In 1913, carrying home Christmas groceries and packages to his family in their little home on Johnson Avenue in Jamestown on Christmas Eve, John D. Laphey slipped and fell into a pile of broken glass severing the artery in his right wrist. It was a sad Christmas Eve in his home, where his homecoming was awaited until the following morning when his body was discovered and the news of the accident reached his wife and family. Laphey had been a character about the city. He was better known as “Shorty” Laphey. He sold cowslips, horseradish and various greens and in this way, was well known. He had been also a member of the street cleaning department work force.

With a terrible scalp wound across the back of his head, his forehead cut and bruised and several ribs broken, John Olson, a P.& E. brakeman, before dawn, crawled over 24 speeding cars of his train to the caboose and there collapsed in the arms of his conductor, just as the train pulled into Spring Creek. Olson’s escape from death was considered one of the most miraculous that was ever brought to the attention of local railroad men. Olson was hit by an overhead bridge at Youngsville. The brakeman said he remembered stooping to button his shoe while he was on top of one of the box cars of the train, up near the engine. In the frozen sleet and ice on the car roof, his trail was followed, showing he had made his way on his hands and knees from one car to another. The train raced along at good speed from Youngsville and how he ever succeeded in reaching the caboose in safety could not be understood. The man was attended by Dr. G.A. Elston after the train had brought him to Jamestown.

In 1938, Robert Rogers, 29, of Park Street, Jamestown, suffered a fracture of the right leg and lacerations the previous night when struck by a hit-and-run driver as he was about to enter his parked car in front of 260 Baker Street. Police were seeking the driver of the car which struck Rogers. Rogers had parked his car on the left side of the street and stopped to visit at the Baker Street address. When he went to enter his machine he was struck by the hit-run car. The accident occurred at the height of Monday’s snowstorm.

A daring rescue onto the inch-thick ice of Chautauqua Lake resulted in a thrilling rescue from an icy death for two young men the previous afternoon after the ice boat the pair had been piloting crashed through the surface into 50 feet of frigid water about a mile off shore a short distance from Chautauqua. Central figures in the near tragedy were Arthur Whitney, 24, and Wallace Cole, 18, both of whom resided in the Town of Chautauqua. They clung to their overturned ice craft for nearly an hour before a quartet of heroic rescuers pulled them from the lake. The rescuers were George and Lawrence Kranking, Milton Tefft and Palmer Bates. Bates was a chauffeur for Mrs. E.J. Bellinger in front of whose home the unusual Christmas drama was enacted.

In 1963, a 39-year-old Syracuse surgeon, whose father died of a cardiac ailment, was developing an artificial heart that he said might be more efficient than the disease-prone organ provided by nature. In any event, Dr. Harold D. Kletschka said he believed his plastic heart would outperform a damaged organ and would be so dependable that it “may still be going when its owner is dead from another disease. You are always hesitant to say you can improve on nature but I don’t want to rule it out,” he said.

Condition of a Jamestown man who received multiple injuries in a freak automobile-backing accident the previous afternoon was reported as satisfactory at WCA Hospital. Victim of the mishap was Robert L. Franzen, 24, of Howard Street. Police said Franzen was pinned against a utility pole by the partly opened door of a backing automobile at a service station at Seventh and North Main streets. The driver of the car, Lily Fanale, 44, of Sinclairville, said she was attempting to back up the vehicle and had the door beside her open for better vision when the accelerator stuck, causing the vehicle to travel backwards at increased speed. The door of the car caught Franzen, who was on foot, pinning him against the pole.

In 1988, the first of the dead had been identified from Pan Am flight 103 and investigators began tests on a suitcase for clues as to whether a bomb or structural failure caused Britain’s worst air disaster. Police hoped to release perhaps half a dozen bodies to next of kin this day once the last formality of registering the death in Lockerbie was completed. Names and nationalities were not issued.

Books, records and cassettes were big sellers at Christmas according to area book and record shops. At the Christian Book Cellar in Jamestown, owner and manager Evelyn Northrop said, “The Christmas season was extremely good.” Over at The Book Shop on Third Street, “Things were wonderful,” said manager Deena Person. “We did much better than last year.” Brooke Kelsey, manager at Record Giant on East Second Street, said the season was “excellent.” Managers at most major retail stores in the Jamestown area cited company policy as their reason for not commenting on the Christmas shopping season.

In Years Past

In 1913, two men were killed and six seriously scalded and injured by the explosion of a boiler of a Wabash locomotive in Buffalo. The crash came in the midst of exchange of Christmas greetings between six men on the engine and a switchtender. August Thorpe of Fort Erie, Canada, was crushed under the wreckage of the cab which was lifted several feet by the explosion. Arthur Spang of Buffalo, riding home on the light engine, had his head hit by a chunk of iron. Engineer Curran jumped when the first hiss of steam came but was scalded. He reentered the wreckage and rescued Conductor Savage. Both were seriously hurt. No reason was apparent for the accident.

Laura Buffum, the 12-year-old victim of arsenical poisoning lay in her little home on Main Street in Little Valley in a gaily decorated room, one corner of which was filled with a large Christmas tree, hung with gifts sent from all over the state by sympathizers who had become deeply interested in the girl since the story of her brave fight for life became public through the charge of murder against her mother for the death of her father. Scores of people visited the house the previous day and while many were admitted to the little sufferer’s bedside, others were not permitted to see her. Dr. Hillsman, who had charge of the patient, met many of the visitors and thanked them for their kindly interest on behalf of his patient.

In 1938, James Loucheim, 94, who as a youthful reporter for the Cincinnati Press covered the assassination of President Lincoln, died this day. Loucheim, known as “The Grand Old Man of Lawrence” was born in Cincinnati, Feb. 22, 1845. He had been a newspaperman, contractor and Democratic politician in Ohio and New York and was clerk of the Long Island town of Lawrence for 10 years. One of the oldest Master Masons in New York State, he was given a gold medal the past year for 70 years of Masonic service.

Fire early in the morning destroyed the Methodist Episcopal church in Findley Lake. It was believed that the church would be rebuilt. Houses close to the church were imperiled and Sherman Fire Department was called to assist in keeping the flames from spreading. Only the basement of the structure remained. The church edifice, painted white, stood at the foot of Findley Lake in the heart of the village. It was believed that a flue set fire to the wooden framework which smoldered for some time before blazing. The last service was conducted in the church Sunday morning when Christmas exercises were held there.

In 1963, Warren police were investigating two telephoned bomb threats received on Dec. 24. One emptied the Sylvania Parts Division Plant about 15 minutes before the noon lunch period. Workers returned to their jobs a short time later after officials decided the call was a hoax. The other threat was received at the United Refinery business office. Plant officials and investigating officers also labeled the call a hoax and workers stayed on the job. The two calls were made within 10 minutes of each other, police said.

Turkey with all the trimmings was served to Cattaraugus and Chautauqua County prisoners Christmas Day. There were 50 prisoners in Mayville and 30 in Little Valley. Cigarettes and cigars were given to the Chautauqua County jail trusties, while family members of prisoners provided them with cigarettes during visiting hours. Sheriff and Mrs. Morgan L. Sigel gave all the Cattaraugus prisoners cigarettes and all kinds of candies and also joined them for the turkey dinner which included pumpkin pie. Fruit cake was served to the prisoners in Chautauqua County.

In Years Past

In 1913, another big deal in West Third Street realty would be the erection of a mammoth furniture exposition building in that section of Jamestown. The location was the northwest corner of West Third and Lafayette streets. This block, fronting 120 feet on West Third Street, from the corner of Lafayette Street west to the alley and extending back along Lafayette Street 100 feet to the line of the property occupied by the apartment house recently erected there by Dr. Darwin C. Perkins, had been transferred by a deed under date of Dec. 1 by Ernest Cawcroft, F.E. Wallace and Mrs. Ella J. Stocker to Charles B. Coyle and Association. The location was considered one of the best in the city.

Robbery was no longer considered to have been the motive of the man who killed John Barrett on Saturday night in his home a few miles east of Fort Plain. It was recalled that not long ago he was a member of a Montgomery County Court jury that convicted several Italians of serious crimes for which they were sent to prison. Sheriff Kurlbaum was working on the theory that one of the convicted men’s friends selected by lot, committed the murder and close tabs were being kept on those known to have been the convicted men’s friends. The murderer evidently anticipated the use of bloodhounds for he bridled Barrett’s horse and rode it a mile or more before turning the animal loose.

In 1938, a record throng of Christmas travelers journeyed toward “the old home town” this day, seeking refurbishment of spirit at family reunions brightened by the prospect of a traditional white Yuletide for many sections of the nation. Snow, sleet and rain were general from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi Valley, adding an element of peril that brought death to many on ice-sheathed highways. The snow was skimpy except in the northernmost tier of states. Bus and railroad lines reported holiday traffic 10 to 15 percent above the past year. Harried airlines executives reported record request for reservations.

For lack of sufficient snow on ski trails and toboggan slides, the opening of Snow Mountain, winter sports site of Jamestown’s Recreation Council on Willard Street extension, scheduled for Monday, Dec. 26, had been postponed indefinitely, it was announced. Wind and rain had laid bare large patches of land, making it impossible for use. If there should be a snowfall of several inches over the weekend it would be possible to open Snow Mountain to the public.

In 1963, as Chautauqua County continued to be buffeted by snowstorms and the hour of Santa Claus’s arrival neared, his mode of transportation looked more practical to many motorists. The previous night’s 3 inches of new, wet snow had autos of last-minute Christmas shoppers skidding and slipping along city and county roads. The possibility of Santa being stranded in the county because of lack of snow was remote. Since Dec. 14, 50 inches had been dumped on the area.

Plastic trees and wreaths, cotton snow and Yule songs were the order of television days and nights and too much of anything could get a bit boring. Judy Garland, in hostess gown, invited viewers into a living room set Sunday night and sang holiday songs while surrounded by her three real-life children. Ed Sullivan’s little Italian mouse puppet was dressed up in a tiny St. Nick outfit and was ho-ho-hoing around in a Neapolitan accent. Even Mr. Ed was full of Christmas plot, so by the time Tennessee Ernie Ford turned up on NBC with a Christmas special, viewers had done about as much vicarious celebrating as they could absorb.

In 1988, an overheated motor in a drying kiln at Southern Tier Forest Products in Salamanca had been identified as the cause of a fire which had temporarily halted operations. City firemen were called shortly after 6 a.m. the previous day and found flames coming from one section of the building on Rochester Street. The firm produced prepackaged firewood, called Bundles of Warmth, which were marketed throughout Western New York and the Northeast.

Far-ranging plans were being considered by many Jamestown business and civic leaders: developing the Reg Lenna Civic Center district, revitalizing Jamestown’s central business district, renovating the north and south gateways to the city and solving Jamestown’s parking problem, among many others. The first step was a non-scientific survey of shoppers. This took place the past Saturday at a shopping area outside the city limits. Other surveys would be done over the next several months to gather information about shopper and merchant attitudes toward the downtown area.

In Years Past

In 1913, a new house on East Second Street in Jamestown, near Bowen Street, being built by Mrs. Frank Johnson, was damaged to some extent by fire at about 10:30 o’clock Monday evening. The fire was the result of carelessness, overalls of plasterers being left too near a fire kept burning to dry the plaster. For a time it looked as though the house would be severely damaged but the firemen, with the use of chemicals, soon had it under control. The fire started on the ground floor and burned up through a partition into the second floor but the loss would not be heavy.

A delightful Christmas program was rendered by the Sunday school of the Celoron M.E. church the previous evening. The church was most attractively decorated. A large white Christmas bell, trimmed with evergreens, was suspended from the center of an arch of similar construction. Back of this hung a cross. These were made by William Dean and the other decorations were supplied by the young ladies of Sunday school class No. 6.

