BOUND VOLUMES • March 28, 2019
Compiled by Tom Heitz and Sharon Stuart,
with resources courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
200 YEARS AGO
Advertisements – Geo. Griffith, Post-Rider is yet alive, and keeps faithful and steady to his old calling. But he cannot pursue his old course, unless people pay him, so as to enable him to purchase bread and cheese for himself, and a few oats for his horse. And, there’s the lynx-eyed Printers, who now look at him every week and speak a language he dislikes very much. Do gentlemen – be punctual. March 29, 1819.
ONE CENT REWARD – Ran away from the subscriber, on the 23rd instant, an indented apprentice boy, named Barnabas Beebe, 16 years of age. Whoever will take up the said runaway shall receive the above reward, but no charges. All persons are forbid harboring or trusting him on my account. William Millikin, Burlington, March 24, 1819.
March 29, 1819
175 YEARS AGO
School Libraries 1844 – H. and E. Phinney, Cooperstown, beg to state that they have added to their large selection of approved Books for School Districts many new and interesting works not before offered among which is the following publication: “The Characters and Manners of the Chinese in the History of Their Intercourse with Foreigners” by Jacob Abbott, to which is added an account of the late war between China and England with 20 illustrations. This, although a book of facts, has the happy style of the well-known author, all the interest of a novel.
March 25, 1844
150 YEARS AGO
The winter took leave on the night of the 21st of March after giving us the sharpest touch of his icy breath which we have had this season, viz. 14 degrees below zero. No doubt the grim monarch will look in on us several times before he releases us entirely from his hold, for there is no season in Otsego so loath to resign the reins of power to a successor as the winter. April is not usually the most genial of months with us, and May frequently performs vagaries which serve to remind us that it is not always May even when it professes to be. But the rigors of March must be borne with equanimity if we hope for early spring and summer. We must have some compensation for the very mild and pleasant months of January and February, and better now than four or five weeks later. We shall have had at this week’s publication of the Journal, 111 days of continuous sleighing and this with the mildest winter on record for ten years past. Altogether, the winter of 1868-1869 has been one of the most pleasant and enjoyable in our record of 21 years past. The same night the above was written we were favored with about six inches more snow.
March 26, 1869
125 YEARS AGO
Dr. George C. Thayer will have a handsome suite of five rooms, two of them for office purposes, on the second floor of the Schneider Block, corner of Main and Chestnut Streets. J.B. Silvernail, a few weeks since, made a change of quarters from Delaware Street to the house of Mrs. E.M. Hatch on Pine Street. Mrs. Hatch is now living with the family of her nephew, Fred Pennington, on Walnut Street, and Mrs. Mulkins takes possession of the house recently purchased by her and vacated by Silvernail. E.B. Thompson now resides in one of J.H. King’s houses. The house on Grove Street which E.B. Thompson vacated on Elm Street is occupied by Henry Grover, who recently purchased it. H.C. Winne has moved his Music Store to the Short Store on Main Street and the premises vacated by him and C.D. Cook will be used as a Chinese laundry in the near future.
March 29, 1894
75 YEARS AGO
Families of two Cooperstown officers with the United States forces overseas were notified last week that they had been promoted from the rank of Captain to that of Major. The men are cousins. Major Kenneth W. Root, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Root of Susquehanna Ave., was a mechanical engineer with the Niagara Hudson Corporation at their steam power plant at Oswego. Major Douglas Lee Root, son of Mrs. Fannie G. Root of Chestnut Street, was for several years prior to enlisting in the armed services had been a practicing physician in Albany. Major Kenneth W. Root is currently a sub-base engineering officer stationed in England, but has also served two periods in North Africa. Major Douglas Lee Root is with a medical unit in North Africa where he has been stationed for the last 15 months.
March 29, 1944
50 YEARS AGO
The Otsego County Head Start Program is perhaps the strongest overall program of rural development visited recently by Joseph Murphy, task specialist, “From the top administrative levels through staff, volunteers, and parents, there is evident a sincere attitude and genuine effort toward active programming and self-help,” his report states. “Both the C.A.P. Director Alva C. Welch and Head Start Director, Mrs. Esther Fink, are attuned to the needs of poverty-level people, and possess the skill to organize programs to meet those needs,” he said. “As administrators, they are actively involved with program development in the field as well as in the office. It would be extremely beneficial for other rural Head Start personnel to observe this program in operation,” he concluded.
March 26, 1969
25 YEARS AGO
Three members of the Cooperstown Redskins’ basketball team were honored as selections for the Center State Conference’s East Division All-Star Team. Cooperstown senior and all-time leading scorer Seth Schaeffer was named a first-team All-Star. Junior Reid Nagelschmidt was named to the second team and senior Brad Perry was an honorable mention selection.
March 29, 1994
10 YEARS AGO
It’s still a year out, but Carol Bateman Waller, Mayor of Cooperstown since 2002, has decided not to run for a fifth term when her current term expires next March. Although a Republican and wife of the village Republican Chairman, Waller is endorsing her deputy Mayor, Democrat Jeff Katz, to replace her at the village’s helm. “He’s worked very hard. He loves this village. It’s what’s best for Cooperstown, and that’s all that matters really.” (Katz lost in 2010, but was elected mayor in 2011.)
March 27, 2009