×

In Years Past

In 1913, the Lyric Theater would be opened Monday, Labor Day, under the management of Edward T. Connelly and performances would be given daily except Sunday. An unusually strong bill had been secured for the opening week, the headliner being The Candy Store Girls, with a cast of seven persons. This act was one continuous flow of music and fun and never failed to score a tremendous hit wherever it was presented.

A bad burning accident, saved from being a fatality only by the presence of mind of Myrtle James of Sampson Street, Jamestown, occurred Friday night when Emma Munson, also of Sampson Street, caught the arm of her dress on fire by reaching over the flame of a gas stove. Munson was getting supper when the accident occurred and almost instantly the light material of her dress sleeve and the upper part of her clothing were all on fire. She screamed and rushed out of doors to the home of James next door, every step fanning the flames. James forced her down to the ground and beat out the fire and ended the conflagration by dashing a pail of water over the remains of Munson’s dress. The ambulance took Munson to Jones General Hospital where she was resting comfortably.

In 1938, Britain’s ambassador to Germany left by plane for Berlin this day armed with what informed persons said was authority to warn Germany anew in vigorous terms that Britain might not be able to remain neutral if war came in Central Europe. The envoy, Sir Nevile Henderson, looked grave as he boarded his plane. Henderson was expected to arrive in Berlin shortly after 6 p.m. to see Foreign Minister Joschim von Ribbentrop soon thereafter. He was bringing a personal message for Reichsfuehrer Hitler from Prime Minister Chamberlain.

Fire of unknown origin broke out with startling suddenness at the old Charles S. Abbot summer residence on the lakefront at Driftwood last midnight and completely destroyed the structure. Fire Chief C.A. Sondell of the Fluvanna Fire Department said that he was going to request state police to investigate the blaze although the chief himself doubted there was anything unusual about it. Several alarms were turned in for both the Fluvanna and Bemus Point Fire departments within a minute or two after the fire became visible. Formerly regarded as one of the most beautiful places along either of Chautauqua Lake’s shores, the estate was once the scene of many attractive parties. It was also, more recently, known to have harbored an illicit still for a period of time.

In 1963, the historic “hot line” between Washington and Moscow was open for business – business that officials hoped would never come. A tinkle of a bell in the White House or Kremlin – at either end of the emergency communications system – might signal the next world crisis. but it might also keep nervous fingers from pressing the buttons that would launch nuclear war. Completion of the circuits, made possible by a U.S.-Soviet agreement to create machinery for forestalling war, was announced Friday night by the Pentagon.

Lucille Ball, Jamestown’s star of screen and television, was writing the story of her life with the assistance of Betty Hannah Hoffmann of Newtown, Pa., author of several books. Hoffman had been in Jamestown this week with permission of Lucille Ball to collect stories and anecdotes especially of her early years here. The book would also be published in condensed form in one of the well-known magazines.

In 1988, area women had broken tradition lines and joined all-male clubs following a Supreme Court ruling passed in 1987. And, they were getting along nicely, thank you. Since the ruling, male clubs had opened their doors to women and women’s clubs had done the same, but not without some reservations. “Some members didn’t want to (accept women into the club) but after the controversy died down, it really hasn’t made a difference,” Dr. Charles Hannum, president of the Fredonia Rotary Club, said. “I felt a little awkward at first because I was aware that some people weren’t ready for the change,” said Nancy Brumfield, one of the first women invited into the Fredonia Rotary Club in November 1987. But she said that she soon felt comfortable.

The forest fire that had charred thousands of acres of Yellowstone National Park was much larger than anything firefighters in New York state would expect to contend with. But a crew of firefighters who returned to New York on Tuesday said their stint in the national park was invaluable experience for fighting smaller fires closer to home. “You learn more in two weeks out there than you would in several years here about fires,” Douglas Riedman, a forest ranger from Old Forge, said upon arriving at the Albany County Airport. Eighteen men from across the state spent two weeks helping to contain a fire in the northwest corner of the oldest national park.

In Years Past

In 1913, the Rev. Christopher Schiesl, one of the oldest and most widely known priests of the order of Passionists, was drowned about 6 p.m. the previous evening while bathing on the north side of the Beacon pier at Point Gratiot. The body had not been recovered. Father Christopher and the Rev. Oswin McGibbon, of St. Mary’s Church in Dunkirk, were bathing together near the point. The lake was rough and there was a strong back wash. Father Oswin had climbed to the pier when he discovered that Father Christopher, who was a poor swimmer, was in distress. Father Oswin went to the aid of his brother priest but the back wash was too strong and he became exhausted. The hold he had on Father Christopher was broken and the latter was swept away and disappeared beneath the surface.

Plans for the celebration of Labor Day in Jamestown on Monday were practically complete and indications pointed to one of the best local celebrations of the day in many years. The day’s program as usual would be under the direction of the Central Labor Council with which the various unions were affiliated. Of course, the success of the day would depend in a large measure on the condition of the weather. The parade would be the principal feature of the day as usual and would form at 10 a.m. and pass over the principal streets of the city as noted elsewhere. A pleasing feature of the parade would be the floats to be prepared by several of the local unions.

In 1938, a large merchandise truck lay in Lake Erie at the bottom of a 40-foot cliff near Dunkirk this day. Frank and Joseph Kuzma, Cleveland, Ohio-based truck drivers, reported to police their heavy vehicle became unmanageable late the previous night and swerved from the highway. They jumped, they said, and the truck ran down an incline, through gardens and an orchard and went over the cliff and into the Lake.

At the meeting of the board of education with Chairman L.S. Rossiter presiding, the plans and specifications prepared by Raymond A. Freeburg, architect, of Jamestown, for the proposed new centralized school building in Brocton, were accepted. Mr. Freeburg submitted the plans some time ago and by them the Federal grant of approximately $180,000 was obtained. It was expected that operations on the building would commence by Oct. 1 and if possible, would be ready for pupils the latter part of 1939.

In 1963, residents of Sunset Bay had started circulating a petition calling for federal help to prevent a recurrence of a disastrous flood, which the past March 17, caused heavy damage in the area. About 750 families had permanent and summer homes in the town of Hanover community where the Cattaraugus Creek flowed into Lake Erie. It was hoped eventually that a federal engineer could make a complete study and recommend steps for a permanent solution to flood ills.

Business leaders and city officials were jubilant with their success in attracting another new industry to Salamanca, the second in less than a month, and joined together with the officials of the new Palmer Bakery Inc. in a welcoming get-together at the plant the past evening. The new company, which had purchased the former milk processing plant, later the Gordon Baking Co. on Summit Street, would manufacture and distribute hand-cut cookies in four different varieties under the brand name of Palmer’s Hand-Cut Cookies.

In 1988, current scientists had suggested that future archaeologist unearthing American cities might well designate the present era as the plastic civilization. The matter was one of some concern nationally and a the local level. Among the major contributors locally were supermarkets using plastic carry-out bags to accommodate customer purchases. Many of the bags ended up at Chautauqua County’s town of Ellery landfill where their light weight could cause them to become airborne and attach themselves to fences, trees and bushes throughout the area before they could be buried. Some area supermarkets were making a conscious move away from plastic bags and other containers to help lessen the problem locally.

Mandatory recycling was the alternative Pennsylvania legislators chose to replace a twice-proposed and twice-defeated beverage container deposit law. “As far as a so-called Bottle Bill, I don’t see anything in the immediate future because now that we have this recycling law in effect, I think people are going to wait and see how much glass gets recycled under this program,” state Rep. Curt Bowley, D-Sheffield, said. Bowley was the main sponsor of a beverage container deposit law in 1986 which gained him the title “Bottle Bill Bowley.”

In Years Past

  • In 1913, 15,000 people at the Hamburg Fair saw Albert Gerstner, a balloonist, 22, of Gloucester, N.J., drop to his death. For an hour after the tragedy probably not more than 100 persons in the crowd knew they had seen a tragedy. During the fair the young man had been making a double parachute drop from a balloon and after the first parachute had opened successfully, the second failed him and he fell some 400 feet. He was found dead by Deputy Sheriffs Westenfelter and Inderbitzen. Gerstner had two parachutes and he dropped from one to the other in coming down. It was a thriller. At the ascension people gasped and turned away thinking the man had fallen until assured by others that it was all part of the act.
  • At a hearing conducted by Coroner Stone and District Attorney Harry Nelson at Shinglehouse, Pa., it developed that two boys started the freight engine which crashed into the passenger train on Sunday evening, causing the death of Lewis Cornish of Canisteo. John Hoffman, who lived nearby and his son, saw the man leave the engine just before it started. One of the boys was questioned and it was said admitted that he and another boy had mounted the engine and had unintentionally started it. Becoming alarmed, they jumped off and ran into the heading mill where they told a night watchman that an engine was running away.
  • In 1938, state and local health officials were investigating the outbreak of a case of typhoid fever at a trailer camp at Crystal Bend, near Beechwood and reported that the single case discovered was of distant origin and that a spread of the disease in this area was highly unlikely. In addition to the one patient suffering from the disease in the isolation ward of Jamestown General Hospital, five other persons, all members of the same trailer tourist party, were at the hospital under observation. Margaret Costello, 38, who was from Providence, R.I., was the fever victim. Her condition was complicated by pneumonia. No new cases of the fever had broken out among the other five suspects by edition time, it was said. There were 21 persons in the party, traveling in four trailers.
  • A 92-year-old man was instantly killed in a traffic accident Sunday afternoon. Peter Madson, who resided about four miles north of Cherry Creek, was the victim of the fatal crash. The accident occurred at about 5 p.m. Sunday when Madson allegedly stepped into the path of a car driven by Howard Maplesden of Cherry Creek. The tragedy occurred almost directly in front of the Madson home. Maplesden informed Coroner Ruttenbur that Madson was crossing the highway and stepped directly into the path of his car. Efforts to avoid striking the aged man were unavailing, he said.
  • In 1963, Charles Bartlett, 19, of Cheektowaga, driver of the car in which seven teenagers narrowly missed death in Allegany State Park Monday night, was fined $50 and given a 30-day suspended sentence by Police Justice Floyd Mohr in Salamanca. Gail Simon, 16, of Kenmore, thought merely to have suffered a slight knee injury was found to require hospitalization for head injuries after her return to Kenmore by her parents early Tuesday morning. She was entered in the hospital there and it was reported that she had head injuries which required continuing medical attention. Linda Stallman, 15, also of Kenmore, was thought to be the most seriously hurt but was discharged from the hospital the previous day.
  • Area physicians were alerted by Dr. Lyle D. Franzen, state health officer, that vacationers returning recently from the Caribbean area might have been exposed to dengue fever. The illness, also called “break-bone fever,” was not contagious and was transmitted only by the bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. Doctor Franzen said dengue fever rarely occurred in the United States. But some 2,000 cases had been reported over the summer in Puerto Rico and about 80 cases in Jamaica.
  • In 1988, New York State Police would begin using Ford Mustangs on state highways by Labor Day. Forty of the subcompacts would be deployed. The Fords had a top speed of 150 mph, while the standard Dodge Diplomat had a top speed of 110 mph. The Mustangs would be used on interstates and controlled-access highways only.
  • Authorities in several communities were cleaning up after a series of vicious storms swept across New York state, killing a Schuyler County woman, toppling trees and power lines, dumping golf-ball sized hail and canceling the last two races at Saratoga Race Course. High winds verging on tornadoes accompanied Sunday’s storms. “Apparently, it was almost a tornado,” said Dispatcher David Bush of The Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department. “The wind was blowing at 50 or 60 mph. It was snapping telephone poles right at the bases.” Killed in a storm that hit the Town of Hector was 70-year-old Alice Mahoney, who died after her mobile home was destroyed by the wind at about 3:45 p.m. The Mahoney mobile home was rolled 25-30 feet by a wind that was as brief as it was devastating.

In Years Past

In 1913, the staunch little launch, DeVawter, left Colburn’s dock at 5 a.m. in the morning with a party on board who were anxious to get to Jamestown very early in the day. The fog was very dense about daylight. James Hayward had charge of the craft. After running for an hour the men discovered that the boat was not getting anywhere. It was high time the familiar points of Celoron were to be seen but they could not be located. It was the unanimous opinion that Celoron had disappeared from the map during the night. A whistle of a train was heard off to one side. They figured it was that of a freight train on the Erie road and so, taking out a compass, they headed for Jamestown. The train proved to have been the J.C. & L. E. on the north side of the lake, instead of the Erie on the south side. This was discovered when the boat finally landed at Driftwood at 7 a.m., only a short distance from the point where it started two hours earlier. Then the trip began all over again. By this time the fog had lifted enough for them to head in the right direction.

Albert and George Halsall who were arrested for stealing the watch of Mary Warner of Cross Street in Jamestown, did not accomplish much by denying the theft, for Justice Maharon gave them a trial this morning and after hearing all the evidence pronounced them guilty and sentenced them to 63 days imprisonment in the Erie County penitentiary. When Warner went to police court and swore out the warrant for their arrest, the evidence against them was pretty slim, being simply the fact that the two men stopped at her home and after their departure the watch was missing. More evidence was found later.

In 1938, among the delightful late summer affairs was the tea given by Mrs. Howard Dow at her summer home at Lakewood Thursday afternoon in honor of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. James Gordon Taylor a June bride. In the receiving line with Dow and Taylor were Dow’s mother, Mrs. Peter Campbell of Newark, N.J. and Mrs. Fletcher Goodwill. They received the 175 guests before the fire place in one of the living rooms, which was beautifully decorated with great clusters of gladioli in tall baskets.

A truckload of legal-size trout arrived in Mayville on Saturday for planting in streams in this vicinity. The truck was met by members of the local conservation association and other interested sportsmen who, using their cars as conveyances, took the fish to Chautauqua and Prendergast creeks where they were deposited. The fish were sent here from Randolph fish hatchery.

In 1963, negroes and white supporters gathered about the Washington Monument for a demonstration aimed at influencing Congress to enact a broad program of anti-discrimination legislation. By rail, air and highways, they came pouring into the city for what sponsors called the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” At 9:45 a.m., by police estimate, there were 25,000 demonstrators on hand. George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the anti-Negro-anti-Jewish American Nazi Party, showed up at daybreak on the fringe of the monument grounds with about 40 young followers and police promptly ringed them in a tight circle. The Nazis were not in uniform and Rockwell said they did not plan a counter-demonstration but would only act as observers. Leaders of the march were to meet with leaders of Congress on Capitol Hill before the march and then with President Kennedy at the White House after the demonstration.