In 1938, Snow Mountain, Jamestown’s winter recreation site on Willard Street extension, was in fine condition as a result of recent snowfall. The toboggan slide which was reasonably fast the past year had been improved by widening and leveling the trough, and the sweep of the ground had been cleared at the foot of the runway. The low and high ski jumps were ready for the experienced skiers while a large section of the hill east of the toboggan slide was excellent for those less adept at the art of handling skis. Plans were going forward to have an official opening of Snow Mountain on Dec. 26.

Residents of the north side of Jamestown were being warned to be on the lookout for a burglar, while police were hot on his trail. The previous night the burglar entered the second story of the home of Mrs. James Endress, 408 East Eighth Street, by using a ladder and later he entered the home of Major General Charles J. Bailey, 34 Grant Street. In both instances the marauder was surprised and frightened away before he had a chance to steal anything.

In 1963, a family of 13 was left homeless, two teenage boys were hurt and two autos and a fire truck were damaged as the aftermath of a fire near Allegany the previous day. The fire destroyed the frame two-story home of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Schoonover, Chipmunk road, about three miles west of Allegany. They and their 11 children, ranging in age from 2 months to 19 years, lost all of their possessions. The two youths were injured when their car was struck by a Weston Mills Volunteer Fire truck enroute for standby duty. State Police said the car pulled out of the Castle Restaurant parking lot as the fire truck was going by.

A four-hour fire left a family of four homeless as flames and smoke damaged their home and the family’s Christmas presents for one another. No one was at home when an unidentified motorist discovered the fire shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday in Mrs. Marion Brown’s home on the Frewsburg-Jamestown Road in Kiantone. The fire apparently started near a gas stove in a room adjacent to the kitchen and the flames spread upward. More than 40 volunteer firemen from two departments battled the fire until midnight.

In 1988, the decision by Pan American World Airways and the U.S. government not to alert the public to a fairly specific bomb threat received before Pan Am flight 103 crashed in Scotland could raise liability problems for the airline but probably not for the government, attorneys said. “I don’t know of any legal requirement that the U.S. go public on a thing like that other than notifying the airline involved and possibly the embassies,” said Lee Kreindler, a New York lawyer who specialized in aviation accident cases. Phyllis Oakley, a State Department spokeswoman, said than an unidentified individual telephoned the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki on Dec. 5 and said there would be a bombing attempt within two weeks against a Pan Am aircraft flying from Frankfurt to the United States. No word went out to the general public.

Syracuse, New York, turned off Christmas lights in memory of 35 students as Americans nationwide grieved for the Pan Am jet crash victims, including a cabin attendant who had planned to retire after Flight 103 landed. One of the places hit hardest by the tragedy was Syracuse University, where 35 of the dead were enrolled in an international studies program. Mayor Tom Young ordered the city’s Christmas lights turned off the previous night and asked residents to do likewise. New York Governor Mario Cuomo ordered flags flown at half-staff through tomorrow.

In Years Past

In 1913, John Barrett, a farmer, was murdered and his daughter, Helen Barrett, was knocked unconscious, bound and gagged in their home, near Spraker’s station on the New York Central, six miles east of Fort Plain the previous night. Their assailants escaped and so far eluded searchers who had worked all day with bloodhounds. John Barrett was known to keep some money hidden in the house and this was believed to have been the motive for the crime. This money, some $200 in all, he had hidden so carefully that the burglars did not find it.

After a brave struggle against death, young Nicholas Brill, who was shot Nov. 30, died in the hospital at Dunkirk. The shooting was done accidentally by Charles Ertel of Lord Street, a companion of Brill. They were hunting and in reloading a rifle the discharge penetrated Brill’s abdomen. Ertel was heartbroken over the tragedy. He made a statement to the police and was not held. Several boys corroborated his account. Nicholas was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Brill of Roberts Road and left a sister and four brothers. He was buried this day from Sacred Heart church.

In 1938, Police Chief John J. Warren of Dunkirk called out half of his force the previous afternoon to protect the unloading of a truck of fruits and vegetables brought there by two non-union drivers. Protected to Lackawanna by Buffalo police and from there on to Silver Creek by state troopers, the two operators of the truck were on their own during the final 10 miles to Dunkirk. They drove up to the police station and said that all the way from Silver Creek it was a fight to keep a carload of Buffalo produce truck drivers from forcing them into the ditch. The shipment was unloaded on Lower Main Street while eight police officers, armed with riot guns and under the supervision of Chief Warren, awaited developments. No traffic was permitted on the block where the unloading took place.

Real Swedish cookies were the Christmas week special featured at Billings’ Home Bakery, 106 E. Third St. Knut Billings, who learned the trade in Sweden many years ago, was proprietor. He had been identified with the baking business for 44 years, having begun his apprenticeship when he was 11 years old. He had been engaged in business in Jamestown for the past 16 years, coming to Jamestown from Sweden. All products sold at Billings’ bakery were made in his own shop. The large and assorted line included several different kinds of bread, biscuits, skorpor, rolls, pastry, cakes, cookies and donuts. He also specialized in baking and decorating cakes to order. Orders of a dollar or more would be delivered.

In 1988, a Pan Am jumbo jet apparently exploded in the air over Lockerbie, Scotland, before crashing and killing all 259 people aboard. Investigators focused on terrorist threats to place a bomb on a Pan Am airliner. The wreckage of the Boeing 747 bound for New York with Christmas travelers scattered bodies and wreckage over the countryside and ravaged the village of Lockerbie. News reports said at least 10 people were killed on the ground. The plane smashed into the ground, destroying 40 houses, triggering an explosion at a gas station and engulfing cars in flames. The victims included U.S. servicemen and 38 students from Syracuse University. In Moscow, the U.S. Embassy warned American diplomats that a bomb threat had been made against a Pan Am flight flying from Frankfurt, West Germany to the U.S. sometime in December. The warning left it to the diplomats’ discretion whether to change travel plans.

The Chautauqua County Legislature had taken a first major step toward acquisition of a second airport, voting to appropriate $219,725 from the fund balance to finance operations, maintenance and repairs at Dunkirk Airport. Legislator David J. Sturges, D-Niobe, announced he was supporting the resolution because it provided an opportunity to construct a needed north county Department of Public Works garage on the property. He said water and sewer service was available and locating the building at the airport would eliminate the need to buy another site for the garage.

In Years Past

In 1913, Jacob Hardenburg, a wealthy retired grape farmer, whose home was in Westfield at the corner of Franklin and Jefferson streets, was struck by a Nickel Plate passenger train at the Franklin Street crossing the previous morning and instantly killed. Hardenburg was returning to his home from the Arnold Hotel in a light buggy and in the buggy had 150 pounds of dynamite, together with the percussion caps, fuses, matches, etc., ready for use. As it happened, the dynamite did not let go, one of the freaks of this explosive which could not be explained. The buggy was demolished but the horse Hardenburg was driving escaped practically unhurt. Hardenburg, well-known in Westfield, was in his 90th year.

Henry Rathben of Buffalo, an Erie railroad passenger trainman, was the victim of a bold robbery Friday afternoon when his watch, valued at $48, a watch chain valued at $15 and a charm worth $5 was stolen while he was asleep in a room at the Erie station in Jamestown reserved for train crews. Rathben awoke in time to find two men, both strangers, in the room, one of them having his hand under the pillow where he had put his watch. Rathben made a grab for the men but both got away. Rathben pursued them as far as the entrance of the station on West First Street but could go no further as he had taken off his shoes. One of the men was captured with the watch in his possession. The other man escaped with the chain and the charm.

In 1938, Jamestown and its potential clientele would have a full Christmas dinner basket. In fact, there was no imminent danger of a shortage of edibles and other household goods because of a strike of warehouse and produce workers in Buffalo. While considerable foodstuff normally came into Jamestown from Buffalo, there were numerous reasons why the city and suburbs need have no fear of the situation in Erie County according to local distributors and other handlers of foodstuffs who were interviewed by the Journal.

This day, the shortest day of the year, brought a 3-inch snowfall overnight to give Jamestown a “white Christmas” setting. Barren streets and roads were covered with nature’s ermine, making both walking and driving slippery and precarious. The temperature remained practically stationary, holding near the freezing point most of the day when light flurries of snow filled the air.

In 1963, ironically, the beginning of the official winter season was expected to bring a respite to Chautauqua County from a weeklong battering of snow and arctic cold in the form of moderating temperatures. High winds, isolated snow squalls and bitter cold would persist this day but the Weather Bureau predicted temperatures would moderate the following day. It was expected to end a week of continuous snow storms, resulting in about three feet of snow. The total snowfall for the autumn season in the Jamestown area was 43 inches.

Through the help of volunteers, hundreds of Happiness gifts would be delivered over the coming weekend with the Merry Christmas greetings of all friends who had helped make them possible. The last packages were being done up in their Christmas wrappings so that all might be completed by Monday morning when the Morton Club of the Jamestown Fire Department would be on hand to deliver the remaining gifts to Jamestown families. Hundreds of volunteers had taken part in the project again this year.

In 1988, the Chautauqua County Department of Social Services had scrapped plans to publish a full-page newspaper advertisement to disclose the names of people who were behind in child support payments. The development occurred after both daily newspapers in the county – The Post-Journal in Jamestown and The Evening Observer in Dunkirk – had reservations regarding their liabilities if the list had been run as an advertisement as originally intended. “There were certain questions that needed to be answered before publication,” said Donald L. Meyer, publisher of The Post-Journal.

Western New Yorkers might be dreaming of a white Christmas but they might not get one. That was the word from Chuck Tingley, meteorologist with the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service, on the official first day of winter. For a couple of hours the previous day, Tingley said, there was a chance of a record high for the date. But the mercury fell short, allowing the record of 63 degrees to stand. Temperatures began to cool this time after reaching 57. He said the snow had disappeared in Buffalo. “It’s not looking too good for a white Christmas.”

In Years Past

In 1913, little Laura Buffum had a better chance of recovery than at any time in the past few weeks, according to Dr. Hillsman, the physician who had attended her from the beginning. She was now able to eat some solid food. Hillsman said that if she continued to improve she would be able to be moved in a short time and could be taken to a Buffalo hospital. Buffalo physicians who held a consultation at the little girl’s bedside commenced a treatment of the little girl and that course of treatment would be continued. The girl’s mother was said to have murdered her husband and 5-year-old son and attempted to kill four others. Ernest Frahm, her lover, whom she claimed gave her husband linament containing arsenic was as cool as ever. He still sneered and said: “They’ve nothing on me.”

Elmer Near of Pittsfield, Pa., a huckster, who was frequently on the public market, came to Jamestown with a hunting story that he declared was absolutely true. Near said he was rabbit hunting in Pennsylvania recently and startled a rabbit. As he swung his gun over to shoot, a partridge raised just in time to catch a portion of the charge. Both rabbit and partridge were killed at a single shot. Realizing that this story was somewhat unusual, Near declared he had two eyewitnesses to prove that it was true.

In 1938, the Jamestown City Council took official action authorizing the city treasurer and the corporation counsel to sue property owners for taxes when the taxes were in arrears two years or more. The resolution authorizing civil suits against taxpayers provided that, in lieu of such suits, or in settlement of such suits, the treasurer may, in his discretion, accept quit claim deeds of the premises against which the taxes were assessed where good title could be transferred to the municipality.

