• In 1915, Ishmael Whitehead, 19 years old, was shot and killed at Dunkirk this day by a man giving his name as Franziak Wiczorek and his home as West Point, N.Y. When asked why he had killed the man, Wiczorek said that he wanted to see what the people would say. He claimed he shot to kill, “just for fun.” He was believed to be demented. The attack was entirely unprovoked and it was described by several persons who witnessed it. It happened out on the lagoon between the Dunkirk water works and the west breakwater. The shooting occurred about 10 o’clock in the morning. Whitehead was shot twice and he died within less than a half hour, just after he had been taken to the Brooks hospital.

The cleaning and dyeing establishment owned and operated by Linberg & Company, Incorporated, and located at 925 LaFayette Street in Jamestown, was completely destroyed by fire at 10:30 this forenoon. The loss was estimated at $4,000 and there was no insurance. Linberg & Co. handled dye stuffs and also conducted a dyeing and cleaning works. The cleaning works used considerable gasoline and the gasoline caused the fire. As nearly as was known, the gas tank which was in a presumably safe place sprung a leak and the inflammable fluid spread across the floor to the boiler. As soon as it came in contact with the boiler, the fire blazed up fiercely. There was no explosion but the gasoline blazed so quickly that the four or five occupants in the building got outside with all possible haste.

• In 1940, Jamestown’s own railroad, the J.W. & N.W., was located in its new terminal and office building at Fairmount Avenue and West Eighth streets. In its new location it was better equipped to handle the transportation problems of the traveling public and Jamestown’s industrial life. For over 53 years the J.W. & N.W. had been an important factor in the development of Jamestown. It was the one medium through which Jamestown was kept out of the one-railroad-town class. The railroad, with its connections to the New York Central, provided five passenger trains daily to Buffalo and New York City and the central part of the state, two trains daily to Boston, five trains daily to Cleveland, two to Pittsburgh and five to Chicago.

• Falconer police were left without clues after a burglar or burglars entered the Laco Roofing Company plant, 421 West Main Street, sometime between 5:30 o’clock Friday afternoon and 7 o’clock the previous morning and pried open a small office safe, failing to find any money within it contents. According to Police Chief Wesson Paplow, the burglar or burglars gained entrance into the plant through an open portion of a rear window near the Chadakoin River. The safe was ransacked but all papers, valueless to thieves, were intact. The office was ransacked to some extent but no damage was done nor were any of the contents removed.

• In 1965, full school bus service was expected to be restored at Salamanca this day following a walkout of nine out of 10 drivers the previous day which left some 1,500 students stranded at bus stops. All but one of the schools’ 10 regular drivers quit the previous morning in a dispute with the school board over pay increases. One driver who refused to quit, Anthony Muzi, and six replacements would take over the bus routes this day. The regular drivers were paid from $1,225 to $1,500 a year depending on longevity. They asked the board for a $1,500 to $1,800 scale. Many students had waited at their stops long past the first bell at school, unaware of the situation.

• Jamestown’s three “Freedom Marchers” would present their impressions of the past week’s March to Montgomery at a public meeting at the YWCA on Sunday at 8 p.m. The Rev. Gerald C. Daniels, pastor of the Immanuel Lutheran Church, the Rev. Donald E. Williams, pastor of the North Main Street Church of God and Catholic layman George W. Lawn left Jamestown the past Tuesday and after joining a contingent of civil rights workers in Erie, Pa., traveled by bus to Montgomery, Alabama where they joined 10,000 others at a giant rally on the outskirts of the city.

-In 1990, a Randolph Central School student said Friday that he and others who protested at Randolph Central School the past week had received three-day suspensions. The student, who requested anonymity because he feared he’d get into trouble at school, said another student who protested for one day received a one-day suspension. The few students who didn’t return to school Friday were suspended for five days, the student said. Meanwhile, a school board attorney said the school complied with the district’s attendance and truancy policy in dealing with students who were illegally absent Wednesday and Thursday, when they were picketing at the school.

• Several hundred Jamestown area residents would not be counted during this year’s census and that could mean trouble for Chautauqua County’s Metropolitan Statistical Area designation. The people who wouldn’t be counted fell into two groups – Jamestown students attending out-of-town colleges and city residents spending the winter in sunbelt states. The regulation required college students to be counted by the census in the community where they lived while going to school. Others who would not be counted by the census as Jamestown residents were those who were wintering in warmer climates.

In Years Past

• In 1915, Donald Burns, who disappeared from Jamestown the past Thursday afternoon and had not since been heard from, had been traced as far as the waiting room at Lakewood. There the trail ended. Where Burns went or what he did after he alighted from the trolley car was a mystery. No one had yet been found who saw him later. The Jamestown police department had issued a card containing a half tone picture of the missing man, together with his description. These cards were sent to the police departments of surrounding cities. It was possible some clue might be obtained from that source.

• Attorney Patrick Collins would move for a change of venue in the case of Mrs. Cynthia Buffum on April 7th before the supreme court in Buffalo. He gave notice to that effect to District Attorney Laidlaw in Ellicottville where the papers were sent, the law requiring eight days’ notice. The attorney for the woman had a large number of affidavits saying that Mrs. Buffum could not get a fair trial in Little Valley because of her former conviction. If Mr. Collins failed, the trial of Mrs. Buffum would begin on the third of May at Little Valley.

• In 1940, Police Chief Max Ehmke of Lakewood responded to a call at 4:20 o’clock in the morning and arrested Earl Gueder, 27, of Olean, just as Gueder was curling up for a nap in the rear of a light sedan he had stolen at Olean the previous afternoon. Asked by Chief Ehmke for his operator’s license, Gueder started fumbling through his pockets as if searching for the document but he was obviously flustered. When Chief Ehmke said, “You don’t have a license, do you and this is a stolen car, isn’t it?” Gueder answered both questions in the affirmative.

• A total of 234 cases of nine-day measles had been reported within the city of Jamestown this month but the total was not alarming as compared with the spread of the disease in past months of other years, according to Superintendent of Public Health, Dr. William Sill. Dr. Sill warned parents that children having a fever and feeling sick should not be sent back to school the second day when they felt improved as the disease could break out on the third or fourth day.

• In 1965, an “extra” in entertainment would be added to the Jamestown Policeman’s Ball, the appearance of the famed “Ink Spots” quartet Thursday, April 29. The Glenn Miller Orchestra directed by Ray McKinley, would provide dance music plus novelty numbers and vocals at the ball in the National Guard Armory on Porter Avenue. The Ink Spots were credited with making smash hit tunes out of a long list of songs dating back into the late 1930’s. The songs included, “If I Didn’t Care,” “Don’t Get Around Much Any More, and “It’s a Sin To Tell A Lie.”

• The Jamestown Police Dept. was asked to prepare a written report on the feasibility of making Third and Fourth streets one way traffic lanes at last night’s City Council Public Safety Committee meeting. The request stemmed from a recommendation made by Police Chief John Paladino in his annual report. Chief Paladino said such action would help eliminate downtown traffic congestion. Similar recommendations had been made in previous years by Chief Paladino.

• In 1990, a six-screen theater complex had been proposed for the site of the former Lakewood Drive-In Theater and construction could begin this year. Lakewood Mayor Anthony Caprino said the proposed theater was part of the influx of new businesses in the Lakewood area. Before construction could begin, the drive-in movie screen, building and sound speakers would need to be removed and a lot of dirt would have to be moved before a foundation could be placed on the site.

• James Glair, chief administrator of the Salamanca District Hospital, announced that the hospital’s Primary Care Medical Center would close operations this day at 6 p.m. All emergency medical services and other health care services would be discontinued at that time, Glair said, adding that people requiring emergency services should go to hospitals in Olean, Jamestown, Springville or Bradford. The facility would continue to be used as an alcohol rehabilitation and treatment center, he said, but official plans to that effect had not been finalized.

In Years Past

In 1915, no trace had been found of Donald Burns whose mysterious disappearance was noted in The Journal Saturday and the most strenuous efforts of the Jamestown police department and of relatives and friends had utterly failed to uncover any clue on which to base a theory for such disappearance. Indeed, rarely, if ever, had relatives and authorities been confronted with so baffling a mystery. There was no reason why he should have voluntarily left Jamestown and there was every reason why he should not. The theory that he left the city deliberately for parts unknown was the most untenable of any theory. He was devoted to his wife and his parents and always showed the most thoughtful consideration for them.

The project of a trolley line to pass through Panama and connect with the Chautauqua Traction line at Lakewood was still under consideration although as yet the prospects were uncertain. The Journal’s Panama correspondent wrote: A very largely attended and enthusiastic meeting was held in Wade’s hall to consider the proposed new Panama trolley to pass through Panama. The trolley men wished the town of Harmony to give $50,000. As yet the prospect of the trolley was uncertain and there was not much to report concerning it. Panama residents were most heartily in accord in wishing the line to run through the village.

In 1940, aroused over reports that a bill designed to prohibit muskellunge fishing from power boats on Chautauqua Lake was before the state Senate for action at Albany, representatives of several Jamestown and Chautauqua Region groups sent telegrams of protest to Senator James Riley, who represented the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus district, urging him to oppose the measure in the interest of the local sportsman. Chautauqua Lake groups favored elimination of the use of copper lines and placing the legal length of fish at 30 inches but were strongly against the proposal to stop the practice of powerboat fishing which was common on Chautauqua Lake.

Ernest Button was badly injured the past week in Panama when a piano which he was helping move fell on him. His injuries included a broken rib, strained ligaments and cuts and bruises. Mr. Button was riding on a truck with the piano. The vehicle skidded on the icy pavement and threw both the piano and Mr. Button into the street.

In 1965, a jack-knifed flat-bed tractor trailer truck, which had been blocking traffic on the River Road between Onoville and Route 17 for four days, was expected to be removed sometime this day. Heavy equipment, necessary to move the truck, which was hauling a crane cab when it ran into trouble, was being sent to the area from Buffalo. The equipment was being used in conjunction with the overall construction of the Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir project.

Kenneth Peasley, 14, of Cherry Street, Jamestown, was rescued by firemen after he fell 20 feet into a space about one foot wide between two buildings. Except for a few scratches and bruises, the lad was uninjured, according to firemen who lowered a rope and hauled him to safety. He was trapped for about 30 minutes. Police were called at 1 p.m. when two boys with whom he was playing said Kenneth had slipped between two buildings at 24-26 Forest Avenue while they were running about on the roof.

In 1990, the 1990 census would probably show an increase in both the number of jobs in Chautauqua County and the percentage of the county’s population without jobs. Jamestown and the county would probably suffer a slight decrease in population and the age of that population will have shifted upward. Those were the predictions of area planning and development officials who were concerned about the outcome of the census. “I don’t have a crystal ball to peer into,” said Samuel Teresi, Jamestown’s director of development. “If I did, I could save the Census Bureau a lot of money and trouble.”

Allegations that a school bus monitor at Randolph Central School had hit and restrained a boy on a school bus and rebuttals saying the allegations were “a lot of baloney” may well have been the reason some Randolph high school students walked out of classes Wednesday. Superintendent Richard Chubon said about 50 or 60 students left school Wednesday and that there was a handful of students the district was trying to track down this morning. On Wednesday, some adults protested against the bus monitor. Chubon said no adults were protesting on this morning.

In Years Past

In 1915, Tyler T. Dewey, nearly 73 years of age, carried the milk from his farm about two miles east of Sherman, to the Mohawk condensery. He returned home, unhitched his horses with the assistance of his brother, Alfred, and walked to the house where he fell stricken with apoplexy, from which he died the following morning without having regained consciousness. Mr. Dewey was apparently enjoying the best of health up to the time he was so unexpectedly afflicted. Mr. Dewey was the son of Lester R. and Fanny Patton Dewey. He was survived by a daughter, Fanny, wife of Martin Bement of Buffalo; two sons, Don and Burnett Dewey of Sherman and two brothers, Alfred and Lester Dewey. His wife, Ellen died suddenly the past August.

How woman’s suffrage was viewed by the farmer was very clearly set forth in a recent statement made by W. D. Lewis, president of the Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union of Texas which passed a resolution strongly opposing woman’s suffrage. Among other remarks, Mr. Lewis stated: “Government is a great big business and civilization from the very beginning assigned woman the home and man the business affairs of life. God pity our country when the handshake of the politician is more gratifying to woman’s heart than the patter of children’s feet. Why add to a statute book, already groaning under its own weight, the hysterical cry of woman? If we never have a chance to vote again in a lifetime and did not pass another law in twenty-five years we could survive the ordeal but without home, civilization would wither and die.”

In 1940, West Second Street in Jamestown between Main and Cherry streets again had been made a one-way street permitting westward travel only. The change, authorized by city council at Monday’s session, became effective Wednesday afternoon when a stop sign standard was placed at the corner of Cherry and West Second streets. The trial of two-way traffic, with parking on but one side of the street, had been in force for several months. One-hour parking on both sides of the street was again to be permitted. Also, officers were working on a “pedestrian control” plan which would require pedestrians to abide by traffic laws and signals in the same manner as motorists. Officers were attempting to “educate” the people to the new restrictions, according to Lieutenant Stahley.

After deliberating for an hour and 10 minutes late Wednesday afternoon, a county court jury in Mayville returned to Judge Lee L. Ottaway a verdict of $625 for Mecelaus Krzal and Jacob Krzal, his father and guardian, plaintiffs in a negligence action against Francis S. Sobkowski and Kasimer Marmurowicz. All parties resided in Dunkirk, where Mecelaus was injured when struck in the side by a sky rocket July 4, 1938. Mecelaus Krzal was awarded $500 for pain and suffering and his father received $125 for loss of his son’s services. The younger Krzal, then 18 years old, was incapacitated for a period of 17 weeks as a result of the fireworks accident. Bills for medical service amounted to $17, according to testimony presented during the trial.

