May 12, 2022
212 YEARS AGO
Poem – What art thou, Death; that we should fear the shadow of a shade? What’s in thy name that meets the ear of which to be afraid? Thou art not care, thou art not pain, but thou art rest and peace: ‘Tis thou canst make our terrors vain, and bid our torments cease. Misfortune’s sting, affliction’s throes, distraction’s poisonous breath; the world itself and all its woes are swallowed up in death.
May 12, 1810
May 5, 2022
150 YEARS AGO
The Daily Papers – For years past the people of Buffalo have received the New York daily papers several hours in advance of the people of Cooperstown. Under the new arrangement of the “newspaper express train,” we now receive those papers the same day they are printed — and one day in advance of the U.S. mail. This shows what private enterprise may accomplish. Mr. Beadle has the New York papers each day, on the arrival of the first stage from Fort Plain.
May 4, 1860
212 YEARS AGO
So long as our republican system of government prevails, so long will the people be industrious, prosperous, independent, and happy; but as soon as they become shackled by the chains of aristocracy they will become indolent, thriftless and miserable.
March 17, 1810
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
Home & Vicinity – Frank A. Robbin’s Circus & Menagerie drew a big crowd to Oneonta on Tuesday. The company met with delays in getting here from Delhi, where it showed the day preceding, and it was not until between twelve and one o’clock that the street parade occurred. The best feature of the tent performance was the trained elephant exhibition.
Last September, a bay mare valued at $200 was stolen from the barn of Andrew J. Burdick of Clifford, Pennsylvania. Nick Crandall, a notorious character, was arrested and convicted of the theft and sent to prison for two years and six months. He had disposed of the horse but would not disclose to whom. Recently Mr. Burdick was informed that the horse was in Oneonta, and on coming here he found it in the possession of Lafayette Stanton, who bought it of Charles Knapp of Mt. Vision, who procured it from Crandall. The horse has been identified by Burdick, but legal steps will be necessary before he obtains possession of it.
August 1886
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
Home & Vicinity – A horse driven by Mrs. Eugene Parish ran away last evening on Elm Street, a bolt working loose and allowing the thills to drop against its heels. The buggy collided with a tree near the front of G.H. Shearer’s residence, and Mrs. Parish was thrown several feet, striking the ground heavily. One rib was fractured and serious bruises were sustained. Besides, her system received a severe shock. She was taken into Mr. Shearer’s house and Dr. Manchester summoned. This morning she is reported to be in as comfortable a condition as possible under the circumstances. The wagon was quite badly demolished.
August 1886
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
210 YEARS AGO
Wisdom for the Merchant – Are you a merchant? Enter on your day book everything you let go on credit at the moment you dispose of it; never put it off till another time. The memory is treacherous and you may forget the number or price. Post your books every Saturday. Look frequently at your accounts. He who looks at his books often, understands his accounts and turns to them with pleasure; while the man who posts his books but once a year, and turns to them but seldom, always does it with reluctance; he hates to settle an account, and had rather lose a few cents than draw of a bill.
August 3, 1811
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
It would be difficult for the lover of wild and picturesque scenery to imagine a more delightful trip than that afforded by a ride at this season over the New York, Ontario, and Western railroad between Sidney Plains and Middletown. The road winds its way through the wildest regions of Delaware and Sullivan counties, traveling up mountain sides, crossing gorges, and now and then darting through tunnels; then, after reaching Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, runs for many miles along the shore of the Hudson River at a point where the view is the most desirable. Altogether it is a ride worth taking, if for no other motive than to view the matchless scenery to the eye along the way.
July 1886
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
210 YEARS AGO
With what contempt does the freeman of America glance at the silly attempt of such things as emperors and kings to induce them to join their sanguinary play, which sends thousands in an hour to their long home; while the Americans are infinitely better employed in cultivating their fertile fields and extending their settlements into a vast wilderness, raising flocks and herds of cattle and sheep, and all kinds of grain – making their own ploughs, wheelbarrows and carts, and clothing themselves richly from their own wool, cotton and flax, for the surplus of which the emperors and kings and things in Europe are quarreling for the pre-emption.
July 27, 1811
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
Mr. N.C. Hart of Oneonta, who is
presently on his annual pilgrimage in the North Woods, writes poetically of his time there: “I have built me a cot close by a great rock at the base of a high mountain crest where the hawks sail around and game doth abound, and the eagle has chosen her nest. At the foot of the hill are both springlet and rill, and the shores of a bright sylvan lake in whose waters the trout leap spryly about and the deer comes his thirst to slake. Amid scenes like this our outing is bliss – no cares have we on our mind. We enjoy perfect rest in a haven that’s blest mid nature’s own bright summer clime.”