The Jamestown post office was fully regimented for the annual Christmas rush with 40 extra carriers and 23 extra clerks augmenting the regular force of 41 regular carriers and 31 regular clerks, in handling the heavy volume of mails which were expected to reach peak the following two days. Letters continued to pour in at a rapid rate at the main office and Station A this day although postal authorities believed that package mailing had slackened somewhat from the previous day. Canceling machines were working at high speed and regular and extra clerks were easily keeping pace with the influx at the main office. The new system of sorting was expected to easily handle the volume.

In 1963, Western New Yorkers plowed out this day as a blinding snowstorm tapered off after creating treacherous driving conditions and forcing the closing of some schools. Temperatures overnight plummeted well below zero in many areas. Hard hit Chautauqua and southern Erie counties, south of Buffalo, reported only light snow falling after as much as 6 inches overnight. Driving was extremely hazardous as winds whipped fallen snow to hamper visibility. A 66-mile stretch of New York State Thruway from Lackawanna south of Buffalo to the Pennsylvania line was closed during the afternoon.

A 7-year-old Jamestown boy narrowly escaped serious injury at 6:50 p.m. the previous evening when he darted from between two parked cars into the path of an eastbound Terrace Avenue car in Lakewood. Officer Lee N. Kellogg said the boy, Todd Benson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Benson of Newland Avenue, ran from the cars parked adjacent to Benson’s Country House, which his parents operated, into the machine driven by John M. Traniello, 21, of Terrace Avenue, Lakewood. The boy was discharged from Jamestown General Hospital after treatment for multiple contusions.

In 1988, the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. had agreed to cut its rates, at least temporarily, by $41 million over the next six months, state Attorney General Robert Abrams said. The money reflected the costs of replacing power needed because of an extended shutdown at the Nine Mile Point One Nuclear power plant, which had been out of service since Dec. 19, 1987. The proposed rate reduction would be applicable to every residential customer Niagara Mohawk had if the state Public Service Commission approved the reduction.

George Bush had been pegged as the man of the year by Washington Middle School students. This was the third time in as many years that students at the school tried to predict who Time magazine would pick as the person who most influenced the world in the past year. In 1987 they were on the money when 114 students picked Mikhail Gorbachev as the likely honoree. The previous year’s selection threw them for a bit of a loop. Only 14 picked Corizon Aquino in 1986.

In Years Past

In 1913, a frightful accident happened the previous day when Hugh McCalsky of Greigsville was killed instantly and John Hagan was badly injured. A threshing engine which they were driving went through a small bridge on the Flat Road near the town of Leicester. The machine had just been bought by Hagan. It was shipped from Buffalo and Hagan, in company with his son, Ernest and Hugh McCalsky, both of Greigsville, came to Mount Morris to drive the machine home. Ernest was walking ahead while John Hagan and McCalsky were driving. The engine was fairly on the bridge when the planking gave way and the heavy engine fell to the creek below, pinning both men under it.

Sounds of altercation in the fruit store at the corner of Main and Second streets in Jamestown shortly after 6 p.m. two evenings ago, attracted the attention of a good-sized crowd. The sudden appearance of a man with his face and clothing covered with blood and apparently badly bruised, attracted still more attention. The man was in search of a policeman. An officer was found. He entered the store and that was the end of the disturbance. No arrests were made. No report even appeared on the private docket of the chief. In short, there was no official record whatever of an altercation in which at least one man received substantial injuries.

In 1938, it took more than an automobile theft to break up the slumber of 16-month-old Barbara Abbey. Mr. and Mrs. Gerry Abbey of Westfield left Barbara in their car while they did some Christmas shopping in Dunkirk. When they returned the car and baby were gone. The frantic parents notified police. About an hour later, a deputy sheriff arrested a youth as he stepped from the stolen car at a dance hall several miles away. Barbara was still sleeping in the back seat. The youth and another young man arrested later admitted stealing the car but said they didn’t know the baby was in it until the deputy sheriff found her. Later, police arrested five more youths and charged them with being members of an automobile theft gang.

Richard O. Cross, who claimed to have lost the sight in his right eye April 27, 1938, when he was struck in the face by the branch of a tree overhanging a secondary dirt road in the town of Harmony, was the plaintiff in a $50,000 negligence suit being tried before Justice William A. Gold and a jury in supreme court at Mayville. The plaintiff said he was standing atop a chicken crate in his truck, being about 10 feet above the level of the highway when the accident occurred.

In 1963, President Johnson signed into law “with great personal satisfaction” the $1.56 billion bill broadening federal support of vocational education, extending the impacted areas program and boosting college student loan funds. Rep. Charles E. Goodell, R-Jamestown, was present for the ceremony and rightly so as he had pushed hard for approval of the legislation. Johnson gave Goodell a warm handshake.

At least one school in snow-buffeted Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties was closed this day as a persistent pre-winter storm continued its attack for the sixth consecutive day. Authorities said at least 8 inches of snow fell on the Jamestown area last night, making a total of 34 inches in six days. Mayville Central, with a student enrollment of 800, was the school closed. Elsewhere, all schools were operating. The following day would be the final day of classes before the Christmas vacation would begin.

In 1988, with a special state panel set to start narrowing down possible sites for a dump for low level radioactive waste in New York, a new survey indicated that few New Yorkers even knew that such a landfill was to be constructed. The state Health Department said that a statewide telephone survey of 1,000 state residents indicated that 80 percent of those polled weren’t even aware of the dump plans.

Conewango Township Police had not reached a conclusion into what caused a two-car accident Friday evening that killed a Jamestown woman. “They’re still investigating,” the dispatcher at the Warren County Sheriff’s Department said. Kathryn Rock, 74, of Jamestown, was pronounced dead on arrival at Warren General Hospital where she was taken for treatment of injuries suffered in a two-car collision on Route 6 in Starbrick about 6:30 p.m. the past Friday. Rock was a passenger in a car being driven by her husband, Joseph, 78, who pulled out from Firemans Street to turn east onto Route 6. The Rock car collided with a westbound vehicle being driven by Mark S. Hanson, 17, of Sheffield.

In Years Past

• In 1913, the dead body of a man later identified as George Newton of Silver Creek, was found beside the D.A.V.& P. tracks, 1,000 feet south of the depot at Moons Station. Coroner Blood had been notified and would come in the afternoon to make an investigation. The body was found by track foreman Thomas Babbitt. The discovery was made by seeing the feet of the man, encased in a pair of rubber boots, sticking out through the ice which covered the drainage ditch beside the track at the point where the body was found. The unusual appearance of the boots sticking up out of the ice led to investigation, ending in finding the body under the ice, water and slush which filled the ditch.

• Fire broke out in the second hand store at 31 Forest Ave., Jamestown, shortly after 5:30 a.m. in the morning. Only a quick run on the part of the fire department saved the building in which the store was located from serious damage. The fire was confined to the one store which was owned by F.L. French. The loss on the stock and furnishings of this store would be heavy as the fire, while quickly extinguished, was very hot. The fire probably originated in or near a stove. French came to the store about 5:30 and lighted the lights and the stove and left. While eating breakfast he heard a fire truck go by his house, which was located nearby. Hurrying out he discovered that his store was afire.

• In 1938, a high school student who was seized with the urge to take a joyride in his father’s automobile at 5 a.m. in the morning, ended up in City Court to find himself assessed a $15 fine on charges of speeding and driving without a license. The youth, 16, took his father’s car out of the garage without the latter’s consent, according to police and proceeded to “burn up the pavement” in the southwest section of Jamestown. He came to grief when he skidded and struck a tree in Baker Street near Sprague Street. Police could offer no explanation as to why the boy was seized with the speed mania so early in the day.

• An explosion in a compressor at the plant of the Lundell-Eckberg Manufacturing Company in Market Street, Jamestown, created more excitement than it caused damage. No one was injured, due to fortunate circumstances but it was feared that someone might have been hurt, so the police ambulance was called to the scene along with the fire apparatus. The Lundell-Eckberg plant was adjacent to the Witkop-Holmes warehouse which was badly damaged by fire on Thursday. The compressor was located beneath the stairway which workmen used to go to the basement. Just a few minutes before the explosion, a group of about 25 workmen had ascended the stairs to the time clock in the corridor above and had rung out for the day.

• In 1963, State Police and the Coast Guard pressed their search this day for a small twin-engine plane which might have crashed into Lake Erie near Dunkirk. The Cleveland-bound plane had taken off from Buffalo the previous evening. Radio contact was lost about half an hour later, after the pilot radioed the tower that the carburetors of the plane were icing. State Police identified the pilot as Thomas Dickinson. Dickinson, a licensed pilot, was the manager of Remmert-Werner, Inc., a private company based at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. An airplane answering the description of the missing craft was seen flying low at about 7:30 p.m. over the Shorewood Country Club which faced Lake Erie in Dunkirk.

• The House had left it up to the Senate to break a congressional deadlock threatening to halt work on the Allegany River Dam and Reservoir in New York and Pennsylvania. The lower chamber approved 329-41, a compromise bill that included authority to spend an additional $150 million in the Ohio River basin through June 30, 1965. The dam at Kinzua was part of that basin. But the House rejected a move to authorize construction of the Knowles Dam and Reservoir in Montana – the last stumbling block to approval of the entire river basins bill.

In Years Past

• In 1913, Miss Minnie Jean Slater, the young detective nurse who entered the home of Mrs. Cynthia Buffum at Little Valley and won Mrs. Buffum’s confidence to such an extent as to persuade her to tell of the poisoning of Willis E. Buffum, had written her experiences for the Buffalo Evening News and the story was equal to that found in the detective stories of fiction. Mrs. Buffum’s attorney had denounced the methods of the detectives and Mrs. Buffum was reported to have repudiated the alleged confessions that District Attorney Cole subsequently obtained. Miss Slater’s story is calculated to discredit the claim that improper methods were used in securing these confessions.

• The second issue of the Red and Green for the year would be completed and offered for sale the following day. The Red and Green was the quarterly publication of the students of the Jamestown High School. This issue, which was composed of 56 pages of reading matter and pictures, was one of the cleverest numbers which had been issued thus far and contained some very catchy stories combined with a large number of good jokes and a number of good cuts. The editor-in-chief for the year was Ray J. Walkerman of the senior class.

• In 1938, George C. Wilcox, about 55 years old, prominent resident of Farmington township and master of Farmington Grange, was killed late Friday afternoon in an automobile collision at Riceville, Pa. Mr. Wilcox accompanied by his son, Lloyd Wilcox and a Mr. Scott, of Lottsville, Pa., were returning home from Washington, Pa., where they had been attending the sessions of the State Grange, when the accident occurred. Lloyd Wilcox was not seriously hurt, The driver of the other machine, Ralph Early of Hydetown, and his wife, were hurt but not seriously. Mr. Wilcox was a lifelong resident of Farmington township and wa sa widely known farmer.

• Old English Christmas carols were sung by a large chorus made up of members of the Sons and Daughters of St. George, Friday night at Ellicott hall, following the meeting of Chautauqua lodge, with Hustler Todd as director and Richard Medley accompanist. Over 250 persons were present to join in this custom, which had been observed for many years.

• In 1963, it snowed and snowed and snowed – eight more cold inches of perpetual white motion which had dropped 26 inches in Jamestown since Saturday night. But Jamestown and Chautauqua County staggered back from the third-day round of the snow battle with all highways open to traffic. The county’s snowfall overnight, ranging from six inches to a foot, was more than enough to stall traffic on the main arteries. One factor was a boon to motorists; a minimum of drifting.

