Here's a headline a lot of people would like to see in their newspaper these days.
"Jobs For All Promise Seen For New Year."
You likely won't see it in this coming Tuesday's Daily Star, but readers did see it in their edition of Saturday, Jan. 1, 1927. This was the economic outlook by Herbert Hoover, who was then the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, which he said was, "at least free from fear of violent commercial or financial cataclysm." Hoover did say that agricultural "conditions" remained weak, due to some recent crop failures.
Several other news stories made for an interesting year in 1927 and beyond. It was reported on Wednesday, Jan. 5, that Stephen C. Clark, a major booster of so many endeavors in Cooperstown, had donated $25,000 to an Oneonta organization.
The Walling Home for the Aged had recently been formed, due to the generous offer of Mrs. Alevia Walling, whose mansion was then at the corner of Main Street and Walling Avenue, where today's United Presbyterian Church is located. Clark's gift got the Walling Home much closer to reality.
The Walling Home didn't last for long in this city. Residents and staff were moved to what was then the former Thanksgiving Hospital in Cooperstown in 1928, renamed the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home.
As it turned out, the Walling mansion wasn't vacant for very long, due to another meeting held later in the month of January 1927 in New York and on Feb. 1 in Oneonta.
On Thursday, Jan. 27, a first organizational meeting was held at St. John's church in New York for a "Greater Hartwick" campaign, regarding the Hartwick Seminary, then found a few miles south of Cooperstown in the town of Hartwick. A $500,000 goal was established, half of which would go to buildings and the other half to an endowment fund.
A second meeting to make the area aware of the campaign took place at a luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 1, at the Oneonta Hotel, today's 189 Main St. Alumni, friends and many prominent Oneonta citizens were in attendance. It was soon after this luncheon that news articles began appearing that Oneonta wished to become host of this improved institution of higher learning.
The Greater Hartwick campaign led to the beginning of Hartwick College in Oneonta. While the first building was being constructed on Oyaron Hill, classes began in the fall of 1928 at the former Walling mansion. Operations moved to the hillside in early December 1929.
In other news during January, the Goodyear Lake Association became officially incorporated on Monday, Jan. 10. The owners of camps and property had been loosely knit in an association for several years, but found it in their best interests to protect what they had and to improve upon them. Improvements mentioned were to "plant trees, shrubbery and vines, to provide picnic grounds, parks, bath houses, bathing beaches, ball grounds, tennis courts and other devices for amusement and recreation," and plenty more for the use of the members.
While Secretary of Commerce Hoover had mentioned weak agricultural conditions ahead for 1927, an Oneonta area syndicate of investors had recently purchased about 1,500 acres of land in the fertile Rio Grande Valley, in the Weslaco district of Texas, not far from Brownsville. Doing business as the Sethman Corp., an office was opened in the Oneonta Hotel and throughout January, large ads were seen in The Oneonta Star, promoting an excursion to this area of Texas, "Where The Sunshine Spends Its Winter."
Subsequent news items in later months showed that some took this and later Sethman excursions, but it isn't certain how many actually moved there. A Star article from August 1926 had said, "Those who have become interested are confident that a great future awaits the development of those rich and fertile lands and that the next few years will see a great exodus of men from the north who have had experience in the growing of small fruits and produce and that it will become one of the most productive garden sections of the country."
Next weekend: An opportunity to keep a possible New Year's resolution came to be in 1917.
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
A New Year's outlook to 1927 in the area
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
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Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
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- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
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I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
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- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
