HOMETOWN HISTORY, November 8, 2013

125 Years Ago
The Local News: The new iron bridge across the Susquehanna will reach Oneonta about December 1st and will be in position December 15th. During the fifteen days the bridge is being put up teams will be required to cross by the lower bridge. A ferry will convey foot passengers across the river.
A specimen of slag paving stone is on exhibition at Moody & Gold’s Store. The stone is now in use in portions of New York City and is said to excel all other pavements. It is durable, cheap, and is said to be the best sanitary pavement. Parties interested in paving Main Street are invited to call and see it.
The Salvation Army holds regular evening services at their hall in the Westcott Building. The meetings are well attended, the hall being crowded every night. There are seven members of the Army here. Three services are held on Sunday.
November 1888

100 Years Ago
A union temperance meeting at the First Presbyterian Church was addressed Sunday evening by Dr. F.D. Blakeslee of Binghamton. He said in brief, “A disaster like that of the Titanic is occurring every four days in our great country – the disaster of men going down to a drunkard’s grave – a disaster that is legalized. The remedy will have to come from the people – it will never come down from the head of the government unless the people demand it from the head. The slavery of the liquor traffic is infinitely stronger than African slavery and it is the purpose of the Anti-Saloon League to place men in the political stations of the country that will do this very thing. The saloon men say that they can sell more liquor if it is dry than they can if it is wet. But, why then do they fight so hard against the cause and against the advances made by the league?
November 1913

80 Years Ago
The people of the country will recognize that if government forces meddle in private industry it will be but an entering wedge. The outcome will be that the government, and perhaps the President himself (Franklin Delano
Roosevelt), will have more to say how a man’s business should be conducted than the man who fought his way valiantly through to success. No head of any industry big or little, winning a fair measure of success, has succeeded alone. He had carried with him pay rolls and assistance that meant success for others associated with him. This has provided homes, comfort and happiness for many others. While not approving the excessive salaries that have been paid beyond the capabilities of any man to be worth to any enterprise, yet attention is called to the fact that once we remove the incentive and stifle individual initiative, the employed will suffer far more than those who made the employment possible.
November 1933

60 Years Ago
The New York State Thruway Authority said today it had spent or obligated approximately 506 million dollars so far for construction for construction of the 427-mile cross-state expressway. Seventeen miles of the route remain to be contracted for, to which must be added the costs for construction of restaurants and gas stations, rights of way, and other items. A spokesman said the authority had not estimated how high additional costs would run. In addition to the 500 million dollar bond issue the authority has a loan of 80 million from the state, made before the bond issue was authorized. Those funds will be used to get construction rolling. The New York to Buffalo route is expected to be completed by the summer of 1955.
November 1953

30 Years Ago
Hartwick College has received a collection of letters, some written by the Rev. John Christopher Hartwick, a Lutheran minister who bequeathed his estate for the formation of a religious seminary near Cooperstown, which was the forerunner of the college now located on Oyaron Hill in Oneonta. The letters were given to Hartwick College by Yale University. “We’re extremely pleased that Yale officials have given them to us so that they can be part of the documentation of our history,” said Jane Des Grange, director of museums at Hartwick College. Hartwick, who was born in what is now East Germany, preached in the central New York area during the Revolutionary War era. When he died in 1796, he left his estate for the establishment of a Lutheran Seminary. The school became the first Lutheran Seminary in the United States. Mrs. Des Grange said the letters have been laminated.
November 1983

20 Years Ago
For Stan Sessions, phone calls are passé and letter writing is practically a lost art. When it comes to correspondence, he lets his computer do the talking. “No one is paying attention to memos and letters anymore,” says Sessions, a biology professor at Hartwick College in Oneonta. “They figure if it’s important enough, it’ll be on e-mail.” E-mail, or electronic mail, is becoming the dominant mode of communication at colleges, schools, and big business. It has the immediacy of a telephone call and the hard-copy capabilities of a letter and could be a way of life for the masses by the 21st century. Electronic mail began 15 years ago when the first bulletin board services (BBS) were created as local message centers for a handful of computer users. The number of BBS users in the U.S. has reached about 500,000 and some estimates expect that to climb to as many as 20 million by the year 2000.
November 1993

10 Years Ago
The Rev. Mitchell Spring, pastor of Spirit and Truth Christian Assembly, is lecturing at Hartwick College on “End Time Bible Prophecies.” Pastor Spring will appear in Room 202 of Miller Hall on Thursdays, November 6, 13 and 23 beginning at 7 p.m. The meetings are free and open to all.
Geshe Thupten Kunsang, who was in Oneonta for the Buddhism Semester at Hartwick College in 2000, is visiting the area. Kunsang will be available for appointments before November 19 and will return for teachings on the first stages of Lam Rim in late December.
November 2003