BOUND VOLUMES, August 23, 2012

200 YEARS AGO
Reprinted from the London Courier – “America knows not that the vigor of the British Empire increases with the necessity of exerting it – that our elasticity rises with the pressure upon us – that difficulties only make us more firm and undaunted – that dangers only give us the additional means of overcoming them. It is in such a state of affairs, in such a great crisis, that a nation like Great Britain becomes greater. We are now the only bulwark of liberty in the world – placed, a little spot, a speck almost on the ocean, between the old and new world, we are contending with both; with one arm we are beating the armies of the master of the continent of Europe (Napoleon Bonaparte), and with the other we shall smite his Prefect on the Continent of America.”
August 22, 1812

150 YEARS AGO
Up to the time of the President’s recent proclamations calling for six hundred thousand more troops, the loyal people of the North had carried on this war with few personal sacrifices. A surplus population had furnished most of the soldiers previously called for, and most of those who gave money, gave it from their abundance. Individuals had suffered losses, but inconvenience even, had been felt by few. Among the loyalists of the Border States there has been great suffering from rebel armies and guerrilla bands. They, of all others, demand that the war shall be made a short one – for they know what Civil War really means.
August 22, 1862

125 YEARS AGO
Village Police Court – The following arrests have been made the past week, all being arraigned before Justice Cook – Three tramps, Thomas Trembling, Jerry Trembling, and Geo, Carole, Saturday on the Fair Grounds. Sixty days in the Albany Penitentiary, under the tramp act. Jas. Simons and Mary Simons arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct on Saturday. The former was given 30 days in jail; the latter was discharged. August Bennett, a tramp, arrested and discharged – a sickly man and apparently orderly, he was given his freedom.
August 26, 1887

100 YEARS AGO
Postmaster General Hitchcock has taken drastic steps to try to put an end to flirtations by mail. He has issued a new postal regulation to Postmaster Wedderspoon and all other postmasters giving them authority to require all persons to furnish in writing their names, addresses and statements of their reasons for wishing to be served at the general delivery window instead of at a street address. The regulation was made in response to demands from all parts of the country that the use of the general delivery service for clandestine purposes be stopped or controlled. Washington, D.C. ministers and members of their congregations have been particularly active in behalf of the new regulation. Postmasters in nearly every large city have reported complaints from ministers. The regulation is aimed principally at minors who for one reason or another wish to obtain mail at the general delivery windows instead of having it delivered at their homes. Under the regulation, minors may be required to give the names and addresses of their parents, so that the parents may be notified that they are receiving mail at the general delivery window. It is admitted that this regulation would work a hardship on many young ladies and young men.
August 21, 1912

75 YEARS AGO
Rearrangement of the districts and polling places for registration and the general election this fall was effected at a meeting of the Otsego Town Board held Tuesday evening of last week at the office of Justice of the Peace Harold D. Carpenter. A recently adopted resolution reduced the number of voting districts in the town from seven to five. Voting machines will replace the paper ballots here for the first time at the General Election, thus expediting the time required for registering the vote and making it possible to take care of the election in the smaller number of polling places. District five at the Pierstown Grange and district seven at the Elwood Store have been eliminated. There will be four districts in the village of Cooperstown and one at the Fly Creek Grange Hall in Fly Creek which becomes district five.
August 25, 1937

50 YEARS AGO
Negotiations for the transfer of a 600-acre tract of the George Hyde Clarke estate at the northern end of Otsego Lake to the State of New York are in the final phase according to Howard G. Stowell, general manager of the Central New York Parks Commission. The tract will eventually be incorporated into the state’s park system. The state expects to take title to the property within about six weeks. The tract includes 8,500 feet of frontage on the Otsego Lake shoreline running from the Hyde Bay Camp for Boys on the southeast shore west to a point where the estate adjoins the lakeshore property of Mrs. Arthur O. Choate, at the foot of Mount Washington.
August 22, 1962

25 YEARS AGO
While the Masi-Soule condominium development remains in legal limbo, questions about the suitability of the Glen Garage site for a 41-unit, multi-storied project are emerging. Opponents question the wisdom of building on a site where the substrata is largely comprised of shale rock. The geologic conditions at the site have yet to be addressed by the trustees or the developers. “Shale is the lesser of the favorable rocks on steep slopes,” said Dr. P. Jay Fleisher, a geologist and SUCO professor. Fleisher noted that many developers have only a profit motive, and that scientific questions go either ignored or unanswered.
August 26, 1987

10 YEARS AGO
The Otsego County Department of Health has received confirmation of West Nile virus infection in a total of four crows in the county within the last five days. According to Public Health Director Kathryn Abernethy, the first crow was found dead in the Town of Butternuts. Infected crows were also found in the Town of Otsego on State Hwy. 28, the Town of Otego, and at the SUNY Oneonta campus.
August 23, 2002