pages 4 and

Compiled by Tom HeiTz/SHARoN STUART with resources courtesy of The Fenimore Art museum Research Library

137 Years ago

Home & Vicinity – Lewis & smith, liverymen, are about to supply a long felt want in oneonta, and one that will prove a great public convenience, having purchased one of the Boston standard cabs, which is to be stationed at some convenient point on Main street, where it can be secured to make trips to any part of the village at a fare varying from ten to twenty-five cents, according to distance. The cab will also do parcel carrying at the same reasonable rates. There seems no doubt that the enterprise will be heartily sustained, as it deserves to be.

May 1885

112 Years ago

May 1910

92 Years ago

Fire, said to have broken out on the farm of William Hungerford, behind Colliers, which swept over 1,000 acres of dry woodland yesterday afternoon, and which at a late hour threatened the city watershed, was reported under control at an early hour this morning. according to W.W. Watkins, superintendent of the city water works, he and his men were called in to aid in the fight shortly before 9 o’clock last night. Twenty men were stationed at this end of the blaze during the night, and patrols made rounds over the whole section, under the direction of H.a. Pearsall. one hundred Hartwick College students, released from their afternoon classes, together with members of the oneonta and Cooperstown fire departments, and Colliers farmers fought the blaze on the hills behind the village through the daylight hours. The flames, running from the top of one pine to another, jumping creek beds and dirt roads, swung down to within a hundred yards of the village at one time. a valiant fight made by 40 Hartwick students equipped with five gallon hand pump tanks about 3:30 o’clock stopped the fire in that direction, but other sectors continued to burn in several directions before all were brought under control. May 1930

60 Years ago

a county-wide campaign to vaccinate all dogs against rabies will open on Monday of next week it has been announced by supervisor James M. Mead of oneonta, who is in charge of the Board of supervisors rabies eradication program. There is no charge to dog owners for this service. Clinics will be set up at designated times and places throughout the county and it is hoped that the owners of otsego County’s 7,000-odd dogs will take their pets for immunization shots. There will be 38 separate clinics from May 15 to 25, staffed by 13 county veterinarians. May 1950

Solution: ‘‘The Full Name Game” (Apr. 28)

a H e LL o F ro M a rizona and Ji M Ke VL in

The importance of local news

a few days ago, the first edition of the Tempe Independent – Volume one, edition one – showed up in the mailbox. inside, i learned local Congressman greg stanton presented Tempe City Council with a $500,000 check to renovate the rodeway inn on apache Boulevard to accommodate up to 200 of the city’s 380 homeless people. i learned miles-long Warner Boulevard, a major east-west road through the city, is being repaved, and made handicapped-friendly at the same time. i learned the historic 1924 Hayden House restoration is complete and will be open for public events and self-guided tours. (some 100 years ago, Charles Trumbull Hayden’s saltillo river ferry and his nearby flour mill led to the development of modern Tempe.)

There were also obituaries, sports stories and people news — there’s a new principal at Marco de niza High school, around the corner — and police blotter items. i had barely put down the Independent, when an email arrived from Hometown Oneonta/Freeman’s Journal Publisher Tara Barnwell suggesting a column to commemorate the april 18, 2021, sale of The Freeman’s Journal and Hometown Oneonta to a group of citizens determined to preserve local journalism in otsego County.

My reaction: You bet!

The arrival of the independent underscored the joys of being able to read a local newspaper. now, as i drive down Warner or past the old flour mill, or see the homeless panhandling at exits to the 101, i’m reminded how newspapers put us into the picture.

The last time i spoke to the Cooperstown rotary — 2014 or so — i remember being overly optimistic about print in the face of online challenges. Life is analog, like changing diapers, i said, and so are newspapers. end of discussion. (Little did i anticipate the metaverse.) nonetheless, newspapers are still effectively capturing our local world, and presenting it to us in a scannable, coherent package. We don’t need to wend our ways through millions of websites to find what we’re looking for: reporters and editors have already done that for us.

The Independent is a case in point, but so are Hometown Oneonta and The Freeman’s Journal, assisted by www.allotsego.com, as i’ve found in a year monitoring otsego County from air-riz-zone-er, as my wife sylvia pronounces it. i’ve read great stories, about the approval and construction of glimmerglass opera-owned apartments on lower Chestnut street; about the Cooperstown trustees’ debating how to accommodate (or not accommodate) legalized pot sales; about student charges of racism at CCs, about new oneonta mayor Mark drnek inviting the whole community under a big tent. and much more. recently, editor Ted Potrikus’s editorials, reinterpreting albany’s antics for a local audience (drawing on a decades-long career in and around state government), have been must-reads.

