Bound Volumes

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

112 YEARS AGO
Philip Palma was sentenced by County Judge A.L. Kellogg Wednesday morning to not more than seven and one-half and not less than five years in Auburn prison, the jury having returned a verdict of manslaughter in the second degree. Palma had been indicted for manslaughter in the first degree. The prisoner and Raymond Gardner and another had a row in John Levantie’s fruit store in Cooperstown on Monday, July 5, 1909, and Palma stabbed Gardner who died in Thanksgiving Hospital. Palma fled but was captured a day or two afterward.

May 14, 1910

87 YEARS AGO
The business and editorial offices of this newspaper will be moved the last of this week from their present location at No. 32 Main Street to the Fenimore Hotel. The new offices are located in the east end of the building on the ground floor affording adequate and convenient space and facilities and there we shall be glad to serve the public in the transaction of all matters relating to the subscriptions, advertising and news. Some confusion may result during the two or three days the actual transfer is in progress and during that time we ask the generous consideration of our friends. The telephone number will remain 192 as at present.

May 15, 1935

62 YEARS AGO
Locals – Miss Marilyn Rogers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond H. Rogers of Whig Corners, has been awarded a $2,000 Assistantship at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. A senior at Syracuse University, Miss Rogers has worked during the summer months on the staff of the New York State Historical Association.

May 11, 1960

37 YEARS AGO
A new Eagle Scout in Fly Creek has come up with a system of numbers for all residents of the fire district which fire officials say is both simple and widely applicable. The system was the Eagle Scout project of Billy Michaels, a senior at CCS and a member of Troop 7. Michaels received his Eagle Scout pin, scouting’s highest award, in a ceremony last Tuesday at the Fly Creek Community Church. In working on the project, he decided to divide the district into quadrants with the roads lettered and the houses numbered, Billy explained. He consulted with Fly Creek Fire Department members Ed Hobbie and Harry Winnie, Jr., before the system was adopted by the fire commissioners. Fire numbering systems in the past have been unclear and very confusing, Hobbie said, noting that the advantage to Michaels’ system is that a person only has to call the emergency number and state the number of the house without trying to give detailed directions to a site.

May 15, 1985

22 YEARS AGO
Henry Joseph Nicols, 26, of Cooperstown, died Monday afternoon, May 8, 2000, at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown of injuries sustained in a car accident. He was born on August 9, 1973 in Monticello, the son of Henry J. and Joan (O’Donnell) Nicols. Henry graduated from Cooperstown Central School in 1991 and achieved international fame when he began an AIDS education program as a part of his Eagle Scout project. Henry and his family have traveled around the world speaking about AIDS and the need for compassion for those living with the virus. During his talks, Henry frequently used the Otsego County and Cooperstown communities as examples of the power of love, support and compassion. In 1993, Henry was awarded the first honorary bachelor’s degree to ever be given by the University of Scranton. Henry was born with hemophilia and received more than 500 blood transfusions during his life. Because of a contaminated transfusion, Henry was infected with AIDS in 1983 or 1984.

May 12, 2000