From movies, to checkers, a school dedication and a fire department mascot, plenty was going on across our region during the month of January 1929.
In Stamford, the issue of being able to see movies on Sunday was finally being resolved. Until then, there were no movies allowed.
Back in December of 1928 the village board of trustees, according to The Oneonta Herald of Jan. 17, 1929, had heard a delegation of primarily local religious leaders, opposing the showing of movies “on the first day of the week.” The board took no action on the matter.
Meanwhile, “At the January meeting of the board, petitions, signed by 88 residents and taxpayers of the village were presented requesting that authority be granted for the showing of pictures on Sundays. After this hearing and a consideration of the arguments presented by the previous delegation the board adopted the ordinance,” allowing the showing.
At that time, Stamford had movie house, part of the local Smalley’s Theatre chain, which was based in Cooperstown.
Fans of the game of checkers turned out at the Oneonta Y.M.C.A., then found on Broad Street, for an exciting contest.
Readers of the Herald of Jan. 3 learned, “John G. Finley, New Jersey state checker champion, playing a series of 45 games…Saturday evening, won 41 of the games, played three of the series to a draw and suffered one defeat, at the hands of William Hughes, local Y.M.C.A. secretary.
“The checker expert played 15 games simultaneously. The players were grouped around four tables in the form of a square, in the center of which Mr. Finley walked from board to board making the moves against the opponent.”
The Herald said that Saturday afternoon checker playing had become a tradition at the Y.
In Treadwell that month the Herald of Jan. 31 reported, “By unanimous vote of the large throng of attendees at the dedication of the Central Rural High school building at Treadwell Thursday afternoon, the school was named the Abraham L. Kellogg school, and, not long after that, after presenting the deed to the school grounds, announced that he has provided an endowment for the school in the sum of $100,000, with a further endowment of $5,000 for the library of the school.”
Abraham Lincoln Kellogg was born in 1860 near Croton, which Treadwell was previously called. He attended a one-room school near his family’s farm. After local schooling he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1883. Kellogg became Otsego County Judge in 1908, and in 1917 was elected Justice of the Supreme Court, Sixth Judicial District of New York. He continued in that post until he reached the age of mandatory retirement in 1930.
It was Judge Kellogg’s belief that successful people should help their hometown whenever possible. Living by his belief, Kellogg in 1926 was a leader in creating a central school district for grades 1-12 in Treadwell, where he had chosen to settle. Judge Kellogg’s monetary donation, along with state funding, allowed this new school to be built.
While Judge Kellogg had become successful, back in Oneonta, it was a dog that was successful in winning over many a local’s heart.
As the Herald of Jan. 10 reported, “The first week in July, 1925, a little stray white shepherd-collie pup with black ears, three months of age, was picked up by a policeman in the streets of Oneonta, where he lay badly injured in the left paw and with several fractured ribs, and was carried to the Municipal building for first aid. Today, that little puppy, grown to doghood, is one of the most widely known and best loved dwellers in the City of the Hills.
“His name is Gyp. His residence is 14 Center street, where he makes his home with Fireman and Mrs. Joseph M. Scanlon. His place of business is the municipal building,” today’s 242 Main St., “where as mascot of the Oneonta Fire department, he makes his headquarters in the fire house though he is almost equally busy in the police department and in the city clerk’s office.”
Gyp was a favorite amongst adults and kids from 1925 to 1937. When Gyp passed away in 1937, the entire fire department and many citizens turned out for a ceremony in the lower level of Wilber Park. Even today, there is a gravestone on the site. Another stone on the site is for Smokey, another popular canine mascot in the 1950s.
On Wednesday, a return to the local life and times of January 1954.
Oneonta City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area before 1950. His Wednesday columns address local history 1950 and later. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is oneontanyhistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/opinion/columns/.