None of my calendars at home or at my other workplaces show that April 27 is Arbor Day. Dates can vary from year to year, but in general the modern-era day is observed in April. In our area in 1927, Arbor Day was observed on Friday, May 6. A number of springtime tree planting projects from that year are still around today, all in the interest of re-forestation.
Seen today along county Route 9 in the town of Oneonta, near the Oneonta Country Club, there is a wooded park area that provides access to Otego Creek. Until not long ago and still seen on some maps, this site was called Hemstreet Park. The origin of this park dates back to April 1927.
Mrs. Florence Hemstreet was a member of the Oneonta Woman's Club and was giving a report to the club on Tuesday, April 26, that caught everyone by surprise. The club had a forestry committee, which Mrs. Hemstreet had chaired for four years. She presented a plot of some seven acres on the western side of the Otego Creek, to be known as the Woman's Club Park. At some point it was renamed in Hemstreet's honor.
As reported in the April 27 edition of The Oneonta Star, "The announcement was received with hearty cheers for the enthusiastic chairman of the committee, who has devoted practically all her time for the past three weeks since the land was acquired in preparing it for presentation to the club." Somehow she managed to keep the project a secret as several people went to work at clearing brush and dead trees on the site and planting some 7,000 small trees, furnished by the state of New York.
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Driving along state Route 23 today in the town of Pharsalia, Chenango County, one will see a state historic marker featuring a game refuge, said to be the first such area acquired by New York in 1926.
It was reported on Monday, May 2, 1927, that about 2,000 of this tract of 4,500 acres of abandoned farmland would become a "demonstration forest," with about 500,000 trees to be planted during the season.
Arthur S. Hopkins, assistant superintendent of State Forests said, "The area is essentially a rolling upland with a few steep slopes or deep ravines. There is excellent cover for food for game birds and animals; also excellent trout waters in a network of brooks which comprise the headwaters of the Canasawacta creek."
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Oneonta High School students had a half-day of school on Friday, May 6. In observation of Arbor Day, the Oneonta Rotary Club brought several students out to upper East Street to plant about 10,000 spruce and pine seedlings.
"The planting this year will be on the Gifford farm, located on the westerly side of East street near the school house a short distance from the city line," the Star reported. The schoolhouse referred to is the former District No. 4 school, also known as the Yager Hollow School. This planting was to protect the city's watershed. Another group of students had planted seedlings here four years earlier.
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John D. Clarke, a U.S. Congressman, was a speaker at a Men's Club dinner of St. James' Episcopal Church in Oneonta on Wednesday, May 4.
Clarke was a resident of Arbor Hill, a residence in Fraser, near Delhi.
Clarke was the author of the Clarke-McNary bill, for the application of reforestation across the country.
Clarke truly believed in his theories of reforestation, beginning with his own planting of numerous rows of spruces surrounding Arbor Hill.
Clarke spoke of how 20 million trees had been planted in the state during 1926, but there was plenty of room for improvement on those numbers, as "this number could be planted on the idle acres of Delaware county alone."
On Monday: Oneonta was visited many times by movie stars in the 1940s and '50s.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www. thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
Spring tree plantings were numerous in 1927
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
Ask any hospital administrators if they've ever heard of a closed hospital in New York state that has ever been re-opened. They will say, "Impossible." In a half century of going through records you can't find any.
Continued ... - Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
- Opera great's visit still a thrilling memory
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Cary Brunswick
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We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
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We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
Continued ... - Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
- Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
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- Rick Brockway
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
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Using time off in the worst way possible
"You don't mean it," I pleaded. "You simply can't mean it!"
Continued ... - Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
- Column on guns led to a barrage of (mostly) jeers
- No one is coming to take your guns
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Using time off in the worst way possible
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
