HOMETOWN HISTORY

August 5, 2021

Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library

135 Years Ago

Home & Vicinity – A horse driven by Mrs. Eugene Parish ran away last evening on Elm Street, a bolt working loose and allowing the thills to drop against its heels. The buggy collided with a tree near the front of G.H. Shearer’s residence, and Mrs. Parish was thrown several feet, striking the ground heavily. One rib was fractured and serious bruises were sustained. Besides, her system received a severe shock. She was taken into Mr. Shearer’s house and Dr. Manchester summoned. This morning she is reported to be in as comfortable a condition as possible under the circumstances. The wagon was quite badly demolished.

August 1886

110 Years Ago

Only five more days until the circus arrives. Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth promises to be the biggest circus event in the history of Oneonta. Here are the important features: Jupiter, a magnificent Arabian horse, which rides high in a balloon, sets off a battery of fireworks and comes down to earth in a flood of fire; Charlie the First, a chimpanzee performer, who is the best bicycle rider and acrobat in the world; fifty of the funniest clowns on earth; Victoria Codona, the most skillful high-wire artist ever seen; the Konyot family of riders; the Dollar family of acrobats; Winson’s performing seals, the Florenze family of acrobats; the Siegrist-Silbon and La Mar families of aerialists; John Ducander’s bell-ringing horses; Mooney’s brass band of elephants; Cliff Berzac’s mule circus, the Fonelli family of Italian acrobats; the Lee Deko and Les Silvas families of French gymnasts and the great Davenport family of equestrians.

August 1911

90 Years Ago

Weather permitting, the Beech-Nut Gum autogiro will fly on August 8 at about 2:15 p.m. The autogiro will take off from Binghamton for the Oneonta airport, where it will be on Sunday, August 9. On August 10, the autogiro will fly to the factory of the Pitcairn Aircraft Corporation near Philadelphia where it will be inspected and tuned up for further tours of the country. This is the ship in which Amelia Earhart recently completed the first coast -to-coast autogiro round trip. It will be on exhibition at the airports when it is not in the air.

August 1931

50 Years Ago

Experiments in education have become common at
Hartwick College in recent years. Take, for example, a five-week course titled “Alienation in Modern Society” just completed at the college’s Pine Lake camp near Davenport. The six-credit course involved 17 students, four Hartwick faculty members and administrators, three wives and seven children, all living in a primitive setting on the shores of a small lake. Course participants read and discussed a book titled “The Greening of America.” One group of students worked with art professor Earl Cunningham to construct a structure with aluminum cans as building blocks. Drama students produced and staged an outdoor production of Eugene Ionesco’s play “Rhinoceros,” which addresses alienation. The work was performed for an audience of about 50 spectators from outside the class. Students and faculty agreed that the course work could not have been carried out as effectively on a college campus.

August 1971

40 Years Ago

Oneonta State officials hired Gregory Thomas, a recent graduate of its Cooperstown Graduate Art Conservation Program to fill a teaching vacancy left there when Caroline and Sheldon Keck, founders of the program 11 years ago, resigned. Thomas will teach painting conservation and Dr. Robert S. Morrissey, SUCO’s Dean of Graduate Studies will become the program’s temporary administrator. The Kecks resigned effective August 31 because they were not given a guarantee that the conservation program would remain in Cooperstown. SUCO officials confirmed that negotiations to move the program to another SUNY school have taken place. However, the program will remain in Cooperstown for at least the next few years.

August 1981

20 Years Ago

The Oneonta Tigers hit a season-high four home runs, including two by Jason Knoedler, before losing their sixth consecutive game, 9-7, to the Auburn Doubledays. The game was played Saturday at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown as part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s annual Induction Weekend celebration. David Mattle and Ryan Raburn also homered for the Tigers. Mattle had three hits for the Tigers. Mike Rabelo, Raburn, Chris Kolodzey and Knoedler each had two hits.

August 2001