June 1924 - 100 Years Ago in "That Thriving Town"

 

Here's what life was like in Bovina 100 years ago this month – June 1924 - as reported in the weekly Bovina column in the Andes Recorder.

June 6, 1924

• Hilson Bros are having their garage painted.

• Frank Myers and wife, of Endicott, were recent guests of his parents.

• George Gladstone is visiting his son at Delhi and his sisters at Walton.

• Alice Frayer, of Delhi, spent over the week end with her friend Margaret Gordon.

• Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Gladstone and Mrs. Frank Brown spent Saturday with their sister, Mrs. Tripp, at Oneonta.

• L.W. Thompson, from Massachusetts, is at Fred Thomson’s. His wife will be remembered as Jennie Lee.

• A surprise party was held Thursday evening at Henry Monroe’s for Misses Mary and Marjorie Ormiston, and 41 were present.

• Mr. and Mrs. S.K. Ferris, of Albany, were visitors here over the week end. They have rented the furnished house of her uncle, William F. Boggs, for the summer. [Mrs. Ferris was Margaret Elizabeth Boggs, 1887-1937. She was the daughter of William Boggs’ brother, Charles Boggs, 1848-1891. S.K. Ferris was Starr King Ferris. He died in 1966.]

• Homer Burgin, who was moving into part of G.D. Miller’s house, has moved to the Richard James house at Lake Delaware, in order that he might be near his work at Gerry’s.

• Rev. and Mrs. F.R. Crawford were at Oneonta on Tuesday. Mrs. Mary A. Russell, who recently had an operation for the removal of a cataract from her eye, returned home with them.

Was Born in Andes

From our Bovina correspondent

Mrs. James Ormiston died at her home in Oneonta at 6:30, Wednesday afternoon, June 4, after an illness of several months. She suffered a shock Tuesday. Her maiden name was Margaret Laing and she was born in Andes on July 3, 1865. She leaves her husband and three children, viz: Mary a teacher at Hastings-on-the-Hudson; Mrs. Ralph Davidson, of Oneonta; Ralph attending Troy Polytechnical school; also a sister, Mrs. Alex Myers, in Bovina, and two brothers, James, at Meridale, and, John, in Endicott.

June 13, 1924

• The former Strangeway store now occupied by the Hillis garage, is being painted. [This later became Clayton Thomas’ garage and is now occupied by Tom Hetterick.]

• Master Alex Hilson returned home last Friday from visiting his aunt at East Orange, N.J. [Alex in later life took over the family business with his brother Jack. Alex, born in 1915, died in 1990.]

• James A. Gow is having his residence treated to a new dress of paint. Alex Myers is doing the job.

• The Good Cheer Sabbath School class held a picnic with Mrs. James Monroe in upper Bovina, last Friday.

• Hosa Sliter, of Andes, has moved his family into the house adjoining Elliott Thomson’s blacksmith shop.

• Rev. A.M. Thomson and Rev. W. A. Robb attended the Reformed Presbyterian synod at Winona Lake.

• D.W. Hitchcock, who is employed at the dry milk plant, has moved his family from uptown to Will Hoy’s tenant house. [I believe this was the house that was destroyed in the 1953 flood in the Bovina Center hamlet.]

• Mrs. Peter McNair and Raymond McNair and family, of Binghamton, were recent guests of her daughter, Mrs. John McCune. [Mrs. McNair was the former Elizabeth Fowler, who died in 1940. Mrs. McCune was the former Ida McNair. She was widowed in 1942 and died in 1953. She was once the Bovina librarian.]

• Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Maynard, of Canestota, and his grandfather, Edwin Scott, formerly of Bovina, were recent visitors here. 

• The body of Low Thomson, who died a Syracuse a few weeks ago, was brought here Tuesday for burial. He had numerous relatives here. [This was David Low Thomson, who was born in 1847 in Bovina. He died on February 12, 1924.]

• Bovina relatives who attended the funeral of Mrs. James L. Ormiston at Oneonta last Friday were, Alex Myers and wife, Chas F. McPherson and wife Frank Miller and wife, Mrs. Thomas Ormiston, Lloyd Ormiston, Henry Monroe and wife, Mrs. Fletcher Davidson and Ledger Myers.

Funeral of Renwick Russell

The funeral of Renwick Russell, who was drowned at Beaver Falls, Penn., on June 3, and the body found four days later, was held at the Russell home in Glenburnie on Tuesday. S. Foster

Beatty, a room-mate, and C. Brainard Mathesey, a member of the faculty of Geneva college, were present. Burial was in the Bovina Center cemetery. His age was 20 years. [Renwick was the son of Thomas D. Russell (1866-1937) and Jennie Gilchrist (1867-1935).]

June 20, 1924

• Howard McPherson has a new Ford sedan.

• William F. Boggs was Walton visitor last week.

• Mr. and Mrs. Harry Robinson spent Sabbath at Bainbridge.

• Mrs. David Currie was a caller at the County Seat on Monday.

• Children’s day exercises will be held at the U.P. church on Sabbath.

