 |
| New York Central railway near Highbridge, New York City. |
The Cortland Democrat, Friday, Oct. 18, 1901.
SERIO-COMIC MISHAP.
FIRE HOSE CUT IN TWO BY TRAIN, DRENCHES WEDDING PARTY.
A Series of Mishaps Arising From a Fire Alarm—Capt. William Andrews and His Young Bride Sail In a Small Boat for Europe—Bets on Mayoralty Election—High Price of Horses.
New York, Oct. 15.—In all the thirty years that Patrick Dougherty has been flagman at the Ackerman crossing of the New York Central Railroad at Kingsbridge he never saw such another day as yesterday.
It began in the afternoon with a fire in Michael J. Martin's house, a one story frame close by the tracks. Dougherty discovered the fire and turned in the alarm.
Two engines responded, one from Riverdale, the other from Fordham. It was a long run for the horses, and the Riverdale company was ahead. It had just swung into Riverdale avenue, close to the burning building, when one horse dropped dead.
The engine ran over the horse, capsizing and hurling the firemen in all directions. They were scratched and bruised, but none was seriously hurt.
Up came the Fordham engine to find its progress blocked by the dead horse and overturned engine. The firemen jumped off and aided their comrades to clear the way, then dashed on to Martin's blazing home.
Next came a hunt for a water-hydrant. One was found, two hundred feet away on the other side of the railroad. The hose had to be stretched across the track. This was done, and at last a stream was turned on the blaze.
All this was absorbing interest to Dougherty, until he suddenly thought that the Peekskill local was due. If not stopped it would run over the fire hose and cut it in two.
Along the track he sped, as fast as years would permit, to flag the train. He was too late.
Over the hose rushed the locomotive. Many windows of the train behind were open. The severed hose whipped about by the pressure from the hydrant, shot its stream square at the side of the cars. Passengers at open windows were hit by the full force of the stream, others received the spray. The cars were flooded.
As the train flew by the hose twisted around and delayed the crowd of spectators.
A little way down Ackerman street a wedding party of young folks had stood at a gate of a house to witness the excitement. Michael O'Rourke and Nellie Cunningham had been married only a little while before in St. John's Catholic Church and the reception was being held. Bride and bridegroom went out with their guests to watch the fire.
With a quick jerk the hose wriggled in their direction, sent a stream directly over the group, and before they could scatter, every member was drenched.
Meanwhile the firemen holding the nozzle of the severed hose at Martin's house began shouting to know why the water had suddenly stopped. When they found out they procured new hose and soon saved Martin's house.
◘ Death or a fortune is involved in the daring ocean voyage that Captain William Andrews and his bride of a few weeks have undertaken. Both realize the perils that await them in their lonely, long and dangerous voyage across three thousand miles of sea in a thirteen-and-a-half-foot boat, sloop rigged.
Their only object in hazarding their lives is the fortune they expect to realize from exhibitions of the boat and themselves if they should successfully complete the trip.
The craft in which they are to trust their fate is a novelty in its appearance—sharp at both ends and broadened in the middle out of all ordinary proportion. It has no resemblance to a boat which should govern the construction of a seagoing craft. The bottom is flat and the sides straight up and down. The mast is short and the boom long.
It is built on plans furnished by Captain Andrews and every seaman here who has looked at it declares that it will not survive in ordinary heavy weather. Captain Andrews only smiles and his wife simply says she has confidence in her husband's judgment and experience. He has named the craft the Dark Secret. She is painted black and is constructed of half-inch cedar and covered with canvas. Three hundred pounds of lead are fastened to her keel, to keep her from turning over and to right her when she is struck by a sea. Besides, there is a considerable quantity of ballast to keep her well in the water. [They were lost at sea—CC ed.]
◘ There is much speculation respecting the probable result of the election. Many bets are already being offered, but there is not enough now known to enable any person to form an intelligent judgment respecting the final outcome. To unhorse and defeat the party in power is in the estimation of many, a much greater task than the ordinary voter supposes. When this old organization is fighting for its life, it will fight hard. It will raise and expend an enormous sum of money, and it has the great advantage which comes through organization and perfect discipline. The attention of the entire country is already riveted upon this city and upon the conflict which, as we have already said, is destined to become an historical one.
◘ Horses seem to be valuable in New York city, as eighty-seven carriage horses were sold here one day recently for an average of $1,000 each. No wonder horsemen are constantly on the alert for fine carriage horses.
Rev. W. Jasper Howell.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF CORTLAND.
The First Baptist church of Cortland, which will celebrate its centennial anniversary Oct. 21-25, as announced in the Democrat last week, was organized in 1801 as the Homer Baptist church. At this time the townships of Homer and Cortlandville were included in the town of Homer. The following are the minutes of the first meeting:
''Homer, N. Y., April 24. 1801.