In 1990, the zebra mussel was a small mollusk that showed up at Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.’s Dunkirk Steam Station the previous fall. The mussels were still there and they also were a matter of major concern at Dunkirk’s water plant which got its supply from Lake Erie. Robert Henderson, results supervisor at the electric utility’s 600 megawatt output plant at Dunkirk, said of the creatures, “They’re here. But we don’t expect any real problems for another month or so.” Henderson said the lake temperature was at about 34-35 degrees Fahrenheit but when it warmed up the mussels were expected to become more active.

Although the tentative 1990 Lakewood budget called for a tax increase of 43 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, the tax hike was about one-fourth of what could have been called for in the proposed budget. Mayor Anthony Caprino, village budget officer, was able to trim the budget enough to cut a proposed tax increase of about $1.60 per thousand to the proposed 43 cents, he said. “There is no fat in this budget, I can tell you that. What there is, is a lot of little increases all over. Every little bit adds up,” Caprino said.

In Years Past

In 1915, much uneasiness was felt by the family and friends of Donald Burns as to the young man’s whereabouts. He was a bookkeeper in the office of Harry Lyons, the lumberman, and had been working very hard. Thursday afternoon he went to the Burns cottage on Chautauqua Lake and when he had not returned at a late hour, his friends went to the cottage but he was not there. There was evidence he had gone to the cottage. Lights were still burning when his friends arrived but no trace of the young man could be found. Fears were entertained that he might have attempted to cross the lake on the ice and been drowned. He was a young man of good habits and his continued absence was a matter to cause genuine sorrow to his young wife and to his parents.

G.W. Baird, who conducted an automobile supply store on Market Street in Warren, was fatally injured shortly before noon. He was taken to the Emergency hospital, dying there at 3 p.m. A new gasoline tank for the purpose of supplying automobiles had been placed underground near the curb in front of the store. Mr. Baird was at work on the old tank with a blow torch when an accumulation of gas became ignited. There was a terrific explosion and Mr. Baird was hurled into the air for a distance of several feet. The explosion was heard throughout the city.

In 1940, a new snowfall swept New York state to impede work of crews struggling to clear highways drifted by an Easter-born storm. Highway workers “nearly exhausted” by four successive days of snow removal work found new fields to conquer. Fears of milk shortages were dispelled with Central New York dealers reporting they received from 50 to 75 percent of their normal supply. In scattered regions, farmers were still marooned with little prospect of making deliveries until plows could clear snow-plugged back roads. Horse-drawn sleighs enabled dairymen to reach main roads with milk accumulated since Sunday.

The old steam pumper owned by the Jamestown Fire Department since 1911 – the year when the department was placed on a paid basis – had been sold for junk to the Weinstein Junk Company for a little more than $100. According to Fire Chief Rudolph H. Swanson, the steamer had been stripped of all parts that could be used by the department. It would have cost the city more than $500 to place the apparatus in serviceable condition and then it might not have been satisfactory. The old steamer was a horse-drawn piece of apparatus and was a colorful sight as it puffed through the city enroute to hundreds of fires.

In 1965, the successful Gemini space flight earlier in the week had a special thrill for Mrs. Gilbert C. Anderson, 129 Weeks St., Jamestown. The original model for the Gemini program was made by Carl E. Erickson, a younger brother of Mrs. Anderson and the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Erickson of Scandia, Pa., and Jamestown. Carl was an employee of the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo, which sent the model to the engineering staff of General Dynamics in California. Erickson once worked for Curtis Machine Corp. in Jamestown.

Mrs. Marie Johnson of 13th Street, Jamestown, was reported in “good” condition in Jamestown General Hospital following a mishap the previous afternoon in which she was struck by her own car. She was taken to the hospital and treated for contusions of both legs and a possible fractured hip. Mrs. Johnson told hospital officials that she parked her car at Newton Avenue and Alton Place and thought she had left the vehicle in parking gear. According to Mrs. Johnson, the auto rolled forward after she had alighted and she was struck by one of its doors.

In 1990, a petition signed by 200 people who approved of giving students chemical breath tests to help determine alcohol use was submitted to the Bemus Point School Board. The petition was in response to one submitted March 12, signed by 62 adults and 12 students who opposed the use of the tests. Board members would act on the matter later. They noted they might include in their alcohol policy the requirement that every effort must be made to contact a student’s parents before giving him a voluntary chemical test.

Wall Street analysts’ decision to cut New York’s credit rating – making it the third worst among the 50 states – had apparently shocked state leaders into movement on a new budget. Gov. Mario Cuomo and legislative leaders emerged from a five-hour meeting in the early morning hours to announce they had agreed on some $500 million in budget cuts. They refused to reveal those cuts.

In Years Past

In 1915, John D. Rockefeller had spent $200,000 to build a lake on the Buttermilk Hill section of his Pocantico Hills estate at Tarrytown. Twice within the past six months he had knocked off work with his men at night and left a perfectly good lake in the bowl where it ought to be. For the same number of times on the following mornings, the lake had disappeared and nothing but a sandy bottom remained where water flowed the night before. Where the water went or how it got away was still a mystery to Mr. Rockefeller. He gave up trying to solve the problem a month ago to go South and golf.

Jamestown department stores put on gala attire Thursday on the occasion of their annual spring opening and the latest and smartest in spring garments were displayed, as well as the many dainty and indispensable accessories dear to the heart of every woman. Despite inclement weather, the stores were thronged with women during the afternoon and evening. At the Abrahamson-Bigelow Company, where styles were exhibited on living models, the attendance was greater than could be accommodated.

In 1940, damage which would run several thousand dollars resulted when fire broke out in the basement of the Harvey & Carey Drug Store at Third and Cherry streets in Jamestown about 7 o’clock Easter Sunday night. The fire spread to Nugent’s store for women adjacent to the drug store on Third Street. The loss was greatest in the Nugent store but was also extensive in the drug store. Every piece of fire apparatus in the city was summoned to the scene and off-shift firemen were called to duty when it appeared for a time that the blaze might mushroom out to cause a general conflagration.

For the first time in abut 90 years the place known as the Haslett farm had changed ownership, Maurice Wilkinson having purchased it from Mrs. Lettie Haslett. He and his family were moving there this week. The farm was located about one half mile north of the village of Findley Lake on Findley Lake-North East Road, upon the bank of the outlet creek from the lake and the creek flowing into it from the north. James and Elizabeth (Findley) Haslett and their families resided there before the Civil War. Mr. Haslett was a soldier in that conflict.

In 1965, New York state would spend about $88,000 in the coming fall to replace signs along an 88-mile stretch of Route 20 through Chautauqua and Erie counties. Donald Gravener, State Dept. of Public Works traffic engineer at Buffalo said the project was scheduled for bidding later in the year. He said the project would involve replacing 1,300 signs, including everything from route markers and parking signs to destination markers. “We have held off replacing the signs in recent months and have been criticized but we felt it poor policy to undertake the work when the wholesale resigning program was scheduled shortly,” he said.

A new industry, the Randolph Dimension Corp., to manufacture dimension stock-wood components for furniture, would be in operation in three weeks in Randolph. About 18 persons would be employed. The new industry was being established in the former Taylor-Jamestown building, a three story frame structure with 80,000 square feet of space. Presently, new and rebuilt machinery, to cut furniture parts, was being installed and production was scheduled to begin in mid-April.

In 1990, weeds would make an early debut in Chautauqua Lake in the coming summer, the director of the county Department of Planning and Development predicted. John Luensman said the quick exit of ice from the lake had triggered conditions that would lead to an early growth of weeds. Ice disappeared in the Bemus Bay area about two weeks ahead of schedule – March 15. Normally ice stayed in Bemus Bay until late March. “The interesting thing about an early ice-out is the availability of light and warmth in the water has the potential of giving us an onset of growth of rooted aquatics,” or weeds, Luensman said.

Fish and Wildlife Technician Cheryl Desposito of Allegany braved a chill early morning breeze to unload rainbow trout from the state fish hatchery in Randolph. Ms. Desposito would deliver the fish to undisclosed streams in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Wyoming counties. Gary Sickles, hatchery manager at Randolph, said preseason stocking was a busy time. About 50 tons of trout would be dumped into streams before the season opened on Sunday, April 2.

In Years Past

In 1915, Coroner O. S. Martin had made public his verdict in the case of the deaths of Eliza Drake, Irene Spencer and Gertrude Spencer, the three victims of the Atlantic Street murder in Salamanca, occurring at that place some time ago. In his decision he found that the three women came to their deaths “on the night of Jan. 28 or the morning of Jan. 29th, by use of a hammer, in the hands of some person or persons unknown.” Evidence in the inquest was taken by the coroner two weeks ago, but owing to illness this decision was not given out as soon as was originally intended. The cause of death in each case was shown to have been the same and the wounds were made by the same instrument.

One of the first of the early spring weddings was solemnized the previous evening when Miss Annie Constance Rosengren, daughter of Mrs. August Rosengren of 119 Willard Street, Jamestown, became the bride of Alvin Wallace Morse, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Morse of 150 Chandler Street. Rev. Eric Swan, pastor of the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church, officiated in the presence of about 80 guests, many of them relatives of the young couple. The ceremony was performed at the home of the bride’s mother. While the guests were assembling, Miss Ina Morse, a sister of the bridegroom, played selections on the piano and at 8 o’clock she struck the first notes of the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin. The bride was beautiful in a gown of shimmering white satin.

In 1940, the earth recovered this day from the communication-wrecking effects of a magnetic storm, possibly the greatest in modern history. A tornado-like solar disturbance, scientists said, whipped up huge spots on the sun from which a stream of electrical particles emanated, riddling the earth’s atmosphere and virtually isolating America from the rest of the world for several hours the previous day. The phenomenon affected land telegraph and telephone; undersea cables; the wireless telephone from New York to London, Paris and Rome; short-wave relays and even long-wave radio to a lesser extent. Capping the day-long astral-physical warfare was a display of “Northern Lights” which gave additional support to the theory that the heavenly fireworks were a manifestation of sun spots.

Dr. Edwin W. McQuivey of Utica, 100 years old this day, still ate anything he wanted and took a drink when he felt like it. But he had cut his cigar ration from 50 a week to one after every meal. A pipe was his constant companion between cigars. Dr. McQuivey had shoveled snow and worked about his home over the winter. In summer, he worked in his garden and absorbed as much sunshine as he could. A retired dentist, horse oil and real-estate dealer, he laughed at physicians who cautioned him about his health, particularly one who warned him several years previously he would soon be blind. “It doesn’t pay for people to make predictions about my age,” he chuckled. He believed he was the oldest Utican living.

In 1965, Republican Governor Rockefeller had under consideration a Democratic bill to raise the state minimum wage from $1.25 an hour to $1.50, a move that Rockefeller opposed. Prospects for the governor to use his veto power, however, were uncertain. At a news conference, he declined to say whether he would veto the measure approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. In each house, the majority was almost the two-thirds needed to pass the wage increase over a Rockefeller veto.

After a near-tragedy the previous day and dozens of complaints, Jamestown police officials warned parents their children would be taken into custody if they continued walking in the streets. Police reported a youngster was nearly struck by a car on Lakeview Avenue yesterday as he strolled with other school students down the center of the street. The switchboard at police headquarters had buzzed with almost continuous complaints during lunch hours and when students were traveling to and from school, police said. The majority of complaints were from motorists traveling near junior high schools. Streets near Washington Junior High School were listed by police as a chronic trouble area recently. Some of the students had walked arm in arm down the street and had refused to move for cars traveling in either direction. Police gave warning that if the practice persisted the students would be detained at police headquarters until their parents came to call for them.

In Years Past

• In 1915, Chief of Police John Finnell and Detective Charles Gradwell left the Elmira police station the previous afternoon, telling the desk sergeant they believed they had located two “yeggs” on Baldwin Street, a block away. Ten minutes later both officers were dead. They had entered a rooming house and Mrs. Collins, the landlady, directed them to a room on the first floor at the rear. There they found Edward Westervelt and John Crammer. The officers started to search the room when the roomers opened fire, killing both officers. Westervelt broke a leg in getting out of a window and was captured while seeking a hiding place. He declared that Crammer did the shooting. Crammer was being sought by police, the National Guard and several thousand citizens.

• Henry Guenther, the recently appointed postmaster of Jamestown, this day retired from the cigar manufacturing business with which he had been connected in this city for the past 35 years. He had sold his stock to Charles Feather and four of the cigar makers who were employed at his cigar factory. Recently, Charles Feather became connected with the concern under the corporate name of the Guenther-Feather Cigar Company. The company’s factory was located on East Second Street. Fourteen persons were employed in the factory. The company made a good quality of cigars and had a prosperous business. That this prosperity would continue, there was little question.

• In 1940, the world’s biggest plane, a bomber believed capable of flying across the Atlantic and back again without stopping, was expected to take its place in the army’s air armada in the coming summer. It was a 70-ton, $1,000,000 warplane which dwarfed the newest 42-ton trans-Pacific clipper. Two years under construction in the strictest secrecy, the new sky monster was so near completion that the army revealed a few guarded facts about it. Designated the B-19, the bomber probably would have no sister ships, officers said. The plane would have a wing-spread of over 210 feet, four engines, a speed of “over 200 miles an hour” and a cruising range of more than 6,000 miles.

• Application for a change in the fire insurance rating of the city of Jamestown, based on a recent survey of the mercantile and factory zones, together with improvement of the fire fighting and fire prevention facilities inaugurated by Fire Chief Rudolph Swanson, had been made to the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The last survey here by the National Board of Fire Underwriters was made in 1930 but fire protection facilities had greatly improved since then. Many of the penalty points recorded against the city at that time should be eliminated, according to Chief Swanson.

