Life in Bovina 100 years ago this month, as reported in the pages of the Andes Recorder:
July 2, 1926
• Mrs. Newton and Benj Graham of Arkville, were callers here Monday.
• William Armstrong has had the lawn grade in front of his residence.
• Mrs. Charles Hyatt and children, of New York, are with relatives in town.
• Mrs. James A. Gow has returned home from a visit with her sister, Mrs. Forman, at the County home.
• Paul Furhman is making improvements and repairs to his residence – the former William McCune house.
• Miss Beatrice Hoy has returned home from Bainbridge, accompanied by her sister, Mrs. Harold Robinson.
• William Archibald is having a cellar dug for a new house on the site of the Methodist church, recently torn down.
• In the estate of Julia Lee, late of Bovina, the estimate is $4,000 personal. Husband, brother, nephews and nieces the heirs.
• Miss Mable Thomson, who teaches at Winsted, Connecticut, is home for the summer. Miss Jane Hilson is home from South Orange, N.J.
• Misses Carrie Dumond and Margaret Gordon went to Arkville on Thursday to take employment at the Pakatakan Country Club for the boarding season.
• Ralph Hillis, who has the former Strangeway store for a garage, has torn out the floor and filled the cellar to the street level and is putting in a concrete floor.
• Mrs. C.H. Dayton, of Peekskill, has been visiting her father, Jas W. Thomson. Two daughters of Charles, of Katona, N.Y. also were at the Thomson home.
• Several will leave next Tuesday for summer school. Professor and Mrs. Wilber Archibald and Caroline Dickson go to Albany Teachers College and principal Gilbert Banker and Mrs. Edna Tolley to the Oneonta Normal.
Bovina Farm Sold
J. Douglas Burns, who recently sold his farm, has purchased the David J. Miller farm, which adjoins the one he sold. The farm formerly kept over 80 cows but is badly run down and the past year has been vacant. The price reported ranges from $1,500 to $2,500.
Former Bovina Doctor Dead
Dr. Charles Fisher, who was born in Meredith in 1838, died recently in a sanitorium at Bingham. During the Civil War he served as surgeon in the 70th Regiment and later with the third Brigade which was in the Wilderness campaign. After the war he practiced medicine in Bovina and in 1871 went to Bainbridge, where he conducted a pharmacy. For the past 25 years he had been an invalid. [Note, I think this is Charles Frisbee.]
July 9, 1926
• Miss Katherine Martin is visiting her aunt, Mrs. Fred Thomson.
• Lyman LaFever and sons, of Illion, are visiting his son, Benson LaFever [this should be Sylvan, not Lyman]
• Arthur Burns and family, of Kingston, were visitors here the first of the week.
• Miss Jane Archibald is home from New York, where she is employed in an office.
• Wendal Ormiston, of Hudson, has been visiting his mother, Mrs. Thos Ormiston.
• Herman Coulter, of Stamford, visited at Russell Boggs’ from Tuesday until Friday.
• Howard Kaufman and wife, from Pennsylvania, are visiting his brother Kenneth Kaufman.
• Frank Myers and wife, and William Thomson and wife, of Endicott, were here over the Fourth.
• Miss Ruth Coulter will go to State of Washington as a delegate from Young Peoples’ Union.
• Lauren Dickson, William Gordon and Ledger Myers were at Binghamton on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Mrs. F.W. Hyatt, of Yonkers and Clarence Smith and family, from Connecticut, are stopping at John Northrup’s.
• Rev. A.M. Thomson, pastor of the Church of the Covenanters, will be absent for a month attending a Bible school.
• Mrs. and Mrs. George Archibald and daughter and his mother, Mrs. Bell Archibald, of Buffalo, have been visiting in town.
• Bovina real estate transfers recorded are James B. Lee and wife to Andrew T. Strangeway, $675; Margaret Strangeway Coulter and another; Frank T. Miller, $1; Alex Hilson, executors of, to Everett DeSilva, $1.
Burned by Firecracker
Floyd Aitkins was burned about the mouth Monday evening by a cannon firecracker. The firecracker had been lighted but only gave a puff. Young Aitkens picked it up and blew into it and the remainder of the powder flashed and struck him in the mouth.
Will Marry July 13
Helen Gallaway, a daughter of Reb. H.K. Gallaway, a former pastor of the United Presbyterian church at Bovina, is to be married on July 13, to Raymond Walker of Jersey City at the North Hill United Presbyterian church, Akron, Ohio, of which her father is pastor.
July 16, 1926
• Mrs. Marshall Scott, of Oneonta was a caller in town Saturday.
• Estate of A.W. Baker, late of Bovina, is estimated at $500 personal. The four children each get $100 and wife the residue.
• Dr. and Mrs. N.B. Whitcomb and children, missionaries to Egypt, who are home on a furlough, are spending the week in town.
• Mrs. A.T. Doig who was called to Walton by the death of her sister-in-law, Mrs. E.F. Thomson, will remain with her brother for a time.
• Howard Currie, the Delhi contractor is moving his crusher and mixer and preparing to put in the cellar for William Archibald’s new house.
• The over storing of milk powder at the Bovina Center plant nearly caused the collapse of the building. Fortunately it was discovered in time and the building propped.