From afar, obituaries loom larger, including that of titan david Brenner, county board chairman, oneonta mayor and sUnY oneonta

Continued on page 8

By merl reagle

The First Commercial-Free Crossword…Spotless!

ACROSS

1 Gilda portrayer of 1946 5 Sacred chests 9 Death of a Salesman guy 13 Brando’s first film 19 Pindar works 20 Cotton field sight 21 1960s hairstyle 22 Region of SW India 23 What I wear to poker games? 26 Speaks bombastically 27 Best of the best 28 Carol time 29 Sun. scores 31 Desirable quality 32 In the low 90s? 33 Math sets 36 Webster’s first 38 Ashen 40 Marilyn’s confession to

Jack during the filming of Some Like It Hot? 46 Sun shade 49 A direction: Sp. 50 A number: Ger. 51 Summer sign 52 Tabloid tidbit 53 Rig stuff 55 Kids’ drinks in Hawaii? 57 With 87 Across, not the most exciting couple in the Midwest? 62 Elected ones 63 Vegas alternative 64 Director Browning 65 Butter sub 66 Swindled 68 Center of activity 70 Q.T. 71 How to find Al Bundy in a crowded bar? 75 ’70s discs 78 Apt cook’s name 79 Deimos, for one 80 Rotation points 81 Get a bite 82 Lhasa ___ 85 Put in the lineup 87 See 57 Across 90 What I always write on Tokyo postcards? 93 Teachers’ grp. 94 Against 95 Performance ___ 96 B.C. neighbor 97 Org. that looks for life beyond Earth 100 Reprimand 103 Everything you’ll need to entertain the in-laws? 107 Water pitcher 108 Former spouses 109 Nobelist Stern 110 Nuclear org., once 113 Sexy Bow 116 Put the kibosh on 118 The McCoys, for one 120 1921 defendant 122 Coat features 124 What DeMille always had to do? 128 Subject of a 1988 Michener book 129 Phobia start 130 Roof feature 131 Rossini subject 132 Veritable bog 133 Adjective for 1949’s Gun Crazy 134 Hitch 135 Sans warranty

DOWN

1 Shakespeare kid 2 Tennyson effort 3 Not so hot 4 Della, to Perry: abbr. 5 Disney-owned network 6 Rooter’s word 7 Place for a doktor 8 Dry, to Duarte 9 Hit the silk 10 Risky aspects 11 Like Ernst Lubitsch comedies 12 Solo player 13 Ring result 14 Pertaining to coats of arms 15 Ah-nold flick 16 Wrestling pads 17 Wartime Robert 18 The father of editorial cartooning 24 Calls out 25 Sells 30 Rejects 34 Pawnbroker’s sign? 35 Hogan’s rank 37 “Lemme go, ya big ___” 39 Neighborhood 40 Metrical foot 41 Snaky fish 42 Valhalla VIP 43 It covers Paris unveilings 44 Actress Young 45 Not that great 46 William and Brad 47 Playwright Fugard 48 Like a marsh, perhaps 54 Indiana Jones movie prop 55 Guy with a peak 56 Ball 58 Place for hay 59 Ballplayer Moises 60 Oxygen, basically 61 Snapshots, humorously 67 “Horrors!” 68 Pay attention to 69 Sky bear 72 Peck film, with The 73 Ten minutes after the hour? 74 Car emission 75 Mrs. Helmsley 76 Page of music 77 Solemn 78 9 Across, to Willy 82 A musical chord: abbr. 83 Callao’s country 84 Plants one’s butt 85 Rise, after a fall 86 German industrial region 88 UCLA or USC 89 Richard who played Al on Home Improvement 91 Doesn’t cross at the light 92 Soothing ingredient 97 “___ sells” 98 Member of a voting “college” 99 Electricity wizard 101 Bottomless place 102 Leg up 104 Hands-on Mother 105 Exxon rival 106 Sea under Italy’s “boot” 110 Muscle woes 111 Pathogen in the news 112 Monks’ hoods 113 Shut (up) 114 Composer Schifrin 115 On ___ (commensurate) 117 “___ see clearly now ...” 119 Matures 121 Sleuth’s terrier 123 Airline to Oslo 125 ___ Lanka 126 Kitty in The Killers 127 Photog’s orig.