• In 1965, children of Jamestown public schools would not receive an extra day of Easter vacation despite an impressive appeal on their behalf to the Board of Education by the president of the junior class of Jamestown High School. In a letter to the board, Frank Costanzo asked that the Easter holiday start with the close of school on Wednesday, April 14 instead of the following day, as scheduled. He pointed out that a number of other schools in the area had been starting their Easter vacations in recent years on Wednesday. He said that by including Maundy Thursday in the vacation, a number of students would be able to attend religious services on that day.

• The coveted title of Miss Jamestown would go to one of the lovely young ladies who had been selected as finalists in the competition sponsored by Jamestown Jaycees. The final pageant would be held at Jamestown High School Friday, May 14. The finalists were: Maryanne Verieni, Virginia Bell, Wendy Anderson, Iris Fowler, Betty Jo Roselle, Genevieve Guido, Carol Kellogg, Linda Horton, Marie LaMarca, Janette Hoff and Terry Emanuelson.

• In 1990, this year’s crop of Oscar nominees was making it difficult for would-be prognosticators to pick which movie would be named best picture of 1989. Unlike the previous year, when Rain Man was a certainty, this year no one movie was a shoo-in. In fact, the winner on Monday night might be the result of an upset. Any one of the five movies up for the top prize could win. It was that close. The five nominees for best picture of 1989 were: Field of Dreams, Dead Poets Society, Driving Miss Daisy, Born On The Fourth Of July and My Left Foot.

• Unless all Jamestown area residents completely and accurately filled out the census forms they had received in the mail on Friday, the city could lose millions of dollars a year in state and federal money. “The benefits of a complete census count will be enormous for this community,” said Samuel Teresi, Jamestown’s development director. “This year, it is more important than ever that people cooperate with the census,” Teresi said. Money was the most important reason people should completely and accurately fill out the forms and cooperate with telephone and door-to-door census workers, he said.

In Years Past

• In 1915, Thursday afternoon was to be a grand rally day for everyone in Panama or within a radius of five or more miles of that place. Mr. Davis, the promoter of the Panama Traction Line was to be in Wade’s Hall at 1 p.m. and the sole topic of the conversation would be in regard to the proposed street railway line running from Ashville to Panama and thence west to either Clymer or Sherman with the western terminal at Erie. It was understood that the object of the meeting was to get acquainted with the people along the line, to talk over the most feasible routes and ascertain whether the people of this community wished to show any interest in it or not.

• Much interest was manifested in Port Allegany over the arrest of a woman who gave her name as Ruth Hunter, who was charged with conducting a disorderly house and who might be indicted for a violation of the Mann White Slave act. The woman was alleged to be a white slaver and considerable evidence was said to have been secured in the case. It was alleged that she conducted a house in Port Allegany, being aided by a man known as “Sandy” Knowlton, who was also under arrest. It was alleged that she had enticed several girls into her place from New York state under the pretext of obtaining work of various kinds for them.

• In 1940, the home relief case load in Jamestown increased by 29 cases in February as compared with January, according to a report to the Board of Public Welfare by Commissioner Walter Christopherson but the number of old age assistance cases decreased by nine during the same period. Mr. Christopherson also submitted a report covering the year 1939 in which it was stated that applications for home and veterans relief were reduced by 28 percent over 1938 and that of the applications received, 62 percent were accepted and 38 percent rejected.

• Jamestown police were still looking for a young man whose chivalrous instincts were aroused to such a degree that he floored one red-headed girl with a knockout blow to the stomach to climax an argument in the post office lobby between his victim and another red-headed lassie who was in his company. Victim of the assault was Miss Margaret Nuse, 18, of Washington Street. The blow from her unknown assailant left her unconscious on the post office floor. She was still stunned when admitted to Jamestown General Hospital and complained of a headache and pain in her abdomen. Police said they still had no clue to the young man’s identity.

• In 1965, Astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Young guided their spaceship Molly Brown into a new orbital path this day and scored a big first in the space race. The mission control center at Cape Kennedy called the successful maneuver, executed high over Texas during the first of three planned orbits, “a historic” one. Grissom, 38, Air Force major and the first man to rocket twice into space, operated the jets that put the capsule into a nearly circular orbit ranging from 97 to 105 miles high.

• Purchase of the seven-acre picnic grove for $30,000 was authorized by the Celoron Village Board in a lengthy “lame duck” session the past night. It was the last regular meeting for Mayor Edward Keller, who had served as trustee and mayor for about 14 years and for Trustee Oscar Zimmer, a 10-year board member. They were both Democrats. The picnic grove was part of the Celoron Park property owned by the Harry Illion estate.

• In 1990, heated debate over the future of the Sea Lion broke out among members of Chautauqua Lake Historic Vessels Co. at their annual meeting after it was announced the ship would not sail in the coming summer and no former crew members were elected to the organization’s board of directors. R. Craig Campbell, outgoing president of the Historic Vessels board of directors, said rising maintenance costs made it impossible to sail the replica 16th century merchant ship this summer.

• Cold Canadian air moving in on the heels of overnight winds gusting to 46 miles an hour and causing limited electric service interruptions was expected to dominate the area’s weather picture for the next several days. Charles Callan, assistant manger of Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.’s Dunkirk regional office, said a tree that fell onto an electric transmission line the previous afternoon in the Ashville Bay area knocked out service to about 400 customers for nearly two hours.

In Years Past

In 1915, the announcement that each of the 37 applications for liquor licenses in Warren County had been granted by Judge Hinckley, caused much excitement in Warren. Associate Judge Hughes dissented from Judge Hinckley who in an opinion said: “That in the absence of legal reasons to the contrary the court was not at liberty to depart from the opinions which have guided it since 1891. It also holds that the evidence presented has proven clearly the ‘necessity’ for licensed places in Warren County and that under the law the court has had no choice but to grant the applications.”

• In cases of gas poisoning, asphyxiation, electric shocks or in any condition where death was impending from cessation of respiration, many lives could be saved by the use of artificial respiration with the use of oxygen. The recent invention of apparatus for forcing air and oxygen in and out of the lungs had permitted a great improvement in the treatment of these cases. A. N. Broadhead, realizing the value of such an apparatus, offered to purchase whichever type of instrument the Woman’s Christian Association Hospital in Jamestown considered the best. A committee was formed to examine the principal forms of apparatus on the market and upon its recommendation, the one known as the lungmotor was purchased.

In 1940, For the first time in a number of years, Dunkirk was to observe daylight savings time this year. By resolution offered at Tuesday night’s Common Council meeting by Councilman C. R. Monroe, it was decided to have fast time effective from the last Sunday in April until the last Sunday in September. It was explained that state engineers, the labor department and the contracting company directly concerned with the two-year project of eliminating local grade crossings of the New York Central railroad, due to start about the first of the following month, favored daylight savings time as did most local industrial and business concerns.

Northside residents in Jamestown who expressed grave concern over the “predicament” of an airplane which they heard circling overhead at about 1 a.m., would be relieved to learn that the machine was in no predicament at all. It was merely a Jamestown pilot taking advantage of a brilliant moon and starlit sky for an adventurous midnight flight in a ski-equipped plane, off the snow covered runways of the municipal airport. Neil McCray, manager of the airport, was the pilot.

In 1965, Charles C. McCloskey III, son of Chautauqua County Sheriff and Mrs. Charles C. McCloskey Jr., of Lakewood, a first classman at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, would begin three days of area speaking engagements the following day to explain activities at the academy. Cadet McCloskey, a graduate of Southwestern Central School, would speak at the school tomorrow and later the same day would present items of interest regarding USMA at Sherman Central School. He was also scheduled to speak at Ripley Central School and Cardinal Mindszenty High School in Dunkirk on Wednesday. Thursday he would speak at Cassadaga Central School, Mayville Central School and Jamestown High School.

Spring came around the corner Saturday wearing a snowsuit which she refused to shed despite what the calendar said. The mercury dipped to 6 above zero in Jamestown the past night and hovered around the zero mark throughout the county. Slightly more than 3 inches of snow fell here during the weekend. Cold weather accompanied by wind-blown snow flurries was due to continue this day.

In 1990, households across the nation would receive census forms in the mail starting Friday, as the head count shifted its focus from the homeless to the rest of the U.S. population. The most ambitious effort ever to count the homeless wound up early the previous day with Census Bureau Director Barbara Everett Bryant proclaiming success. “We can now move on to the rest of America,” she said, urging people to complete their census forms and send them back promptly.

Owners of abandoned cars and trucks in the town of Ellicott should beware. The town was cracking down on abandoned cars. The Ellicott Town Code prohibited the storage of junk cars on private property and inspection officer Roger Atkinson said he would enforce the code. “There’s going to be a crackdown on abandoned cars in the town of Ellicott. We’ve been getting a lot of complaints and we’re going to go after them,” Atkinson told The Post-Journal. The Town Code prohibited the storage of any junk vehicle on private property for 30 days or more.

In Years Past

In 1915, at about 2:15 the previous afternoon, the fire bell rang and the fire whistle tooted and the indicators in the firehouses of Jamestown showed an alarm had been turned in from Box 24, which was at the corner of Eighth and Washington streets. Previous to this a still alarm had been sent in to fire headquarters at City Hall. The firemen got out on the jump. The apparatus made quick time to the locality where dried grass was found burning in a vacant lot. “It was an awful blaze and it looked as though it would set fire to the adjoining houses,” explained a neighbor. The fire was quickly extinguished and the firemen returned to their quarters. On the way to the fire one of the tire chains of the City Hall truck broke but the truck was delayed only for a minute or two.

Tracey, the Hatter, opened his new store at 115 Main Street in Jamestown the previous morning. The place had been completely remodeled since it was occupied by the Wells Fargo Express Company and the present appearance was all that could be desired for an attractive and up-to-date hat store. Jamestown was the twelfth city to be selected by the Tracey concern for a branch store. Other stores were scattered over the eastern and central states. Edwin A. Tracey would have charge of the local store and he expected to make Jamestown his home. A goodly number of men visited the new store in the morning and afternoon and each visitor was presented with a souvenir in the way of a hat cleaner.

In 1940, the fight by Edward Guinnane, former Jamestown attorney, to secure his release from the Gowanda State Hospital was in the hands of a jury this day in the court of Supreme Court Justice Charles Desmond in Buffalo. Guinnane was appearing as his own attorney in the case. He was confined at the Gowanda Hospital on Jan. 6 by direction of Chautauqua County Judge Lee L. Ottaway. Trial of the proceedings began before Justice Desmond the previous day with two questions posed for the jury’s decision: 1. Is Guinnane sane? 2. Is he competent to manage himself and his affairs?

Long in next-to-impossible condition and further ravaged by the exceptionally hard winter from which the city of Jamestown was hopefully emerging, the surface of West Sixth Street, between Washington Street and Fairmount Avenue, came in for a temporary repair job on this morning which would be followed by a more permanent repaving job during the coming summer. Craters that gave the stretch of pavement the appearance of a hard shelled strip of “no-man’s land,” were the immediate object of Department of Public Works employees as work was started this morning. The street was officially closed the past night and warning lanterns were set out all along the strip but motorists were still permitted to use the street at their own risk.

In 1990, reconstruction of the Washington Street Bridge in Jamestown was in progress. Work crews had begun removing the deck of the bridge. The work was part of a project to rehabilitate the entire structure and was expected to continue through the end of the year. In the meantime, the bridge was closed to all traffic.

Recycling contract negotiations between Chautauqua County Recycling and the county were stalled on newspaper-hauling costs, and County Executive Andrew Goodell had vowed to get the best deal he could for the county. Goodell told The Post-Journal he would continue to talk with Archie Nichols, owner of Chautauqua County Recycling, about the contract but would talk with other recyclers, too. Goodell discussed the negotiations in the wake of Nichols’ decision to close his recycling center to the county until a contract was signed. “My job in representing the county taxpayers is to drive the hardest bargain I can. I’m being as hard-nosed as I can,” Goodell said.

In Years Past

In 1915, many shades of opinion and belief relative to the various problems of producing milk and complying with the new state health code and the proposed Jamestown city ordinances were expressed at a meeting of milk producers held Thursday afternoon in this city. In general, however, there were only a few serious objections raised wither to the state code or the local ordinances. The meeting was largely attended and milk producers from not only Jamestown and vicinity but along the traction lines as far as Stedman and Dewittville, and elsewhere from a considerable distance, were present.

• This was the day of the spring style show at the House of Burnett in Jamestown and as usual at such affairs there was a large attendance. The store was dressed up for the occasion and presented a very attractive sight with its displays of new gowns, wraps, waists and materials. The new spring models were exhibited on living models and a feature of the opening was the rainbow bridal reception. There was music and refreshments were served to the visitors.

In 1940, Spring was received coldly by New York this day as fleeing winter covered its retreat with blanketing snows in western counties and flurries in many other sections. State police reported “heavy storms” in 11 western counties, with highways powdered with the new fall and visibility poor. At Rochester, a heavy snow started early , the airport reporting visibility of “about half a mile.” Similar storms struck Hornell, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Jamestown and Batavia.

Phineas Palmiter, the father of the furniture industry in Jamestown, a carpenter by trade and skilled mechanic, arrived in Jamestown, June 13, 1813. The following year he made a small cherry stand for James Prendergast, who kept his money in its small drawer until 1831 when the first bank here was built. From that beginning, the furniture industry developed in Jamestown, commencing about 1815. That this was the first piece of furniture made in Jamestown had been positively identified by A. Willington Anderson, city historian, who said it was preserved. Local exhibitors joined in redecorating spaces and planning displays in the furniture building to mark 125 years of furniture making.

In 1965, Jamestown Fireman Walter Larson raised the American Flag at Veterans’ Memorial Park on this morning marking the start of an arrangement between firemen and police that would see the Flag raised an lowered daily. Jamestown Mayor Fred H. Dunn, asked earlier in the week to resolve the question of who would raise the Flag, announced that members of the fire department and police department would alternate on a monthly basis at raising and lowering the Flag. To keep things on an even keel, it was announced the fire department would accomplish the chore for the remainder of the month and April, with the police department taking over in May.