"In conference at the home of Mr. Asahel Minor, after opening by prayer the members of the council agreed unanimously to meet for public worship by themselves."
The following Sunday they met in the same place and appointed the next Friday for a fast day, thus laying the foundation of the church by prayer and fasting.
A few weeks later a meeting was held at the home of E. Bishop for receiving members and three were received at this time.
On August 21 the following resolution was passed: ''Voted to call a council to give us fellowship as a church in sister relation, to consist of the following churches, viz: Marathon, the church in DeRuyter and the church in Woodstock.'' They also voted to write to the Otsego association.
On Oct. 3, 1801, the council met at the home of John Keep, and the Woodstock and DeRuyter churches were represented by the following delegates: Woodstock, Rev. James Bacon; and DeRuyter church by Rev, Nathan Baker and Daniel Page. Rev. Joseph Cornell being present was invited to a seat in the council.
The church was organized at this time with 16 charter members, one of the first three members, John Morse, having died. The names of the members are as follows: Peleg Babcock, Cornish Messenger, John Keep, Joseph Beebe, Daniel Crandall, James H. Wheeler, Mary Bishop. Rhoda Beebe, Rhoda Minor, Martha Messenger, Francis Keep, Submit Keep, Esther Wilcox, Molly Wheeler and Susan Crandall.
The church voted to join the Otsego association Aug. 24, 1802, and Thomas Keep and Peleg Babcock were sent as the first messengers to the association.
A few years later the church joined the Madison association and remained there until the Cortland association was founded. The church was organized there under certain articles of faith and covenant.
The records of the church in its infancy show a hard struggle for existence and the earnest zeal of the few faithful members.
Their first method of raising money was by equality or assessment. The first assessment was made in Jan., 1802, on the seven brethren of the church, which amounted to $7.02. John Keep being assessed the most, which was $2.36 and Jas. H. Wheeler the least, which was 13 cents. Although small in numbers the church covered a large territory. On March 23, 1802, they voted to meet at Tully one-quarter of the time. At first the church did not have regular preaching services. We find the names of several ministers which were with them for a short time; but the first regular pastorate began Feb. 14, 1807, when Alfred Bennett, whose work is so widely known in the Baptist denomination, was called as its pastor. Bro. Bennett united with the church by latter April 29, 1804, was licensed by the church March 15, 1806, and was ordained June 18, 1807.
On January 8, 1810, the church held a meeting at the home of John Keep for the purpose of incorporating the society, and it was voted at this time to call the church by the name of the First Baptist society in the town of Homer. This meeting was adjourned for one week in order that they might agree upon a site and take measures toward building a house of worship. The adjourned meeting met on the 15th and the following resolution was passed in regard to the location of a church:
"Voted that the south-east corner of John Stillman's land shall be the spot to set the meeting house, in the corner next to Elisha Crosby's and north of the road leading from E. W. Crosby's to Stephen Wilcox's."
It was also voted to build the house 45 feet long and 35 feet wide, five feet being afterwards added to the length. A week later they met and voted that one-fourth of the money paid for the house he in cash, the other three-fourths in neat cattle or grain.
The house was built the same year, and the site described in the resolution was a little north of the intersection of Homer and Fitz-avenues in the city of Cortland. This house of worship was used by the church until 1833. Oct. 1, 1838, the church voted to sell the old meeting house. It was purchased by the Wesleyan Methodist church of Blodgett Mills and was moved to its present site and was used by that denomination until June 4, 1890, when the church became the First Baptist church of Blodgett Mills and the old meeting house with its modern improvements, in which the association met last year, was again in the Baptist denomination. At the annual meeting of the church held in the old meeting house Dec. 8, 1830, it was voted that the name of the church and society be called the First Baptist church and society of the town of Cortlandville.
The church has had quite an ancestral record. On Oct, 19, 1805, it voted letters to its Virgil brethren to unite in forming the Virgil Baptist church; on April 14. 1827, letters were granted to 34 members to form the Second Baptist church of the town of Homer, which is now the First Baptist church of McGrawville.
On August 18, 1827, letters were granted to twenty-five members to form the Homer village church which is now the first Baptist church of Homer. On Oct. 20, 1827, delegates were appointed to the council to organize the Homer village church, and at this time a letter of dismission [sic] was given to Elder Bennett to unite with them.
On Nov. 5, 1896, thirty-five more went out from the old church to organize the Memorial Baptist Church of Cortland, N. Y.
In 1831 the church voted to build a new meeting house on Chappell (now Church) street and the contract was let to Dyer T. Edmonds to build the house for 3,000 dollars. On Oct. 9, 1833, this house was dedicated. At the following annual meeting, which was held in December, the trustees' report showed a balance in favor of the church of $63.52, a very praise-worthy condition for a society which had just built a new church. The first deficit which we find reported was in 1837 and was $20. 05.
