Seating New Opera House, Fire, Opium and Scarlet Fever

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, April 3, 1885.

HERE AND THERE.

   It is reported that a large wildcat was killed on the 22d ult., near Otisco.

   The season for trout fishing opened on Wednesday, and will close September 1st.

   The 185th regiment will hold a reunion at Syracuse, June 3d. They returned from the war on that day, 20 years ago. A large number of the survivors of the regiment reside in this county.

   Scarlet fever is raging to a considerable extent in Homer. Several patients have died of the disease. Five persons in one family are confined to their beds, and as many as three are down with the disease in other families.

   A few days since, constable Persons attempted to arrest a man by the name of Phelps, in a saloon in McGrawville. A man by the name of Lester knocked the constable down, and is enjoying the hospitality of Sheriff Borthwick for a period of sixty days, as a consequence.

   Mr. Isaiah Smith Hyatt, one of the inventors of celluloid and a prominent man in Newark business circles, died on March 18th, at Eden, on the Indian River, Florida. Mr. Hyatt was born in Chemung county, in this State, in 1829, and at nineteen years of age was in charge of the Cortland DEMOCRAT.—Syracuse Courier.

   Mrs. Dual, who, with her husband, resides on Brake Hill, in the town of Scott, shot herself In the head with a revolver, on the 30th ult., because her husband refused to procure some opium which she was in the habit of using to excess. Dr. L. H. Babcock, of Scott, was called, and found that the ball had only caused a scalp wound, which was not dangerous. Subsequently she was taken to the County [Alms] House, where the facilities for procuring the drug are not as good even as while living with her husband.

   The Board of Directors of the Opera House company laid a meeting on Monday evening last, at which time they voted to accept the offer for chairs for seating the opera house, made by Mr. J. W. Hine, agent for Baker, Pratt & Co, of New York city, who handle in the east the goods of A. H. Andrews & Co., of Chicago. The first floor of the opera house is to be seated with leather-upholstered chairs, with folding seat, hat and umbrella rack and foot rest. The first three rows in the gallery will be seated with the same chairs, modified, in perforated veneer, with hat and umbrella rack, and the remaining rows in the gallery will be seated with the same chair, still further modified, but without perforation, hat [and] umbrella rack.— Standard.

 

   TOMPKINS.— Few towns of its size can boast of as many dogs broken to harness as Groton. Sledding with a dog for motive power is very popular with the youngsters

   W. H. Harvey, the new landlord of the Junction House, Freeville, is making all necessary arrangements to be ready to take possession April 1st, 1885.

   Charles S. Blakely, of Lansing, under indictment for manslaughter, was released on $4,000 bail Monday afternoon. His two uncles, Ashton K. and Corydon Edsall, of Locke, became his sureties.

   The street railway company has obtained the right to cross the State street bridge at the Inlet, Ithaca, from Superintendent Shanahan. The right to cross the D., L. & W. track has not yet been obtained.

   Mr. Henry Hoffman fell through a trap door into the cellar of Chas. Schallowitz in Ithaca, last Saturday morning, but fortunately escaped serious injury. Mr. Hoffman was behind the counter examining the cigar stock of Mr. Schallowitz, when the accident occurred.

   A sad event occurred last week, about a mile and one-half from McLean, on the road to Groton village. The residence occupied by Mr. Hall was burned. About one o'clock Mrs. Hall was awakened by the house being on fire. They had been entertaining company in the evening, after which Mr. Hall went to watch by the bedside of some sick friend. Mrs. Hall and her mother, who lives with her, were alone and quite a distance from neighbors. Mrs. H. thoughtlessly started without anything on her feet, a bitter cold night, all the way to the house of Mr. Mart—a long distance there and back. Only a trifle was saved of the furniture in the house, and if she saves her feet and health, she may consider herself fortunate. Afflictions seem to tie in the pathway of that family, as only a couple of months since, they lost their only child, a little boy, scarce two years old, who choked to death from getting a peanut in his throat, which medical skill could not succeed in removing.