Moves to abolish the death penalty in New York State held the important support of the Bartlett Commission which recommended an end “to barbarism of this kind.” The commission’s 8-4 support for abolition strengthened the stand of lawmakers intent on abolishing capital punishment in this legislative session. The four dissenters wanted to delay legislative action until the following year, thereby allowing more time to hear and examine arguments.

In 1990, New Yorkers might have to pay more at the pump to help balance the state budget, under a proposal from Gov. Mario Cuomo. Cuomo asked the state Legislature to consider raising New York’s gasoline tax to help raise money to close the state’s looming budget deficit. Raising the gasoline tax – last increased in 1972 – had been much talked about in recent weeks and Cuomo finally made the proposal during a one-hour meeting with legislative leaders. He said it was part of a “menu” of new taxes he gave the leaders to consider in the new state budget.

The first meeting of a committee created to assure an accurate population count in Jamestown and surrounding areas during the 1990 Census was described as “enthusiastic” and “Idea-filled” by Sam Teresi, director of Jamestown’s Department of Development. “People came ready to share good suggestions and prepared to work hard to spread the word that this census is extremely important,” Teresi said. Every resident of the city had to be counted during the year’s census or the city might lose its urbanized area designation, Teresi said.

In Years Past

• In 1915, the Jamestown Worsted Mills had sold the old Jamestown Woolen Mills property on Winsor Street to the Gurney Ball Bearing Company of this city. The consideration was private. The transfer of this property was a gratifying indication of the industrial development in this city for it was understood that architects were preparing plans for factory buildings to be located on this property which for many years had been idle and a part of which had been used for the cricket grounds. There was an old factory building, one of the oldest in the city in fact, located on the property. The factory fronted on Winsor Street and the Cricket grounds fronted on Chandler Street extension. If the property was utilized for other purposes it would probably mean an end of cricket games in Jamestown.

An amateur theatrical night, the first affair of its kind ever held in the city, was put on by Jamestown aerie Fraternal Order of Eagles with Harry Nyquist as chairman of the committee in charge and it was a success in every sense of the word. Three theatrical numbers and three athletic events were on the program after which buffet refreshments were served. Several hundred members of the aerie were present and they were well entertained. The affair was conducted along the same lines as followed out in the theaters in the big cities and each number was a hit with the audience.

In 1940, an unknown disease had claimed the life of two and a half year old Betty Jane Delcamp, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cassius Delcamp of Brocton. Betty Jane died Sunday evening after an illness of two weeks during which physicians professed themselves unsure of the reason for her sickness. The little girl underwent an operation on her ear Sunday morning and another was planned on the other ear before death intervened. Apparently the disease set up an infection in the ear which was responsible for her death. Besides her parents, Betty Jane was survived by her brother, Richard and her sister Joan.

Approximately $2,600 had already been raised in cash donations for the purchase of property on Falconer Street in Jamestown for development as a municipal athletic stadium, it was reported at a meeting of the citizen’s committee workers at city hall. General Chairman Ernest Kessler, City Judge Allen E. Bargar, who headed the athletic field group and Harry A. Taber were in charge of the meeting. In addition to the amount turned in, the benefit basketball game the past Saturday night would swell the total by more than $100 and two groups had $100 or more each that had not yet been reported. The industrial committee was bending every effort to canvass factories in the city.

In 1965, Jamestown was listed in a New York Senate bill as one of three sites in the state for possible establishment of a pari-mutual quarter horse track. A bill to create a commission to establish pari-mutual quarter horse racing was filed in the Senate by Sen. Joseph Marine of the Bronx and Assemblyman Clarence Lane of Greene County. Lane said three groups already had plans for the construction of quarter horse tracks in the state. He listed locations as Cairo in Greene County, Riverhead on Long Island and Jamestown in western New York. The only known local organization with plans to construct quarter horse facilities was Cockaigne, Inc., a group which was developing a 2,080 recreational complex near Ellington and Sinclairville.

With passage of a bill to double New York State cigarette tax awaiting only the governor’s signature, the move had touched off more speculation than the weather. Local smokers were recalling depression days when they rolled their own, and cigarette shortages during World War II. They predicted a boom in the sale of cigarette-rolling machines which sold by the millions in the late 20’s and during part of the 30’s. During World War II when cigarettes were in short supply for civilians, they stood in line to buy one or two packs. The most popular man in town those days was the hometown soldier on furlough who brought cartons of them back home.

In 1990, it was time to break out the bats and balls with just three weeks until opening day of baseball season. Baseball’s owners and players announced agreement this morning on a four-year contract, ending the sticky salary arbitration dispute that had threatened the 1990 season. The settlement stopped a 32-day lockout and cleared the way for spring training to start but came too late for the season to begin on time. The season was to start on April 9 – a week later than scheduled.

As part of an extensive Recycle America program, Waste Management of Southwestern New York had implemented a comprehensive recycling program for cardboard. The program was aimed at collection of commercial cardboard waste and was the first program of its type in Chautauqua County, Joseph Zingale, general manager of Waste Management, said. The new program was created in direct response to “the local county law mandating recycling in Chautauqua County,” Zingale said. “Our objective is to remove the cardboard generated at higher volume commercial businesses and transport the material to a recycling facility as opposed to having it landfilled, he said.

In Years Past

In 1915, there were useless employees in many New York state departments and the number could be decreased materially without impairing the work, the senate finance committee declared in a report of its investigation of the state’s payroll, made to the senate this day. The committee, in making its investigation, did not include judiciary, health, officer of the port of New York, charitable institutions, the National Guard or the workmen’s compensation commission. Reports from some of those departments, it was found, would be hard to obtain and others had been in operation such a short time that no comparison could be had.

Henry McGee of Wellsville, 53 years old, died at a local hospital the previous morning from bullet wounds received late Tuesday night. Sheriff Tunsteed and posse were scouring the county for trace of the murderer. The sheriff had offered a reward of $250 for the arrest of Roy Champlin, 23 years old, nephew of McGee. The young man came to the McGee house late Tuesday night, drove the family upstairs and opened fire on McGee with a .45-caliber revolver. McGee was stuck in the chest and abdomen. Neighbors were aroused by the shots but the murderer had made his escape before aid came.

In 1940, Luther Blodgett, Leonard Aldrich and Nelson McGrotnie, Chautauqua County 4-H Club members from Fredonia, took honors at the Western New York Egg Show at Akron Saturday. Although Blodgett was unable to attend the show, his dozen of brown eggs took blue ribbon honors and his dozen of white eggs got a red ribbon. Leonard Aldrich’s dozen of white eggs won a red ribbon and Nelson McGrotnie’s brown eggs captured a red ribbon. The judging was on the exterior and interior quality of the eggs.

Mrs. Lovisa D. Goodwill of Crossman Street, Jamestown, mother of Fletcher Goodwill of this city and Herbert Goodwill of Lakewood, this day celebrated her 95th birthday. A family luncheon honored the occasion with many flowers and gifts. Mrs. Goodwill was born in Randolph, March 18, 1845 and had resided in this vicinity most of her life. She was enjoying excellent health and her eyesight was sufficiently keen to enable her to read as well as to answer all of the letters she received from her large circle of friends.

In 1965, winds which gusted up to 60 miles an hour the previous night, blew a car into the side of a stalled truck and three tractor-trailers off ice coated roads. One slammed into the corner of a large house in Frewsburg. Three persons were in the dwelling but none was injured. In the immediate Jamestown area, a mixture of rain and snow glazed streets late in the afternoon but no serious local accidents were reported. The truck crashed into the house on Route 62 at the Fentonville curve, when the vehicle, northbound, jackknifed and the wind carried it off the road into the southeast corner of the Lyle Bennett two-story frame house. Mr. Bennett, his wife and another person were in the living room watching a television program at the time of the accident. The impact moved the house 4 inches off its foundation.

• Few area TV viewers would be aware of it but there was a local connection to an ABC documentary on the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt, shown Sunday on Channel 7. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in 1936 over Alfred Landon who not only was a frequent visitor here and at Chautauqua Institution but also had local relatives. Mrs. Charles Barone of Chestnut St., Jamestown, was a second cousin of “Alf” Landon, her mother being a first cousin. Mrs. Barone’s mother was Mrs. Richard Shearman of Lake Placid and formerly of Jamestown. Mrs. Barone related that Mr. Landon spent many vacations at Chautauqua with his parents and that his grandparents were among those who helped to found the institution as members of the Erie Methodist Church Conference.

In Years Past

• In 1915, after 16 weeks of busy campaigning, the membership, attendance and entertainment contest conducted by Chautauqua Circle, P.H.C., was brought to a successful close Tuesday evening in Swedish Brotherhood Hall. The contest was staged between the Busy Bees, consisting of 44 ladies and the Busy Bodies, consisting of 35 men. Although the men were outnumbered they gave their opponents a hard battle during the campaign. The contest was run on a point scoring basis, points being given for attendance, new members and entertainment features. Forty-two new members were secured during the campaign.

• It was a matter of local interest, as well as a source of local pride, that all of the fixed and portable furniture on the United States battleship Pennsylvania, the largest and most powerful warship afloat, which was launched at Newport News, Virginia on Tuesday, was to be made in Jamestown in the plants of the Art Metal Construction Company. The Art Metal Company would supply for this greatest of all battleships, all of the desks, cabinets, chiffoniers, wardrobes for the officers, berths, mess room tables, tables and lockers from one end of the craft to the other. This was one of the largest single orders ever received by the Art Metal Company.

• In 1940, a claim for disability arising from tuberculosis which she claimed to have contracted while employed by the Department of Public Welfare of Jamestown in the pharmacy at the city hospital, was presented on behalf of Dorothy Voll of Linwood Avenue, at the session of Compensation Court held by Referee Charles K. Blatchly of Buffalo, at City Hall. The claimant stopped work and entered Newton Memorial Hospital at Cassadaga for treatment on October 16, 1939. Her work had been among relief clients who came to the hospital pharmacy for medicine and drug orders. The case was adjourned for a special hearing at Newton Memorial Hospital.

• New York state recovered slowly from another late season snow and sleet storm that left highway travel dangerous and two persons dead. Weary highway crews and utility repairmen worked long hours to clear highways of slippery snow, slush and ice and to restore communications and electric power. W. T. Milligan, 51, of New Haven, Conn., was killed when the auto in which he was riding skidded on an icy highway near Fonda and collided with a truck. In Buffalo, George Imoff, 50, of Elma, died while helping push a stalled auto in a blinding snow squall that forced temporary closing of Fuhrmann Boulevard, main artery westward along Lake Erie.

• In 1965, lost in a series of snow squalls in the Jamestown vicinity while piloting his single engine airplane, Marvin Goldblatt, 40, of Rochester, was led to a safe landing by a Jamestown airplane pilot the previous afternoon. The local flier was Anthony (Tony) Mangine, pilot for the Automatic Voting Machine Corp. Goldblatt reported he was lost over Jamestown at 2:05 p.m. and at 3:22 p.m. Mangine led him safely to the ground at the McKean County Airport at Bradford. Goldblatt discovered his Cessna 172 was losing altitude as it gathered ice. Mangine volunteered to help find him. Piloting a twin engine Aero Commander, Mangine located Goldblatt with the help of the Cleveland Radar Center. An FAA official at the Bradford Airport said Mangine did “a splendid job.”

• The New York State Assembly was expected to act favorably on a bill to prohibit throwing of trash and debris into Chautauqua Lake and to regulate the use of fishing shacks on the lake. Sponsored by Assemblyman R. Bruce Manley, R – Chautauqua, the bill would fix a $25 fine for violation of the law. Manley said the measure provided that fishing shacks would have to be removed on or before March 15, depending on the weather and ice conditions or by direct order from the state conservation commissioner.

• In 1990, it was supposed to be a remarkable comeback and a dramatic victory for the Pine Valley Lady Panthers Friday night. But sometimes even storybook seasons didn’t have happy endings. After trailing by as many as 20 points in the first half, Pine Valley fought back to tie the score at the end of the third quarter before losing a 69-63 heartbreaker to the St. Johnsville Lady Saints in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D semifinals at Queensbury High School. Senior Pam Crowell and sophomore Kim Stankey paced the Lady Panthers, pouring in 32 and 22 points respectively.

• Clymer Central School would install some new windows and remove asbestos from its Clymer building. The Board of Education awarded an $87,000 contract to Hopes Architects to replace part of the windows at the Clymer school, Superintendent Robert Reagle said. The school board also awarded a $32,000 asbestos removal contract to Penn Environmental, pending proper certification. Penn Environmental would remove asbestos from a storeroom in the school.

In Years Past

• In 1915, after purchasing the franchise, securing the services of William Webb as manager and landing the Celoron grounds for the league games, the directors of the Jamestown club of the Interstate Baseball League had come to the point where they had to call upon the fans of the city to assist if the city was to be represented by a strong club in the circuit this season. The time had come when money had to be raised to finance the club and this part was up to the fans. The directors had arranged to put a flag pole on the Hotel Samuels and every day there was a game to be played a flag would be raised. This would let the fans know whether a contest was to be staged or not without having to take the trip to Celoron.

• After considering for several weeks 50 or more applications for the position of principal of the Mayville High School, the board of education had entered into a contract with J. L. Humbert of Mount Carmel, Pa., for the following year. He was 33 years of age and had a wife and one small daughter. He had diplomas from Donaldson, Pa. public school, Dickinson Preparatory School and Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. His recommendations showed him to have been active in church and fraternal circles. None of the applicants had better recommendations than Mr. Humbert.

• In 1940, experiences during the World War when he was credited with shooting down 19 German planes for which he was cited by King George V, were related by Captain Billy Beaver, former member of Squadron 20, Royal Air Force, British Aircraft branch, in an address at a meeting of Henry Mosher Post, American Legion, at the Community building in Jamestown Thursday evening. The commander, William Paxton, presided and there was a large attendance. Following the meeting a social hour was enjoyed and supper was served.

