Bound Volumes, Hometown History

September 26, 2024.

135 YEARS AGO

The new perfecting press of the Eckerson Printing Press Company was tested last week at the manufactory at Cohoes, and worked like a charm. To see a press print on both sides of paper at one time from flat beds of type at the rate of several thousand impressions per hour, is a novelty which will doubtless attract the attention of printers, there being, no other press like it. The press is for job work, and also prints in two colors at the same time. A newspaper perfecting press, is now contemplated by the company.

September 1889

90 YEARS AGO

The alternatives of a Communistic or Fascist state, or of a government that looks upon itself “as a partner with business, labor, agriculture, and consumers,” were enunciated today by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. This was his answer to those who object to “government in business.” Under present conditions, he asserted, “there is too much interference by business with government.” “A democracy worthy of the name,” he said, “must be guided by social justice and social charity—in other words, the greatest good for the greatest number. Reliance upon such rules is not the way of Socialism, or Communism, or of Fascism. But neither is it the way of freebooter capitalists with their devotion to unlimited completion.” Wallace’s statements are taken from “The Tyranny of Greed,” an article in his forthcoming book titled “New Frontiers.”

September 1934

40 YEARS AGO

Fox Hospital purchased a house at 21 Ford Avenue in Oneonta for use as an outpatient services center. The sale came at public auction from the estate of Joseph P. Molinari, Jr., who was killed with four others when the airplane they were in crashed near the Oneonta airport last March. Molinari was vice president of Kar-San Realty of Oneonta. Space problems at Fox Hospital have led officials to consider moving outpatient services to other convenient locations in the city. Fox Hospital also owns four residences on Fifth Street, one on Valleyview Street and one on Main Street. A space leased by the hospital at 41-45 Dietz Street is used for lab and billing services.

September 1984

30 YEARS AGO

A residence at 16-18 Myrtle Avenue has been declared unsafe by the City of Oneonta and ten college students who have been living there are under orders to leave. The action is the result of a crackdown by the city’s Code Enforcement office. Several of the affected students said they were upset and confused by the city’s order and claim that the building is unsafe. They intend to consult attorneys in hopes of stalling their eviction. City officials said the three-story property has been used for large assemblies and at times as a fraternity residence. Code Enforcement Officer Peter Friedman said the dwelling lacks a sprinkler system and adequate fire barriers between the cellar and upper living areas. Doors are too small and do not open in the direction of exit travel.

September 1994

20 YEARS AGO

Knowledge is power—That is the basic message behind a new awareness campaign conducted by the Catskill Rural AIDS Services organization. Billboards in Otsego and Delaware Counties and a radio advertising campaign are underway to raise public consciousness about AIDS. “It’s a beginning,” said Joanne Westcott, whose son Joseph died from AIDS in 1988 when he was 23 years old. According to the National Institutes of Health, there are between 850,000 and 950,000 people in the United States with HIV and about half are under the age of 25. “Catskill is taking the right step in getting more focused education,” Westcott said.

September 2004