• Bovina real estate transfers recorded are Charles A. Tuttle and wife to Harold Cole, $1.

• Charles A. Tuttle of Delhi, formerly of Bovina, underwent an operation for appendicitis last week. [This likely is Charles Archibald Tuttle, who was born in Bovina in 1864. He married Jennette Winter and they had two children. Their daughter Hildreth married Charles Russell, Cecil Russell’s brother. Charles died in September 1932.]

• Mrs. E.A. Taber and son, Ralph Taber, and Mrs. (Dr.) Scott, of Davenport, were recent visitors in town.

• A home talent play to complete the lecture course, will be given at the hall Friday night of this week.

• Mrs. and Mrs. John Armstrong and his mother, Mrs. William Armstrong, were at Oneonta on Saturday. [Mrs. John Armstrong was the former Blanche Robinson (1900-1976). Mrs. William Armstrong was the former Mary Kaufman (1871-1929). John Armstrong, born in 1902, died in 1968.]

• Mrs. William J. Storie is spending the week with her uncle, David F. Hoy registrar of Cornell University. [Mrs. Storie was the former Vera Davidson.]

• Miss Calla Boggs has purchased a Chevrolet coupe of Howard Coulter, and John Burns a Chevrolet truck.

• William Mabon Sr. well known here is ill with kidney trouble at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Walter Bingholm, in Delhi. [William, born in 1848, died in 1928. He had been widowed in 1920. His daughter actually was Mrs. Walter Ringholm. She was born Jennie Bell Mabon in 1888 and married John Walter Ringholm in 1912.]

• Captain Billings, superintendent of the Gerry Farms, was at Washington, D.C. on a business trip from Thursday until Monday.

• Mrs. and Mrs. William Hoy, of California, are visiting Bovina relatives. Mr. Hoy is a son of the late John R. Hoy and is a civil engineer.

• An all day meeting of the Women’s and Young Women’s Missionary societies, Whitcomb Circle and Juniors was held Thursday with Mrs. F.W. Crawford.

• Mrs. George Decker and Mrs. Arthur Decker were Walton callers Saturday, and while there the latter had the misfortune to sustain a severe sprain of her ankle. [Mrs. George Decker was the former Ada H. Tompkins (1867-1944). Mrs. Arthur Decker was her daughter-in-law, the former Beulah Armstrong (1894-1966).]

• Saturday at the foreclosure sale of Charles A. McPherson against Jean Muller and others, the property, which consists of the former S.G. Bramley and Albert McPherson farms and personal property, was bid off by McPhersons for $3,000 above the mortgage.

June 27, 1924

• Mrs. Everett DeSilva is ill with pneumonia.

• Mrs. William Huber, of Delhi, is visiting her brother, Alex Myers.

• Charles F. McPherson was at Fall Clove on Wednesday after a load of lumber.

• Mr. and Mrs. Thos C. Strangeway and wife visited relatives at Hamden Tuesday.

• Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Coulter, from Pennsylvania, are visiting at Mrs. Elizabeth Irvine’s. [Andrew was the son of James Leiper Coulter. His wife was the former Hattie Agusta Gladstone.]

• Miss Gladys Wilber, of Andes, was a guest at Hosa Sliter’s from Thursday until Tuesday.

• Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hyatt and children, of New York City, are visiting their parents here.

• Mr. and Mrs. Frank Myers, of Endicott, spent over the week end with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Myers. [Mrs. Frank Myers was the former Ethel Bingham.]

• Mr. and Mrs. Robert Low, of Brooklyn, spent the first of the week with his cousin, Mrs. Lancelot Thomson.

• Mr. and Mrs. G.D. Miller went to Andes on Tuesday to spend a week at the home of her brother, A.S. Banker.

• Miss Anna Dickson is home from Cornell University for the summer vacation. Miss Carolyn Dickson is also home.

• Mrs. Arthur Decker and children, Mrs. George Decker, Mrs. James Ackerley and Miss Carrie Dumond were at Delhi on Tuesday. 

• Bovina friends of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lunn, of Auburn, Washington, have received announcement of the marriage of their daughter Marguerite, to Lieutenant Owen Marriott, June 11. They will live at Camp Lewis, Washington, where the groom is stationed. [Mr. Lunn was a State Senator in Washington State. Owen was in the military until 1951, a year after the death of his wife Marguerite. She is buried in San Francisco National Cemetery. Owen died in 1977 in Arizona.]

Bovina Lad has Operation

From our Bovina Correspondent

Ralph Mabon, the young son of Mr. and Mrs. James Mabon, underwent an operation at the Delhi hospital on Wednesday. He had an operation for appendicitis some two years ago, and a bunch had formed in his side. [Ralph would survive this surgery. He died in 1972 in Lancaster, Erie County, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Delhi, NY.]

Games Keeper Gets Better Position

William Marshall, who for the past twelve years had been game-keeper on the Gerry estate at Lake Delaware, has taken a position as head game keeper on a large estate on Long Island, at a decided increase of salary. He has had a life-long experience in game-keeping having worked in Europe before coming to this country from his native heath – Scotland.