BOUND VOLUMES

February 4, 2021

200 YEARS AGO

Joseph Findlay Smith of Baltimore and Adolph Lacost of New York, commanders of the schooners Plattsburgh and Science, captured in April last, on the African coast, by the U.S. ship Cyane, Capt. Trenchard, and convicted before the Circuit Court of the United States, held in Boston last November, of violations of the laws prohibiting the slave trade, were sentenced on January 26 to five years imprisonment and to pay a fine of $3,000 each.
Napoleon Bonaparte, having been born on February 5, 1768, will be 53 years of age this day. True, to us Americans, it is not a matter of much moment – yet there can be no harm in the bare mention of it.

February 5, 1821

175 YEARS AGO

Excerpts from a letter dated June 24, 1845, from John McClure, Representative of the District of Clatsop in the legislative committee of Oregon, requesting information on the strength, character and prospects of that part of the colony that I have the honor to represent.
The situation of the land in Clatsop District differs from that of any other district now settled or occupied by whites in Oregon, owing to its situation at the mouth of the Columbia River. A considerable portion of the district may be called broken, or mountain lands, interspersed with numerous small prairies or plains, of excellent soil. The present population of white inhabitants is about 100 souls, 52 of which are males over the age of 21 years and capable of bearing arms. There are in our infant district, not yet one year old, one saw and grist mill, and one shingle mill in operation; also two retail stores, one however being the Hudson Bay’s Company’s. A fair estimate of the present harvest may stand thus: Wheat – 2,000 bushels; potatoes, 4,000 bushels, besides oats, rye, peas, &c. The farmers are all Americans – moral, honest and industrious. The plains of Clatsop are 20 miles in length and about one and a half in width. The soil – first rate, and the grazing or pasture land sufficient for the support of several thousand cattle. The climate is exceedingly mild, and sickness unknown amongst us. John McClure

February 7, 1846

150 Years Ago

Italians – To the Editor of the Journal: The Town of Otsego may well feel proud of its two young men, put in nomination at their respective caucuses for the heads of the tickets. Mr. Doubleday, the Democratic nominee for Highway Commissioner, is a young man of ability, and if elected will not employ outsiders to do Town work. Every laboring man who has his own interests to look after, should esteem it a privilege as well as his interest to vote for Mr. Doubleday, thereby securing to himself as many benefits at least as are and have been conferred upon Italians. A Fly Creek Republican.
(Ed. Note: Italian immigrants to America increased dramatically in the 1870s, 1880s and early 1890s. Male Italian laborers, both skilled and unskilled, were instrumental in building railroads, highways and buildings in the late 19th century in Otsego County and elsewhere. Their willingness to work for lower wages and longer hours displaced some of their predecessors from England and Ireland. Such ethnic jealousy and resentment surfaced in this letter in 1871).

February 6, 1871

125 Years Ago

Local: More people in Cooperstown were last week suffering from minor illness, and many of them receiving the attention of physicians, than at any other period within our recollection. Was it a species of the grip (influenza)?
Poor child – Several weeks ago, Edna Cross, stepdaughter of Ellery Hoke of Cooperstown, aged nine years, while looking for eggs in the barn of her grandfather, fell through a hole in the floor, breaking one of her arms and badly cutting and bruising herself. One day last week, as the poor child, who was just recovering from her injuries, was sitting in a chair, she fell to the floor and broke the other arm. Dr. Bassett reduced the fracture and she is now as comfortable as can be expected.

February 6, 1896

75 Years Ago

The original copy of the Report of New York’s Temporary State Commission Against Discrimination, which resulted in the passage during the 1945 legislative session of the notable anti-discrimination law has just been presented to the New York State Historical Association’s Central Quarter’s library in this village by the Hon. Irving N. Ives, Chairman of the Commission and the majority leader of the New York State Assembly. The Association believes it to be a document of the first importance. New York has been the first of 48 states to write such an anti-discrimination bill into law and the debate on its passage proved one of the hottest in Albany’s legislative history. It has been hailed as a “Bill of Rights” for New York’s minority groups.

February 6, 1946

50 YEARS AGO

Final U.S. Census figures made public last week show that Otsego County’s population gained 8.2 percent in the last decade to reach the highest total in its 179-year history. The figures show that 56,171 people live within the county borders, 4,239 more than the previous record counted in the 1960 census. The final figure adds 770 to the preliminary total reported last October. The Town of Otsego would up with a 1970 total of 3,998, down 123 from the 1960 figure and the biggest decline in the Otsego County.

February 3, 1971

25 YEARS AGO

Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., Ph.D., occupant of the Jane Forbes Clark Chair in Health Research and Director of the Bassett Healthcare Research Institute, has been named Pfizer Visiting Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine for 1996. Pfizer, Inc., a U.S. pharmaceutical company, supports a small number of distinguished physicians and scientists to spend three days at U.S. medical schools to lecture and exchange ideas. Pearson will appear at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta to present ideas about preventive cardiology.

February 4, 1996

10 YEARS AGO

Sixteen northern Otsego County students have been named to the Dean’s List for the fall 2010 semester: Cherry Valley: Joelle Nick, Wesley Nick. Cooperstown: Kristen Busse, Kamileh Demirel, Emily Hunter, John LaDuke, Patrick LaDuke, Amanda Willsey. Fly Creek: Nicholas Weir. Hartwick: Kaylan Alban, Sasha Boulay, Emily Davidson, Everett Farrell; Milford: Eliza Higgins, Chelsea Krieg. Richfield Springs: Meaghan Forbes.

February 3, 2011