HOMETOWN History

Nov. 22, 2019

150 Years Ago

Country Merchants Beware – The Twenty-sixth Street gambling house has organized a campaign for the winter on an original and comprehensive system after the Baden-Baden School. The house is but a few doors west of Broadway, and not far from the aristocratic St. James Hotel. It is a five-story brownstone front and is occupied by a score of the card fraternity. Women, elegantly dressed, flutter in and out of its doors. During the early evening the flutter of silks and laces and the shimmer of jewels grow most brilliant. These women are what are termed by gamblers “elegant cappers.” They inveigle many wealthy victims into the gambling den. Some of them “frequent” the Manhattan Club. They lounge in the parlors of their respective boarding houses after dinner and mingle with the boarders. They are asked out with rich men and ask rich men gentlemen out with them.

November 1869

125 Years Ago

What is called the national cycling costume for women is in danger of going out of existence in Paris for the Prefect has caused letters to be written to some well-known women cyclists, cautioning them that they are infringing the law in wearing men’s clothes.
The Oneonta people think they have the greatest conundrum out. It is “Why is the Democratic Party like the Earth?” Because it is flattened at the polls.
Governor-Elect Morton says his election expenses were $19,790, of which $16,000 went to the State Committee; $2,500 to the State Committeeman of the Dutchess District; $500 to the Town Committee of Rhinebeck; $390 for contributions to fire and hose companies, charitable and other associations; and $400 for Pastors. It shows that rich men only are available as candidates for high positions, and that the great bulk of these contributions was used illegally.

November 1894

80 Years Ago

Acclaimed as the first man to descend in a parachute and the first to drive a motor-powered dirigible, A. Leo Stevens of Fly Creek, a pioneer in the field of aeronautics, spoke at a meeting of the Lions Club last evening at the First Presbyterian Church in Oneonta. Mr. Stevens said that while he had made 3,456 dirigible flights and carried thousands of passengers, he had never lost a passenger. In 1916, Mr. Stevens was made Chief Instructor of Aeronautics in America by President Wilson. He remained with the War Department until 1927. Mr. Stevens once took James A. Hare, known as the president’s photographer, on a dirigible flight over New York City during which Mr. Hare took 51 pictures of the city, the first ever views from the air. Mr. Stevens holds pilot’s license number two in America and number seventeen in France.
Oneonta basketball fans will see three new faces in the lineup of the Renaissance basketball team when the crack colored club plays Schenectady in the gym at the Junior High
School Friday night. Manager Bob Douglas’ new pupils include Billy Gates, Zack Clayton and Puggy Bell, all tops in New York City scholastic circles in recent years.

November 1939

60 Years Ago

It is customary to address youth in terms of challenge and opportunity, to assure them that a better world will be their oyster if only they have the persistence to open it. Too much of this talk may badly misguide the young. They may conclude, dazzled by visions of shorter work weeks and electronic gadgets that life in their adulthood is going to be easier as well as better. This is not necessarily so. Technology will lift more and more of the burden of labor from mankind, but life may be far more trying in other ways than it is now. In the opinion of Dr. James R. Killian, Jr., of M.I.T., today’s children “will live in an increasingly intricate, turbulent and demanding world, requiring a new order of resourcefulness, adaptability, and trained intelligence on the part of both men and nations.” In addition to the challenges of communism, Dr. Killian sees these factors in the more complex life ahead – rapid change, explosive population growth, rising expectations of hitherto “backward people” and a surge of irresponsible, new nationalisms.
The picture is a sobering one.

November 1959

40 Years Ago

Just as they dominated play during the regular season, the Oneonta High School girls’ soccer team dominated the Southern Tier Athletic Conference’s All-Star Team. The STAC-championship Yellowjackets, have eight players on the All-Star team as selected by the league’s coaches. They are Kim Kurkowski, Dana Stam, Karen Bettiol, Sue McCarthy, and Laurie Jaques were all first team selections while Patty Butler, Sand Perry, and Judy Gergel were named to the second team. Stam, only a sophomore, was the team’s leading goal-scorer with 12. Kurkowski team with Stam to give Oneonta a strong left side. Kurkowski had ten goals this season. “She was an excellent pressure player,” said Coach Helen Sandford. In the STAC Championship game, Kurkowski had two goals including the game-winner in overtime.

November 1979

20 Years Ago

Hartwick College field hockey player Kim Carter is an All-American for the second time. Teammate Nicole Fish joined Kim as a first time pick. Both were named third team Astro-Turf/National Field Hockey Coaches Association honorees. The two seniors led Hartwick College to a 65-18 overall record and three NCAA Division III Tournament appearances. Carter, a first-team selection last year, is the third Hartwick field hockey player to be named an All-American twice. Erin Ross (first team 1997 and third team 1996) and Jen Motyka (second team 1996 and 1997) were the others. Carter, a sweeper on defense finished as Hartwick’s all-time leading scorer (35 goals, 12 assists and 82 career points). Many of Carter’s points came off penalty corners.

November 1999

10 Years Ago

The A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital Board of Directors has approved the appointments of three members and thanked those they replaced who had stayed on during talks of affiliation with Bassett Healthcare. Outgoing members William “Bud” Pirone, Ricky O’Donnell and David Brenner were honored at a board dinner in the Levine Conference Center at Fox Hospital, Oneonta. Pirone and O’Donnell each served nine years, and Brenner, a former Oneonta Mayor, served 11 years. “They were great board members,” Fox board Chairman Michael Getman said.

November 2009