In 1913, momentary forgetfulness of his surroundings may have possibly cost Fred L. Anderson, a fireman on the Chautauqua division of the P.R.R., his life. He left Oil City on No. 61, the fast express running between Pittsburgh and Buffalo and when the train neared Hydetown, forgetting that the “mail snatcher,” an iron post to which the sack of mail was suspended, was near his side of the engine, he looked out to take his bearings and see if everything was clear along the platform. His head came into contact with the post. He was thrown back into the arms of his engineer, C.G. Morton. A passing freight train took Anderson to Titusville hospital. Anderson was 28 years of age, was single and his home was in Brocton. His mother had arrived and spent the night with him. It was feared he would not recover.

The Fire Brigade of Plant No. 1 of the Art Metal Construction Company, Jones & Gifford Avenue, Jamestown, had a fire drill as an imaginary alarm was turned in from one of the buildings of the big plant. The men got several streams on within less than a minute after the alarm was sounded. They then returned to their work and in less than a half-hour there was a fire and a real alarm was turned in, giving the brigade an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to cope with an emergency. To their credit, the men turned out just as promptly as they did for the drill, proving beyond any doubt that the brigade was ready for duty at any instant. The fire they attended did not amount to much, being confined to some oily waste in which it started.

In 1938, Girl Scouts from Jamestown and all parts of southern Chautauqua County, numbering about 700, filled the Washington Junior High School auditorium Friday evening at a birthday party in celebration of the 26th anniversary of the beginning of Girl Scouting in this country. In spite of slippery roads, Girl Scouts came from as far away as Findley Lake, Clymer and Mayville. Each troop responded to roll call with a cheer or song. At the close of the affair, candy was served.

Mrs. Gertrude P. Herald of Isabella Avenue, widow of the late Mark L. Herald, had filed a $50,000 claim against the city as a result of the accident at the Arcade building Feb. 15 which resulted in the death of her husband. The complaint accompanying the claim alleged the city of Jamestown was negligent in maintaining the Arcade building in a dangerous condition. The city acquired the property some time ago for non payment of taxes. It was the claim of Mrs. Herald that about 8 o’clock on Feb. 15, her husband was lawfully within the premises of the Arcade building and while upon the second floor fell into an unguarded and unprotected elevator shaft formerly used as a freight elevator. It was claimed that the premises were dark at the point where the fall occurred and that no guard or warning of the presence of the shaft had been erected or maintained, that the shaft was dangerous and unsafe and that her husband fell into the shaft and to the basement of the building.

In 1963, classic Grecian charm, cascading water fountains and statues, marked the smartly styled Dorian Salon at 308 N. Main St. Jamestown, which had its official opening March 7. Samuel Paladino had brought together the splendor of beauty from several parts of the world to compile an aura of elegance for his new beauty headquarters. Gold and white were the predominating colors with a flair of aquamarine in striking contrast to the rough texture of background wood. Dramatizing the entrance to the salon were a ceiling high fountain with the water playing over a stone wall and a gold and white statue from Italy of Hebes, the Greek goddess of youth.

Two automobiles, reported stolen in Jamestown the past Friday were recovered by their owners Monday evening after being found abandoned on city streets. A late-model car belonging to Donald Anderson, 30 Vega St., taken while parked on Liberty Street, was located by a friend of Mr. Anderson, who lived on Sturges Street. He recognized a car parked on the wrong side of the street near his home as the missing vehicle. The other car, taken while parked near the home of its owner, Theodore Vollersten, 411 Lincoln St., was located by Patrolman Edward Ohmah abandoned on Weeks Street near Clyde Avenue.

In 1988, Kazusasa Tada from Osaka, Japan had come back to Jamestown after 22 years. Kaz had been an AFS student at Jamestown High in 1965-66. He lived that year with the John Peterson family on Park Street. He and his wife, Hisayo, decided to visit Jamestown on their way home to Osaka from a trip to the Caribbean. Kaz and Hisayo were taken on a tour of Jamestown and around Chautauqua Lake. Kaz thought the bridge over the lake was awesome and the lake, even though covered with ice and snow, was very beautiful. When he was living here he disliked the snow; this time he kept commenting on its beauty. The Petersons also took their visitors to an Amish farm where Hisayo purchased a beautiful quilt.

“Women and Rebirth,” an exhibit of oil paintings and ceramic sculptures by Nicolette Azicri of Erie, would be on display in the art gallery of Jamestown’s Prendergast Library from March 18 to April 29. The artist worked with themes of reincarnation and women’s issues. In the women’s series, the artist portrayed the idea that women were not against men but simply wanted an equal place in society.

In Years Past

In 1913, the Adelphian society of the Unitarian Church in Jamestown entertained about 35 couples at a dancing party in Garage Hall on Monday evening. The hall was prettily decorated in the national colors and flags were used in profusion with bunting and crepe paper. A.C. Bratt’s orchestra furnished an excellent program of dance music beginning at 9 o’clock and continuing until 1 in the morning. Refreshments consisting of punch and wafers were served during the evening.

One of the first of the Wagner-Smith factory investigation commission bills, Assemblyman Edward D. Jackson’s measure, prohibiting night work for women, passed the senate in Albany the previous night and would next go to the governor. During its investigation the Wagner-Smith commission was responsible for revelations which showed in some cases women worked all night while their husbands remained home and looked after the children. The Jackson bill provided that no woman should be employed or permitted to work in any factory in this state before 6 o’clock a.m. or after 10 p.m. of any day.