Thirty-four percent more of Jamestown’s public school students were staying in school as compared with the national average. This was reported by Superintendent Dr. Harold L. O’Neal who quoted figures on “retention percentages” before the Board of Education. Dr. O’Neal said the figures did not represent “drop-outs” but showed the percentage of students who remained enrolled from year to year in grades 1 through 12. The percentage of students who remained enrolled during the 1961-62 school year in Jamestown was 84.1 percent compared with a national average of 50 percent. Failure to register for ninth grade was normally high for most schools “but this is not true in Jamestown,” he added.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, the boiler of the steamer City of Buffalo of the Chautauqua Steamboat Company sprang a leak late the previous afternoon. The boat was tied up at the Bemus Point dock until late in the evening when the City of Cleveland attempted to tow her down to Jamestown. At a point near the first bend in the outlet the Buffalo went aground and after several ineffectual attempts to pull her off, the Cleveland went on down to Jamestown where she discharged her passengers and then returned and finally succeeded in bringing the disabled steamer to the boat landing.
  • An unusual attraction in the baseball line was scheduled for the cricket ground the following Saturday afternoon, when the team representing the Art Metal Construction Company would play Chief Logan’s club of Seneca Indians from the Cattaraugus Indian reservation. This Indian aggregation had the distinction of going so far this season without a defeat. The game would be called at 3 p.m. sharp, so that the visitors might make the 5:40 p.m. Buffalo train over the Erie for home. The Art Metal team was composed of some of the best players in the City of Jamestown baseball league, which was disbanded a few weeks ago.
  • In 1938, widows were asked to bring a picnic basket for two. It was the widows’ and widowers’ second field day and picnic at Owasco Park bordering Owasco Lake, near Auburn, an affair intended to bring cheer to lonely hearts. Mary J. Trickey of North Cohocton, self-styled “fairy godmother” to lonely widows and widowers, had completed arrangements for the second outing, inspired by the success of an earlier affair held at Leon Lake in June. Two hundred were expected at the first outing but 500 actually attended. Trickey asserted that “nearly all” of the 500 who attended the first party sent letters urging that another be held.
  • The condition of Bertha Upton of Buffalo, who suffered a fracture of the neck in an automobile accident near Vukote Thursday night, was reported considerably improved at WCA Hospital on this afternoon. Hospital officials still used the word “fair” in describing the woman’s condition, however. Joseph A. Hens, 40, Buffalo city fireman, who was driving the accident car, pleaded not guilty to a charge of reckless driving when arraigned before Justice of the Peace Merrills E. Trask at Lakewood. A charge of drunken driving against Hens was withdrawn before the arraignment.
  • In 1963, seven teenagers in a shiny 1963 bucket-seated convertible with the top down, rapidly spun the wheel of Fortune on a down-grade on Route 2 at Allegany State Park the previous evening and six of them came out winners, but the seventh had yet to have her odds determined. About 7 p.m., five members of a Kenmore High School sorority on their second day in the park were hiking along the road. A car stopped and they were offered a lift by Charles Bartlett, 19, of Cheektowaga who was accompanied by a friend. The five girls accepted and happily piled in. Soon they were driving down the road at speeds ranging as high as 110 miles per hour. The driver took a curve too fast and drove off the road and traveled along the road shoulder and in the ditch an estimated 341 feet. The car finally nosed into a culvert and smashed against a tree. Most of the injuries were minor. Most seriously hurt was 15-year-old Linda Stallman of Kenmore who had broken ribs and possible internal bleeding.
  • Members of the Lakewood Village Board of Trustees, upset by repeated delays in the rezoning of Fairmount Avenue to promote commercial development, had called a special meeting for this night with a Buffalo planning engineer employed as a consultant to the Village Planning Board. The Trustees had received a communication from the Zoning Board of Appeals rejecting the Planning Board’s latest plan for redesignation of Fairmount Avenue. It had been proposed that certain residential areas be rezoned for commercial development.
  • In 1988, Jeffrey Benjamin Froke of Trabuco Canyon, California had been appointed president of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. He would assume the presidency in September. A doctoral candidate at the University of California at Los Angeles, Froke earned a bachelor of science degree in natural resources conservation and a master of science in wildlife biology and management, both from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. He also had studied the integration of wildlife conservation and economic development at Harvard University.
  • A mailing of Chautauqua County’s smoking regulations law to restaurants throughout the county was expected to be made Aug. 29, according to Robert Lincoln of the county Health Department, who was in charge of enforcing the program. He said the agency had been awaiting the printed material, with 5,000 copies of the local law arriving the previous morning. The regulations were adopted in late May and went into effect Aug. 25 for eating places.

In Years Past

In 1913, the Lake Shore express train No. 24, which arrived at Westfield at 5:15 p.m., was robbed between Westfield and Erie Thursday afternoon and the men escaped. It was not known how much booty was secured. It was believed that the robbers boarded the train at Erie and threw the things from the train. This train carried no passengers but when it stopped at Westfield, three men were seen to alight. This was thought strange and after an examination it was found that one of the locked express cars in which no messenger rode, had been entered and robbed. Officers Irish and Ford of Westfield were at once notified but the three men had disappeared.

Following the usual course in receiverships the Jamestown, Chautauqua & Lake Erie Railroad which had been in the hands of a receiver for a long time, was advertised to be sold at the courthouse at Mayville on Oct. 7 to the highest bidder. George Bullock of New York had been receiver for some years. Under his management, extensive improvements had been made on the roadbed. The earnings apparently had not been sufficient to pay the interest on the $750,000 in bonds and so the bondholders had taken steps to order a foreclosure. There were really three corporations. One was the Jamestown, Chautauqua & Lake Erie Railroad Company which owned the road from Jamestown to Mayville and the spur from Mayville to Chautauqua. Another was the Jamestown & Chautauqua Company which owned the road from Mayville to Westfield and the other was the Chautauqua Steamboat Company which owned the red stack steamers.

In 1938, a gaunt, shattered skeleton was all that was left of the tiny “safety aircar” in which Commander Frank Hawks, one-time flying speed king and his passenger, J. Hazard Campbell, upstate socialite and sportsman, were killed when the plane hit a group of electric wires just after taking off at East Aurora, near Buffalo. Hawks, who a year previously renounced the daring speed exploits which made him famous, to promote “safety and comfort” to flying, was demonstrating the safety features of the aircar to his passenger. Hawks had declared he would rather fly the stubby, automobile-like biplane than any other aircraft. The two were killed in the tiny two-passenger cabin biplane, built to be “driven like an automobile.” The plane crashed as Campbell took off from a polo field and struck telephone and electric power wires.

A dog and cat cemetery, the first of the kind in this vicinity, was being planned by Dr. Marie A. Koenig, veterinarian, to occupy a portion of the premises owned by her father, Dr. Frederick F. Koenig, 236 Fluvanna Avenue. Official sanction for the enterprise was given by the Jamestown board of appeals. Miss Koenig informed the board that there were but 40 such cemeteries in the country, the nearest being in Rochester. The purpose of the cemetery was to provide a place where persons might bury their pet dogs and cats. By the resolution of the board, the graves must be at least four feet deep. Miss Koenig said that only airtight burial boxes would be used and that persons would be permitted to erect small markers over the graves. There were but two objections to the proposal, one coming from Mrs. Ada Anderson, who owned the property at 254 Fluvanna Avenue. Mrs. Anderson’s main objection was she feared there might be odor arising from such a burial plot and suggested that the plot be placed back at the far end of the Koenig property which extended through to West Oak Hill Road.

In 1988, half of the workers who lost their jobs when the Bethlehem Steel Co. closed its massive plant at Lackawanna in 1983 were still unemployed three years later, according to a state survey. Those who did find jobs did so only after being unemployed for an average of more than a year, the survey found. And, nearly all workers suffered severe drops in family income, despite an increase in the number of working spouses. The report was based on interviews in 1986 with 1,200 of the nearly 4,000 workers who lost their jobs when Bethlehem shut down its core operations at the Lackawanna facility. The massive plant, which at its peak before World War II employed more than 20,000 people and was one of the world’s largest steel making operations, closed mainly because of competition from overseas manufacturers.

Ellicott Town Supervisor Frances Morgan promised a citizens committee opposed to a state plan to expand Fairmount Avenue that she would discuss safety and other key issues with the state Department of Transportation when she was to meet with them on Tuesday. Members of the citizens committee expressed concern at the previous night’s town Board meeting about the DOT not getting what they called the full story from the Town Board. Mrs. Morgan promised otherwise. “We’re going to look at drainage, we’re going to look at waterlines, electrical wiring. If DOT goes ahead and builds this road, we’ve got to make sure these things have got to be taken care of,” Mrs. Morgan said.

In Years Past

In 1913, the Lake Shore express train No. 24, which arrived at Westfield at 5:15 p.m., was robbed between Westfield and Erie Thursday afternoon and the men escaped. It was not known how much booty was secured. It was believed that the robbers boarded the train at Erie and threw the things from the train. This train carried no passengers but when it stopped at Westfield, three men were seen to alight. This was thought strange and after an examination it was found that one of the locked express cars in which no messenger rode, had been entered and robbed. Officers Irish and Ford of Westfield were at once notified but the three men had disappeared.

Following the usual course in receiverships the Jamestown, Chautauqua & Lake Erie Railroad which had been in the hands of a receiver for a long time, was advertised to be sold at the courthouse at Mayville on Oct. 7 to the highest bidder. George Bullock of New York had been receiver for some years. Under his management, extensive improvements had been made on the roadbed. The earnings apparently had not been sufficient to pay the interest on the $750,000 in bonds and so the bondholders had taken steps to order a foreclosure. There were really three corporations. One was the Jamestown, Chautauqua & Lake Erie Railroad Company which owned the road from Jamestown to Mayville and the spur from Mayville to Chautauqua. Another was the Jamestown & Chautauqua Company which owned the road from Mayville to Westfield and the other was the Chautauqua Steamboat Company which owned the red stack steamers.

In 1938, a gaunt, shattered skeleton was all that was left of the tiny “safety aircar” in which Commander Frank Hawks, one-time flying speed king and his passenger, J. Hazard Campbell, upstate socialite and sportsman, were killed when the plane hit a group of electric wires just after taking off at East Aurora, near Buffalo. Hawks, who a year previously renounced the daring speed exploits which made him famous, to promote “safety and comfort” to flying, was demonstrating the safety features of the aircar to his passenger. Hawks had declared he would rather fly the stubby, automobile-like biplane than any other aircraft. The two were killed in the tiny two-passenger cabin biplane, built to be “driven like an automobile.” The plane crashed as Campbell took off from a polo field and struck telephone and electric power wires.

A dog and cat cemetery, the first of the kind in this vicinity, was being planned by Dr. Marie A. Koenig, veterinarian, to occupy a portion of the premises owned by her father, Dr. Frederick F. Koenig, 236 Fluvanna Ave. Official sanction for the enterprise was given by the Jamestown board of appeals. Marie Koenig informed the board that there were but 40 such cemeteries in the country, the nearest being in Rochester. The purpose of the cemetery was to provide a place where persons might bury their pet dogs and cats. By the resolution of the board, the graves must be at least four feet deep. Marie Koenig said that only airtight burial boxes would be used and that persons would be permitted to erect small markers over the graves. There were but two objections to the proposal, one coming from Ada Anderson, who owned the property at 254 Fluvanna Ave. Anderson’s main objection was she feared there might be odor arising from such a burial plot and suggested that the plot be placed back at the far end of the Koenig property which extended through to West Oak Hill Road.

In 1988, half of the workers who lost their jobs when the Bethlehem Steel Co. closed its massive plant at Lackawanna in 1983 were still unemployed three years later, according to a state survey. Those who did find jobs did so only after being unemployed for an average of more than a year, the survey found. And, nearly all workers suffered severe drops in family income, despite an increase in the number of working spouses. The report was based on interviews in 1986 with 1,200 of the nearly 4,000 workers who lost their jobs when Bethlehem shut down its core operations at the Lackawanna facility. The massive plant, which at its peak before World War II employed more than 20,000 people and was one of the world’s largest steel making operations, closed mainly because of competition from overseas manufacturers.

Ellicott Town Supervisor Frances Morgan promised a citizens committee opposed to a state plan to expand Fairmount Avenue that she would discuss safety and other key issues with the state Department of Transportation when she was to meet with them on Tuesday. Members of the citizens committee expressed concern at the previous night’s town Board meeting about the DOT not getting what they called the full story from the Town Board. Morgan promised otherwise. “We’re going to look at drainage, we’re going to look at waterlines, electrical wiring. “If DOT goes ahead and builds this road, we’ve got to make sure these things have got to be taken care of,” Morgan said.

In Years Past

In 1913, with flags flying and almost every building in the town covered with bunting, the Old Home Week that was to mark the 100th birthday of Youngsville, opened Friday morning crisp and cool. The celebration was being hailed by hundreds throughout this section as the greatest that this little village would ever know. Not only was the celebration in honor of the 100th birthday of Youngsville, but it was also the centennial of the Methodist Church and the 60th anniversary of the formation of Lodge No. 500 of the Odd Fellows. Thus, the whole town, the church and the lodge were engaged in the celebration and there was in some way a binding together of all Youngsville’s people.

The Lyric Theater in Jamestown, which would open its first season under the management of Edward T. Connelly on Sept. 1, was being decorated and painted all over and would present a very attractive appearance when the work was completed. The auditorium was being decorated in two shades of green and white, with panel effect and a scenic oil frieze and several plaster plaques used to excellent advantage in some of the panels. In the lobby, there was an elaborate plaster relief ceiling, tan colored walls, with a 4-foot scenic frieze supported by massive columns, and a wainscoting of lincrusta.

In 1938, action by the Jamestown Board of Education in instructing the city treasurer to sell all properties for which school taxes had not been paid for a year, met with amazement at city hall this day and elicited a statement from Mayor Harry C. Erickson that the move might precipitate a “major civic disaster.” A summary study of the properties for which school taxes were unpaid for more than a year revealed that there were approximately 2,400 such parcels. The large percentage of these were small homes. No city official had declared that the board was not acting within its legal rights when making the demand for a tax sale but they were unanimous in declaring that it would wreak a terrible toll among small property owners. Mayor Erickson said he would do anything in his power to see that the board’s intent was not carried out.

