Time and time again since the 1950s, a large framed drawing in City Hall has drawn interest in how it got there, and why it was of interest to Oneonta. The drawing is of the infamous Andersonville Prison at Camp Sumter, Ga., as drawn from memory by a survivor of the Civil War encampment, Thomas O'Dea.
Some may have seen the drawing in recent months when it was on temporary display at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society's History Center at 183 Main St.
In 1952, the memento was discovered in the vault of City Hall, which was then at 242 Main St., presently the home of several Otsego County offices. City Clerk office personnel cleaned and polished the framed drawing and began looking into the history of it. They learned from Fred Crouch, a former Oneonta Police Department patrolman, that the Oneonta branch of the Grand Army of the Republic had given the drawing to the police department when it disbanded several years earlier. The drawing was in the police station and later placed in the clerk's vault around 1931. On the back are signatures of the policemen, including former Police Chief Frank Horton, and most all of the city officials of that time.
When discovered in July 1952, the drawing was heavy wood and glass frame. In more recent years it has been placed in a much lighter weight frame. When The Star published the article about the Andersonville drawing and the mystery of how the GAR got it, readers promptly chimed in about some local connections to the Civil War prison. Of the 35,000 Union soldiers held there, where 15,000 died, odds were very good that some local soldiers had been in that camp.
Correspondence came from Cherry Valley, Morris, Franklin and elsewhere. According to The Star of July 30, 1952, the "Oneonta area is also linked to the prison in fiction. Louis Allidi … produced a copy of John Brick's novel, 'Troubled Spring,' which mentioned that a Bill Andrews of Oneonta died in the camp. Mr. Allidi said he had no way of knowing whether 'Bill Andrews' was pure fiction or based on a real character."
Not fictional to Oneonta was Ira J. Emmons, born in Oneonta in 1840. He served for three years in Company D of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment at Albany. Confederate Command captured Emmons and his whole unit on April 20, 1864. Among other sites of imprisonment, Emmons spent 10½ months at Andersonville.
The rebels granted him a parole from Andersonville on Feb. 28, 1865. When asked after the war to relate the most thrilling event of the war, Emmons replied, "Getting released from prison with my skin and bones in working order." After returning to Oneonta in 1865 he left for the Chicago area in 1874.
Edwin R. Moore, then director of the Otsego County Veterans Service Agency, disclosed that his late mother, Mrs. Maude Roberts Moore, attended the old Delaware Literary Institute in Franklin when she was a girl, and told of how two of her schoolmates were Anderson sisters from Georgia. Either their father or grandfather had owned the land where Andersonville Prison was established, Mr. Moore said.
The artist, Thomas O'Dea, was a private of Company E., 16th Regiment, Maine Infantry Volunteers. The drawing was later lithographed. O'Dea dedicated the map with graphic drawings to the "parents, widows, orphans and friends of those who perished in the prison and to the remaining survivors."
On Monday: A fire in Cooperstown 50 years ago created a popular present-day park.
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.
Mark Simonson
Oneonta, region had connections with the Andersonville Prison
- Mark Simonson
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A Main Street facelift for Oneonta in the 1920s
It has been just a little over 30 years, 1980 in fact, that Main Street in Oneonta went through a major transformation in appearance. Even now I'll hear mixed comments about the changes, which included antique style lamps, trees, planters and brick trim. Some liked the changes while others liked the wider street with the even-sized sidewalks.
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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.
100 Years Ago -
Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
A young person of 75 years ago may still recall where they were or what they were doing in the month of May, as two big news events took place. They were the Hindenburg disaster and the passing of billionaire John D. Rockefeller. There were some local connections with both news items.
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Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
It is always good to keep up with current events. However, it is starting to become an unwritten requirement to seek some diversions from staying up to date on news, as for some it can become overwhelming or depressing.
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Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
Oftentimes, in the distant past, the place you worked for became a social nucleus in the village or town. Employees at large companies such as Endicott-Johnson Shoe Co. or IBM in the Binghamton area took part in activities after work such as sports, music and theater, both in and out of town, to represent their company.