In 1938, slightly scarred but otherwise not much the worse for wear, the public servants rallied bravely this day from their annual ribbing at the hands of legislative correspondents in Albany. The correspondents pulled no punches as they rollicked through their show, “Sock-a-Bye-Baby,” a burlesque of New York politics and statecraft. With gay music and pointed ditties, the writers parodied the gubernatorial fight in prize ring language and sent Robert H. “Bustem” Jackson out of the scramble feet first, leaving Governor “Herbie” Lehman the “winnah and still champion.” Jackson, despite strenuous conditioning by Manager “Yusell” Roosevelt, never even got into the ring

Lengthy investigation into a nitroglycerin explosion which killed two men and demolished the Eastern Producers Glycerin plant near Bradford, Pa., had failed to throw any light on the cause of the disaster. Dead were Dan H. McQueeney, president of the company and Ralph Mong, shooter for the firm. The blast, which left little of the single story frame factory intact, could have been caused in “one of a hundred different ways,” stated Deputy Coroner George Lull. Between 600 and 800 quarts of prepared explosive probably were in the plant at the time, it was estimated. It was believed nobody else was near the site at the time of the blast. It was believed the men were in the ?making? room of the plant as they had intended to make four runs of more than 250 quarts each of explosive.

In 1963, a snip of a red ribbon at 10 a.m. officially opened Jamestown’s 300-car Main Street Parking Ramp, following a dedication breakfast in the Hotel Jamestown. Approximately 100 businessmen, city and ramp officials attended ceremonies culminating more than three years work in providing central downtown parking in the $800,000 structure. A total of 1,576 cars and more than 6,000 persons wound through the four-level building at a public “drive-through.” Former Mayor Carl F. Sanford, a guest at the ceremonies, said he hoped the ramp project was “not an end but a beginning of future similar projects for the good of this community.”

Mystery continued to shroud the 18-hour disappearance of a boy who was found at the home of an 87-year-old neighbor in Olean. Approximately 500 persons took part in the hunt for the youngster. Five-year-old John Anderson Jr., walked down the stairs from the second floor of the home of Mrs. John Murphy while her daughter-in-law was talking to her. He had not been mistreated. The boy’s father said he thought his son had been “lured into Mrs. Murphy’s home.” and was “locked in a room while the search was taking place.” The boy had gone to play in the snow Friday after he returned from his morning kindergarten class. His mother reported him missing four hours later.

In 1988, the Albany headquarters of the state Department of Transportation had backed the design of a Route 394 improvement project that included a five-lane segment in West Ellicott. Despite the reaffirmation of the design, Dr. Maurice B. Furlong of the Committee for the Preservation of Route 394 told The Post-Journal, “We’re not going to let them do it. We’re going to the federal highway department. In fact, we already have. We’re meeting with Stan Lundine next week as the next step.”

Gov. Mario Cuomo repeated his pledge not to run for president and called on Democratic candidates to support the man who would take the most delegates into the convention. “Whoever it is, make him the candidate,” Cuomo said. “If Mike Dukakis has 41 percent, get everybody together in a room and say, “Jesse, Gore, Gephardt, you came close, but Mike’s the candidate.” Why is 51 percent the magic number? Let’s pick the guy who’s ahead after California,” Cuomo said at a news conference in his Manhattan office.

In Years Past

100 Years Ago

In 1913, Earl H. Hill was once more in control of the Hill Piano School and the piano warehouse and rooms on the top floor of the Abrahamson-Bigelow building. He made good his promise to purchase the personal property and considerable other property belonging to the old Hill Piano Company. Some of the sheet music he said he would take but he did not care to take the pianos at the appraised valuation. The lease of the rooms, while of great value to Hill if he intended to continue his piano school, was of less value to any other person. Hill spent $5,000 in fitting up the rooms for the piano school and piano warerooms. The school room was decorated at an expense of over $1,000. There were signs which cost substantial sums of money that would of course be valueless to any person other than Mr. Hill.

The most disastrous fire in the history of Union City, Pa., Saturday night totally wiped out the plant of the Shreve Chair Company. All that was standing of what was the largest wood seat chair plant in the world, with a capacity of 6,000 chairs daily, was the heavy cement block walled storage warehouse built a year ago, about 150 feet west of the main building. The loss was estimated at $400,000 with insurance in 25 companies of nearly $200,000. More than 300 men were thrown out of employment. Crossed electric wires, it was believed, caused the fire. The Erie Railroad Co., with the main line between New York and Chicago, running on a high embankment about 30 feet from the building, had all telegraph and telephone lines destroyed and the ties in the roadbed damaged. The Union Mutual Telephone Co. had through lines between Erie and Corry burned out. Bell lines asked aid of the Erie fire department but the fire burned so rapidly that no hope of saving the factory was entertained after the first hour.

75 Years Ago

In 1938, with large throngs lining the streets for the excitement, the Jamestown Automobile Dealers’ Association staged a thrilling demonstration of the danger presented by defective automotive equipment at West Third and Cherry streets the previous evening during the parade of wrecked autos, featuring the local observance of National Used Car Exchange week. The fake accident at the busy downtown corner was the high spot of the program marking the efforts of Jamestown dealers and manufacturers to cooperate in the nationwide program to stimulate business. Headed by the American Legion fife, drum and bugle corps, the old automobiles were lined up on West Third Street and proceeded east on Third Street to Cherry where the well-planned collision was staged. Tow trucks, decorated with flaming red flares, then swung out of line, picked up the damaged machines and towed then to a gully adjacent to the Rosen Wrecking Company to be burned.

About 1,000 persons nearly filled the Jamestown High School auditorium for the sixth annual minstrel show, presented by the Willard District Men’s Club. Harry Nyquist, director of the presentation, presided as master of ceremonies in his usual clever style and the performance was enlivened by the jokes and antics of six endmen. Public officials of Jamestown and the county were the butt of many of the jokes and three soloists added to a show, one of the best of its kind to be presented in Jamestown in recent years. The audience was kept in almost continual laughter by such jokes as “You want to get a job on the sheriff’s force so that you can go to California to see Lucille Ball.” and Councilman Jones wanting “gas for an operation.”