Tomorrow morning 30,000,000 bottles of milk would be placed on the doorsteps of American homes. The milk would be clean, pure and safe from contamination. Special milk trains would serve the large cities, rushing the precious fluid at express speed direct from cows to customers. In no other country did customers enjoy such a wonderful milk distribution system as we enjoyed in this country. In Europe, milkmen still dipped milk from their cans into the open containers of householders. Only a generation ago, our own milk supply was unsanitary and the source of much disease. Bacteria in milk took a staggering death toll among babies. Now the dairy industry was almost a miracle of cleanliness and rigid sanitation.

In 1963, Fifth Ward Councilman Fred J. Anderson officially broke his political ties with Jamestown Mayor William D. Whitehead and pledged his full support to Council President Jess J. Present. n a formal statement, Mr. Anderson disclosed a feeling of disenchantment with Mayor Whitehead’s policies that began shortly after the mayor took office on Jan. 1, 1962. Mr. Anderson ran with Mayor Whitehead in the November 1961 city elections. He was one of three councilmen elected on Mayor Whitehead’s ticket. But, he said “It was only a short time after the inauguration that we started to grow further apart, as a team.”

Forestville Central School would open Wednesday, Sept. 4, with a regular session scheduled. Preliminary census and registration cards indicated nearly 1,000 students for an all-time high registration in the Forestville system. In order to accommodate the increased number of students, two new faculty positions were added for the session.

In 1988, Sept. 2 was the scheduled closing date for the sale of the assets of Jamestown General Hospital to WCA Hospital and both hospitals were working hard to make the transition a smooth one. Transition plans were “going very well,” according to Mary Weedon, WCA?s community relations director. A major issue during negotiations between WCA and the city of Jamestown had been the fate of skilled workers at JGH. Mrs. Weedon noted, “When the Jones Hill facility opens for business under new management, we will of course be needing skilled nursing and other help, and we will be hiring more people, many of them former JGH workers.”

Smoking restrictions in larger restaurants and all Chautauqua County office buildings would go into effect the following day, with many eating places already in compliance. The local law was adopted in late May and called for a 70 percent designation as non-smoking areas in restaurants with a seating capacity of more than 50. Such places with a seating capacity of 50 or less would be required to post a sign at all entrances informing patrons of their smoking policy. It had to indicate whether the policy was to prohibit smoking, segregate smoking or if other regulations were in effect.

In Years Past

In 1913, Erie, Pa. was under martial law. Clattering down State Street soon after dawn, two troops of the Pennsylvania constabulary under Capt. L.G. Adams, proved a welcome sight to the people of Erie who had witnessed a wild night of rioting in which one man was killed and the city seemed filled with fighting private detectives on one side and striking iron molders and their sympathizers on the other hand. The rioting began about midnight when striking molders and their friends became involved in street fights with strike breakers who were guarded by private detectives. From that hour until daybreak, the fighting continued in many localities.

Julia Fenner of Celoron was brought to Jamestown and locked up in the woman’s department at police headquarters pending her removal to Buffalo to serve a 63-day sentence in the Erie County penitentiary imposed by Justice Charles Melvin of Celoron. Fenner was arrested for beating her 11-year-old stepdaughter, Dorothy, and it was stated that the child’s back was covered with black and blue marks. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 63 days in the penitentiary. As the Celoron lockup was not suitable for the confinement of women, she was brought to Jamestown to spend the night.

In 1938, Claude L. Blanchard, 64, of Ashville, dropped dead about 9 p.m. the previous evening on Foote Avenue near Allen Street while walking with his daughter, Helen Blanchard, a student at the WCA Hospital School of Nursing. Coroner Samuel T. Bowers investigated and found death due to coronary thrombosis. According to the coroner, Mr. Blanchard had been visiting his daughter at the nurses’ home and was walking with her along Foote Avenue when stricken. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead by Dr. Richard A. Kinney. He was survived by his wife, three daughters and seven sons.

The opening of the Jolly Jailette Shows on Monday evening in the village of Lakewood, sponsored by the Lakewood Athletic Club, was attended by a good-sized crowd. The shows would continue each day and night through Saturday. There would be a feature attraction each day with this day being athletic day. On Wednesday, merchants’ day would be celebrated with children’s pet parade and prizes. Thursday would be Suburban Day; Friday, fraternal day and Saturday, firemen’s day.

In 1963, farmer Carl Frenz who lived near Little Valley, had an 11-year-old cow that he and his wife thought a great deal of. Bessie was a Holstein that had been producing about 12,000 pounds of milk a year and had been one of the star performers in Mr. Frenz’s 40-cow herd. Lately, Bessie, whose front teeth could not chomp the green pasture grasses so well and consequently had to have more and more supplement feedings, had been falling off in production. Vivian, Mr. Frenz’s wife, had taken a real interest in Bessie’s case since reading in farm journals about cows who had happier and more productive old age when they were fitted with false teeth, so she talked her husband into seeing if Dr. Richard Draudt, of Randolph, couldn’t do the same for Bessie. Bessie had a date with the vet in the next two months for a teeth-capping job that should see her snipping the grass with the best of the heard.

The auto industry made a major concession to the average motorist but the car owner would pay the bill. General Motors, followed in quick succession by Chrysler, Ford and American Motors, announced, effective Jan. 1, 1964, all their new cars would be equipped with seat belts. Studebaker started the trend with similar announcement the past March 1. The industry had been under growing pressure since the 1950s when Nash’s 1950 Rambler series offered seat belts.

In 1988, Jamestown residents would decide in November whether to allow clubs and organizations to legally run games of chance known as bell jars. City Council approved putting the question on the Nov. 8 ballot. The bell jar game was played by members of many local non-profit organizations already as a way to raise funds. It was played by purchasing a ticket with a combination of numbers or symbols. A winning ticket was determined if the numbers or symbols were in a particular combination or form.

Tullah Hanley of Bradford was contributing more than $1 million to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Pitt-Bradford’s $3.5 million library, which was completed in March, would be named the T. Edward and Tullah Hanley Library in honor of Mrs. Hanley and her late husband. The gift included a $200,000 trust fund established earlier, $60,000 donated in July for library books, about $75,000 in art work for the new building and $1 million additional in a living trust to be used primarily for scholarships and library, laboratory and gymnasium equipment.

In Years Past

In 1913, the drought which had injured crops in this section considerably was broken the previous evening by a rain storm which was very welcome to all farmers. A worse storm this afternoon was not so welcome to The Journal office because of the fact that it interfered materially with the long distance telephone wires which were used between Jamestown and Buffalo. The home telephone line was temporarily put out of commission shortly after 2 p.m. in the afternoon. The Bell company maintained connections but the storm made the wires work badly. The rainfall in the afternoon would unquestionably be worth many thousands of dollars to farmers of this region.

On Sept. 18 in Albany, the judges of the court of appeals and the members of the senate would convene as a high court of impeachment to try the governor. This would be the first time in the history of the state that a trial of this kind had been held and the proceedings would be followed with deep interest by all of New York’s people.

In 1938, the first annual field day of the Chautauqua County Deputy Sheriff’s Association was held Saturday at the Greek Club in Celoron, with a large attendance of members, their families and guests which included D. Lawrence Carlson, Assemblyman Lloyd J. Babcock and Glenn W. Woodin. A softball game between the northern end of the county and the southern end team was the feature of the day. The northerners eked out a 4-3 victory over their opponents through the means of a sensational one-handed catch by Sheriff Roy L. Chadwick.

WPA employees would not be permitted to give further testimony in the ready-mixed concrete investigation being conducted in Jamestown by Corporation Counsel Rollin A. Fancher unless they received orders from WPA Administrator Harry Hopkins to do so, according to Fancher. This new development would seriously interfere with Fancher’s proposal to determine the reason for a serious discrepancy between figures given by different witnesses as to the number of lineal feet of concrete poured on the Newland Avenue-Charles Street portion of the WPA repaving job.

In 1963, a boating mishap on Conewango Creek the previous afternoon brought a tragic ending to the partnership of two elderly area residents who, for many years, had shared the pleasures of fishing together. Clifford Castel Bennett, 70, of Robbins Hill Crossroad, Frewsburg, was drowned when the small rowboat from which he had been fishing, swamped, throwing him into the water. His companion, Royal Thayer, 70, of Frewsburg-Kennedy Road, was able to save himself by clinging to a fallen tree for more than two hours until his calls for help were heard.

Need for modern automatic equipment to “streamline” bookkeeping procedures at Jamestown General Hospital was underscored at the monthly meeting of the Hospital Board. Superintendent Mark W. Lyons reported that the newer of two machines had broken down and could no longer justify repair. Pending the acquisition of new equipment, the hospital was using a borrowed machine, he said. He described the “newer” machine as one which the hospital had been using since it was discarded by the city treasurer’s office nearly 20 years ago.

In 1988, crowned queen and king of the city of Jamestown’s Summer Playground program were Natalie Samuelson, 6, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Samuelson of 25 Delevan Ave., and Neil Conner, 7, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Conner of 959 White Hill Circle. The participants in the queen and king contest performed dance routines and skits.

Low temperature readings of 45 to 50 degrees were forecast for Western New York this night on the heels of readings that translated into frost in some areas overnight. Although it was still August, there was a late September chill in the air in the area. A Stockton resident reported having to scrape ice off her car’s windshield before heading out for work on this morning. A Frewsburg man also reported frost in that community, with an accumulation of the white stuff on his lawn, car roof and windshield.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, his mind affected by the intense heat of the previous day, Mack Shearer, 30, was found sitting on the big gilt balloon on the top of the 45-foot flagpole in front of the Friendship engine house. He was praying at the top of his voice. Persons aroused from their sleep hurried from their homes scantily clad. In spite of their coaxing, Shearer would not descent. Asked where he was from, he answered: “From hell.” “Where are you going?” “To heaven.” It was learned that the man had wandered about the town of Friendship all of the past night. When he was finally persuaded to descended he was put in the care of a physician.
  • Charles J. Jenner of the Jamestown board of estimate and review had had an examination made of the condition of the sewer system of the city and although the work was not by any means completed, it had already been ascertained that there were several places which needed attention. One of the worst was on Harrison Street. Test of the main sewer on that street indicated that it was clogged to some extent. The sewer was 18 inches in diameter and a 16-inch test would not work in the pipe.
  • In 1938, Pug III, the expensive $12,000 cruiser owned by John H. Wright, president of the Jamestown Telephone Company and the National Chautauqua County Bank, was completely destroyed by flames which followed an explosion off the boat dock at Chautauqua Friday afternoon. Wright and two companions escaped from the near-disaster with minor injuries. Flames and smoke leapt from the boat after it had been towed to a safe distance from the gasoline pumps on the dock. The charred hull was later towed down the lake to a point off the Chautauqua dump where it burned to the water line and finally broke in two before sinking out of sight. The boat was the “jinx” yacht formerly owned by the late James Morris of Toledo who died at Jamestown General Hospital a few weeks ago from a neck fracture suffered when he dove from the craft into shallow water at Bemus Point. Mr. Wright purchased the boat a week before the explosion.
  • Mrs. Bertha Bermingham of Buffalo and Miss Octelie Giese of Ithaca, had arrived in Jamestown to assume charge of the resident training school for girls to be established in the former Charles H. Gifford home, West Fifth and Cherry streets. Miss Giese would be instructor of the school and Mrs. Bermingham, house mother. At present they were planning for the operation of the school and interviewing prospective students. The school would have a three-fold purpose: To give unemployed girls an opportunity to earn money, to give them a school and to prepare them to earn their own living in private domestic employment. The girls would be given a comprehensive course in home economics as well as some other subjects.
  • In 1963, a $1,135,000 school expansion program was turned down the previous day by voters in the Randolph Central School District. If an informal voter survey taken by The Post-Journal was reasonably accurate, then a large factor determining the defeat of the issue was the inclusion of a swimming pool in the expansion plans. The school district voters turned down the issue 563 to 372. At stake in the bond issue was a building expansion program which would have provided additional classrooms, swimming pool and garage facilities to the 31-year-old structure, which serviced approximately 1,400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
  • A young Dunkirk couple and their five children were left homeless early the past evening when fire raged through their four-year-old ranch-style home and destroyed nearly all of their belongings, including a late model automobile. West Dunkirk Fire Chief Arthur Fox reported that it took firemen from four departments over an hour to quench the blaze that practically destroyed the Robert Sysol home on West Lake Road. Chief Fox said that the fire was believed to have started in the vicinity of an incinerator installed in a garage attached to the brick veneer dwelling. Mr. Sysol was a partner in the Adams Home Furnishings & Appliances firm of Dunkirk and was at work when the fire broke out. Mrs. Sysol and the couple’s five children were at home alone when the fire broke out. All escaped safely.

In Years Past

In 1913, the man who was killed in the Town of Poland Monday evening had been identified. His name was George Schrinkler and until the past few weeks he had been employed as a section hand at Conewango Valley. He was identified by the section boss, Ira Neville, who came to Danielson’s undertaking establishment in Kennedy at the request of Coroner Storms, who had been conducting an inquiry. Schrinkler was employed with the section gang and was registered on the payroll as George Smith, but Mr. Neville explained that this was not his right name. The dead man had a sister, Mrs. J. A. Horton of Middletown, N.Y. and a telegram had been sent to her. No answer had yet been received.

The veterans of Soxey’s army, whose threatened attack on Jamestown a few years ago created great excitement and considerable apprehension, were to hold a reunion the following Saturday near Fentonville, under the auspices of Jamestown aerie, Fraternal Order of Eagles and the outing would be one of the most novel affairs ever undertaken by a local fraternal organization. The entire brigade, First division, Third corps – the flower of Soxey’s army – would spend the two days in camp and in order to accommodate the troops several large tents would be secured from Buffalo. It was expected that from between 400 and 500 men would take part in the outing.

In 1938, a 16-year-old boy was held in jail in Titusville, Pa. charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with repeating an attempt at extortion for which he was released from a reformatory only a month ago. The intended victim was L. C. McKinney, a Titusville banker. The prisoner, Clarence Salkinburg, was arrested the previous day. Baldridge said the boy demanded $5,000 from McKinney and specified payment at a Pittsburgh hotel. The letter had been mailed from Titusville. Salkinburg confessed writing the note threatening harm to McKinney’s children unless the money was paid. The boy had been released in July after serving a 20-month sentence at Morganza training school for writing a similar demand to the banker on Nov. 4, 1936. The boy was quoted as saying he “was sore at McKinney” because of his prison experience.

