BOUND VOLUMES

April 16, 2020

200 YEARS AGO

Information Wanted: Amos M. Draper, an orphan grandson of the Subscriber, left the service of Captain Henry Stockwell, book-binder, Troy, N.Y. sometime in August or September last, since which time his friends have not heard from him. He is aged about sixteen years, round favored, pretty large blue eyes, and rather small in stature. Any person who will give information of said Boy, by mail, addressed to Ezra Williams, Post- Master, Westford, Otsego County, New York, will do a most benevolent deed and be eminently entitled to the thanks of the subscriber. Joshua Draper, Westford, April 10, 1820. N.B. Printers in the State of New York generally, will sub-serve the cause of humanity, by giving the above an insertion.

April 17, 1820

175 YEARS AGO

The indictment against Dennison Rogers, for the murder of his wife in Plainfield, July 19, 1842, was traversed on April 17 inst. in the Court of Oyer and Terminer in this village (Cooperstown), Judge Gridley presiding, resulting in the acquittal of Rogers, the counsel for the people having failed to identify him with the infliction of the blows which produced his wife’s death. The case, however, exhibited enormities of conduct which, under an indictment for manslaughter, would probably have immured him in the State prison during life. Intemperance was the besetting sin, and narrowly indeed has Rogers escaped the penalty of crime.

April 21, 1845

150 YEARS AGO

Summary of Local News – The thoughtless boy who shoots a robin this time of year should be made to feel the punishment which the law provides for the offense. Farmers and fruit-growers are especially interested in the protection of the birds.
Mrs. Bowers, of Lakelands, was enabled to receive and entertain many of her friends in this village on Friday last, the anniversary of her ninety-second birthday. Should General Grant do himself the honor to call upon her at any time, he would find her able to tell many personal incidents of the first President and first military general of the United States. She is one of the few ladies now living in the Great Republic who were personally acquainted with George Washington and its other leading founders
– and her recollection of past events is unimpaired.

April 21, 1870

100 YEARS AGO

Personal – Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lettis are in New York this week, while Mr. Lettis is on a purchasing trip for the Bundy and Cruttenden Store.
F.P. Whiting of New York, architect for the new Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital was in Cooperstown for a few days on business last week.
Mr. and Mrs. George Hyde Clark and children, who have spent the winter at Aiken, South Carolina, returned to their home at Hyde Hall, Springfield this week.
Mrs. Arthur Ryerson of Springfield Center and Chicago, accompanied by her son, John B. Ryerson, was in Cooperstown last week en route to their summer home. Mrs. Ryerson and son, accompanied by Miss Boree, sailed Saturday for Europe where they will spend several months.

April 27, 1920

75 YEARS AGO

Like the rest of the world, Cooperstown was stunned by the news which came shortly before 6 o’clock that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had passed away at 4:35 o’clock at Warm Springs, Georgia. Flags were placed at half-mast and on Saturday afternoon all business here ceased from 3 until 6 o’clock. At 4 o’clock memorial services were held in five local churches. Speaking before the Cooperstown Rotary Club on Tuesday at the Tunnicliff Inn,  Clermonte G. Tennant paid the following tribute (excerpted) to President Roosevelt: “The President’s greatest tragedy was not that he died on the eve of victory, but that he did not live to make the peace which was uppermost in his mind and which was so dear
to him. The role he dreamed of was not as a leader of the armed forces of his country but rather that of peacemaker. He was the leader of a coalition in a great world organization. He was the champion of the oppressed and despairing people in every country. This is why Americans in this hour are called upon to prove the purposes he embodied are the will and purpose of our beloved country.”

April 18, 1945

50 YEARS AGO

Following are the 22 seniors now attending Cooperstown Central School who will receive initial scholarship grants for the 1970-1971 academic year under the Clark Foundation and the Scriven Foundation: Andrew Thomas Armstrong, David Dean Austin, Timothy Randolph Bliss, Mary Eloise Chamberlin, Carol Rae Collier, Patricia M. Crippen, Linda M. Feltz, Richard Scott Irving, Hedwig Elizabeth Klenner, Barbara Joan Lehman, Henry Christian Loeffler, Patricia Anne Mickle, Maureen Ellen Mulligan, Mary Susan O’Leary, William Harold Parsons, Michael Edward Phillips, Linda Marie Polley, David William Potter, Christine Marie Roberts, Marsha Bernice Smith, Cynthia Anne Stewart, and Rita Jane Trinkaus.

April 15, 1970

25 YEARS AGO

The Otsego County Child Sexual Abuse Task Force will hold its second mock trial addressing the complicated issue of child sexual abuse. The event will be held at the Otsego County Courthouse in Cooperstown. Cheri Albrecht, task force coordinator, said “April Is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Therefore it seems fitting that the task force bring this educational forum to our community. Service providers in Otsego County have served approximately 100 children this year who were victims of child sexual abuse and assaults.” Judge Michael V. Coccoma will preside over the mock trial.

April 19, 1995

10 YEARS AGO

A hundred friends and well-wishers gathered at Templeton Hall Saturday evening, April 10, to honor Cooperstown Mayor, Carol B. Waller on her retirement. State Senator Jim Seward, R-Milford, read proclamations from the State Senate and General Assembly.

Speakers included Village Clerk Teri Barown who thanked the four-term Mayor for her support. “This, for me, has been a dream job,” Barown said. Police Chief Diana Nicols also spoke. Waller thus ends 16 years of village service, eight as a Trustee and the remainder as Mayor. Waller was Mayor during the tumultuous 2007 when the village celebrated its bicentennial and also hosted an estimated 84,000 baseball fans at the inductions of Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Waller is succeeded as Mayor by Joe Booan.

April 15, 2010