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.
Mark Simonson
A New Year's outlook to 1927 in the area
- 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
