150 Years Ago
Winter has held on well. A hundred days of good sleighing has made it a busy time for lumbermen and wood dealers while farmers have made the most of it in getting home their lime, plaster, salt and other supplies for the season. Visiting parties, socials, donation visits, school exhibitions, educational conventions, reform gatherings, and other associations of the people have made its days and nights pass pleasantly away. It has been to most a cheerful winter too, and its memories will gladden future years.
The joy of the country on the retirement of Andrew Johnson is complete. His “farewell address” is a rehash of all the speeches and vetoes for he has put forth in the last four years, and is of no more account to the nation than would have been the same amount of twaddle from Benedict Arnold when he left for England on the betrayal of his country. The traitors of Baltimore may feast him, and a few may cling to his fortunes, but he is the deadest duck in the nation “for all that.”
March 1869
125 Years Ago
Six years ago last Monday occurred the great blizzard of 1888, when two feet of snow fell on a level in a little more than 24 hours and traffic on railroads the country over was blocked for days. In striking contrast with that dreary day was the weather Monday, with fields bare of snow and streams free from ice, with a smiling sun in the heavens and an occasional courier from the army of northward-hurrying robins to herald the coming of the birds. From New York to St. Paul on Monday no town reported a temperature below 34 degrees.
The cigar makers of Oneonta have sent
a protest to Senators Hill and Murphy against the proposed additional tax of $2 per thousand on cigars. The bill if passed would deal a heavy blow to the cigar
interests of the country.
March 1894
100 Years Ago
New York City – Police, Secret Service men and immigration officers raided a building on East 15th Street early this morning and arrested 195 men and two women. Ten patrol wagons were required to take the prisoners to the criminal courts building, where they are being questioned. All of them are supposed to be radicals. The building raided was occupied, according to the police, by the Union of Russian Peasant Workers of America. One of the prisoners is Mollie Steimer, sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for violation of the espionage law but at liberty on a writ of error pending an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. A large quantity of literature was seized. Among it, the police said, they found several small, red books, printed in Russian, which advocated the overthrow of the United States government.
March 1919
60 Years Ago
Fire obliterated an Emmons Hill Road home on Sunday, reducing a home and trailer combination to a pile of charred rubble despite the efforts of 30 city firemen to quell the blaze. The residence was totally involved when firemen arrived at the scene. Smoke, rolling in thick, black clouds against the twilight sky was visible three miles away in the City of Oneonta. No one was at home when the fire began. Neighbors who called in the alarm said they first saw flames “shooting out of the basement windows.” The cause of the fire is undetermined. Despite the fact that heat from the intensely burning structure could be felt up to 30 yards away, firemen were able to save a garage located within ten feet of the blaze. Firemen survived some hair-raising moments with a pair of propane gas tanks located adjacent to the mobile home portion of the residence. Firemen grappled with the tanks when they first arrived but were unable to get them away from the fiercely burning structure. It wasn’t until several minutes later, when the heat of the fire melted the snow and ice which had imprisoned them, that firemen were able to yank the tanks away from the residence and roll them in snow to cool them down.
March 1959
40 Years Ago
Higher farm prices, inflation in general and the consumer’s continuing demand for convenience will boost family food bills by about 8.5 percent this year a government economist says. William T. Boehm of the Economic Statistics and Cooperative Service of the Agriculture Department made the prediction at a news briefing sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute, a trade group which represents super markets and grocery stores across the nation. Boehm said his estimate is based on an assumption that prices paid to farmers will rise 10 percent to 11 percent this year while marketing costs boosted by inflation will go up 9 percent. He said the estimate takes into account the increases in oil prices that have followed the Iranian revolution and he noted that energy-related costs like packaging and transportation account for about 20 percent of food marketing costs which in turn account for more than 60 cents of every food dollar.
March 1979
20 Years Ago
Hartwick College junior Ria Megnin is a national champion for the second time. Megnin won the high jump with a leap of five feet, 10.5 inches at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships at Ohio Northern University. Megnin won her first national title by winning the outdoor high jump at the 1998 meet. On Friday, Megnin broke a 14-year-old indoor meet record and set the fieldhouse mark with her winning leap.
March 1999
10 Years Ago
Oneonta High senior Maddie Harlem hit a varsity-best 30 points on Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College as the Yellowjackets defeated Section III’s Cazenovia 36-33 in a Class B girls’ basketball state quarterfinal at Liverpool High School. The third-year starting point guard carried Oneonta to their first state playoff victory since 1998. With driving layups, fast break baskets, medium range shots, two three-pointers, and a 10 for 10 showing at the line, Harlem did it all. After Harlem swished a three-pointer in transition from the top of the key with five minutes, 39 seconds left, the student section chanted “You can’t stop her.”
March 200
Speaking to the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours get-together hosted at Foothills this past week, I delivered the following message and I would like to share it with everyone.
Two developers with plans for upper floor housing took home $392,000 as the Downtown Improvement Grants were revealed on Tuesday, March 5, promising to transform Downtown Oneonta.
