In 1915, it was just 50 years ago the previous morning that the Seventh Company, First Battalion, New York sharpshooters returned home from the war. Henry W. Watson, president of the Watson Manufacturing Company was a member and returned home at the war’s end. “No one knew we were coming and the hour was early in the morning. There was not a soul in sight, not even a policeman. There were only 10 or 12 of us, the company having been greatly reduced by hard service and there was no fuss about our homecoming, I can assure you, although we were mighty glad to get back. We were mustered out of the state service at Elmira and came home on the Erie, arriving at about 6 o’clock.

Policeman George Kendall lost his life in the performance of duty in the Shaver block in Brooklyn Square on Friday afternoon. The whole thing happened so suddenly and events followed in such quick succession that it was difficult to separate actual fact from rumor. It was certainly one of the most sensational affairs that ever occurred in Jamestown. Five minutes after the shot that eventually killed Policeman Kendall was fired, Brooklyn Square was a surging mass of people. The authorities were greatly surprised that there were not more deaths. The police department was expecting that some of the onlookers would be injured and the motor ambulance was ready at a second’s notice to rush wounded to the hospital. The crowd refused to get out of the square and the police had a hard time trying to keep them out of the way of their work.

In 1940, an educational campaign designed to teach motorists how to make turns at congested street intersections, in an effort to reduce traffic tie-ups at such points, would be launched by the Jamestown police department within a few days and would be followed in a week or two by arrests for those who persisted in disregarding common sense rules, according to announcement by Traffic Lieutenant William Stahley. Remarking that most traffic accidents occurred at congested street intersections, Lieutenant Stahley pointed out that the reason was obvious to anyone who took the trouble to observe the antics of many motorists making turns at such points.

Flash floods – striking Cattaraugus County for the second time in eight days – left in their wake washed out bridges and roads, fallen trees and wires and considerable damage to crops. Saddled with the burden of $200,000 in destroyed and damaged spans and highways, the Cattaraugus County Board of Supervisors was expected to be called into special session immediately to consider ways of financing reconstruction.

Seventy-three persons, the largest number in Chautauqua County for 10 years, were admitted to United States citizenship at a naturalization hearing in the federal building Tuesday afternoon. Supreme Court Justice Alonzo Hinkley, Buffalo, presided. Philip Leighton, Erie, Pa., naturalization examiner, who questioned the petitioners, said he believed the large number was due to uncertain conditions abroad, the fact that some businesses were discouraging the employment of aliens and because the WPA and other agencies required citizenship. He said possibly a few were actually motivated by patriotism.

In 1965, a crackdown on the use of BB guns, air rifles and pellet guns had been launched by Police Patrolman Kenneth Chadwick and the Sinclairville Village Board. Patrolman Chadwick said he had investigated many cases of boys under 16 years of age, shooting BB guns, air rifles and even .22 caliber guns in the past few weeks. “If complaints continue,” the patrolman said, “these boys will be prosecuted as juvenile delinquents.” Parents were being urged to cooperate in the crackdown and were asked to make sure their youngsters did not possess the weapons described.

In Lakewood, a colorful parade, with marching units vying for prizes totaling $1,150, highlighted this day’s activities at the fourth annual Chautauqua Lake Summer Festival being sponsored by the Lakewood Area Jaycees. The activities began with helicopter rides and activities at Dutch Village, amusement rides and the Boat, Sports and Travel Show. The afternoon attention was being centered on Chautauqua Lake where the preliminary heats of the 1965 hydroplane races were underway. The races were sanctioned by the U.S. Power Boat Association.

In 1990, negotiations had ended between Chautauqua Lake Association and the state Department of Environmental Conservation concerning a proposed weed-spray program for the lake this summer. And spokesmen for the CLA said it might be too late now to mount an effective weed control program in this year. “I guess we’re done,” said Annette Sansone, an attorney in the Buffalo regional office of the DEC, who had represented the state agency in negotiations with the CLA.

Long-standing differences between the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Chautauqua County regarding operation of the town of Ellery landfill appeared near an end. “We’ve sent in the consent order and the check for $10,000 which should wrap up a number of items going back to 1987,” said County Executive Andrew Goodell, “and give us permission to operate until the end of August.” The consent order was in the form of an agreement by which the county paid a civil penalty for allegations of failure to abide by DEC regulations in connection with the landfill which the county neither admitted or denied.

In Years Past

In 1915, there were four victims in the horror tragedy which was enacted in Brooklyn Square, Jamestown, between the hours of three and four thirty in the afternoon. The dead were: Fred Shaver, shot by an officer ambushed across the street; Hudson Shaver, the victim of his son’s anger; Mrs. Hudson Shaver, step-mother of Fred Shaver and bride of a few days of Hudson Shaver. Officer George Kendall, a member of the Jamestown Police Department was fatally injured. Time had not elapsed in which to gather together the threads of the story which must lie behind this awful tragedy. What was known was that after some kind of an altercation in the rooms of the Shavers’ in the Shaver block, 8 Main Street, over the Majestic motion picture house, Fred Shaver shot his father, and then turned his gun on the officer, George Kendall, who came on the run to stop the trouble. About this time, or later, Mrs. Shaver was also shot.

Although it had ceased to be news in the flour trade, it would probably be the best kind of news to the housekeepers of Jamestown to learn that there had been a very marked decline in the price of flour within the past two weeks and a still larger decline, although not so sensational, for at least two months past. Two large dealers in wholesale flour in this city informed The Journal that the past two weeks had been marked by a decline in average grades of from fifty cents to sixty cents per barrel.

In 1940, action approving a six-months trial of parking meters in the most congested areas of the downtown Jamestown section was taken by City Council by a vote of eight to two. Various types of meters would be studied during the coming two weeks and action ordering installation of the trial meters would probably be taken at the next regular meeting. It was explained that the meters would not impose a financial burden upon the city, all of the companies manufacturing the apparatus having a plan for financing sale of the meters through their receipts.

Alexander Benson, 410 Stowe Street, a member of the post office staff for many years, was elected to the board of directors of the Gustavus Adolphus Children’s Home in Jamestown. Mr. Benson was the first representative of the former children at the home to be elected to the board. He was president of the Brothers and Sisters Circle, composed of persons raised at the orphanage.

In 1965, Engine Company 1 of the Jamestown Fire Department had less than a block to travel to handle a car fire. A helpful passerby ran to the City Hall Fire Station for aid shortly after 9 a.m. when a fire was discovered in the rear seat cushion of an automobile parked on Spring Street between East Third and East Fourth streets. The blaze, believed caused by a discarded cigarette, was put out with a booster line. Operator of the car was Virginia Powers of Buffalo Street.

A small deer tried to have breakfast in the Falconer Plaza Coffee Shop early one morning this week. Patrolman Don Boehm said some patrons were sitting in the coffee shop when the deer jumped in, hitting the window with considerable force. Boehm said he shooed the deer onto East Main Street then to Falconer and Work streets, using the patrol car flasher and horn, gently herding the deer out of town. He lost sight of the deer in Pine Hill Cemetery.

In 1990, employees of the Monofrax Plant of The Carborundum Co. in Falconer got an unscheduled break on this morning when the plant lost its electric and telephone service. Ronald Soehnlein, Lakewood District Manager with Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. said the power interruption occurred about 7:30 a.m. when a support tower in the Joseph H. Mason South County Industrial Park was struck by lightning. The strike took out a string of insulators, causing the wires on the 115,000-volt line to cross and trip the Falconer substation on Dow Street which supplied the plant.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Pierre Rinfret said he was going to beat incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo in the fall election. Speaking at Chautauqua County Republicans’ annual dinner Saturday at Davey’s Lookout restaurant in Maple Springs, Rinfret thanked the GOP for its support. He said it was no sacrifice – it was a privilege to run for governor of New York regardless of whether he was the 19th person to be asked. He said he could see victory. “We’re going to beat the devil out of flimflam Cuomo,” he said.

In Years Past

In 1915, a series of public health and rural hygiene meetings was being held in this sanitary district under the direction of State Sanitary Supervisor J.J. Mahoney of Jamestown. A particularly effective and successful meeting was held at Kennedy the past Friday evening with a large attendance and much interest. These meetings were being held to give wider understanding of the measures of the state department of health for safeguarding the people of the state, particularly the rural communities, against communicable diseases. Similar gatherings had been addressed by Dr. Mahoney at Clymer and at Allegany. The meeting at Kennedy was of special interest by reason of the recent outbreak of diphtheria in that community against which strong and effective measures had been taken by the health officer of the Town of Poland.

