hometown history

HOMETOWN History

Sept. 20, 2019

100 Years Ago

An Assemblage of “Fat Men” – A convention of fat men has recently been held in
Norwalk, Connecticut at Gregory’s Point Hotel. One hundred and forty of the fattest men of New England and the adjoining states assembled. The names and weights of the various individuals are recorded. The weights ranged from two hundred to three hundred and fifty-eight pounds. The 358-pounder was John A.P. Fisk of New York who was elected president of the society for the ensuing year. James A. Lincoln of Springfield, Massachusetts, weighing 329 pounds was elected vice-president. The aggregate weight of the six heaviest was 1,922 pounds giving an average of 320 and one-third pounds each. The aggregate weight of the whole 140 men was 31,385 pounds, being an average of 224 pounds each. They feasted on shell fish, scale fish, fish without scales and a great variety of vegetables. They devoured thirty bushels of oysters, 47 bushels of clams, 359 pounds of bluefish and eight barrels of sweet potatoes. Due to the intense heat the foot races were cancelled.

September 1869

125 Years Ago

Celestial Photography – Celestial objects can be photographed that will never be seen by the keenest eyes, aided by the most powerful telescope that can be made. One reason of this is that the photographic plate is sensitive to a far greater range of vibrations than the eye. Not only is it acted upon, to a slight extent, by the visual rays, but by those as rapid as 40,000,000,000, a second. Another reason is that, while the human retina can only retain an impression for about one-seventh of a second, the feeblest light that falls upon the sensitive plate is not lost, but is stored up. The countless millions of waves of light striking persistently upon one point of the plate must, in course of time, produce an image of the star. In this way, apparently blank parts of the heavens
have been shown to be crowded with stars. The total number of stars visible to the naked eye is only about six thousand. With our large telescopes this number becomes more than 50,000,000, while with the photographic eye it cannot be less than 160,000,000.

September 1894

100 Years Ago

Anti-Divorce Experts Advice: Kiss your wife three times before each meal. Don’t argue with her about her mother’s disposition. Don’t hide the change in your trousers pocket when retiring, but put it under your wife’s pillow. When she reads Shakespeare, forget the American League averages and read it with her. Don’t test the quality of her raised biscuits with your heel. Wipe your feet seven times before crossing the family threshold. So runs the advice of the anti-divorce experts. The City of Norwich, New York does not believe in issuing a series of impeachments on how to avoid divorce. It goes straight to the heart of the problem. For seven weeks, Norwich, through the medium of a summer school, has been teaching its girls how to become successful wives. It has taught them how to cook and sew. It has taught them how to make a successful home. It has taught them how to buy judiciously and how to make the pennies count.

September 1919

80 Years Ago

Village of Sidney Named for British Admiral – Once a part of the Indian conference grounds of Unadilla and later part of the Town of Franklin, Sidney, in the early nineteenth century, acquired the name Sidney Plains. When the village was incorporated in 1888 the name was shortened to Sidney. Tradition says that the name Sidney Plains was given in honor of Sir Sidney Smith, famous British Admiral who had gained much fame for his naval victories of that period. The name was first applied by John Mandeville, an English schoolmaster then living in Sidney Plains. Jay Gould, in his history of Delaware County published in 1856 confirms this origin of the name.
Unadilla was the original name that once applied to the whole region where the
counties of Delaware, Chenango and Otsego meet. The first settlement on the
site was established when Rev. William Johnston and his family arrived about 1790. For a time the area was known as Johnston’s Settlement and later called Susquehanna Flats before that name was replaced with Sidney Plains.

