HOMETOWN History

April 17, 2020

150 Years Ago

News Items – Ohio has 25 different female suffrage associations. Boston uses 7,646,020 gallons of milk annually. Nearly 700 Philadelphia girls were married to foreigners last year. Boston expects to
pay $1,400,000 for its public schools the coming year. A farmer in Schuyler County lately lost a colt from bleeding at the nose. The new five-cent pieces will be ready in a few days. Ole Bull’s famous violin is said to be over 400 years old. A worm, three feet long and half an inch in diameter, recently ate the stomach of an Iowa dog to pieces. A horticultural school for young ladies has been opened at Springfield Massachusetts. Tennessee has a Negro secret society known as “The United States Roses of Old John Brown.” Iowa has been compelled to discharge a “lady” teacher in one of its public schools for drunkenness.

April 1870

125 Years Ago

For Sale: Fine recorded Percheron stallions at bargain cash or credit. Chas. P. Bassett, Walton. A good two-year-old bull, R.J. Blair, Delhi. One span of grey work horses and new double harnesses. Horses weigh 2,100 pounds. Will sell cheap. Frank Welton, Unadilla. Five choice yearling heifers; also one dry cow. G.B. Harkness, Kortright Centre. One thoroughbred Jersey bull, two years old, solid color with good points from good stock. H.C. Munn, Mundale. One two-horse lumber wagon, nearly new; also one hand mill Mrs. M. Hitchcock, Franklin. One span of half-Clyde colts, 3 years old; one young horse, 7 years old, sound and true, A. Barnes, Meridale.

April 1895

100 Years Ago

The New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church today adopted a resolution endorsing a proposal to amend church discipline by striking out specific prohibition of playing cards, dancing and theatre-going. This action was taken after a spirited debate, and after the Conference had reconsidered its previous decision to take no action at this time. “If I were a devil, I would slap myself on the back over the action of the Conference,” declared the Rev. J.J. Dean, one of the oldest members who led the opposition forces. A proposed amendment to prohibit only “voluptuous dancing” was drowned in laughter. Resolutions were also adopted protesting against further increases in overhead church organization and multiplication of officials, urging greater freedom for pastors and demanding that trained laymen do the work of church business organization instead of clergymen.

April 1920

80 Years Ago

Despite protests from pet-lovers, a Senate-House Committee has approved an experimental bombing of 70 goats to ascertain the killing power of the secret “super explosive” which Lester P. Barlow, Baltimore inventor, says he has perfected. The test will be conducted at the Army’s Aberdeen, Maryland proving grounds unless it is blocked by court action. A Maryland law forbids experiments on animals except “when justified by the public interest.” Senator Morris Sheppard (D-Tex), a committee member, said he thought the test was justified “in the interest of national defense.” Barlow’s explosive is made from liquid oxygen and carbon. Barlow told members of Congress that his explosive is capable of killing every living thing within a thousand-foot radius.

April 1940

40 Years Ago

Local U.S. census takers are paid almost a dollar less per completed form than their big city counterparts, Dan Daniels, Director of the Utica Census Office, said Wednesday. The 13 Oneonta area census takers are paid 70 cents less per census form than employees in New York City, he said. The census takers are also paid for mileage. Census
takers in the Oneonta area have started calling on people who have had trouble completing their census forms. The whole process should take about six weeks, Daniels said. “About 20 percent of the population did not return the forms. Each census taker has 550 households to check,” Daniels said. “Since wages are generally higher in large cities, the census department offers more pay to attract workers there,” he explained. At least two Oneonta-area census workers have said privately that they should be paid the same wage for the same work. “The forms are just as long here as they are anywhere else. I think this is regional discrimination,” one census taker said.

April 1980

20 Years Ago

Oneonta Police Reports – Investigations
continue into two burglaries committed earlier in April. More than $500 in merchandise was stolen from an apartment on Myrtle Avenue in the early morning of April 4. A burglary on Cliff Street on April 6 involved the taking of a Hewlett-Packard computer, monitor, printer and keyboard valued at $1,000. On April 9, someone entered a vehicle parked in the Dietz Street municipal lot and stole $450 in clothing, a $40 gym bag, a Panasonic compact disc player and two Nokia cellular phones. On April 12, the Planned Parenthood of Delaware and Otsego counties received two threatening crank calls stating “You’re going to burn” between 1:40 and 1:45 p.m.
On Thursday, April 20, as part of its celebration of National Poetry Month, “Word Thursdays” will feature Thomas Travisano, an Oneonta writer. Travisano and several young poets will read after the open reading which begins at 7 p.m. “Word Thursdays” takes place at the Delaware County Historical Society, three miles north of Delhi on State Route 10. Travisano, a professor of English at Hartwick College is co-founder and first president of the Elizabeth Bishop Society.

April 2000

10 Years Ago

The Kansas City soccer community hopes that its new Major League Soccer stadium, scheduled to open next year, will be the next home for at least some of the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s exhibits that were once displayed in the Oneonta facility.
The Soccer Hall closed its museum in Oneonta in September as it sought to overcome financial difficulties. The museum’s collections were last available to the public during a final, free admission weekend in March. On February 1, Soccer Hall officials signed a management contract with the Otsego County Development Corporation, a private non-profit group, to transition the 62-acre Oneonta site to new ownership.

April 2010