I start this entry feeling just a tiny bit smarter by being a former elementary school student at Center Street School. By the time you finish reading this, I'll feel back to normal as I quickly approach the completion of my 13th year of writing about local history.
As I've been writing columns, I'm always happy to get feedback from readers. Some send me surprises about things I may not have been aware of or overlooked while doing research. Then there are the times I just slip up.
A few months ago, I wrote about Oneonta native Sherman Fairchild, a famous inventor and industrialist, who got his first break with a special camera he invented in 1920. In that article, I'd mentioned Fairchild began his education in Oneonta's schools, but I didn't know or mention which one.
Not long after, Mark Parmeter, librarian at Center Street School, sent a class photo from the earlier years at the school, showing Sherman Fairchild shortly after the turn of the 20th century. I enjoyed the thought that my classmates and I once walked those same hallways as Fairchild. He eventually went into private schooling, both here and in Arizona.
Also on the topic of cameras, I'd written an article about the early photography of Horace and Ralph Hanford, capturing the early years of people and progress in the hamlet of East Meredith. After the two had stopped taking photos from glass plates and film, their work was tucked away for many years.
Neither Hanford Mills Museum nor I had told the whole story of how the Hanford photo collection had arrived at today's museum. Grace Kent, a longtime neighbor of the museum, pointed out that the bulk of the Horace Hanford Collection came to the museum in 1976 as a donation by Ralph Hanford, Horace's son. The donation included 105 dry plate glass negatives. At a different date, Ronald and Grace Kent, who had purchased Horace's old house, discovered a box in the attic that contained 65 additional glass plate negatives, five flexible negatives, and 191 roll film negatives. The Kents donated this trove to the museum, and it was determined that the 65 glass negatives were the work of Horace Hanford. The roll negatives were by Horace's son, Ralph, and were thus grouped into a new category called the Ralph Hanford Collection.
A few months ago, I had written about "Frank Malzone Day" in Oneonta, back in October 1957. Malzone got his start as a member of the 1949 Oneonta Red Sox team and went on to the big club in Boston. Malzone remained fond of Oneonta, because he married Amy Gennarino and came back often to visit the in-laws.
While I captured the mutual admiration between Malzone and Oneonta's citizens, alas, being a baseball story, a few readers pointed out I committed a few errors, involving some player statistics.
I must have been in a hurry in research and writing, as in my notes I had written down DH. Frank's first games with Boston in 1955 were in a double header in September, being called up from the Minor Leagues. I said he was a designated hitter. That "DH" in my notes was my error. There was no designated hitter in baseball until 1973, adopted by the American League.
I had also mentioned that Malzone got six hits in a row during that double header. I had misinterpreted a Saturday Evening Post article from 1958 about Malzone's triumph over personal tragedy. Malzone got six hits on the day, but according to Retrosheet.org, Malzone got four hits in the first game and two in the second.
The magazine article was amusing, describing how, after the double-header, Frank called Amy back in Oneonta, so excited he could hardly talk.
"What are you trying to tell me?" she finally asked.
"Six_six_six," he sputtered. "I got six hits today!" "And I got left $6 million by a long-lost uncle," she retorted.
"Amy says now, 'It took him five expensive minutes to convince me he wasn't kidding. And even though we couldn't afford to talk that long, I didn't begrudge him a minute," read the Saturday Evening Post.
Finally, to clear up a few more errors, I had said the Agro Farma plant, maker of Chobani yogurt, was located in the town of New Berlin, while it is in the town of Columbus. I had also given a wrong title to Nancy Bromley of Greene, in a Civil War letters entry. Bromley is the president of the Greene Historical Society, not the Greene town historian. The latter is Peg Ross.
Hopefully I'll be back in my Fairchild moments soon.
This weekend: Oneonta celebrates Christmas in wartime, 1941.
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. Write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
Readers keep me on my toes with facts and figures
- 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
