July 1914 - 100 Years Ago in "That Thriving Town"

From the Andes Recorder

Rev. J. B. Lee died on July 8, after an illness of a few months. The funeral was largely attended and the status of Lee’s widow was reported by the Bovina correspondent in the weeks that followed. It was a month of accidents – Mrs. Doig was in a buggy accident and Andrew Coulter’s car went over a bank in Bovina Center.

The Andes Recorder also reported on an assassination in Europe that led to the start of World War I.


July 3, 1914
• The old hotel building at Lake Delaware is being re-painted
• A child of George Foreman is recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia.
• Mrs. Mary Phinney, widow of Dr. Phinney a former physician here, is a visitor in town.
• The condition of Mrs. Jas Monroe, who recently had a shock, is considerably improved. [Margaret Storie Coulter Monroe did not recover and died on July 28, aged only 47. She was the grandmother of Frances Burns and Lauren Monroe.]
• The Methodist congregation has graded along the front of the church and parsonage and laid a sidewalk.
• Alex Hilson and John Hilson were at Delhi on Tuesday attending the meeting of the feed dealers association.
• Mr. and Mrs. Fred Thomson, Mrs. Estella Oliver and Mrs. Harry Martin attended the Dumond reunion held at Walton last Friday.
• Professor Leon Taggart, of Potsdam Normal, and family are spending the summer with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thos C. Strangeway.
• The Reformed Presbyterian congregation has extended a call to Rev. Graham. The call was moderated by Rev. Sampson, of New York.

Gerry Camp For Boys Opened - Eighty-two Boys Arrived Wednesday at Camp Maintained by R.L. Gerry
The Boys Camp maintained by Robert L. Gerry on the Wight farm in southern Bovina, opened Wednesday and will remain open for two months.
Wednesday evening 82 boys arrived at Andes and were conveyed to the Camp. They will remain for two weeks and then a new group will take their place. Any whose health may require it will remain more than the two weeks.
The Camp Officers are: Governor James L. Whitcomb; Captains Donald H. Morse, Gregory Prout and Linn Bruce, jr.  The chaplain is the Rev. Phoenix.

Heir to Throne Assassinated
The heir to the Austro Hungarian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdnand and his morganatic wife, the Duchess Hohenberg, were shot to death Sunday while driving through the streets of Sarayevo, the Bosnia capital.  A youthful student fired the shot that ended their lives, and added another to the long list of terrible tragedies that have darkened the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph.

July 10, 1914
• During June there was not birth, marriage or death in the town of Bovina.
• Brundage Erkson, who is unable to work, recently applied for admission to the County Alms House and is now at that place.

July 17, 1914
• County Superintendent of the Poor, Jas F. Foreman, was here Wednesday.
• Professor and Mrs. Archie Coulter, of Belleville, N.Y., are guests of his mother in town.
• Mrs. Thomas Scott, of Staten Island is visiting her brother, Thos Ormiston, and other relatives in town.
• Brundage Erkson, who has been at the County Farm for a few weeks, returned to Bovina on Tuesday.
• Mrs. Mary Phinney has sold her house and lot in Bovina Center to Dixon Thomson, a farmer residing up Pink street. (This property is the Virga home next to the Brushland Eating House - 1915 County Highway 6 - 42.2623°N 74.7842°W)
• Mrs. William Rogers and daughter, Mrs. John L. Gordon and two sons, of New York, are at their summer home at Lake Delaware.
• It is stated that the widow of the late Dr. Lee will return to her old home in Scotland as soon as she can settle up business affairs here.
• Miss Jennie Hoy, who for several months has been keeping house for her brother, Milton Hoy, at Oil City, Penn, is here on a visit.  Two nephews, John R. and Nevin Hoy came with her.
• Rev. Joseph Dysart, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, preached in the United Presbyterian church on Sabbath.  Rev. Dysart is a native of Bovina and made the trip of one thousand miles to be present at the funeral of Dr. Lee. He is stopping with William T. .Russell, who resides on the old Dysart farm.

July 24, 1914
• Milton Liddle and Sloan Archibald are under the doctor’s care.
• Mrs. Edna Henderson, daughter of D.C. Worden, has gone to Colorado.
• Center creamery 34 cents/pound butterfat.  Uptown 35 cents
• Robert Gray, of Delhi, who has the contract to construct the reservoir on Coulter Brook for the Bovina Center Water Works, commenced work on Tuesday, with a force of about a dozen men.

Bovina Woman Breaks Both Legs - Mrs. Robert Doig at Tunis Lake Meets With Bad Accident Thursday
Mrs. Robert Doig is confined to her home on the shore of Tunis Lake, in the town of Bovina with both legs broken below the knee.
Last Thursday afternoon Mrs. Doig with two small daughters and son Wilber, a lad of 12, started to come to Andes village. One horse was attached to a two-seated buckboard and Wilber was driving.  When about 30 rods from the house Mrs. Doig asked the boy to give her the umbrella which was in the front seat as he did so the top end of the handle hit against the spokes of the wheel making a clicking noise and this caused the horse to jump. Mrs. Doig was frightened and without waiting to see whether or not the horse was going to run, she jumped.  Just how it happened is now known, but when she was picked up it was found that both legs were broken.
Dr. Whitcomb of Bovina, and Dr. Ormiston, of Delhi, were called, and Dr. Mendal also accompanied the later.  It was found that one leg had both bones broken below the knee, and in the other the large bone was broken just above the ankle.  Miss Beatrice Forbes is the nurse in charge.

July 31, 1914
• There are a few cases of measles in town.
• The work of putting in the concrete for the reservoir for the water works was commenced Tuesday.
• The young team of Mable and Gill, the Andes meat men, took a lively run about William Crosier’s flat at the rear of the hotel, on a recent trip here.
• William H. Maynard, County Clerk, has purchased six thoroughbred Holstein calves, of E.E. Risley, of Walton, and put them on his farm in upper Bovina.  The price paid was about $1,000.
• Mrs. J.B. Lee held a sale of her household goods Thursday. Saturday she will accompany Mrs. Jennie Lee Thompson to her home in Yonkers and sometime in August will sail for her old home in Scotland. [Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell Lee was the widow of Rev. J. B. Lee, who had passed away earlier in the month. She was Lee’s second wife – they had met in Scotland when Lee was vacationing there. Elizabeth passed away in Comrie, Scotland in March 1921.]

Auto Over The Bank in Bovina - Car of Andrew Coulter Takes Plunge on Sabbath and Turns Turtle
Sabbath afternoon the automobile of Andrew Coulter swept over the steep bank near the residence of Alex Myers* in Bovina Center and Mr. Coulter was caught beneath the car.
The car which was driven by Mr. Coulter, and with Tony Gabriel was a passenger, came down the street at a good clip and when at the top of the pitch opposite Lancelot Thom’s at the Chas F. Smith place, the car turned to the left and when it struck the shoulder at the die of the road the rear end went up in the air and remained upright for an instant with wheels spinning and then went over down the bank and turned over again and turned end for end and was stopped in its mad flight by landing right side up against a tree.
As the car left the road Mr. Gabriel jumped and landed on his feet, but was hurled in a complete summersault and again landed on his feet and was only prevented making another by grabbing a small tree or he would have landed at the bottom of the embankment. He escaped with bruises and cuts about the knees. Mr. Coulter was thrown from the car when it made the plunge and when the car landed he was beneath it.  That he escaped serious injury is due to the fact that he landed between the wheels.  He is able to be around but is very sore.

*42.2619°N 74.7875°W