The post-office safe at Sugar Grove was blown open and robbed of between $70 and $80 in stamps and some money, making the loss in all about $100. This was done some time during the early hours of the previous day. Two strangers, one seen in Sugar Grove on Tuesday and the other, a man who walked with a limp, was brought part way to Sugar Grove on Wednesday in the stage. He was later heard from, begging between this village and Busti. Both were suspected.

In 1940, twelve army men died when two twin motored Douglas bombing planes collided in midair and plummeted about 2,500 feet into a thickly-populated residential section just within the New York City limits. There were no survivors. Among the victims was Second Lieut. H.P. Bedient, of Falconer. Mayor F.H. LaGuardia, who flew an army bomber during the World War, arrived shortly after the crash. He said: “This is one of the inevitable accidents of training.”

France asked Germany for an armistice this day – the ninth nation to succumb to Hitler’s armies in two years – as 84-year-old Marshal Petain, new French premier, declared: “It is necessary to try to end the fighting.” Petain announced France’s readiness to lay down her arms in a broadcast from Bordeaux. Even without knowledge of whether the powerful French fleet, second biggest in Europe, would be involved in the projected French surrender, Britain voiced a grim determination to “fight on to the end.”

In 1965, a colonel set a record for anti-Beatleism by sending 12 medals back to Queen Elizabeth II. Col. Frederick Wagg, 74, veteran of two world wars, joined the protest movement against the award of the M.B.E. – Member of the Order of the British Empire – to the lank-haired pop quartet. He also resigned from Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Labor party and canceled a $33,600 bequest to it. “Decorating the Beatles,” said the colonel, “has made a mockery of everything this country stands for. I’ve heard them sing and play and I think they’re terrible.”

A Jamestown man was injured in an unusual accident the previous night when an automobile wheel bounded through the window of a woodworking shop. Howard Albro, Sr., 74, of Lincoln St., was treated at WCA Hospital for lacerations of the face and neck received when he was struck by slivers of broken glass. According to police, several youngsters rolled a car wheel with tire down English Street from Barrows Street. The wheel rolled across Allen Street, bounced over the curb and plowed through a plate glass window at 5 Winsor Street where Mr. Albro was working. He was released from the hospital after treatment.

In Years Past

In 1915, Erie Railroad employees, driving piling for the old Chautauqua Lake railway bridge over the outlet near Steele Street in Jamestown the past Saturday, were unfortunate enough to strike the center of the big 18 inch main sewer that took care of the sewage of a considerable section of the north and west side of the city. The pile crashed through the center of the big sewer pipe creating an obstruction that in a very short time was attracting the attention of the property owners of the low lands in the vicinity of the boatlanding. City Engineer Clyde Jones received a complaint from residents near the boatlanding that the sewers were backing up and he at once commenced an investigation.

James Woods of Jamestown, chauffeur for Martin Merz, took two photographs of the locks in the Welland Canal at St. Catherine, Ontario, the past Sunday but he would never see the pictures for the reason that the Canadian military authorities had taken it upon themselves to develop the film. Although they would send it to the owner, the two canal pictures would be missing. In this manner, Mr. Woods was reminded that the British empire was at war and that Canada formed part of that empire.

In 1940, prepared for any eventuality, Sweden still hoped to remain an island of peace in the welter of a warring Europe, according to Rev. John Carlstig who, with Mrs. Carlstig, reached New York aboard the United States liner Washington on May 28, direct from the scene of conflict. Rev. and Mrs. Carlstig were the guests of Mrs. Julia Goranson and Miss Ebba Goranson of Lincoln Street, Jamestown.

Germany under Hitler was pictured as a real menace to America and the lack of military preparedness by America was deplored by S. Miles Bouton, formerly of Berlin and Stockholm, in an address given at the Jefferson Junior High School in Jamestown on Friday evening in connection with the annual Flag Day observance. “If this unholy combination of tiger and jackal (Hitler and Mussolini) wins this war,” he said, “we shall have universal conscription, a vast standing army, we must build another navy larger than the one we have now and we shall never again in our time know peace.”

In 1965, eight cars of an Erie-Lackawanna freight train were derailed the past night between Waterloo bridge and Kennedy delaying the westbound Chicago passenger train about three hours. The eastbound passenger train was delayed but a few minutes. No one was injured. The derailment occurred at 6:56 p.m. opposite the Kenneth B. Langless farm on Route 17, two miles east of Kennedy near the junction of Routes 17 and 62. A burned out journal box on one of the cars was believed to have caused the derailment. The train was No. 77, en route from Salamanca to Meadville, Pa. It was comprised of 128 cars. Six cars were empty piggyback flat cars that hauled automobiles or highway trucks and two cars carried ore. Two cars landed crosswise on the single westbound track. Several other cars toppled into deep gullies on both sides of the tracks.

A Senate-approved resolution to set up a state-wide New York state lottery was headed for trouble in the Assembly. The resolution, passed in the senate 35-18 with bipartisan support, was the first time in more than 100 years that action on any form of lottery was seen in the legislature. Supporters said it would bring in upwards of $500 million a year which would be used to ease the burden of mounting education costs. “Passage of this bill will go down as the blackest mark on this legislature since the Capitol was built,” said Sen. Warren Anderson, R-Binghamton.

In 1990, word had been received of the death of Lucile M. Wright, 89, of Cody, Wyoming, formerly of Jamestown, who died June 12, 1990. She was the widow of John H. Wright, who was past president of the Jamestown Telephone Company. Mrs. Wright’s interest in flying began in 1922 when she was taken on her first flight by the late Gen. Billy Mitchell. She took her first flight test near Buffalo in 1934 and owned and flew planes for 30 years after that. While in Jamestown, she flew her own plane from the Jamestown Municipal Airport, now Chautauqua County Airport. She established the Jamestown Girl’s Club in 1947 and was secretary of the Jamestown Telephone Corp. In 1958, she was named Aviation Woman of the Year by the Women’s National Aviation Association.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department said an investigation was continuing into a one-car accident that claimed the life of a Jamestown woman shortly after noon Thursday. Dead was Rose Miletti, 84, of Walnut Street. Deputies said Mrs. Miletti was traveling west on Route 430 when for an unknown reason, her car veered into the eastbound lane. When her car came back into the westbound lane it went into a ditch and overturned twice before coming to rest on its wheels. Mrs. Miletti became the 10th person to die on Chautauqua County roadways this year, the same number of fatalities as this time last year.

In Years Past

In 1915, a Ford car belonging to Dr. J. W. Chase of Corry, was taken out of the garage Saturday night by a young man and two girls, all employees of a sanitarium where the doctor was physician in charge. It was reported that the car lost a tire while speeding over the switch near the trolley power house on North Center Street and turned over. The driver and one girl were not hurt but the other girl had an arm broken. Dr. J.C. Kibler was summoned and took all three to the sanitarium in a taxicab. There, all information as to the identity of the injured was refused and their names could not be learned. It was said the man was employed as a janitor and the girls as nurses.

It was estimated that abut 1,500 people attended the field day and play festival held by the rural school children of Chautauqua County at Chautauqua Saturday. This was the first united effort made in this county to bring representatives of all the schools of the entire county outside the cities and villages, together for a general play day. The affair was a huge success beyond expectations and it was probable that the event would be made an annual occurrence. A beautiful silver loving cup was awarded to District No. 6 which easily defeated the other districts in the events.

In 1940, New York Governor Lehman authorized “certain structural changes and protective additions” to further safeguard New York’s armories, arsenals and camps. The revisions permitted by agreement with legislative leaders were regarded, sources close to the executive said, as “military secrets.” Costs of the work were assured by a financial certificate of intent agreed to by lawmakers who recently conferred with Lehman. Simultaneously, the governor authorized the state police to acquire “necessary additional equipment and supplies,” in accord with the state’s defense policy.

Several witnesses testified in supreme court at Mayville at the trial of a negligence action brought by Jeannette Mordino, Jamestown, against the Warner Brothers Circuit Management Corporation and others. The trial had been resumed before Justice Alonzo G. Hinkley, Buffalo. The plaintiff, represented by Ernest D. Leet, was suing for injuries she claimed to have received March 2, 1938, when she tripped over a rug in the Winter Garden Theater, Jamestown. Phillips & Skinner were attorneys for the defendants.