• A 15-year-old deer hunter was recovering in the Corry Memorial Hospital from frost bite and exposure suffered while lost in the Piccadilly and Turner Hill areas. The victim, James Engle, of Columbus, and his father, Donald Engle, separated at about 3 p.m. the previous afternoon while hunting and when the younger hunter did not return at 5:30 p.m., his father notified state police. Young Engle was found asleep under a tree at 8:30 p.m., by volunteer firemen. The young man said after he was found, that he was apparently lost when he sighted and shot a deer. As he traced the animal, he fell into a creek and became exhausted after continuing his search in wet hunting clothes. He finally fell asleep under a tree.

• In 1988, closing campuses was not among the options being considered by administrators of the State University of New York to help the state cut costs for the following year, university officials said. “Media reports that the State University of New York is considering closing one or more campuses are inaccurate,” said SUNY Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone. The statements were an attempt to shoot down reports that the Cuomo administration had recommended SUNY and the City University of New York consider closing campuses in 1989 to save money in light of a possible $2.3 billion budget deficit.

• The old saying: “Everyone’s talking about it but no one’s doing anything about it,” didn’t apply in the case of the Jamestown Engine Plant of Cummins Engine Co. when it came to recycling. The plant on Baker Street Extension was heavily into recycling – so much so that it had reduced its volume of waste by about two-thirds.

In Years Past

In 1913, George B. Bloomer, aged 70 years, died early in the morning as the result of injuries received the previous afternoon while at work on his oil lease on the Monroe farm at Pratt Hollow near Bradford, Pa. He was found by William Freeman, lying in a semiconscious condition on the floor of a boiler house. His clothes were stripped completely off and his body was badly torn and bruised. Help was secured and the injured man removed to his home. Drs. Ash and Eaton were summoned and found one leg broken below the knee, the other knee dislocated and the chest crushed. He was alone when injured. It was evident that his clothing caught in the wheel of the engine.

The matter of the city of Jamestown establishing a municipal milk plant was before the common council in one form or another much of the time the previous evening. Rev. Laird W. Snell, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal church, addressed the council on the question and later the council voted to invite Nathan Straus to send his model pasteurization plant here for a demonstration. The most important action taken, however, was to direct Corporation Counsel Kettle to submit an opinion relative to the legality of the city establishing a municipal milk plant.

In 1938, Fredonia Grange No. 1 lost another well-known member on Tuesday in the death of Mrs. Jennie Becker Moser, 49, wife of Harry Moser, East Creek Road, Town of Portland. Special interest in Mrs. Moser lay in the fact that she was believed to have been the only woman school bus driver in the state of New York. She had been the regular bus driver for Portland school district No. 1 for more than three years.

William N. Cale, 73, Blockville, was recovering at the WCA Hospital from wounds received the previous evening about 6:30 when he was held up and robbed by an unknown assailant. He had a sprained right ankle, bruised nose and various lesser injuries. The sheriff’s department at Mayville was seeking clues to the identity of the man who attacked Mr. Cale and robbed him of $240 cash and about $300 in checks. Mr. Cale collected for the Smith-Cale Company, dealers in gasoline and oil, with stations in the vicinity. He returned from a trip late in the afternoon and as he stepped from his car to open his garage door, a man accosted him with, “It’s a stickup.” After knocking the elderly man down and taking the money the thief jumped into Mr. Cale’s auto and drove hastily away.

In 1963, an “old-fashioned” winter walloped Jamestown with 18 inches of snow on Saturday night and Sunday but the area dug out rapidly with all city streets and county highways reported open this day to traffic. The hardest blow of the season dumped seven inches of new snow over a two-inch base on Saturday night – and another 11 inches the previous night, adding up to 20 inches on the ground on this morning. Working on a round-the-clock schedule, the Jamestown Department of Public Works and the Chautauqua County Highway Department reported all streets and highways “passable” but slippery. The weather bureau warned that more snow was on the way.

Jamestown police said that no arrests were made during their check the previous day of stores which might be doing business on Sunday in violation of a more than 50-year-old state “blue law” on Sabbath sales. The check, hampered by a heavy snowfall, was made after a complaint early the past week by the Jamestown Retail Merchants Association. Police said the procedure was to visit stores open for Sunday business and make a list of merchandise offered for sale. The information, they said, was being transmitted to District Attorney Sidney T. Hewes. Whether any charges would be placed was not immediately known.

In 1988, WCA Hospital was “off and running” after receiving final approval from the state to offer new health care services, according to Jamestown mayor Steven B. Carlson. At a meeting in New York City, Carlson and WCA Hospital Administrator Murray Marsh learned of the approval by members of the state’s Hospital Review and Planning Council. The council reviewed WCA’s purchase of the land, buildings and equipment of the former Jamestown General Hospital.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and members of Falconer’s Department of Public Works, Sam Ognibene, Peter Fuller and Skip Cavallaro, decked the village’s gazebo o with festive trimmings. The Christmas tree and gaily lit festoons of greenery would add splendor to the sight and gladden the hearts of all who came a-caroling among the snow-capped leaves so green.

In Years Past

In 1913, arrangements were made in supreme court in session at Little Valley for the trial of Cynthia Buffum and Ernest Frahm, indicted for the murder of Willis Buffum. The date of the trial was fixed for Feb. 15 at an adjourned term of supreme court. The Buffum case would not be “tried in the newspaper.” District Attorney Cole, who had been besieged by correspondents and staff of city papers, took the position that for him to make public the confession – or “statement,: as he called it – of Mrs. Buffum would be unfair to her and to Frahm and would not be in accord with the ethics of the legal profession as he understood them. He did not intend to be a party to the inflaming of the public mind against those who were to be tried in court.

Dr. William A. Bing, assistant bacteriologist of the state hygienic laboratory, was in Jamestown and would at once establish a laboratory for the examination of throat cultures in cases where diphtheria was suspected. The establishment of a laboratory here would be of much benefit and convenience to the local board of health and to the people of the city, for cultures could be examined and passed upon in a very short time. The four or five days delay incident to sending them to Albany would be largely obviated.

In 1938, a three-alarm blaze broke out in the Witkop & Holmes Company warehouse in Race Alley, Jamestown, at 10 a.m. this day. The fire completely destroyed the two-story, frame and brick veneer structure, causing damage estimated at about $20,000. It was the first general alarm fire in Jamestown in more than a year and for an anxious hour or more threatened to develop into a conflagration. Heroic efforts by the fire department confined the blaze to the structure in which it originated, in spite of the fact that the blazing tinder pile of a building immediately adjoined several other frame structures. The source of the blaze would probably never be known, the building having been so completely destroyed.

The $3,000 reward offered by citizens of the northern Pennsylvania community of Bradford, for the solution of the mysterious disappearance of little Marjory West, expired this day. Marjory wandered away from her family during a Mother’s Day outing in the heavily wooded white gravel section of Chappel Forest. She was never reported seen again although thousands joined in a search that covered every foot of the district for miles in all directions. No tangible clue to the disappearance of the five-year-old had ever been uncovered. The committee had offered $2,000 for the safe return of the child and $1,000 for information leading to the recovery of her body.

In 1988, an icy road claimed two lives late the previous day when a car collided with a tractor-trailer on Route 62. Killed were Gilbert L. McCollough, 78, of Ashville, and Alma J. Hultman, 77, of Falconer. Police said McCollough was driving north on Route 62 at about 6:25 p.m. when he apparently lost control of his car, which slid into the opposite lane and was hit broadside by a semi truck driven by Steven DeGolier, 22, of Fredonia. Upon impact, the truck left the road and McCollough’s car crossed back into the northbound lane where it struck a van driven by Robert Zigler, 27, of Russell, Pa. DeGolier was treated for minor injuries and released from WCA Hospital. The accident raised the county highway death toll for the year to 41, compared with 30 at this time in 1987.

Chautauqua County Legislature must appropriate funds for interior renovation of the Unigard Building in Jamestown or halt work on the project. This was the bottom line given at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee by Public Works Director George W. Riedesel. He told committee members the project was underfunded and additional money had to be appropriated. Committee Chairman Lance S. Spicer, R-Falconer, said the $2.4 million acquisition cost did not include such renovations, with an estimated cost of $1.7 million. The proposed renovations would accommodate all county agencies except the Department of Mental Health, which would continue in the former Jamestown General Hospital Professional Building.

In Years Past

In 1913, the partial derailment of train No. 16 on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, east of Cleveland, shortly before midnight of Dec. 12, was the result of a deliberate attempt at train wrecking. This was the belief expressed by Lake Shore officials early the previous day. They asserted that spikes had been removed from the rails and the road was offering a reward of $1,000 for the arrest of the person tampering with the roadbed. Attached to train No. 16 was the private car of the newly elected president of the New York Central, Alfred Smith. The private car was not derailed.

From her cell in the Little Valley jail, Cynthia Buffum, indicted for the murder of her husband, Willis Buffum, accused Ernest Frahm, her alleged lover, who was also under indictment, charged with first-degree murder, of being the cause of her misfortunes. “I am not guilty,” she said. “I had a happy home, a kind husband and lovable children. I cared for them with all my heart, until I met Ernest Frahm,” she said. Five of her seven children were found to be suffering from arsenic poisoning. One of these, a five-year-old boy, died in April. His father died in July. Three brothers had recovered while a 10-year-old sister, Laura, was still making a fight for life against the ravages of the deadly poison.

In 1938, Fro-Joy ice cream puddings were a holiday special being featured at the Five Point Coffee Shop on North Main Street in Jamestown. These delicious frozen fruit desserts served four persons. Frank Muisner and Roger Kaadtman, partners in the business, advised their patrons to place their orders for Christmas puddings which would be delivered at one’s home by telephoning or leaving orders at the popular northside shop. Christmas box and hard candy was also another popular item during the pre-holiday season at the North Side Coffee Shop, which served a large glass of steaming hot chocolate for a nickel.

William A. Rogers, 43, of 10th Street, a member of the Jamestown Fire Department for more than 16 years, was found dead at the wheel of his automobile at Dusquesne and Smith streets, Celoron, at 5:20 p.m. the previous evening, a victim of a heart attack. He had apparently been dead since early in the morning. Alva Smith, who resided at the corner where Rogers’ car was found, discovered the fact of Rogers’ death. Smith said he had noticed the car early in the morning but had paid no special attention to it at that time.

In 1963, Hil C. Olney, president of the S.M. Flickinger Co. Buffalo and spokesman for the Lakewood and Fluvanna Super Dupers announced that these stores would be closed on Sunday and would remain closed on Sundays until further notice. Olney said that the action was a result of the controversy in Chautauqua County relative to New York state regulations on Sunday grocery sales. Meanwhile, it was learned that at least three other major stores in the Jamestown area, affected by the more than 50-year-old so-called “blue law,” planned to remain open on Sunday. Two fell into the category of supermarkets. The other was a large drugstore.

A move to provide needed office space and future parking area was taken by Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors with purchase of 1.15 acres of land and the former Peacock Inn carriage barn. Members agreed without dissent to pay $18,200 for the building and land at the rear of the Peacock Inn and the Courthouse parking lot. The county’s new holding once served as the carriage barn for the Peacock Inn. The basement contained the stables, the first floor was being used as offices but once housed the carriages and the second floor was the hay loft.

In 1988, there was another impasse at the New York state Capitol over how to deal with the state’s fiscal problems. Progress towards cutting the state’s budget deficit broke down as Republicans who controlled the state Senate rejected Democratic proposals for tax increases and spending cuts. State Senate Majority Leader Warren Anderson delivered the bad news to Gov. Mario Cuomo and Democrats who controlled the state Assembly as he left a meeting of his Republican colleagues and said the Democratic proposal for hiking tobacco and alcoholic beverage taxes was dead for now.