25 Years Ago

In 1988, nine little Border Collie pups, huddled close to their mother at the Falconer SPCA, would be ready for a new home in three weeks. The mother, who had already been spoken for, had many fooled for awhile when the dog catcher thought she was a male. As she got bigger, though, it was soon discovered she was just the opposite.

A two-story storage barn was extensively damaged in a blaze that occurred at 675 Fairmount Ave. the previous evening. According to Celoron Fire Chief Ron Hasson: “When we got to the scene the fire was raging and severe damage was already done. No one was injured.” The cause of the blaze was still under investigation by the Chautauqua County Fire Investigation Team and no estimate on dollar damage had been reported. The barn was owned by Carl Vullo and Don Gaeta.

In Years Past

• In 1913, Ralph Butler, employed on track construction work on the Erie Railroad, was killed in a fight in a boxcar at Redhouse about three miles from Salamanca. Butler was beaten over the head with a shovel by Edward Nelson, another workman. Sam Smith, who claimed to have seen the fight, also charged Nelson with the crime. According to Smith’s story, he was sick and Butler offered to make some lemonade for him. Butler was busy with the preparations when Nelson came forward and tried to take the lemonade from him. In the fight which followed, Nelson beat Butler over the head with the shovel, Smith alleged. Nelson was arrested at Seneca Junction. The prisoner admitted that he quarreled with Butler but he denied using the shovel on him.

• A double-headed freight train crashed into the rear of another freight train standing in the Pennsylvania yards at Mayville several evenings ago, smashing the caboose to kindling wood and scalding E.W. Johnson, an engineer, who resided in Oil City. The accident occurred a few yards beyond the station near the overhead crossing of the Chautauqua Traction Company. The head locomotive of the double-header rolled over on its side and the wreckage caught fire. The Mayville Fire Department was called to extinguish the blaze but only a few firemen reached the place. The wreckage smoldered all night. A wrecking crew came from Corry and cleared the tracks.

• In 1938, “I’m not lost and I don’t look like Dorothy Lamour,” said a dark-haired girl of 19 as she walked into a Buffalo police station. “I am Marian Rettig of Conewango Valley and all this fuss my father has been making about hunting for his lost daughter is silly. I have written twice a week to my mother since I came to Buffalo and found work several weeks ago but she doesn’t live with my father, so of course, he wouldn’t know.” The previous day her father, Robert B. Rettig came to Buffalo and reported to the police that his daughter was missing. He carried a newspaper picture of Dorothy Lamour and told police his daughter looked like the picture. He had also visited a number of boarding houses in Buffalo in his search.

• Mrs. Cora Feldt, about 45 years old, was seriously injured in the afternoon when she fell on a buzzsaw at her home near Blockville. Meager details reveled that her arm was badly cut and an ambulance was bringing the injured woman to a Jamestown hospital. A telephone call to the Feldt home was answered by Miss Shirley Feldt, daughter of the injured woman, who was alone with her mother at the time. The girl was nearly hysterical and could give no details of the accident.

• In 1963, 20 persons, the majority of them bedridden, were evacuated without incident from Hillside Nursing Home, 348 Foote Ave., Jamestown, early this day after the building was set on fire by an overheated clothes dryer. Thirteen of the patients were removed to Jamestown General Hospital where they were handled in accordance with a prearranged disaster plan. Due to the large number of persons in the hospital at the time of the blaze, it was necessary to place all but one of the unexpected arrivals in hallways. The remaining seven patients were taken to WCA Hospital. When firemen arrived, the dryer and the basement ceiling were in flames and flames also had broken through the partition on the first floor. Fire stops prevented the blaze from extending to the second floor.

• Cowboy “Chico” rode high in the saddle as he supervised roundup of three beef cattle that wandered into Jamestown after escaping from their pasture near the office of Daniel S. Dracup, 42 N. Chicago Ave., West Ellicott. Officer Armand “Chico” Daversa drew the assignment of rounding up the strays after they were reported meandering in the Lovall Avenue section of Jamestown about 8:15 a.m. He found it necessary to recruit volunteer assistance to drive the animals back to the safe confines of their “corral.”

• In 1988, members of Chautauqua County Legislature were to vote on a proposal backed by two legislative committees to put American Locker Group of Jamestown into a building at the county airport. The resolution called for granting the company a lease/purchase option on the old Duramold hanger being used to house about 20 small airplanes after Bush Industries stopped using it as a warehouse in February.

• The new computer system purchased by the Warren County commissioners was expected to speed up countywide revaluation of real estate holdings. Mark Silbert, the county’s chief tax assessor, said the computer package was just what his tax assessment office staff needed to enter the information collected on all 26,000 properties and compare them with real estate sales to arrive at new property valuations. Silbert said the system would enable his office to have 1989 tax bills prepared and mailed on time by July.

In Years Past

100 Years Ago

In 1913, investigations were under way this day to ascertain the cause and fix the blame for the disastrous explosion of more than 300 tons of dynamite in the hold of the British tramp steamer Alum Chine, lying at anchor in the lower harbor of Baltimore, which killed more than 40 persons and seriously injured 60 more and caused property loss of more than $250,000. Immediately after the accident the federal authorities at Washington were apprised of the serious damage to the new collier, Jason, which was near the anchorage of the ill-fated Alum Chine. Word had been received that the Department of the Navy would inquire into the disaster.

One of the best and most profitable meetings in the history of the Schoolmasters’ Club of Western New York was held in the Hotel Samuels, Jamestown, Friday evening. Many prominent educators from surrounding towns and cities were present and enjoyed an evening of good fellowship and discussion. At the close of the banquet, which was served in a manner most acceptable to the school men, the president of the club, Prin. George R. Raynor of Falconer, introduced Prof. George M. Forbes of the University of Rochester, who delivered an illuminating and thought-compelling address on The Education of the Will.

