Bound Volumes

December 26, 2024

160 YEARS AGO

A Case of Manslaughter – In the little settlement of Toddsville, are two licensed taverns or saloons; one kept by Jabez R. Weeks; the other by J.T. Burk. They are understood to have been at enmity. On Friday afternoon last, a party of three or four men were engaged in drinking and amusing themselves at Weeks’. Toward evening they went over to Burk’s and commenced breaking tumblers, &c., Weeks being one of the party. Burk undertook to put Weeks’ out; one of the party seized Burk. Then Austin Scott took hold of Weeks to prevent a fight and Weeks stabbed him in the arm. Weeks then left; a few minutes after, Weeks and Scott met in the road nearby and had a scuffle, in which Weeks stabbed Scott in the bowels, from the effects of which he died Sunday. After committing the act, Weeks came over to the village (Cooperstown), got a pistol which he had left here, and was starting for home when he was arrested – having been followed over by someone who witnessed the stabbing. The pistol was found secreted in his cell in jail.

December 23, 1864

85 YEARS AGO

Invitations to membership in the Cooperstown Ski Club were sent out last weekend to approximately 100 ski enthusiasts in and around the village. The club’s objective is to promote controlled and supervised skiing. The ski tow has been moved to a hill offering slopes for all types of skiers. The ski room in the Lamb home in Pierstown is now ready where skiers may be served hot refreshments at a nominal cost, wax their skis and rest. Rates for the use of the tow are fifty cents a ticket for seniors and twenty-five cents a ticket for juniors. Miss Inga Grauers of Sweden, who has trained at the Arlberg School in Austria and holds a teaching license arrived on Tuesday and will give instruction on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock.

December 27, 1939

60 YEARS AGO

Over 1,000 persons attended the Festival of the Nativity and Carol Service held late Sunday afternoon at the abandoned stone quarry east of Cooperstown, and sponsored by the Cooperstown Council of Churches. A light snowfall the day before, plus some 1,500 lighted torches placed along the sheer walls of the quarry, provided a beautiful setting for the impressive half-hour service conducted by clergymen of the member churches, supported by the singing of the Capitol Hill Choral Society of Albany and accompaniment of Professor John Baldwin of Hamilton College.

December 23, 1964

35 YEARS AGO

The Cooperstown Central School High School Honor Roll for Grade 12 (Seniors) includes : Alexandra Bell, Beth Belrose, Tammy Berry, Melissa Bonner, Julie Deichman, Heather Drake, Heidi Glockler, Tracy Harrington, Julie Joyce, Amanda Jungers, Debra Kemp, Yael Levy, Donald Lincourt, Kenneth Marx, Carolyn Murphy, Heather Parmalee, Zachary Schwartzman, Trasi Simonds, James Snyder, Regina Sprague, Jason Tabor and John Walker.

December 27, 1989

20 YEARS AGO

Local biologists said this week that an animal photographed in the Town of Hartwick is a mountain lion. NYS Department of Environmental Conservation officials in Stamford said the animal in the picture looks more like a Bobcat. But, if it is a mountain lion, it would be the first proof of such an animal in Otsego County in more than a century. “The photograph presented to us appears to be of a mountain lion,” said SUNY Biological Field Station Director Dr. Willard “Bill” Harman. BFS Assistant Director Matt Albright agreed. A captive mountain lion at the Lollypop Farm & Petting Zoo in Hartwick died of natural causes a year ago.

December 24, 2004