Maggie, a large green parrot owned by A. J. Carlson, 22 Prather Avenue, Jamestown, took a notion to wander when escaping her cage Thursday evening and had not been recaptured by this afternoon. Firemen were called to lend a hand in bagging the bird from a tree in front of the home but their efforts only served to spur it to a loftier perch in another tree. Despite concerted efforts to coax her down, Maggie was still being stubborn.

In 1963, a North Main Street merchant had started a major face-lifting project which he hoped would inspire a “do-it-yourself” urban redevelopment program in downtown Jamestown. The firm was Field & Wright Co., headed by Russell C. Bloomquist, immediate past president of the Retail Merchants Association. The retail furniture company would revamp the entire front of its rented building at 106 North Main Street. From the first floor upward, the front was being painted bright white. Other improvements would include a first floor store front of redwood paneling, with a lower trim of white Roman style brick and outside lighting.

Jamestown Mayor William D. Whitehead, an outspoken advocate of referendums, had bitterly rapped the one last April which returned Jamestown to the partisan election system. He charged the April 30 referendum was “not an election but a manipulation” and added that “the whole total of voters on both sides could have been put in a bowling alley.” The vote, a bi-partisan effort supported by Republicans and Democrat leaders, saw the non-partisan election system abandoned by a vote of 2,621 to 1,834.

In 1988, by 1992 all communities in New York state had to have a recycling program in action and the Village of Celoron was wasting no time getting a jump on most of them. Celoron was running a recycling station in which glass, newspapers and all metals, including cans, could be dropped off. The station was located at the village barn on Jones and Gifford Avenue. “Celoron was the first (community) that I know of (in the county); Falconer was working on a curbside program. The best part of it is that they’ve done it all just on their own,” said Janell Lundgren-Dolan, an intern with the village Department of Public Works.

Michael Dukakis and George Bush were not the only candidates for president of the United States. There was Ron Paul. Never heard of him? “Paul is from Houston, Texas, and he’s running on the Libertarian Party ticket,” said Jack Crate of Jamestown, local committee chairman of Paul’s campaign. How many members did the local branch of the Libertarian Party boast? “I’m it,” Crate said. Crate, 63, said he hoped to build some membership with area residents. “I’d like to have some get-togethers and just talk about things,” he said.

In Years Past

In 1913, Cy Palmer, an actor, who gave his residence as Jamestown, was in a padded cell in the Berrien County, Michigan jail, having tried the previous night to end his life by jumping off the deck of the steamer Holland. Palmer’s mental condition in the night was grave. On this day he was more comfortable. Palmer attempted to jump three times. Passengers and members of the boat crew prevented him from hurling himself into the lake. After his third attempt he was placed in custody by the boat officers and put in the hold of the boat. He was about 40 years of age, was well dressed and had a small amount of money with him.

A young man killed by the Erie freight train near Kennedy late Monday afternoon was not identified this forenoon, although Coroner Storms had received word of a man missing from the Wade farm at Ellington, which fitted the description of the dead man and seemed likely to prove to be him. Bert Wade of the Wade farm telephoned to Coroner Storms that one of his hired men left there for Jamestown Monday morning and did not return that night. Wade would visit the undertaking establishment of D.A. Danielson at Kennedy where the remains were taken and attempt to identify the body some time this day.

In 1938, plans for straightening the Chadakoin River in and near the city of Jamestown with the view of alleviating high water conditions at certain seasons of the year had been under preparation within the department of public works for the last two weeks according to Director Leland L. Graham. Graham said that maps of the river’s course and contiguous area were almost completed. This work was essential before a project could be prepared which would yield a uniform river channel. County highway department officials had informed Graham that they would be glad to cooperate in any program which would relieve flood conditions in the city or nearby.

Jamestown police issued a warning to merchants “or anyone else who might find his hands on a $5 bill,” when a counterfeit note of that denomination was picked up at a local bank this morning. Although there had been no recent reports of counterfeit bills in circulation hereabouts, it was quite possible that when one such bill was found there had been others circulated, police explained. The bill found was not an exceptionally fine counterfeit but was good enough to fool many people unless they compared it with a genuine bill. The face of the note was especially bad, the picture of Lincoln in the middle being entirely too black and indistinct.

In 1963, remaining concrete work for the $2 million Washington Street Bridge was expected to be finished soon and the span should be completed by the latter part of September, state engineers said. Additional work on the bridge included pouring of sidewalks, blacktopping installation of hand rails and painting. Erection of hand rails should be completed by the end of the month and the blacktop finish should be done by mid-September.

Foreign newspapermen on their way to study at Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn., would visit Jamestown again this year as hosts of the Jamestown Junior Chamber of Commerce. The group of 15 from as many different countries and their five escorts would arrive in Jamestown Labor Day night. They would stay in homes in the city and take part in the Jaycee’s dinner in the Hotel Jamestown. The newspapermen were spending a year in this country. They made up the third group of journalists to be brought to the U.S. by Harry Morgan, husband of the former Catherine Johnston, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Howard A. Johnston of Lakeview Avenue.

In 1988, a replica of the Vietnam Memorial wall would be erected the following week at the lighthouse grounds in Dunkirk. The replica wall was 6 feet high and 250 feet long and featured a black marble plaque with a Plexiglas covering. It carried the names of more than 58,000 American service men and women who died in the Vietnam War. Thirty-nine were from Chautauqua County.

Republican presidential nominee George Bush and his running mate, Sen. J. Danforth Quayle, might be heading to Erie, Pa., to boost their bid for the Oval Office, according to Rep. William Clinger, R-Warren. “He’s (Bush) no stranger to northwest Pa. The chances are excellent he’ll be in State College and a very good chance for Erie,” Clinger, who was at the Republican convention in New Orleans, told The Post-Journal. When asked about the chances of Quayle visiting the Keystone state, Clinger seemed optimistic. “I think that’s a very good possibility. He comes from a Rust Belt state and so he would be able to talk to the people,” Clinger said.

In Years Past

In 1913, H.A. Barrows, who was employed by Jamestown Police Chief Frank A. Johnson, acting under instructions of the common council, to investigate the situation with reference to what was being done by manufacturers to comply with the smoke ordinance, had completed his labors and the result in the shape of a voluminous array of notes would be placed in the hands of the city stenographer for tabulation, after which the report would be turned over to the chief of police. It was, of course, impossible to quote the report in detail for the reason that it was not as yet in shape for presentation to the chief. In general it could be said that Barrows had learned there was a general disposition on the part of the manufactures to comply with the law.

The conflict between William Sulzer and Martin H. Glynn over the governorship of New York continued this day. The clash of authority was expected late in the afternoon at a meeting of a Board of Trustees of Public Buildings. The trustees included the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the assembly. The board which had authority to designate the quarters for state officers of departments, was said to have decided to appoint the assembly parlor on the third floor of the Capitol as the temporary office of the executive in view of Governor Sulzer’s refusal to vacate the executive suite on the second floor.

In 1938, tragic illness, which had become almost national in interest because of the suddenness of its appearance and its mysterious character, had recently brought into news the family of Mr. and Mrs. Llewellyn Bennett of Owosso, Michigan, former Sugar Grove and Chautauqua County residents. Out of the family of six children, four had died with the disease while one, the oldest, Richard, nine, was seriously ill as was his mother, in a Michigan hospital. Physicians were unable to place the disease although they knew it belonged in the typhoid group. The water which the Bennett family used, came from a pond fed by a spring which was close to an outhouse and which might also have received drainage from pasture lands.

Falling from a flat car of a local eastbound Erie Railroad freight train at Cambridge Springs, Pa., John S. Madden, Sr. 55, veteran conductor and former Jamestown resident, died of internal injuries several hours later in a Meadville, Pa., hospital. Mr. Madden, a native of Watts Flats who began his railroad career at the turn of the century, received the fatal injuries while his train, bound from Meadville to Salamanca, was switching in the Cambridge Springs yards. Formerly a passenger conductor, Mr. Madden, who had worked for the Erie for 37 years, had only recently been transferred to a freight crew, assuming his new duties about a week previously.

In 1988, the summer’s moderate drought continued to drain the water supplies of area communities. The village of Fredonia was the latest victim. Mayor Louis C. Mancuso banned unnecessary water use in the village as of midnight the previous night. “It’s an indefinite ban. We are experiencing a shrinking reserve at our reservoir and to conserve what we have we have decided on the ban,” Mancuso told The Post-Journal.

A sculpture of a nude woman recently caused a stir when it was placed on display as part of the Sculpture in Downtown Jamestown exhibit. The artwork by Steven Kemenyffy of McKean, Pa., was a “Picasso-esque nude,” according to Patrice Young Turner, associate director of the Arts Council for Chautauqua County. The Arts Council and the mayor received several calls complaining about the statue. “Personally, I do not feel it was offensive, but that’s a matter of personal taste,” Ms. Turner said. She noted that after the statue was replaced, she began receiving phone calls asking “why the pretty statue was removed.”