75 Years Ago

In 1938, more than 22,000 women and children employed in laundries came under a New York state provision intended to provide them with a minimum guaranteed weekly wage. Industrial Commissioner Elmer F. Andrews announced a directory order determining minimum rates of pay for 20,000 employees of power laundries and 2,200 in-hand laundries after March 14. Some laundries in the metropolitan area had increased prices from 10 to 15 percent but their operators said the increases were due to higher operating costs rather than the minimum wage order.

President Roosevelt had announced approval of a $131,464 WPA allocation for removal of street car rails and the resurfacing of several miles of Jamestown streets from which rails were to be removed. Local city officials expressed delight at the speed with which the rail removal and street resurfacing project had received federal approval. Next to the North Main Street extension airport project, it would be the largest single WPA job yet undertaken here. The arrival of dependable weather and formal receipt of the federal allocation were all that stood in the way of opening the rail removing and street resurfacing job, said Director of Public Works Leland L. Graham.

50 Years Ago

In 1963, a sheriff’s deputy escaped injury the previous day when the police cruiser he was driving skidded into the accident he was on his way to investigate. Deputy Lee Kellogg was dispatched to the scene of a car-truck accident in the village of Clymer. Because of icy road conditions, the officer’s car skidded against the truck, causing only slight damage. The two vehicles originally involved in the accident were driven by Wilfred L. Damcott, 36, of Clymer and Ronny E. Doncavage, 22, of Sherman. They collided as Doncavage was making a left turn into a driveway with his car.

Preparation of a special exhibit for use in Jamestown’s fight to prevent the loss of local service by Mohawk Airlines was in its final stages, Theodore A. Peck, chairman of the City Airport Commission, announced. The exhibit, which consisted of approximately 60 pages of information, statistical data and charts on why Mohawk should continue to serve Jamestown, was put in final form by the city’s special airport counsel and consultant and Peck during a six-hour session in Washington on March 6.

25 Years Ago

In 1988, these were trying times for accountants, struggling to cope with the intricacies of the new “simplified” tax laws. John B. Lloyd, managing partner with the Jamestown office of Seidman & Seidman/BDO, said the nearly 3,000 changes in the tax law made filing under the Tax Reform Act of 1986 a challenge for the people preparing their own returns. But, he said, despite this, it need not be as terrifying as might be thought, noting, “The IRS wants more detailed information from you – not necessarily more money.”

The village of Little Valley’s plans for a new skating rink and recreational center didn’t “slide” by state Park and Recreation officials. During a Little Valley Village Board meeting, Michael Kelley, Allegany Parks Regional Project specialist, told the mayor and trustees that the blueprints did not meet state specifications and could not be endorsed by an engineer.

In Years Past

100 Years Ago

In 1913, an explosion of dynamite, far reaching and disastrous in its results, occurred in the harbor of Baltimore when 300 tons of the explosive, being loaded on board the British steamer Alum Chine, blew up. The known dead numbered seven men. Of these, four belonged to the Alum Chine and three were on board the United States naval collier Jason. Twenty-nine other men on the collier and the greater part of the crew of the Alum Chine were injured. The explosion was remarkable for the great distance the shock of the blast was felt. The shock was felt at the Philadelphia navy yard and at Reading Pa., nearly 100 miles from Baltimore.

Miss Hazel Hurlbut entertained 12 young ladies at her home on Fairmount Avenue in Jamestown Thursday evening in honor of the birthday of Miss Thetis Cobb. The party was a St. Patrick’s celebration and the decorations were in keeping. The evening was spent in telling Irish stories and in St. Patrick’s Day games. Late in the evening a two-course luncheon was served by the hostess for which the decorations were also in green and white, the place cards being shamrocks and the favors small Irish flags. Cobb received many beautiful gifts.

75 Years Ago

In 1938, an impressive ceremony marked the rededication of the pipe organ at the First Baptist Church in Jamestown at the morning service Sunday, the gift of Fred J. Galloway in memory of his sister, Grace Galloway. The church was filled to its capacity for the service, conducted by the pastor, Rev Roland O. Hudson, who offered the dedicatory prayer. The instrument had been entirely rebuilt, the church having been without an organ since November. The organ was heard for the first time with Howard Zettervall at the console.

Ashville’s only triplets, Mildred, Mary and Mable Lanning, whose parents were Mr. and Mrs. Fred Lanning of Ashville, would observe their eighth birthday anniversary the following day. The sisters were born on March 8, 1930, at Ashville. In the best of health, the girls had attended the Ashville Union Free School regularly during the past year, according to Mrs. Clarence Johnson, teacher at the school. Their older sister, Elizabeth, a member of the fourth grade, who recently returned from a visit with her aunt to Ohio, traveled to school in company with her triplet sisters who were members of the advanced first grade class.

50 Years Ago

In 1963, renewed snowfall and high winds began buffeting the area at midmorning in the wake of a storm which a veteran area fire chief described as “the worst I’ve ever experienced.” While only three area schools were closed, bus drivers experienced difficulty in making their runs in the afternoon and many schools planned to close early this day to avoid having their bus runs continue into the late afternoon or early evening hours. Motorists were stranded in hood-high snowdrifts throughout the area during the night and law enforcement officials reported scores of property damage automobile accidents during the storm.

Jamestown Mayor William D. Whitehead declared himself “firmly opposed” to any return to partisan politics in Jamestown. A public referendum had been set for April 30. One of his major objections to partisan elections, contained in a statement to The Post-Journal, centered on recent petitions for public referendums. He charged that “flagrant violations of the people’s rights” had occurred in connection with referendum petitions on fluoridation of water and partisan elections.

