In 1912, at 8 o'clock the previous night, the wooden dock at Eagle Park on the Canadian side of Grand Island collapsed and dropped more than 150 men and women, boys and girls into the swift current. Latest reports were that 30 had been drowned, of which eight bodies had been recovered. The victims were members of Amherst Lodge, American Order of Foresters. They had been taken to Eagle Park in the morning aboard the Henry Koerber and the barge Lottie Koerber, Captain Frank Fix, commander and owner. The Koerber had brought some of the Foresters back to Amherst Street and had returned for the rest of the party. The dock sagged, cracked with a rumbling roar and went down just as the steamer and barge reached it.
The man whose body was found floating in Chautauqua Lake, near Beechwood the past Saturday afternoon had been identified as William Darling of Corry. The circumstances which led to his death were a mystery. The plausible theory was suicide but a suspicious circumstance was the fact that a cement weight was fastened to the body. It was said that Darling was at Celoron or Beechwood the night of the Moose Carnival and Coroner Illston had been told that he had a roll of bills in his possession at that time. The coroner, however, did not attach much importance to this story. "Almost invariably in the case of a mysterious death, someone comes to the front with a story that the last time the dead man was seen, he had a large roll of bills in his possession," said the coroner. The dead man was a laborer about 47 years of age. It was learned that the deceased had a mother who lived at Ashville and a wife and children in Corry.
In 1937, Edward Brandt, alias Jack Shepherd, and other names, 47 years old, who gave his home as Kansas City, Kansas, was held for the grand jury when arraigned before Justice of the Peace Louis H. Fuller in Westfield on a charge of violation of Section 895 of the Penal law which was passing or offering for sale counterfeit stamps. It was alleged that Brandt attempted to sell bogus stamps to a local philatelist. He was also alleged to have had illegally in his possession dies, postmarking stamps used in forging of post marks, cancellations, first covers and pre-postal days' markings. He was arrested by Post Office Inspectors Clarence F. Ford and Lewis J. Brennan and taken to the county jail in Mayville.
State Tax Commissioner Mark Graves reported an increase of 11,420,703 gallons in gasoline consumption for April over the same month the previous year in New York state. The figure was also higher than that for March 1937, he said. Sales of gasoline subject to state taxes advanced from 123,533,663 gallons in April, 1936, to 133,008,325 for the month in 1937. Pointing to a total April consumption of 143,923,629 gallons, the commissioner explained that nontaxable sales included those made to federal, state and municipal governments. Gasoline for use in airplanes, farm and contracting equipment and boats also was tax-exempt, he said.
In 1987, Chautauqua County Health Department Environmental Director Steve Johnson would inspect the Vukote area this day after gasoline seeped from one of three underground tanks the previous night at a former gas station on West Lake Road. Fumes from the seepage caused 12 people to evacuate the cottage and mobile home area for four hours and an elderly woman was taken to WCA Hospital for observation, Lakewood Fire Chief Jerry McMaster said. Heavy rain filled an 8-by-10-foot pit and then seeped into the storage tanks at Pete's Texaco station, which hadn't been open since 1970. Firefighters and 11 members of the county Hazardous Materials Team collected 150 gallons of gas after they first removed about 2 inches of gas from the pit. Workers filled the tank with water to force the remaining gas out.
An eight-week search was over and Celoron Elementary School had a new principal. Falconer native Linda Swanson had been named to fill the post vacated by the retirement of Robert Lamp. She was approved unanimously at the Southwestern School Board meeting. Her tenure would begin August 1. Mrs. Swanson had been a first-grade teacher in Randolph Central School and had extensive experience in primary and early childhood education. The board also approved the nomination of Patricia Moldovan as the grade six chairwoman.