• Fire discovered about 9 p.m. Friday practically destroyed the general store at Hartfield owned and operated by A. J. Swartz. Above the store were the living apartments of the Swartz family, the contents burning with the building. The fire was discovered by James McKenzie and William Francis, neighbors who smelled smoke. The Swartz family was at Mayville for the evening. Hartfield having no fire department, Mayville firemen were called and worked for several hours fighting a fire the source of which, because of dense smoke, was difficult to locate and to fight. The building had been a landmark of Hartfield.

• In 1965, steps to put more teeth in Jamestown’s dog ordinance were recommended by William Camp, dog warden, at the past night’s City Council Public Safety Committee meeting at City Hall. The situation concerning running dogs at some city schools was described as “deplorable.” As many as 12 dogs had been observed at one school barking and chasing the youngsters. Under the present ordinance these dogs could not be picked up if they were wearing a license.

• Despite the winter’s relatively moderate weather, the Department of Public Works in Jamestown had already used 53 percent of the funds in its budget for the purchase of salt for snow and ice removal for the entire year. This was revealed by Roger Burgeson, DPW director. Mr. Burgeson said that although the snowfall had not been as heavy as in ordinary years, it had been necessary to use 1,800 tons of salt, costing approximately $18,500, to keep streets free of snow, glare ice and “grease.”

• In 1990, the Lucille Ball Memorial Park was on its way to becoming the jewel of Celoron now that the village had received a $70,000 matching state grant to improve the park. Rick Slagle, Celoron Parks Commission co-chairman, told The Post-Journal the refurbishing of the park was only the beginning of what he hoped was a new pride in Celoron. Mayor Ronald Johnson praised the spirit of cooperation in working together to obtain the grant. “We’re very happy about it. A lot of people worked together to get this grant and make it happen.”

• Because the decline in muskellunge numbers in Chautauqua Lake was at a near-crisis level, ice fishing for muskellunge would be illegal after Oct. 31, 1991 and the required length of a “keeper” muskie would be extended from 32 to 40 inches. In addition, a 25-fish limit was to be imposed on crappie anglers, according to the proposed regulations for 1991. Meanwhile, state Department of Environmental Conservation officials were hoping muskellunge fishermen on Chautauqua Lake would take fewer of the fish from the water to the frying pan this season and next.

In Years Past

In 1915, Jamestown, in all probability, would hereafter have an annual automobile show as the result of the first Jamestown Automobile Show which was brought to a close Saturday evening in the state armory. The show was a success beyond all expectations and Manager C. A. Fanvey stated to a Journal representative that it was almost certain that the automobile dealers of the city would make the exhibit an annual event. Not only did the show attract people from this city, nearly 1.500 persons from the surrounding vicinity visited the exhibition.

Coroner Charles Randall, witness upon whom the people relied for their strongest evidence in the case against Dr. W. I. Hewitt of Little Valley who was charged with manslaughter, was ill in a Buffalo hospital. Randall would not be able to attend the trial which opened at Little Valley this day. Coroner Randall attended Anna Williams at Franklinville before she died. It was to him she dictated her ante-mortem statement, in which she accused Dr. Hewitt of having performed an illegal operation which later was said to have resulted in her death.

In 1940, refusal by the city comptroller to pay two bills involving a swap of hospital services for farm produce was revealed at a meeting of the health and hospital board at the Jamestown city hospital. Adolph Beckdahl, chairman of the finance committee of the board, brought up the matter. He stated that the bills had been contracted in good faith in a recent deal whereby the hospital agreed to accept from farmers, potatoes and other produce in payment of hospital bills.

The children of the Gerry Homes Orphanage assisted by the Young Peoples Missionary Societies of the Free Methodist churches of Gerry and Jamestown would conduct a Pre-Easter “Help Gerry Homes” campaign for funds in Jamestown on Saturday. Contributions would be solicited on the streets and in the stores of the downtown section with dime boxes. The present solicitation was an outgrowth of a long established custom at the Gerry Homes. For more than 25 years young people in many of the Free Methodist Sunday Schools had solicited contributions to help Gerry Homes during the Easter season.

In 1965, the words of the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome,” filled the air at Veterans Memorial Park the previous day at the “in Sympathy for Selma” rally in Jamestown. Several hundred persons joined with Rev. Donald E. Williams in singing the hymn which had become the clarion call of the non-violent civil rights movement. Organizers of the rally said it was the first time “We Shall Overcome” had been sung publicly at a biracial assembly in Jamestown. The life and work of the Rev. James Reeb,white Unitarian minister who died after a beating by whites in Selma, Alabama, was eulogized by the Rev. J. Robert Bath, the Jamestown Unitarian minister.

The annual “Grievance Day” of the Jamestown Board of Review and Correction saw spokesmen and owners for most of the 82 properties on the agenda appear at City Hall to lodge their complaints against 1965 tax assessments. During the all-day session, board members listened to the numerous complaints, telling each spokesman or owner that their request would be taken under further study before a decision would be made.

In 1990, the bodies of two Buffalo men who drowned Tuesday at Point Chautauqua were recovered shortly after 10 a.m. this day by Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department divers near the Sword and Shield Restaurant. The men, Richard Harris, 49, and Anthony E. Pladas, 38, were ice fishing Tuesday morning when they apparently fell through a hole in the thin ice on the lake, police said. Search operations were postponed until this day because there was too much ice near the area where the men went under.

Commander David L. Caswell, formerly of Falconer, assumed command of Patrol Squadron 67 in a traditional Naval ceremony conducted aboard Naval Air Station Memphis in Millington, Tennessee. Caswell was the son of the late Russell and Betty Caswell of Falconer. He was a 1967 graduate of Falconer Central School and a graduate of Jamestown Community College and Buffalo State University. He was commissioned in 1971 and received his Navy wings in 1973. Caswell assumed command of a squadron which operated eight Lockheed P-3B Orion aircraft. The squadron routinely deployed to the Western Pacific to support Seventh Fleet operations.

In Years Past

In 1915, the police department of Jamestown received word from Johnsonburg, Pa., Friday evening to the effect that Frank Musca of Jamestown had been shot in a card game at that place. The police had been asked to locate the relatives of the dead man in order that they might make arrangements for the disposition of the body. The man had been playing cards in the Decarlo Cafe and Musca and a man called Carbous disagreed over the game. Later, in front of the cafe, Carbous, it was alleged, pulled a .32 caliber revolver out of his pocket and shot Musca through the heart. After the shooting, Carbous disappeared and was still at large. Musca had been visiting friends in Johnsonburg the past week. He left a wife and two children in Jamestown. Musca was 29 years of age. Acquaintences said he was sober and industrious and much sympathy was expressed for the bereaved family. Friends of the unfortunate widow were caring for her temporarily until some determination could be reached as to her future.

Miss Helen M. Todd of California, “a master hand at interesting and holding an audience,” arrived in Jamestown the previous afternoon. She would make an appearance in what promised to be an aggressive campaign for woman’s suffrage during her stay in this city. When Miss Todd started east to help the suffrage cause, she asked Governor Johnson for a message and he said: “Tell them that the greatest treasure in California – greater even than the discovery of gold – is the part the women were playing in helping make our laws.” And Miss Todd was of the opinion that it was the voters to whom this truth should be brought home. In conformity with that idea, her schedule had been arranged in such a manner as to make possible her appearance before a majority of Jamestown’s men.

In 1940, Vishnia’s Grill at 111 West Third Street, Jamestown, was formally opened to the public this day after five weeks of intensive work in remodeling the building. A completely new grill including food and bar service was provided. James G. Vishnia, owner, had operated Vishnia’s Candy Shoppe two doors east of the present location since 1915, where he also served food. George F. Jeffreys, who had 35 years experience in tending bar would act as bartender, assisted by Fritz Carlson, also an experienced man. The grill was decorated in two-tone panel veneer with colorful fixtures in a modern motif. Air conditioning had been installed for year-round comfort.

While Congress took a hand in the simmering controversy over Allied warplane purchases, aviation circles tried to reconcile reported Franco-British eagerness for American fighting craft with the slow trickle of actual orders. The release of the latest-type American warplanes to the Allies aroused many congressmen and a House Military Affairs subcommittee ordered an inquiry for early the following week to determine whether national defense interests were being jeopardized. A move for a kindred investigation was instituted in the Senate.

In 1990, a second man had died of burns after a ruptured propane pipeline exploded and destroyed 10 homes in a caldron of fire at Blenheim, N.Y., about 40 miles south of Albany. At least four people were injured in the blast Tuesday. The fire burned itself out at about 5 a.m. this day and a cap was placed on the hole in the pipeline, according to Schoharie County Sheriff’s officials. The 8-inch underground pipeline exploded twice as the valley community awakened shortly before 8 a.m., knocking out phones and electricity up to 15 miles away. The Texas Eastern-owned pipeline began in Mont Belvieu, Texas and wound its way 4,100 miles to Selkirk, about 10 miles south of Albany.

Divers would search for two Buffalo ice fishermen who apparently drowned Tuesday morning in Chautauqua Lake after ice cleared the area, James C. Merrill, supervisor of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department Marine Patrol said. Richard Harris, 49, and Anthony E. Pladas, 38, both of Buffalo, were presumed drowned after they fell into the water at 8 a.m. the previous day. Windblown slabs of heavy ice near the area where the men went in the water prevented an immediate search. “It’s too dangerous right now. We’re not about to risk the lives of the divers,” to recover the two bodies, Merrill said.

In Years Past

In 1915, fifty members of the Sherman Automobile Club attended the Jamestown Automobile Show in a body Thursday evening. The party left Sherman early in the afternoon over the Pennsylvania Railroad and from Mayville came to this city in a special car. The car, decorated with banners and pennants, arrived in Jamestown about 4:30 o’clock, after which the members spent the afternoon in visiting the moving picture shows and garages of the city. At 6:30 o’clock the members partook of a big dinner at the Hotel Samuels, half of the main dining room being reserved for them. After dinner, the party went to the automobile show in the state armory and made careful inspection of the cars on exhibition.

After an investigation and conference between Albert Waugh of the Pennsylvania State Livestock Board and Dr. H. P. Taylor of the Federal Animal Husbandry Bureau at Erie on Thursday, it was decided to kill all cats and dogs that were permitted to run at large in Greene Township, Erie County. These experts had concluded that the spread of foot and mouth disease among hogs and cattle in that part of the county was due in measure to roaming cats and dogs. The officials agreed that the best that could be done was to have all the dogs and cats in Greene Township killed, except in instances where measures were taken to keep them from wandering from farm to farm.

In 1940, warning against the creation of super men and super government which he stated were delusions leading to war, and urging a strict observance of the rules of international law if America was to keep out of war, Dr. Raymond Moley, former No. 1 member of President Roosevelt’s original “brain” trust and former assistant secretary of state, addressed a near capacity audience of the Jamestown Civic Forum in the high school auditorium Tuesday evening. He spoke on the subject, Can We Stay Out of War? He was presented by Rollin J. Reading, chairman of the program committee.

Miss Elsie E. Leet, 81, of Euclid Avenue, Jamestown, retired public school teacher with 40 years of service in this field, died at her home this afternoon as the result of burns sustained when she attempted to light a gas burner in her room early in the morning. Apparently at about 4 a.m., Miss Leet arose and intended to light the burner but her night clothing caught fire and she was badly burned. Her cries were heard by two other occupants of the house, Miss Claribel Haines, her companion and Mrs. Maud Schott, housekeeper and practical nurse. A physician was summoned but she remained conscious only long enough to describe what had happened. She did not regain consciousness and it was thought inadvisable to attempt to move her under the circumstances.

In 1965, the following day’s scheduled “Sympathy for Selma” rally at the Veterans’ Memorial Park in Jamestown had received enthusiastic support, according to representatives of various community organizations. Manuel Hodnett, president of the Jamestown Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said “the response from religious leaders and the cooperation of all who had been asked to help indicated the outrage which Jamestown as a whole seems to feel over the turn of affairs in Selma.”

Gov. Rockefeller had unleashed his veto power for the first time this legislative session, whacking down a Democratic program bill to order free tuition at the City University of New York. The action was promised by Republican Rockefeller a few hours before majority Democrats pushed the bill through the Senate and Assembly on March 1. Democrats did not have enough votes to override the veto. New York’s Democratic Mayor Robert F. Wagner issued a statement in which Wagner said: “Free tuition is a positive attraction to young people of restricted means from disadvantaged families. The tuition charge is a fee for a privilege, whereas it should be a right for every qualified youth to attend a public institution of higher learning.”

In 1990, two Buffalo men who were ice fishing on Chautauqua Lake near the Sword and Shield Restaurant early this day were presumed drowned after falling through the ice at 8 a.m., police said. The identities of the men were being withheld pending notification of relatives. Police said fishing equipment was found near where the men were believed to have gone into the water. Deputies found a truck parked at the site which was registered to a Buffalo man presumed drowned. According to preliminary reports, the men’s cries for help were heard by Sword and Shield employees, who phoned the Sheriff’s Department.

A petition signed by 78 people asking that students not be given chemical tests to determine alcohol use had been submitted to the Bemus Point Board of Education. The subject was set for discussion at the board’s March 26 meeting. At the board’s Feb. 13 meeting, High School Principal Kenneth Gaiser was asked to explain an incident at a school dance that resulted in two students voluntarily taking breath tests for alcohol. Both tested negative. Gaiser said he was following board policy in administering the test.

