March 1916 - 100 Years Ago in "That Thriving Town"

From the Andes Recorder

March 3, 1916

•           Hilson Bros had the misfortune to have one of their span of mules die.

•           Denny Hughes’ horse ran away this week, going from the Butt End to the Maynard place.

•           Floyd Hyatt, who recently sold his dairy to Howard Hall, was at Cortland county this week and returned with a Holstein dairy.

•           Harvey Hafele, who has hired to John W. Blair to work his farm, moved from Colchester on Tuesday.  Mr. Blair has moved to his house in the village.

•           William Oliver has rented rooms in G.D. Miller’s house and April 1, will move from rooms over the old Strangeway store.  David Currie will move to the rooms in the store.

March 10, 1916

•           The Bovina Co-Operative Creamery company has sold its skim milk to the Newark Cheese Company.

•           Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hastings left Tuesday for their home in Alberta, Canada.  Mrs. Lucy Coulter accompanied them and will visit her son, D. Ward Coulter, there.

•           Thomas H. Johnson, who has a lumber job in New Kingston, is delivering 200,000 feet of birch plank to the allies, which will be used in the manufacture of gun stocks.

•           Wallace, the 12 year old son of Wallace B. Smith at the Butt End, was operated upon for a bad case of appendicitis last Wednesday morning.  The lad was taken to Delhi on Tuesday night, arriving there soon after midnight and the operation was performed by Drs. Goodrich and Ormiston, of Delhi, and Whitcomb, of Bovina.

March 17, 1916

•           George Johnson has gone to Alberta Canada.

•           Mrs. Frank Hobbie is very low at this writing.

•           Andrew T. Doig is in New York this week buying his spring stock of goods.

•           Mrs. Robert G. Thomson and Mrs. Harry Robson entertained at cards last Friday evening.

•           While the deep snow had made traveling difficult the mail has been received every day.

•           More houses are needed in this village as several families are unable to find places to live.

•           Douglas Davidson has rented his farm to his son-in-law, William Storie, and has purchased the house of Ward Baker, the violinist, at the foot of the Russell hill [now the Denison residence].

•           A son was born March 5, to Mr. and [Mrs.] D. Ward Coulter. Ward is a son of Mrs. Lucy Coulter of this place.  The mother was May Spiers of Andes.

•           Mrs. Miles Bramley, a native of Bovina, died March 8, at the home of her neice, Mrs. John Salton in Delancey.  Death was due to paralysis.  Her maiden name was Elizabeth Blair and she is the last of her generation.

March 24, 1916

•           William Roney of Andes, was here Tuesday and Wednesday selling farm machinery.

•           No mail was received Friday and it did not reach here until 7 o’clock Saturday night.

•           The party given by Mrs. Robert G. Thomson and Mrs. Harry Robson was a dinner party, and not a card party as published last week.

•           A new bell for the fire house has arrived.  Another bell is on the way and the two will be tested and the one with the sharpest tone will be kept.

“Handed Out” Mail 41 Years

Mrs. William Cooke, Postmistress at Bovina, Passed Away March 18

            Mrs. William Cooke died at her home in upper Bovina on Saturday afternoon, March 18, following a shock with which she was stricken on Friday morning.  She was in her 83d year.

            Mrs. Cooke was born in Scotland February 28, 1834, and when 17 years old came to Bovina with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. David Laidlaw.  In 1858 she married William Cooke who died five years ago.

            She probably had served the patrons of the Bovina postoffice for a longer period than any office in the state had been served by the same person, having “handed out” the mail for 41 years, and for 34 years had been deputy postmaster and postmaster.

            In 1875 William Cooke was appointed deputy and when William Archibald died in 1882, succeeded him as postmaster and Mrs. Cooke became deputy.  On the death of her husband in 1911, she became postmaster and her dauter, Mrs. Walter Wilson, became deputy.

            She was the last of her generation and is survived by three dauters, viz: Mrs. George Hunter in Colchester, Mrs. William H. Reynolds, of Andes, Mrs. Walter Wilson in Bovina.  The funeral was held Tuesday, with Rev. J.A. Mahaffey officiating. Interment was in Center cemetery.

March 31, 1916

•           F.W. Hyatt had a $125 cow die this week.

•           The roof of George Foreman’s barn went down Sabbath under the weight of snow.

•           Mrs. Gideon Miller, who underwent an operation in New York several weeks ago, for chronic appendicitis, has arrived home.