25 Years Ago

In 1988, area residents and tourists driving around Chautauqua Lake during the coming summer might feel that they had been transported back in time as they looked across its placid waters. Scheduled to be sailing there was a replica of a 16th-century merchantman, approximately identical in size to the “Nina” and the “Pinta” that were support ships in Christopher Columbus’ little fleet during his voyage of discovery. The vessel was the “Sea Lion,” built to the specifications and with the similar tools that would have been used had it been constructed in the age it represented. The craft failed to unfurl its sails in 1987 due to financial problems but things looked brighter this time around thanks to the generosity of some area foundations. The craft was scheduled to sail the waters of Chautauqua Lake this summer, carrying passengers.

Work to demolish the burned-out remains of the sprawling, former Watson Manufacturing buildings on Harrison Street in Jamestown would begin during this week and should be completed by May 19. Mayor Steven B. Carlson announced the start of the demolition work on the facilities, which were recently acquired by the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency. The agency had agreed to pay $162,400 to VLF Enterprises Ltd. of Niagara Falls for demolition work, leaving about 1acres at the Watson site.

In Years Past

100 Years Ago

In 1913, ever since the apple show held at the Pomona Grange in Mayville the past December, the apple men of Chautauqua County had been planning to effect a county organization. An announcement was being made that a meeting for that purpose was to be held at the Jamestown Business College auditorium on Tuesday, March 18. The meeting had been called by a number of prominent apple growers, acting through the farm bureau. Interest in the project had been manifested from many sections of the county and there was every prospect that a strong organization would be formed. The activities of the organization would probably include the spreading of standard information on the care and management of orchards and the handling and marketing of fruit, especially as governed by local conditions.

Mrs. J. J. Servoss suffered a very unusual and, as it proved, very serious accident Monday morning as she boarded the Warren-Jamestown trolley car at Russell, going to Warren. The accident happened when the car started suddenly just as she was stepping into the first car. The jolt threw her against the seat, hurting her severely. She was able to get out at Warren and went to the Warren County Savings Bank. Upon coming out of the bank, just as she stepped to the sidewalk, the knee joint gave way entirely and she fell face down, breaking her glasses and otherwise bruising herself. Servoss was taken into a store nearby where the dislocation was reduced and she was later brought to her home.

75 Years Ago

In 1938, officers of Fort Niagara faced a serious soldier housing problem as a result of the fire which destroyed one of four barracks buildings at Fort Niagara two days previously. Maj. Stuart R. Carswell said the 200 infantrymen who were left without quarters spent the night in the gymnasium. The fort, designed to accommodate only 400 men, already was crowded before the fire with 640 soldiers and 185 Civilian Conservation Corps men. Maj. Carswell said that U.S. Rep. Walter G. Andrews of Buffalo was planning to introduce a bill in Congress to have the burned barracks rebuilt.

State troopers were in Lakewood Wednesday investigating the burglarizing of a summer cottage. A passerby noticed a broken window pane and reported it to Chief Max Ehmke who investigated. He found the place had been ransacked and the contents of desk and dresser drawers dumped on the floor. The troopers went to the school and called out several boys for examination. Four were held and later confessed. They were brought before Judge Edward Bootey, who placed them on probation to Chief Ehmke. The names of the boys were being withheld.

50 Years Ago

In 1963, the wreckage of a light plane with four Grand Ole Opry personalities aboard was found about five miles west of the Tennessee River in west Tennessee. Sheriff Loye Furr said there were no survivors. Aboard were singers Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas and the pilot, Randy Hughes, who was Cline’s manager and a son-in-law of Copas. The single-engine plane was returning the recording artists to Nashville after a benefit performance at Kansas City, Kansas. It stopped at Dyersburg, near Memphis, early Tuesday night to refuel. Hughes telephoned his wife in Nashville to say they would be home soon. The plane never arrived.

A 5-year-old boy, Steven Martin, 23 Peach St., Jamestown, was reported in satisfactory condition at WCA Hospital with injuries received when he was struck by an automobile the previous afternoon at the corner of Falconer and Bowen streets. The child, son of Mr. and Mrs. Duane Martin, received several abrasions on the face and forehead and complained of pains in his back. The accident was investigated by Patrolman Cyril Brentley of the Traffic Bureau. The boy, carrying a bottle of milk, darted into the path of the car while attempting to cross the intersection. A large pile of snow at the corner prevented the driver from seeing the child in time to avoid hitting him. The boy escaped possible serious injury when the milk bottle which he was carrying was tossed safely aside by the impact.

In Years Past

• In 1913, one of the most important changes among the manufacturing establishments of this community in a long time was the purchase of the factory of the Lynndon Worsted Mills at Falconer Junction by James Simpson of Falconer and F.P. Hue of Warren, Pa. They had just taken possession and had not yet decided whether to continue the business under the old name or adopt a new one. The concern was engaged in the manufacture of worsted yarns and employed about 75 hands. The factory was located on South Work Street, fronting on the Erie railroad and was a substantial brick structure, well adapted to the business for which it was used.

• Inasmuch as some 200 veterans of the Civil War from Jamestown, many of them accompanied by their wives, were going to Gettysburg, Pa., for the semi-centenary celebration July 1-4, the following information was issued by Gen. Horatio C. King, chairman of the New York commission for the Battlefields of Gettysburg and Chattanooga. Congress was to limit the attendance to 40,000 Union and Confederate veterans from all the states, as the officials of the railroads entering Gettysburg had decided that they could not provide transportation for a greater number.

• In 1938, newly confirmed Solicitor General of the U.S., Robert H. Jackson disclosed his method for getting an oratorical wallop into his speeches. He tried them out first on 17-year-old daughter, Mary, during before-breakfast horseback rides. And if Mary was not along? “Why, in that case,” he said, “I try ’em out on the horse.”

