SPORTS HISTORY—11 a.m. Join Temple Beth El for a presentation, “The Diamond District—Jews in Baseball,” featuring lectures “Marvin Miller: From Brooklyn to Cooperstown” by Jeff Katz and “The Jews, Dodgers and Brooklyn: The Jackie Robinson Decade” by Bill Simons. Reserve a complimentary kosher hotdog and all the trimmings supplied by Chabad of Oneonta. Free, all welcome. Held at Cooperstown Village Hall, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 432-5522 or visit templebetheloneonta.org
SUGARING OFF—8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Enjoy a full pancake breakfast in the morning then contemporary, historic demonstrations of maple sugar production. Admission, $10/adult. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. (607) 547-1450 or visit https://www.farmersmuseum.org/events/
BENEFIT BREAKFAST—8 a.m. to 2 p.m. All are invited to the Cabin Fever Breakfast, featuring eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes with real maple syrup, biscuits and sausage gravy—the works! Includes a 50/50 drawing, a lottery to win $100 in scratch-off lottery tickets and a basket raffle. Support the Laurens Fire Department, 34 Main Street, Laurens. (607) 433-2906 or visit facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064565867355
Cooperstown Central School NHD “Individual Exhibit” winner Olivia Temp stands with her project.
By TED MEBUST COOPERSTOWN Cooperstown Central School hosted its annual National History Day competition, organized by NHD Club Co-advisors Michelle Hitchcock and John Brotherton, at the Cooperstown Junior/Senior High School on February 8. This year’s student-led projects, ranging in subject from “The First Crusade” to “Robotic Surgery,” took a variety of forms, including websites, exhibits, documentaries and papers. In total, there were 40 projects completed by 7th and 8th grade-participants from the school. The theme of National History Day 2023, held across the country, is “Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas.”
For “Group Documentary,” the top finishers were Elijah McCaffrey, Shane Bradley and Hunter Kinly. Second place went to Carleigh Williams and Annika Murray, and third to Thomas Geertgens, Owen Nolan and Brian Zhang.
Talk Focuses on Aleutian Islands ONEONTA—Arch-archeologist Debra Corbett will be featured in a Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society presentation via Zoom on Friday, February 17. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., Corbett will discuss “The Symbolic Meaning of Birds to the Unangan People.” The program is free to attend, but registration is required at https://bit.ly/3vzIXKm. The Unangan people of the Aleutian Islands relied on birds for food, clothing and tools. Beyond these everyday needs, birds—especially seabirds—were sentient beings interacting with humans in meaningful ways, potent sources of power, and imbued with spiritual meanings. Corbett will briefly introduce the Unangan Aleut and their homeland, show some ways birds were used in daily life, then explore aspects of this relationship between birds and the Unangan people.
Why is Hyde Hall using a drag show to share history this weekend? The answer is simple: why not?
It’s a little-known fact that historians like to have fun and experiment with ways of sharing the rich past with the public. A piece of Hyde Hall’s mission is to develop inclusive educational programs and events that help diverse audiences explore, appreciate, and understand history. To meet this portion of the mission, the museum has been developing various tours, recreated historic dinners, historic lighting and cocktail programs, folklore and ghost events, musical experiences, and now, a drag show. Hyde Hall in Drag explores nuances of the potency of the human experience and helps outline what happened on northern Otsego Lake over 200 years ago.
Growing up in Cooperstown in the 1960s and 70s meant looking forward to a drive down to Oneonta, shopping at Bresee’s, Woolworth’s, Barker’s, Jamesway, and others – made special by the fact that Main Street stores stayed open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. Surely it was the same for others in the era, be they Oneonta residents or visitors from nearby villages – and it’s an era coming back to life through a summer-long exhibit open to the public at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society’s 183 Main Street headquarters.
“History is all around us here,” said Dr. Marcela Micucci, the Oneonta native appointed to become GOHS’s new director in February 2021. She made the comment after we had chatted briefly about the Woolworth’s door handles still remaining on the long-gone discount store’s front doors a few steps away at 203 Main Street.
“I just saw noticed those again on one of our guided walking tours around Oneonta,” she said. “When I was growing up here I can’t tell you how many times I used to go into ‘Building 203’ and never really noticed that detail. It’s just another example of how we live in this amazing historical space.”
Our discussion of all things Oneonta stemmed from a look at the Society’s Remembering Oneonta in the 1960s exhibition – a photographic and burgeoning oral history of the city during a decade of growth and transition. A photo display sparks memories of front-window displays and Bresee’s, students moving books to the new library at SUCO, buildings long gone or transformed, a city in transition.
“When we were envisioning what the 1960s exhibit could be, we wanted to do something different,” Dr. Micucci said. “Instead of writing a script, we could make the crux of the exhibition these oral history interviews, and they would become the script. Then it became a lot like our walking tours – kind of a nostalgic walk through Oneonta in the 1960s.”
FLY CREEK – Robert Thomas Davenport, 55, of Fly Creek and Medford, New Jersey, passed away unexpectedly Thursday afternoon, March 24, 2022, at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey.
