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tom heitz history column

Bound Volumes: April 25, 2024

160 YEARS AGO
A melancholy affair—Our whole village was shocked last Saturday by the report suddenly circulated through the streets, that Mr. James Cockett had taken his life by shooting himself at his own home with a shot gun. Mr. C. had for more than six months been an invalid, whose recovery from severe illness and general prostration was a matter of much doubt. By careful management and nursing he was able to get outdoors a little during recent pleasant days,…

Hometown History: April 25, 2024

40 YEARS AGO
From the Shui Mai to the fortune cookies, Joe Poon provided a memorable meal for Oneontans Wednesday evening. It was his way of saying thank-you to the people, the church, and the college that helped him when he was a struggling SUCO undergraduate. Poon now operates the Sang Kee Peking Duck House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but he has kept close ties with Oneonta. When he learned that foreign students at SUCO were being hurt by financial cutbacks and…

Hometown History: April 18, 2024

40 Years Ago
President Reagan has approved a series of measures, including pre-emptive strikes and reprisals designed to get the upper hand on terrorism worldwide, administration officials revealed. One of the key elements of the policy is an effort to switch from defensive action to offensive, partly by increasing the ability of U.S. operatives to gather intelligence in order to stop terrorist activities before they occur. While the U.S. government has been increasingly concerned with terrorism for several years, new impetus…

Bound Volumes: April 18, 2024

135 YEARS AGO
Three thousand, nine hundred and sixty-five immigrants reached Castle Garden yesterday. They were passengers on the six ocean steamers which reached port during the day. Of this number 200 were picked out as people likely to become public charges. The 200 may be sent back to Europe. And none of those steamers fly the stars and stripes. Republican policy has put the valuable ocean carrying business into the hands of foreigners.
April 19, 1889…

Bound Volumes: April 11, 2024

210 YEARS AGO
Dispatch from Plattsburgh—A Spy Detected: At length, by redoubled vigilance, in spite of the defects of our own laws, the corruption of some of our citizens, and the arts and cunning of the enemy, one Spy, of the hundreds who roam at large over this frontier, has been detected, convicted, and sentenced to Death. He came from the enemy as a deserter, in the uniform of a British corps, had obtained a pass to go into the interior,…

Hometown History: April 11, 2024

135 Years Ago
The Local News—In excavating the cellar for the Bundy building, a Canadian Sou (coin) was found several feet below the surface. It was well preserved, and though bearing no date, must be very old. L.H. Blend has it.
The organ grinder, as genuine a harbinger of spring as the robin, made his appearance here on Wednesday. He was afterward arrested for cruelty to a boy in his company, but the justice discharged him.
Louise Arnot and company will begin a…

Bound Volumes: April 4, 2024

135 YEARS AGO
Fire—About half past ten Tuesday evening the fire bell sounded an alarm, and at the same moment a large part of the village was illuminated by the flames which shot up from the old barn on the premises of Mr. B.F. Austin, on Elm Street. In it were four or five tons of baled straw and a covered buggy, which were destroyed. Loss was about $200. No insurance. Phinney Hose put the first stream of water on the…

Hometown History: April 4, 2024

50 Years Ago
April Fools’ Day did not go unheralded in Oneonta. A bomb scare in Tommy’s Place on West Broadway forced proprietor Tommy Pondolfino to close his establishment early last night but the promised explosion never happened.
The motive behind the bomb scare, Pondolfino suspects was a late night April Fools’ prank. A waitress at the bar received a call around 10:50 p.m. last night from a man who warned that the bomb would detonate within half an hour. Pondolfino contacted…

Bound Volumes: March 28, 2024

185 YEARS AGO
Advertisement. The Old Post Rider’s Call in Earnest. The Subscriber, having made arrangements with a young man by the name of Henry Marble, to distribute papers on the route heretofore performed by him, will after this week, discontinue his services; and he informs his customers that their bills will be made out up to the 25th of March, trusting that every one of them will be prepared, cash in hand for a final settlement whenever he calls, which…

Hometown History: March 28, 2024

70 YEARS AGO
As the onetime Ulster & Delaware Railroad prepares to dismantle and pack up its last passenger train, the children of the late William H. Hickok, for 48 years a conductor on the line, are also packing up the possessions in his home at 88 Elm Street. The house has been sold to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Estabrook. Dr. Benjamin B. Hickok of Michigan State University and his sister, Mrs. Charles Hampe, Thornwood, are preparing to move or store…

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