100 Years Ago
In 1912, St. James' Day was appropriately celebrated by the people of St. James Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, those in attendance being over 700 including most of the Italian people of the city and some visitors. The day was generally observed by Catholics but St. James being the patron saint of the local Italian church, the people of that parish always made a special effort to make the day a notable one. The feature of the morning was a parade of the Italian societies through several of the streets of Jamestown. The parade was headed by the First Lutheran Church band. During the afternoon, the celebration took the form of an Italian festival with ice cream, soft drinks, candy and other articles being sold for the benefit of the church.
The eighth annual clambake of Jamestown aerie, No. 816, Fraternal Order of Eagles, was held Sunday at Midway Park with an attendance of between 400 and 500 members of the order, including several from nearby cities and towns. The party went on a chartered steamer at 11 o'clock in the morning. The feast had been prepared by Tom Snowdon and his assistants. The bake was served at long tables in the pavilion. The first course consisted of clams, the second of fish, the third of chicken and corn and the fourth of lobsters. The serving was in charge of a large corps of waiters from the aerie, in white uniforms. "Ike" Carmen gave a clever buck dance, to the accompaniment of the Separate Company band and T. Henry Black took photographs of the party throughout the day.
75 Years Ago
In 1937, mention of Assistant United States Attorney General Robert H. Jackson of Jamestown as the logical New Deal candidate for president in 1940 was contained in the lead article - "White House Tommy," by Alva Johnston - in the current issue of the Saturday Evening Post. The article dealt primarily with the activities of Thomas Corcoran, "braintrust" successor to Raymond Moley, New Deal adviser and strategist and lobbyist. Corcoran said the man best fitted to carry out the Corcoran policies was Robert H. Jackson, one of the most brilliant young men in the Attorney General's office. It would be highly acceptable to Corcoran, it was said, if Jackson was elected governor of New York in 1938 and was then to be made president in 1940.
Employees of the Jamestown Metal Corporation held their annual picnic at the Greek Club grounds in Celoron Saturday afternoon and evening with a record attendance. A softball team made up of employees of the company defeated the Watson Manufacturing Company by a score of 11-8. The tug of war was run by elimination. First, the paint department defeated the case-making department, then the foremen defeated the office workers and the paint department defeated the foremen for the championship.
25 Years Ago
In 1987, at least 125 children across Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegheny counties the past year didn't go to school. Or rather, they didn't go out to school. They stayed home to learn. The reasons their parents decided to teach them varied, but one common link was that a state law gave them the right to do so. Another was that they were part of an ever-growing number. Figures released by the New York State Education Department showed the number of home-schooled children in the three counties doubled in the last year and most officials said they expected those numbers to grow.
The state department of construction appeared committed to constructing a five-lane highway in West Ellicott as part of a major Route 394 improvement program, according to Ellicott Republican Supervisor Frances C. Morgan. The report was made after she and three other elected area officials and the representative of a fourth met in Buffalo with Robert Russell, new DOT regional director. It was shown that the traffic counts showed the highway was used by 15,000 cars a day, with a 14 percent increase projected in the next 20 years. "They're designing a five-lane highway from the Jamestown city line to Shadyside in Lakewood," Mrs. Morgan said.