He was born October 15, 1966, at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the firstborn son of Robert Duane and Geni (Alves) Davenport. Robert lived in South Philadelphia and Brooklyn before settling in Medford Lakes, New Jersey, where he attended both Lenape and Shawnee High Schools and graduated with the Class of 1984. From 1991-1995 he attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana where he majored in political science and history. Although he was an avid student of history both ancient and modern, his hands-on work was primarily in computer science, first in research and then as founding partner in one of the earliest internet service providers in southern Burlington County. After moving Upstate in 2000, he devoted himself to family.
210 YEARS AGO
It seems to be a settled point that our Navy must be augmented. What kind of ships are best adapted to our purpose is a question on which there are different opinions. Some are for a proportion of men of war; others for frigates and smaller vessels only. There are strong reasons in favor of small swift sailing vessels. They should be the most effectual in offensive operations.
February 1, 1812
210 YEARS AGO
Pocket Book Found! Picked up between Moss’ store in Burlington and DeForests’ tavern in Edmeston on Wednesday the 25th—a Red Morrocco Pocket Book; a good deal worn, containing a number of notes and a small sum of money. The owner can have it again by proving property and paying charges. Roswell Patterson.
January 25, 1812
210 YEARS AGO
Those who have been led by federal falsehoods to fear that our country was in the high road to destruction will be gratified by that paragraph of the President’s Message which adverts to the state of our finances. From this it appears that no loan has been made during the past year; that the loan made in 1810 has been paid off; that the current expenses of the government have been defrayed; that the interest of the whole national debt has been discharged; and, that more than five millions of dollars of the principal of that debt have been reimbursed.
January 4, 1812
210 YEARS AGO
We present our kind readers with the compliments of the season. The good Apostle said, “Is any man afflicted, let him pray; is any merry, let him sing psalms.” “A Merry Christmass” is reciprocally given and received, and we sincerely hope that few or none will be otherwise than “merry and wise,” and not “merry and sad,” as we fear is sometimes the case with the inconsiderate. Such seem to have forgotten the intent of rejoicing on the anniversary of the birth of our savior. They deserve our pity but not our approbation.
December 28, 1811
135 YEARS AGO
Rev. Mr. Boardman delivered an earnest temperance discourse in his own pulpit on Sunday evening last, and though all his hearers may not have fully coincided with all the views put forth by him, probably none of them underrated the evils depicted as resulting from habits of dissipation. The hard times experienced by a large class of people, the speaker rightly contended, results from the habit of dram-drinking.
January 1, 1887
160 YEARS AGO
The year 1861 sums up – Thousands of lives lost; an Army of 650,000 men; a Navy of 270 vessels and 22,000 men; a national debt of 500,000,000; the treasury nearly bankrupt; no foreign market for our loans; the initiation of
a Government paper currency, and a national bankrupt law; a foreign war threatened; 400,000 rebels in the field.
January 3, 1862
110 YEARS AGO
Town Topics – The employees of Iroquois Farm and their families, numbering 130, were entertained at a Christmas dinner at Parshall’s Restaurant Monday evening by Mr. and Mrs. F. Ambrose Clark. Following the dinner the guests repaired to the Village Hall, where a Christmas tree, laden with gifts for all, awaited them. Later, dancing was enjoyed, with music by Bronner’s orchestra.
The feature at the Star Theatre on New Year’s night will be a series of scenes from the world’s championship baseball games between the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Giants. The baseball pictures will be shown in addition to the usual good program.
December 27, 1911
210 YEARS AGO
Advertisement – Millinary (sic), Miss Smith informs the public that she has commenced the Millinary business in a part of the store formerly occupied by Cory & Cook; where she has just received from New York the latest fashions for Velvet Jockies, Winter, Straw and Silk Hats, Turbans, etc, which will be sold at the most reduced prices for cash. Cooperstown.
December 21, 1811
Man is so constituted, that when he directs all his energies to a single employment, the products of his labor are far more abundant and excellent, than when he follows several employments. By confining both body and mind to a single operation, a degree of skill and dexterity in that operation is acquired, which could not be attained if the same, or even a much greater amount of labor had been bestowed on several direct objects.
December 12, 1836
210 YEARS AGO
Advertisement – The co-partnership of Cory & Cook is, by mutual consent, this day dissolved. All persons indebted to said firm are requested to make immediate payment to said Cory, who will attend to said business at the store of Mssrs. Goodsell & Cook. They do not forget to offer their sincere thanks to all those who have been their good customers. O.L. Cory, Seth Cook, Cooperstown.
November 30, 1811
210 YEARS AGO
Education – Mr. Bond offers his services to the
inhabitants of Otsego Village to give Lessons in a new and fashionable style of Dancing. Mr. B. proposes to give his first Lesson on Friday Evening next, at Stephen Fitch’s Hall in said village, where he solicits the patronage of the Parents and Guardians of Young Masters and Misses who may wish to encourage this accomplishment. Satisfactory references will be given by applying to Mr. Isaac Williams. Terms Three Dollars, to be paid at the close of the School.
November 23, 1811