In 1965, one half-ton of field fertilizer was spilled onto the lawn of Roy Phillips’ home at 4 p.m. Saturday when a half-ton stake body truck operated by his father, Ray Phillips, 67, was struck by a passing car on the Humphrey Road. The car was driven by Stephen Bolles, 22, of Great Valley. Bolles was delivering the car for Howard Curtis to an unidentified buyer, according to Deputy Donald L. Krepps. The impact caused the truck to overturn. Both drivers were unhurt.

John Schlimm of St. Mary’s, Pa., came to Stateline Raceway for the first time Saturday night, then his travels followed a rather hectic pattern. From Stateline, Schlimm went to Jamestown General Hospital and from JGH home to St. Mary’s but was vowing to do it all over again the following Saturday night with the hospital tour thrown out. Schlimm cracked up his car and himself in a sensational rollover during the Sportsman class second semi before a crowd of 3,500. His car went out of control, flipped over and rolled three times before coming to rest on its side with its top pointed toward the oncoming cars. John emerged as the best advertisement possible for helmets. His helmet was split up through the crown but his head escaped with a small laceration.

In 1990, the old Free Methodist Church building in East Randolph faced an uncertain future until the Village Board and residents could agree on whether to move it to another area on village property or to tear it down. With its electrical cables long disconnected and with a leaky roof, the building was in need of repair and renovation. Currently it was used by the village to store fire hoses and some maintenance equipment. The village acquired the building after it was vacated in 1974.

Ellicott residents concerned about construction along Marvin Parkway east of the Comfort Inn, could relax. A truck stop was not being built on the site, as many people believed, Richard Hanson, superintendent of the Lake View Cemetery Association told The Post-Journal. The construction was an expansion of the cemetery and might improve the area’s landscape, Hanson said. A truck stop/restaurant/office complex had been proposed for the neighborhood but at a site along Route 60, more than 2,000 feet north of the cemetery.

In Years Past

In 1915, the strange action of Mrs. William Hunt, who came to Chautauqua County from Warren and started a little grocery store at Fluvanna, was the subject for considerable discussion in and about the village. Mrs. Hunt did not make a success of the store and she quietly departed, leaving behind three children. The incident was of interest to Jamestown wholesalers who had furnished her goods and who received little or no money. The stock of goods was brought to Jamestown and Wilcox, Burchard & Co. took charge of the same and made a pro rata distribution among other local creditors. The loss was comparatively small as it was only a small store. The circumstance which had attracted the most attention was the leaving of the children. The eldest, a boy of 16, was employed on a farm near Fluvanna. The younger children were at the home of their grandmother in Jamestown.

Emmett Edsell, a Poland farmer, aged 85 years, dropped dead of heart disease while standing in the Swanson Drug Store in Jamestown about 10 o’clock the previous morning. Coroner B. F. Illston was called and issued a death certificate after a brief investigation and arrangements were made to remove the body to Mr. Edsell’s home, which was in the town of Poland, south of Kennedy. Mr. Edsell was brought to Falconer and came to Jamestown on business. He had stepped into the Swanson store where he was acquainted and stood talking there when suddenly he dropped over and expired almost immediately. He had been in his usual health and had no warning of the sudden end.

In 1940, Chautauqua County chapter, American Red Cross, began a survey to determine the plight of residents in the central and northern parts of the county stricken by heavy rain and high water. Harry Dobbins, chairman of the survey sub-committee of the disaster relief group, was making a complete study of the situation, especially in the Cassadaga Valley, which received the brunt of the recent storm. Although it was believed the torrential downpour resulted only in “flash floods,” reports were received of washed out bridges, flooded roads, damaged crops and hardships due to rising waters. Western Cattaraugus County was also affected. The Jamestown-Dunkirk road was open to one-way traffic, a detour having been made near Sinclairville.

Albany would entertain the New York State Conference of Mayors at its 1941 convention but Jamestown would be the host in 1942, according to word brought home by Mayor Leon F. Roberts upon his return late the previous day from the Rochester convention. Definite assurance that the conference would meet here in 1942 was given to the Jamestown group, according to Mayor Roberts. Several reasons were assigned for the decision to hold the 1941 session at Albany. It was the custom of the conference to alternate sessions between the eastern and western parts of the state. Also, the conference was “born” at Albany but had never held a convention there.

In 1990, a tanker carrying 17,000 pounds of latex paint overturned Monday night near Lilly Industrial Coatings at 125 Blackstone Avenue in Jamestown. Alton Phillips, assistant chief of the Jamestown Fire Department, said only a small spill resulted from the accident. The driver of the truck pulling the tank told firemen the trailer overturned after he parked his truck on a steep blacktop surface. Police called in “heavy-duty wreckers” to right the tank and reattach it to the truck. Lilly employees unloaded 2,000 gallons of paint.

Jon “Yo-Yo” Terry, 17, of Jamestown discussed the lyrics of 2 Live Crew’s “As Nasty As They Wanna Be” album with Discount Discs owner Stephen Trapani. The album, ruled obscene by a Florida judge, was under fire from anti-pornography groups nationally. Trapani said he would not sell the album to youngsters. Another local record store was proofing people who wanted to buy the album to make sure they were at least 18 years old.

In Years Past

In 1915, a few of the uncertainties that gave baseball the unanimous call as America’s leading pastime were displayed in the game between the Hornell Maple Leafs and the Jamestown Rabbits at Celoron Thursday afternoon which was won by the local contingent by the close margin of 4 runs to 3. Lenny Burrell, newly installed manager of the Maple Leafs, was still racking his brain in an attempt to figure out just how it was that his club, with nine clean hits to its credit, was forced to take the small end of the score, while Jamestown, with only five, carried off the honors. In passing, it might be stated that this victory again put Jamestown back at the head of the Interstate League race.

The tea Friday afternoon at the home of Miss Marian Patterson, 3 Lake View Avenue, Jamestown, under the auspices of the Campaign Suffrage Club, was a success in more ways than one. There were fully 40 persons in attendance, among them Mrs. Frank J. Shuler, a prominent suffragist of Buffalo, who spoke for more than an hour. Mrs. Shuler held the closest attention of her audience and aroused it to a high degree of interest and enthusiasm. At the conclusion of her remarks, many women signed the yellow slips saying they believed in woman suffrage and seven women became associate members of the Campaign Club. A social time followed and tea was served.

In 1940, several Chautauqua region communities were recovering from the effects of a freak cloudburst and electrical storm which left in its wake flooded homes, fallen wires, poles and trees and considerable other property and crop damage. Rainfall to a depth of 2.01 inches was recorded at Jamestown’s weather bureau, the heavy precipitation washing out several bridges on state and county highways that were closed to traffic pending construction of detours. At least six bridges or their approaches were washed out, one of them being on Route 60, near Sinclairville. The road was blocked for several hours.

Supreme Court Justice Alonzo Hinkley, Buffalo, had denied a motion of plaintiff’s counsel to postpone until fall the trial of the negligence action brought by Mrs. Gertrude Anderson as administratrix of the estate of her husband, Harold Anderson, against the Richfield Oil Corporation of New York and three other defendants. Justice Hinkley set the trial for June 17 at Mayville and it was expected to last more than a week. The suit arose from the fire at the Richfield gasoline station on Fluvanna Avenue, just outside the Jamestown city line, June 18, 1934, when seven persons lost their lives and about 75 others were injured.

In 1965, a Jamestown man was recovering in Jamestown General Hospital from injuries received in a one car accident Friday afternoon on Dutch Hollow Road which pinned him in his vehicle for about an hour. In fairly good condition was Gust E. Johnson, 63, of Fairview Avenue, with fractures of the right shoulder and hip. Mr. Johnson was proceeding alone north on the road at about 3:25 p.m. when he lost control of his auto which plunged over a 12-foot embankment on the Curtis Bauer property and rolled over onto the driver’s side. Fluvanna firemen responded and eventually succeeded in removing the trapped driver through the rear window of the small, foreign made car.