In Years Past

  • In 1913, Company E, 65th infantry, N.G.N.Y., of Jamestown, the only company in the regiment which was not located at Buffalo, left on the previous morning for Camp Peter C. Doyle on the shore of Lake Erie, about three miles from the village of Farnham in Erie County, N.Y. The camp would be a big affair, with all three of the infantry regiments of the Fourth brigade – Third, 65th and 74th – on duty. The Third Infantry consisted of separate companies scattered throughout western New York, with headquarters at Rochester.
  • The concert given in Calvary Baptist Church in Jamestown Friday evening under the auspices of the Utile Dulci Society was of the highest order of excellence. Regardless of the extreme temperature, every seat in the auditorium was filled before 8 o’clock while many stood throughout the evening. Banks of flowers were artistically arranged around the platform and choir railing.
  • In 1938, hot, sticky weather continued its grip on upstate New York with little prospect for immediate relief. The current heat wave, in its third day, continued to feature high humidity as well as record temperatures that clung stubbornly to the 90s. Four deaths, all in the western part of the state, had been attributed directly or indirectly to the heat. A severe storm at Buffalo the previous night produced a total of 173 lightning bolts striking the city over a 45-minute period.
  • Charles Swanson, veteran Jamestown building contractor, died suddenly the previous afternoon at his home in Tioga, Pa., aged 76 years. He was in Jamestown the last time three weeks ago for a visit to his sons, Curth and Melvin Swanson and was in failing health at that time but was able to walk. The body would be brought to Jamestown for funeral services at the former family resident, 349 Foote Avenue, now the Bowers Funeral Home. Mr. Swanson built the residence many years ago and it was his request that his funeral services beheld there. He was prominently identified with the building business in Jamestown for over 50 years. Many of the finer buildings of Jamestown were a tribute to his ingenious effort.
  • In 1963, misfortune struck for the second time in three days at the Chester Brooks home, Brown Hill Road, Chandlers Valley at 11 p.m. the previous day. A large, 30-stanchion barn containing a small quantity of hay and some farm machinery burned to the ground. On Wednesday, volunteer firemen, Boy Scouts, neighbors and friends conducted a five-hour search for Patty Brooks, 6, who became frightened after an explosion shook the home, shattering windows and damaging the kitchen. She was found asleep in the hayloft of the barn. No fire resulted from the explosion.
  • Fatally injured the previous night was Miss Donna Fenno of Corry, when the car in which she was a passenger veered from the highway five miles west of Youngsville, overturned and burned. Miss Fenno, 19, was trapped in the wreckage of the station wagon, which traveled a distance of 300 feet off the highway before coming to rest some seven feet below the guardrails along Route 6 in Pittsfield Township. The driver of the vehicle was Miss Juanita J. Gates, 19, also of Corry. Miss Gates received multiple injuries and was in a hysterical condition when taken to Corry Memorial Hospital. She was in fair condition this morning.
  • In 1988, George Bush, veteran of the Republican vineyards, would reach a long-sought moment of triumph this night, receiving the GOP presidential nomination from a convention still abuzz over his choice of young conservative Sen. Dan Quayle as his running mate. The vice president spoke repeatedly of Quayle’s youth in announcing the choice and early reactions included many comments on Quayle’s youthful good looks. But top Bush aides emphasized experience in remarks. Michael Dukakis, Democratic presidential nominee, suggested Bush “seemed to make a decision that placated the right wing of the Republican Party.”
  • Blowing your car horn at a horse and rider along the country roads to let them know you were coming was going to be illegal as of New Year’s Day in New York state. The legislation, signed Tuesday by Gov. Mario Cuomo, also established new rules of the road for equestrians, including a ban on riding a horse on a roadway from one-half hour after sunset until one hour before sunrise. The prohibition did not apply to horse drawn buggies or wagons.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, the Jamestown Board of Health intended to impress upon citizens the importance and necessity of obeying the health ordinances and citations of the board to appear and show why nuisances were maintained. To that end those who paid no attention to these matters would be prosecuted in police court. Definite action along that line was taken at the meeting of the board the past Friday evening in the shape of an order to Sanitary Inspector John A. Hultquist to cause the arrest of several who had heretofore failed to appear in answer to citations.
  • All the children, big girls, little girls, big boys and little boys, gathered at the Sherman Street playground in Jamestown Friday for the biggest day of the playground season. Children from all parts of the city were there. The boys and girls from the two north side playground, No. 1 and No. 6, came down in a body and from No. 9 a big parade marched to the celebration. The doings started in the morning but it was not until 2 p.m. that the real program was held. When the time for the program came, there were nearly 1,000 of the youngsters with their parents on the grounds looking for excitement.
  • In 1938, installation of up to 350 parking meters for a six months trial would be approved by Jamestown City Council at its next regular meeting if the proposal met with the approval of merchants in the downtown business section. Members of City Council expressed approval of the proposed test when Councilman Gust C. Peterson introduced a resolution providing that the city enter a contract with the Dual Parking Meter Company of Oklahoma City, Okla. Under terms of the contract, the company would install up to 350 parking meters on a trial basis at no expense to the city.
  • Five years after nearing ruin with a debt of more than three-quarters of a million dollars, famed Chautauqua Institution faced the future with debts cleared and a $100,000 endowment. Placed on a sound financial footing, the institution had cleared away $765,512 in debt and had piled up a $100,000 endowment. An ambitious musical program and a trend toward the arts had soared attendance figures to new highs in this year.
  • In 1963, a recommendation that the city’s water reservoir on English Hill be enlarged to double its present capacity was received by the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities from its consulting engineers, Nussbaumer, Clarke & Velzy of Buffalo. The engineering firm, which had been retained to analyze and evaluate results of a three-year survey of Jamestown’s water resources by the U.S. Geodetic Service, proposed expansion of the reservoir to increase its capacity by five million gallons.
  • A two-car crash in which three persons, including a young priest, were injured during a rain storm, was still under investigation. The accident occurred at 11:50 p.m. the previous night in front of 60 Fluvanna Avenue, just east of the curve in the highway. Rev. John D. Levandowski, 30, an assistant priest at SS Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church on Cherry Street in Jamestown, was one driver. The priest was admitted at the WCA Hospital for further treatment for severe multiple facial lacerations. His passenger, David Elder, 12, of Camp Street, was discharged after he was treated for minor injuries. The other driver, Roger E. Johnson of New Jersey, was also discharged after being treated at Jamestown General Hospital.
  • In 1988, the internationally known Budweiser Clydesdale horses would be in downtown Jamestown from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Wednesday on East Third Street between Main Street and Spring Street. They would be displayed on a closed-off portion of Third Street, near the Pine Street Terrace. As part of the event the Downtown Jamestown Development Corp. was extending its Summer in the City Music Series with a performance by the Harold Olson Big Band Orchestra.
  • Ripley Fire Department members directed a stream of water on a blaze that destroyed Papi’s Pizzeria/Restaurant at 11 W. Main St. in the community early Saturday. Volunteers from Westfield and South Ripley also were called in for mutual aid. A rekindle about 9 a.m. brought the firefighters back to the scene. Damage to the post office in Ripley, only about 4 feet away from the destroyed building, was reported as minor.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, Aviator Al J. Engel of Cleveland, who was making exhibition flights at Chautauqua over the week, took as his passengers this day, William G. Broadhead of Newark, N.J., formerly physical director of the Jamestown YMCA, and Arthur E. Bestor, director of the Chautauqua Institution. Both passengers declared that they enjoyed every minute of the time they spent in the machine which made splendid flights on both occasions.
  • The annual convention of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America would be held in Jamestown the following year, according to the decision made at the convention of the organization at Jamaica, Long Island. This meant that several hundred carpenters and joiners from all parts of the country would spend a few days in this city next summer.
  • In 1938, United States Solicitor General Robert H. Jackson and Representative in Congress James M. Mead of Buffalo, key men in President Roosevelt’s New Deal administration at Washington, were the principal speakers at the second annual picnic of District No. 65, International Association of Machinists, held at the Greek Club in Celoron the previous day. Congressman Mead discussed the history of organized labor, describing its struggles and growth. He said organized labor had made the greatest growth in history under the Roosevelt administration and discussed legislation enacted for the benefit of the working man.
  • The southeast corner of Jamestown High School received a thorough wetting late Saturday night when a water pipe on the second floor of the building broke, causing two sprinkler heads to burst. The bursting of the sprinkler heads served as the alarm for the incident, causing the school fire alarm system to sound. The outside horns attracted the attention of Harry Mosher, off-duty fireman at the city hall fire station, who resided across the street and he called the department when the alarm continued to sound. When firemen arrived, the water was pouring from the outlets, having already started a mad rush down a nearby stairway to the floors below. Members of the janitorial force were called to the scene.
  • In 1963, an intensified campaign for construction of the Southern Tier Expressway was launched by representatives of three southwestern New York counties at a conference in Salamanca. In a three-hour session at the Hotel Dudley, representatives of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties agreed to form a Western Division of the Route 17 Association to spearhead a drive to enlist public support for action on the highway project. Enlistment of the cooperation of city, town and village officials and civic groups throughout southwestern New York was a “grass roots” campaign to inform state and federal officials of the vital need for a modern, high-speed, limited access highway to serve their area was assigned a high priority.
  • Negotiations had been completed for extensive modernization of new quarters for Jamestown Savings and Loan Association at East Fourth and Spring streets, formerly the Nu-Way Supermarket. Bids were being sought for the work, which had not been estimated and construction was expected to begin by Oct. 1. The opening date had been set for April 15, 1964. Exterior features would include a night depository, a drive-up unit, a walk-up window and off-street parking, accommodating at least 30 cars.
  • In 1988, the last time summer was this hot Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House and Mickey Mantle was playing in Yankee Stadium. Radio was in, Elvis Presley was becoming famous and cars had fins. The current period was one of the hottest summers in 50 years, according to the National Weather Service in Buffalo. In the summer of 1955, the average temperature was 72.2 in June, July and August. Summer 1988 so far was actually the hottest since the summer of 1949, which had an average temperature for those three months of 72.7 degrees.
  • Enzo Ferrari, Italy’s greatest sports car builder and racing pioneer, died at his home in Modena, his auto company announced this day. He was 90. In a statement, the company said, “Enzo Ferrari serenely ended his earthly life Sunday, Aug. 14.” The founder and chairman of the company bearing his name that made luxury sports cars and renowned Formula One race cars once dreamed of becoming an opera star or a sportswriter.

But his first love was race cars and his drivers whipped the prancing black horse on his bright red race cars to victory on every major track in the world. World Champions like Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina, Phil Hill of the United States, John Surtees of Britain, Niki Lauda of Austria and Jody Scheckter of South Africa, drove his racers to nine world titles in Formula One beginning in 1952.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, two claimants to the office of governor of New York state sat in the capital this day, each asserting his right to the office and attempting to dictate the state’s affairs from his own chambers. William Sulzer, impeached governor, sat in the executive chamber on the second floor of the building. He was going to sit there every day, according to friends, disregarding the impeachment proceedings, which he regarded as unconstitutional. Martin H. Glynn, lieutenant governor, laid claim to the acting governorship on the grounds that Sulzer ceased to be governor when the senate received the articles of impeachment from the assembly. The army of state employees was demoralized. Department heads were at a loss to know whose instructions to follow and a general confusion and disorder seemed eminent.
  • August Schreck, father of Mrs. M.J. McMahon of Corry, Pa., and a survivor of the Civil War, died Tuesday evening at the hospital at Mr. Carmel, Pa. Mr. Schreck whose home was in Meadville, went to the big Civil War Veterans Reunion at Gettysburg the past month and was among the score of veterans who were victims of the terrific heat that prevailed during the encampment. He never recovered from the illness and his death, which occurred at Mt. Carmel hospital the past night, to which institution he was removed from the Gettysburg battlefield, had been expected for some days.
  • In 1938, on the morning of Aug. 17, the Stockton town picnic would be in full swing, with the crowd pouring into the grounds early. It was in 1898 that the idea for a town picnic originated. L.W. Lazell had just come back from a trip to Lafayette, Ia., where he had been impressed with a Harvest Home celebration and seemed to think a picnic with all the home folks from all over Stockton township would be a good thing. A town meeting was called and committees were appointed to have charge of the details. One of the outstanding sports featured on the day was the old fashioned ball game as played at the first picnic. It was distinctly different from modern baseball, resembling softball. The gold mounted cane given to the oldest citizen of the town would this year be given to Lewis P. Bull who would be 87 in the coming fall.
  • A mixture of congeniality and intelligence with a sprinkling of beauty and charm were the combination a young man should look for in the young woman he would marry, according to Rev. and Mrs. James W. Wilson of Liberty Street in Jamestown. On Sunday they would celebrate their 68th wedding anniversary. Rev. and Mrs. Wilson believed the formula for a successful marriage lay in being sincere and conscientious with one another. “If a young couple adheres to this policy, even though the odds seem to be against them in a financial way, some means of their getting along will be provided.” They were convinced that, due to hard times, “it won’t hurt the young wife to work to help the family income along.”
  • In 1963, injured in an accident involving three cars during a rain storm on Washington Street near 10th Street in Jamestown, James J. Walsh, 25, of Lincoln St., was in fair condition in Jamestown General Hospital. Walsh was suffering from severe forehead lacerations and multiple facial lacerations. Officer Brentley said Walsh’s head struck and broke the windshield of his car and the steering wheel of the vehicle collapsed. Walsh was traveling south when his car struck a parked car owned by Glenn Otis of Chicago, Ill. The impact forced the Otis car into another parked car, owned by George A. Wilson of Washington Street Otis was visiting Wilson, the officer added.
  • Only three more weeks and then it was back to books and blackboards for more than 9,300 Jamestown youngsters. With enrollments continuing their steady climb, an influx of 8,500 pupils was expected when public schools of the Jamestown city district inaugurated their 1963-64 schedule with a half-day session on the morning of Sept. 5. The upsurge in registrations, roughly 13 percent over the past year, was expected to tax facilities of the high school building to their limits. Employment of 11 new teachers in addition to those hired to fill vacancies resulting from resignation or retirement had increased the faculty of the school to more than 100 certified employees. Underscoring a serious shortage of classrooms was the fact that for the first time since the building was opened in 1935, it would not be possible to assign a classroom exclusively to each teacher.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, the Olean Herald said while the P.R.R. team and a team called the Climbers, all local ball players, were playing a game of baseball on the Pennsylvania shop diamond, a police officer walked over to the managers and told them to bring their teams and appear in police court the following morning at 9 o’clock. It was understood that the complaint was made by a member of the civic federation who charged that the teams were violating section 2145 of the penal law, in that they were taking part in sports on a Sunday. The teams were represented by an attorney, George A. Larkin, who, on behalf of his clients, pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial which was granted. The case would be heard before Justice Keating.
  • New York Governor William Sulzer was impeached this morning by a Democratic majority in the assembly of the legislature after an all night session and after his wife had made an eleventh hour effort to save him at the risk of sacrificing her own reputation. Mrs. Sulzer asserted that she diverted part of the campaign contributions sent her husband to private purposes without his knowledge and used them to purchase stock in Wall Street.
  • In 1938, tense feeling among Europe’s major powers spread fear and alarm this day from Great Britain to the Balkans. Germany hastened preparations for vast army maneuvers to be held in September, calling up reserve units which had not engaged in such exercises since the World War. The Nazi government decreed the requisitioning of grain storage places and threatened imprisonment for anyone disclosing industrial secrets to foreigners. Among many disquieting rumors in Paris were reports that Germany was calling 1 million reservists to the colors and was hastening fortifications on her French and Polish borders. Government sources in London, however, discounted German warlike intentions and pointed out no attempt had been made to conceal the war games’ great scope.
  • Chautauqua Lake sparkled under a summer sun this day as four score sailing craft raced for the annual Central New York Yacht Racing Association championships before thousands of spectators lining the shore near Lakewood. The afternoon’s races wound up a scheduled three-day program compressed into two days of sailing by Thursday’s high seas. The lake was churned up Thursday by a storm that swept Western New York. A father and son combination, Wallace and Bruce Burroughs, Chautauqua Lake Yacht Club, host for the meet, turned in the most consistent performance with victories in both races for Class C scows with their boat, The Nemesis.
  • In 1963, damages totaling nearly $3,000 to a machine shop and 19 boats by vandals were disclosed by Celoron Police Officer Steven Showers. A total of 17 juveniles, including three Jamestown youths, were involved, according to Officer Showers. The greatest damage was recorded at Holiday Harbor where 19 boats, including a 22-foot cabin cruiser, were damaged Aug. 6. Three Jamestown boys, aged 9, 11 and 12 were involved, Officer Showers said. A radio was taken and recovered. Another radio along with fishing rods and two pairs of binoculars were thrown into the lake. Canvas was ripped and iodine was splattered on rugs in the cabin cruiser. Earlier, eight boys, three each from Celoron and West Ellicott and two from Lakewood, broke 163 glass window panes at the Ellicott Machine Shop.
  • Rep. Charles E. Goodell of Jamestown was an “Exhausted Rooster” this day, courtesy of the Jamestown Junior Chamber of Commerce. A former member of the local Jaycees, the congressman was presented with a pin and plaque during a meeting of the local group in the Hotel Jamestown. He was told” “You have now joined the flock of old roosters.” They explained that maximum age for active Jaycee membership was 35. Rep. Goodell was a Jamestown Jaycee in 1957 and reached 36 two years later.
  • In 1988, there was no rain in sight Friday night at Stateline Speedway and Dale Earnhardt capitalized on the situation by winning the long awaited NASCAR 25-lap feature race. The NASCAR race was originally scheduled to have nine NASCAR drivers race on July 16, but a thunderstorm forced the event to be postponed one week. When it came time to try again, heavy rains throughout the day put the race on hold for three more weeks. NASCAR Night finally arrived the previous night but the expectations for the evening remained mixed. Surrounding the track, many seats remained empty and on the track the field of NASCAR drivers was reduced to six. The drivers making up the NASCAR feature race included Earnhardt, Phil Parsons, Ken Bouchard, Sterling Marlin, Rodney Combs and Brad Noffsinger. Also in attendance but not racing was Neil Bonnett. Stateline Speedway owner Francis Seamens noted that the track faced competition with the Gerry Rodeo and the Warren County Fair being held on the same night.
  • A small gold-plated container and sacred oil used in confirmations had been stolen from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Mt. Vernon Place and Francis Street in Jamestown, according to a report filed with city police. It said the building was entered through a basement window. The pastor, the Rev. Nicholas Rafael, valued the container at about $100 and described the missing oil as priceless. Police also were investigating the overturning of benches and a sculpture in what Officers Jeffrey House and Donald Boehm termed as “Termite Park” at Third and Pine streets.

In Years Past

In 1913, an announcement had been made by the South Shore Natural Gas and Fuel Company that it would be ready to supply gas in Mayville by the first of September and advised the residents to pipe their houses at once. Up to the present time no work had been done at Mayville in the laying of mains but the representatives of the company explained that the ditching would be a short job when undertaken by large gangs of Italian laborers in the employ of a contractor.

The Democratic plan to impeach Gov. Sulzer on charges of diverting campaign funds to his personal use and swearing to a false statement of campaign receipts was halted for hours this day by the realization of leaders that they lacked votes enough to carry out their program. At 2 o’clock, three hours after the time set for the assembly to convene, the leaders still lacked a handful of followers to bring the vote to impeach to the required majority of 76. Sulzer sat behind closed doors of his chamber, occasionally receiving some of his adherents. One of these was Assemblyman Schaaf, Progressive leader, who told the governor that he was convinced that “his adherents would lead and carry the vote not to impeach today.”