September 1939

60 Years Ago

The Oneonta Yellowjackets will host Ilion in their 1959 grid opener. Coach Lloyd Baker’s Yellowjackets who last year ran up a 6-2 record, have last year’s line practically intact but the backfield is missing three big fellows – Chuck Sweeney, Denny Weir and Mike Syros. Returning linemen are George Lynch, Charlie Hamwey, Tony Coraro, Pete Van Woert, Co-Captain Mike Zagata, Joe Rizzo and Skip Knott. Jim Konstanty will return as the starting quarterback. Pete Van Woert, who took over at center the second game of the season and remained there doing a fine job is back again. Pete is 6’ 1” and weighs 190 pounds. Big Jim Konstanty (6’ 2” 200 pounds) will share the quarterbacking with Pat Delaney, a promising sophomore.

September 1959

20 Years Ago

A recently published book about Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio includes an article written by SUCO history professor William Simons. In the book, “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio”
Simons describes how DiMaggio’s place in American history extends well beyond baseball. Titled “Joe DiMaggio and the American Ideal” follows DiMaggio from his start as a baseball rookie in 1936 through his marriage to Marilyn Monroe, to his success as an advertising pitchman. DiMaggio became a role model for Italian-Americans and a model for masculinity
for 60 years.

September 1994

10 Years Ago

Meizhu Lui, Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy will present “The Color of Wealth” at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Center for Multi-cultural Experiences in Lee Hall at the State University College at Oneonta. Lui’s group is a national nonprofit organization that helps build social movements for greater equality, according to officials. In her presentation, Lui will explore why the distribution of wealth in the United States is so uneven and whether public policy, even when well-intentioned, reinforces existing inequalities, and whether race and ethnicity continue to play a pivotal role in defining the haves and have-nots in society.

September 2009

HOMETOWN History

Sept. 14, 2019

150 Years Ago

Temperance – If the temperance question could be withdrawn from the areas of party politics it would be far better for the morals of the rising generation. We have urged the same views in relation to Sabbath observances. The claims of truth upon the conscience are weakened by alliance with the demands of warring political factions. If faith in the Supreme Being were made the test of political orthodoxy, there are many who now reverence the Creator that would become infidel in the excitement of a party contest. The Springfield Republican comes out decidedly in favor of substituting moral suasion for the machinery of the statute. No moral progress was ever made by legal force. Temperance is a moral virtue, and can only be promoted by reason and argument.

September 1869

125 Years Ago

Architecture of the Future – The Eiffel Tower, built wholly
of metal, is an example, and a good example, of a step in the direction which architects will be forced to follow in the future. The great railway stations, exhibition buildings and other structures of steel, concrete, paper and glass, which the needs and inventions of our day have called into existence, show which way flows the stream of tendency. The new building material has come to stay. In another century houses may not be merely built with steel girders. They may be made of metal frames bolted together and gripping walls of paper. Then the age of the tent will return. A man will buy his house from a manufacturer and will hire a site to set it upon. When he moves from one place to another, he will take his home with him. Building leases will die a natural death. Towns will wander about and a great many curious results will arise.

September 1894

100 Years Ago

The Oneonta Electric Lighting Company’s pond at East End claimed another victim Friday when Clayton Anderson, a colored man, aged about 26 years, was seized with cramps while swimming. Anderson, who was a member of a section gang working on the D. & H. tracks near the pond, had gone in for a swim before he was to resume work at one o’clock. He had been swimming about for a short time when he gave a loud cry and sank out of sight. The other members of the gang, most of them Italians, were apparently somewhat confused. But, after finally reaching the scene they were unable to render any assistance because of the absence of any boats or other means of reaching the
unfortunate man. After about three hours search by policemen and others the body was located about 40 feet from shore in 20 feet of water. Anderson had no relatives in this vicinity. Others of his race said his home was in the south where his mother lived. He had lived in Oneonta for a year or two and had been employed on the section gang only five days before his death.

September 1919

80 Years Ago

Contrary to public belief, the majority of automobile accidents in Otsego County in 1939 have occurred during the daytime. Authority for this statement is Corporal W.E. Cadwell of Sidney, assistant to the Head of the New York State Police Traffic Division. Corporal Cadwell has addressed
many area organizations since being promoted to the post two years ago. The accident chart reveals that most of the crashes in Otsego County have occurred between the hours of 12 to 1 and 2 to 3 in the afternoon and from 6 to 7 in the evening. Since January 1, 1939, Otsego County has had 134 highway accidents involving injuries or deaths. Corporal Cadwell said 103 people have been injured and 10 killed. Of five accidents involving pedestrians, one resulted in death.