The Jamestown Municipal Band would initiate its 1965 concert season this night at the Jamestown General Hospital Fair. Keith W. Emanuelson, director, had announced scheduling for performances during the summer in the Glen at Allen Park and said plans were being made to work on the addition to the band shell at the close of the current season. Mr. Emanuelson reported efforts would be increased to raise private contributions to combine with City of Jamestown funds to complete the total bandshell.

In 1990, an investigation was launched to determine why a flatbed truck hauling steel rods lost part of its load the previous evening, causing a five-vehicle accident that killed one elderly Silver Creek man and seriously injured another. Killed was George Bentges, 86, a passenger in a car struck by a roll of steel rods that fell from a truck on Route 5, Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies said. The truck, carrying nine 5,000-pound bundles of steel rods, was traveling west on Route 5 about 8:30 p.m. when it lost part of its load while rounding a curve about one quarter mile north of Berry Road. The rods fell into the eastbound lane, hitting a passing car driven by John A. Stonefoot, 28, of Fredonia.

Jon Anderson of Jamestown was at the controls of one of Chautauqua Lake Association’s seven weed harvesters that began operations the past week on the lake. The program initially was concentrating on maintaining midlake and outlet channels to improve water flow. In the meantime, the CLA was seeking permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to carry out a herbicide weed spray program on 435 acres of the lake.

In Years Past

In 1915, a supreme court jury at Little Valley Court had decided against the city of Salamanca in the suit brought against it by Mrs. Kate McCafferty, as administratrix of the estate of the late William J. Welch, who fell dead in the Erie Railroad yards at Salamanca just after he had leaned against a wooden pole carrying a city electric wire. The verdict for the plaintiff was rendered in the sum of $1,000. The plaintiff contended that electric shock killed Welch, and of this the jury was evidently convinced.

The massive concrete wall which Contractors Mahoney and Swanson were building for the Erie grade crossing elimination at Main Street in Jamestown, was gradually approaching a point opposite the Erie Station. The wall would be carried as far as the Wilcox Burchard building. Work was progressing rapidly at this point as all the contractors had to do was to excavate to the foundations, place the wooden forms in position and mix and pour the concrete. The past summer they were busy a good deal of the time driving steel sheathing at the edge of the outlet for coffer dams. The preparation for placing the forms took more time and expense than the actual work of concreting.

In 1940, if it were left to the average American, every person living in the United States who was not a citizen of this country would be required to register with the government according to overwhelming sentiment in a nation-wide survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion. At present, non-citizens, once they had satisfied the requirements of the immigration authorities, were free to come and go within the United States as they pleased. Under Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, the Department of Justice had asked Congress to require every non-citizen to register with the government and to notify the authorities whenever they changed address.

Those who knew Lucille Ball, now in the movies, when she made her home in Jamestown, might be interested to read the fanciful comments that appeared in the Buffalo News. From the electrical engineer ancestry to the possession of a plane and rescue of boys from drowning, it was quite a product of imagination. Lucille was a very pretty girl who had been fortunate to capitalize on her beauty and former townspeople would ever be interested in her progress if it was not based on such background yarns.

In 1965, an accident on Rt. 17 which claimed two lives early this day raised the Cattaraugus County highway death toll to 20 and marked the fourth multiple-death crash on county roads this year. Mrs. Anne Louise Moyer, 35, and William Walters, 38, both of Allegany, were pronounced dead at Olean General Hospital after the car in which they were riding crashed into a tree. Mr. Walters, a blind, crippled musician, played piano at the Fassett Hotel in Wellsville. He lived with the Moyer family and was being driven home by Mrs. Moyer after completing his nightly performance. State Police said the accident happened at 2:10 a.m. in the hamlet of Weston Mills, just east of Olean.

William Tarbrake was the grand prize winner for the best entry in the second Annual Science Fair at the Southwestern Central High School. His entry was a thermocouple demonstration, which showed how an electric current could be created when a series of unlike metal wires were subject to heat from an ordinary flame. There were 60 student exhibits along with a display of science equipment used in the science classrooms.

In 1990, Rebecca Fisher, 15, of Mayville, was the 1990 Miss Chautauqua County Teenager of New York. Miss Fisher won the title at the Masonic Consistory in Jamestown during the beauty contest sponsored by Guys and Dolls Dance Studio. She was the daughter of Jim and Vickie Fisher and a student at Mayville Central High School. First runner-up was Miranda Paddock, 14, of Lakewood and a student at Southwestern Middle School. Second runner-up was Jennifer Waterman, 15, of Silver Creek and third runner-up was Stacey Canaley, 17, of Falconer.

Strawberry season – a time of year many people waited for – had arrived. The big red, luscious, locally grown berries were coming onto the market and were expected to be available in increasing quantities as the month progressed. Abers Acres of the Falconer-Kennedy Road, operated by John and Sue Abers, began picking from its vines for roadside stand sale the past Wednesday. Falcone Farms, the area’s largest supplier of strawberries from its 25 acres of vines, expected to start picking in a couple of days, said Joseph Falcone.

In Years Past

In 1915, a report had been received in London from Ireland that the body of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who lost his life May 7 when the Lusitania went down, had been recovered. The body was found by an old woman who was collecting seaweed on the Clare coast near Dookin, north of the cliffs of Maher. A watch in the clothes was said to bear the initials of Mr. Vanderbilt and papers in the pocket would appear to identify him. The body was washed ashore the past night. The information came to London in a dispatch to the Exchange Telegraph Company.

The newly elected board of directors of the Jamestown Automobile Club had been actively engaged in perfecting plans for a membership campaign and to every owner of an automobile in Jamestown had been mailed a circular letter, accompanied by an application blank requesting the recipient to join the club at once. In response to these letters, a large number of applications had been received. The work proposed to be carried out by the board would require the assistance and cooperation of all auto owners and in order that it might not be delayed, a canvass of all owners of machines would be made on Friday.

In 1940, an intensified Red Cross drive, the first of the new war period to raise substantial funds for the relief of war refugees, would commence Monday with the announcement of a quota of $14,000 for Jamestown and vicinity. This represented a doubling of all previous requests, according to Paul Vittur, chairman of the Chautauqua County chapter. It was part of the national campaign to raise $20,000,000 for such relief purposes. The sum of $3,183.70 had been raised in Jamestown to date simply by volunteer contributions. In some of the factories, employees had already made contributions voluntarily and several other concerns had responded generously.

New portable Royal typewriters in several different models offered a fine gift suggestion for June graduates soon to leave their school days behind them, according to William A. Long of 319 Cherry Street, Jamestown, who was fully equipped to take care of the writing and adding machine needs of Jamestowners and residents of this area. Royal typewriters could fit every budget. The quiet DeLuxe portable had the same standard keyboard as the famous, easy writing, Royal and the same convenience of controls. These new machines had magic margin, locked-segment shift freedom, specially designed shock absorbers, touch control, accelerating typebar action, automatic paper lock, and coordinated controls. The price one would pay for a Royal typewriter was reasonable.

In 1965, “Sachem,” a word of Indian origin which had come to mean the chief or leader of a political party, proved to be the downfall in the National Spelling Bee contest in Washington for Susan M. Hurley, of Jamestown. The 13-year-old SS Peter and Paul Parochial School student went down in the 19th round of the 3-day contest. She thus finished ninth in a field of 70 contestants from all over the United States. She would win a $75 cash award. Miss Hurley was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John P. Hurley of Liberty Street in Jamestown. She became eligible for the national contest by winning the western New York regional spelling bee held in Buffalo.

In less than five years – by 1970 – the price tag for a four-year college education would be $7,360 in a public institution and $11,120 in a private one, the U.S. office of Education estimated. Multiply those averages by two or three children and higher education stood out as among the most staggering expenses the American family faced except at the highest income levels. Admittedly, an unprecedented effort was being made to help the bright but needy student get a higher education via scholarships, loans and jobs. But student aid of all kinds averaged only $553 per student receiving help and only $408 per student in a public institution.

In Years Past

In 1915, following an inquest the previous day into the death of Merrill Babcock, whose body was found beside the road between Cattaraugus and Otto on Sunday, William Wilder, 29 years old and Chester Tingue, 17 years old, were arrested and were being held at the county jail in Little Valley pending a further investigation. Babcock was 17 years old. When the body was found on Sunday it was at first thought that Babcock had died from natural causes. The body was taken to undertaking rooms in Cattaraugus where an examination showed that he had been injured about the head.