In 1938, 24 boys in the employ of the National Youth Administration in Jamestown were at work on shifts, learning building trades and earning money, while the latest NYA project, a resident training school for girls, was taking shape. The tasks the boys were attending included remodeling and renovating the former Charles H. Gifford home at the southeast corner of West Fifth and Cherry streets, the site of the school, the only one in the state west of Binghamton. The building, only recently vacated by tenants, was a large three-story combination of wood and stone, one of the finest residence properties in the city. Domestic training for girls would be offered at the school.

Equipment with a total cost of $5,591.62 was ordered purchased for the new maternity annex to Jamestown General Hospital at the regular meeting of the Health and Hospital board. Largest single order was placed with the Heyl Physicians’ Supply Company of Erie, Pa., which would furnish miscellaneous equipment at a total cost of $5,067.12. Other contracts awarded were Nelson’s of Jamestown, window shades at a total of $110.50. Excel Metal Cabinet Corporation was furnishing two blanket warmers and Turner Radio Shop was supplying a refrigerator.

In 1963, Leroy D. Flasher Jr., 26, of Sugar Grove, Pa., was found dead in his automobile, which was parked in the driveway of his parent’s home on Patchen Hollow Road. His death occurred on the eve of the Flasher family reunion. His parents went to the car about 11:30 a.m. to awaken him for the event. Leroy Flasher Sr. said his son had parked in the driveway late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The car radio was on and apparently Flasher Jr. fell asleep while listening with the car running. Police said there was no tailpipe on the car. Coroner Ed Lowrey was expected to issue a certificate of accidental death.

Two boys, 12 and 13, were brought in the previous night for questioning by Lakewood police in the theft of groceries from Quality Market on Chautauqua Avenue. Officer Lee Kellogg picked up the boys at their homes after they were spotted eating the groceries behind Yorktown Industries. Police Chief Anthony and Officer Kellogg interrogated the boys and the 13-year-old admitted 10 burglaries and two larcenies in 1963. He also admitted breaking into the Quality Market on July 26, 1962. Further investigation was to be made.

In 1988, Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania so far had adequate supplies of electricity despite high demands for power as a result of sustained hot weather. The reports were made by spokesmen for area utilities, who noted that the situation was in contrast to that in eastern New York state. Planned power interruptions were resorted to there by Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. while repairs were made to an Albany-area substation. No such interruptions were required after the repairs were completed.

The Sea Lion was ready to sail again. The replica of a 16th century merchant ship was sporting a new mast to replace the original one damaged extensively by a lightning strike at 6:47 p.m. July 16. O. Winston Bartholomew, executive director of Chautauqua Lake Historic Vessels, owner/operator of the craft, said it would load at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the dock at Mayville for its first sailing since the lightning damaged the mast.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, the big 5 million-gallon reservoir of the water department which for the past two years had been in course of construction on English Hill in Jamestown and which was practically completed, would be open for public inspection the following Saturday from 1-6 p.m. and the board of water commissioners expressed the hope that a large number of persons would take advantage of the opportunity to visit the place at that time. The commission had prepared an official invitation which would be sent to the mayor, the common council and other city officials as well as the public generally. Superintendent Hapgood was preparing a handsome pamphlet giving a history of the water department since the plant was purchased by the city 10 years previously. Every person who visited English Hill on the Saturday would be given one of these pamphlets.
  • Celoron Park was the scene of an unfortunate and fatal accident Sunday afternoon around 4:15 p.m. Albin Glans, 20, of Willard Street in Jamestown fell from the roof of the bath house to the cement sidewalk and fractured his skull. He died in the Jones Hospital at 5:30 p.m., a few minutes after reaching there in the automobile ambulance. Young Glans was one of a large number of bathers and after a swim he started to join a crowd on the roof of the bathhouse for the purpose of watching the ball game. According to the story of one of the witnesses of the tragedy, Joseph Illig, Glans climbed over the screen placed there for the purpose of keeping the bathers from climbing upon the roof. To get a better footing he stepped on a slender brace extending from the roof to the screen. The brace gave way and threw him down the incline and off the roof to the cement walk.
  • In 1938, with high winds still blowing from the west on Chautauqua Lake, no definite decision on the possible starting time for the first races of the annual regatta of the Central New York Yacht Racing Association could be made. Vigorous west winds delayed the opening series of races on the Chautauqua Lake Yacht Club’s triangular course off the Lakewood shore. Weather bureau officials informed the race committee that the strong gale lashing over the lake at between 25 and 30 mph would probably not abate for 12 hours, making racing this day highly improbable. Several hundred spectators lined the shores awaiting the start of the spectacle. Power yachts, containing additional onlookers, were anchored at vantage points. The wind was so severe that the smaller crafts were tossed about in the water like chips, their light anchors proving almost useless.
  • State police from Batavia barracks began an investigation of the poisoning of Morning Melody, 4-month-old filly, granddaughter of Man O’ War, famous American race horse, owned by Miss Gay Schroeder, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Schroeder Jr. of Ardmore, Pa., which died following a few days’ illness at the Schroeder estate at Bay View on Chautauqua Lake Aug. 1. The matter was turned over to the authorities Wednesday when the Schroeders received a report from Cornell University that the valuable young filly, whose body was sent there for analysis by Dr. J.C. Turner, Cassadaga veterinary, had died as a result of consuming a quantity of nitric acid. Gay Girl, dam of Morning Melody, also owned by Miss Schroeder, had competed in numerous eastern horse shows, winning many prizes. The sire of Morning Melody was one of Man O’ War’s first sons, coming from the Chesterbrook stables, Paoli, Pa.
  • In 1988, it was a night of cowboys and cowgirls, wild horses and devilish bulls as the 44th annual Gerry Rodeo opened the previous night to a full crowd. Almost everywhere were people wearing cowboy hats, slick leather boots and jeans. The show opened with a dedication to the American flag and concluded with a tradition at rodeos – the cowboy’s prayer, said by rodeo announcer Boyd Polhamus. Ken Knowlton of Frewsburg was a rodeo fan and attended the Gerry Rodeo every year he could. He said he enjoyed the animals and the action and said it was one of the few real family entertainment events left.
  • Called as a witness to support the defense of accused murderer James J. Swan of Dayton, his mother testified she could not remember statements she made supporting claims of his mental illness. Lena Swan, 67, was questioned by Raymond W. Bulson of Portville, one of Swan’s two defense attorneys, regarding her son’s activities and mental state during the hours before he used a rifle to shoot and kill a police officer, Gary E. Kubasiak, 32, of Gowanda. Mrs. Swan denied she went next door because something was wrong at their home. Instead she told Bulson she “went to visit.” Showing her a sworn statement she previously signed about the incident, Bulson asked if she had said her son was mentally sick. “I don’t remember. I don’t know why they put that down there,” she said.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, the first impeachment of a governor that New York state had ever known seemed inevitable as the result of an astonishing series of blows at William Sulzer’s reputation, delivered in two tense hours before the Frawley committee at the City Hall. Charges that just fell short of proof in earlier sessions – that the governor, in addition to perjuring himself by swearing to an untruthful statement of campaign receipts, used part of those receipts in stock market speculation – were driven home by testimony deemed by the committee as indisputable. The committee found itself so stuffed with evidence that it adjourned without hearing all the witnesses who were expected.
  • The police expressed the opinion that a man and his sweetheart ended their lives by jumping into the river from Willow Island above Niagara Falls, N.Y. Notes written on three pages of paper were found by the reservation police. On one page was written, “Dear Daddy, we are watching the rapids,” two words following were indecipherable. On the next page was written, “Dear Margaret, poor Bob has gone over the falls. There is no use of living in this world, so goodbye. If you get me dead, bury me at Beamsville.” The name Bob King appeared on this page. On the next page was written, “Dear Daddy, have been to Cleveland and Detroit and cannot get a job, so goodbye.”
  • In 1938, the Bear Lake sewing society held a picnic at Midway Park on Thursday with about 60 in attendance. Dinner was served at 12:30. After the tables were cleared it began to sprinkle and all went to the skating rink where the afternoon was spent during one of the worst electric, wind and rain storms of the season. No meeting was held and all returned home about 4:30 p.m. much disappointed in the weather.
  • Workmen had begun demolishing the weather-beaten three-story wooden annex to the old YMCA building at East Second Street and Prendergast Avenue later known as the Nordic Temple. It was the remnant of what was once a popular and prosperous hotel, known by different names under different owners. The names by which it was known were the National Hotel and later, the Arlington. It was a popular place for farmers visiting the city of Jamestown. A large livery stable directly across the street provided accommodations for their teams and a substantial dinner was served for a quarter. Of late most of the rooms had been vacant and the building had become more and more dilapidated. It had been an eyesore for many years, with the paint peeling from its clapboards and its broken down windows.
  • In 1963, the Jamestown urban area was the only one of its size in New York state which did not enjoy the economic stimulus of a high speed express highway. And if the area was to move forward and continue to grow “this restriction must be lifted,” according to a report made by the Chautauqua County Planning Board. The urban area included Lakewood, Celoron, Jamestown and Falconer and was described as the heart of the Conewango Basin, one of three geographical sections into which the planning board had divided the county for its report.
  • Jamestown policewoman Mrs. Inez Stahley of E. Fifth Street, who became ill and collapsed the previous afternoon at Prendergast Ave. and E. Fourth St., was reported in good condition at Jamestown General Hospital. Oxygen was administered to Mrs. Stahley at the scene by the Fire Department Rescue unit before she was taken to the hospital by the Jamestown Ambulance Service.
  • In 1988, Vice President George Bush greeted supporters who gathered outside a fence at the Erie International Airport on the previous morning. Bush was in Erie to address the Pennsylvania convention of the Fraternal Order of Police.
  • In a speech made more endearing in the celebration of Roger Tory Peterson’s 80th birthday, and more urgent in the wake of the summer’s environmental disasters on land and sea, Stanwyn G. Shelter asked those at his lecture in Chautauqua to be naturalists. “We need naturalists today. We need naturalists more than ever before,” Shelter, the acting deputy director of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution said. He said we all need to become informed about nature and its past. “Natural history is the beginning of education for all environmental matters.”