September 1939

40 Years Ago

Puerto Rican terrorists are freed by President – Four defiant Puerto Rican nationalists granted clemency by President Carter left U.S. jails Monday where they spent at least a quarter century for terrorist acts in Washington, D.C. All four were heading to a Chicago rally to renew pleas for independence for their Caribbean homeland. Three of the four nationalists were convicted in a 1954 shooting in the U.S. House of Representatives that left five Congressmen wounded. The fourth was jailed four years earlier for attempting to assassinate President Harry Truman. Released for the House shootings were Lolita Lebron, 59, Irving Flores Rodriguez, 54, and Rafael Concel Miranda, 49. The fourth nationalist, Oscar Coliazo, 65, told reporters, “The fight for freedom is always a long fight and always a hard fight. I have nothing to be disappointed about.” Steve Guerra, a spokesperson for Chicago’s Puerto Rican Cultural Center said the four would be brought together for a rally outside Roberto Clemente High School on the city’s northwest side, a home for many of Puerto Rican heritage.

September 1979

20 Years Ago

If legislators had passed the state budget sooner, the Oneonta school district probably would have its first universal pre-Kindergarten educational program in place. Classes must begin by October 6 in order for students to complete a 180-day school year. On October 1, the district will send applications to area childcare agencies that would provide pre-K services for the rest of the year. The state has awarded $51,300 or $2,700 per pupil, to fund 19 universal pre-K slots in Oneonta this school year. Exactly how the district will choose the 19 students has not been decided but “economically disadvantaged” students will be considered first. Experimental pre-K, the sister program to universal pre-K began this week with a class of 32 students. That program is reserved for students and families with special needs. Any child not in the experimental program would be eligible for universal pre-K.

September 1994

10 Years Ago

The eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 was remembered Friday night at the State University College at Oneonta. “Eight years ago Americans united to show that they would stand tall in the face of the terrorist threat,” said Student Association President Rick Heil as he addressed the crowd. “It was important because without a sense of unity and purpose, the terrorists would have achieved their purpose.”

September 2009

HOMETOWN History

Aug. 23, 2019

150 Years Ago

Tell Your Wife – If you are in trouble or quandary, tell your wife – that is, if you have one – all about it at once. Ten to one her intervention will solve your difficulty sooner than all your logic. The wit of woman has been praised, but her instincts are quicker and keener than her reason. Counsel with your wife, or mother, or sister, and be assured light will flash on your darkness. Women are too commonly adjudged as verdant in all but purely womanish affairs. No philosophical student of the sex thus judges them. Their intuitions, or insights, are subtle, and if they cannot see a cat in the meal, there is no cat there. In counseling a man to tell his troubles to his wife, we would go further, and advise him to keep none of his affairs secret from her. Many homes have been happily saved and many fortunes retrieved by a man’s full confidence in his “better-half.”

August 1869

100 Years Ago

With four gold service stripes on the sleeve of his uniform, Private James H. Harrison, once mourned as dead, returned to Oneonta Friday, after 23 months service overseas. He is at the home of his sister, Mrs. H.C. Whitcomb, 50 Spruce Street. Private Harrison was a member of the famous Second Division, which was made up half of regular infantry and half of Marines. The division made for itself a most gallant record. It played an enviable role in five great battles in which American troops were engaged – Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, St. Mihiel, the Champagne and the Argonne. It was shortly before the signing of the Armistice that Mrs. Whitcomb received official notification that her brother had been “killed in action” in October. Having received letters from him after the date on which he was “killed,” Mrs. Whitcomb thought that some error had been made. She notified the Red Cross Service Bureau and also asked the War Department for an investigation. In a few weeks it was established that Private Harrison was in good health. However, another soldier by the same name and in the same company had been killed and the notification sent to Mrs. Whitcomb by mistake.

