HOMETOWN HISTORY, May 30, 2014

100 Years Ago
Mayor John P. Mitchel of New York City and Chief Engineer J. Waldo Smith of the New York Board of Water Supply, with several engineers, were in Prattsville and vicinity last week inspecting the Schoharie Valley watershed and considering plans for the construction of a second giant dam and reservoir to be built as an adjunct to the great reservoir now being completed at Ashokan on the Ulster and Delaware railroad. The new dam will be constructed just above Prattsville. The Ashokan district does not produce enough water to fill the present immense reservoir. The new proposed reservoir will contain nearly a hundred billion gallons of water, and will be connected with the Ashokan reservoir by a tunnel ten miles long cut straight through the mountain.
May 1914

80 Years Ago
When goods are scarce there is no need to exert any effort in selling them, for the buyer seeks out the seller. It is only necessary for the vendor to post information as to his whereabouts, the nature of his merchandise, and its price. But things are different now. We have power plants, laboratories, and factories, capable of turning out a vastly greater amount of desirable goods than we have ever actually used. And we could all use more than we have ever had. The problem now is not how to make more things but how to distribute those we make. There are two necessary elements for bringing about faster distribution. The first is persuasion to bring people to the market place to buy more of those products that will bring them satisfaction. The second is the return to the same people of the income arising from increased production, in a constant flow of wages and dividends. These two
essential factors must go hand in hand – salesmanship and buying power.
May 1934

60 Years Ago
Oneonta yesterday celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Republican Party, and the first birthday of Oneonta’s new Women’s GOP Club with a call for more women and honesty in politics. “More women should be given the opportunity to seek public office, and more women should accept these opportunities,” said Miss Ruth M. Miner, executive deputy to the NYS Secretary of State, Thomas J. Curran. Miner is one of the highest of political office holders in the state. “Women have proved they have a definite stability,” she said. “They have very sound thinking. And they are less apt to become captured in political expediency.”
May 1954

40 Years Ago
Ross McClelland, a retired U.S. Ambassador, told a Memorial Day gathering at Morris that Americans should “dedicate ourselves to a return to the best of American traditions.” “We have an enviable tradition of rectitude, self-reliance and resourceful ness.” McClelland was U.S. Ambassador to Niger from 1970 to 1973. McClelland now resides on a farm near New Lisbon. McClelland urged a crowd of several hundred Memorial Day parade participants and onlookers to fashion a better, more meaningful society worthy of the men who have died in this nation’s wars. McClelland contrasted the $100 billion spent annually on defense to the less than one percent of that spent for U.S. State Department operations and programs. “Can’t we devote just 10 percent (of the defense spending) to efforts toward peace,” he asked, noting that the expenditure would go far in heading off conflicts around the world. “If such an effort succeeded in heading off even one small war, it would be worth the price,” he said. McClelland noted that life in America is infinitely better than in any other part of the world, I’ve been in. But, he criticized Americans as having an “almost obsessive preoccupation with material consumption.” “At a time when we’re beginning to learn our earth’s resources are limited, this is disturbing,” he said. McClelland warned that Americans should not fall into a pattern where “we cannot do without.”
May 1974

30 Years Ago
Delaware & Hudson rails were cleared Sunday morning after a derailment Saturday blocked train traffic between Maryland and Schenevus. Three crewmen sustained minor injuries and 1,000 feet of track were torn up when the last 11 cars of the 112-car train jumped the track and derailed at Chaseville Crossing in the Town of Maryland at 12:05 p.m. Saturday. Rolland F. McKeeby, 64, David H. Link, 50, and Purley Taylor, 62, were riding in the caboose which flipped over on its side and stopped on the shoulder of the track at the top of an embankment. The last 31 cars of the train suddenly went into emergency braking and the last 11 then jumped the track. The caboose lost wheels before turning over and an empty oil tanker just ahead of the caboose rolled down an embankment. The accident is believed to have been caused by faulty coupling.
May 1984

20 Years Ago
Major Joseph F. Loszynski said that slain state police investigator Ricky J. Parisian will have his name inscribed on the bronze plaque at Troop C headquarters honoring members who have died in the line of duty. Although Parisian was assigned to the White Plains special investigations unit at the time of his death, Parisian, who began his law enforcement career as an Oneonta patrolman, was also initially stationed with Troop C. Parisian’s inscription will join the names of twelve other troopers who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
May 1994

10 Years Ago
The Green Earth’s promised move is finally happening. The health food store in Oneonta is moving from 7 Elm Street to 4 Market Street this weekend according to store manager Annie Avery. “It’s a bigger store, and it’s a beauteous building,” Avery said Tuesday. “We’re excited about being in a new building.” The Green Earth’s selections will expand once the move is complete. “We’re probably going to have a working kitchen,” she said. “The idea of food service is in our minds.” Green Earth plans to carry a better selection of produce and frozen local meat. The deli and juice bar will remain. “It’ll be more roomy,” Avery said. The store will open in its new location on Tuesday after Memorial Day.
May 2004