Oil and gas production was down in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties – and across the state – in 1987. This was one of the facts contained in “New York State Oil and Gas Drilling and Production – 1987,” a report published recently by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Declining oil and gas production in New York state paralleled the nation-wide trend of oil and gas prices that were too low to stimulate additional drilling. Unless prices rose and sustained themselves at a predictable level, domestic gas and oil industries would not justify exploration for new reserves.

In Years Past

In 1913, her control over a young and vicious bull enabled Rosie Yocum, 18 years old, of White Deer, near Milton, Pa., to save the life of James Wertz, 50 years old, who was attacked. Wertz was knocked down and gored when he prodded the bull with a pitchfork handle to make it leave its stall. Hearing his cries, Yocum ran out and called, “Billy, Billy,” to the enraged animal. The bull stopped and slowly walked to her side where it stood contentedly, allowing her to rub his nose while the injured man crawled away. Yocum had petted and fed the bull ever since it was a calf and it would follow her anywhere.

The Jamestown Medical Society at its regular meeting passed, after some discussion, a brief but very terse and expressive resolution on the subject of Pasteurized milk and bearing on the present agitation for a municipal pasteurization plant. The resolution said: “Resolved, that the Jamestown Medical Society advocates the pasteurization of the city milk supply as a sanitary precaution, such pasteurization to be done at a temperature of 140 to 145 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.”

In 1938, charges of conspiracy to defraud New York’s second largest city of Buffalo brought the number of persons indicted in a year-old municipal inquiry to 35. An extraordinary grand jury indicted a corporation and three individuals, including a father and his son. The grand jury charged the Seneca Washed Gravel Corporation, James J. Pendergast, Sr., secretary-treasurer of the corporation and his son, Robert T. Pendergast, company salesman and Roy Knox, a former WPA superintendent, with conspiracy to falsify delivery receipts for crushed stone. The city of Buffalo paid for more crushed stone than was ordered or delivered, the grand jury asserted in its indictment.

The White House Christmas tree would again come from eastern New York’s Grafton mountains, 35 miles east of Albany. A 20-foot balsam was cut this day by employees of New York’s Conservation Department deep in the woods on a state game refuge and would be shipped to Washington the following day – the same as each year since Franklin D. Roosevelt left New York’s governorship to become president. Department employees also felled a 15-foot tree for New York Governor Herbert Lehman in New York’s executive mansion.

In 1963, a test on enforcement of a more than 50-year-old State Sabbath observance law appeared certain after it was learned that at least two Jamestown stores planned to remain open for business on Sunday. Many felt the law was unrealistic for present day conditions and failed to make clear distinctions between what was a grocery and what was a delicatessen. Joseph Palmer, manager of Jamesway Discount Center, Lakewood, said he had no desire to test legality of the law and was planning to discontinue being open on Sundays after the following Sunday. “We do not want to be a party to creating a local furor over the issue, particularly at this season of the year,” Palmer said.

The Chautauqua County Vacationlands Association was taking steps to lure travelers bound for the New York World’s Fair. It was a good idea. Most coming from the midwest and far west would converge on the New York State Thruway and that made Chautauqua County the gateway for the last 500-mile segment of the journey to New York. CCVA was hoping to convince those fair-bound motorists that Chautauqua County was the ideal spot for an overnight stop or for spending a full weekend.

In 1988, Lakewood drinking water was of very good quality, despite a turbidity problem, according to test results released by Water Department Supervisor David Dohlbacher at Monday’s village board meeting. Kohlbacher had results of two tests. The inorganic water analysis was done every three years to test for 10 contaminants, including arsenic, lead, silver and fluoride. “The results are well within the present set maximum contaminant levels, indicating we have a rather good quality water in the village,” Kohlbacher said. Mayor Anthony Caprino said that while the water quality was good, there was a turbidity problem causing the water to look roily at times.

Southwestern School District’s comprehensive assessment reports, standardized tests given annually by the state, were down in this year in some areas. But school district administrators seemed less concerned about the scores than the increasing importance given the test by the state and other schools. “The evolution of this whole reporting process is interesting,” Superintendent Donald Ogilvie told the board. The tests were originally designed, Ogilvie said, as a “means of identifying students in need of additional remediation … its purpose has been shifted somewhat to assess how well children are doing in a particular school.”

In Years Past

In 1913, a report from the Jones General Hospital in Jamestown the previous afternoon stated that Mike Capuana, the Italian who was shot Wednesday morning was still living and that his condition was practically unchanged. Joe Aleo, the man accused of shooting him was still a fugitive. He had disappeared as utterly as though the earth had swallowed him up. Realizing the importance of capturing the man, the entire resources of the police department were drawn upon to head off his flight but without avail.

Developments in the Buffum case came rapidly after the arrival of Mrs. Buffum at Little Valley. The first was the withdrawal of her counsel, Henry P. Nevins. The second was the appearance of Mrs. Buffum before the grand jury. The third was the indictment of Ernest Frahm, the young farmer who was supposed to have furnished the motive for the wholesale poisonings. The district attorney was quoted as saying that he regarded Frahm as more guilty than Buffum. It was alleged that Frahm suggested the plan of poisoning husband and children, promising to take Buffum away from Little Valley after they were dead. With husband dead and children seriously ill, it was said that Buffum had claimed Frahm urged her to increase the dose of poison.

In 1938, Lillian G. Dickson, principal of the Falconer Street school in Jamestown for 41 years, who taught school over 50 years, died the previous day at the hospital in Sarasota, Fla. after an illness of five weeks. She retired in 1933 after serving as principal since 1892. Dickson spent the greater part of her life in Jamestown and was a general favorite with the children and teachers alike who came within her sway.

High among the profound events which each year ushered in the Christmas season in Jamestown was the Sunday afternoon vesper service at the First Presbyterian Church, when the high school A Cappella choir presented its annual Christmas program for members of the Mozart Club. The large auditorium was packed to its utmost capacity for the impressive musical ritual, which would be repeated the following Sunday afternoon for the public at the same church.

In 1963, Jamestown Municipal Airport was within “shooting distance” of setting a new record in the volume of its commercial airline traffic. This was the rosy prospect reported to the City Airport Commission by Chairman Theodore A. Peck. Peck cited reports from Allegheny and Mohawk Airlines indicating that during the first 11 months of the year, 24,012 passengers arrived at or departed from the Municipal Airport. This was 2,708 more than was recorded during all of 1962. If traffic held up during the remainder of December, the airport might top the 26,000 mark which would surpass the current record set in 1959.

The big-game hunting season in New York state was over, and statistics showed that fewer deer, bear and hunters were killed during the current year’s season than in 1962. An Associated Press tally showed that nine hunters lost their lives while after big or small game. Two others died of heart attacks. The past year’s total was 15 and 4. Final figures on deer and bear taken were not yet available. However, the total probably would be below previous years. The apparent drop in the number of big game taken was attributed to a disruption of hunters’ plans by the closing of the forests, a sharp decrease in the number of hunters in the woods the weekend of President Kennedy’s assassination and unusually warm fall weather that slowed hunters down.

In 1988, four turtles wielding ninja weapons, the brainchildren of a sandwich maker and a self-described hack cartoonist, were threatening to move into the top 10 of the Christmas toy market. “They are just flying off the shelves,” said David Valentine, a toy industry analyst for Standard & Poors. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had hit No. 11 in the Toy & Hobby World charts of best sellers just four years after they were conceived by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman during a late-evening sketching duel.

“Brrr” just about summed up the reaction of most folks to temperatures on this morning that set a record low at the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Dave Sage reported an official low reading overnight of 9 below zero, commenting, “It’s certainly a record for us here and for so early in the season.” Readings ranged from a relatively balmy zero in the Westfield area to minus-24 and 27 in the Conewango Valley.

In Years Past

In 1913, Cynthia Buffum, widow of Willis E. Buffum, had been indicted by the grand jury of Cattaraugus County for first-degree murder. She was charged with causing the death of her husband by the administration of arsenic. No one was surprised, for this result of the investigation had been accurately forecast for some time past by the newspaper men in attendance at the inquiry. It was forecast in great detail by the Buffalo newspapers which had been following very closely the woman’s journey to Niagara Falls and Buffalo in company with detectives in the employ of the district attorney department. The newspapers told how she was induced to make some kind of a statement while on this trip and it was announced that she would be returned to Little Valley this day and arrested on a bench warrant as soon as she arrived there.

The second annual apple show, the first held by the Chautauqua County Apple Growers’ Association, was started this day in the second floor lobby of Jamestown City Hall. The show, which might be expected from the fact that the past season had not been very satisfactory from the apple raisers’ point of view, was not a very large one. What there was of it was very interesting and much of the fruit shown was of a very high character. The public was invited to attend and look over the exhibits, which included a large variety of fruit shown on plates and a small number of commercially packed apples in barrels and boxes. The exhibit was entirely free to the public and designed as a matter of publicity for the apple business of the county which was gradually coming back to its proper place after a half-century of neglect.

In 1938, Evan Zenner, 24, of Bradford, Pa., who admitted stealing automobiles in Jamestown and Randolph Friday evening, was sentenced to serve 60 days in the Cattaraugus County jail at Little Valley when he pleaded guilty to a charge of drunken driving in city court at Salamanca. In addition to the two-month jail term, Zenner was fined $50 and warrants for both grand and petit larceny were being forwarded from Jamestown and Randolph, to be served on the Pennsylvania motorist at Little Valley. William McChesney of Falconer reported his automobile had been stolen in Jamestown. Later, a West Sixth Street gas station attendant said a man drove up in the stolen car, got six gallons of gasoline and drove off without paying for it. When arrested later at Salamanca, Zenner told the police there that he wrecked McChesney’s car near the Red House bridge where he abandoned it and went to Randolph, where he stole another car.

Word had been received of the approval of redesign for the foundation of Chautauqua County’s new jail which had been under construction in Mayville for the past five weeks. Work was slowed up considerably two weeks ago when a strata of quicksand, completely underlying the site of the new building, was discovered. A.E. Sankey, formerly of Jamestown, PWA resident engineer inspector, explained that tests revealed a strata of quicksand averaging from four to seven feet in depth. He said the new plans called for spreading footings which would continue below the quicksand level to hard foundation. Concrete piers would make up the difference from the new footings to the original foundation.

In 1963, an outstanding performance was achieved by Jamestown High School students in the State Regents examinations the past June, according to an analysis of test results presented to the Board of Education. The report showed that in 16 of 20 subjects covered by the exams, the percentages of JHS students who received passing grades were substantially higher than the averages for the entire state. A “perfect” record was made by JHS students in two of the Regents exams Bookkeeping 2 and Shorthand 2. All students who took these courses at Jamestown High School passed the Regents exams.

Books and art were combining for a more than half-million-dollar show of community culture at the recently expanded James Prendergast Free Library. The art exhibition, valued at upwards of $200,000, was opened Sunday as a special backdrop for a weeklong open house program showing off the library’s expanded facilities built at the cost of $315,000. In addition to the art exhibit, there was on view a display of antique French furniture, arranged by Albert Wellman, Jamestown interior decorator and furniture dealer in memory of his mother, Ada O. Wellman. The art exhibit contained the works of many of the old masters, including Vlaminck, Roualt, Bracque, Klee, Mondrian, Gris and Utrillo.

In Years Past

• In 1913, the scene in the Buffum poisoning investigation had shifted from Little Valley to Buffalo. Mrs. Buffum was there. District Attorney Cole was there. The detectives in the employ of the district attorney were there. What the next move would be no one in Little Valley could say with authority. That an indictment had been returned against Cynthia Buffum charging her with murder, first degree, in that she poisoned her husband, there was little doubt in the minds of those who were present in the courtroom the previous day and witnessed the appearance of the grand jury. That Mrs. Buffum was taken to Buffalo, for the purpose of obtaining from her incriminating statements, seemed equally certain.