Miss Clara Markeson of Columbus, Ohio, an organizer of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, with headquarters in New York City, was in Jamestown this day for the purpose of ascertaining public sentiment regarding the matter of suffrage for women, preliminary to the work of forming branches of the national organization in this city and vicinity. Large posters bore the notice: “Voters Take Notice: In November 1915, vote against woman suffrage because women in politics will do harm to the state and harm to the sex. Literature giving reasons for opposing woman suffrage will be sent free.”

In 1940, Glenn Fisher of Ripley, a seventh grade pupil, won the county spelling contest for elementary pupils held at Lincoln Junior High School in Jamestown. Kendall Johnson of Falconer, runner-up, was chosen alternate. Following the oral and written tests, the pupils were entertained at lunch at Gretchen’s Kitchen this noon by the Jamestown Retail Merchants’ division of the Chamber of Commerce and welcomed by Charles Laycock, secretary of the chamber. The winner and alternate would represent the county at the annual state spelling match at the New York State Fair at Syracuse.

The seniors of JHS, the class of 1940, were the guests of the Junior class Friday evening at the annual Junior-Senior reception which was held in the main gymnasium of the high school. The decorations were specially attractive. The theme of a ship setting sail on the sea of life was depicted in the decorations by red, white and blue streamers, lifesavers and anchors about the gym. The junior and senior class banners were displayed on one side of the gym. The junior class president, Rhoe Benson, was master-of-ceremonies for the program.

In 1965, the Retail Merchants Association of the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce went on record as opposing Sunday selling. At its regular meeting, the RMA emphasized its opposition to Sunday sales as such and deplored what was described as the broadening relaxation of laws regulating such sales. The matter was turned over to the RMA’s executive committee, which promised to “exert every effort to secure enforcement of the law, as written.”

Lance Corporal David Frew, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Frew, Ivory Street, Frewsburg, was on special assignment at Cape Kennedy, Florida, when astronauts McDivitt and White were launched from pad 19 to begin their four day trip through space. He was a member of the launch site recovery forces that supported Gemini Titan 4. Two hours before the scheduled liftoff, the team was in position at Cape Kennedy AFS, ready to assist in any emergency that might occur during the critical launch phase of the Gemini mission.

In 1990, a new mobile van that would test people for the virus that caused AIDS was the first of its kind in New York state, Buffalo officials said. Although there were several vans providing information on the HIV virus and AIDS in New York City, “the difference is that this is one, the only one, that provides testing in the vehicle,” said Sandra Mobley-Terry. “The others are just outreach vehicles that just go out into the community and do education,” Ms. Mobley-Terry said. Ms. Mobley-Terry was the coordinator of Buffalo’s Project Reach. The program was targeting the city’s intravenous drug users.

Ames Department Stores Inc., trying to jettison unprofitable operations, announced plans to close 221 stores and lay off about 17,000 employees as it struggled to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The closings represented nearly a third of Ames’ 679 stores.

In Years Past

In 1915, an invitation to send representatives to a conference to be held at Buffalo on Sunday afternoon for the purpose of considering the matter of Niagara water power was received by the board of directors of the Jamestown Board of Commerce. Under the existing treaty with Canada, 4,400 cubic feet of water per second were available for power purposes on this side of the river and a law had been prepared for introduction in congress which would give municipalities the preference in securing this power.

In Meadville, Pa., the watchman of the Bronze Metal Works saw a man light a pile of waste in a small building. When he called to him, the man started to run. The watchman shot at him twice but lost sight of him in the darkness. He sent for the Erie Fire Department and attempted to extinguish the fire. The department responded and on the way there, they found a man lying by the side of the track. When they were told the watchman had shot at the firebug, they supposed this was the man and that the watchman had hit him. They called the local police, who found that the man was an habitual drunkard. While it was considered unlikely that he had anything to do with the fire, he was being held for examination. Damage from the fire was small.

In 1940, Yeggmen smashed their way into the third floor rooms of Ingjald lodge, Independent Order of Vikings, in the Arcade building on Main Street in Jamestown early this day and escaped with about $400 in cash after raising havoc in the lodge quarters. The theft was discovered when Nels Strahl, caretaker of the lodge rooms, arrived to clean out the place. The greater portion of cash loot was obtained from a small, heavy safe in the lodge office after the combination had been smashed from the vault door. But the cracksmen did plenty of damage before they even reached the safe and when they were finally in the vault they missed more than $150 additional cash, contained in four special envelopes, which they must have touched in ransacking the safe.

Governor Herbert H. Lehman said a “New York State Guard” would be mobilized to substitute for the state’s 26,000 National Guardsmen if the latter, or 75 percent of them, were called to active duty. The new armed unit would be similar to one formed during the World War, the governor said after a conference with Republican and Democratic legislative leaders. No special legislative session would be necessary in connection with the defense program, he said. The governor said that in the past few days he had received many letters from men, some of them veterans of the last war, volunteering to serve in a state guard.

In 1965, Jamestown City Council’s public safety committee – in the words of its chairman – “took the bull by the horns” in authorizing a temporary ban on parking on the north side of Third Street. Councilman Robert E. Godfrey, committee chairman, said he expected the committee to receive criticism for the move, which was described as a test to see if traffic congestion along the city’s main thoroughfare could be relieved. “Any suggestions made in the past to help our downtown traffic problem have been subject to instant opposition,” he said.

Dr. Samuel B. Gould, president of State University of New York, would address the largest gradating class in Jamestown Community College’s history on Monday at 7:30 p.m. The 15th annual commencement exercises were scheduled to be held on the terrace of the Collegiate Center. A reception for the graduates and their parents and guests would follow the ceremonies. As president of the State University of New York, Dr. Gould was chief executive officer of the nation’s youngest university as well as one of its largest.

In 1990, the man who did for stand-up comedy what Woody Allen did for introspection and Mort Sahl did for satire would be in concert at the Warner Theatre in Erie on Sunday. George Carlin, considered by some to be the dean of stand-up comedy, talked in a phone interview with The Post-Journal about his craft, the differences between performing on cable and network television and why cruel comedy, which he saw as a trend, was not to his liking. Carlin said working before a live audience in concert was “the way I express myself in life.” This would be his third concert in Erie in as many years. Why Erie? “Because I like to play in a city where 75 percent of the letters in the name are vowels,” he said.

Mona Pace of Fluvanna Townline Road gave a tasty treat to her pet woodchuck. Ingvar V. Carlsson found the animal on the road near Dewittville May 13 when it was about 3 weeks old and took it to the Humane Society in Falconer, where Mrs. Pace’s daughter, Kathy, used to work. The society adopted the woodchuck out to Mrs. Pace, who fed her woodchuck puppy formula from a tiny bottle, bathed her and took her for rides. When the woodchuck was older, she would be returned to the wild.

In Years Past

In 1915, the death of William Thompson Falconer, for many years a prominent factor in the manufacturing activities of Jamestown and Falconer, as well as a citizen imbued with the highest ideals of civic patriotism, occurred at his home on Lake View Avenue, Sunday morning, after an illness of about 6 weeks’ duration. His age was 65 years, 3 months and 19 days and he was survived by his wife, Kate and two daughters. Mr. Falconer came of an old Scotch family which had played an important part in the development of this part of the country. His grandfather, Robert Falconer, was a native of Scotland and descended from the ancient and noble Rob Roy clan. As a young man he assisted his father in laying out the thriving village which bore the family name.

The outbreak of “Red Bugs,” noted in The Journal on Friday last was spreading with alarming rapidity and fruit trees throughout Jamestown were found to be infested in sufficient numbers to seriously menace all production of apples, cherries, peaches and plums. In the large commercial orchards the bug was also found in large quantities. Numerous inquiries had been made at The Journal office for advice as to methods of protecting the fruit. In fact, the demand for the standard remedy which was the nicotine solution, had been so great that the supply of the spray material to be had locally was seriously depleted.

In 1940, Lynn Taylor was injured by a bull on his farm on the Kennedy-Falconer Road after the animal had escaped from its pen in the barn and had wandered into the pasture. He was discovered by Mrs. Taylor who called her husband. Together they went to the pasture to get the bull back in the pen. Mrs. Taylor remained at the gate and Taylor went into the pasture. He had gotten hold of the animal to lead it into the barn when the beast turned, knocked him down, pinned him to the ground and bruised him in the chest. Mrs. Taylor ran for help but before the neighbors arrived Taylor had managed to hook his cane in the bull’s nose ring and twist it and so regained his feet. He sustained a fractured rib and was bruised about the body.

