BOUND VOLUMES,
May 16, 2019
200 YEARS AGO
Medical Meeting – An adjourned meeting of the Otsego County Medical Society will be held at the house of Joseph Griffin, in the Village of Cooperstown on Tuesday, the 25th, at 1 o’clock p.m. To Pomeroy, Secretary. Notice – Robert Campbell, Recording Secretary of the Otsego County Agricultural Society, has just received a variety of Foreign Seed Grains, to be delivered to such members of the Society as may call in time.
Notice – The Trustees of School District No. 1 will open a school in the public school house in this village, on Wednesday, the Twenty-first, inst. under the direction of Mr. L. Squires. Terms of Tuition $2 per quarter. A portion of public money to be applied on the first quarter. N.B. Any one sending in after the school commences, will not have any more to pay than their proportion of time from the time of commencing. Eseck Bradford, Buckingham Fitch, Trustees.
May 17, 1819
175 YEARS AGO
Major Daverac spent a few days in our village last week, having been received and entertained with the kindest feelings by our citizens generally, growing out of his associations with the veteran Jackson, coupled with his well-known devotion to the Democratic Cause. Monday evening, upon the invitation of the Literary Association, he delivered a lecture to a numerous auditory of both sexes, “Works of Fiction Amongst the Ancients and Moderns.” This evinced much learning and a highly cultivated taste in composition, producing high gratification to the large assemblage who listened to the speaker with the most riveted attention.
May 20, 1844
150 YEARS AGO
Summary of News – For Europe: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Clark sailed from New York on the first inst. for France. They will remain abroad about a year. Their new mansion within this village cannot be completed within that time.
Charged with Murder – In the month of August, 1867, John Deforest of the Town of Unadilla, was shot by Gilbert Rogers, a neighbor, and died in a few days from the effects of the wound. Rogers was arrested and an examination had before a Justice of that town. He claimed that he was hunting in a piece of woods near where Deforest was cutting briars, and that he shot him by accident. He was discharged by the Justice, and immediately went west, leaving his property. Meantime, District Attorney Edick became convinced from certain facts and circumstances that the shooting was not accidental and he presented Rogers to the Grand Jury for indictment in October last. This spring Rogers paid a visit to Unadilla where he was arrested and brought to Cooperstown where he will have his trial for murder in June.
May 14, 1869
125 YEARS AGO
Local: Our villagers will be sorry to learn that Principal Strong Comstock several weeks ago sent in his resignation to the Board of Education, to take effect at the close of the current school year. He has for the past four years been in charge of the Union School of Cooperstown, during which period the school has continued to prosper and to maintain its usual high rank among educational institutions of that grade. The Union School will next fall open under the charge of Mr. W.D. Johnson, who is a graduate of the Albany Normal School, has had twelve years’ experience as Principal, and is now at the head of the Union School at Morris, where he has done excellent work as instructor.
May 17, 1894
75 YEARS AGO
Several of the country’s leaders in the field of aeronautics came to Cooperstown to pay final tribute to Fly Creek’s A. Leo Stevens, American pioneer aeronaut, whose funeral took place Thursday afternoon at the Ingalls funeral home. The Rev. T.P. Hurd, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal church of Springfield Center, officiated, and burial was made at the cemetery in Fly Creek. The importance of the life work of A. Leo Stevens was emphasized by Major August Post, Secretary of the Aerial League of America, who declared that in his opinion “Mr. Stevens merits credit for making a remarkable contribution toward winning the war through his invention of the rip cord device that opens parachutes. Before Mr. Stevens’ invention, parachutes were opened by a chain or cord attached to a plane or balloon. Stevens’ device provided a cord that was pulled after an aerialist was clear, removing danger of entanglement. Today, the parachute is a front-line combat weapon and probably will win the war. It will play a tremendous part in the Allied offensive on Hitler’s Fortress Europe, which is at hand.”
May 17, 1944
50 YEARS AGO
The Iroquois Farm will discontinue the operation of its Ayrshire dairy cattle operation this summer. The approximately 50 head of registered stock will be sold at a dispersal sale scheduled at the farm on July 11. Thus will come to an end 55 continuous years of operation of one of the top Ayrshire herds in the world, founded by the late F. Ambrose Clark in 1914, and continued since his death in 1964, by his nephew Stephen C. Clark, Jr. Iroquois Farm’s herdsman for the past 34 years has been George A. Jackson who came to Iroquois in June 1930 from Connecticut Agricultural College, now the University of Connecticut.
May 14, 1969
25 YEARS AGO
When Sgt. Phil Stocking, a member of the Cooperstown police force is asked to recall cases that have meant a lot to him, he doesn’t talk about murders solved or robberies thwarted. Instead, he talks about a five-year-old boy he once found sitting under a tree crying, upset because his father had not picked him up from school. Stocking drove the child home. That boy is now a junior in college.
May 17, 1994
10 YEARS AGO
Chris and Christine Vuolo got a shock on driving home from their five-year-old son’s T-ball game. Heading west on Armstrong Road about a half mile this side of Tanner Hill Road, their car startled a mountain lion, which then dashed away over an open field. Chris, a retired police officer from Long Island with 20-20 vision, estimated the cat weighed at least 150 pounds, since the family dog weighs 100, and he dwarfed my dog.”
May 15, 2009