BOUND VOLUMES, April 17, 2014

200 YEARS AGO
Advertisement – School Money – The proportion of School Money for the County of Otsego, has been received from the Superintendent of Common Schools. The several towns in the County can have the same for the year 1813, by applying for it. An order signed by all the Commissioners, will be necessary, which may be drawn payable to any one of them, or any other person. It will also be necessary that the Town Clerk in each town certify that such persons were duly appointed Commissioners of Schools, at the last Town Meeting. Henry Phinney, Treasurer, Cooperstown, March 26, 1814
April 16, 1814

175 YEARS AGO
Log-rolling in legislation is an application of the federal principle of combination in law-making. The democracy have always maintained that the true purposes of legislation were to accomplish objects of public necessity and utility, and such acts of individual justice as are not within the pale of the judicial authority; and they have always insisted that every proposition should stand upon its own merits. The manifest danger to the cause of public morals of allowing an act of legislation to be determined by considerations altogether foreign from the object of the act itself, has been sufficient heretofore to restrain public men in most cases from an open avowal of the federal principle of combination.
April 15, 1839

150 YEARS AGO
Abolition of Slavery – The following is the resolution adopted by the U.S. Senate, ayes 38, nays 6 – “Be it resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: two-thirds of both Houses concurring, That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the Several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the said Constitution, namely: Article XIII. Sec. 1 – Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2 – Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” The resolution is now before the House. Our own belief is it will receive the requisite two-third vote. If so, it must then receive the sanction of three-fourths of the several States to be of any effect.
April 15, 1864

125 YEARS AGO
Three thousand, nine hundred and sixty-five immigrants reached Castle Garden yesterday. They were passengers on the six ocean steamers which reached port during the day. Of this number 200 were picked out as people likely to become public charges. The 200 may be sent back to Europe. And none of those steamers fly the stars and stripes. Republican policy has put the valuable ocean carrying business into the hands of foreigners.
April 19, 1889

75 YEARS AGO
Two-hour parking on Main Street from Pine to Fair from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. was decreed by the Village Board of Trustees at their regular monthly meeting held Monday evening at the Village Hall. With the influx of cars and people during the coming summer the question of parking becomes a serious matter especially relative to all day parking. The board felt that a two-hour limit would permit necessary shopping time and still eliminate the abuse of the privilege. The trustees also adopted a $25 charge against towns sending in fire alarms where village apparatus is taken outside the corporate limits. The Village Clerk was instructed to get in touch with the Supervisors and town boards for Otsego, Middlefield, Springfield, Hartwick and Milford to inform them of the charge.
April 19, 1939

50 YEARS AGO
The Sandlot Kid, a larger than life statue of a young baseball player, is being erected at the entrance to Doubleday Field adjacent to the National Commercial Bank and Trust Company building. The statue is the work of Victor Salvatore of Springfield Center and New York City. A miniature casting of the sculpture was presented to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942. The large statue is a gift to the Village of the late F. Ambrose Clark. The statue is being located in an appropriate setting at the entrance to the famed baseball park by workmen from Neil R. Neilson, Inc., Oneonta.
April 22, 1964

25 YEARS AGO
Members of the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society led by Marion Karl crossed soggy fields into a stand of woods where the ground was covered with slightly crunchy leaves. Walking ever-so-carefully, they approached the beech trees where the Great Blue Heron rookery is found. The herons nest in colonies and build their nests high in the beech trees for a good view of the countryside. Adult herons stand four feet tall and fly with wing spans of six or seven feet. Mrs. Karl, of Cooperstown, has studied the rookery for a number of years and has written a paper on the herons. They are found throughout upstate New York in marshy waterways in the summer. They winter in the south, return in the spring and stay until late fall. The most common number of eggs is four. Various kinds of fish are the herons’ principal food.
April 18, 1984

10 YEARS AGO
The Doubleday Field Advisory Committee met on Tuesday morning to discuss the possibility of a Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan live concert at the historic field on August 6. Committee members Howard Talbot, Lee Malone and Stuart Taugher were joined by Mayor Carol Waller, Field Manager Joe Harris, Cooperstown Police Chief Mike Crippen and State Trooper Sergeant David Segit of Richfield Springs. Proponents of the concert envision a family affair with the possibility of attracting 10,000 to 12,000 spectators. “In no way is this concert affiliated with the Hall of Fame,” said Taugher. “I just want to make that absolutely clear.” Talbot expressed concern that a concert on Doubleday Field was not in the best interest of the village. “What’s in it for the village?” Talbot asked.
April 16, 2004