Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch: HOMETOWN History

HOMETOWN History

Friday, February 26, 2010

125 YEARS AGO

Home & Vicinity – Edward Butts, who lives on Brook Street, had around his premises a box of percussion caps such as he had used in exploding dynamite at the Oneonta silver mine. Last Thursday morning, Mr. Butts’ 16-year-old son Irving picked up one of the caps and, his curiosity getting the better of his discretion, commenced tearing it to pieces with a hair-pin, “to see what it was made of.” Suddenly, it exploded with a loud report, and the thumb and forefinger with which it was held were blown to pieces. The young man loses about one-half of each digit.
March 1885

100 YEARS AGO

March 1910

80 YEARS AGO

One man who lacked the disadvantage of being born in humble surroundings, but who in spite of the fact perfected san invention to found a new industry is the story told of Sherman Mills Fairchild, formerly of Oneonta in the March number of Scientific American. Mr. Fairchild, inventor of the long-distance camera, was born in the red mansion at the corner of Grand and Main Streets, recently purchased by the Masons. Early in life the boy was considered to be too ill for the activities other school children. Consequently, he was alone most of the time, save for tutors and governors. He spent long hours in the attic of the great house, “playing with knick knacks.” When he volunteered for service in WWI he was turned down by surgeons and advised that the dry climate of Arizona would be best if he wanted to maintain any degree of health. Fairchild left for Arizona and in the middle of the last year of the war army officers saw the results of his first aerial photography camera. Within a few weeks the Eastman laboratories at Rochester had been placed at the young man’s disposal. The camera that began as a plaything in the Fairchild garret is now standard equipment in the air services of five nations and Fairchild is head of a camera company and a dozen subsidiary corporations as well as a $200 million aviation corporation. “Once in a while,” the Scientific American says, “we find a man who lacks the advantage of having been born in humble circumstances and who, in spite of that fact, makes an invention that founds a new industry.”
March 1930

60 YEARS AGO

How much longer can Oneonta go on losing its young men and women because of the lack of job opportunities? Rosalie Vagliardo, a senior at Oneonta high school, has a pretty good idea of what she wants to do when she graduates in June. Miss Vagliardo has been taking a secretarial course since she has been in the ninth grade, with the eventual hope that she could get a job in a business office. In June, Miss Vagliardo will apply for a job with the telephone company. If she doesn’t get that, OHS has contacts with the State Employment Bureau and it will attempt to place her in a secretarial job somewhere in the vicinity. Last fall, Miss Vagliardo took a secretarial test given by the State Employment Bureau to determine her standing among the other 15 in her class who take the same course. Her standing was among the highest. Miss Vagliardo is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Vagliardo of 52 West Broadway. She is the youngest in a family of six brothers.
March 1950

40 YEARS AGO

A $500,000 negligence action brought by Donald L. Pierce of Fort Lauderdale, Florida on behalf of his 12-year-old son David is in Supreme Court before Justice Joseph P. Molinari. Defendants are the City of Oneonta; Stanley Helz of Fort Lauderdale, David’s stepfather, Nathan Pendleton, a retired Oneonta banker, David’s grandfather, and Frank Getman, an Oneonta attorney. David Pierce was injured critically when he dropped a lighted firecracker into a partially buried gasoline tank. Exploding fumes uprooted the empty 1000-gallon tank and ignited David’s clothing, hurling him some 25 feet through the air. He landed some 30 feet from the ruptured tank. The blast happened on what was the old Elmore property, east of Wilber Park in Oneonta where the Wilber Park Apartment complex is now under construction. The property is owned by Mr. Getman. David’s brother Donald, age 14 at the time, suffered burns while attempting to douse the flames from David’s clothing. The Pierce boys were among five playing at the site. The others were Brian Pierce, age 9, John Spence, age 13, and James Wells, age 13. The firecrackers were purchased in North Carolina.
March 1970

30 YEARS AGO

The Otsego County Planning Department has completed a study of possible industrial sites in the county and found there are three potential locations. According to Fred Paris, acting director of the planning department, the three choice locations are on Brown Street in the Town of Oneonta, on River Street in the City of Oneonta, and at a site in the Town of Worcester. Of these the Brown Street site holds the most promise, Paris said. “The site is already zoned industrial, it is in close proximity to other industries, and the support facilities – sewer, water, electricity and gas – are already there.”
March 1980

20 YEARS AGO

U.S. Government figures show that 50 percent of all mercury and 27 percent of all cadmium used in the United States is consumed by battery manufacturing. By the year 2000, it is estimated that cadmium use in batteries will rise to 34 percent. By the 1990s, 75 percent of the household batteries sold will be the alkaline/manganese type, which are toxic because they contain mercury. When incinerated, mercury and cadmium are of particular concern because most of the mercury is emitted in a gaseous form and cadmium attaches to fine particulates.
March 1990

10 YEARS AGO

Music by the Al Gallodoro Group and Swamp Yankee will provide the musical backdrop for the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts’ (UCCCA) first annual Northern Exposure Saba Gras masked ball to be held Saturday, March 4 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
March 2000

Labels: 03-05-10, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM

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