HOMETOWN HISTORY

Oneontan Regional Director

Of The Ruffed Grouse Society

Editor’s Note: Hometown History, which usually appears in Hometown Oneonta, is being run online this week.  Check the newspaper for a special report on Citizen of the Year Margaret L. Drugovich and the 2016 Otsego County Yearbook.

Compiled by TOM HEITZ • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

150 Years Ago

Oneonta High School – Miss Flora A. Potter, of Camden, Oneida County, has taken charge of the school as Principal, assisted by Miss Etholine M. Miller of Oneonta. The Winter Term opened on Wednesday last, with a fair attendance of pupils and a reasonable prospect of success. Classes will be formed in Common and Higher English, French, German, Latin and Music, and due attention given to thoroughness of teaching in them all. We are glad to know that while waiting for the development of an adequate system of schools for our growing village the people need not depend on schools abroad for all of their advanced scholars, or for those who wish to lay properly the foundations of a proper education at home. In the regards of an intelligent people, the Primary or District School should ever stand first, and no pains, care, or money should be spared to make it attractive, both in the neatness and convenience of the school buildings and the quality of its teaching.
December 1866

125 Years Ago

Charles Hillsinger of Colliers tells of being attacked by a bear on the road above Emmons last Saturday morning. He was coming toward Oneonta early in the morning , and when near the Wickwire farm a large animal pushed out of the bushes, walking on its hind legs, and came directly toward him.

The horses, being frightened, stopped. The driver valiantly got down and went to see what the matter was. The bear embraced both the opportunity and the man and came near making a square meal of him. After a sharp tussle, however, Hillsinger won a victory and the bear scampered off. The horses had meanwhile became frightened and had run as far as the M.N. Rowe farm, where they were stopped by the reins catching in the wheels. Mr. Hillsinger exhibits sundry scratches on his body and a demoralized suit of clothes as proof of his assertions.
December 1891

100 Years Ago

Argentina’s military system is serving as a model for the universal service bill now being drafted by a committee of the U.S. Army’s General Staff. Officials said that while details had not been completed, the measure would follow closely the Argentine scheme and would be designed to keep half a million men under training with 2,500,000 trained reservists subject to call. The main feature of the staff bill will be its provision for one year of intensive military instruction for all youths subject to its terms. It is expected that exemptions due to physical disqualifications and for other reasons including the possible conscription of certain men for work in industrial plants necessary in war time, would leave available for Army training between 450,000 and 500,000 of the one million boys who reach the age of 18 each year. The plan follows the theory that the United States seeks to provide only for an army of defense.
December 1916

80 Years Ago

How to Get Along in College as a Coed – Education, that which you gather from books and classrooms and association with the faculty, ranks high with Barnard College girls who advise their freshman sisters who aren’t having the fun they expected to have, to look to the classroom. Kay Kneeland, of the Barnard Quarterly, herself one of the prettiest and most popular co-eds on the campus, advises study. “Study,” she commands. “The best people are doing it, and who are you to compete casually against the best people?” Simple sports clothes, a touch of make-up, a natural, unaffected manner and no ostentation will also help to give you a ringside seat for the four years of activities. If you are a girl and show your materialistic spirit by wearing more than one fraternity pin – or by accepting more than one – at a time, your score goes down. Boys sometimes buy them in lots. You show either that you want to boast or that you are gullible. Probably both.
December 1936

40 Years Ago

While the erosion of grading standards at Oneonta State is a “serious matter,” it is part of a nationwide trend at both public and private universities, Dr. Carey Brush believes. Brush, vice-president for academic affairs, was responding to comments by Edward Wesnofske, a SUCO sociology professor. Wesnofske alleged that there is “widespread grade inflation” on the campus. “While I agree that the erosion of standards is a serious matter, I believe that Mr. Wesnofske does his colleagues a disservice by saying that they attempt to fill their classes by giving high grades,” Brush said. Brush said the national trend toward higher grades started in the late 1960s and early 1970s when professors gave students high grades so they could keep their draft deferments. Eliminating required courses in mathematics and foreign languages was also a factor, Brush said.
December 1976

20 Years Ago

A cumulative grade-point average of 1.4 after one year at the State University College at Oneonta earned Mark Smith a dismissal. After appealing for readmission and being reaccepted, Smith, a transfer from a two-year college, knew he wanted to help other new students like himself become acclimated to campus life. A $59,354 grant awarded to SUCO by the U.S. Department of Education for a drug and alcohol abuse prevention project will mean more on-campus activities for students, and thus allow new students to become more involved in their community. “I didn’t go out. I didn’t go downtown. I didn’t do anything. I just sat in my room,” Smith recalled. “We’ll see what we can do to offer things to do on campus, which will be alternatives to going downtown and drinking,” Smith said.
December 1996

10 Years Ago

The Ruffed Grouse Society announces that Al Bowers of Oneonta has joined its team as Northeast Regional Director serving central and eastern New York and New England. He comes to the Ruffed Grouse Society after a 33-year teaching career. “I am looking forward to serving the Ruffed Grouse Society and the challenges of being a regional director in a part of the country that has such a rich heritage of grouse and woodcock hunting.”
December 2006

Resources for Hometown History have been provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library.