In Years Past

  • In 1913, some time apparently during the early hours of the morning, the big safe in the Westfield office of the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction line was blown open by nitroglycerin and the contents looted. Entrance to the office was made through a window on the west side of the building, although how the burglars reached that window was still a mystery. Once inside the office, they apparently lost neither time nor nitro in blowing the safe and the charge shattered the big door into small pieces. The nearby residents must have been sleeping the sleep of the dead just not to have heard an explosion which did such remarkable damage.
  • State Engineer Bensel arrived in Jamestown this day with a party of friends for the purpose of making a personal inspection of the Chadakoin River Improvement project, as a preliminary to commencing active operations for the relief of flood conditions. The state had appropriated $100,000 for that purpose. Mr.Bensel was entertained at dinner at the Hotel Samuels by Charles M. Dow. Residents of Jamestown who were invited to join the party were Frank W. Stevens, S.B. Broadhead, Assemblyman George W. Jude and Frederick P. Hall.
  • In 1938, Carl Harris Anderson, 23, of Hedges Avenue, Jamestown, was Chautauqua Lake’s fifth accidental drowning victim of the season at about 6:30 a.m. while he was on a fishing excursion with his fiancee, Miss Ellen Nelson of Livingston Avenue. The tragedy occurred at a point near shore between Shore Acres and Phillips Mills. Miss Nelson almost suffered the same fate as her companion when she jumped into the lake to aid young Anderson and became entangled in several fishing lines. She struggled free and screamed to attract attention from nearby cottages.
  • A possibility that the alleged shortage of ready-mixed concrete delivered to the Newland Avenue – Charles Street repaving job might be accounted for by a heavy rainstorm which washed several truckloads of sand filler out of the street during the night before the concrete was poured, developed as Corporation Counsel Rollin A. Fancher continued his probe of grave charges made by John J. Mahoney, local sand and gravel contractor and Thomas Fletcher, president of the Cement Finisher’s union.
  • In 1963, the tiny son of President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy died early this day when a lung ailment overcame his heart. The President was only a few feet away when his third child died. The President spent the night in a room at the Boston Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Only 12 hours before, teams of specialists had placed the four-pound 10 ounce boy in a huge breathing apparatus, the only one of its kind in the world. Presidential press secretary Pierre Salinger told hastily gathered newsmen that Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died at 4:04 a.m. EDT.
  • Police authorities announced the capture in downtown Dunkirk of a 46-year-old escapee from a Georgia prison, where he had been serving a life term for murder. The prisoner, Cecil Aubrey Thompson, was scheduled to be arraigned later in the day before U.S. Commissioner Francis J. Moynihan in Jamestown. Thompson was unarmed and offered no resistance when FBI agents and local police closed in on him at a residence on Columbus Avenue. Joseph K. Ponder, special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI Office, and Dunkirk Police Chief Richard Kinne said the arrest was made after the home had been under surveillance for about five hours by Dunkirk police and members of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Dept.
  • In 1988, the City of Jamestown took a major and difficult step in relieving itself of mounting deficits incurred by Jamestown General Hospital by selling the 77-year-old facility to WCA Hospital for $5 million. Council members voted 9-3 in favor of WCA’s proposal to buy out the assets of debt-ridden JGH. The hospital was about $3.5 million in the red and had not shown a profit in a decade. “Needless to say, I am pleased with the final action by the council,” Mayor Steven B. Carlson told The Post-Journal.
  • James J. Swan was suffering a delusion, a form of mental illness, the day he shot and killed a state trooper, his psychiatrist testified in Cattaraugus County Court. Swan’s mind was like a jigsaw puzzle that day and he felt someone was out to get him, the doctor said. Swan’s attorneys had based his defense on the issue of his sanity on Aug. 30, 1982, and whether he knew what he was doing when he pulled the trigger of a rifle that killed Gary Kubasiak, 32, of Gowanda. Swan, 39, of Dayton, was alone at his home that night when police arrived in response to his mother’s call saying they had been arguing and Swan had guns inside the house.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, the annual Busti town picnic was held the previous day at Andrews Grove just east of the village. The attendance was a record-breaking one. Whether or not the attendance reached 2,000 was uncertain but there was no doubt that every person who ever lived in the town of Busti, and a great many who didn’t, came to the affair. Old and young alike, old men and women, some of them coming back to the town for the first time in years and younger people who were regular attendants at the annual outing, joined in making the day one of the most enjoyable in recent years. And the day was ideal.
  • C.L. Bradburn was the defendant today in a Jamestown police court proceeding brought by Sanitary Inspector John A. Hulquist. Mr. Hulquist complained that Mr. Bradburn had failed to cover a manure pile as provided by the health ordinance. Mr. Bradburn said he had employed a man to make a cover for the pile but the job had not been completed. Justice Maharon imposed a fine of $5.
  • In 1938, 2,000 persons attending the second team pulling contest of the year, held Sunday on the Harry Russell farm in Sherman, got thrills and excitement not scheduled when the Reed and Buesing team became unmanageable and, in running away, injured John Millman of Leon, who tried to stop the frightened horses. Millman, who was driver for Frank Anderson of Ellington, was kicked on one leg, which was badly lacerated and was taken in the Fire Department ambulance to Mayville for treatment. The accident was caused when one of the tugs broke. When Millman grasped the bridle to stop the horses it also broke and he fell.
  • The seat of the federal government was situated on Chautauqua Lake for several hours Sunday as United States Solicitor General Robert H. Jackson treated Thomas “Tommy the Cork” Corcoran and Benjamin Cohen, President Roosevelt’s No. 1 and No. 2 braintrusters, to a motorboat outing. Fourth member of the party was John H. Wright of Jamestown. Corcoran and Cohen, who with Jamestown’s Jackson, were regarded as the President’s most intimate advisors, arrived in Jamestown by train Sunday morning to visit Mr. and Mrs. Jackson for the day. They spent the entire day at the lakeside home the Jackson family had taken for the summer at Lakewood.
  • In 1963, flood damage in Buffalo was estimated at $35 million following torrential rains that virtually swamped some areas and routed more than 300 persons from their homes. Rains up to 3.88 inches drenched the city and suburbs the previous day for the second time in 10 days. Buses stopped running. Cars were abandoned as water filled low areas. Power was knocked out. Telephone lines were down. Many basements were flooded. “I’ve lived here 40 years and it’s never been this bad,” an East Side housewife said. Mayor Chester Kowal declared a state of emergency.
  • Hundreds of homes in south-central Jamestown were hit by a one to two hour electrical blackout last night when a 13,200-volt underground line shorted at 10:35 p.m. Public utility officials were unable to estimate the total number of consumers affected. But the power failure extended over a major section fed by the Newland Avenue substation. B.P.W. crews worked through the night and were attempting this morning to locate the point where the break occurred.
  • In 1988, New York state must set up some mechanism to site local garbage disposal facilities, even over the objections of local governments and residents, to help deal with the state’s trash crisis, a business lobbying group had proposed. A report from the Albany-based Business Council, released Sunday, said that even if the state met the Cuomo administration’s goals of recycling 40 percent of New York’s trash by the middle of the next decade, the state would still face a “critical shortage” of garbage disposal capacity in seven or eight years.
  • A Panama man became Chautauqua County’s 22nd highway fatality of the year early Saturday when his car overturned after he lost control of it on the Panama-Stedman Road, according to a Sheriff’s Department report. The victim was identified as Andrew Walton, 21, of the Hoag Road. The accident occurred about 4 a.m. as Walton was driving alone. The county had recorded 12 traffic deaths at the same time one year ago.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, Arthur May and Walter Fey, members of the junior class of electric engineering at State College, Pa., were electrocuted at the big power plant of the Harwood Electric Company in Hazleton, Pa. Death resulted from coming in contact with a live wire carrying 25,000 volts to the Susquehanna terminals and known as the Berwick line. Marks upon the body of May indicated that his face came in contact with the live wire. It was believed, due to injury on the hand of Fey, that he grasped the foot of his chum in an effort to either warn him or pull him away when he met the fatal shock. Both young men were working their way through college and both secured employment with the General Electric Company for the summer. They were engaged in connecting up a switchboard when the accident occurred.
  • Gunnard Eck and Carl Carlson, both 16 years of age, were arraigned in Jamestown police court this afternoon on a charge of petit larceny, which might have been burglary had the officials been disposed to make such a charge. The boys, in company with two others, on Jan. 19, stole three swords from the cigar store of Alderman Christian Nielsen, 53 South Main Street. The swords belonged to the members of the Maccabees. The boys also on the same occasion, went into the cigar store of Oscar Westphal and stole therefrom $5.30 in money and about $3 worth of cigars and cigarettes.
  • In 1938, Donald Anderson, 7, son of Mr. and Mrs. Duane Anderson of Oakland, California, who with his mother and sister had been visiting for some time with his grandparents, Police Lieutenant and Mrs. John Saunders of Fairfield Avenue in Jamestown, had a narrow escape from a frightful death just after the cloudburst which drenched the city. Donald was playing with his young friends when the storm burst and he took cover during the downpour. Hurrying home after the storm, Donald walked up Myrtle Street until he reached the intersection with Superior Street. At that point he fell into an open manhole over a storm sewer from which the cover had been ejected by the rush of water. He plunged completely underwater but was hardly aware of what had happened before he was pushed out into the open again by the tremendous pressure of water.
  • Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Van Every celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary Friday. They were married at Detroit on Aug. 4, 1913 and moved to Falconer Sept. 20 of that year. Dinner was served at 7 o’clock to the immediate family and guests from Chicago. Later in the evening friends called and a social time was enjoyed. Refreshments were served. Mrs. Alberta Michael presented the honored guests with an anniversary cake. The past evening the couple again was surprised by neighbors, friends and relatives. A wedding cake and refreshments were served. Flowers and gifts of silver were presented the couple. Old fashioned games were played.
  • In 1963, it was a toss-up whether politics or baseball was the great American pastime. But regardless of the answer, one thing was for sure in Jamestown and that was the fact that interest was never more heightened in the outcome on the city’s mayoralty campaign. For the first time in more than 40 years, the Jamestown electorate would be selecting its municipal officials under the partisan system with Democrats running with Democrats and Republicans running with Republicans. Major attention was drawn to the candidates for Jamestown’s $10,500 mayoralty post. Altogether there were four in the field -three Republicans and one Democrat.
  • Warren residents went around with their noses in the air and it wasn’t because they were stuck up. The cause was a pungent “mystery odor,” which spread across the city and nearby Pleasant Township. Warren police described it as “acid-like and very strong.” It had begun to dissipate by nightfall. Authorities were unable to trace the source although one South Side resident said he noticed the odor after a Pennsylvania Railroad train pulling a car that used weed spray went by. A rail spokesman said he doubted that weed spray had such a strong odor.

In Pleasant Township a woman said her two children became ill after the odor forced them indoors.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, a most unfortunate incident connected with the recent trip of the county supervisors and highway superintendents through the county was the destruction of the automobile owned and driven by Neil Abbott of Harmony. Mr. Abbott had an accident to his car at Ripley on Thursday and was compelled to abandon it there. He returned for the machine on Saturday and started home with it. When at Ripley crossing, he waited for a train to pass and then started across the four tracks. He then saw a freight train approaching and hastily threw his car into high speed. In so doing, he stalled the engine. There was no time for cranking the car and starting the engine again. He jumped from the car just before the engine crashed into it, completely wrecking the machine.
  • Fred Snyder of Falconer figured in a motorcycle accident at Hamburg in which he and Mrs. Snyder had a narrow escape from serious injury. Mr. Snyder was driving his automobile through the village of Hamburg when a young man named Heckman of Eden Center, riding a motorcycle, collided with the automobile. The motorcycle smashed through the windshield and landed on the hood of the auto. Heckman was badly hurt. Mr. Snyder escaped injury but Mrs. Snyder sustained cuts from broken glass. The motorcycle, it was stated, was proceeding at a rapid rate at the time of the accident.
  • In 1938, Special Prosecutor Frank G. Ralchie, in Buffalo, halted the wheels of justice this day – for cupid. When Miss Dorothy Byron, a school teacher subpoenaed before a special grand jury, asked him to excuse her because, “I’m going to be married,” he replied: “Under no circumstances would I interfere with plans like that. You go right ahead.”
  • The investigation by Corporation Counsel Rollin A. Fancher into charges the city of Jamestown had been cheated in purchasing ready-mixed concrete for repaving streets after trolley car rails had been removed, might present many unusual angles. This was indicated by Mr. Fancher when he revealed that an officer and five employees of the A. & K. Builders’ Supply Company gave testimony in defense of the charges before the accusing witnesses were examined. John Mahoney, local sand and gravel contractor and Thomas Fletcher, president of the Cement Finishers’ union, who first brought the “cheating” charge, appeared at Mr. Fancher’s office in response to subpoenas.
  • In 1963, a $100,000 nine-hole golf course would be built the following spring along the Hunt Road, just west of Sunset Hill Cemetery. Paul L. Vittur, promoter of the project said it would be known as the Sunset Valley Golf Course. He was president of Sunset Hill Cemetery. The preliminary plans also called for construction of a club house, a pro shop and a restaurant, Mr. Vittur added.
  • A report that a girl had been shot sent state police and volunteer firemen scurrying to the Joseph Hasbrook place in Kiantone shortly after 8 p.m. the previous evening. It turned out 9-year-old Pamela Reed fell from a 15-foot embankment, injuring her head. Shots had been heard in the area. The child, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Reed, Ormand Beach, Florida, was visiting the Hasbrooks. Dr. R. M. Weidler, Frewsburg, rushed the child to the Jamestown General Hospital with a Jamestown police escort after Kiantone volunteer firemen administered first aid. Her condition was listed as fair.
  • In 1988, a bolt of lightning Friday night struck a house and triggered a fire that left a Randolph couple homeless. The fire started when lightning struck the Fred Fisher home on Corbett Hill Road around 6 p.m., according to Howard Van Rensselaer of the Randolph fire police. Neighbor Jim Atwood told The Post-Journal he heard a crashing sound and looked out the window and saw fire coming from the Fisher house. The Fishers escaped the blaze uninjured. More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze, which took more than three hours to control.
  • The information Center of Chautauqua County Vacationlands at Ripley was managed by Mary Perdue who said of its activities, “We have about 50 people a day stopping by.” She gave them information and distributed literature relating to the area. Ms. Perdue said about 90 percent of the inquiries related to Niagara Falls, while a number of them also were received about Chautauqua Institution. “What we try to do,” she said, “is interest them in staying in the area a while before they go on to Niagara Falls where most of them probably eventually end up.”

In Years Past

In 1913, Sprague Bros. and Eberman would place on sale in single-lot offerings the following afternoon the tract of land on Fluvanna Avenue between North Main and Washington streets recently purchased from the Warner and Marvin estate, known as Hyde Park. The sale would continue for the rest of this week and would be conducted by the L. C. Strong real estate agency of Jamestown. The tract was admirably located on high and dry land on the principal connection with the east side Chautauqua Lake road and only two minutes’ walk from the car line.

Attorney C. A. Pickard appeared before the Jamestown Common Council and again called attention to the damage which was done to paving by a traction engine. An ordinance had been adopted, he said, which he supposed prohibited the driving of traction engines on the pavement. Monday, a traction engine had been driven over the asphalt block at Fifth Street and Prendergast Avenue. This, he said he understood, was done by the authority of a permit issued by the chief of police. “The city,” said Mr. Pickard, “should give the citizens some relief. At the time the matter was up before, I suggested the desirability of an attempt to collect damages. I think, for the protection of property owners, it should be done.”

In 1938, striking with startling suddenness, one of the most severe summer storms in several years swept across the Chautauqua region late the previous afternoon causing considerable damage to communication and power lines and trees and flooding property in low-lying areas but bringing temporary relief from intense heat that had prevailed for a few days. Rain was accompanied by high winds and considerable electrical disturbance. Streets of Jamestown and nearby communities were flooded in some places from curb to curb.

At a lunch meeting of the campaign executive committee of the Jamestown Community Chest this noon at the Hotel Jamestown, the week of Oct. 17-24 was unanimously approved for the annual campaign. In discussing the committee’s decision to hold the campaign during this period, Richard L. Swanson, campaign director, said: “In October we usually have more favorable weather conditions and the calendar of events shows very few that would conflict with campaign work. We feel that almost everyone will be able to give attention to the community chest campaign to a greater advantage between the dates selected than at a later date.”

In 1963, hundreds of workers dug into piles of debris left by a storm that ripped a path of death and destruction through Glassport and nearby western Pennsylvania communities. Two were killed and some 70 others were injured by the furious assault of rain and wind Saturday night. Damage ran into millions of dollars. Winds clocked at 90 mph rocked Glassport for 45 minutes and roared into nearby Carnegie, Clairton and McKeesport. Buildings were ripped apart. “All reports indicate it was a tornado, but we can’t call it that officially,” said chief forecaster Henry Rockwood of the U.S. Weather Bureau in Pittsburgh.

Three Ohioans were injured in an airplane crash at 6:55 p.m., Saturday at Fredonia Airport. Another passenger of the Cessna 170B, Ronald Mabee, 15, of Fonda, N.Y., near Albany, apparently escaped injury. Police said the airplane, westbound, developed engine trouble earlier in the day and after the engine had been repaired, the aircraft failed to gain altitude and crashed into thick growth of trees and underbrush, which necessitated rescue squads cutting a path to the scene by using chain saws and axes for a distance of more than 300 feet.

In 1988, a hot-air balloon made in Mickey Mouse’s likeness flew over Niagara Falls Wednesday as part of a Disney celebration of Mickey’s 60th birthday, which would occur Nov. 18. The 12-story-tall balloon flew over the falls again on Thursday before heading off to finish its tour of North America, which began in May and would end in New Orleans later this month.

  • Joseph Gerace, director of the state Office of Rural Affairs, suggested that people in the Portland and Brocton area start planning now for what was expected to be significant growth when a state prison was built there the following summer. Gerace talked with about 14 public officials from Portland and Brocton in the Brocton Central School Auditorium. Gerace said his first job was to inform rural communities what programs and grants were available through various local, state and federal agencies.

