HOMETOWN History

May 15, 2020

35 Years Ago

Mr. Arthur Platt writes us from Colliers: On the bottom lands ten rods south of what is known as Quick Sand bank, and thirty rods due west of Wm. Burnside’s premises (about half way between Colliers and the Junction), I discovered Saturday a thick deposit of charred wood, mingled with small fragments of bone which had evidently been burned. Whether they were human remains or not could not be determined. I set to work, and at a depth of fourteen inches beneath the bed of burned wood was found a collection of arrow heads, tightly pressed together, lying point upward. There were 118 perfect specimens though of very rude and ancient pattern; 112 of the number were uniform in appearance, and belong to a class that was generally used in battle. From the fact that so many were of this class, I am led to believe that they were deposited at the close of some treaty of peace. Two rude stone axes were also found.

May 1885

125 Years Ago

The Local News – About 200 dogs have been registered in the Town Clerk’s office in compliance with the provisions of the new state law.
Shooting at the rifle range on the Odell Brown farm began Wednesday.
Preparations are making for the fine new residence of George B. Baird at the corner of Chestnut and Church Streets. The dwelling will cost about $20,000.
The dynamo placed in Auburn prison for the first electrical execution is the machine formerly in use in the Oneonta electric light company’s plant. It is a Westinghouse machine, designed to supply 650 lights. The execution of the murderer Kemmler, who was to have died by electricity in Auburn prison this week, was stayed yesterday by virtue of a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Wallace of the United States Circuit Court on the application of Roger M. Sherman. The application on which the writ was granted and Kemmler’s life was spared, for a time, was made in order to determine whether the proposed killing by electricity is in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments of the Constitution of the United States.

May 1890

70 Years Ago

State Comptroller Frank C. Moore says that New York State is “determined to provide the new teachers required for its schools.” Moore spoke at ceremonies last Friday during which the cornerstone was laid for an $800,000 dormitory
and student union building at Oneonta State Teachers College.
Sheldon H. Close, president of the local Board of Visitors,
laid the cornerstone of the new building accepting the trowel
from Orlando B. Rowe, former president. Approximately 1,000 persons attended the ceremony. Construction began on August 9, 1949 and it is expected the building will be ready for occupancy by September 1, this year. Moore predicted that the enrollment at Oneonta would increase to about 1,000 in the next five years. Enrollment has increased from less than 400 in 1942 to more than 600 this year.

May 1950

65 Years Ago

Local government officials continually complain about the lack of tax revenues at their disposal and use this as an excuse for thrusting new responsibilities and financial burdens upon the state and federal governments. Yet they may be overlooking a traditional source of tax revenue. According to a spokesman for the National Association of Assessing Officers, “assessments have failed to keep pace with the rise of national wealth,” and “non-uniformity in assessments has increased as property values rise.”
If property assessments were made according to present market value, municipalities would have more tax revenues to use for building schools and roads instead of depending on the federal and state governments to do this.

May 1955

40 Years Ago

The Delaware & Hudson Railway Co. is considering expanding its freight service through northeastern Pennsylvania because of significant growth since the service began a year ago. Richard E. Long, D. & H. secretary, said that the carrier showed a profit in March and April, the first time in four years the line has operated in the black. Long credits the north-south corridor service that connect major southern points through the Potomac yards near Washington, D.C. with markets in New England and Canada. The D. & H. began service to Potomac Yard last year and since then volume has grown from 1,250 cars to 2,750 cars a month. “The line shows very significant growth, but we cannot go further unless we put on a second train,” Long noted. Only one train a day currently moves out from Potomac Yard. The D. & H. is awaiting a response from Conrail, the federally chartered rail system, on a proposed agreement to acquire the line, Long added.

May 1980

25 Years Ago

The death toll from the Ebola virus topped 100 Sunday and health workers said the epidemic may have started as long ago as December – three months earlier than previously thought. Medical workers scouring Kikwit, Zaire, a city of 600,000 where the outbreak was previously believed to have started in mid-March, found hospital records linking the virus to a household of 12 people, where seven people died in December last year. Tests confirmed that at least one of the victims had Ebola.

May 1995

10 Years Ago

Eleanor Kilmer, 83, a Hamden woman will celebrate 50 years as a 4-H leader next week. Over that time, more than 200 children have been members of the Country Cousins 4-H Club since it began in 1955, and many of those 4-H’s are related to one another. Kilmer credits Bill Ives, a neighbor, with the suggestion to start the Country Cousins 4-H Club. The original members included Kilmer’s five children and two of the Ives’ children. “We named it Country Cousins because most of them were cousins, no matter which way we went,” Kilmer said. Kilmer’s own family grew and three more of her own children became Country Cousins members along with 29 foster children whom Kilmer and her family took in over the years. Now there are three generations of Kilmer-kin with Country Cousins experience.

May 2010