BOUND VOLUMES
Dec. 5, 2019
200 YEARS AGO
Robbery – On the night of Thursday last, the shoe shop of Mr. Stephen Gregory, of this Village, was forcibly entered and robbed of stock and shoes to the amount of at least $250. Suspicion has rested upon John Gardner, who was, late in the evening, seen lurking about town, and had formerly been familiar in the shop. He is a short, thick-set fellow, of dark complexion, with remarkably large eyebrows,
his countenance being indelibly stamped with villainy, and has been a sailor. Several persons have been in pursuit, but as yet no trace of the property can be found.
December 6, 1819
175 YEARS AGO
Excerpts from an essay on Naturalization. “The root of native Americanism is selfishness. Its creed is ‘I, myself.’ It knows nothing of the great principle of doing unto others as you would be done unto. It never heard of the great hypothesis – for if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Exclusion is at the foundation of Nativism and is therefore repugnant to Christianity, and to the inherent and inalienable rights with which man is endowed by his Creator, and upon which rests the grand theory of all American institutions. The sincere Abolitionist erects a political creed which vindicates human rights in the broadest latitude. It admits no distinctions of persons or of country – no, not even of the most marked distinction which nature has put upon humanity – complexion.
December 2, 1844
150 YEARS AGO
Court Proceedings: The County Court and Sessions commenced a term on Monday, Judge Sturges presiding. The Grand Jury was called and sworn, and E.R. Thurber, Esq., appointed foreman. The business in the Sessions was then taken up, and the indictments pending against Samuel Milson and Samuel Ludlam for selling liquor without license were called. The court held the indictments invalid on the ground that the offence was not an indictable one. The law provides a penalty of $50 for each offence, and imprisonment for non-payment of the penalty.
December 9, 1869
125 YEARS AGO
A Brutal Game – The football game for the championship of Washington, D.C. between Georgetown University and the Columbia Athletic Club was witnessed by 7,000 people. The slugging was continuous until in the second half both teams with their substitutes, engaged in a general fight, which the police had to stop. Georgetown had the worst of the casualties, five of the team being disabled. Three men were carried from the field on the shoulders of their comrades in the first fifteen minutes of play. Bahen, quarterback of Columbia, had a broken shoulder bone, and Carmody, captain and halfback of Georgetown, had his collar bone broken and knee wrenched.
Two Harvard men were knocked senseless in the game with Pennsylvania. The week before the papers published the death of two young men, from the effects of playing football. Bernard Feeter, the student of Fairfield Seminary, who went crazy after a game in which he was seriously injured about the head is receiving careful attention at the Utica insane asylum. As a result of the defeat of the University of California by the Stanford football team, “Brick” Whitehouse of the Stanfords was probably mortally shot by Alexander Loughborough, a law student at the University of California. And, this is the sort of sport indulged in and patronized by 7,000 men and women in the nation’s capital, there on the day set apart by solemn proclamation by the President of the United States for “Thanksgiving to God as a Nation.”
December 6, 1894
100 YEARS AGO
More than 700 farmers of Otsego County with their wives and families attended the annual Farm Bureau meeting at the Oneonta Theatre last Thursday. Perhaps the most startling talk of the meeting was that given by Dr. Ruby Green Smith, assistant state leader of Home Economics agents. She declared that wives of farmers of today are “modern slaves.” Her statement was based on a survey of 1,427 farmers’ homes in New York. “Their working day ends,” said Dr. Smith, “16 to 18 hours after it begins. They are the only individuals who earn an income but do not receive it. The hired girl on the farm has become nearly extinct. But nevertheless, the housewife and helpmeet of the farmer is expected to do all the housework, and provide for the temporal needs of the household, and to aid in the caring for poultry, dairy cattle and the garden. While modern implements are provided for the farm work, ordinary household conveniences found in city households are lacking. The city housewife has running water. Many farm wives must carry water from a well.
December 10, 1919
75 YEARS AGO
Marine Private First Class Bennett O. Potter, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett O. Potter of Cooperstown, R.D. 5, has recently returned to the United States after 29 months overseas. He has been reclassified and reassigned at a Marine Corps base in this country, and was granted a furlough. A member of the First Marine Division, Pvt. Potter last saw action at Pelelieu, Palau Islands, Pacific. His unit was awarded the Presidential Citation. He is a graduate of Cooperstown High School and joined the Marines in January 1942.
December 6, 1944
50 YEARS AGO
A Cooperstown engineer’s invention is now on the Moon as part of the scientific laboratory left behind by the Apollo XII astronauts. A flexural pivot, a type of frictionless oscillating bearing, invented by Henry Troeger of this village plays a vital role in the operation of the seismometer left by astronauts to measure shock waves from the lunar surface.
The pivot is part of a gimbal system that supports the seismometer and allows it to regain a level position after a shock has been registered. Mr. Troeger joined Bendix in 1941 and is currently the Manager for Advance Design for Utica’s Bendix Fluid Power Division. He resides with his family on Lake Road near Cooperstown.
December 3, 1969