• The old cemetery in Bovina center, in which are buried some of the earliest residents of the town, is being cleaned up. The wall has been removed and the old apple trees taken out.
• Miss Marion McPherson of Bovina, and Miss Margaret Doig, of Delhi, went to Akron, Ohio, to be bridesmaids at the marriage of Miss Helen Galloway to Raymond Walker on July 13.
• The following Bovina people left on Thursday for a western trip, viz: Mrs. Alex Hilson and daughter, Miss Jane, who will visit relatives in Oakland, California; Miss Ruth Coulter and her aunt, Miss Elizabeth Strangeway, whose destination is Seattle, Washington. Miss Coulter is a delegate to the Young People’s convention.
Death in Bovina
John W. Elliott died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William C. Burns, below Bovina Center, Tuesday morning, July 13, after a long illness. He was born in the New Kingston valley over 80 years ago and the great part of his life was spent there. A few years ago his son took the farm and he moved to Bovina, and since the death of his wife he had made his home with the daughter at whose home he died.
July 23, 1926
• Professor and Mrs. Leon Taggart, of Oneonta, were visitors here over the week end.
• A heavy electric storm here Sabbath afternoon was accompanied by considerable hail.
• Miss Anna McFarland, daughter of Chauncey McFarland, and had her tonsils removed last week.
• Mrs. Thomas Gordon and son motored to Arkville on Sabbath afternoon to see her daughter.
• Milton Hoy and daughter, Eleanor, of Oil City, Pennsylvania, is visiting his sisters, Mrs. Davidson and Mrs. Archibald.
• The funeral of John W. Elliott was held from the U.P. church on Friday and interment made in the Bovina Center cemetery.
• Mr. and Mrs. John Armstrong and Mr. and Mrs. Lester Hoy were at the Canada Hollow Falls on Sabbath and enjoyed a lunch.
• Miss Jane Archibald, who had been spending her vacation here, returned to New York this week, spending a few days at Binghamton enroute.
• The car of Albert Lifgren was damaged Tuesday night and his leg was injured when his car collided with the bank near the foot of the Russell Road.
• Mrs. Thomas Cowan is at the home of her son, Millard Russell. After haying she and her youngest son will move to her house, the former Richard Smith place, in Bovina Center.
• In the Bovina real estate transfers is Elliott Thomson and wife to W.J. Archibald $1. This is for the building used for many years as a blacksmith shop. It was built 45 years ago and one half was used as a wagon shop by Jacob Detrick and the family lived upstairs.
A Bovina Estate
The estate of John W. Elliott, late of Bovina, is estimated at $5,000 personal. To Hale Elliott and Emily C. Burns, son and daughter, is willed each personal articles, $500 and equal share of residue, to William J. Elliott and James T. Elliott each an equal share of residue.
July 30, 1926
• Mildred Brown, of Delhi, is visiting in town.
• Alex Thomson was an Andes Visitor last Friday.
• Norton Forrest was a County Seat visitor Monday.
• Miss Mary Fay, of Andes, is visiting her sister, Mrs. Hugh Galland.
• Mrs. A.S. Banker and son, Gilbert, spent Saturday with her people at Pine Hill.
• The Y.P.S. of the P.P. church held a good time social at Adam Laidlaw’s Friday night.
• E.F. Thomson and Mrs. and Mrs. Archibald Thomson, of Walton, were in town on Sabbath.
• Rev. F.N. Crawford and family are on an auto trip to Ohio and will spend two weeks visiting relatives.
• Attorney C.L. Dickson, William S. Gordon and Ledger Myers were in New York City the first of the week.
• Mrs. Elliott Thomson and granddaughter, Jean Robinson, have been visiting at Delhi and Bainbridge.
• D.C. Worden has purchased what is known as the Hastings and Fuller parcels of land from Charles Russell.
• Lightning struck the house of Harry Robinson in the lower part of the village during the severe storm last Thursday and a short piece of corner board was torn off, but fortunately the building was not fired.
High Wind in Bovina – Much Damage Done Last Thursday Roofs Torn Off and Trees Uprooted
Bovina was visited by a hurricane last Thursday afternoon and much damage was done by the tearing off of roofs and blowing down of trees. Part of the roof was torn off the cheese room at the Center creamery; shingles were torn from piece of roof on barn of James Mabon. At Robert Robinson’s up Coulter Brook the entire roof was torn off his wagon house, rafters included, and the roof of his bar was damaged. Threes were torn up by the roots all over town. Loads of hay were overturned and at Alex Thomson’s his hay loader was moved some 20 rods across the field and landed right side up with no damage.
Bovina Has Fire Scare
The was considerable excitement in Bovina last Friday afternoon when the word was flashed over the telephone that the residence of Fred Bramley up Pink street was on fire. In a remarkably short time a large crowd had gathered at the Bramley home. Fortunately the house was not on fire. Mr. Bramley had been cleaning up rubbish and had put it into his furnace and set it on fire. This caused a dense smoke which settled down and enveloped the house. This was seen by a neighbor, Mrs. Lifgren, and she turned in the fire alarm to central.
Brown-Downie
Miss Dorothy Downie and Gould Brown, both, of Oneonta, were married July 24. The bride is a daughter of James Downie, who is a native of Bovina.