• The average maximum age at which New York state employers would hire new workers was 35 according to results of a survey announced in Buffalo this day by the New York state League of Economics. Secretary Helen Smith of the league, giving the results of the survey at a meeting of the league’s executive council, said the figures were the result of interviews with 403 employers in New York city, Yonkers, Albany, Schenectedy, Troy, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Jamestown, Elmira and Binghamton.

• In 1963, damage to Jamestown buildings from ice and snow over the winter was expected to be the heaviest in history, costing hundred of thousands of dollars, roofing companies reported. Huge chunks of ice crashed to the ground the previous evening from the roof of the home of Mrs. Lucile Wright, 25 Liberty St., damaging a front porch and smashing shrubbery around the home. “I thought the house was falling down when those pieces of ice came crashing down,” Mrs. Wright said.

• Officials of Lakewood, Falconer and Bemus Point would make a house to house survey to learn what sort of bus improvements were desired to bolster sagging revenue of the Jamestown lines in suburban communities. The previous day, the Municipal Transit Commission met with officials from the three communities to study the situation and possible solutions. Mayor Nels Carlson, Lakewood, said he had received several calls and communications expressing a desire for later evening bus service, resumption of Sunday service and a cut in fares.

• In 1988, Britain’s Prince Charles, preparing to chair a meeting of American and British architects studying urban redevelopment, visited aging steel mill towns and offered encouragement for better times ahead. The Prince of Wales met with about 50 architects, urban planners and community leaders in Pittsburgh and was briefed on a proposal to rejuvenate the Monongahela River Valley near the city. “What concerns me, did you actually talk to the people in the area? … Have you actually identified what to do with the steel mills?” the prince asked.

• In “This Is Our Story,” Welch’s related its history as beginning with Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, the company’s founder. It stated that not only was he the first to make grape juice more than 110 years ago but by doing so developed the fruit juice industry as it was now known. In 1869, Welch, a New Jersey dentist, determined that the theories of Pasteur could be applied to grape processing to produce an unfermented wine. His experiment involved about 40 pounds of Concord grapes grown in the family’s yard, with the juice strained into 12 quart bottles which were sealed with cork and wax before immersion into boiling water to kill yeast organisms in the juice and to prevent fermentation. When Welch opened the bottles some weeks later, he found a sweet, unfermented grape juice. And so was born an industry.

In Years Past

In 1913, four men perished in a fire that destroyed a wood camp at Mayburg, Forest County, Pa., near Bradford. Anton Smyrdel, Jake Meler, Tony Zartell and Frank Zartell, Austrian woodcutters, were the victims. Several months ago the camp was opened for the accommodation of woodchoppers employed by the Tionesta Valley Chemical Company. The building was a frame structure and was occupied by the Shuster family and 40 boarders. The inmates of the camp were awakened by the fire and a scene of wild confusion ensued. They resorted to different means of egress from the building and all but four succeeded in getting out. Mrs. Shuster was painfully burned in rescuing her seven-day-old infant. The child was saved.

Horne’s Stock Company the previous night opened the week at the Lyric Theater in Jamestown in Marie Corelli’s well-known play, “Thelma.” Strict attention had been paid to detail and followed the lines of the story and the novel. This dramatization was interesting. A large crowd attended the performance. Almost every book lover was familiar with the widely-read romance and rejoiced to learn that the Horne Players had prepared a most elaborate production.

In 1938, National Used Car Exchange Week was to be observed in Jamestown starting on Saturday. Junked cars were to be paraded and then set afire. Plans for the opening were completed at a meeting of the Jamestown Automobile Dealers’ Association the previous evening. The committee was in charge of a parade of wrecking trucks and junked machines, the latter to be burned at the Rosen Company plant on Fluvanna Avenue. Jamestown Mayor Harry C. Erickson promised the city’s cooperation in this plan of the automotive industry to lift itself out of the present business recession by stimulating used car sales and thus make way for a resumption of new car manufacturing and selling on a normal scale.

George Hamil of Brockport received a fractured right clavicle and lacerations over the right eye as a result of his car skidding into a truck on the Westfield hill. Horace Muesbeck, also of Brockport, a passenger with Mr. Hamil, received lacerations of the face and hands. Mr. Hamil was taken to the W.C.A. Hospital in Jamestown after first aid had been administered by Dr. Guy Granger. The men had been driving toward Westfield and skidded into the rear end of a truck driven by Miles Muick of Erie. Hamil’s car, a new 1938 heavy model sedan, was so badly crushed that crowbars were necessary to pry open the doors to release the injured men.

In 1963, the New York Legislature’s Republican leaders cranked up for a last-ditch effort to salvage a portion of Gov. Rockefeller’s license-increase plan as a face-saving device for Rockefeller. The governor’s proposal for a $48-million boost in motor vehicle registration appeared to be dead. Informed sources reported, however, that Assembly Speaker Joseph F. Carlino and Senate Majority Leader Walter J. Mahoney hoped to obtain agreement for an increase of at least $24 million in liquor-license fees. It was understood that the Republican governor still harbored some hope that the rebellious Legislature would relent and vote a portion of the motor vehicle increase as well.

About 115 union workers of the Fibre Forming Corp. in Olean were expected to return to work this day without pay. The employees, members of Local 22, American Federation of Grain Millers, had worked the past two weeks without pay. They decided to continue working even though prospects of getting paid soon remained dim. The company was attempting to improve its financial status and customers and suppliers were being “most cooperative,” Charles Nolan, president, said. The company manufactured plastic fibre forms for luggage and the television industry among other items and had enough orders to keep three shifts going.