In 1871 the society again voted to build a new church and the following building committee was appointed: Chauncey Keator, H. C. Smith, E. A. Fish, Samuel Freeman, J. S. Squires, J. L. Gillett, T. M. Loring, G. N. Copeland, E. P. Slafter, Joseph Kinney and N. Chamberlain. We will not stop to dwell upon the work of [this] committee for the present church edifice stands as a result of their labors.
The church has been served by the following pastors:
Rev. Alfred Bennett, 1807-1827
Rev. Peleg Card, 1828-1830
Rev. Alfred Gates, 1830-1831
Rev. Nathan Peck, 1831-1834
Rev. Zenas Freeman, 1834-1837
Rev. O. Montague, 1837-1839
Rev. J. P. Simmons, 1841-1851
Rev. Henry Bowen, 1851-1861
Rev. Thos. Goodwin, 1861-1863
Rev. A. Wilkins, 1863-1869
Rev. Wm. N. Tower, 1870-1873
Rev. Wm. M. Kincaid, 1874-1877
Rev. L. J. Mattison, D. D., 1878-1878
Rev. H. S. Westgate, 1878-1880
Rev. J. W. Putnam, 1880-1885
Rev. H. A. Cordo, D. D., 1885-1895
Rev. A. Chapman, 1895-1899
Rev. W. Jasper Howell, 1899-
In a church letter to the association of last year occurs this statement:
''The church has now finished 99 years of its history. We regret that we cannot give you a more detailed account of the work. What it is doing at the present time is shown in the church letter of to-day. We believe that in all the history of the church it was never in a more promising condition than now, under the leadership of our most efficient pastor, Rev. W. Jasper Howell."
The program of the anniversary will be as follows, one or two corrections being made since its publication last week.
Sunday, Oct. 27—Historical sermon by the pastor Rev. W. J. Howell.
Sunday school—Rally, addresses by former superintendents.
Evening—Address by Rev. Dr. John B. Calvert of New York.
Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon—Roll call.
Tuesday evening—Greetings from city pastors of other denominations, followed by pastors' and deacons' reception and general re-union.
Wednesday afternoon—Re-union of the four churches which have been formed from the First church, viz; McGrawville, Homer, Virgil and the Memorial Baptist church, Cortland. Fifteen minute speeches by the pastors of those churches and reminiscences by Rev. Geo. H. Brigham.
Wednesday evening—Addresses by Rev. Adelbert Chapman and Rev. H. A. Cordo, D. D,. two former pastors of the church. Mr. Cordo's subject will be "Centennial Lessons. Retrospect and the Outlook.'' Subject of Mr. Chapman's address. "Perpetuated Personality.''
Thursday evening—Address by Rev. T. Harwood Pattison, a professor of Rochester seminary. Subject, "Our Baptist Principle.''
The entire program will be one of exceeding interest, and it will be a great event for the church.
Rev. W. Jasper Howell, who has served as pastor of the First Baptist church for the past two years, and whose portrait is given in this article, is one of the most popular clergymen in Cortland, and it is doubtful if any pastor in recent years has enjoyed the confidence, the esteem and the love of his people as does Mr. Howell.
He was born in Nebraska in 1870, his parents being natives of the South. When twenty years old he entered a Presbyterian college in East Tennessee, and it was here that he was converted in 1890. He was baptized in the Baptist church January 4, 1891, at Greenville, Tenn., and was licensed to preach in August. 1891. Having continued his studies in the Wake Forest college, N. C., in 1893, he was ordained by the Grenville church. In 1896 he graduated from Wake Forest college, and in 1899 he was graduated from the Rochester Theological seminary, accepting the pastorate of the Cortland church in June of that year.
Mr. Howell is exceedingly popular with everybody in Cortland, as he is genial, courteous to all, an excellent preacher, and a successful pastor. During the summer just past, he spent several weeks in England and while there preached in some of the large churches in London and other cities, the English press paying him many flattering compliments upon his oratorical ability.
Truxton, N. Y., Now Has a High School.
Truxton school has been steadily advancing. In 1894 it was admitted as a union school; in 1898 it was graded a junior school; and on Oct. 1, 1901, the university of the state of New York registered it as a high school.
Official inspection has been made by the university during the year. The grade of work, the building, furniture, apparatus and all other requirements for schools of this rank have been met.
Very seldom do we find a school of its size so well equipped with a high grade faculty. With two college graduates of several years' experience, and two other teachers of exceptionally high standing as to experience and credentials, this school very justly merits the steadily increasing attendance. Quite a few new seats were added at the opening of the fall term, but more must be added, as there are new students every week, and if the present rooms accommodate this largest attendance in the history of the school, in the near future more room must be provided. Surely Truxton is a progressive town.
THE SCHOOLMASTERS DESK.