In Years Past

In 1915, F. E. Hegg of Russell wrote The Journal and stated: “Having seen an article in the Journal in regard to the large eggs produced by M. B. Young’s Wyandottes, I wish to state that I have a flock of Single Combed White Leghorns, which have produced some large eggs, one of which measured eight and one-fourth inches in circumference one way and six and one-half inches the other and weighed nearly four ounces.” A Jamestown backyard fancier who kept a small flock of Rhode Island Reds informed The Journal that he had one hen which regularly laid eggs weighing over three ounces. Many of her eggs measured over seven and three-quarters inches around and over six the other way. This was a regular performance of the hen.

Jamestown Policeman James Stapleton was off duty temporarily with a lame shoulder sustained from too close contact with a wheelbarrow on which some humorous young men had rigged a concealed electric battery. He was one of a number of city hall employees and others who came in contact with the wheelbarrow and had more or less exciting experiences. The group of practical jokers spent a good deal of time fixing the wheelbarrow. They fitted brass on the handles and the battery was cunningly concealed under the body. Policeman Stapleton was asked to bring the barrow over to city hall. The electrical shock jolted him so badly that his shoulder was dislocated and the services of a physician were required. This accident gave him a temporary vacation.

In 1940, damage estimated at several hundred dollars resulted from a fire which started at about 8 p.m., Saturday in a rear room at the George T. Chambers & Son Feed Store, 206 East Second Street, Jamestown. Although the fire was confined to the room where it originated, smoke filtered through to the two adjoining buildings, doing considerable damage. When firemen arrived at the place, smoke already filled the three story structure. All occupants were ordered out of the flats on the upper floors and one man, Carl Stohl, who had been confined to bed, was carried out. Employees of the feed store carried a puppy and several canaries from the place as soon as the fire was discovered.

That March was not a mild weather month was borne out in Jamestown this day when the temperature dropped to zero, the sixth March day in the 17-year history of the city hall weather bureau that a zero or below reading was recorded according to Observer Gilbert C. Olson. The maximum reading of the day was 20 degrees. Temperatures this month had remained below freezing most of the time, there being only four days when the maximum reading reached or exceeded 32.

In 1965, the modern mathematic methods would be explained to all interested persons on March 23 at the Charles Street School in Jamestown by George Crane and Milton Brown. Announcement of the meeting was made to the Charles Street PTA at its fathers night program and Lights On For Education observance.

Signing of an agreement setting forth terms under which Jamestown Cablevision, Inc., would be permitted to suspend its coaxial cables on poles of Jamestown Telephone Corp. was announced this day. The agreement provided for the rental fee to be paid by the Cablevision company for a five-year period with provision for yearly renewals thereafter.

In 1990, the Sea Lion might spend the following winter on Chautauqua Lake because of thin ice on the lake during the past two months, according to Chautauqua Lake Historic Vessels Co. officials. Warm weather had prevented the owners of the Sea Lion from laying heavy rails on the ice as part of a proposed system to be used to pull the Sea Lion, Chautauqua Belle and Bemus Point-Stow Ferry from the water for winter storage, officials said. The Sea Lion was left on Chautauqua Lake this winter because of an early freeze and high dredging costs for moving the replica 16th century merchant sailing ship to its dry dock in Mayville.

New Yorkers were returning fewer soda bottles and cans for their deposits than ever before, according to a study to be released by the state’s soda bottlers. Because of the lower return rate, the soda bottlers made money from New York’s six-year-old bottle deposit law for the first time the past year. “This may play right into the governor’s hands,” said Fred DiMaggio, executive director of the New York State Soft Drink Association Inc. Gov. Cuomo, saying unredeemed nickel deposits added up to a multi-million dollar “windfall” for the beverage industry, had proposed the state keep the money instead.

In Years Past

In 1915, success marked the opening day of the first Jamestown Automobile Show in the State Armory and during the afternoon and evening over 1,200 persons attended the splendid exhibition of automobiles. The spacious auditorium presented a pleasing sight with its abundance of national colors and decorations. The Thirteenth Separate Company Band furnished music throughout the entire evening. Never in the history of the city had there been such a collection of cars as those exhibited in the armory. Every inch of space in the large drill shed had been utilized by the dealers and about 42 cars were on exhibition.

Andrew Anderson, who came to Jamestown some days ago from Dewittville, after having been ill in the county almshouse, died at the Jones General Hospital on this morning. He had been ill for some time and unable to work. He was survived by a sister at Rockford, Illinois, who, some days ago, had written to him, stating that if he cared to go to that place, she would care for him. He came to Jamestown to await the arrival of a railroad ticket for the trip and had secured aid from Overseer of the Poor, Oscar Palm. Anderson became ill at the Brooklyn House and was taken to the hospital. He was about 60 years of age.

In 1940, Central New York shoveled away weekend snow which filled highways, forced an airplane bearing medicine to a sick Corning girl to detour and caused one fatality and several accidents. Syracuse reported the main roads were open but some secondary routes remained closed by drifts after snow fell most of the previous day. Rochester and area roads were open but state police termed them “dangerous” and advised no travel unless necessary. Ten persons were injured in storm-created accidents in this section. Highway crews were hard pressed to keep main roads free of drifts in parts of Cattaraugus, Allegany, Wyoming, Steuben and Livingston counties.

A warning that the saving of tinfoil, cigarette papers, empty paper match folders, etc., was of no value to blind persons in securing Seeing Eye dogs was sent to Lucian Warren, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce by the Seeing Eye of Morristown, N.J. It was reported that many blind persons and their friends had been victimized by the “cruel hoax” which it was claimed had been practiced to some extent in Jamestown. It was explained that Seeing Eye dogs were available only to qualified blind persons, the Seeing Eye officials being the sole judges of those qualifications. It was pointed out that the Seeing eye did not employ any solicitors nor participate in any fund raising campaigns.

In 1965, the Jamestown Airport Commission would hold a special meeting to take up a proposal for building a $300,000 taxiway at the Municipal Airport. The taxiway was part of a port development master plan, which envisioned a new terminal building about five years from now. Study of the taxiway was recommended by Theodore A. Peck, former commission chairman in a communication presented at a meeting of the commission. Mr. Peck urged immediate steps to implement the taxiway, which would parallel the main runway and suggested that the commission apply to the federal government for one half of the cost for its 1966-67 budget.

Leave it to the public relations people to always see the sunnier side of things. The U.S. Army Support Command’s information officer in Viet Nam recently sent out an item about a Chautauqua County soldier stationed in that troubled nation, which had been making so many black headlines. The Army communication said things were different in Viet Nam than in Chautauqua County. The Army went on to say in Chautauqua County now there was snow and frost “while here in Viet Nam it is just like summer.”

In Years Past

• In 1915, Miss Alice Berg of the Visiting Nurses Association had under her observation a Jamestown family, every member of which was tubercular and for whom she wished to secure a single bed. There was dire need of one, for practically every member of the family was forced to sleep in one bed owing to extreme poverty. If anyone had a bed to contribute, that fact might be communicated to Miss Berg at the Visiting Nurses Association in the Public Market Building. Springs and a mattress as well would be acceptable.

• Through long hours of cross examination at her trial on the charge of having poisoned her husband, Cynthia Buffum kept her nerve. A year under sentence of death at Auburn prison made no impression on her. But, back in Little Valley jail, with a new trial before her and confident she would be acquitted, she was giving way. Sight of her old home, the poison farm on the hill, and longing for her late, 12-year-old daughter, Laura, was the cause. Cynthia Buffum was on the verge of nervous breakdown. From her cell window she stared and stared at the old home on the hill a mile away. Another family was there now. Appearance of folk moving freely around the house where she knew so much tragedy and suffering was telling on her.

• In 1940, Jamestown firemen were summoned to the plant of the Sanitary Wiping Cloth Company at 108 Foote Avenue the previous morning when rags in a dryer burst into flames which shot up a flue to mushroom out into the attic. When firemen reached the scene, smoke was billowing from the place in such quantities that a major fire appeared to be in progress but before they arrived, officials had determined that the fire was hardly more than a smudge in a pile of waste.

• The annual junior play would be presented Friday evening, March 15, in the Sherman Central School gymnasium. The play selected for this year’s production was a three act comedy entitled “He Had a Past.” It was a play of rapid action and humorous situations laid in the living room of an elderly bachelor. Rehearsals had been underway for several weeks under the direction of the class advisor, Lewis Neely.

• In 1965, students at the state college in Fredonia would make a “silent protest march to spotlight the recent police brutality against Negroes in Selma, Alabama,” Joeritta Jones, a junior at the college, said. At 2:45 p.m. Sunday, the students would leave Gregory Hall on the campus, proceed down Temple Street to the public square where clergymen and professors were expected to address the group. “We are hopeful,” she said, “that most of the student body here will join the march and that other colleges throughout the country might plan similar demonstrations.” Response to the Selma incident was an independent reaction on the part of students, she said.

• A proposal calling on Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors to support Governor Rockefeller’s “Pure Waters Program” and proposed $1 billion bond issue was on the agenda for Friday’s board meeting at Mayville. The program provided that the state and federal governments each would pay 30 percent of estimated cost of constructing local sewage treatment plants and intercepting sewers needed now and through 1970. The county was considering feasibility of a comprehensive sewer system for the southern portion of Chautauqua Lake and including Jamestown, Lakewood, Celoron and Falconer.

• In 1990, the city of Jamestown might build the first of two new parking ramps on the corner of Third and Washington streets. But whether the ramp would extend up Washington or along Third remained undecided. Tenants in the Roberts Building on the left of the proposed ramp, said they were upset over reports the building would be demolished in June. The reports were false, city officials said. However, city officials said they were interested in buying the building and were talking to its owner.

• Joe Vaccaro of the Jamestown Police Department was a familiar sight to downtown motorists and pedestrians as he directed traffic at busy intersections during rush hours. During the past week the veteran traffic control officer had worked a little more quickly and a little more often due to an increase in traffic on certain downtown streets attributed to the closing of the Washington Street Bridge. Renovation of the bride was expected to get into full swing the following week as more equipment was moved onto the site.

In Years Past

• In 1915, the city of Jamestown had taken the preliminary steps to secure the abolition of the Erie grade crossing at Buffalo Street by ordering the corporation counsel to take up the matter with the public service commission. The Buffalo Street grade crossing was regarded as one of the most dangerous crossings in the city and there was a demand that it be eliminated if possible.

• That certain brands of profanity gave the recipient the right to shoot the user was the substance of a verdict handed down in the justice court of A. P. Crawford. The justice cleared Thomas Rhodes of the charge of shooting J. C. Cederberg after witnesses had testified that the latter had gone into Rhodes’ store at Depew and cursed him. “I believe the defendant did what any other man would or should do,” said the court in dismissing the case.

• In 1940, Martin C. Hansen, 30, of Russell, was instantly killed Friday near South Dayton when the truck he was driving left the highway and plunged into a snowbank. Hansen, driving a truck owned by the Commercial Lumber Company of Warren, was enroute to North Tonawanda with a load of about 4,000 feet of white ash lumber when the accident occurred. According to reports, the truck skidded from the highway into a ditch and continued for a distance of about 500 feet when it struck a snowbank. The impact caused the lumber to crash through the cab of the truck.

• Sally Lou Thomas, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Thomas of Harding Avenue, Jamestown, won first prize in the cake making contest of Girl Scouts, sponsored by the program committee of Jamestown Area Council. The judging was done by Mrs. William Ritzer, chairman of home making activities in scouting. Miss Thomas, who was a member of Troop 20 of Lincoln Junior High School, submitted a sunshine cake, which would be on display in the window of Nelson’s Store of Specialty Shops the following week in celebration of the 28th birthday of Girl Scouting.

• In 1965, a 12-year-old charmer with twinkling eyes and an infectious smile had been selected the 1965 Easter Seal girl in Chautauqua County. She was Vickie Jo Cardosi, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Cardosi, 220 Barrows St., Jamestown. Vickie served as the symbol of all handicapped persons in the County who were aided by the Society for Crippled Children and Adults. Funds procured in the current appeal would be used to expand a medical and social program sponsored by the organization.

• A traffic light had been authorized for the intersection of Route 17J at Chautauqua Avenue in Lakewood according to a letter received by Mayor Roland C. Rapp from the State Traffic Commission. The mayor and the village trustees requested the signal some time ago and following a study made by the state, it was found that a traffic control signal was justified.

• In 1990, WCA Hospital in Jamestown expected to make a decision in about two months as to how it would dispose of regulated medical wastes when more stringent state regulations on incineration would take effect Jan. 1, 1992. A similar decision also was being weighed at Westfield Memorial Hospital as a small rural facility with more limited funds than the much larger city hospital.

• Assemblywoman Patricia McGee, R-C, Franklinville, met with about 100 of her constituents in the 149th District during two town meetings held Thursday evening. She said the public must send a message to Gov. Mario Cuomo that people would no longer stand for the state spending more money than it generated and passing on a deficit balance to be paid for the next year. “We all know we can’t spend more than we make, yet the state has continued to do this,” Mrs. McGee said.

In Years Past

In 1915, the Jones General Hospital commission would request the Jamestown Common Council to order a special taxpayers’ election to vote on the proposition to construct a building on the hospital grounds for the use of the nurses. At present the third floor of the main hospital building was used for lodging the nurses in the training school. There were 12 of those. The floor was also utilized for lodging the head nurses and other employees of the hospital, a total of about 24 in all. The hospital needed more private room to meet the demand for accommodations. Only the past week a woman who had come to the hospital for a minor operation was obliged to remain on the operating table after surgery until she was ready to leave as there was not an available bed in the hospital.

• Acting upon the suggestion of Rev. L. W. Snell, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown, the St. Andrews Brotherhood of that church had decided to cooperate in every possible manner with A. Bartholdi Peterson, the city probation officer, in his work and especially among the boys who were placed in his charge. To this end a Big Brother movement had been begun, the men of the organization to take a friendly interest in the boys with the idea of providing an uplifting influence.