• The death of Edward Brown Mitchell, one of the most highly respected and best known residents of Sinclairville, occurred at the family home in the village the past evening, following a serious operation for acute laryngitis. Mr. Mitchell had suffered very seriously from throat trouble for some time and the poison from the diseased portions had so permeated his system that he was unable to rally from the operation. Sincere sympathy was extended to the afflicted family. Mr. Mitchell had been a native of Sinclairville, born there March 6, 1850 and had spent his entire life there. About 30 years previously, he went into the vinegar business developing an extensive plant in Sinclairville and recently acquiring the practical ownership of the still larger plant at Kennedy. He was a man of sterling character and splendid disposition, loved and respected by all who knew him.

• In 1938, Charles Long of Bird, near Salamanca, was killed Thursday by a falling tree, dying before his son Wesley, summoned from nearby Machias, could reach him, it was reported. Mr. Long was said to have been crippled by rheumatism, to such an extent that he was unable to get out of the way of the tree when it fell. He had been cutting wood on the Clarence Pixley farm where he was employed. Besides his wife, he left two sons, Wesley of Machias and Ralph of New York City and a daughter, Mrs. Pauline Snow of Ithaca.

• The new traffic circle plan for control of congestion in Brooklyn Square in Jamestown was hastily shelved by city council after a single day of trial but the system would probably be revived soon after the Christmas holiday. A petition protesting the ban on parking in Brooklyn Square as a result of the new system was received from 39 merchants of the area. This was backed by the personal appearance of George Moon, Harold Lundquist and Ernest Carlson. Their objections, based entirely on the disappearance of parking space, left room for the statement that the new plan might be workable and acceptable if inaugurated at a different time.

• In 1963, an 80 percent increase in enrollments at Jamestown Community College was expected by 1970. This was disclosed in a special report prepared by L. Douglas Fols, director of student personnel services. Projecting data obtained from 11 area high schools which collectively accounted for 70 percent of present JCC enrollment, Mr. Fols predicted that the present enrollment of 456 full day students would be increased to 819 by 1970. The figures indicated that the first impact of the population bulge confronting high schools could be expected at JCC in 1965 when enrollment of 682 students – 50 percent more than at present – was predicted.

• The Jamestown Retail Merchants Association would provide free bus rides for downtown shoppers between 10 a.m. and noon beginning the following day until the day before Christmas. The trips would originate from Falconer, Greenhurst, Ashville, Lakewood and Celoron. Seventy-five merchants were sponsoring the service which was expected to transport close to 1,000 people downtown daily.

• In 1988, the Civic Center Development Plan would be used as a guideline for revitalizing the central downtown business district of Jamestown but specifics of the plan were not carved in stone, according to local officials. “The plan is a concept – a guide for growth,” said Mayor Steven B. Carlson. “We’re not bound by anything in it. It’s just a consultant’s suggestions.”

• A Jamestown retailer who claimed seniority over the competition in downtown Jamestown, was in his 50th season of operation. “I am not aware of anyone who has been in the downtown area any longer than 50 years,” said J. Raymond Peterson of Lynn’s Jewelry at 7 W. Second St., who was marking a half century of near continuous activity in the city’s business district. The only break in his association with the store was the result of his brief service with the Army in 1944. The business that was Lynn’s Jewelry was founded in 1891 by S.P. Carlson, who came to this country from Sweden in 1881.

In Years Past

In 1913, the sensation of the day in the John Doe investigation of the mysterious death of Willis Buffum was the disappearance of Mrs. Cynthia Buffum. She went out for a sleigh ride with Miss Stone, the supposed detective nurse, Sunday evening and she did not return. Her present whereabouts were not known to newspaper reporters who were watching the case in Little Valley. A sensational rumor was sent over a press wire to the effect that Mrs. Buffum had been arrested at Niagara Falls. This rumor was not verified, although strenuous efforts had been made to verify it. District Attorney Cole and Sheriff Dempsey were not apparently at all disturbed over the departure of Mrs. Buffum. Their indifference was lending color to the theory that they knew where she was.

The membership supper in the Young Men’s Christian Association Monday evening at Jamestown was a very successful affair in every respect. There were 50 young men present and a thoroughly enjoyable as well as profitable evening was spent in the association dining room where at about 7:15 o’clock an excellent dinner in four courses was served by Mrs. M. J. Webber, matron of the building, assisted by Boys Secretary George S. Perry and a corps of waiters from his department. The table and the dining room were attractively decorated for the occasion with crepe paper and candles.

In 1938, thirteen new members were received at a meeting of the Willard District Men’s Club in Jamestown. J. H. Ecklund reported on contracts with the City Recreation committee in regard to a skating rink at Allen Park. The rink would be cared for by the city with the cooperation of the NYA. A group of interested persons had contracted the men’s club in regards to the supervision of this undertaking. In regard to the proposed swimming pool at the Gustavus Adolphus home it was reported that after conferring with R. D. Bates of Buffalo, the project had been abandoned as the cost would be prohibitive.

Tenants of the Dewey-Davis Company building at West Fourth and Washington streets in Jamestown were driven to the street shortly after 8:30 in the morning when fire broke out in the basement shop occupied by the Empire Awning Works. Damage from the blaze itself caused a loss estimated by fire department officials at a few hundred dollars. More extensive damage resulted throughout the structure from the clouds of dense smoke which seeped into every nook and corner of the building. The loss would be especially heavy, it was believed, in the large paper stock of the Dewey-Davis Printing Company on the main floor.

In 1963, the Chautauqua Fire Department was again to sponsor an ice rink on the lake for skaters of the community as soon as weather permitted. A firemen’s dance was announced for Friday, Dec. 27 in the Chautauqua School gym. Donation proceeds would be deposited to the snorkel truck fund. Robert Tanner, chief of civil defense in Chautauqua County said that, to date, 16 of 25 village shelters in the county were fully stocked for an emergency. The Federal Government had thus far delivered to Chautauqua County 60 tons of shelter equipment to provide for 24,000 people in public shelters outside of Jamestown.

A heavy snow squall off Lake Erie dumped about four inches of snow on the Buffalo area, slowing morning rush-hour traffic to a crawl. Plows and sanders were dispatched throughout the city. There were a number of minor accidents on the New York State Thruway. The storm was apparently local, with no reports of snow activity in areas outside Buffalo.

In 1988, ten elementary school students and their driver were injured on this morning when their school bus slid through an intersection and collided with a tank truck transporting 9,000 gallons of gasoline. Fredonia Police Chief Daniel Johnson said the tanker truck jackknifed and then burst into flames. Johnson said the school bus continued in a different direction and went into a ditch. A spokeswoman at Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk said one of the children suffered a broken wrist and another a fractured collarbone, with the rest of those brought to the hospital sustaining bumps and bruises. The driver of the truck was able to get out of his vehicle before it caught fire.

Area state legislators were reacting cautiously to the statement by Gov. Mario Cuomo that the state might have to raise taxes to reduce the state budget deficit. “I don’t think he was specifically talking about increasing income taxes or sales taxes,” Assemblyman William Parment, D-North Harmony, told The Post-Journal. “The governor does not want to delay the state income tax rate reduction.” Instead, the governor was talking about “closing loopholes and raising sin taxes,” Parment said.

In Years Past

In 1913, an unprecedented event in the football history of Jamestown High School took place on the cricket grounds Saturday afternoon when an ex-high team, composed largely of members of the champion 11 of 1909, decisively defeated the Red and Green team by a 20 to 7 score. While it was true that the alumni men outweighed the high school lads several pounds to the man, the victory, however, was a notable one when it was considered that the winners were banded together on a few days’ notice and had to make up their signals before the game was started. In spite of the fact that a number of the players had been out of the game for three or four years, the ex-high team showed real football class and much of the new open style of football was used as well as the old fashioned line plunging. A fair-sized crowd witnessed the game.

A snowstorm accompanied by a good, stiff gale, which would attract little attention in mid-winter, was nevertheless the subject of comment because of the fact that it was the first real storm of the season and moreover came so suddenly from out of the northwest on Sunday afternoon. The change in temperature Sunday afternoon was very pronounced. A drizzling rain changed to snow late in the afternoon and during the night the ground was covered to a depth of several inches. The wire companies, of course, sustained some inconvenience but not as much as on some occasions.

In 1938, the most important change in traffic control in Jamestown in many years would become effective at 8 a.m. the following morning when the new traffic circle plan was inaugurated in Brooklyn Square. A certain amount of confusion and difficulty was anticipated as the new system went into effect, according to police, but every effort would be made to educate motorists to the changes quickly and with as little trouble as possible. Although the new system was called a “traffic circle” plan, it really called for the flow of all traffic entering and leaving the square from all directions to travel around the triangle situated in the center of the area. Several policemen would be stationed at strategic points around the square for several days until the system was working properly.

The Jamestown Police Department’s vow to eliminate alleged “bookie” places in the city, was apparently taken lightly by certain operators, for another alleged bookie establishment “bit the dust” Wednesday afternoon. Driven from their usual Second Ward haunts by repeated police raids, Jamestown’s better known bookies and their usual “sucker” following had just become comfortably ensconced in quarters on the second floor of 39 S. Main St. when that lair was visited and 18 persons fell into the hands of police on charges of frequenting a gambling resort. The equipment found at the South Main Street place was largely new, although some of it, according to police, had been removed to the place from a resort on Lafayette Street that was raided two weeks ago.

In 1988, state Comptroller Edward Regan said New York could lose its fiscal credibility if it dipped into its reserve funds to pay off an estimated $1 billion state budget deficit. The Republican comptroller said that using short-term borrowing that would have to be repaid within a year would be better than dipping into an $806 million education reserve fund or delaying some $360 million in income tax refunds that would be due New Yorkers the following year.

A group of West Ellicott homeowners had petitioned the Ellicott Town Board for their property to become part of Jamestown and would give their reasons at a public hearing on Jan. 25 in Ellicott. According to town attorney Robert VanEvery, Ellicott and Jamestown must decide if annexation was beneficial for both communities. He said the joint hearing was only the first step of a complicated process if both councils decided to approve the annexation. Town Supervisor Frances C. Morgan said she didn’t know why six residents wanted their property transferred to Jamestown, which would increase their property taxes. The petitions were signed by property owners on Newland and Huxley avenues and Chadwick Street.

In Years Past

In 1913, the past Monday morning a bright-eyed, smiling-faced little man walked into the office of The Journal and announced that he was “Noodles” Fagan, he was going to be in town for a week at the Lyric Theater and he would like to go into partnership with The Journal for the week. “As soon as I got into town this morning,” said Fagan, “I called on several of the merchants as is my custom wherever I go and asked them which paper in town had the ginger and the go and reached the good solid homes of the city and every one of them without exception told me The Journal.” Fagan had been a poor newsboy a few years ago.

The pupils of the eighth grade at Falconer High School, assisted by their teacher, David Clark, Jr., enjoyed a half-holiday Friday to celebrate the new day set aside by the state to instruct in the better growing of corn and called Corn Day. In January 1909, the first observance of this day took place in the state of New York. But two years later the date of the day was changed to December. The blackboards were covered with chickens and different drawings of corn and things relating to the harvest. The pupils did the work and many various dishes of corn were made for the dinner which was held at noon. Among the dishes were mush and milk, cornbread, Indian pudding, popcorn balls, hoe cake, canned corn and Johnny cake. At noon the faculty was invited to join the dinner. The girls acted as waitresses.

