HOMETOWN HISTORY, June 1, 2012

125 Years Ago
The Local News – A job printing press now approaching completion at the machine shops of Miller & Co. on Mechanic Street is destined to bring a fortune to the inventor, if the press accomplishes all that it is intended it shall. The press is built upon principles differing materially from the average jobbing press, printing from a self-feeding roll of paper, and making several times as many impressions per minute as is possible with the press requiring a boy to feed it. An adjustable knife cuts the sheets to any size required as fast as printed. Mr. D.T. Eckerson of Worcester is the inventor, and he also has in course of construction at Miller & Co.’s shops a hot hair engine of his own design.
Mr. Blend, the architect, is drawing plans for the five cottages to be built on Lawn Avenue by the Stanton Estate. The cottages are to be alike, and supplied with every modern convenience.
June 1887

80 Years Ago
The first commencement exercises at Hartwick College will be held Monday morning, June 13, at 10:30 o’clock at the First Methodist Church in Oneonta with Dr. Frank Pierrepont Graves, president of the University of the State of New York giving the address. Senior exercises will be held Thursday night, June 9, at which time a senior banquet will be held. In reality this will be the first alumni banquet since in future years it will occupy this position on commencement programs. An informal reception to parents and guests will be given at the college building Friday afternoon, June 10, at 3 o’clock. At 7 o’clock of the same day the Hartwick College Association will have its annual meeting and dinner at the First Methodist Church. The speaker will be Dr. Stephen F. Bayne, district superintendent of schools in New York City. Senior Class Day exercises will commence Saturday, June 11 at 10 o’clock on the college campus. The exercises will include the senior class song, an address by senior class president Howard Sherman, presentation of the class gift, acceptance of the gift, bestowing of the mantle upon the Junior class, acceptance of the mantle, class will, prophecy, history, poem, and the planting of a tree from the Mt. Vision estate.
Sunday, at 10:30 o’clock, the Andrew and Philip Society of the school will conduct a service at the Lutheran Church of the Atonement. The address will be given by the Rev. William G. Boomhower, D.D.
June 1932

60 Years Ago
Graduation exercises for the Bugbee School eighth grade will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday in the Bugbee music room. Dr. Royal F. Netzer, college president, will speak to the class, and Dr. Willis P. Porter, principal, will award the diplomas. A play featuring the theme “This is America to Me” will be presented by the students under the direction of Miss Edith Laue, eighth grade teacher. Participating students will be Matthew Rhodes, Thomas Donnelly, Myron Leach, William Pirone, Bruce Downie, George Hoofes, David VanWoert, Cary Robinson, Kathleen Canellis, Carl Spinola, Molly Whitaker, Gordon Anderson, Elizabeth Weidman, Edward Disbrow, Richard Keegan, Marilyn Wright, Nancy Bree and Constance Leach.
June 1952

40 Years Ago
Otsego County Dairy Princess Karen Golja of Worcester and a student at the College of St. Rose in Albany arrived home from school on May 19. Since then, she has been reaching out to as many area people as possible to encourage use of milk and dairy products. Last Thursday, Miss Golja visited with six-year-old Shelly Emmett in the pediatric ward at Fox Hospital. On a nearby table were coloring sheets with pictures of cows and barns. As Karen helped Shelly with the coloring project, she talked about the dairy industry. Behind Karen on the bed was an inflatable cow three feet long. When asked, Shelly had no idea how many stomachs a cow has. “A cow has four stomachs.” Other questions and answers followed. The conversation turned to ice cream. “Ice Cream doesn’t come from a cow,” Karen explained. “But there is milk in it.” Karen spoke to more than 600 children in West Winfield and Richfield Springs on Wednesday and on Tuesday she was at the Cherry Valley School and the Worcester Nursery School. On Friday she will be in all the Oneonta elementary schools.
June 1972

30 Years Ago
Governor Hugh Carey confirmed Tuesday that he will sign a bill to raise New York’s minimum drinking age from 18 to 19. The change in drinking age is the first since 1933 when Prohibition ended. The legal drinking age in Connecticut was raised to 19 recently. This leaves Vermont as the only state in the northeast where 18-year-olds can legally drink. Richard Snelling, governor of Vermont recently vetoed a bill to increase his state’s drinking age to 19. Governor Carey cited studies showing that 18-year-olds were responsible for a disproportionate number of drinking and driving fatalities.
June 1982

20 Years Ago
In the past 27 years, more than 1.5 million seriously disadvantaged young people have gone through the Job Corps experience – an intensive program that offers schooling, vocational training, and counseling for social adjustment and group living. Job Corps students live in dormitories, receiving meals, health care, and work clothing from the center. In the year ending in June 1989, 69 percent of Job Corps students nationwide had been placed in meaningful jobs, or had moved on to further education. The Job Corps is the most expensive employment and training program operated by the federal government at $20,000 per student annually.
June 1992

10 Years Ago
Recently released figures from the 2000 census indicate that the proportion of people living in poverty in New York State rose from 13 percent to 14.6 percent during the 1990s. Nearly 2.7 million people out of the state’s 19 million residents fell under federally set classifications. For example, the poverty threshold for a family of four is pegged at $16,895. In Otsego County, 45 percent of single mothers with children age five years are under are living in poverty; in Delaware County, 61 percent.
June 2002