In 1940, a curiously-bungled plot to kidnap Judy Garland, 17-year-old singing star of the films, left a 19-year-old transient from Buffalo in jail this day. Officers said Robert Wilson planned with an accomplice the midnight abduction then grew panicky and telephoned police that “Judy Garland will be kidnapped tonight” -the warning which led to his own arrest. Capt. Grover Armstrong said Wilson told him that after watching the actress’ $40,000 Bel Air home for two days and learning that the servants would be off duty Thursday night, decided to break in to the house but he later became frightened and placed the call to police.

The class D PONY League would continue to operate with six teams, not including Jamestown or Hornell in the coming season, President Robert Stedler, Buffalo, informed committees representing Jamestown and Hornell. The local campaign to raise funds for the purchase of property at East Jamestown for development as a civic stadium would proceed, according to City Judge Allen E. Bargar, chairman of a sub committee of the general citizens’ group. Applications of Jamestown and Hornell for franchises had been tabled temporarily because of insufficient time to consummate agreements with major league clubs to sponsor teams in those cities.

In 1965, Daniel A. Isaacson, president of the Jamestown Bar Association, had high praise for its Committee on the Defense of the Indigent. The committee, after several months study, proposed the formation of a non-profit corporation to insure legal counsel for a defendant without funds at all stages of a criminal proceeding. The proposal, unanimously endorsed by the Jamestown Bar Association, had been sent to the Chautauqua Board of Supervisors and the Northern Chautauqua County Bar Association for their opinion.

The Board of Social Ministry of the New York Synod of Lutheran Churches of America was expected to give greater consideration to the need for a new Gustavus Adolphus Children’s Home building when it would meet on April 2. George Stevens, administrator, said the board, which for some time had been aware of the deteriorated condition of the structure, would almost assuredly show more concern in view of Friday’s incident involving a defective heating system. The board, Mr. Stevens said, was considering a fund appeal for the purpose of raising money to build a new home. Meanwhile, the present heating system was given a clean bill of health after being checked all day Saturday by an expert from Buffalo.

In 1990, plans were in the works for development of a 524,000-square foot, single story regional shopping mall on the northwest corner of the Southern Tier Expressway and Strunk Road. George D. Zamias, Developer of Johnstown, Pa., said he planned to build a mall called “The Galleria of Chautauqua” on about 200 acres of property he now owned or had options on. Initial construction would provide space for five anchor department stores, he said, but only three or four might be occupied when the mall opened. Plans also called for 65 to 70 specialty shops, restaurant/eatery space and a multi-screen cinema that might be constructed as a separate building.

Proposed legislation by the state Senate’s Republican majority that would knock “employable” home relief recipients off New York’s welfare rolls after 90 days had met with the approval of one social service commissioner. Charles Ferraro, Chautauqua County Social Services commissioner, said he was “completely supportive” of the proposal and said he “can’t think of a single county commissioner who could oppose the concept of the proposal.” Gov. Mario Cuomo’s administration had suggested in January that welfare payments would be halted after six months to Home Relief recipients who were eligible for work.

In Years Past

In 1915, preparations were complete for the Jamestown Automobile show which was to be held in the state armory from March 10 through March 13. About 40 automobiles would be on exhibition, representing the products of 23 different factories. This would be Jamestown’s first real automobile show. Twelve different garages and dealers would be represented. The entire floor space of the armory had been contracted for, and there was not an additional foot of space for any exhibitor who had not already made arrangements for his display. In the matter of automobiles for service, the fire and police departments of this city had both given the automobile a splendid test and it had made good. The cars were able to make much more rapid ambulance and police patrol calls than could be done by horse-drawn vehicles. In speaking of fire apparatus, a well-known expert said, “We don’t talk of horses anymore in the fire department. The day of horses is past.”

The management of the House of Burnett in Jamestown gave a banquet to the employees Friday evening in honor of the first anniversary of the Main Street store. A three-course dinner was served on the second floor of the store, covers being laid for 45. The table decorations were red and green with red carnations as the favors. A short program of toasts was given. Mrs. Burnett made two pleasing announcements to the employees in her short address, stating that on and after Saturday, March 13, the store would close at 6 p.m. Also, a cooperative plan had been inaugurated whereby each employee who had been in the service of the company over a year, would receive a dividend according to services rendered.

In 1940, with the Union Jack proudly flying at her mast, Britain’s new $28,750,000 liner, Queen Elizabeth – the largest, fastest ship afloat – arrived within the safety of New York harbor at the end of her bold dash across the Atlantic. The liner passed Ambrose Lightship shortly after 9 a.m. and headed toward the Narrows, past winter-deserted Coney Island, with the skyline of New York in the distance. The ship, painted a drab gray, unrelieved by a single note of color, blended into the haze over the harbor. She looked like a ghost ship as she reached quarantine and dropped anchor. The ship will remain tied up until the war is ended.

A group of men interested in continued operation of the City of Jamestown, last remaining Chautauqua Lake steamer, met at the Smith & Chindgren radio shop in Brooklyn Square for a discussion of ways and means to attain their objective. For the past two years, the steamer had been operated by Chester McCray, Celoron, who had used a temporary dock at the boatlanding, where the group hoped to provide suitable permanent wharf facilities. The boat would be placed in dry-dock for a thorough inspection of its hull and there would be a checkup of the boilers and machinery.

In 1990, Mayville Central School district residents soundly defeated a proposed $1.3 million asbestos removal and building renovation project. The tally was 486-130. Asked what the district would do now, Superintendent Richard Casadonte said, “Nothing. Basically, the whole project is scuttled as far as the way we designed it.” The Board of Education would discuss what to do about the school’s friable asbestos, Casadonte said. The state Education Department required friable asbestos be removed from school buildings.

Ripples from the state’s fiscal problems could end up helping to disrupt a period of relative smooth-sailing for New York’s farming community, a top agriculture official said. Charles Wille, president of the New York Farm Bureau, said farmers were worried that a projected state budget gap of some $3 billion this year and next meant that counties and localities would pay for more government services. That, in turn, would result in increases in the local property taxes farmers were so sensitive to because most were large landowners, Wille said. Property tax increases in some parts of the state totaled 20 percent or more the past year, Wille said.

In Years Past

In 1915, Austin J. Orr, local manager of the Standard Oil Company, one of the best known men in western New York, died suddenly of heart disease at the Hotel Sinclairville Friday night. The body was found by the landlord who went to call Mr. Orr in the morning. News of the death of Mr. Orr caused much surprise in Jamestown as it was entirely unexpected and few knew that he was subject to heart trouble of a kind that was liable to cause his sudden demise. Had he lived until July 22 he would have been 63 years of age.

The matter of the erection of a nurses’ home in connection with the Jones General Hospital in Jamestown, was discussed by the board of hospital commissioners at its meeting on Friday evening and the following resolution, introduced by Dr. Jason Parker, was adopted: “Resolved, That the entire commission appear before the common council at its next regular meeting to request that a special election be called to raise a certain sum for the purpose of erecting a nurses’ home as it is imperative to use the third floor of the hospital for hospital purposes.”

In 1940, Jamestown firemen had high hopes of really celebrating the Easter season this year – both on the job and off. The entire roster of 66 men was ordering new uniforms of the New York City style, with delivery expected about Easter or shortly thereafter. This marked the first time in many years that all firemen had been outfitted simultaneously and would assure a uniformity in style and color. The present high-neck style of coat was being discarded in favor of the v-shaped style worn by the police.

A herd of some 50 deer, forced from retreats in nearby Chautauqua County woods by deep snows, had farmers in the Westfield area peeved. Instead of feeding on hay strewn by farmers, the deer were instead eating buds and shoots on cherry trees, causing unestimated damage to orchards, said Police Chief M. A. Tellotson. Tellostson said residents gathered at dusk daily to watch the herd feed.

In 1965, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen had renewed charges that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad planned to close its yards at Salamanca. Officials of the railroad and the union had been meeting for several days in Baltimore discussing what the railroad termed proposed personnel and operating changes in its Buffalo division. A union official said that the alleged closing was “just another step of the railroad cutting its service to the public.” According to the union, the railroad planned to run its trains along the 425-mile section from Buffalo to New Castle without a layover. The closing would affect about 160 men in East Salamanca.

The previous afternoon’s heating system difficulty at the Gustavus Adolphus Children’s Home on Falconer Street in Jamestown, which saw about 45 persons make an emergency exit from the structure, was termed “a symptom of a serious situation due to the total condition of the building.” The most recent incident was just another in a constant stream of plumbing repairs, and replacing electrical wiring, necessary to keep the home in operation. “We drastically need a new building,” said George T. Stevens, head administrator. The difficulties this time occurred when gas accumulated in the furnace because of a defective pilot light.

In 1990, dwarfed by boxes of Girl Scout cookies, Nicole Sorce of Troop 17, Southwestern School District, looked eager to sink her teeth into a peanut butter patty. About 2,600 Scouts of the Chautauqua Area Girl Scout Council would be delivering 163,312 boxes of cookies and cheese crackers during the next few days. Nicole and the rest of the Girl Scouts used the proceeds for troop programs, service projects, to go to camp and for special events. The cookie sale also helped support Camp Timbercrest in Randolph and Woodelohi in Cassadaga.

New York was burning and burying more waste despite a legal requirement to favor recycling and waste reduction, an environmental group charged in a report sharply critical of Gov. Mario Cuomo. “State officials have so far been either unwilling or unable to address New York’s massive solid waste crisis,” Steven Romalewski, a researcher for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said.

In Years Past

In 1915, William Snow, farmer living in the Five Mile Valley, near Ellicottville, was probably fatally injured the previous morning. A load of hay, which he was riding, overturned. Snow was buried underneath the hay. Snow and his hired man had been drawing hay from a stack. They had just started for the barn with a good-sized load when an axle broke. The hay was thrown into a ditch at the side of the road. The hired man managed to jump to safety. Snow was caught underneath the hay as it fell. The hired man worked rapidly to remove the hay from Snow before he might smother. The farmer was in a semi-conscious condition, however when found. Snow was carried to his home. It then was found he had sustained a fractured shoulder in addition to probable internal injuries. His recovery was regarded as doubtful.

Another good program was given at the Lyric theater in Jamestown for the last half of the week. Music, comedy, novelty and scientific skill were the chief features of the bill that was given. The Four Maxims gave a clever juggling act which was full of novelty and tricks of skill. This remarkable company juggled everything imaginable, Indian clubs, tennis rackets, lamps, sticks, balls and, in fact, almost anything that could be juggled. They worked their act smoothly and won the hearty applause of the audience.

In 1940, qualifying for a merit badge in alertness were Ivar Samuelson of Falconer Street and Fred Fiore of Tiffany Avenue, members of Boy Scout Troop 16, who discovered the American flag flying atop the Jamestown federal building upside down about 3:30 o’clock Monday afternoon. The scouts reported their discovery to post office officials who immediately had the flag righted. When the Scouts reported the unusual way of flying the flag they said, “When the flag is inverted it means distress or quarantine and we don’t see how the post office could be in either predicament. We believe that persons handling United States flags should be more careful not to fly the flag in such a manner.”

A brief summary of the questions that would be asked in each household when the census takers began their work of collecting the data for the federal census in April was given out by L. J. Foley, district supervisor of the census with offices in the Jamestown federal building. In announcing the questions to be asked, Mr. Foley suggested that some member of the household post himself or herself with the required information prior to the visit of the census taker to expedite the work.

In 1965, Southwestern Central School officials had scheduled a general public meeting for Thursday evening to go into details of a proposed $1,672,000 expansion program. Voters of the district would decide on the program at a special referendum on Saturday, March 20. Being sent out to taxpayers in the district was a brochure, giving details of the program and containing an architect’s drawing of the new building to be built facing Hunt Road and immediately adjacent to the present Junior-Senior High School building.

What might have been the forerunner of the modern day trading stamp had been found by Anthony A. Lumia of Water Street an employee of Jamestown’s Department of Public Works. It was a small coin entitling the holder to one cent in merchandise. Of course, this was in the day when you could buy something for a penny. Mr. Lumia, who found the coin on Lakeview Avenue, recalled that the coins were used about 40 years previously in Jamestown. They were offered by what was named the Consolidated Racket Stores. That was the official name of the store, by the way, and the word “Racket” did not have its modern day connotation.

In 1990, the Downtown Jamestown Development Corp. and a new organization of downtown merchants might be able to work together toward common goals. But whether the two organizations would operate separately or as a single entity was an open question. Mark Nelson, director of the DJDC, said he viewed the new organization, yet to be named, as a committee of the development group. “Right now,” Nelson said, “the DJDC has advertising and activities committees. What we’d like to do is create another committee that can answer some of the merchants’ concerns.”

The weather was playing spoiler with the maple syrup season so far this year. But it might give producers a break by mid to late week, Meteorologist George Skari of the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service said. In the meantime, Skari said, cold weather could be expected to continue as the result of a high pressure Arctic air mass stabilized over Ontario. “You’ve got something interesting going on down your way,” Skari said. “You’ve got sunshine now but don’t be surprised if you get some of it (snow),” he said.

In Years Past

In 1915, Miss Mary Gladys Penhollow of East Fifth Street, Jamestown, had written a book entitled Winning DeNelda. On the past Saturday she received a contract from a prominent firm of New York publishers stipulating a liberal payment for the manuscript and a generous royalty on all copies of the work disposed of. Miss Penhollow was only 18 years old, the daughter of Fred Penhollow of Bemus Point, and attained that mature age on November 24 last. She was just a slip of a girl of medium height, slight of stature and with golden hair and blue eyes. Threatened by tubercular trouble at an early age, Miss Penhollow was forced to discontinue her studies before she had finished the work of the eighth grade and this constituted her entire school work. Since that time she had been employed as a domestic, most of the time in this city, and her writing had been done after work hours in the seclusion of her room.