 

The Cortland News, Friday, April 3, 1885.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   White Brothers, of Wilseyville, chair manufacturers, have been awarded the contract for the seating of the gallery in the new Opera House.

   The number of births in the village of Cortland for the year ending March 31, 1885, were 276. The deaths for the same time were 151.

   Messrs. Burlingham & Norcott will soon issue the Truxton Courier. We wish the gentlemen success, but all the same we think they have got a hard row to hoe.

   This morning the coal sheds, lumber yard, sash and blind factory and a barn belonging to Maxson & Starin, at Homer, burned to the ground. An alarm was sent to Cortland and our department turned out in a hurry, but before any of the apparatus could be got under way a second dispatch was received saving that we were not needed. Maxson & Starin had about 100 tons of coal stored in the shed, a large quantity of sash and blinds, and lumber and were putting in machinery for a planing mill. Their loss will be in the neighborhood of $25,000. The building and stock was insured, but to what extent we are unable to learn.

   The flames threatened at one time to destroy Gage, Hitchcock & Co.'s cutter manufactory and the Homer overall factory, and it was for fears of these that an alarm was sent to Cortland.

 

Mahan’s Music Festival.

   A. Mahan's next Musical Festival will be held in the new Cortland Opera House on the 8th, 9th. 10th, 11th and 12th of June next and will far exceed anything before attempted in that line in this section. Mr. Mahan has already engaged Mrs. Hull, the distinguished oratorio and concert soprano of New York; Prof. Schaich's celebrated orchestra of twenty pieces. Mrs. Shephard will again preside at the piano, which will be welcome news to all who attended last year's festival. Other engagements are pending and will soon be closed, when full particulars will be given.

The Cortland News, Friday, April 17, 1885.

Opening at the Opera House.

   The management have secured the Clara Louise Kellogg Concert Company, consisting of Miss Kellogg and five other distinguished artists, tor May 13. The Margaret Mather Dramatic Company, May 14 and 15, with a large company, elegant costumes, scenery, good orchestra, etc. They will present the "Honeymoon," the 14th, and "Romeo and Juliet" the 15th. This company is by far the best ever seen in this section.

Grip’s Historical Souvenir of Cortland, Cortland Opera House, 1899.

   The Cortland Opera House, constructed of dark red brick, is an ornamental structure on Groton avenue, adjoining the Cortland House, a building used exclusively for a theater and having a broad ground floor entrance, connecting with a transverse lobby with an inside vestibule. The seating capacity is 1,000, and the parquet and dress circle are fitted with folding opera chairs. On each side of the stage is a single canopied private box, entered from the parquet. There is one balcony connecting the proscenium arch at both ends with an open family circle enclosed by a rail. An alley between the opera house and the hotel affords admission to the stage entrances, which may also be used for exits in case of fire. The proscenium opening is square, being 30-ft. high and 30-ft. wide. The greatest distance from the footlights across the stage is 35 feet, and the distance between the side walls is 64 feet. Between the stage and flygirders is 44 feet, and from the floor to the grooves overhead is 16 feet. The area of the building is 67 x 112. Its cost was $43,000. A stock company built and own the opera house, which was opened in May, 1885. At the present writing it is leased to an amusement firm, who employ William Wallace as the local manager. The officers of the company are: President, Edward Keator; Vice-President, Alex Mahan; Secretary, H. M. Kellogg; Treasurer, Thomas F. Brayton.



Recommended:
Cortland by Mary Ann Kane, Arcadia Publishing Co., Google Books, photo of Opera House: http://books.google.com/books?id=KJ1a0Daa0NkC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=Cortland,+N.Y.+opera+house+1885&source=bl&ots=0Wce20qNR3&sig=YKjiE4vKq9p4xbkcLM5xd3oa6-8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sPt0UrW_D8zksATd7oCgBQ&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Cortland%2C%20N.Y.%20opera%20house%201885&f=false