• Jamestown city workmen would really go into action on the site of the proposed municipal stadium and recreation field Monday when grading work would be commenced preparatory to the construction work which would come later. The plot was located at Falconer and Curtis streets and was purchased for $3,000 by the Citizens’ Stadium Committee from funds raised by public subscription.

In 1965, two auto accidents in which four persons were injured, followed a strangely similar pattern over the weekend. In both instances the cars crashed into houses. The accidents occurred in Jamestown and Frewsburg. In Jamestown, three teenage boys were injured Saturday at 1:17 a.m. when their car hit two parked cars and crashed into a house on Institute Street. A woman residing in the house also was hurt. The crash ripped away the porch from the dwelling. Police said the woman was unaware of this and when she came out of the house to investigate the cause of the noise, she fell about four feet into the debris of the wrecked porch. Meanwhile, in Frewsburg, a couple escaped serious injury when a car smashed into the porch and front wall of their home, coming to rest on a davenport which the couple had just vacated minutes before.

More than 1,000 Shriners from western New York and northern Pennsylvania participated in a colorful ceremonial and parade Saturday afternoon in Jamestown. Thousands lined downtown streets as bands, drum corps and parade units from both Ismailia Temple, Buffalo and Zem Zem Temple, Erie, Pa., paraded under sunny skies. The colorful units were headed by a color guard followed by Shrine dignitaries including Henry Z. Lang, Jr., potentate of Buffalo’s Ismailia Temple. The occasion marked the Spring Ceremonial for Ismailia Temple when approximately 100 candidates were inducted into Shrinedom.

In 1990, Babe Ruth League Inc. announced plans to open a national office in Jamestown the following March which – when completed – would be only the third of its kind in the United States. At a press conference at College Stadium, Babe Ruth president Ron Tellefsen said that Jamestown would join Nashville, Tenn., and an as-yet-to-be-determined location on the West Coast as the three sites for Babe Ruth offices. Joining Tellefsen at the press conference were Mayor Donald Ahlstrom and Russell E. Diethrick Jr., president of the Jamestown Babe Ruth World Series board of directors and Babe Ruth Advisory Board member.

A newly organized group opposed to herbicide control of Chautauqua Lake weeds had begun a mail campaign to make its concerns known to the administrative law judge responsible for a decision on the issue. This tactic was agreed on Wednesday night at a 90-minute meeting in James Prendergast Free Library of a group calling itself Concerned Citizens for Cleaning Up Chautauqua Lake. About 40 people attended the meeting, many of them expressing a belief that dredging the lake would help solve the weed problem.

In Years Past

In 1915, there was an opportunity to obtain stock in the 5th largest industry in the U.S. – the moving picture industry. The Consolidated Amusement Company of Jamestown would be an overwhelming success. It would be engaged in the most profitable 5 and 10 cent business of the age, the moving picture business. It would be directed by men of unquestioned integrity and experience. It would operate a chain of exceptionally profitable moving picture theaters, which would become more profitable because of the cooperative methods of management. Its stockholders would be patrons of moving picture theaters, every one of whom would participate in the profits of their pleasure. The company provided for the return of the principal investment by the stockholders at the end of 10 years. The company guaranteed 7% dividend for 10 years in addition to the return of the original investment. Subscriptions would be received by Chas. A. Okerlind, Swedish-American National Bank and Mr. Frank Felt, 1st National Bank, Jamestown.

The gospel of Pure Food had gained many converts in Jamestown and vicinity during the past three weeks. Many now realized, who never did so before, the importance of knowing whether or not the foods one ate were pure. The Westfield Pure Food book, which The Journal had been privileged to distribute among its readers at the very special price of 25 cents, might well be spoken of as the “Pure Food Pilot.” The Westfield Pure Food list, which was the backbone of the volume, specified absolutely the names of food products that had been tested and approved by Prof. Lewis B. Allyn, chemist of the Westfield Board of Health and his laboratory assistants. Every housewife should have a copy to guide her when purchasing food supplies for the home.

In 1940, burning rays of the bright morning sun reflected and intensified by the lens of a motion picture machine, set fire to a piece of canvas in the projection booth at Celoron Park about 8 o’clock in the morning. A park employee who saw smoke issuing from the structure climbed up into it and extinguished the blaze before much damage could be done. The village fire department was also called, but its services were not required. It was reported at the park that in the future, the lens would be removed each night to prevent a recurrence of the unusual incident.

In a talk to Jamestown High School seniors on the subject How to Apply for a Job, Charles L. Finch stated that lack of resourcefulness and ingenuity were chief obstacles to young men in their search for employment and not the absence of experience which was so often blamed. The tendency to consider themselves defeated even before they got started was all too prevalent, he said. Mr. Finch, local manager of the New York State Employment Service office, explained the operations of his office, located at 113 East Third Street, told of the efforts being expended to educate young applicants and guide their efforts into channels offering the best prospects for their particular ability. “Many boys and girls coming to our organization are taking the initial step in an effort to establish themselves,” Mr. Finch said. “Many of these youngsters have absolutely no conception of the business world.”

In 1990, firefighters from Frewsburg and Kiantone couldn’t salvage a small barn at the Joseph and Karen Ingrao home on Bunce Road in Frewsburg Tuesday afternoon. However, Frewsburg Fire Chief Tom Moore said his department responded before the fire could spread to the Ingrao house. No injuries were reported and no livestock was lost in the blaze. Investigators ruled the fire accidental, saying it was possibly electrical in nature or caused by spontaneous combustion. Joseph Ingrao said firefighters probably would have been on the scene sooner if his wife had not had difficulty reaching the fire department. He said Mrs. Ingrao first dialed 911. Because Frewsburg and other outlying areas did not have 911 service, however, Mrs. Ingrao was connected with an operator in Syracuse and it took her a few more minutes to complete a call to the Frewsburg Fire Department.

Chautauqua County legislators were reassured that they were on solid ground in challenging a fine and other conditions imposed upon the county by a state consent order but they were also reminded that such a move could result in immediate closure of the county landfill. Operation of the county’s solid waste program came under new scrutiny at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Chautauqua County Legislature’s Environmental Committee.

In Years Past

In 1915, the folk dance by the pupils of the kindergarten of the Fairmount Avenue school in Jamestown was the feature of the evening. The work of the little tots was amusing and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Miss Anna Vail played the piano accompaniment. A Maypole drill by pupils of the fourth grade was also featured.

Manager Hinman had more good attractions for the Celoron Theater for the coming week. The headline attraction would be the Imperial Japs novelty act featuring the slide for life. The added attraction would be The Moon Girl and the Mermaid. Nanzer and Palmer in a singing and talking act, Kathleen Miller and Calahan Bros., in a singing and dancing skit and the Marmeen Four, harmony singers, completed the bill.

In 1940, Secret Service agents said they had received complaints that five tavern proprietors in Jamestown and Elmira had been swindled out of $300 in counterfeit United States government checks. Chief District Agent William A. Karp said the checks, drawn on the Unites States treasurer and purporting to be paychecks of the federal engineering department, represented the first attempt in Western New York to counterfeit government checks.

Employees of the Pennsylvania Gas Company were still searching for a gas main leak in the Barker-South Main streets area of Jamestown which resulted in two explosions of accumulated gas in a Barker Street manhole. Existence of the leak was not brought to the attention of officials until late the previous afternoon when Henry Hutley of South Main Street filed notice with City Clerk Joseph Midgley that he would hold the city liable for injuries suffered by his nine-year-old son, Robert, when the lad was struck by a manhole cover in the Monday explosion.

In 1965, Miss Karyn Jones, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred F. Jones, State Road, became the 1963 Queen of the Chautauqua Fire Department at its June meeting. She was one of three contestants, all seniors at Chautauqua Central School and daughters of Chautauqua firemen. Misses Marilyn Petitt and Linda Shaw were awarded $10 each and Miss Jones, $25. The girls presented talks during the meeting and were scored by the firemen on the basis of beauty, poise and personality. The title of Miss Jones’ talk was, “How Can I Best Repay My Parents for the Faith They Have Had in Me?”

