BOUND VOLUMES, May 8, 2014
200 YEARS AGO
Married – on Tuesday evening last, by the Rev. John Smith, Samuel Starkweather, Esq., Attorney at Law, to Miss Marcia Averill, daughter of James Averill, Jun. Esq., all of this village.
Village Law – Resolved, That no person shall remove any of the fire hooks, ropes or ladders belonging to the Trustees of this village, from the place where they are deposited, without the consent of the President of the village, under the penalty of one dollar for every offence,
May 7, 1814
175 YEARS AGO
School District Libraries – This subject is engrossing the attention of the public, and we are glad to find so much interest manifested as is apparent in this county. The selection of books ought to be made with good judgment, embracing mainly History, Travels, and Biography. Care too should be observed in regard to the binding, for light covers will soon fail and the books prove nearly valueless with but comparatively little use. One difficulty with the Common School Library is that the bindings are not sufficiently strong enough to endure any length of time: Besides, we do not think the matter of which it is composed preferable to a selection which may be made at the bookstores. With this impression, a day or two since, we looked over the catalogue of the Mssrs. Phinneys, and examined many of their books, satisfying ourselves that libraries may be selected from their store of as varied and useful a character, and considering the binding and quantity of matter in the volumes, at a cheaper rate, than to purchase of the Harpers in New York. Let those interested examine for themselves.
May 6, 1839
150 YEARS AGO
Excerpts from a letter penned by President Abraham Lincoln to A.G. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky dated April 4, 1864: “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power and break the oath in using the power. I understood too, that in ordinary civil administration, this oath, even forbade me to practically indulge my primary, abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery.”
May 6, 1864
125 YEARS AGO
Church and State – What shall be taught? We take the ground that the education which leaves out all reference to man’s relation to the Unseen world must of necessity be one-sided and incomplete, and that our common schools, from the emasculation of a majority of the text books of all reference to the Supreme Being, and from the increasing deference paid in the course of study to the clamor against everything of a religious character, are to a great extent godless and are not in any sense nurseries of the young. If it be true that high and holy living is not natural to the human heart, and that all which leads the child toward the ideal of a true manhood is the result of careful culture, then the attempt to train the young in a school where all religious teaching is forbidden must be a lamentable failure.
May 10, 1889
100 YEARS AGO
In Our Town – The first cycle car (motorcycle with sidecar), something entirely new in the buzz-cart line, to make its appearance in Cooperstown was a Pioneer, owned by Ralph Flanders, who took advantage of the good roads Sunday to take a trial spin. Mr. Flanders has the agency.
The following notice has been placed in front of one of Cooperstown’s business places where sitters are wont to congregate. “These steps are leased for business purposes and not for the use of sitters and spitters.”
May 6, 1914
75 YEARS AGO
The old Phinney pasture on which Abner Doubleday marked out the first baseball diamond a hundred years ago on Saturday afternoon was visited by a gathering of over 3,500 people to participate in and witness the initial ceremonies of Cooperstown’s season-long celebration of the event which has proven such an important factor in American life – the invention of the national game. They saw the plot which a century ago was on the western outskirts of Cooperstown, now miraculously transformed into a perfect baseball diamond with a modern grandstand completely equipped with all appurtenances for the comfort and conveniences of players and spectators and augmented by encircling bleachers with a seating capacity of 10,000. They saw a surface as smooth and green as a new billiard table, and the setting, amidst gardens, lawns and shade trees.
May 10, 1939
50 YEARS AGO
Work will commence this week on development of the vacant lot at the corner of Main and Pioneer Streets into a village park. The Board of Trustees and the Scriven Foundation have approved plans for the project, which will be carried out with funds to be raised by public subscription. No tax monies are involved. The work will be done by Neil R. Neilson, Inc., Oneonta contractor.
May 13, 1964
10 YEARS AGO
Bassett Healthcare’s Junior Volunteer Program is accepting volunteers age 14 and older to donate time to perform important services at the hospital’s Cooperstown facilities during the summer months. The program begins on Tuesday, July 6. Students are asked to donate a total of 50 hours during the seven-week program which concludes on August 20. Parental permission, immunization shots are required.
May 7, 2004
