September 1915 - 100 Years Ago in "That Thriving Town"

From the Andes Recorder

The hamlet's new gas lights became operational, the new fire house approached completion and part of what is now County Route 6 received a coating of sand and oil, which made travel for a few days "disagreeable."

September 3, 1915

•The new Fire House is enclosed and the roof on.

•A monument was placed in the Center Cemetery last week to the memory of the late Rev. A.G. King. 

•Dr. Charles C. Duryee and C.M. Baker from the state department of health were in here Tuesday and went over the watershed from which the supply for Bovina Center is secured, and took a sample of the water.

•Mr. and Mrs. William M. Armstrong went to New York on Thursday to have a specialist examine Mrs. Armstrong’s foot that was operated on some time ago and a piece of needle found.  It has been causing more or less pain ever since. [Mrs. Armstrong likely was the former Mary Kaufman. She died in December 1929.]

•Violinist Ward Baker’s musical entertainment Wednesday evening was a great success – standing room only and several had to be turned away.  He was ably assisted by the Delhi Military Band, Mrs. Frank Farrington, Marian Birdsall and Beatrice Stevens. [See this blog at http://bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/03/ward-baker-americas-most-soulful.html for more on Ward Baker.]

Mowed in Old Fashioned Way

A piece of meadow in upper Bovina containing a little over ¾ of an acre, was mowed by hand in nine hours with an old fashioned mower 75 years old, and three big loads of hay secured.

September 10, 1915

•Nearly all the schools of the town opened Tuesday.

•Professor Archie Coulter, who is teaching in the central part of the state, with his family, spent the past week with his mother.

•Mrs. Robert L. Gerry gave a picnic Saturday afternoon at Lake Delaware.  Invitation was by card.  In the evening there was dancing.

•The last and we believe the only wedding ever held in the U.P. church previous to the Storie-Davidson wedding, was that of Alex White in 1866 or 1867.

•The Bovina State road from T.C. Strangeway’s to the upper part of the village was covered last week with a light coat of sand and oil.  For a few days it made travel disagreeable and tracked into houses, but conditions are improving.

September 17, 1915

•The fair at Delhi was the chief attraction for our people this week.

•Thomas Gordon has charge of the Dry Milk plant this week during the absence of the manager, R.G. Thomson.

•James D. Boyd, who has been in poor health for some time, was taken to the Post Graduate hospital in New York last Thursday by Dr. Whitcomb for an operation. [James would die in October 1915 at the age of 62.]

•Edward Lunn, the 17 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Lunn, of Auburn, Washington, was drowned in the Bering sea recently, while making a trip in Alaskan waters. The parents were both from Bovina, the mother being Maggie Forrest.

•Twenty three of the twenty five members of Dr. Whitcomb’s Sabbath School class enjoyed an auto trip and a picnic at Goodyear Lake, Saturday. The Doctor intended to take them to Otsego Lake but the condition of the roads made necessary a change of plans.

September 24, 1915 

•The Oneonta fair attracted many Bovina people to that place this week.

•J.W. Coulter has completed the laying of his sidewalk on the south side of the street.

•Cutting corn and filling silos has been the business of many farmers for the past week.

•The new gasoline street lamps have been put in place and the village is now well equipped for light.

•Gideon Miller’s horse dropped dead last week just after drinking at the watering trough near Delhi Village. 

•Dr. N.B. Whitcomb is moving from the rooms in George Gladstone’s house to the house which he recently purchased on Maple avenue.

•The town board and Arthur Bergman, John Nicol and John Campbell have compromised on the new road up that valley.  The board grants a road from Bergman’s to Campbell’s and the property owners donate the right of way.