Bound Volumes

May 4, 2023

210 YEARS AGO
Several very large bets have been made in this city (Albany), on the result of the ensuing election – The following was offered and taken up on Tuesday last – 1,000 dollars was given to receive one dollar for each vote over 4,000, which Gen. Van Rensselaer should obtain more than Gov. Tompkins, for the office of Governor of this state. (Ed. Note: The wager came to nothing as Daniel D. Tompkins won the election. Tompkins served as Governor of New York from April 1807 through February 1817, winning re-election in 1810, 1813 and 1816; he resigned the office to become Vice-President of the United States as the running mate of President James Monroe and was re-elected with Monroe in 1820)

May 1, 1813

185 YEARS AGO
The General Bank Law in New York – We regard the passage of this law as the most important act of the late session of our Legislature. We speak of the principle, not the details of the present bill, or of its immediate practical benefits. It puts an end to the corrupting system of granting special charters, places the trade of banking where that in silks and cotton is – open to the competition of all whose taste, skill, enterprise, or ability, incline them to pursue it.

April 30, 1838

160 YEARS AGO
Local – A meeting of the citizens of Cooperstown is called at Bowne Hall on Saturday evening of this week, at 7 o’clock, to consider the practicability of constructing a branch railroad to intersect the Albany and Susquehanna. A general attendance of all who feel an interest in this important subject is invited.
The midnight hour of Tuesday last gave out the sharp alarm of “Fire!” – and the neat dwelling owned by David Wicks of Hartwick and occupied by the Rev. J.T. Wright, situated a little south of the Seminary, was burned, together with the barn attached. The loss was about $1,400; insured for $900. The fire is supposed to have taken from an imperfectly secured or defective stove pipe. Rev. Mr. Wright lost his library, family clothing, some articles of furniture, and a quantity of wood. No insurance.

May 1, 1863

135 YEARS AGO
No government in the world has ever shown such liberality in pensioning its wounded and sick soldiers as has the government of the United States – and to this policy there has been no opposition north or south. But there is a growing disposition in Congress – on the eve of another Presidential election – to vastly overdo the pensioning business, and it is high time that sensible and independent men and newspapers of all parties demanded a halt. The war closed 23 years ago, and yet the pension list continues to grow. Congress has just voted upwards of $80,000,000 to pay pensions during the ensuing fiscal year – and a Democratic Congress, “full of Rebel Brigadiers,” be it remembered! Every week it has private pension bills under consideration – the worthless character of many of which has been exposed by the Pension Department. The taxpayers understand that no money can be taken from the Federal Treasury that does not come out of their pockets through some form of taxation.

May 4, 1888

110 YEARS AGO
The teams of the Sunset League representing five of the Cooperstown churches, have been making rapid progress since the opening game on Tuesday last, and are putting up some great ball. Games are held every afternoon excepting on Mondays and Saturdays after 6 o’clock at the athletic grounds in good playing condition. In the first contest last Tuesday the Christ church team triumphed over the Universalists by a score of 10 to 1 in five innings. Lutes and Reisman were the battery for the Universalists; Bundy and G.D. Ellsworth for the Episcopals.

May 7, 1913

85 YEARS AGO
Cooperstown mourns today the loss of a distinguished and patriotic citizen, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., whose death in his seventy-ninth year, occurred Tuesday morning at his home at No. 96 Western Avenue, Albany. His last illness extended over a period of several months. Mr. Cooper was the great grandson of Judge William Cooper, founder of the village of Cooperstown, and grandson of James Fenimore Cooper, author of the Leatherstocking Tales and many other novels and books. The deceased was considered an authority on early Americana. He was also the greatest authority on the history of Cooperstown and one of its most public spirited and progressive as well as best beloved citizens.

May 4, 1938

60 YEARS AGO
Cooperstown’s State Police Sub-station at the corner of Main Street and Pine Boulevard, will be closed in the near future and a new office for state police personnel opened in the basement of the village library building. A system will be inaugurated which will give the public instantaneous access to the substation 24 hours a day. Cooperstown area residents will place their calls to the State Police through a local number as at present, but “tie-line” equipment will instantaneously route the calls, free of charge, to the Oneonta substation which is manned 24 hours a day. Twenty-four hour radio-equipped patrols of the Cooperstown area will be maintained by troopers working three eight-hour shifts daily. Space in the library building will be provided to the state without charge.

May 1, 1963

35 YEARS AGO
John Denver will be among the headline performers at a music and craft festival to be held at the Beaver Valley campground in Hartwick, July 22-24, according to event sponsors. The announcement came at a wine and cheese party for 100 invited guests in a recreational hall at the campground on Saturday. Other performers scheduled to appear include Robert Klein and the groups Sha Na Na, The Association, Del Shannon and The Box Tops. William Trolio, a spokesman for Beaver Valley Productions, sponsors of the event, said he expects nearly 25,000 people to attend the extravaganza. The campground is located two miles east of Hartwick Seminary on 300 acres of rolling hills, woods and water recently acquired by Hank Nicols and his wife Joan.

May 4, 1988