BOUND VOLUMES, April 10, 2014
200 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, visited this place, and was on his return to Canada, in citizens’ clothes, when a virtuous citizen, who had seen him as he came from Canada, recognized and made him prisoner – and notwithstanding arts of one of our citizens (a Peace officer) who advised him to let the fellow go, brought him to this place. He has acknowledged he was a sergeant in the 103rd regiment of British infantry, and calls his name William Baker. We understand he is to be executed this day at 1 o’clock p.m.
April 9, 1814
175 YEARS AGO
The project to fasten upon the State the construction of the New York and Erie railroad has received its quietus in the Senate. In this result we are happily disappointed, for we had fears that the measure would pass that body, owing to the industry and management of the schemers particularly interested in getting it off their hands. The State is thus saved from a load of debt which would have hung like a mill-stone upon the necks of its citizens and from which they could never have been extricated but by a system of direct taxation.
April 8, 1839
150 YEARS AGO
It is our opinion that those towns in Otsego which direct attention mainly to the cultivation of Hops were not as well off, monetarily and socially, as those where the Dairy and Cattle-Raising business receive principal attention. This belief is more generally shared in the present year by our farmers. For Butter and Cheese there is a steady foreign demand, which will scarcely diminish and the dairy business bids fair to continue remunerative. Of Hops, we are growing far more than our home wants demand. The grower must receive from 16 to 20 cents to make it a paying business; the foreign demand is not steady or regular; and when the home and foreign crops are both good, prices will inevitably rule low; the poorer grades must remain unsold. This year, it is estimated from 5,000 to 10,000 more acres will be picked over than any preceding year. The business, it is feared, is being overdone.
April 8, 1864
100 YEARS AGO
The crowded houses that greeted the Renfax Musical Moving pictures in the Star Theatre last week induced the management to contract for the installation of one of the machines, which arrived Monday. The workmen are expected early this week. The synchrony between the picture and the song is perfect, and is maintained by a very ingenious electrical device, which the management will be pleased to explain to any patrons of the theatre who are mechanically inclined. “The Fall of Constantinople” Monday evening was one of the most beautiful colored pictures ever shown here. On account of the high cost of this feature the admission for adults was 20 cents. “The Octoroon,” the well-known play by Dion Boucicault, will be given this Wednesday evening for the benefit of the Junior Class of the Cooperstown High School. The admission will be but 15 cents; children, 10 cents.
April 8, 1914
75 YEARS AGO
Forty-one members of the Senior Class of the Cooperstown High School left Saturday morning at 7:35 o’clock for their long-anticipated trip to Washington, D.C. They are traveling in two large busses of the Arnold Wade Company of Schenectady which has furnished the transportation for senior trips for the past seven years. The students are being chaperoned this year by Professor and Mrs. Jacob Shaeffer. Only one member of the class, Miss Julia Bryn, was unable to go because of illness. On Friday afternoon, the entire class was given a medical examination by Dr. F.J. Atwell., school physician and Miss Mabel E. Putnam, school nurse. On the way to Washington, they will visit the Gettysburg Battlefield and the monument of Major General Abner Doubleday.
April 12, 1939
50 YEARS AGO
Robert Haven Schauffler, noted poet and musicologist, and a summer resident of this village for the past 10 years, will observe his 85th birthday on Wednesday. Mr. Schauffler arrived on Monday to spend the next few months on Fiddlestick Farm at Whig Corners. Mrs. C.A. Braider, owner of the farm, also has arrived for the summer. Mr. Schauffler has published some 75 volumes. The best known works include biographies of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann and Schubert. He is a graduate of Princeton with the class of 1902 and became the Class Poet. In 1906, while in Italy as a special contributor to Collier’s Weekly, he was decorated by the Queen of Italy after winning the Italian doubles championship and playing for Italy in the
Athenian Olympic Games. He first visited Cooperstown in 1941.
April 8, 1964
25 YEARS AGO
For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, the Cooperstown high school senior class will not be having its prom at the Otesaga Hotel. The class voted last week to go instead to the country club in June because of restrictions sought by the management of the hotel. The hotel and the students had been negotiating for the event since December. Hotel manager Robert Holiday wanted a quieter band and a dance that could end before midnight.
April 11, 1984
10 YEARS AGO
Members of the Glimmerglass Opera’s acclaimed Young Artists Program will present a concert featuring operatic highlights from the company’s past 30 years on Wednesday, April 14 at 6 p.m. in the ballroom of the Otesaga Hotel. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. Among the featured singers will be sopranos Lisa Archibeque and Miriam Kushel.
April 9, 2004
