hometown history

110 YEARS AGO: The only Fair in Otsego County in the year 1916 came to an end Friday after five days of genuine enjoyment for all those who attended an attendance fully satisfactory to the management when the circumstances of attending such an exhibition during the present year are considered. The infantile paralysis quarantine regulation, forbidding the presence of children less than sixteen years of age prevented the attendance not only of the children themselves, but also of many parents…

160 YEARS AGO: Why was it closed? We heard a great many ask the question, “Why was Messrs. Mendel Brothers Store closed on Wednesday? The reason was, we suppose, that it was the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Our Hebrew brethren observe this day most rigidly by extreme fasting—neither food nor drink being partaken of.…

110 YEARS AGO: The automobile race against time in which the War Department is taking an active interest started from Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts today, Wednesday, and is to finish at Fort Lawton, Seattle, Washington on Saturday. If plans materialize, the last relay should reach its destination on Saturday. The time allowance for the race of 3,685.5 miles is 120 hours.…

135 YEARS AGO: The McCammon piano factory is the scene of bustling activity this week. Already, seventeen carloads of machinery and material have arrived from Albany and the factory so long silent resounds with the sound of hammers and the step of workmen.…

160 YEARS AGO: Matrimonial Awakening—Young men and bachelors cannot you inaugurate a matrimonial revival? Are you to allow the balmy evenings, with their soft and gentle moonlight, to waste away in unprofitable silence? Are you ever dreaming of dollars, and watching crops and gold fluctuations? Will you never tire of those four old black walls that seem to hold every thought and impulse?…

The citizens of Oneonta and vicinity are requested to meet at the High School room on Friday evening, August 24, for the purpose of organizing a Society to procure funds to erect a monument to the memory of soldiers from this town, who died while in the service or were killed during the late rebellion…

160 YEARS AGO: Military Encampment—We see by orders posted about our streets that the 39th Regiment commanded by Colonel Hubbard, and the 41st Regiment commanded by Colonel Dunbar, will encamp in this village on land owned by E.R. Ford, Esq. for drill &c., commencing Monday September 17 and will remain until Saturday, September 22.…

135 YEARS AGO: News Items—The dancers at the Paris Opera—some of them—are paid $30,000 per annum. John B. Gough’s house is for sale. It has all the modern improvements except a wine cellar. A man drew a wagon weighing 520 pounds, eleven and a half miles in Mantus County, Ohio one day last week, winning a wager of $40.…

135 YEARS AGO: Case of Elopement reported in the Albany Express—Last Thursday afternoon a telegram was received at police headquarters from one Jacob Winne of Oneonta, requesting the arrest and detention of his wife Sally Winne and Lemuel Higgins, who had eloped together, and would arrive in this city on the afternoon train.…

150 YEARS AGO: Are lead pipes poisonous? The question of lead poisoning is attracting considerable attention at the present time. There has been a large and influential gathering of scientific gentlemen and representatives of the Water Boards of New York and Brooklyn, and delegates from the Board of Education of the former city at the Manhattan Lead Works, to witness tests and inquire into the merits of the lead encased block-tin pipe.…