Burdette Guy, who for some years has been engaged in the manufacture of extension tables at Schenevus, has decided to remove his business to Oneonta. A company with capital of $10,000 is to be formed, the stock for which is mostly subscribed. The plan is to lease and fit up the Columbian skating rink building and secure power from the shop nearby of W.H. Woodin. Mr. Guy has already a profitable trade established, and with the benefit of the increased facilities to be had in Oneonta, it is probable the business may be made extensive. It will bring to Oneonta several workmen and their families and is the sort of industry which tends to help the growth and business interests of a village.
January 1885

Exactly one year and three weeks, almost to the hour, after the blaze in December, 1908, which laid waste a large section on the south side of Main Street in this city, came early last Sunday morning the fire which in less than two hours destroyed the Central Hotel block.
While in property lost the two fires were about the same, the last resulted in the loss of human life – something which heretofore in the history of Oneonta is unrecorded. Killed in the fire were Jacob Hedinger of Oneonta and George Conklin and Edwin Emerson of Otego. The fire was discovered about 3:15 a.m. by Mr. Evans, night clerk of the hotel. A short time before Mr. Evans had visited the boiler room and had attended to the fires.
He returned to the office, where he lay down, but soon after remarked to Joseph Quick, who was also in the office, that he smelled smoke. The cause of the fire will never be accurately known.
It probably resulted, however, from an explosion of gas in the furnace, throwing hot coal and blazing gas into the room. What is to be done with the site is not as yet determined. One proposition is to make it a public park.
January 1910

The 10th anniversary of national prohibition was observed in Oneonta last night at a gathering of 225 members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) at the First Methodist Episcopal Church. “We have a job if we are going to get a state enforcement act,” Mrs. Charlotte Fraser Schneider, national W.C.T.U.. Americanization Director said. “The wets are highly organized. They have rented part of a large office building in Albany as their private headquarters, I understand. Their agents are talking with foreign women. We’re going to get a state enforcement act and we’re going to make the whole world dry. Poland is dry now. Italy has strict supervision in liquor under Mussolini. Scotland, even, has local option. In England, young men and women under 13 years of age are forbidden to enter the saloons.”
January 1930

It has long been a bone of contention in American homes whether or not married women should work or not? Men feel that women should stay in the home; that it is the man’s job to go out and earn bread. What they don’t realize is that labor-saving devices in the homes give women a lot of free time nowadays and the best way to occupy that free time is to go out and get a job. According to Dr. Mary Fisher Langmuir, Director of the Vassar College Institute for family and community living, “at least for two-thirds of the wives today, marriage happiness can be improved if the wives have some interest or job or outside responsibility to discharge. Wives with outside interests, responsibilities or outlets for their energies are more likely to have better balanced and more successful marriages than those who don’t.”
January 1950

New industries are not coming to Oneonta in numbers sufficient to off-set the ones that are declining. Oneonta’s two institutions of higher education face uncertain futures as well as the city’s railroad industry. However, there is reason to be optimistic.
Community Development Director Joseph Bernier looks for the D&H Railroad to get stronger in the next decade. “With the transportation bond issue passed in November, I can only see them (D&H) growing stronger,” Bernier said.
Bernier points out that Oneonta is in the geographic center of the area and remains a central point for rail passenger and freight movement. “I look for a locomotive repair facility that could come to Oneonta, and if it does, it could mean 100 new jobs for the area.”
January 1980

Michael Z. Zizza, son of Ms. Kathleen C. Zelker of East Street in Oneonta has been nominated by U.S. Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) for admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Zizza attends Oneonta High School, ranking 26th in a class of 152. He is president of the Spanish Club and vice president of the senior class. He is a member of the varsity football, wrestling, track, and weight-lifting teams.
January 1990

Time Warner’s merger with America Online and EMI of Britain presages a new era for the Internet and music lovers everywhere. “Music, out of all our businesses, is the one that will benefit the most from the Internet and the digital revolution.”
Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin says. The addition of EMI will create a massive stable of 2,500 artists and a large music catalog of albums and songs to be delivered over the Internet or shipped via CD to consumers. Warner’s stable of artists includes such well-known performers as Cher, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Modonna, Metallica and REM.
EMI is bringing names like the Spice Girls, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra into the new fold.
January 2000