In 1938, upstate New York dairymen urged a federal tax on oleo manufactured to take the place of milk-made butter. By resolution, the Metropolitan Milk Producers’ Bargaining Agency asked the federal government to impose a tax of five cents a pound on oleo manufactured from domestic ingredients and eight cents on oleo made from imported ingredients.

There was not the slightest chance that the City of Jamestown would accept the offer of the Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors to sell the old state armory at South Main Street and Fenton place to the city for $6,000 and it was quite possible that the board’s refusal to deed the property to the city for $1, as was requested, would result in some kind of retaliatory action by the city of Jamestown. These facts stood out in a survey of opinion among city officials as a result of the board’s action at Mayville the previous day in spurning the city’s request.

In 1963, a sledding accident the previous day took the life of a 9-year-old Panama area boy. Todd Allan Gobles, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Gobles, Panama-Stedman Road, was the year’s 21st traffic fatality in Chautauqua County. According to the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department, the boy was sliding down the driveway of the home of Ernest Rundell, a neighbor, when he slid into the path of an automobile. The lad was taken to WCA Hospital by Jamestown Ambulance Service and was pronounced dead at 5:37 p.m. Coroner Emmett C. Eckman and Deputies J. Ernewein and F. Mizwa were conducting an investigation.

Traffic over the newly-opened Washington Street Bridge in Jamestown continued at a steady and heavy pace this day with only two immediate problems. The first became apparent shortly after the span was opened at 2:07 p.m., Dec. 5 when a bumper-to-bumper condition was created at the northern approach between West Second and Third Streets. Work had begun immediately to install “No Standing” signs between West Second and Third Streets. Much of the present traffic problem at the northern end of the bridge was being caused by curious motorists taking their first look at the new project, officials noted.

In 1988, Roy Orbison, the Grammy winner whose piercing voice on songs like “Pretty Woman” pioneered early rock ‘n’ roll and made him a legend with ballads about lost love, died of a heart attack at age 52. The singer-songwriter also known for his ever-present sunglasses was brought by ambulance to Hendersonville Hospital in Tennessee late the previous day but couldn’t be revived. Orbison had given a concert Dec. 4, in Akron, Ohio, before 2,000 people.

In Clymer taking care of asbestos was going to be a costly and frustrating duty. Asbestos engineers estimated that the small school district was facing a $1 million bill to rid its walls and ceilings of the potentially hazardous material. That was a huge amount for a school district that had an annual budget in 1988-89 of $3.4 million.

In Years Past

In 1913, J.D. Woodard, owner of the Humphrey House Hotel of Jamestown, announced that he had practically completed a lease of the hotel to Herbert S. Bennett of Falconer. Bennett would take possession on Monday and would assume entire management and control of the hotel. Bennett was well known in Jamestown. He was in the hotel business at Lily Dale for a number of years and later came to Falconer, where, under his management, The Inn, then well known in that village, since destroyed by fire, had a period of great popularity and prosperity.

The prevalence of diphtheria in Jamestown and the extreme danger of a serious epidemic of the disease, had attracted the attention of the state health authorities and it was not at all unlikely that they would establish a laboratory here for the convenience of both the public and the state health department. Health Superintendent Dr. John Mahoney was in communication with the state department over the long distance telephone and was asked if the establishment of a laboratory here would be of assistance. He replied that it would.

In 1938, Fire Chief David Sanderson announced that plans for the annual Christmas treat and tree for the children of Falconer were well underway and that various committees had announced that everything would be in readiness a week before the party. Present plans were for the erection and trimming of a huge Christmas tree Sunday, Dec. 18. Dave Larson, head of the candy committee announced that the candy would be procured before that same date and the entire department would assist in packing the sweets at the next regular meeting. The tree would be placed on the lawn of the Community Building where the exercises would be held.

A proposal that the city of Jamestown attempt to collect taxes on properties which were long delinquent by instituting civil lawsuits was tabled by city council after an executive session discussion which lasted for nearly four hours. Council considered many other matters while closeted in conference but the proposed new tax collection method was about the most important item on its agenda. The resolution proposed that the legal department be permitted to start such suits against properties upon which taxes were more than one year in arrears.

In 1963, the 135-year-old Sinclairville First Baptist Church was destroyed by fire the previous night following two roaring explosions from an accumulation of coal gas from a coal burning basement furnace.The loss was estimated at upward of $70,000, partially insured. More than 50 volunteer Sinclairville and Gerry firemen battled the fire for more than four hours in 20-degree temperatures. No one was injured. The large white frame church on Park Street was one of the oldest edifices in Chautauqua County.

At approximately 2:20 p.m. the previous day, a line of automobiles rolled across Jamestown’s new Washington Street bridge to culminate an idea born some 30 years before. At 2:07 p.m., Mayor William D. Whitehead spoke the words: “I do now formally open this bridge to traffic.” With this, the city had a modern north-south arterial designed to relieve downtown traffic congestion. A woman driver was the first to actually cross the bridge after it was officially proclaimed open to traffic. She was Mrs. Joseph Sinatra of Newland Ave., who had read that the bridge would open at 2 p.m. The southern terminus of the bridge was closed to traffic but officials overlooked the Forest Avenue entrance and several cars, led by Sinatra, crossed the span, south to north, minutes before the official motorcade got underway.

In 1988, if there was one nightmare shared by everybody who shopped the downtown Jamestown business district that nightmare was – parking. While they were still safe for public use, two of Jamestown’s existing parking ramps, those on Cherry and Main streets, would require reconstruction within a few years. Three new ramps – to be located on Prendergast, Washington and Second streets – were proposed as part of the Reg Lenna Civic Center Development Plan.

The nursing shortage at hospitals in rural areas had reached crisis proportions in some areas of the state, according to Joseph Gerace, director of the state Office of Rural Affairs. He said rural hospitals had a difficult time competing with larger urban facilities for a very limited number of nurses. “There is a greater demand of nurses than there is supply. It is edging crisis proportions in some parts of the state,” Gerace told The Post-Journal from his Albany office.

In Years Past

In 1913, the grand jury investigation of the mysterious death of Willis Buffum would be carried into the following week. District Attorney Cole had some other matters to present to the grand jury on this forenoon and the Buffum case was temporarily dropped. It was resumed again in the afternoon but was not finished. Late in the afternoon an adjournment was taken until the following Monday when the investigation would be resumed.

The Jamestown fire department was called out shortly before 8 a.m. in the morning to extinguish a small blaze in the basement of the Jamestown barn on Pine Street. The fire originated in a small room in which a lot of rubbish was stored. The damage to the barn was trifling, the only loss being to some of the stock of L.W. Stein, painting contractor. This stock was stored in the basement adjoining the barn building. The fire burned the door between the closet and Stein’s basement. The water which was poured into the basement did considerable damage. This was the third time in eight months that Stein’s place of business had suffered through fire. “I am certainly unlucky,” said Stein. “Just as I get straightened out from one fire, along comes another and turns things topsy turvy again.”

In 1938, David Roberts, 19, of Bowen Street, Jamestown, was killed and three other persons in the car Roberts was driving suffered minor injuries shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday when their car collided at the intersection of McDaniel and Harding avenues with a car driven by Charles W. Zahn, 42, of Howard Avenue. Roberts was accompanied by James Piazz, owner of the car; Roselia Anderson of Winsor Street, Jamestown and Betty Reid of Akron, Ohio, a student nurse at WCA Hospital.

The Atlas Chemical Products Company of Warren, Pa., which for some time had been operating an experimental plant in the Pennsylvania city for the manufacture of artificial gas from crude oil, planned to establish another experimental plant in Jamestown in the near future with the view of eventually producing gas here on a large scale if a market for the product was found.

In 1963, the advantages of locating industry in the Jamestown Area had been outlined in a two-page article in the November edition of “Business in New York State,” the nationally circulated business-news magazine of the NYS Dept. of Commerce. Besides photographs and caption material, devoted to a cross-section of local industry, there was a statement by Leonard Saff, president of the Jamestown Area Development Corp. “Too often we think of Western New York as a big city area, with a preponderance of heavy industry. Actually, the region has some of the finest scenic, recreational, cultural and educational facilities in the state,” Saff said.

Apparently someone with a streak of larceny and no aversion to “doing things by halves” was expecting more company for Christmas. This was the possible explanation of an unusual theft from a downtown store being investigated by Jamestown authorities. On the day before Thanksgiving half of a 45-piece set of dinnerware, valued at $40, which had been displayed on a table in the china department of Probst Hardware Store on Cherry Street, disappeared. The thief had made off with four of each item in the set. Despite efforts to catch the thief, during the noon rush hour the previous day, the other half of the set turned up missing.

In 1988, Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine signed the MAC Pact while he was home for Thanksgiving. The MAC Pact, “Make a Commitment Not to Drive While Impaired or Intoxicated,” was an awareness campaign designed to encourage people who upheld the law to go public. Sylvia Fiorello, creator-coordinator of the campaign, said it was important to have state and county leaders endorse the pact personally because private citizens looked up to them as role models. “I am grateful that the lieutenant governor feels the program is important,” she said.

Reports that Argersinger Department Store was leaving Jamestown were “absolutely false,” according to Ronald Olinsky, vice president of the company. “There’s no credibility to the statement that we?re closing,” Olinsky said. “We’ve made a large financial investment in the downtown area and we’re very happy in Jamestown.” The rumor mill started up when Argersinger’s closed its second floor. Margaret David, assistant manager of the store told The Post-Journal, “we closed it down because nobody was going up there.”

In Years Past

In 1913, Ernest Frahm, the young farmer whose arrest and detention for refusing to answer questions in the grand jury room was the sensation of the John Doe investigation before the grand jury at Little Valley, did not succeed in obtaining his release, although his attorney, Henry P. Nevin of Salamanca, made a strenuous effort to have him purged of contempt of court and released from jail. Justice Bissell sentenced him to 10 days in the county jail for contempt of court. Attorney Nevin stated that he had been consulted by Frahm as to his rights. He had advised Frahm that he was not obliged to answer any questions that would tend to incriminate him. Frahm had misunderstood the advice and refused to answer any questions whatever.

“Noodles” Fagan, the Lyric Theater and The Journal had united in a novel plan to entertain the men, women and children of Jamestown. Ever since the first announcement was made of this day’s entertainment, throngs of excited children had swept through the doors of the Journal office to get the free tickets for the afternoon’s performance. In the entertainment itself there would be something doing every minute. A travel festival would be shown on the moving pictures and numerous other up-to-date features which would interest and entertain. The previous afternoon at 4 p.m. “Noodles” Fagan, king of the newsboys, appeared in the Journal alley to talk to the newsies of Jamestown. He was greeted riotously by Young America.

In 1938, Major Gunnar V. Lundsten, 43, in command of the Swedish Salvation Army, was in the Jamestown General Hospital with a possible fracture of the skull, one of three persons admitted with injuries resulting from falls on slippery sidewalks. The condition of Lundsten, who fell at the corner of Main and Second streets in Jamestown on Friday night, was reported as fairly good on this afternoon. Ernest Frankson, 55, of 316 Stowe Street, received injuries when he fell at Buffalo and Thayer streets this morning. He was also in General Hospital. Samuel Pellegrino. 8, of Foote Avenue, fractured his left arm in falling on the walk on his way home from school. After receiving treatment in Jamestown General Hospital, the boy was discharged.

Rumors that the New York Central Railroad Company contemplated abandonment of its Valley branch, the former Dunkirk, Allegany Valley & Pittsburgh, running between Dunkirk and Titusville, Pa., were denied after a group of its officials completed a round trip aboard a special train. The spokesman for the group said it was purely an inspection tour and that reports of the discontinuance of the division were wholly without foundation. From time to time a report has persisted that a move was in the offing to abandon all service on the Valley branch between Fredonia and Warren, Pa.