In celebration of the week of June 6 as Child Welfare Week, foster mothers serving the Chautauqua County Welfare District would be honored at a tea from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday in the undercroft of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Mayville. A report was also made on the child welfare work in Chautauqua County. Mrs. Jennie Szczerbacki and Mrs. Margaret Woleben, foster mother, would preside at the tea. According to the New York State Social Welfare Law, Commissioner Burton G. Miner was responsible for the work among destitute, neglected and abandoned children as well as delinquents, defectives, children born out of wedlock and unmarried mothers.

In 1990, patrolman David A. Kohl of the Jamestown Police Department was a full-fledged member of the city’s fire investigation team. Kohl joined Lt. Andy Johnson of the JPD and Jamestown Fire Department assistant chiefs Lance Hedlund, Alton Phillips and Richard Pollaro, and JFD firefighter Sam Arcadapane, on the six-member team. Kohl attended the fire/arson investigation course recently conducted by the Department of State, Office of Fire Prevention and Control at the New York State Academy of Fire Science in Montour Falls.

Ina R. Siegfried of West Third Street, Jamestown, died June 3 in WCA Hospital. She was the widow of William I. Siegfried. She and her husband were professional photographers. They began their business at 5 Terrace Place and later built a new studio and residence on West Third Street, where on July 18, 1953, they had a preview opening. She was a life member of the Southwestern New York Society of Professional Photographers. On July 28, 1953, she was made a master of photography and awarded the degree of master photographic craftsman by the Professional Photographers of America, Inc. She was also the first woman to hold office in the state Professional Photographers Society.

In Years Past

In 1915, the Oakland Hotel on the east side of Conneaut Lake was completely razed by fire, shortly after 3 o’clock the previous afternoon. The loss was estimated at around $50,000 and the three-story frame building, with its large annex, was a complete loss. The fire was supposed to have started from a candle that was left in a linen closet by a chambermaid on the third floor. The building was very dry and the flames spread rapidly. By the time all of the chemicals and other fire fighting apparatus had arrived, the building was a mass of flames and there was little chance of its being saved. The Oakland Hotel was located at Oakland Beach, the east side of the lake and was one of the finest hotels and also the largest on that side of the lake. A woman guest asked if any of the trunks on the third floor had been saved and receiving an answer in the negative, she fainted and was in an unconscious condition for nearly an hour. It was then discovered that jewels of considerable value had been left in her trunk and had been destroyed in the flames.

Jumping from a carriage when she became excited because the horses began to run while the coachman was absent, near Painted Post the past evening, Mrs. Antonio Sabini of West Market Street, Corning, struck upon her head and received a fracture of the skull. The woman died before a physician could reach her. Mrs. Mary E. Hammond, also of Corning, jumped and escaped injury. The horses came to a stop on their own accord after trotting only a short distance. Mrs. Sabini was the wife of a well-known merchant. She was survived by her husband and four children.

In 1940, Jamestown payrolls for May totaled $1,183,236, an increase of $197,817, or a little over 20 percent over the corresponding month in 1939, when the figure was $985,359, according to figures reported to the Chamber of Commerce by the banks of this city. The May total was the highest of the year to date.

Members of the traffic division of the Jamestown Police Department began a drive on this morning to rid the city streets of all automobiles with defective equipment. At 10 a.m. they began stopping machines that did not bear safety stickers issued at the safety lane conducted two weeks previously by the police and the Jamestown Automobile Club. The work would continue for an indefinite period. Motorists who did not wish to be stopped on the streets might go to police headquarters or the Jamestown Automobile Club headquarters and secure blanks authorizing them to have tests made at their private garage. When a motorist received a certificate from the garage stating that his car was in good condition, a safety sticker would be issued by police.

• In 1965, the Gemini 4 spacecraft, launched the previous day with two astronauts aboard, using a two stage Titan II booster to place the capsule in orbit, contained MRC bearings produced by Marlin-Rockwell Co., Division of TRW, Inc. in vital parts of the booster and the capsule. MRC bearings were located in booster pumps which forced the fuel into the combustion chamber. Bearings employed in rockets, spacecraft as well as the more conventional type of aircraft equipped with either reciprocating or jet engines, were made to extremely precise dimensions, MRC noted. The Titan II booster employed the MRC Super-Precision Bearing produced in the MRC Falconer plant.

Possible effects of the proposed Jamestown Community College building program upon future operation of the Municipal Golf Course would be considered at a special meeting in the Collegiate Center Building Tuesday evening. The session was being sponsored by the joint liaison committee representing the City Recreation Committee and the college, a body established a year previously to confer on matters of common concern. Plans of the city to acquire the so-called Curtis farm, adjoining the campus and the golf course, received a setback the past month when David Lawson, owner of the property, withdrew his offer to sell it to the city for $64,500.

In 1990. fifth-grader Callie Wienk leaped, fully clothed, into the family pool on Ellicott Street in Cattaraugus and pulled a visiting 3-year-old to safety after he wandered too close to the edge and fell into the pool. Miss Wienk said, “He was lying on the bottom and his arms were waving all around.” Without hesitation, the just-turned-11-year-old plunged into the frigid water. Dragging the 3-year-old to the surface, she then pushed him up onto the wooden deck surrounding the pool just as the parents of both children came out of the house. Once out of the pool, Miss Wienk said, the boy sputtered, coughed and said, “I’m cold.”

Utility crews continued mop-up operations in the wake of strong winds that resulted in electric service interruptions Sunday afternoon and night. The most damage occurred at Chautauqua Institution, along with a major power outage to customers served by Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.’s Busti substation on Forest Avenue Extension, beginning about 8 p.m. Ronald E. Soehnlein, Niagara Mohawk’s Lakewood District manager, said “We had escaped it along the lake (Erie) shore but we got it at Chautauqua. At Miller and White avenues, a large tree came down and took poles, wires and everything else with it. It also took the porch off a house and you can look right into the upstairs bedrooms.”

In Years Past

In 1915, Memorial Day was celebrated in Busti by a large crowd of people from all parts of the town including Palmers Corners, Wellman Road, Lakewood Road, Bartons and also many from Jamestown, Panama and Sugar Grove. Also, an honored guest was the oldest man in town, Deacon Harlow Mitchell of Busti. Members of the Eagle Military band of Jamestown with the old soldiers, the boy scouts and a large number of children, marched from the school house to the cemetery at 9:45 a.m. At the cemetery the usual rites were observed and after the return to the church, a very interesting program was carried out with A. B. Button as commander of the day.

The South Dayton milk plant had not been closed by the ongoing patent litigation but was making no powdered milk at present. The plant was receiving thirty thousand pounds of milk a day at present and was making butter entirely. Some small dairies had ceased sending their milk but all large dairies and reliable farmers in all this vicinity were standing by the plant. The management had no intentions of closing the plant and expected to be making powdered milk as soon as the litigation matter was settled.

In 1940, New York Governor Lehman ordered 450 National Guardsmen and 50 Naval Militiamen to active duty for protection of New York state’s armories, arsenals, boathouses and camps. The order, obeyed immediately by Adjutant General Ames T. Brown was, the Governor asserted, “a purely precautionary measure. There is no significance to my orders” he added, “other than we want to protect fully our armories and military and naval equipment.” The action affected 74 armories in the state, some of which housed quarters for the naval militia, one arsenal and two military camps at Peekskill and Pine Camp.

The U.S. Supreme Court held constitutional a regulation requiring school children to salute the American flag. Justice Frankfurter delivered the 8 to 1 decision that sustained a flag salute requirement by the Minersville, Pa., school board. Frankfurter said, “the wisdom of training children in patriotic impulses by those compulsions which necessarily pervade so much of the educational process is not for our independent judgment.”

In 1965, Wellman’s Red Grist Mill, a landmark in Ashville for nearly a century, was leveled by fire the past night at the request of its owner, Walter James. In destroying the mill, the Ashville Fire Department had a practice drill. More than 50 volunteer firemen responded. Panama dispatched an apparatus and volunteer firemen. The project took more than two hours and it attracted more than 400 persons. The late George Wellman operated the mill for many years and later it was operated by his son Robert Wellman, for 38 years until he closed it seven years ago. Mr. James planned to use the location as a business site.

The long-proposed Jamestown to Erie highway apparently was inching toward reality. That was the impression received in Chautauqua County – a view gained, however, by way of Pennsylvania rather than from Albany. The latest indication came from remarks by Erie, Pa., planning official Chris Capotis, who said the Pennsylvania Highway Department had approved the Pennsylvania segment of the Jamestown to Erie highway. The Pennsylvania road would be a continuation of the Southern Tier Expressway.

