BOUND VOLUMES, September 20, 2012
200 YEARS AGO
The United States frigate Essex, Capt. Porter, came into the Delaware Bay on Monday last, from a successful cruise of 70 days. On the Banks of Newfoundland, he captured the British sloop of war Alert, of 20 guns (18-pound carronades) and 130 men, who had been sent out expressly for the purpose of capturing the Hornet. The action was very short; the Alert poured a broadside into the Essex, who gave her in return a discharge from her quarterdeck guns, and a volley of small arms, when the Alert struck her colours. The Alert had seven or eight men wounded; not one hurt upon the Essex. The Essex had the Alert in tow for several days when she disarmed, manned and sent her to St. Johns, Newfoundland as a Cartel, with prisoners. During the cruise, Capt. Porter captured, besides the Alert, a British transport, which he ransomed; burnt two brigs; and captured six merchant ships, in which he put prize masters and crews, and ordered them for the United States.
September 19, 1812
175 YEARS AGO
Items – A process has been discovered in Germany by which white crystallized sugar is made in 12 hours from beet root.
The deaths in New Orleans from Yellow Fever are said to be 100 daily. More than 40,000 people have been down with Yellow Fever at Sierra Leone.
The damage of the late hurricane at Barbadoes is estimated at $500,000. About 1,000 lives were lost in the late disasters in the West India Islands. There has been another terrible gale at Charleston, S.C. Damage not extensive.
September 18, 1837
150 YEARS AGO
Summary Arrests – The New York Times must be getting alarmed at the position taken by the Democratic State Convention against the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the loyal states, and the summary arrest of persons charged with “disloyal practices.” And it evidently disapproves of the course recently pursued by Judges Nelson and Smalley in two of these cases. It also strives to create the impression that “these orders harmonize with the temper of the popular mind, while any attempt on the part of the judiciary to override their proper and just execution, will not be supported by public sentiment,” if we read it rightly. “The people realize that we are at war, and they conform themselves for the present to that state of affairs, and will tolerate many things, which in time of peace would not be endured for a moment.” The people, it is true, are patient and lenient; but the Times well understands that every Democrat, and thousands of conservative men who have never acted with that party, disapprove of the loose way in which many of these arrests have been made; and they do not sanction the suspension of the sacred writ of habeas corpus in a loyal state.
September 19, 1862
125 YEARS AGO
Miss Emily Nelson, of Bridgeport, CT., has long been a prominent educator of young ladies. We remember her when she was a little girl living in Hyde Park, where she and her brother afterwards kept a boarding school. Recently, Miss Nelson received a present from Merida, Yucatan, in the shape of an educated, jeweled bug. It has a harness of gold and is jeweled with precious stones, and is the gift of Signora Fuentes, of Merida, Yucatan, whose daughter, Senorita Evelie y Fuentes, has passed the last three years as a pupil at Miss Nelson’s seminary on Golden Hill. Her bestowal of the live, educated, jeweled bug as a gift is considered in Yucatan as a high distinction. The bugs are extremely difficult to educate and are looked upon by the lower classes as the particular property of royalty. Miss Nelson is very proud and justly very happy over her bug, and wears it constantly, while out driving or shopping. The insect is about the size of an ordinary black beetle. The coloring of the shell is a brilliant, sparkling Nile green, edged off with black.
September 23, 1887
100 YEARS AGO
The management of the Otsego County Fair, which opens in Cooperstown today and ends Friday, has no hesitancy in saying that the fair this year will present the best line of attractions ever offered. They have spared no expense to get the very best, and, while the quality is good, the quantity is also great. The latest attraction booked is the balloon ascension and triple parachute drop by Professor Ed A. Hutchinson, the world’s greatest balloonist.
September 18, 1912
50 YEARS AGO
Clyde B. Olson, curator of the Cooperstown Indian Museum, addressed the September 12 meeting of the Cooperstown Woman’s Club on the topic “Indians of Our Locality.” He mentioned that in New York State, the Indians were mostly Iroquois, great hunters and pottery makers. Mr. Olson defended the Indians, proud people who were not as blood-thirsty as imagined. Many interesting articles, which have been excavated by Mr. Olson and friends, were passed among the club members – pipes, points, sinker stones, arrowheads, drills, scrapers, stone gouge, beads, early pottery, etc. It was interesting to learn that Indians introduced tobacco to the white man.
September 19, 1962
25 YEARS AGO
The Cooperstown Central School Board of Education met Wednesday night and completed the first reading of the seat-belt installation and usage policy. A decision was made by the board to adopt Option A, which states the use of seat safety belts will not be required by the district. Their use will be up to the discretion of and encouragement by parents.
September 23, 1987
10 YEARS AGO
Bassett Healthcare employees gathered Monday to watch construction crews raise the first beam of Bassett’s expansion plan into place atop the inpatient facility. The creation of a new fifth floor will house an expansion of the hospital’s critical care complex. The Bassett Healthcare Initiative, which brings cardiac surgery and angioplasty to the region, begins in early 2003. In the new facility, hospital patient rooms will be larger and there will be more private rooms.
September 21, 2002