August 1919

80 Years Ago

President Roosevelt addressed appeals for peace to Adolf Hitler and President Moscicki of Poland, suggesting three methods for avoiding war. These methods were 1. Direct negotiation. 2. Submission of the controversy to impartial arbitration. 3. Agreement to adopt the procedure of conciliation, selecting a conciliator or moderator. President Roosevelt told Hitler: “The people of the United States are as one in their opposition to policies of military conquest and domination. They are as one in rejecting the thesis that any ruler, or any people, possess the right to achieve their ends or objectives through the taking of action which will plunge countless millions of people into war and which will bring distress and suffering to every nation of the world, both belligerent and neutral….Because of my confident belief that the cause of world peace – which is the cause of humanity itself – rises above all other considerations, I am again addressing myself to you with the hope that the war which impends and the consequent disaster to all peoples everywhere may yet be averted.”

August 1939

60 Years Ago

Oneonta’s first foreign-exchange high school student has arrived here. Miss Marketta Karkinen, 18-year-old honor student, who hopes to become a doctor, is now settled with Dr. and Mrs. Carroll E. Rusch, 35 Cedar Street, her foster parents for the year. The Finnish miss was selected as a foreign exchange student by the American Field Service and will attend Oneonta High School. She will be a senior. Miss Karkinen is the daughter of the headmaster of the Commercial School at Lahti, Finland, a city of 60,000 population north of Helsinki. Marketta, who has already studied four years of physics, geometry, algebra, two years of biology, and one each of zoology and botany, said it is not uncommon for a Finnish woman to become a doctor. In her application to become an exchange student Marketta wrote: “I think America is a free and progressive country which has already achieved great things in many fields and is a land of the future.”

August 1959

40 Years Ago

Despite double-digit inflation, stagflation, recession and depression, Beth Walter’s business is picking up. She’s a janitor. And every morning, when the city is fighting to come awake, she’s in the parking lot of the Clinton Plaza sweeping up after last night’s revelers. On the job since mid-May, she took over when her brother-in-law quit. “He got a job with SUCO,” she said. “Now, he’s going to go to work for the railroad.” Beth’s job consists of sweeping sidewalks, cleaning up the parking lot and picking up garbage. She doesn’t do lawns. “But, I’d like to,” she said. A college-trained janitor (she worked on the maintenance crew at Cornell University), she said she has no bigtime janitorial ambitions. “I’m really into horses,” the 18-year-old said. “Someday, I’d like to own some horses and teach riding.”

August 1979

20 Years Ago

When plans were announced to convert the Perkins Family Restaurant in the Town of Oneonta into a Denny’s restaurant, the new owner was eager to get started. As a result, the restaurant’s menu and a few signs were quickly changed, and Denny’s opened within a couple of weeks. But the speedy opening prevented major changes to the overall look of the place. Now that the business has established itself, plans are being made for some further dramatic improvements. “We’re basically going to be bringing a whole new look to the place, both inside and outside,” said Kristin Murphy, a manager at the restaurant. “It’s going to be really, really nice.”

August 1999

HOMETOWN History

Aug. 16, 2019

150 Years Ago

The total eclipse of the sun which occurs this week Saturday, will not only be a most imposing spectacle, but also one of the most important of astronomical phenomena. Among barbarian tribes it ever excited apprehension, while among cultivated nations it is recognized from the exactness with which the time of occurrence and the various appearances answer to the prediction, as affording one of the proudest triumphs of astronomy. Although such an eclipse occurs nearly every year somewhere on the earth, yet the area within it can be observed is so smallish, it happens to few persons to witness one in the course of a lifetime. Two total eclipses only have been visible in the United States since the beginning of the present century, those of 1806 and 1834.

