In 1912, as Fred Andrus and his wife of Coudersport, Pa., were taking an automobile ride, something went wrong with the steering gear and the machine shot from the road and over a 5-foot embankment near Cross Forks. Mr. Andrus was pinned beneath the machine in such a position that he was unable to help himself, while his wife was held only by her skirts. Tearing herself loose, the woman ran to the railroad track a short distance away and with her torn garments flagged a train, the members of the crew going to the scene of the accident and lifting the overturned car from Mr. Andrus who was only slightly injured. Andrus was sealer of weights and measures at Cross Forks.
Leon Fellows of Dunkirk was seriously injured when his motorcycle smashed head-on into an automobile owned and driven by Warren Smith of Westfield. Fellows was headed toward Fredonia and had no lights on his machine. Smith was coming toward Westfield and when a few miles east of Brocton he saw the motorcycle coming, he turned out to give Fellows the road as he saw he had no lights. Fellows, evidently blinded by Smith's lights, became confused and crashed into the automobile with such force as to throw him through the windshield and land him in the lap on Mrs. Smith, who was sitting in the front seat.
In 1937, friends of Chautauqua presented the Institution the previous night with gifts totaling $46,119.25 as 8,000 persons crowded into the amphitheater to celebrate with tradition-steeped Old First Night exercises, its 63rd anniversary as an American influence. The contributions took the form of the initial gift in the million-dollar endowment fund being accumulated by the newly organized Chautauqua Foundation Inc., to promote the spiritual, educational and recreational growth of the now debt-free institution.
It was Children's Day at the Centennial celebration in Dunkirk and their elders marked time, waiting for the firemen's convention to open. Hundreds of youthful celebrators cavorted the city streets in costumes and vehicles as they paraded the streets and Washington Park. It had been estimated that 2,000 boys and girls took part and later visited the carnival shows where they were admitted at half price while the children of St. Mary's and St. Joseph's homes were guests of the management without charge.
In 1962, a former Warren County man died in Kane Community Hospital as the result of a gunshot wound suffered the previous morning. He was Lawrence R. Champion, 52, formerly of Tiona. State police stationed at Kane reported Mr. Champion was working in his garage on a sign for his establishment, the Champion Inn near Mr. Jewett and had taken a .22 caliber rifle to the garage with him to shoot rats which had been causing him some trouble. While working on the sign, Mr. Champion bumped the gun and it discharged, sending a bullet into the right temple region of his head.
The steady pounding of a piledriver had been audible throughout downtown Jamestown during the week. The machine was driving piles for construction of a pier for the north approach to the Washington Street Bridge. Completed piers for the southern approach were already in place. Engineers on the project believed all piers for the $2 million, 950-foot span would be completed by the end of the following month.
In 1987, federally funded family planning programs were in jeopardy as President Reagan and others in Washington moved to eliminate the funds. Family planning centers were located in Chautauqua, Warren and Cattaraugus counties. "I've got to believe that nothing will come of it," said U.S. Rep. Amory Houghton Jr., R-Corning. Some local family planning officials felt that local programs would be spared from cuts in funding, but others stressed concern stemming from an interpretation of an abortion clause. The question of whether support should continue was to be considered by the Labor and Human Resources Committee.
It was now against the law in New York state for universities, trade schools and business colleges to discriminate against applicants or students on the basis of age. Gov. Mario Cuomo signed a bill adding age to the existing list of sex, race, religion, marital status and national origin as things post-secondary schools could not use as a basis of discrimination.
