100 Years Ago
In 1912, there was a wreck on the Erie near Bucktooth early the previous evening and Engineer Edward Gourley, who lived at Meadville had an arm broken and was bruised considerably. It was stated that Engineer William M. Shelvey lost control of his engine and ran a distance of seven miles, when it crashed into the freight train of which Gourley was the engineer. Engineer Shelvey and his fireman, it was reported jumped and escaped injury. The story first sent was to the effect that two freight trains collided with a work train, which was derailed and a score of Italians buried in the wreck. This does not seem to have been correct.
The first meeting of Jamestown chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, for the year, was held at the home of the regent, Miss S. Flora Broadhead of South Main Street. The new yearbooks were distributed. Miss Lucy Tiffany Henderson giving a resume of the year's program. The topic for the year would be Municipal Patriotism. The special topic was Jamestown's Memorial to Soldiers and Sailors, under which title the proposed soldiers and sailors' monument was discussed. It was hoped and expected that during the year the movement for a monument to those who had fought for their country would receive a substantial impetus.
75 Years Ago
In 1937, the West Chautauqua Dairy Herd Improvement Association sponsored by the local Farm Bureau and tested by Robert A. Hume contained 672 cows with 104 dry. Eighty cows were placed on the Honor Roll. G. S. Cowles and Son had the high cow for fat production, a registered Holstein, six years old, producing 67.3 pounds of butter fat and 1,770 pounds of milk. George Pringle had the high cow for milk, also a registered Holstein producing 2,109 pounds of milk and 61.2 pounds of butter fat.
Judson J. Young, 59, well-known retired farmer, was instantly killed about 10 o'clock on this morning when he fell 15 feet from a ladder while picking apples on the farm of his son, Russell Young. Mr. Young, who had lived in the village of Randolph practically his entire life, was a member of the local Masonic lodge and had been president of the Randolph Central School board since the organization of the district six years previously. He was a member of the Grange and in 1929 was awarded the state degree of master farmer.
50 Years Ago
In 1962, alertness of an unidentified woman motorist the previous night in detecting a "fire about to happen" in the show window of a store on Allen Street was credited by the Jamestown Fire Department with preventing what might have been a serious fire. The department received a telephone call from a woman who reported that as she was driving past the Jones Brothers Furniture Store, 458 Allen Street, she noticed that a lighted table lamp had toppled over and was lying on a davenport in such a position that heat from the lamp might ignite the upholstery.
Four women on their way home from a meeting of a church group were killed in the collision of their automobile and another car during a light rain. State Police said the car carrying the women was struck broadside on the driver's side as it backed out of a driveway of a farm home on a dark county road near the hamlet of North Bangor, about six miles west of the Northern New York village of Malone. It was the second traffic accident in the state in three days to take four lives. Four students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute were killed early Sunday in the collision of their car and a tractor-trailer. They were returning to the RPI campus at Troy after dates with girls in Bennington, Vt.
25 Years Ago
In 1987, the Iranian ambassador said a U.S. attack on his country's patrol boats amounted to a declaration of war and that Iran would respond "at the proper time." He accused the United States of trying to ruin prospects for peace in the 7-year-old conflict between Iran and Iraq. "We think we are at war. We think we are being killed by the Americans," Ambassador Said Rafaie-Khorassani told reporters at a U.N. news conference. The U.S. government contended four Iranian gunboats opened fire without warning on a U.S. observation helicopter patrolling the northern Persian Gulf. Washington contended the confrontation ended when an Army attack helicopter strafed and disabled three of the Iranian boats, sinking one.
The Porter Sheldon Mansion was quietly crumbling at 70 Prospect St., Jamestown, while the owner, the Jamestown chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, tried, with limited funds, to keep the imposing historic building together. Porter Sheldon was president of American Aristotype Co. during the late 1800s. His mansion at one time overlooked the four factories and seven auxiliary buildings of the company. The company rapidly grew to a worldwide business. George Eastman of Eastman Kodak became president. The firm continued operations in Jamestown under Eastman Kodak until 1920, when it was moved to Rochester.