Hometown History

Compiled by Tom Heitz from NYSHA records

Editor’s Note:  Due to limited space configurations due to this week’s 2015 Otsego County Yearbook in Hometown Oneonta, Hometown History is being published online this week.   It returns next week to our print edition.  Enjoy!

125 Years Ago

Winter came in earnest with the big snow storm of Friday last. To the north and east of Oneonta there was already snow enough for comfortable traveling. Friday noon saw the earth blanketed a foot deep with snow, and before the

Storm was at an end the depth was from 15 to 18 inches. On the hills and in the woods, where much snow had already fallen, it was in many places three feet deep. Freight trains on the D. & H. ran Friday morning, but one that went out with 10 cars at noon was switched at Schenevus, and after that all effort at moving freight was abandoned for the day. Passenger trains were kept moving, though an hour or more behind time, two or three heavy engines being attached to each to clear the way. By Saturday afternoon the tracks were clear again and some of the crews that left Christmas day returned, thoroughly exhausted, after an absence of 52 hours, with only five hours sleep in all that time.

January 1891  

80 Years Ago

Whacking the wooden Indians at a terrific clip, the Klipnockie keglers defeated the Hilderbrandt five of Schenectady by a score of 3,001 to 2,784 in a special bowling match on the Y.M.C.A. alleys Saturday night. In a previous match at Schenectady, the locals lost by 103 pins. The feature of the match was the sensational shooting of Sam McKean, whose 751 score is believed to be a new all-time high individual triple in this city. McKean was “hot from the start and his hook cut into the one-three set-up beautifully to register counts of 214, 294 and 243. “Mac” missed a perfect score of 300 by only six pins. He collected 11 straight strikes in the second game and the bowlers were cheering his efforts to enter the “Hall of Fame.” On the twelfth and final shot, however, the ball curved into the groove and then broke fast as it moved over to the outside lane, where it knocked down four pins.

January 1936

60 Years Ago

Meet the wife of the Mayor of Oneonta – Mrs. Roger G. Hughes of 1 Oak Street, who puts her home and church first in her busy life. With Mayor Hughes following a packed schedule which keeps him away from home constantly, Mrs. Hughes feels that she can best serve her husband and family by always being at the house and keeping things running smoothly. She doesn’t allow herself to be active in too many organizations. However, she is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary and the Women’s Society of Christian Service. She is grade mother for her son, Roger’s fourth grade at Center Street School, and is active in the parent-teacher groups. Mrs. Hughes occasionally attends banquets and receptions with the Mayor. At home she is constantly answering the telephone and taking messages for him. The Hughes’ three children are Roger, 9, Joan, 16, a senior and head majorette at Oneonta High School, and David, 18, who is a freshman at Hartwick College. Mayor and Mrs. Hughes met when he was a senior and she was a freshman at Hartwick College. They were married shortly after she graduated.

January 1956

40 Years Ago

The U.S. Labor Department has reminded employers and workers that a hike of 20 cents an hour in the Federal minimum wage went into effect on January 1. The basic minimum wage, applicable to most workers, has moved from $2.10 an hour to $2.30 an hour. The increase was mandated by Congress when it amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in May, 1974. The minimum wage for workers whose jobs were not covered by the statute prior to 1966 (small retail and service establishments, employees of schools, hospitals, nursing homes, laundry and dry cleaning workers, domestics and government employees) went from the former $2.00 per hour to $2.20 on January 1. They will catch up in 1977, when their minimum too goes to $2.30. Agricultural workers on larger farms went to $2 an hour from $1.80 on January 1. They will reach $1.80 in 1978.

January 1976

30 Years Ago

Wilber National Bank of Oneonta has donated $70,000 to the National Soccer Hall of Fame for capital development, according to Al Colone, museum director. The gift brings to $580,000 the amount raised in local contributions for capital development. Museum officials announced at the end of December that they had raised the $495,000 necessary to purchase a 66-acre site on Browne Street in the Town of Oneonta for a permanent complex. The bank will also make available the building now occupied by Samson’s Decorating Center at 5 Ford Avenue next to the city-owned Wilber mansion for the Soccer Hall of Fame to occupy until the permanent complex is built.

January 1986

20 Years Ago

Consumer credit, excluding mortgages and home equity loans, has risen every month for about two and a half years and is up well over 30 percent since 1993. Last October, it surpassed $1 trillion for the first time. Outstanding consumer credit, relative to disposable income, is at an all-time high and the amount of overdue payments on monthly credit card bills rose in the third quarter to the highest level in four years. Most families have two wage-earners. If they can’t live comfortably and also afford to acquire the latest in high-tech musts, what can they do but gamble that staying on top today will be worth the payback tomorrow? Families could just say “no?” Families today can be tuned in without selling off their lives to the “buy today, pay later” mentality.

January 1996

10 Years Ago

Monser Brothers Tire & Service and Uniroyal Tire have donated funds and equipment valued at more than $852 to the Oneonta Soccer Club as part of a nationwide youth soccer program. “We really enjoy participating in the Uniroyal program because everyone benefits,” said Jeff Gelbsman of Monser Brothers Tire and Service. “The kids get free soccer balls, the league receives funds and we have the opportunity to meet new families.”

January 2006

Resources for Hometown History have been provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association