- Monday, May 7, 2012
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Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
As a youngster growing up in the area and having a fascination with radio broadcasting, I used to consider it a part-time hobby to put the earphone into my transistor radio and go exploring what was out there to listen to, up and down the dial. It was indeed a long-distance journey at night when listening to AM radio, as you could hear live and locally staffed stations from Chicago, Windsor/Detroit, Atlanta and New Orleans, to name a few cities. I never spent a lot of time listening to FM radio 40 years ago, simply because there wasn't the same "excitement" of the long-distance journey. Little did I realize, things were changing locally on that "other" band of radio frequencies that included decimal points.
- Saturday, May 5, 2012
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Congressman Fairchild added downtown growth in 1912
Another case of wandering imagination struck this historian recently, while learning about the building at 244-248 Main St. in Oneonta, storefronts for the Autumn Café and Razzle Dazzle. This structure is known as the Fairchild block, and it turns 100 this year.
- Monday, April 30, 2012
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From no TV to saving eagles, it was life in April 1982
No television. No place to pay the phone bill. No more Spaulding's baked goods. Possibly no more Center Street School. While these were some of the noes in the news of our area in April 1982, there were some yeses as well, including a new structure at Corning Inc. of Oneonta and help to save bald eagles.
- Saturday, April 28, 2012
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A daily newspaper for Oneonta was an achievement in 1887
Depending on the electronic device you have these days, accessing news can be made nearly as soon as something happens. Oneontans of 125 years ago got their news on a weekly basis, courtesy of The Oneonta Herald.
- Monday, April 23, 2012
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Area saw Hollywood stars up close in April 1952
It has been a mighty long time since Greer Garson, Victor Jory, Don Taylor and Audrey Totter drew big numbers of people at the box office of our local movie theaters. Make it 60 years, in fact. Now generations removed from popularity, some are still able to remember the names of these four movie stars who paid a visit to our area in late April 1952.
- Saturday, April 21, 2012
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Spring tree plantings were numerous in 1927
None of my calendars at home or at my other workplaces show that April 27 of this year is Arbor Day.
- Monday, April 16, 2012
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Nuclear weapon debates were plentiful in April 1982
Plan for a nuclear war -- or seek a nuclear weapons freeze. That was a frequent debate going on in our region during the month of April 1982.
- Saturday, April 14, 2012
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A Titanic survivor stopped in Oneonta days after disaster
Edward Bean was one amongst the lucky one-third of the passengers aboard the Titanic who lived to tell about the disaster of the ill-fated ship that sank after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Only about a week after the disaster, Bean was in Oneonta, on his way home to Cincinnati.
- Monday, April 9, 2012
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Simonson: April 1952 brought educational developments in Oneonta
There were some interesting new developments in education in Oneonta during the month of April 1952. These took place in the public and private schools, as well as on the Hartwick College campus.
- Saturday, April 7, 2012
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Oneonta's first automobile exhibition took place in April 1917
An automobile show as large as those in Albany or Utica. That was the heady claim of the organizers of Oneonta's first such show, set for early April 1917.
- Monday, April 2, 2012
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Thruway bridge collapsed 25 years ago into Schoharie Creek
I had just started my evening music shift at a Binghamton radio station on Sunday evening, April 5, 1987, with a network newscast at the top of the hour.
- Saturday, March 31, 2012
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Oneonta responded to declaration of World War I
"President Asks For War."
- Monday, March 26, 2012
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Devastating fire, loss in sports status, education made major area news in March 1982
A fire destroyed a foundry in Morris, Hartwick College basketball dropped a division level, two schools considered a merger, and a local Odyssey of the Mind was born. These news items and more made for a busy month in March 1982.
- Saturday, March 24, 2012
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Useful advice for farmers came to the area in 1912
It is practically a rite of autumn for high school students, or college students looking to transfer to a different college.
- Monday, March 19, 2012
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St. Mary's Church of Oneonta dedicated 55 years ago
"With solemn, historic pageantry, the Most Rev. William A. Scully, bishop of Albany, yesterday dedicated the new St. Mary's Church."
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A Main Street facelift for Oneonta in the 1920s