In 1988, humanitarian aid to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua was shot down in the House of Representatives with votes from both area congressmen being a resounding no. U.S. Representatives Amory Houghton Jr., R-Corning, and William F. Clinger Jr., R-Warren, voted no to both packages that came to a vote. The first vote was on the Democratic Party proposal for humanitarian aid that had an initial approval vote of 215-210. Final passage of that bill was defeated by a vote of 216-208. That kept the Republican proposal from coming to a vote. The difference in the bills was that the GOP plan called for about $6 million more in aid, with the funds being distributed through the CIA.

Jamestown Postmaster Ronald E. Atkinson admitted getting a little better insight into what his carriers had to deal with on their daily rounds in the city. Atkinson said, “I was tired yesterday. It was a lot tougher than I anticipated. There was a lot of ice still on the sidewalks and some of the steps were not in the condition you want your carriers on.” The postmaster was one of three supervisory employees who delivered routes in fulfillment of an agreement that this would be done if the carriers on the 37 such routes had an accident-free 1987.

In Years Past

100 Years Ago

In 1913, the interest which had developed among kindhearted people willing and even anxious to provide a home for the foundling left a week ago on the steps of the Guy D. Catlin home on English Street, had caused Miss Amy Pryor Tapping, the county agent for dependent children, to ask The Journal to print the stories of several other little ones for whom she was anxious to find homes. None of the little ones could claim credit for being brought to public attention in quite as sensational a manner as the child left at the Catlin home, but all were very attractive children and all deserved equally good homes as this little one would get with the Catlin family which had finally decided to adopt the child.

In a basketball game in which there was very little basketball and an unusually large amount of roughhousing, the Myob Athletic Club team of Jamestown met defeat at the hands of the Chamberlain Military Institute five at Randolph Saturday evening by the score of 27-14. The locals were sadly handicapped by the peculiar arrangements of the baskets, which made it impossible to bank the ball into the nets, it being necessary to shoot each basket clean. Girard, the center of the military lads proved a star at this mode of shooting and caged nine goals from the field.

75 Years Ago

In 1938, it was indicated that the Senate would confirm the nomination of Robert H. Jackson of Jamestown as solicitor general of the United States this day by an overwhelming majority. Sen. Warren Austin, Vermont Republican, was expected to continue the attack he started the previous day in a 40-minute speech and Sen. William H. King, Utah Democrat, might follow with an attack upon Jackson’s attitude toward big business and monopoly. While her husband’s nomination was being debated in the Senate, Mrs. Jackson sat in the gallery, an interested listener, dressed in black.

Benjamin Simeon Dean, a nationally known authority on the constitution of the United States, constitutional lawyer, writer and former newspaper publisher, died at the WCA Hospital the previous afternoon at 4 p.m. at the age of 77 years. Death resulted from a fall at his home on East Eighth Street four days ago in which he sustained a fracture of the right hip. Up to the time of the accident, he had attended to his practice although in failing health for many months. Dean was a native of the town of Randolph where his birth occurred May 10, 1860. Dean had always taken an active part in public affairs of Jamestown and was keenly interested in political affairs.

25 Years Ago

In 1988, a community college president who spent nearly two weeks in Nicaragua in January said the biggest problem that country faced was its poor economy. And, on the eve of a vote in Congress on whether to send humanitarian aid to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, Donald Hangen, president of Corning Community College and one of eight college presidents who accompanied U.S. Rep. Amory Houghton Jr., R-Corning, to Nicaragua, said regardless of whether aid was sent, it was not going to do much to end the war or solve that nation’s problems. “A vote for aid or not for aid is not going to make that war go away,” Hangen said.

By the end of March, Jamestown should have the final decision on a proposed $3.6 million mental health complex at Jamestown General Hospital and a competing psychiatric and alcohol rehabilitation project at WCA Hospital. But in the meantime, the hospitals wouldn’t be allowed to appeal a local health planning agency’s recommendation which rejected Jamestown General’s plan to build the Institute of Behavioral Medicine. The Health Systems Agency of Western New York had instead called for splitting mental health services between the hospitals, mainly because of cost concerns.

In Years Past

• In 1913, it required little more than the mention of the attraction which had come to the Samuels Theater in Jamestown to start the theater-goers smiling. The theme and fun of this Pullman car carnival, as Rupert Hughes, its author, had dubbed it, were so familiar that one was apt to forget “Excuse Me” had a story. The eloping bride and groom; the young lady missionary bound for China; an old bachelor who becomes a convert to matrimony; the inevitable English tourist; the mismated couples who chafe under the ties-that-bind and are bound for Reno at top speed to get their matrimonial knots severed; with special remembrance of the philosophic porter and the pompous conductor who do so much to make the journey an event in the lives of both the passengers and the audience. “Excuse Me” was a welcome visitor to any city.

• Floyd Woodward, charged with stealing a suitcase from the Erie station at Lakewood the past summer, was arraigned in Justice Cowing’s court at Lakewood and pleaded not guilty, demanding a jury trial. The date for the trial was fixed for the forenoon of March 12. Bail, in the sum of $200 was furnished by the father of the defendant. Woodward was only recently released from the jail at Erie, Pa., where he had been confined pending the disposition of a charge preferred against him by Pennsylvania people. The complainants did not care to push the charge.

• In 1938, the Buy Jamestown Furniture campaign of the Upholsterers’ Local union No. 38, American Federation of Labor, would be launched the following week to continue indefinitely in cooperation with local retail merchants and manufacturers. The campaign would consist of newspaper advertising, posters in store windows and letters to unions and other organizations. The upholsterers’ union voted to offer a consulting service to all shoppers. Union men familiar with various phases of furniture manufacture would meet with retail clerks to demonstrate the important features of upholstered furniture. In addition, the union would have available men who would accompany furniture shoppers and give them similar information.

