BOUND VOLUMES, March 13, 2014
200 YEARS AGO
“Geographic & Military Museum” We have received the first number of a paper published in Albany, by Samuel R. Brown, under this title. We would recommend it to the attention of the public as worthy of patronage. In the meantime, we give our readers his very eccentric Dedication. “To the brave and patriotic, who are willing to expend blood or treasure in defence of the Republic; no matter in what state or on what river residing, or to what party or sect belonging, the Museum is most respectfully dedicated – not with a humble ‘s’il vous plait,’ for patronage, but with full confidence that it will deserve and command it. I shall conduct this paper according to my own notions of propriety. The seductive influences of smiles, frowns, friendship, resentment, gratitude, party-feeling, local attachments and state interest, shall not divert the Museum from its object…the national interest. After this brief explanation, it will be useless for anyone to approach me with a collusive wink of the eye and a whisper.”
March 12, 1814
175 YEARS AGO
Otego – At a special town meeting of the Town of Otego, County of Otsego, held at the hotel of O. Baldwin, on the second day of March, 1839, pursuant to public notice, to take into consideration the subject of dividing the County of Otsego, and placing a County seat at Oneonta. A committee of five was appointed to draft and submit resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting. Resolved: “That the project now before the Legislature, presented by citizens of the Town of Oneonta for the division of the County of Otsego, is incompatible with the interests of a very large majority of the inhabitants of the territory proposed to be embraced.”
March 11, 1839
150 YEARS AGO
Suicide – Mr. James Tyler, of the Town of Westford in this county, committed suicide by cutting his throat and then butting his head violently against several trees on the morning of the 3rd inst. He lingered in great pain until the 5th. He was about 60 years of age and leaves a wife and four children; was a farmer in good circumstances. It is believed he was laboring under partial derangement of mind at the time. (Ed. Note: Lead poisoning from well water piping was likely the cause of derangement).
The credit system must sooner or later be abolished in all retail trade. The men who sell for cash and thus incur no risk of bad debts, should sell for less than those who give general and long credits. And, of course, those who always buy for cash, do better than those who get trusted.
March 11, 1864
125 YEARS AGO
A Sad Thing – The Rev. Charles Hudson Smith, a former pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown was recently installed as Pastor of a church in Dorchester, Mass., and was to have preached his first sermon on Sunday last. The last he was seen was the previous afternoon, when a hat containing his name was picked up near the river. The supposition is that in a fit of sudden insanity he drowned himself. He lost an only child in August last, and since then his parents have been seriously ill. Mr. Smith is of light build and a highly nervous temperament, and he has for months been under severe mental strain. He was a very bright man, an earnest preacher, and only 31 years old.
March 15, 1889
100 YEARS AGO
The body of Francis McRorie of Milford, who had been missing since the blizzard on March 1, was found by Dick Winnie, almost completely covered by snow two and one half miles from his home and some distance from his horse and cutter which he had abandoned during the blizzard. McRorie had journeyed to Middlefield where he called upon Miss Lucy Pratt at the home of Claire North. Despite the efforts of the North family to induce McRorie to remain overnight, on account of the raging blizzard, he determined to start for Milford at 5 o’clock. The following Saturday, March 7, searchers found McRorie’s horse lying on its back in a drift 40 rods from the road that passes the Dubbin and Bedell farms. Then, 30 rods from the horse, near a rail fence, they found McRorie’s body lying face down with his hands doubled beneath him.
March 11, 1914
75 YEARS AGO
Panel discussions by three women speakers of the subject “Women In a Modern World” before the Woman’s Club of Cooperstown last week were summed up in the concluding remarks of the first speaker who quoted Millicent Taylor in these words: “Woman’s work, at any time is, to our mind, whatever a woman can do best to fit into her place as an individual in the world..”
March 15, 1939
25 YEARS AGO
The Friends of the Parks have received a folk art style painting by Janet Munro which will be used to raise funds for the new buildings at Three-Mile Point. Mayor Harold Hollis will unveil the painting in a special ceremony at Pioneer Park on Sunday, May 28, at 4 p.m. It will be placed on display at Gallery 53 following its unveiling. “The painting has our local parks as its subject matter. It is such a delightful rendering that we feel it will appeal to many people,” said Jane Patrick, chairman of the friends.
March 15, 1989
10 YEARS AGO
On Friday, March 5, the Cooperstown High School Student Council hosted the third annual Jared Good Memorial Ping-Pong Tournament. The tourney was set up to serve in loving memory of Jared Good – known to many as an avid Ping-Pong player – who lost the battle against cystic fibrosis in the winter of 2000. Participants pay a fee of $1 to compete. All proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the name of Jared Good. Finn Duesenberry won the boys’ title and Dory Dawson dominated the girls’ division.
March 12, 2004