The total loss occasioned by the destruction of the New Warner block and upper parts of the Lundquist and Shaver blocks by fire the previous day was estimated at about $150,000, including the loss of the buildings themselves and on the property of the occupants. The ruins of the New Warner block presented a sorry sight this day, practically the entire building with the exception of the brick wall on Main Street, having collapsed. Jamestown had a force of men at work under the direction of John Swanson, the contractor, clearing away the debris which fell into the Chadakoin River when the rear wall gave way. Fortunately, the basement floor in the building did not give way when the floors above it collapsed for it this had occurred the entire building would have dropped into the river.

In 1940, the middle of Shenandoah, Pa., sank slowly this day, toppling homes and cracking business buildings as abandoned anthracite mine workings below the town collapsed after a 24-hour rain. Residents awakened by the rumbling that warned of the cave-in, fled from a 16-block area that settled slowly and steadily. Police Chief Frank Ahnsky said no one was reported killed or injured but property damage was heavy. Women sobbed hysterically among the hundreds of spectators who looked on from safe areas. Many saw their homes collapse. The affected section included almost a quarter of the town of 21,000 population.

“The only fly in the ointment thus far is the inability to secure a major league franchise for Hornell, thus assuring local fans that Jamestown will be represented in the PONY Baseball League this coming season,” City Judge Allen E. Bargar told members of the Good Government Club in a talk on the proposed local stadium in East Jamestown. He spoke at the YWCA this noon. Judge Bargar, chairman of the drive for funds, though unable to state the amount of money that had been raised locally in the public subscription campaign, said that Falconer was well on its way toward the raising of its $1,000 quota to be donated to the cause.

In 1965, a new compilation of Heloise’s housekeeping hints, a 167-page pocket book by one of The Post-Journal’s most popular columnists, was on sale at the business office of the Post-Journal. The book provided, in one volume, the best of Heloise, whose column was read daily by millions of women all over America. Cost of the book was just 50 cents and it was being made available by the Post-Journal society department through the cooperation of Peck News Co. Heloise’s daily columns had been called “the greatest time saver for the homemaker since TV dinners.” Her new book brought together in one volume the best hints from all the columns – money savers for housekeeping, shortcuts and tips that saved on the family budget, speedier ways to get things done, new simplified how-to’s for almost every household task and clever new uses for old standby items in the home.

Adversity brought out the best in man and the past Thursday evening, when the treacherous snow storm caused traffic tie-ups seldom seen in Jamestown in many a year, the good deeds of unknown samaritans were many. There was the unknown man who walked down the line of stalled cars on Forest Avenue, sprinkling cinders where they were needed. And when a car could not make the incline on Fairmount Avenue, between Third and Fifth streets, a man left the warmth of his home nearby and helped push the car up the grade. Then there was the male pedestrian who helped the woman driver on Washington Street, between Third and Fourth streets. Her car began slipping inch by inch backwards on the icy pavement. He opened the door on the driver’s side and said: “Move over, lady.” She did and he managed to turn the car around, heading it downhill.

In Years Past

• In 1915, the New Warner block, a four-story brick building at 1-7 North Main Street, Jamestown, was practically destroyed by fire this morning and the Lundquist and Westrom blocks, also of brick and four stories in height, adjoining it on the south, were badly damaged. The fire originated in the basement of The Famous clothing store at 5-7 North Main St. and spread with great rapidity, smoke quickly filling the building from top to bottom. The occupants barely had time to get out and there were many narrow escapes from death by suffocation. Had it not been for the prompt action of George Washington Brady, known as King Brady to every baseball fan in the city, it was safe to say that several persons would have lost their lives.

• In the great fire the firemen were badly hampered in their work owing to the location of the New Warner block directly over the Chadakoin River and when the rear wall of the building fell it dammed the stream so completely as to cause a rapid rise in the waters and threatened a flood of the entire Brooklyn square district. Shortly before 11 o’clock, the roof of the block fell in and as several firemen were in the building at the time they had a narrow escape from death in a horrible form. Luther Carlson and John Norton of Hose Company No. 3, and others were on the third floor of the building , near the rear, when the roof went and they had just time to swing out on the fire escapes over the river before the crash came.

• In 1940, Jamestown would figure in the society life of the national capital on Saturday evening, March 9, when Mrs. Robert H. Jackson, as the wife of the attorney general, would make her first appearance as a cabinet lady at the annual dinner and stunt party of the Women’s National Press Club at Washington. Mrs. Jackson would also be spotlighted as a possible future “First Lady of the Land,” since Attorney General Jackson was frequently mentioned as a possible Democratic nominee for president.

• Campaigners against accident in industry met Friday evening at the Hotel Jamestown ballroom for the 15th annual statewide accident prevention dinner of Associated Industries of New York, Inc., sponsored by the Manufacturers’ Association of Jamestown. The guest speaker was Michael Grady of Canton, Ohio, general foreman of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who was known throughout the railroad world as the “railroad poet.” Covers were for about 200 persons, including officers and employees of industries of Jamestown and vicinity. Oscar A. Lenna, president of the Jamestown Metal Equipment Company, made the presentation of safety campaign awards.

• In 1965, The Jamestown Post-Journal was cited for distinguished community service for a series of eight articles by City Editor Charles H. Pokrandt on cleanup of Chautauqua Lake. The award was announced by the New York State Publishers Association at its concluding convention sessions in Buffalo. The honor brought a beautiful plaque and special citation. The series of articles which brought the statewide honor were published the past May and were the result of intensive research and interviews by Mr. Pokrandt, who took time off from his executive duties to thoroughly explore the problems confronting the area in pollution and water conservation.

• Water from a sprinkler system destroyed thousands of dollars worth of dairy products in the warehouse of Quality Markets, Inc. on Jackson Avenue, in Celoron. Hundreds of cases of merchandise in a dairy cooler were flooded when water about three feet deep covered the floor of the 1,734 square foot room. Damage was confined to the dairy cooler which was the smallest room in the big warehouse according to Rollin J. Reading, an official of the firm. A large quantity of margarine, cheese and butter was soaked by the water.

• In 1990, members of the Pine Valley girl’s basketball team celebrated their victory in the Section 6, Class D championship. The girls defeated Sherman at Erie Community College-North Campus Friday night 66 – 46.

• Samuel Nalbone said it felt good to be leaving the job he had held in Jamestown City Hall for the past 20 years. Nalbone was the city’s first and, so far, only ombudsman. “I’ve had some reservations about leaving,” he said as the effective date of his retirement neared. “But the closer I get to that last day, the more relieved I am I made this choice.” Nalbone became Jamestown’s ombudsman in 1970 when the position was created by then-mayor Stan Lundine. “At the time,” Nalbone said, “Stan was looking for someone to handle labor relations work.”

In Years Past

• In 1915, an attempt to blow up St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York City with a bomb on this morning and the arrest of two men by detectives, was followed by an announcement made at police headquarters that the arrest had balked an anarchistic plot to kill Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and other wealthy men, with bombs. Thereafter the anarchists, according to the police, were to inaugurate in New York City a regime of terror comparable only to the days of the French revolution. It was part of the plot for gangs of men, armed with rifles and revolvers, to appear simultaneously in various parts of the city to shoot and pillage; the biggest banks of New York were to be blown up and many wealthy men were to be slain.

• The Chautauqua Military Institute was to be established on the Warner Farm on Chautauqua Lake, a movement with this end in view having progressed to such an extent that the necessary capital was assured and the plans for the group buildings had already been prepared by Green & Wicks of Buffalo. The estimated cost of the institute buildings with their equipment was about $300,000 and this sum was to be invested in the undertaking by capitalists of Jamestown, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Henry Lewis of Jamestown, who was elected first lieutenant of Company E, 65th infantry, National Guard of New York, was at the head of the movement and was devoting his entire time to it, having disposed of his jewelry business on West Third Street.

• In 1940, about 200 persons, members of the Jamestown Fire Department, the old Volunteer Fire Department and public officials, attended a party in the Exempt Firemen’s rooms over the Fenton place fire station the past night to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the founding of the paid fire department and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the two platoon system. Seven members of the fire department who had served ever since the department was placed on a paid basis, March 1, 1911, were guest of honor as were members of the old volunteer department.

• Jamestown district, Salamanca and Erie, Pa., bladesters participated in a tri-city speed skating meet, the final of the Chautauqua Lake Association season, at the Lakewood rink on Friday evening before several hundred spectators. Events were staged on a 12-lap track, where the Fluvanna team won the relay race and John Durocher of Erie copped honors in the three-mile feature. Charles Jacobson conducted a series of races for younger boys.

• In 1965, Mark Davis, 20, of Livonia, died in Brooks Memorial Hospital of injuries received in a two-car accident Sunday on Bennett Road. The death was the fourth to be recorded on Chautauqua County highways this year as compared to five at this time the previous year. Davis was a student at Fredonia College. He was one of eight persons injured in the accident which occurred at 1:40 a.m. Sunday when a northbound car struck the rear of a stalled car being pushed by several persons on Bennett Road, a half mile north of Route 20.

• Parking restrictions on East Second Street in Jamestown would be protested by merchants at a meeting with state traffic officials, it was reported at the past night’s meeting of City Council Public Safety Committee. The session was arranged by Assemblyman A. Bruce Manley after Angelo Cuoco, representing more than 30 East Second Street merchants, wrote the state lawmaker complaining that present parking restrictions were detrimental to their businesses. The restrictions prohibited parking, stopping and standing on East Second Street from the city, at Falconer, to where Fourth and Second streets intersected. The signs, erected by the state, did not stipulate any time limitations with most motorists concluding that the restrictions were enforced on a 24-hour basis, merchants argued.

• In 1990, the New York State Department of Transportation would close Jamestown’s Washington Street Bridge on Monday, March 5. The bridge, part of Route 60, would remain closed for the rest of the year for rehabilitation work. The old bridge would not be torn down and replaced, as the old Third Street and Sixth Street bridges were. While the Washington Street bridge was closed, the official detour would send Route 60’s southbound traffic west on West Sixth Street across the Sixth Street bridge, down Steele Street, over Harrison Street and south on South Main Street to the Route 60 arterial.

• Because of a nationwide strike, Greyhound’s Jamestown bus service was canceled this day. “It’s a good possibility that it’s canceled over the weekend. They’re going to advise us of that tomorrow morning,” Kevin Smith, Jamestown agent for Blue Bird Coach Lines and Greyhound, said. Greyhound said it might hire people so it could run its routes but it would commit to bigger routes first.

In Years Past

In 1915, Charles Anderson and Gust Johnson of East Oak Hill in Jamestown were badly bruised and cut Saturday afternoon when the buggy in which they were riding was struck by a north side street car near the corner of North Main and Eighteenth streets. The horse became frightened and swung the buggy onto the track in front of the car. The car struck the buggy, smashing it and throwing the men out. The two men were taken to the office of Dr. R. B. Blanchard and their injuries were dressed after which they proceeded to their homes.

The indications were that the Woman’s Christian Association Hospital would receive a substantial sum of money as the result of the sale of the furnishings of the Allen Square Hotel, West First Street, which was begun the past Saturday and would continue until the stock of bedroom suites, bedsteads, mattresses, dressers, sideboards, tables, chairs, carpets, lace curtains, stoves, etc., was disposed of. A sub committee of the ways and means committee of the hospital board of managers had the sale in charge and one of its members stated that the sale was progressing in a highly satisfactory manner.

In 1940, March entered upon Jamestown’s weather stage like the proverbial lamb, according to Gilbert C. Olson, office engineer of the department of public works and weather observer. Mr. Olson had prepared interesting statistical tables comparing the weather of the past month with that of February 1934, the coldest month in the 17-year annals of the local weather bureau. In February 1934, the average maximum temperature was 25.31 degrees. The average maximum temperature for February 1940 was 33.80 degrees. During the past four months of the current winter, exactly 100 inches of snow were recorded here, half of which fell in January.

Two babies born in Jamestown the previous day would not have another birthday until 1944, the next leap year. The February 29th arrivals were a baby girl born at WCA Hospital to Frank and Alyne Eisle Neuhaus of Chestnut Street and a baby boy, born at Jamestown General Hospital to John R. and Gladys Thelander Henderson of West James Street, Falconer.

In 1965, Mitchell S. Huren Sr., 42, of Warren, was killed in a crash on Route 6, about two miles east of Warren at 2:20 p.m. Sunday. The fatality was the fourth on Warren County highways in this year. Trooper Gary Rain of the North Warren barracks reported Mr. Huren was driving his truck west on Route 6 when the vehicle went out of control, crossed a ditch up onto an embankment and overturned. The accident occurred near the Mineral Wells Restaurant. The Clarendon Fire Department was called to free the victim. Mr. Huren had been engaged in the plumbing and heating business in Youngsville. Survivors included his wife and a son.

An audience, which filled the auditorium and overflowed onto the stage, turned out for the first “interfaith tureen dinner” at the YWCA on Sunday. Hailed as a “frank effort to encourage Negro and white participation in the social setting,” the after dinner program featured a talk by the Rev. Gerald C. Daniels, president of the Jamestown Area Ministerial Association. He urged people of good will in the community to get involved in improving racial relations”or admit that we are pious frauds.”

In 1990, March came in like a lamb, even though mittens were still needed and Ryan Horan of Route 60, Gerry, was celebrating the event by cuddling a week-old lamb at the Everett Barmore Farm in Gerry. Ryan joined thousands of other people in hoping that Mother Nature kept lion-like storms caged so they didn’t unleash fierce cold and snow on the area in May the way they did in the previous year.

Chautauqua County’s director of emergency management and civil defense said she was sure there was no ether stored in local emergency shelters. On Feb. 21, Wanda Gustafson said she wrote all local school superintendents and fire chiefs to ask them to contact her office immediately if they found any boxes of ether in their facilities. Mrs. Gustafson said she had so far received no responses. State emergency management officials had renewed their warnings about the dangers of disaster kits after officials at two northern New York schools discovered aging civil defense packages containing highly volatile ether.

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