• Donald N. Morse, about 30 years old, of Jamestown, met instant death Tuesday evening about 7 p.m. while driving on the main road about four miles east of Westfield. His machine left the road and crashed into a telephone pole when the front left tire blew out. Coroner W.R. Crandall of Westfield was notified and following investigation, issued a certificate of accidental death. State troopers also investigated the accident. Morse, a native of Brocton, was credit investigator for the Hooper-Holmes Company, working out of Buffalo. He was returning from Buffalo and was on his way to Brocton when the accident occurred.

• In 1963, the first day of March, which started off in comparatively docile fashion, became lion-like before the day ended, with traffic at a standstill from time to time throughout the area as a heavy blanket of wet snow fell. Temperatures reached a mild 30 degrees during the day, making the snow extremely slippery. The overnight low was 10 degrees. Heavy snow tapered off in most other parts of the state this day after a downfall that measured up to seven inches. Storm-related accidents caused at least three traffic fatalities on slippery and snow-laden highways in the state.

• Jamestown-area dance lovers would have an opportunity to enjoy the thrill of dancing to tantalizing tunes performed by a unique orchestra which perpetuated the name and incomparable melodies of one of the music world’s all-time greats. This was revealed with the announcement that the 48th annual Policemen’s Ball, to be held in the state armory on Porter Avenue on April 18, would feature a performance by the new Glen Miller Orchestra under the personal direction of Ray McKinley. The ball, one of the oldest traditional events on the Jamestown social calendar, was the association’s only means of raising money to provide insurance for active and retired members of the department.

• In 1988, William Warner was hard at work on the deck of the Bemus Point-Stow ferry, being renovated by Medina Services, Inc. of Westfield. Beams and a third of the ferry’s steel deck would be replaced and then covered with a new wooden deck. The renovated ferry, also to be repainted, would be ready to sail by Memorial Day.

• A decision had been made to postpone the fourth Chautauqua Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations to September from late May as originally scheduled. The announcement was made by Joseph C. Johnson, Chautauqua Institution vice president/treasurer, who said the decision was a reaction to a possible U.S.-Soviet summit conference in May or June. “There’s no way we want to compete with that,” Johnson said. About 275 people were expected to make the trip from the U.S. to the Soviet Union for the conference, to be held at Tbilisi, with about 180 of them as the Chautauqua citizen delegation.

In Years Past

• In 1913, 4 million glistening new nickels, with an Indian head on the face and the figure of a buffalo on the reverse, to replace the time-honored five cent piece with the Goddess of Liberty as its characteristic, were piled in the vaults of the United States treasury to be turned into public circulation later this day. Only once in 25 years could the secretary of the Treasury, without the sanction of Congress, change the design of any coin. President Wilson’s secretary of the treasury would have an opportunity to change the dime, quarter and half-dollar because in 1915 the present design would have been in circulation for a quarter-century.

• The fate of the babe which was left a little over a week ago on the steps of the Catlin home on English Street in Jamestown, rested entirely in a slight infection which had developed with the little one’s eyes, for Mr. and Mrs. Catlin had finally decided to take the child for adoption if the eyes proved to be all right. The baby was at the Jones General Hospital and would be kept by Overseer of the Poor, Palm, until the eye trouble was settled. That the story of the foundling had a wide reading was evidenced by the fact that nearly 40 applications for the child for adoption had been received by Overseer Palm since the story was printed the previous week.

• In 1938, the City of Jamestown, Chautauqua Lake steamer, last of the lake fleet, would not be scrapped and sold for junk but was for sale as a going concern according to its owner, Richard D Hiernaux, who informed the Chamber of Commerce officials he would entertain propositions to promote its continued operation. Prior to the meeting it appeared probable that the steamer was headed for the scrap heap, falling victim to an era of speeding automobiles, airplanes and streamlined trains.

• Oliver Benson, 54, of Silver Creek, was confined to bed but would recover from the effects of carbon monoxide gas poisoning suffered while working on his car. After working for some time in his garage, Benson began to feel ill and managed to reach the door where he collapsed. Mrs. Benson went to the garage to see why he did not come into the house and found him on the floor. With the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Aud, neighbors and their sons, James and Joseph, Mr. Benson was taken into the house and the work of resuscitation started. Dr. J. Munzesheimer was nearby and arrived within a few minutes after Benson’s plight was discovered.

• In 1963, civic leader and noted club woman Mrs. Albertus W. Rappole was Jamestown’s Woman of the Year for 1962. The honor was bestowed upon her by the Inter-Club Council at Marvin Community House where a host of Mrs. Rappole’s friends and family had assembled in secret. Announcement was made by Robert S. Koon, managing editor of The Post-Journal, who served as chairman of judges. “When the judges met to make our final decision,” Mr. Koon said, “we were asked to base our selection on the following: the person should have given community services for the year 1962 without remuneration. The community should have been enriched by the services rendered. With this as our basic guide, we chose the wonderful lady nominated by the Jamestown Chapter, National Secretaries Association.”

• Robert Tanner, Chautauqua County civil defense director, had announced that March 4 was the last day for the purchase of civil defense radios under the matching fund program. Towns, villages and schools that did not have amateur radios to be in communication with the control center in Mayville, could order one on or before March 4. The cost to the town, village or school would be approximately $200 and the federal government would pay the other $200.

• In 1988, two skiers hung on while horses pulled them during a “skijoring” competition as part of a festival celebrating the recent opening of the Cattaraugus County Bank in Randolph. The sport, in which horses raced while they towed skiers by ropes connected to the saddles, was popular in Scandinavia.

• There was no known meteorological or historical precedent for the old saying that if March came in like a lion, it would go out like a lamb – or the other way around. At least Meteorologist Joe Pace with the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service said he didn’t know of any. Pace did explain, however, that March generally started out on the windy side with velocities often subsiding toward the end of the month – which could at least lend some credence to the lion/lamb theory. Pace noted he was hoping for a warm spring such as was experienced the previous year.

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