HOMETOWN History

Sept. 27, 2019

150 Years Ago

The Erie Railway Company announces that “on and after Monday, September 30,” they will reduce the running time to Chicago seven hours by means of the thirty-hour train, to be known as the “Great Pacific Express.” The westward traveler, taking his seat at ten o’clock on any given morning in one of the superb Drawing Room Coaches of the Erie line at Jersey City, may thus enjoy a ride rendered comfortable by all the accessories of Epicurus and Somnus, and alight in Chicago at 4 p.m. the next afternoon, not wearied and hungry with travel, but fresh as if awaking from a quiet snooze after dinner.

September 1869

125 Years Ago

Captain John Crawford of Davenport died suddenly at his residence about 2 a.m. Friday morning. On Thursday he had attended the Oneonta Fair and in the evening retired apparently in good health. Mr. Crawford has been a very active man, and at the time of his death was carrying on a very large lumber and manufacturing business. In 1862 he enlisted and was elected Captain of a Company in the 144th Regiment. In 1879, he was elected Sheriff of this county. He was 66 years old and leaves a wife and two sons, William and Henry, proprietors of the carriage factory in the Village of Davenport. Captain Crawford’s funeral was held at his late residence in Davenport on Sunday. Large delegations from the Masonic Fraternity and the G.A.R. of Oneonta were present.

September 1894

100 Years Ago

Will the Flu Return? Probably, but by no means certainly, there will be a recurrence of the influenza epidemic this year. Indications are that should it occur, it will not be as severe as the pandemic of the previous winter. The fact that a previous attack brings immunity in a certain percentage of cases should allay fear on the part of those affected in the previous epidemic. It is not yet certain that the germ has been isolated, or discovered, and as a consequence there is yet no positive, preventive, except the enforcement of rigid rules of sanitation and the avoidance of personal contact. A close relation between the influenza pandemic and the constantly increasing pneumonia mortality rate prior to the fall of 1918 is recognized. It is now believed that the disease was pretty widely disseminated throughout the country before it was recognized in its epidemic state. This failure to recognize the early cases appears to have largely been due to the fact that every interest was then centered on the war.

September 1919

80 Years Ago

That revolutions and dictatorships follow similar patterns through the ages of history may be the result of a system of society that cannot keep pace with public conceptions of rights, opportunity and justice, was the message of
Rev. Boyd McCleary, minister of the First Presbyterian Church in his address titled “Patterns in Dictatorships” at the meeting of the Oneonta Rotary Club at the Hotel Oneonta. Dr. McCleary said that an understanding of world unrest in our time can be gained through a study of a pattern into which earlier revolutions and dictatorships may fall. The speaker observed that peoples never break with their past save by cruel wrenches and then the pendulum swings to extremes. Dr. McCleary cited the earlier English and French revolutions and the Russian and German revolutions following the World War in his talk. Once the ball of unrest starts rolling it must finish its course, the Left of today becoming the Right of tomorrow as people search for justice which they feel the integrated systems of society under which they live will never provide. Dr. Cleary reviewed the lives of dictators such as Cromwell, Napoleon, Lenin and Hitler. In closing, Dr, McCleary expressed the conviction that in the development of society the time will come when force will no longer prevail and right and justice
will be enthroned.

September 1939

60 Years Ago

Memories of a lively portion of Otsego and Herkimer County history flew thick and fast yesterday as former employees of the Southern New York Railroad staged their first reunion since 1922 at the Milford American Legion Home. On hand were about 60 former employees of the now long-vanished electric line which once served commuter and freight needs between Oneonta and Mohawk. Chairman for the reunion, now to be an annual event, was Claude Tilley of Milford. Some of the individuals on hand can trace their memories of the railroad to its beginnings. Among those is Sherman Stone of Oneonta. Mr. Stone drove the first passenger trolley to operate under its own power between Oneonta and Hartwick. Mr. Stone worked on the construction of the line in 1902. He is now a prominent Oneontan and a member of the city’s Public Service Board.

September 1959

40 Years Ago

A resolution recommending no practicing homosexual be ordained by the 3-million member Episcopal Church was approved Tuesday night by the church’s House of Deputies, and is now official church policy. The resolution was approved Monday by the 239-member House of Bishops at the church’s Sixty-sixth General Convention. The vote followed lengthy debate. Among lay members in the House of Deputies, the vote to concur with the House of Bishops vote was 77-18 with 13 divided. Among clerics the vote was 70-29, with 11 divided. The divided tallies signify dioceses that were split on the question. On Tuesday, 21 bishops issued a strong “Statement of Conscience” saying they would not accept nor implement Monday’s resolution.

September 1979

10 Years Ago

State University of New York Distinguished Service Professor Gretchen S. Sorin, Professor of Museum Studies and Director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of SUNY Oneonta, has been named the 2009 recipient of the Katherine Coffey Award, the top honor presented by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums. The Coffey Award is presented to a museum professional who demonstrates superior professional accomplishment; a record of service to the profession on state, regional, national and/or international levels; and a proven record of service to the community in which the museum is located. Sorin has been active in the museum field for 35 years, having served as Director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program for the
past 14 years.

September 2009