In Years Past

In 1913, lightning caused a disturbance in Jamestown with the fire alarm system Sunday night. Two circuits, No. 1 of the south side and No. 4 in the business section, were knocked out completely. Eighteen fuses connected with the system were blown out. The lightning made the electrical apparatus around the City Hall rattle in a most alarming way. During the progress of the storm, Chief Wilson heard the fire tapper sound. He knew the trouble was probably due to the lightning but he went to the telephone and called up police headquarters. “Did the bell ring?” asked the chief. “I don’t know,” replied Captain Reeder. “The lightning is knocking things around here so lively I haven’t noticed.”

Nearly 100 members of The Journal family, that was, correspondents and their guests, members of The Journal company and of the daily and tri-weekly office staff, were present at and thoroughly enjoyed the sixth annual reunion of The Journal’s Correspondents’ Association held Saturday, Aug. 2. It was a real inspiration to those who helped make The Journal the home newspaper of this area to see the friendly interest all took in the real business of the meeting, the discussion of questions pertaining to their work and to participate in the enjoyment of the good dinner and the excellent program of readings and music.

In 1938, Kleber D. Powers, 32 of Jamestown, who had been a well-known employee of the Bank of Jamestown, was killed at about 1:45 a.m. when the car he was driving left the Ashville-Panama highway just west of Ashville, tossed him out and landed on top of him. Powers had left the Isaac Walton Club south of Blockville about 10 or 15 minutes before the accident, after attending a supper for members at that place. There were no witnesses to the accident but Bert J. Barclay, employee of the Red Star service station on East Fourth Street in Jamestown, who left the Isaac Walton Club about 10 minutes after Powers, discovered the crash, pulled Powers from under the car and took him to Jamestown General Hospital. The victim was dead upon arrival.

The story of the nationwide activities of the American Legion would be presented in moving pageantry under the auspices of Ira Lou Spring Post at an interstate Armistice Day celebration in Jamestown on Saturday, Nov. 12 and, in addition to the parade, there would be a series of prize band and drum corps competitions for veterans organizations. Invitations were being extended to all of the Legion posts and auxiliaries in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties in this state and Warren County over the line in Pennsylvania.

In 1988, Cassadaga Mayor Daniel Crandall had ordered immediate posting of “No Trespassing/No Swimming” signs at the beach and said the village would ticket individuals caught using the beach after hours. The action came on the heels of a threat made by Cassadaga Police Officer William Barthold to take legal action against the board if the signs were not posted. Barthold read to the board a misdemeanor complaint he intended to file which stated the board’s “failure to comply with a reasonable request of a police officer.” The warm weather had caused continual problems with off-hour bathers using the beach when a lifeguard was not present.

Matt Clucas would be leaving Sunday for Akron, Ohio, to represent the Jamestown area at the All-American Soap Box Derby August 13. Clucas earned the right to represent the Jamestown area June 4 when he won the Jamestown Derby held on Baker Street near Bergman Park. About 160 drivers from all over the world, including Germany, Australia and Guam, were scheduled to race for up to four hours in the All-American Derby, according to Tony Purpura, Director of the Jamestown Area Soap Box Derby. Purpura added that the last 90 minutes, including the finals, would be televised live on ESPN.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, it would be good news to residents of Jamestown to learn that the new 5 million-gallon reservoir on English Hill was now practically completed. It was likely to be formally opened in a week or two. Superintendent Hapgood of the water department, who had charge of the work since it was abandoned a year ago by Contractor Bame, had conducted operations with little display but great efficiency. Contractor James P. Calahan, who had the contract to lay the big main up the hill had completed his work.
  • A camp with seventy young women in attendance was established at Overlook on Chautauqua Lake and the girls were having the best time imaginable, with health and strength thrown in. It was the camp of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Chautauqua County and the seventy girls came from Jamestown, Westfield, Fredonia, Ripley, Silver Creek, Forestville, Sherman and other places. The camp name was Chedwel. The place was made possible through the generosity of Dr. Charles Edward Welch of Westfield and the name was in his honor.
  • In 1938, the Jamestown-owned cement mixer was moved from the city warehouse to a point on Steele Street. The action was apparently pursuant to Councilman Peterson’s motion, adopted at the July 18 council session, which provided as follows: “Resolved: That the director of public works be directed to arrange for the placing of the large city cement mixer on a convenient job, for the purpose of giving it a good trial in order to ascertain the cost and practicality as compared to the use of ready-mixed concrete.” The mixer remained on Steele Street for 11 days.
  • With the mercury mounting steadily, residents of Jamestown and the Chautauqua Region sweltered in the sizzling heat this day, one of the hottest of the summer. The maximum temperature for the 24-hour period ending at 2 p.m. was 91 degrees and it was apparent that the high reading of 92 set July 8 would be surpassed before sunset. The low temperature for the day was 66 degrees. During the June heat wave the first of the season, 90 was recorded on the 25th of that month. The hottest day in the history of Jamestown’s weather bureau was July 9, 1936, when the century mark was reached.
  • In 1963, Paul A. White, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ward G. White of Frewsburg, was killed the previous day by a hit-and-run automobile while he was hitchhiking back to base after visiting his fiancee in Camden, S.C. Kershaw County Sheriff D. E. Hilton said Airman White, 21, was found dead on Highway 521 near Camden’s corporate limit. White’s fiancee, Miss Sue Hopkins, had left the young airman on the highway a short time before the accident.
  • Murray S. Stevens, Executive Vice President of the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce, issued a warning to area service organizations to beware of a self-styled health food lecturer known to be operating in Western New York. Mr. Stevens said the man had been known to use the vantage point of the speaker’s table to sell his so-called health products. Organizations contacted by this man were urged to call the Chamber of Commerce.
  • In 1988, little did Jamestown General Hospital Administrator James H. Schaum know what he was getting into when he accepted his new job the past November over two other offers. Nevertheless, through all the emotional debate in recent months over the issue of selling or saving JGH, Schaum had remained determined to make the best of the situation. Schaum said he accepted the position in good faith, with the intention of working hard to turn around the financial mess that had developed there. But JGH might be sold out from under him. If that happened and “if there is a position in the new institution where I feel I would make a difference and could make a contribution to the organization and the community, I would be interested in staying here,” Schaum said.
  • It was hot in Sinclairville the previous day. How hot? Hot enough to activate the smoke-heat detector in the upstairs clubrooms of the fire station and sound the alarm. So reported Mayor Earl Minckler who noted he was in his village office at the time and went out to find one of the volunteer firemen working on the detector. The high for the day in the community was 96 degrees, according to Weather Observer Patricia Webb. She said it ranked a little below readings the past month when the thermometer registered 99 degrees July 9, the highest reading of the season to date, 98 degrees July 8 and 97 on July 7.

In Years Past

In 1913, for all its wealth and its prosperity Chautauqua County had a good many poor people to look after. It was true that practically all of these were incapable of self-support by reason of old age or mental or bodily infirmities and children who had not yet reached the wage earning age. The problem of maintenance of the poor was one of the most important that confronted the American people. How to extend needed relief without encouraging pauperism, how to provide for the proper care of those unable to care for themselves, was a work that was worthy of the best efforts of the best men and women of every community. The annual meeting of these people for 1913 was held Thursday at the county home at Dewittville with an attendance of some thirty representative men and women of the county, including the overseers of the poor of many towns.

Such of the east side Chautauqua Lake road as lay within the limits of Jamestown would be closed to all traffic commencing Monday, Aug. 4, when the active work of grading and paving between the intersection of Fluvanna Avenue and the Lake road would be commenced. As there were no cross roads between the city limits and Fluvanna, this would close to all through traffic the road between Fluvanna and Jamestown and Fluvanna Avenue from North Main Street and require automobiles and others to go by way of North main Street and the West Oak Hill road. The detour would be marked by signs.

In 1938, long delayed work on the runways of the North Main Street airport in Jamestown began in earnest and would continue on a six-days per week basis until complete according to announcement this day by Director of Public Works Leland L. Graham. The tentative completion date had been set as Oct. 1. Forty men and 10 trucks started work on the job and more of both would be added before the week was over. Graham stated that additional men would be placed at work on the project as soon as they were available. Work on the hangar had proceeded to a point where the structure actually looked like a hangar. The huge steel doors were in place and the last slab of concrete on the floor of the huge “plane garage” was being poured early this afternoon.

One of the recent rainstorms with its accompanying lightning, proved illuminating to Bert Bush, Ellington farmer, although it provided a temporary scare. Attracted by a gleam of light from his barn following one of the recent storms, Bush, believing the structure to have been struck by lightning and to have subsequently caught fire, rushed to the barn. On seeing a light bulb, long since rendered useless, burning brightly, he surmised the lightning must have fused the lighting connections.

In 1963, a miniature rodeo was staged twice Wednesday night in the Terrace Avenue area of Lakewood. However, there was but one animal involved, a brown and black pony and a cowboy who gained his experience handling horses by watching a rodeo. Without the aid of a horse, spurs, lasso or even a lump of sugar, Police Officer Nels Carlson rounded up the wandering pony with ease, which proved the pony took a liking to the “cowpuncher.” The pony, police reported, was owned by Paul Blood’s son, 181 Terrace Ave.

A meeting of state, local and town health officials was expected to be called within a week for an analysis of the Chautauqua Lake pollution problem. Dr. Lyle D. Franzen, district state health officer, said at a press conference the previous day that the meeting would provide a consensus of results from a stepped up testing program. He provided new media with test reports from water samplings taken from 18 areas throughout the lake. The reports disclosed that coliform counts above the safety maximum of 2,400 had been found in samples from areas other than Burtis Bay. But Burtis Bay and the area near Jamestown Municipal Beach continued to show the highest consistent coliform count.

In 1988, “It’s been the dog days summer in Western New York,” Meteorologist George Skari of the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service said as he predicted a continuance of hot, hazy conditions for the coming week. “We’ve got hot and humid weather on the way for most of the work week anyways,” he said. Temperatures this day were expected to get into the low 90s with readings in the mid-90s common on the following day along with oppressive humidity and very hazy conditions.

Two major senior citizens housing projects were nearing the point where construction could begin, Jamestown Mayor Steven B. Carlson told members of the Jamestown City Council at their work session the previous night. The projects were: Lutheran Social Services – a 45-unit project to be built on Chandler Street and Chadakoin Terrace – a 56-unit HUD project sponsored by the Hall Memorial Housing Corp. Four existing units would be rehabilitated and 52 new units would be constructed on the grounds of the Hall Memorial Home, according to Carlson.

In Years Past

  • In 1913, a serious and probably fatal automobile accident occurred two miles west of Ripley on this morning. W.J. McManus of Pittsburgh, who had a summer residence at North East, left that village at 9 o’clock to drive to Chautauqua in his Winton touring car. He was accompanied by his wife and three children. McManus’ wife was driving the car. Two miles west of Ripley, she turned out to pass another auto running in the same direction, when the car skidded into a ditch and was overturned. McManus’ eldest daughter sustained a fractured skull and McManus’ wife’s collarbone was broken. Local physicians who were called to attend the injured, regarded the oldest daughter’s injury as most serious and little hope was entertained for her recovery.
  • At Cannonsburg, Pa., John Bedelion Jr., 23, was rendered unconscious, the hair on one side of his head singed, his clothing partly torn from his body and the team which he was driving was killed during an electric storm the previous day. Bedelion was at work on his father’s farm and was hurrying to a nearby barn when the bolt felled him. His brother, Robert, was shocked and thrown to the ground.
  • In 1938, 4,000 people, it was estimated, attended the Kennedy Firemen’s field day Saturday afternoon and evening. The afternoon program opened with a band concert given by the Kennedy School Band under direction of Paul D. Temple. In the mud wrestling match, Charles Polinski of Jamestown defeated Ray Miller of Sherman. Darrell Sharp was referee. The parade Saturday evening was participated in by a large number of organizations, with T.P. Mattison of Kennedy acting as marshal.
  • The body of Floyd Elderidge, 32, of Mud Creek Road, Poland, fourth victim of Chautauqua Lake drowning tragedies the past week, was pulled from the lake at 5:15 a.m. Sunday by John W. Mitchell of Jamestown while fishing off Colburns’. Elderidge was drowned Thursday when the motorboat in which he and William Rea, 34, of Lakewood, were fishing, capsized during a heavy storm. Rea was rescued by persons who witnessed the accident.
  • In 1963, Christopher Cowden, 23-month-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cowden, Rochester, N.Y., and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Cowden of Warren, was electrocuted Monday afternoon at the home of his grandmother, Mrs. Eva O. Mailloux, Woonsocket, R.I. The boy and his mother were visiting with her mother while the father was in Rochester teaching at the Eastman School of Music. Authorities said Christopher had been playing outside under a sprinkler. His mother called him in to be dried off and dressed and he touched the partially plugged prongs of a toaster with wet hands. He was pronounced dead 20 minutes after arrival at the hospital. The Crowdens recently returned from Germany where they had both been studying music under a Fulbright scholarship.
  • New York State Health Dept. officials said there appeared to be no appreciable change in conditions which led to the closing of Jamestown’s bathing beach at Burtis Bay on July 12. A spokesman said that results of tests taken the past week indicated that there might have been a couple of days when swimming could have been safe. He cautioned, however, that this was far from acceptable evidence that conditions, which forced its shutdown, had improved, particularly in view of the wide fluctuation of readings from day to day.
  • In 1988, a 12-year-old boy whose mother suggested he dig to China in the back yard dug up something just as unexpected in Irondequoit, N.Y.: a human skull and other bones. Authorities planned to return this day to the site where Richard Przygoda, a sixth-grader, found the skull and 12 bones while digging a hole behind his family’s house. “It’s definitely human remains,” said Sgt. Ronald Eisenhauer of the Irondequoit Police Department. “But a lot more digging and testing has yet to be done.” Eisenhauer said that once a date of death was established, department investigators would search their records for missing persons and unsolved murders. The bones of three other people found near another Irondequoit home in April had yet to be identified but authorities said they could be 100 years old.
  • Thousands of car enthusiasts from all around the area Sunday had a chance to view almost 500 of their favorite cars from the last 70 years at Jamestown’s Bergman Park for the 1988 World Series of Cars. “It’s the pleasure other people get out of them,” owner Mark Morowski of Salamanca said was the biggest enjoyment he got from rebuilding old cars. He wouldn’t put a money value on his car, a 1948 Plymouth police car.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today