There was lots of fun created by the obstacle race at the skating rink last Saturday night. The conditions of the race were that each contestant should go five times around the rink, then over a saw horse, chair, table and step ladder, then through a barrel suspended by a rope so that it dangled about two feet from the floor, then half way around the rink to a chair, etc. Other conditions were that a glass of water should be drank, a piece of pie eaten, a stick of wood sawed, and a needle threaded. Four boys of about the age of 12 – Connors, McCabe, Landon and Wood entered the race. They reached the suspended barrel about the same moment, and in the attempt of three of them to crawl through at once they became wedged in, and it was with some difficulty that they extricated themselves. Their struggles seemed to amuse the crowd wonderfully, particularly the wood-sawing act, wherein the large boy had an advantage over the small boy. The money was equally divided among the contestants.
January 1885

It is understood that Manager Hathaway of the Oneonta Theatre is dissatisfied with the patronage which has been accorded this winter and has notified Manager Gillen to prepare to close the theatre on Saturday of next week. This step, if carried out, will be final so far as the present season is concerned. There have been several high-class attractions in Oneonta since the season opened last fall. But, with a single exception, only one of them has made money. The money-maker was “The Traveling Salesman.” The best-known play of all was “The Gentleman from Mississippi,” but two hundred dollars was lost on it and other plays have lost smaller sums. Friday of this week “Buster Brown” will be presented, and there are one or two more next week. Upon their success may depend the fate of the theatre, for the present winter.
January 1910

Local News – Lloyd Lawson, manager of Gardner’s Shoe Store, was injured Saturday when the ladder on which he was attempting to rescue a pet cat from a tree slipped and taking Gardner to the ground. Lawson suffered a fracture of the nose and a severely cut lip. The nose was lacerated from bridge to tip. In addition, his glasses and a dental plate were broken in the fall. Lawson was given emergency treatment at Fox hospital.
Oneonta police began an action Saturday to break an established habit of parking cars on the sidewalk bordering Fox Hospital. Ten summonses were issued during the visiting hour of 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, and two more were given between 7 and 8:30 p.m. Police Chief Robert J. Simmons gave special instructions to tag all cars left on the Norton Avenue sidewalk after receiving a complaint from a woman who said the walkway was blocked every night with parked cars, obliging pedestrians to take to the street or lawn in the darkness. Visitors to the hospital are blamed for the problem rather that physicians or patients.
January 1950
People in the United States and 11 other countries around the world are optimistic about the future according to a recent poll conducted by George Gallup of the firm Gallup International. A random survey of public opinion in the 12 nations surveyed shows that people generally believe the world will be a better place over the next two decades than it is today. Gallup says that his poll shows people are optimistic about gains in the fields of medicine, science and technology. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed in the U.S. think that researchers will find a cure for cancer by the year 1990. One in five Americans believes that man will be living on the moon in 20 years. About one-third of those surveyed in the U.S., Great Britain and Canada foresee a three-day work week by 1990. Three out of every 10 Americans believe that life expectancy will rise to 100 years by 1990. Only one in 12 respondents told Gallup that they expected a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia before 1990.
January 1970

James and Cynthia Perkins, an Oneonta couple who are black, found a cross burning on their front lawn late one night last August. The Perkins and their children had come to Oneonta from the Cherry Valley area and rented the residence at 84 Hudson Street. Six area boys, most of them underage, were charged with harassment by Oneonta police. Neighbors of the Perkins responded to the cross burning with food and offers of assistance, but now, nearly five months later, the Perkins are largely ignored, even by close neighbors. Neighbors on either side say hello rarely and one man brought a jar of honey to the Perkins at Christmas but, “that’s it. Nobody has been by since then,” James Perkins says. Some of the Perkins’ children have had trouble at the nearby Valleyview School but nothing serious. “I tell them to ignore it,” Perkins says.
January 1980

Although dairy migrant farmers often have a hard life with long hours, little pay and inadequate housing, many enjoy working outdoors because of a deep-seated fondness for farming. “This is the kind of farming they like to do,” said Lorrie Wolverton of the Migrant Tutorial Outreach Program in Oneonta. The main objective of the outreach program is to educate both children and parents of migrant families. About 75 percent of the dairy migrants move around in the four-county area of Otsego, Delaware, Chenango and Schoharie counties and the moves disrupt the continuity of their children’s schooling.
January 1990

For every child killed in a car crash, about 125 others suffer injuries. When used correctly, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent and hospitalization by 67 percent. However, misuse reduces effectiveness. More than 80 percent of child safety seats are used improperly despite the fact that most parents try to install their child seats correctly.
January 2000

80 Years Ago