Oneonta High School - Oneonta Yearbook (Oneonta, NY)

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GEORGE F. WILLIAMSON Manual Training Oswego State Normal School: B.S. New York University: Study at Columbia University: University of Michigan: Cornell University: New York State College for Teachers CARRIE L. FRENCH Critic or Model Teacher Oneonta State Normal School: B.S., New York University: A.M. University of Chicago GLADYS M. GILBERT Critic or Model Teacher State Normal School, Mansfieldg A.B. Syra- cuse University: A.M. Columbia University ANNA B. SEAVER Critic or Model Teacher Oneonta State Normal School: Summer Sessions at Columbia University AGNES C. WILLIAMSON Critic or Model Teacher Oneonta State Normal School: B.S. New York University MRS. LOUIS O. YAGER Critic or Model Teacher New Jersey State Normal School: B.S., A.M, Columbia University: Summer Session, Uni- versity of Vienna: Summer Session, University of Pennsylvania ESTI-l ER M. NELSON Critic or Model Teacher B.S. Oregon State University: A,M. Columbia University JESSIE M. FRANCIS Critic or Model Teacher Fredonia State Normal School: B.S., A.M. New York University RUTH C. HENDEE Sfenoqrapher Albany Business College ETl-lEL M. MATTISON Sfenoqraphor Baldwin-Wallace College EVELYN H. JAMES Princioals Secretary Albany Business College GRACE K. FREEBORN Sienogrepher Rochester Business Institute The staff regrets that the following faculty members pictures do not appear in the book: MARILDA A. BARROTT Critic or Model Teacher Cortland State Normal School: B.S. Columbia University ESTEKLLA M. MATTESON Critic or Model Teacher Oneonta State Normal School: B.S. Clark University ANNE E. SCOTT Geography Oneonta State Normal School: B.S., A.M. New York University: Study at Columbia Univers- ity, Clark University, Syracuse University JOHN L. WILSBACH Music B.S. Pennsylvania State College: A.M. Columbia University

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A HISTORY OF ONEONTA-continued passed through the village of Oneonta along what is now Main Street. It then con- tinued along the south side of the bank toward Chemung and the fort at Oswego. Oneonta's first white settlers were of German stock. They came here from the older settlements along the Mohawk Valley. These German settlers were persevering and patient. After they had felled trees and made homes for themselves, they began to till the soil. Slowly but surely these early settlers made a clearing in the wilderness, ancl Oneonta became a hamlet. Log huts replaced Indian homes. Fields of grain supplanted trees. The white man displaced the Indian. From these humble begin- nings, Oneonta has grown into the city we know today. By I829 the hamlet of Oneonta had made a start towards being an industrial center. There were two stores and two distilleriesl Oneonta was incorporated as a village in I848. In I853 there was talk of con- structing a railroad to Oneonta. This was to be the Albany and Susquehanna road. I-lowever, there was a long delay, so that it was the summer of I865 before the road reached the town. I870 saw the first railroad shops located here. The Albany and Susquehanna railroad was leased to the Delaware and Hudson line for ninety-nine years, and it was finally merged with that system. During these early days, what of other industries in Oneonta? Six years before it became a village, Oneonta printed its first newspaper, the Gazette. Its career was brief. Nearly ten years later, in I853, the Oneonta I-lerald was first printed. It took much effort to make this a success, but Oneonta was growing and the need for a news- paper was greater than before. In I887 a daily paper, the Oneonta Daily Local, ap- peared. This was a four-page publication which printed household hints, recipes, items of local interest, and goings-on in the legislature. Three years later the Oneonta Daily Star began with the late Mr. I-larry W. Lee as its editor. Later, the Ulster and Delaware and the Otsego and Herkimer railroads had reached Oneonta also, and Oneonta became a railroad center. A chair factory was in operation here, and plans were made to start a knitting factory. Residents specu- lated much as to whether or not Oneonta would become a city. Then occurred the important event that decided Oneonta's fate. In May, I887, Assemblyman Frank Arnold, Republican, introduced a bill in the legislature for the building of a normal school at Oneonta. Unadilla and other towns violently opposed the bill. Oneonta Democrats believed that failure of the bill would prove detrimental to their party in Oneonta. Mr. Arnold was confident that the bill would be passed, and work on the building be started in the summer. During the debate on the bill Senator Smith proposed the addition of an academic department to the normal school, which should admit only residents of Oneonta who would pay tuition, or others students admitted by the superintendent of public instruction. A dramatic debate concerning the academic department followed. It was prophesied that a breakdown of the entire normal school system would result from the introduction of an academic department. And the debate over the location of the school became more heated. Mr. Arnold was determined to have it at Oneonta. Other legislators