In 1963, a 17-year-old deer hunter’s ordeal in sub-freezing temperature after he broke his back in a 25-foot fall was discovered by his grandfather, E.W. Brandt, who headed an all-night searching party for the youth. The victim, Larry Scheidemantle, of Harmony, Pa., near Pittsburgh, was in fair condition in Warren General Hospital. He had possible fractures of both legs. Scheidemantle was hunting deer with his grandfather and they became separated. His grandfather found him in a semi-conscious condition at 11 a.m. the previous day and it was at 3:10 p.m. that the youth was finally brought out of the snow covered woods. he accident happened when Scheidemantle was standing on “Point Rock,” a rock on the side of a hill in the Cherry Grove area. The youth slipped and fell, landing on his back.

Four high school students were apprehended in connection with the beating of a Jamestown motorist whose wallet, containing $35, turned up missing after the fight. Ellicott Town Officer Elmer Widlund said the motorist, Francis Blood, 21, of Prendergast Ave., declined to prosecute because he knew the four youths. Three were said to attend Southwestern Central High School and the fourth attended Jamestown High School. Their names were being withheld because of their ages. The attack occurred near the S. & H. Green Stamp Redemption Center on Fairmount Ave., as Blood was returning from work at McDonald’s drive-in. He said a snowball was thrown at his windshield and when he got out he was attacked.

In Years Past

• In 1913, the sensational developments of the day in the John Doe investigation conducted by District Attorney Cole and a supreme court grand jury in Little Valley, was the jailing of Ernest Frahm, the young farmer who had been mentioned in connection with the Buffum case. Frahm was locked up in jail because he refused to answer questions asked by District Attorney Cole in the grand jury room. It was rumored that Attorney Nevin was busy preparing papers in a habeas corpus proceeding for the release of the young man. Of course, the detention of this young man had aroused excitement to a fever heat in Little Valley.

• At a meeting of the Jamestown Board of Education, the matter of the sale of Red Cross seals was brought up and a plan approved whereby the persons interested in the local anti-tuberculosis crusade were granted permission to present the subject in the high school and upper grammar rooms and ask for volunteer committees in each room to sell the seals. It was explained that in the past, teachers and pupils had been asked to do this as part of school work and the board of education had always refused permission for the schools to be so used.

• In 1938, H.V. Perry, famous maker of target rifles in Jamestown back in the eighties and nineties was recalled by N.H. Roberts in an article on Old Muzzle Loaders appearing in the December issue of The American Rifleman, published by the National Rifle Association. In the article, Mr. Roberts said: “During the 1880’s and early 90’s, Horace Walker of Syracuse was one of our most noted makers of super accurate, heavy, muzzle-loading target rifles for shooting at 40-100 rods. During this same period, the late H.V. Perry of Jamestown, N.Y., was another noted maker of the same type of rifles and there was for many years a great rivalry between Perry and Warner, each claiming that his rifles were the most accurate at all ranges.”

• Residents of Frewsburg had especial occasion to be proud of the high school band Friday afternoon, as it led the students in a pre-basketball game rally parade about the streets of the community, for the musicians were wearing their new uniforms. Bright blue military dress uniforms with yellow trimmings and Sam Brown belts added much sparkle to the appearance of the group. The director, James Stark, wore a white uniform.

• In 1963, Jamestown City Council, by unanimous vote, invoked its charter authority to order the paving of portions of nine streets totaling approximately 3,400 feet in length, even though no petitions for the improvements had been received from abutting property owners. The paving had been recommended by Roger C. Burgeson, director of public works, at the initial stage in a 5-year program aimed at reducing the mileage of unpaved streets in Jamestown.

• A weekend break-in of the concession stands and groundskeepers storeroom at Jamestown College Stadium which resulted in theft of equipment valued at $43.25 was under investigation by Jamestown police. The burglary, discovered by Frank Kramer, stadium groundskeeper, about noon Monday, was believed to have been committed sometime since Thanksgiving. Concession stands at both ends of the stadium and the storeroom had been entered but the only items reported missing were a stapling machine, a radio microphone and a razor.

• In 1988, would-be millionaires with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads snatched up lottery tickets at the rate of 18,000 a minute on Friday in the hopes of winning this day’s New York State record $45 million jackpot. The prize, the largest offered in the state lottery’s 12-year history, could go slightly higher depending on sales. It was not expected to reach $61.98 million, the largest lottery jackpot ever in the United States, for which three winning tickets were sold in California in October. The largest single winner was a Florida woman who won $55.16 million in September.

• Howard F. Sager of Silver Creek had no need for such complicated gimmicks as isobars, barometers, hygrometers, radar, computers or other sophisticated weather-forecasting aids. The active 84-year-old forecasted weather the old-fashioned way, noting the behavior of such naturally occurring wildlife as birds, insects and animals. Interviewed at his home, Sager said, “The animals aren’t piling (their food) this year. The deer haven’t even got their winter coats on yet.” As a consequence of his observations, he saw a light winter ahead.

In Years Past

In 1913, the Cattaraugus County grand jury commenced the investigation of the John Doe proceeding which was known to be in reality an investigation of the mysterious death of Willis Buffum the past summer, which death it was known or at least believed to be due to arsenical poisoning. A large number of witnesses who had attended a dance given last summer in a barn owned by John Richert in the town of Napoli stated that Mrs. Buffum and a young farmer, whose name had been connected with hers by common gossip, were at the dance. The conduct of the couple was the subject of some comment. Referring to the suspicions directed toward her, Mrs. Buffum said: “This is the meanest trick I ever knew. They (the townsfolk) have been doing me a lot of dirt.” Further in the interview, when she again spoke of this “dirt”, she broke into tears and for several minutes covered her face with her apron.

Claude Dewitt was sentenced in Mayville by Justice of the Peace William H. Scofield, to the Erie County penitentiary for four months after a convection of stealing a gun belonging to Roy A. Miles of Hartfield. According to the story told the justice, Dewitt went to Mr. Miles’ house and borrowed a shotgun of Mrs. Miles saying that Mr. Miles had told him he could take it. Dewitt went hunting and finally reached Dunkirk where he was arrested for intoxication and fined $5. To raise the money he sold the gun. He later returned to Hartfield and was arrested on a charge of petit larceny.

In 1938, high tribute was paid the Gustavus Adolphus Children’s Home, Lutheran Church institution at East Jamestown, by Frances G. Yates in her report of the annual inspection made to the New York State Department of Social Welfare. “The home, from all appearances and indications, gives the children good physical care, intelligent understanding of their personal problems, individual consideration, love and affection and good medical care,” said the inspector. “The homelike, happy atmosphere of a family is readily felt when coming in contact with the children and the staff.”

Plans for the Christmas Toyland parade Saturday morning were completed at a meeting of the Jamestown Retail Merchants’ Association Committee at the Cake Shop. Santa Claus, who would arrive by plane, would be met at the municipal airport and escorted to Main and Sixth streets where the parade would start at 10 a.m. Charles H. Wiborg would fire a cannon as the signal for departure of the parade units. A police car and the Jamestown Concert Band would head the parade in which there would be a score or more of floats. Clowns would be in the line of march and souvenirs would be distributed among the children.

In 1963, the Nativity Scene, which appeared annually at the Westside-Hunt Road Park, would be erected the following week. Guy B. Saxton, executive secretary of the Retail Merchants Assn., who made the announcement on behalf of the sponsoring organization, said the Christmas trees in the city’s waiting rooms would likewise be decorated the following week. The trees, estimated as seven feet in height, would be located at the Greyhound Bus Terminal, Municipal Airport, and Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Station. Meanwhile, Mr. Saxton said, Santa Claus continued to appear at various individual stores throughout the city.

Each community had its lonely people. Jamestown was no exception. These people who had no family to celebrate Christmas with them were among those The Post-Journal especially hoped to reach with Christmas Happiness gifts. The fund took another jump over the weekend to a total of $1,691.80. But it had a long way to go in the next couple of weeks to reach an amount that would provide gifts for all on the Happiness List.

In 1988, the FBI said a sting operation that began in a small, suburban Buffalo storefront knocked out a massive American and Sicilian Mafia drug operation that was selling millions of dollars worth of heroin in the United States and cocaine in Italy. Some of the heroin was shipped as liquefied heroin in wine bottles from Italy, officials said. As a result of the investigation, the FBI and Italian authorities have charged more than 200 people in a multimillion-dollar heroin importation and cocaine distribution operation.

The first significant snowfall of the season in our area had covered the brown of November’s woodlands with a blanket of white, inspiring people to turn their thoughts from Thanksgiving memories to Yuletide celebrations. The sight of the snowy woods that bordered a winding road was no doubt reminding drivers that it was time to put up their Christmas trees and to wax their skis.

In Years Past

In 1913, the grand jury which was to hear the Buffum case was impaneled in supreme court, which opened its session in Little Valley. But there was no appearance of any witnesses supposed to have to do with this, the most mysterious case which had come to the authorities of Cattaraugus County. In fact there was officially no Buffum case. In fact, the case was only a John Doe proceeding which District Attorney George W. Cole was going to bring before the grand jury and which, because of the fact that the witnesses subpoenaed were supposed to know abut the mysterious death of Buffum, was by general consent called the Buffum case. About 60 witnesses had been summoned on this John Doe case. Should all be examined, there was at least two days’ hard work before District Attorney Cole.

Charles White, one of the best known employees of the Jamestown Street Railroad Company, dropped dead at his home on North Main Street in Jamestown shortly before 8 o’clock in the morning. Mr. White had been at work until Saturday afternoon. He was only slightly indisposed on Sunday. His death was entirely without warning. He arose and dressed as usual and was seated in the living room shortly after partaking of a light breakfast. When his wife entered the room he was reading and answered her question by saying that he felt fine. As she turned to leave him she heard a peculiar sigh, and turning hastily, found that he had passed away as she was turning around. A physician was summoned at once but life was extinct. He was in his 55th year.

In 1938, superb elegance, which did credit to the founders and to the radiant traditions fostered over three generations, both in charming eloquence and beauty of appointment, marked the Mozart Club dinner Wednesday evening commemorating its 60th season. Covers were laid for about 250 members and guests in the Hotel Jamestown ballroom in the glow of hundreds of white candles in stately silver candelabra, adding an unusually festive aura to a brilliant occasion. White chrysanthemum bouquets on the tables and stage were dominated by a gorgeous cluster of cala lilies, a favorite flower of the late Mrs. Frank E. Gifford, the club’s founder and gracious leader for over 40 years.

The steamer City of Jamestown remained with her stern in the mud at the boatlanding. Attempts to pump the water from the hull with two fire engine pumpers failed to accomplish anything. It was evident that the leak, which had filled the hull with outlet water from the Chadakoin River, was a large one. While the weight of the boat would perhaps settle it deeper in the slimy mud of the outlet it was not likely to alter its present position.

In 1988, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said his aides had given legislative leaders a list of possible areas where the state budget could be cut, including potential trimming of local revenue sharing and education aid. Democrat Cuomo was attempting to deal with a remaining potential budget deficit for the current fiscal year that he said amounted to almost $1 billion. State Senate Republicans had estimated that it was closer to $500 million.

Pine Valley Central School had been recognized as one of four schools for its contributions to the state’s effective schools program. The Effective Schools Consortia Network, in cooperation with the state Department of Education, was sponsoring a conference on comprehensive school improvement programs and training. Pine Valley and three other schools would be recognized for their effective schools programs at a three-day meeting scheduled for Jan. 10-12 in Albany.

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