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.
The Herald got some new competition beginning on Monday, May 2, 1887, and it was quite exciting when residents of the area could get their news daily, due to the introduction of the Oneonta Daily Local.
"This day marks a new event in Oneonta's history," the opening day editorial read. "In recognition of the demands of our business men and the frequently expressed wish of many of our citizens for a daily paper to record the occurrences of our embryo city, the Oneonta Local steps forward and makes its introductory bow to our citizens. It is the pioneer daily of Otsego county, and with hopeful diffidence the publishers launch their little newspaper bark upon the sea of public criticism and, they trust, of public favor."
The Local was 10 cents per week delivered at your door, or two cents a copy.
It wasn't actually the first daily newspaper, but it did have a longer life than another in 1871, called the Morning Call. That endeavor lasted two issues.
The Oneonta Local got off to a good start, as the editorial on May 3 stated the reception was favorable, as "a score of newsboys scattered the little sheet broadcast through the village as well as could be expected from an impromptu lot of little fellows who seemed to catch the spirit of excitement and general commendation which greeted our initial number."
"It will take a few days to get the new enterprise well under way, and until such time we invoke the patient forbearance of all our readers, as the work is as new to the publishers as it is to the people." The publishers were J. Sherry Smith and H.M. Worth.
The Oneonta Local was short-lived, but it covered some interesting stories of the time.
From Vol. 1, No. 1 came the first local news item, "The clock tower and dials have been nicely painted." This was around the time the first town clock went operational, atop the former Westcott Block, now the parking lot between the Ruffino Mall and 242 Main St. Another news item several below that one read, "The striking of our town clock can be distinctly heard at Wm. Fuller's, on upper East street, a mile distant."
Probably the biggest news story covered by the new paper came that same month. The Wednesday, May 18, edition shows a front page article with an image of a rooster, with headline stating "This Rooster Crows over the Success of the Normal School Bill. HURRAH!"
The Normal School is today's State University College at Oneonta, with the first building opening in 1889.
"The Normal School bill, which has been watched with so much interest by our people, has been signed by the Governor. The news had no sooner been announced than it spread like wildfire all over our village, and the face of every resident, large or small, was wreathed in smiles."
Congratulations were expressed to those who worked to get the bill passed, and the Local was kind enough to "tender our condolences to our weeping brethren of the Franklin Delaware Literary Institute!" The school had been competing to get a Normal School located in Franklin.
Other news stories covered construction of 168 new buildings of several kinds, including the First Presbyterian Church, a knitting mill, a chair factory and a sash, blind and door factory.
Work began on an upper reservoir for the village's water supply, a first sewer was laid on Ford Avenue, and electric lights made their first appearance.
One of the advertisers in the new paper was B.F. Sisson & Co., which boasted of a new store. Sisson's had opened in 1885 at a location near today's Clinton Plaza, but had relocated to 180-184 Main St. after a fire, where it did business until 1988.
The Oneonta Local lasted into February 1888, as another new paper, the Oneonta Daily News, said in its first edition, "The recent failure of a similar enterprise has apparently only intensified the popular demand for a daily newspaper."
That too was short-lived, as the Oneonta Daily Star became the fourth effort at a daily newspaper in June 1890.
On Monday: Some news items from April 1982.
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
A daily newspaper for Oneonta was an achievement in 1887
- Mark Simonson
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
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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.
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
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Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
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Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
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Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
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Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
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Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
- Saturday, March 16, 2013
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Area isolated during historic March 1888 snowstorm
Earlier in the week, we recalled the "Blizzard of 1993," which was one containing historic snowfall that fell on our region on Saturday, March 13. It was the largest recorded in a single local snowfall in the 20th century, and ever since another storm dating back 105 years. The latter snowfall was worse than the 1993 storm, falling overnight into Tuesday, March 13, 1888. It was commonly referred to as the "Blizzard of 1888."
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