In 1909, a large three story tenement house at 218 Steele St. in Jamestown was badly damaged by fire the previous afternoon. The house was occupied by 10 families, all of whom made a hurried exit. Very little furniture was saved. The building was owned by Mrs. J. Augusta Adams.

"The laborer is worthy of his hire" was an old and true saying and it applied very appropriately to the action of the Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors in raising the salary of the district attorney from $1,200 to $1,800 per annum. The latter figure under present conditions was a very moderate salary for as large and wealthy a county as Chautauqua.

In 1959, Ernest A. Thorpe, 29, Route 3, Jamestown, a veteran of Korea, was killed instantly at 2:13 a.m. when he was caught between a parked Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department patrol car and a car operated by a 15-year-old Jamestown youth. The youth's vehicle plowed into the man and the prowl car on Route 60, town of Kiantone, just south of the old Route 60 intersection. Mr. Thorpe, who had been observed hitchhiking, was being questioned by Deputies John Bentley and Robert Abersold when the accident occurred.

Officials of Jamestown Furniture Center had announced purchase of the three-story building adjacent to the company's store at109 N. Main St. and had tentative plans for expanded parking facilities. The Furniture Center and the property purchased extended to the corner of First Street. Jacob Weinstein was president of the firm and Wesley R. Anderson, manager of the store.

In 1984, surgery to correct nearsightedness by making tiny slices in the cornea of the eye, a procedure hotly debated in ophthalmological circles, reduced the nearsightedness of all 435 people in a government study, a researcher said. Seventy-eight percent of the people who underwent the surgery, called radial keratotomy, gained vision of 20-40 or better, and complications were minimal. Some doctors feared that the procedure could lead to eye infections, cataracts or blindness.

After an emotional plea by the widow of his murder victim, James J. Swan of Dayton was sentenced in Cattaraugus County Court to serve life in prison for murdering a state trooper in 1982. Swan, 35, also faced a minimum sentence of 35 years in a state prison and Supreme Court Judge Vincent E. Doyle's recommendation that he be denied parole when he would become eligible at age 70. Swan used a rifle to shoot State Trooper Gary Kubasiak, 32, of Gowanda, three times on the night of Aug. 30, 1982, as the officer entered Swan's home in response to a report of a domestic dispute.

In 1999, Maple Grove's Red Dragon Laura Metzger was crowned the 2000 Lakewood Area Junior Miss. She won more than $2,000 in scholarship money as she also won the program's spirit award. "I'm absolutely shocked. I'm honored to be in Junior Miss with all these talented young women," Miss Metzger said after the program's end. "I'm grateful to my parents, my sister and all of my friends for all of their support."

Chautauqua County schools fared just above statewide averages in the new fourth and eighth grade New York State tests. The tests, both math and English, were designed to prepare students for the new rigorous high school graduation requirements.