our people have had to see the workmen at the piano factory and there was instant recognition and acknowledgement of the fact that the new industry had brought to Oneonta a very desirable class of citizens.
“Stratton the Caterer” has starved-out all the other contestants in the great international fasting match in New York City, and it is now Stratton against time. On Monday afternoon after being without food for 20 days and 17 hours, Mr. Stratton weighed 237 pounds, his weight when he began being 270 pounds. Dr. Justin Herald, one of the medical experts attending the fast issued the following: “Pulse 68; temperature 98 and 1/5; respiration 20; right hand grip 112 pounds; left hand grip 84 pounds; drank 26 gallons of clysinic water in 12 hours; condition excellent; likely to fast 55 days on water only.” Mr. Stratton’s Oneonta friends are watching his record with much interest.
October 1891
90 YEARS AGO
Governor Alf M. Landon of Kansas arrived in New York for two days of campaigning in the metropolitan area for the state’s 47 electoral votes. A few minutes before his arrival he spoke in Newark, New Jersey, emphasizing labor’s “right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing without interference by employers.” At Newark’s Mosque Theatre, Landon told a throng of 4,500” “I would like the workers of America, whether they are organized or unorganized, to understand clearly that their problems are familiar to me; that I myself have worked with my own hands; that I have earned wages, and that I am in deep sympathy with the point of view of the working men and the working women, and eager to cooperate with them.”
October 1936
30 YEARS AGO
New York Yankees Win World Series—“Unbelievable,” said Matt Kasa, a SUNY Oneonta business major from Northport said following the final out after Charlie Hayes, the Yankees’ third baseman squeezed Mark Lemke’s pop fly to clinch the Bronx Bombers’ first World Series title in 18 years. “The best night of my life, honestly, the best night of my life,” said Kasa, who viewed Saturday’s game on television with neighbors in a dorm room in Grant Hall. Kasa’s friend, 19-year-old Andrew Einhorn of Brooklyn was just as happy. “This was awesome,” Einhorn said. “I was waiting for this for a long time. I think you could have heard me on Water Street, I was screaming so loud.” “They were ballistic,” confirmed Lauren Schall, a more low-key Yanks rooter who lives across the hall. Schall said she didn’t remember the last World Series won by the Yankees in 1978.
October 1996
20 YEARS AGO
Land use was a major focus Wednesday night at a public workshop about Oneonta’s comprehensive plan. About 100 residents, city officials and employees of Clark Patterson Associates broke into groups at the Morris Complex at SUNY Oneonta and pored over poster-sized aerial photos of Oneonta. City and Town of Oneonta relations, developing the rail yards, stopping the conversion of single-family homes to rentals and sprucing up the gateways to Oneonta were among many topics discussed. Clark-Patterson was hired in 2005 for $51,250 to develop a document to provide guidance for economic development, community enhancements and the structure of city government. The three-hour workshop was one of the last stages of data collection before the drafting of a plan.
October 2006