August 1869

125 Years Ago

The first annual convention of the Otsego County Fireman’s Association met in the Exchange Hall on Dietz Street, Oneonta Wednesday at 11 a.m. Some fifty delegates were present at the business meeting,
representing the fire companies and
departments of Morris, Schenevus, Cooperstown, Unadilla, Richfield Springs, Otego, Gilbertsville and Oneonta. In the evening a banquet in honor of the visiting delegates was given by the executive committee of the local fire department at the Windsor Hotel. The menu was very elaborate and the good things provided were partaken of with a gusto which was in itself the banquet’s best praise. Thursday occurred the first annual parade and tournament of the Otsego County Firemen’s Association. The parade started at about 11:40 a.m. from the foot of Broad Street.

August 1894

100 Years Ago

Otsego County is now represented in the American Legion. This is the first post to be organized in Otsego County despite the fact that many other counties with smaller population and considerably less number of service men have several posts in operation. At American Legion state headquarters it is believed that additional posts will be formed in Cherry Valley, Cooperstown, Edmeston, Hartwick, Otego, Richfield Springs, Unadilla, Worcester, and many other towns as sufficient service men reside in those localities to start good posts. Only fifteen men are required to sign an application, which should be mailed to the County Chairman, George W. Augustin, of Oneonta.

August 1919

80 Years Ago

Three Oneontans will be among the ten musicians who will compete for cash prizes of $15 and $10, as well as merchandise awards, in the “Old-Time Fiddlers’ Contest”
on Wednesday evening in front of the Townsend Hardware Co. where the public can gather in the street to witness the competition. Contestants will be Charles Ellis, Floyd Wheeler, and Robert O’Brien
of Oneonta; Ferris Layman of Otego; Clifford Hess of Sydney; William Kellogg of Portlandville; L.H. Wheat of Mt. Vision; Charles Couse of Sidney Center; Omar Spooner of Richmondville; and Russell Alger of Masonville. The evening’s program will open with a half-hour concert by Keeton’s band.

August 1939

60 Years Ago

It was all through the assistance of Huntington Memorial Library. Chris Spingola, 15 Main Street, was one of 15 applicants who passed the examination to receive a Federal Communications license as second class radio telephone operator. Mr. Spingola pointed to literature from various schools offering courses leading up to such a license
at fees up to $1,000. He also showed courses offered leading to a high school diploma. Last year he was granted his High School Equivalency diploma after passing examinations at Oneonta High School. For both examinations, he emphasized, his sole source of study, was Huntington Library. “It’s a wonderful thing for a city this size to have such a library, and librarians who are so helpful,” he declared.

August 1959

40 Years Ago

The Main Street viaduct over the D&H tracks, connecting downtown Oneonta
with the Sixth Ward, will be opened with
a ceremony August 24 at 11 a.m. The ceremony is being coordinated by James T. Catella and the Oneonta Lions Club. Catella is the city’s former Parks and Streets Superintendent and also the father of the contractor’s chief engineer on the job. He is also the city’s official liaison person with the D&H Railroad. Family connections will loom large at the ceremony. Among other guests will be Duncan Briggs, whose grandfather was President of the Oneonta Village Board which authorized the viaduct about 1900. Also, William H. Lunn, whose grandfather was Mayor of Oneonta when the original bridge was completed will be present. Speakers will include Mayor James Lettis, Sixth Ward Alderman Jean Scarzafava, and a representative of the state’s Department of Transportation. D & H. Vice President Thomas O’Brien of Albany is expected to attend. The new $2.1 million bridge, begun in 1978, was finished two months ahead of schedule.

August 1979

20 Years Ago

The Pentagon updated its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for gays in the military on Friday to require mandatory training on anti-harassment for all troops, beginning with boot camp. “There is no room for harassment or threats in the military,” Defense Secretary William Cohen said in issuing the guidelines. Michelle Benecke, co-director of the Service-members’ Legal Defense Network, the leading advocacy group on the issue of gays in the military, praised Cohen’s statement but with reservations. “The real issue is whether leaders will be committed at every level to stop anti-gay harassment,” she said.

August 1999