100 Years Ago
In 1912, Helen Miller Gould of New York, sister of George J., Frank J., Howard and Edwin Gould and the Princess de Talleyrand-Perigord (Anna Gould de Castellane) and who was celebrated not only because she was one of the richest women in the world, but also on account of her practical philanthropies, was to be married probably the following month to Finley J. Shepard, an active railroad man, who was assistant to President B.F. Bush of the Gould lines, Missouri Pacific, Iron Mountain and Denver and Reo Grande. Gould was 44 years old. Her fiance was 45.
Miss Hildegard Teresia Larson, the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.F. Larson, died at the home of her parents, Lister Avenue, Falconer, on this morning at 3 a.m., aged 21 years, 10 months and 23 days. Death came after an illness of several weeks of typhoid. She was survived by her parents and three sisters, Hilma, Eleanor and Anna and a brother, Carl. One sister, Alma, died of typhoid eight months previously. Larson was one of the most popular young women of Falconer and a member of and a devout worker in the Swedish Lutheran Church of Falconer. She was a student of the Jamestown Business College up to the time of her illness.
75 Years Ago
In 1937, King Winter tightened his icy grip on Jamestown and the Chautauqua Region this day when an official low temperature of 4 degrees below zero was recorded at the city hall weather bureau. Reports from outlying rural communities indicated lower sub-zero readings as low as minus 14 in Ashville. Randolph and Dewittville residents said the mercury had dropped to 10 degrees below during the night. The cold wave increased the thickness of ice on Chautauqua Lake where skating had been in progress for several days.
Automobile deaths on Pennsylvania highways in 1937 reached 2,500 this day, an all-time record high mark. The state revenue department which issued automobile licenses, announced that 2,518 persons had been killed and 56,750 injured to date this year, exceeding the death toll of 2,411 for the entire year of 1936.
50 Years Ago
In 1962, fire, fanned by wind in near-zero weather, caused extensive damage to a two-family house at W. 11th Street, Jamestown, the previous evening about 8 p.m. The house was owned by Frank R. Langworthy, who occupied an apartment on the second floor. The apartment on the first floor was vacant. The blaze was touched off when a paper torch being used by Langworthy to thaw a frozen water-line in the basement, ignited a small pocket of gas, causing an explosion. Langworthy, 61, was not injured by the blast but his hat and outer garments were slightly singed.
Most schools in Chautauqua County were closed this day as the season's severe pre-winter storm howled with renewed vigor into the area. The temperature skidded into the sub-zero range in Jamestown again, with an overnight low of 2 below registered and from 5 to 8 inches of new snow was recorded throughout the region. Motorists continued to have trouble with slippery and rough road conditions, sharply reduced visibility and dead batteries. The wind continued to blow causing drifting and reduced visibility.
25 Years Ago
In 1987, Vice President George Bush would arrive in Buffalo for a fundraiser and to pick up a key endorsement from the chairman of the state Republican party. He also hoped to embarrass rival GOP presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp. It was Kemp's home turf and political analysts said that if the eight-term Congressman couldn't hold onto his own district, his chances of winning the national party's nomination were slim at best. Bush would attend a $1,000 per ticket reception at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Buffalo. The event was organized by Seymour Knox, whose wealthy family owned the Buffalo Sabres professional hockey team.
It didn't take Falconer-based state police long to catch up with a Conewango Valley man who tried to drive away in half of his car over the weekend. The attempt came after the car hit a tree along Route 62 and split in half. The front-wheel-drive car split in half when it struck a tree in a field, state police said. The front half, with the driver inside, stopped about 200 feet from the tree, with the gas tank and back half of the car still by the tree. Witnesses told police he tried to drive the car away but that it barely moved before the engine gave out. The man then fled on foot and headed south before Trooper Frederick Andriaccio found him in a wooded area not far from the accident scene. He escaped serious injury in the accident and was treated at WCA Hospital for cuts and abrasions. He was charged with drunken driving, speed not reasonable and prudent, leaving the scene of an accident, resisting arrest and unlawful possession of fireworks.