July 1886
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
210 YEARS AGO
A Comet! Another of those singular and extraordinary bodies has made its appearance within view of our globe. It was discovered a few evenings since, but its apparent smallness and the haziness of the atmosphere, prevented its being again seen for several evenings. Its present place at dark is a little south of west, and about 25 degrees above the horizon. It has changed its place considerably since it was first observed, and is now apparent five degrees higher above the horizon. From this it is evident that it has passed its perihelia, and it must be receding from the sun, and the the planets. (Ed. Note: The writer witnessed this comet in May in Chillicothe, Ohio)
July 13, 1811
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
Home & Vicinity – Mrs. Scanling of Oneonta, who has for years been addicted to the use of morphine, takes now on average ten grains daily. Her average used to be twelve grains a day, and once, through oversight, she took eighteen grains at a dose without ill effects. When it is considered that from one-third to one-half grains of morphine is the usual dose for an adult and that fatal effects usually follow where from one to three grains are given, the magnitude of the amount of morphine which slavish habit requires this poor woman to indulge in becomes woefully apparent.
It is reported that a child of Mrs. Davis Brumaghim, who lives back of the board fence near the railroad shops, died today of diphtheria. The ball game last Saturday between the Oneonta and Franklin clubs resulted in a score of 31 to 5 in favor of the home nine. The Oneonta nine has been materially strengthened by the addition of the Cox brothers of Williams College, who are passing the summer at Gilbertsville.
July 1886
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
185 YEARS AGO
Under an apparent state of inaction as a party in this county, certain of the Whig corps are making preparations for a vigorous onset at the Fall campaign, by a gratuitous and other distribution of the Evening Journal, one of the most violent of the opposition papers published in the state. Having no confidence either in the ability or force of their local agent, a foreign power is sought to effect revolution in public sentiment, and the county is to be flooded with the vituperations and falsehoods of Thurlow Weed, a hireling, whose notoriety as connected with the Morgan excitement, makes him a fit instrument for political mountebanks and knaves to work with. We refer to this movement of the enemy, not because we fear the corrupting influence of Weed’s labors, but simply to apprise our democratic friends that their opponents are not so inert as they would feign induce the public to believe.
July 18, 1836
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
Kate Farrell, aged 22, whose home is at Starucca, Pennsylvania, has for a few weeks been visiting her sister, Mrs. Frazee, at Gaylord’s store, West Harpersfield. Kate was addicted to the morphine habit.
She obtained as a substitute some hydrate of chloral. Sunday afternoon she visited Agnes Ward of Oneonta, who is caring for her mother, not far from the Gaylord store. Not long after Kate left Agnes she was found down the bank by the roadside, nearly unconscious. She was taken to her sister’s, where she died in a few hours.
The coroner’s jury found that she came to her death from an overdose of chloral, taken in mistake.
The body was buried at Starucca on Tuesday.
July 1886
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
210 YEARS AGO
Among items of mail remaining at the Post-Office in the Village of Otsego (Cooperstown) are letters addressed to: Samuel Anderson, Nehemiah Burch, Benjamin Bissell, Isaac Childs, Cornelius L. Cary, William Dean, Sumner Ely, Revilo Ford, Micah French, William Griffin, John Jackson, James Johnston, Jonathan Kingsley, William Lindsley, Darius Moon, Patty Miller, Chauncey Newell, Freedom Potter, Sally Potter, James L. Palmer, John Robinson, Eliphaz Spencer, Stephen Skiff, Isaac Stone, Sally Thatcher, Nathaniel Todd, William Van Brunt, Cornelius W. Van Denburgh, Levi Warner, Sylvanus West and Patty Ward. (Ed. Note: Recipients of mail were liable for postage prior to delivery)
July 6, 1811
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
A letter to the editor: Allow me to
add a little emphasis to what you say concerning the loafers who are frequenting the Susquehanna House corner. So disagreeable has their presence become that the ladies generally dread to pass the corner, and not infrequently go out of their way to avoid doing so. Aside from being made a target for the eyes of every loafer and for the tobacco juice from the mouths of a dozen rowdies it is not unusual, particularly if a lady is passing alone, for remarks to reach her ears which set every drop of blood in her veins tingling with indignation. In behalf of the ladies of the village I would respectfully ask our trustees if something cannot be done to put a stop to the nuisance.
Sig. A Lady Reader
July 1886