In Years Past

In 1915, in spite of repeated warnings, the dreaded tent caterpillar had reached Jamestown and the park commission reported so serious an infestation of the shade trees of this city that an immediate spraying campaign against them was to be begun the following day. Park Superintendent Andrew Broberg had been called into all sections of the city within the past two or three days by property owners who had become alarmed by the large number of worms found feeding on the shade tree foliage and crawling on the sidewalks and the ground. He identified the unwelcome visitors as the “bag worm” or tent caterpillar. This was the worm about whose approach to this section The Journal had been printing repeated warnings for more than two years.

The furniture manufacturers of Jamestown had an opportunity to furnish a large quantity of black walnut rifle stocks for the armies of the allies now fighting in Europe and the matter had been taken up by the Manufacturers’ Association. Secretary Bootey was to secure plans and specifications for local factories which wished to take advantage of the offer. The George Washington Company had received a large order for Mauser rifles for foreign shipment at an early date.

In 1940, Miss Mildred Kling, 44, of Benedict Avenue, Jamestown, had announced that she would be a candidate for the Republican nomination for county clerk in the Republican primary to be held in the fall. Miss Kling stated that she announced her candidacy after she had been urged by representative Republican women throughout the county who had assured her of their support. She was born at Ridgway, Pa., Nov. 12, 1900 and moved with her family to Jamestown in 1902 where she had resided since that time.

In view of the fact that for some time the work of the seventh and eighth grades in Lakewood had included high school subjects, the board of education at a recent meeting, voted to have the six year high school plan, from grades 7 to 12. This plan was being used successfully in many schools. Beginning this June, there would be no promotion certificates for eighth grade students as they were a part of the high school. Also, the Cardinal, the school annual, had been received from the printers. It was the general opinion that this was one of the best annuals which the school had ever issued. It was an historical edition, contrasting the village and school of today with those of the past. Engravings showing views of Lakewood, its schools, individual pictures of the graduating class and group pictures of faculty, classes and organizations were unusually fine.

In 1965, the specter of death was banished for at least 17 of the 20 men in Sing Sing prison’s death house as New York state virtually abandoned capital punishment. The centuries-old practice was all but discarded Tuesday when Gov. Rockefeller signed a bill doing away with the death penalty in most cases. Rockefeller approved the measure despite obvious reservations expressed in public comments during recent weeks. He offered no explanation of his actions.

Roger Craig Penhollow, 7, son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Penhollow of Myrtle Street, Jamestown, had a good memory. It helped him to find his way out of the dense woods. The past fall, Roger and his father went rabbit hunting and Mr. Penhollow told his son that if he ever became lost in the woods, to follow the sun and keep turning right. The Penhollow family spent Monday at the home of Mr. Penhollow’s parents on the Panama-Stedman Road. Roger and his beagle pup, Cindy, went for a walk. The stroll led them into the woods on his Grandfather’s 80-acre farm. When Roger was missed, a search party including 30 Ashville volunteer firemen began combing the woods. About two hours later, Roger and Cindy were found walking along the Open Meadows Road, unharmed. Roger told his worried parents and the searchers, “Daddy, I remember what you said when we were rabbit hunting, ‘follow the sun and keep turning right.'”

In 1990, the 1990 season was anything but sweet for New York’s maple syrup producers, the state’s Agricultural Statistics Service reported. Though producers sunk some 1.7 million taps into their trees, up 10 percent from 1989, maple syrup production was estimated at only 249,000 gallons. That was 23 percent lower than the 325,000 gallons of maple syrup produced in 1989. And the quality of sap that did flow was lower than average, the state reported. “It was hardly a banner year,” said Keith Miller, a state agricultural statistician. Miller said a warm spell in March, when temperatures got above 80 degrees, was the chief reason for the poor production figures.

• A tractor-trailer rig carrying hazardous materials caught fire on the New York State Thruway in the town of Pomfret five miles west of Dunkirk at 10 p.m. Friday, New York State Police at Buffalo said. The cause of the fire was unknown. The trailer contained potassium-hydroxide in solution and as a solid. It also contained some unidentified corrosive material. Westbound Thruway traffic was detoured from the Dunkirk-Fredonia interchange over Routes 60, 20 and 394 to the Westfield interchange. Fredonia Village police said smoke from the fire forced evacuation of homes on Van Buren Road in Pomfret.

In Years Past

In 1915, the Jamestown Furniture Exposition closed Saturday night with sufficiently satisfactory results, so plans were going on in anticipation of a fall exposition, to be held, probably the last three weeks of November. The exposition held under the handicap of having scattered exhibits, distributed around the city business center and in the various factory buildings, was in spite of this, a success in most particulars and the general feeling among the furniture men was believed to be to keep right behind the exposition idea until at such a time as a big centrally located building could be secured here, when the affair would automatically become a fixture and a success.

Midway Park, which was recently bought by the Broadhead interests from Daniel G. Wood, was to be made into one of the finest and most completely equipped picnic resorts in this part of the country and the work of bringing about this transformation had already begun. A. N. Broadhead informed The Journal that the pavilion which had done duty for a dance and dining hall for many years, was to be replaced by a large pavilion which would serve as a dance hall and roller rink. A long row of bath houses was to be built along the lake, fronting one of the best bathing beaches on the lake. Other improvements of an extensive character were to be made.

In 1940, Britons this day claimed the biggest rescue in military history as it was estimated unofficially that between 75 and 80 percent of the British Expeditionary force had been pulled out of the Nazi-laid death trap in Flander, France. Since the strength of the B.E.F. sent into Belgium at the outbreak of wide-open war in the West was placed at 175,000 men, this meant 130,00 to 140,00 Tommies had been brought to the safety of English shores by a mighty armada of warships, merchantmen, fishing boats, yachts, barges and other craft of all sizes and descriptions.

The Southernaires, radio and concert artists, would return to Jamestown for a concert the following Thursday evening at the Jamestown High School auditorium under auspices of the Good Cheer Club and Friendship Guild of the First Mission Church. The quartet of Negro singers recently appeared at the First Mission church before a capacity audience which filled both auditorium and church parlors. The program next Thursday would include several request numbers, also “the weather-beaten white washed church scene.”

In 1965, two U.S. Army advisers were reported killed this day and a third wounded in a Viet Cong ambush near Pieiku, 220 miles northeast of Saigon. The toll of American dead in combat in Viet Nam rose to 395 since December 1961. Two other Americans were killed over the weekend in the heavy fighting in Quan Ngai in which an estimated 600 Viet Cong and more than 500 South Vietnamese troops were casualties. At least six Americans were wounded in scattered ground and air actions during the past two days, U.S. military spokesmen said.

The 18th annual Memorial Day parade, capped with ceremonies at Sunset Hill Cemetery, was held the previous day with Herman Kent Post 777 American Legion and Lakewood Memorial Post 1286 American Legion in charge of arrangements. Units taking part in the annual parade from the Southwestern Central High School to the Sunset Hill Cemetery were the Legion groups, Legion Auxiliaries of Celoron and Lakewood; Lakewood Village officials, Mayor Roland C. Rapp and Lakewood trustees along with local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops. Norman E. Skinner served as general chairman. J. Melvin Zupp was master of ceremonies at the cemetery.

In 1990, the third and last body was recovered by Vermont State Police divers Thursday from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Lake Champlain four months ago. The body of pilot Malcolm French, 48, of Grand Island, was found still strapped in his seat in what was left of the plane’s fuselage. The wreckage was in 80 feet of water near Colchester Point, Vermont. The retrieval ended more than four months of waiting for Malcolm’s widow, Gileen. State Police had originally called off their search for the wreckage three days after the Jan. 16 crash. Undaunted, Gileen French hired a Huntington salvager the past month to search for the wreckage. French and two other men were flying from Dunkirk to Stowe, Vermont for a ski trip when the plane crashed.

Construction was under way on a $500,000 administration building on North Work Street in Falconer for Chautauqua County Department of Public Works as its first major office expansion since the existing structure was built in 1929. Groundbreaking for the new facility just north of the existing building was held Thursday afternoon, with County Executive Andrew W. Goodell operating the hand shovel for the ceremonial affair.

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