HOMETOWN HISTORY, July 11, 2014

125 Years Ago
The Free Baptist Society has let the contract for the erection of their new church to Briggs & Miller. Work has commenced and the contract requires it to be completed by May 1, 1890. The building will be of brick, veneered, and extend 66 feet on Main Street and 84 feet on Maple Street. The main floor will contain five rooms, a library, study, infant classroom, a lecture room 40 x 26 feet, and the auditorium seating 400 persons. The recess containing the pulpit is 11 feet deep. Under the entire building is to be a 3-foot wall raised 4 feet above the grade. The main entrance is to be in the southeast tower which will be 100 feet high. The seats are to be placed upon an incline and folding doors will admit of throwing the lecture room into the auditorium, thus increasing its seating capacity about 150. The infant classroom will be provided with kitchen cupboards, thus making it do double duty when needed. The ceiling of Norway spruce, at its highest point will be 30 feet from the floor. There will be 31 windows of stained glass – four large and 27 small ones. The total cost when completed will be about $11,000, of which some $6,000 is pledged. The society numbers about 225 persons.
July 1889

100 Years Ago
Barnum & Bailey’s Mammoth Circus – Wilcox Flats from Main Street to the open ditch, embracing many acres of ground, were covered with tents at Noon and long before the circus people themselves were within the city. Visitors were attracted here to see “The Greatest Show on Earth. They came on the early morning train from the west at 6:20 o’clock; yes, in fact, they arrived during the night from the more remote points by auto and carriage. They continued to pour into the city from all directions, all the trains being crowded to standing room in the baggage cars and the last step of the platforms, while motor cars and horse drawn vehicles of all kinds filled the highways. It was a large crowd variously estimated at 10,000 to 14,000 people. It was more. The big tent accommodated 16,000 people. The parade moved shortly after 1:30 o’clock with 163 horses – all big round sleek fellows – dapple gray in color. There was also a great showing also of heavy gilded wagons, horseback riders, elephants, camels and bands. In the opening tableaux, a stupendous spectacle of “The Wizard Prince of Arabia,” some 800 persons took part with a ballet of 300 maidens, handsomely gowned. A clever and original baseball game played by elephants followed.
July 1914

80 Years Ago
Operations at the test well on the farm of Merritt Hazlett, about two miles from Treadwell on the road to Franklin, have been abandoned for the time being. Though a few small pockets of gas were struck, the flow was not sufficient to be of commercial value. The outside casing of the well is being left in place, with a block closing the opening. Ralph Sawyer of Bolivar, contractor in charge of drilling, explained that the apparatus in use was incapable of going deeper than the present depth of 4,550 feet, and that a steam-operated rig might be brought later for the purpose of sinking a deeper hole. The present rig is operated by a gasoline engine. Work on the well was started February 7, 1932, by E.S. Warner of Saratoga Springs. Drilling was commenced after extensive geologic surveys had shown certain rock strata underlying New York were the same as those found to bear oil and gas in other sections.
July 1934

60 Years Ago
Dr. Frank D. Blodgett, second mayor after Oneonta became a city (1912-1914) died Saturday at the age of 83 in his home at Homer where he had resided since retirement in 1937. Blodgett was also one of the educational stalwarts of Oneonta State Normal School and later served as President of Adelphi College (1915, Garden City, L.I. Blodgett was a graduate of Cortland State Normal School and Amherst College. He taught the history of education, logic, and public speaking at the Oneonta Normal School from 1893 to 1915 when he left Oneonta to serve as President of Adelphi College.
July 1954

40 Years Ago
High-volume gasoline stations in the Oneonta area easily met the July 1 federal deadline to begin selling unleaded gasoline but the newest brand of fuel is hardly selling like wildfire. Unleaded gas will be needed for 1975 cars which will come equipped with catalytic converter pollution control units. But the new models won’t be out until September. One local station owner contends that unleaded gas yields higher mileage performance. But this belief is not really boosting his sales.
July 1974

30 Years Ago
Alvin Osterhoudt was walking through his Emmons meadow 10 years ago when a derailed propane tank car exploded. He was watching a Delaware & Hudson Railway train pass by his Route 7 home Tuesday night when 17 propane tank cars derailed at the same location. Osterhoudt said the 66-car westbound train was traveling slowly past his home and under the Interstate 88 overpass at 8:20 p.m. when the accident occurred. “The train wasn’t going fast, maybe 35 miles per hour, when there was a tremendous screeching and dust and sparks,” he said. Osterhoudt also recalls a 1944 derailment at the same spot. The 1974 Emmons disaster injured 56 men when a propane tanker car exploded unexpectedly as crews were clearing wreckage. Thirty-eight windows in Osterhoudt’s home were shattered in that explosion.
July 1984

10 Years Ago
Rebecca Toombs is valedictorian for Oneonta High School’s class of 2004. The daughter of Gary and Lynda Toombs of Oneonta plans to attend Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. She is considering courses in English, Spanish and Biblical studies. Toombs was a member of the cross country and track teams throughout high school and was the recipient of several scholar-athlete awards. Toombs has been actively involved in Main Street Baptist Church youth programs and has traveled to Guatemala to help build churches and teach Bible school.
July 2004