Saturday Night Sketches for Thoughtful Readers.
There is scarcely a New York village today approaching five hundred inhabitants which does not support a union free school. Generally speaking, the passage from outlying districts to the central schools is natural and easy; the courses of study offered by the regents are within reach of every boy and girl in the state. Not only have secondary schools multiplied and been brought nearer scattered communities, but all movements in the last decade have shortened distances. Telephones and rural mail delivery do much for isolated settlements, but the bicycle does more. Even the substitution of the milk station for the churn has had its effect in this line. Many a farm wagon carries two products, milk from the dairy and children from the home. One is shipped to the city direct for immediate consumption; the other is made up first in the public school, but destined ultimately for the same market.
Pupils are leaving school earlier than a few years ago. The state has changed the school age from twenty-one to eighteen. Does this mean that children now complete the work sooner? Judgments are comparisons. There is always a standard of measure. Last week I met an old school-fellow whom I had not seen in some years. His daughter, he told me, graduates next June from the high school. How old it made me feel! His wife was a pupil of mine when I taught my first school in '84. My own little daughter, five years old, is doing second year work in the kindergarten. I did not begin school until after I was seven. Children not only enter school younger than formerly, but advance much more rapidly. The difference is one of opportunity. Parents, men and women of middle age, come to me with the same story again and again.
I am coming to believe more and more in crowding the boys and girls through the first eight grades. It is entirely possible and practicable to have so-called preliminary work finished at twelve years of age. The pupil should enter his teens and the secondary school simultaneously.
Work in the high school should be concentrated. Three subjects at one time are enough for any pupil. To quote the Regents' syllabus: "All graduating credentials require in addition to the preliminaries, three academic studies each day for five days each week for four years of 40 weeks each.'' Most students attempt more. It is a mistake. English, Latin and algebra the first year; the first two and geometry, the second; the physics, the third; Virgil, English, reading, solid geometry and U. S. history the fourth year, is an ideal high school course, attainable at sixteen. This will give time for music out of school, which should not be neglected.
The course in English should not be sacrificed nor abridged. I have had pupils reading the Pilot and Silas Marner, Marmion and the Lady of the Lake, who found books a revelation. Schooled myself in sight of the Catskill mountains, I never heard of Rip Van Winkle; living within an afternoon's walk of the Susquehanna valley, I never read one of Cooper's tales; joining townships with John Burroughs, I never knew that he wrote books until I had passed the age when such literature most delights and interests.
We have all read Emerson's essay on compensation. I sometimes look back to my days in the district school and wonder wherein the compensation lay. The day I completed my eighteenth year stands out with great distinctness. The winter was waning. A neighborhood row was brewing. The trustee had hired a sister in the church to teach the coming summer term at wages higher than the district approved. Because of the disapproval he resigned. The venerable old clerk, who had served a quarter-century, came to the school-house to post notices for a special meeting. The teacher, now that there was no executive, deemed it expedient to close school. Suddenly, without warning, resolution stopped and the centrifugal force hurled me forever from the world in which, up to that time, I had existed. I think it was an act of Divine Providence that ended the school and changed the current of my life. One cold March morning a few weeks later, just as the eastern hills began to show their dim outline against the sky, I set out for that far country which is always in a boy's mind, lying indefinitely somewhere beyond his horizon and in search of which he is sure to go sooner or later.
What did I carry with me from the district school? All it afforded, but a meager showing. I had to begin my academic studies at least six years late because that much time was wasted. I once asked my teacher if I might study algebra after I had worked every example in the practical arithmetic nine times over. He assured me that algebra was an antiquated subject of no practical account and all but gone out of fashion everywhere.
The majority of children are not destined to become scholars. When lack is either ability or inclination, I have little faith in a stimulus. Some there are who choose or are born to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. I feel, and every teacher feels, the force of the parable of the sower. Much of our work, like the seed, falls by the wayside, much is cast upon rocks, much among thorns, but there is good ground also where the harvest will be sure. When a boy or girl lacks opportunity only, the first and highest duty of the teacher is to point the way. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven, saith the preacher. The willing pupil should be crowded in the early years of his school life. The lazy youth and the dullard should be taken out of school at fourteen and put at work. It may make something of them.
The Toothsome Apple.
According to one authority, health of the American people varies in direct ratio to the abundance of the apple crop. Arguing on this basis, this fall and winter should be a period of unprecedented ill health, for the apple crop is reported to be the poorest in many years. While such a view is, of course, an exaggeration, no doubt the apple is the most healthful of fruits. Green, it is the symbol of stomach ache and cholera morbus, even more deadly than the "peach of emerald hue;'' but ripe and mellow it is the king of fruit. Compared with its tart juiciness, the fruits of the tropics are gross and cloying. Substantial, honest, homely in the case of many varieties, it is truly typical of the best virtues of the American people. The peach may have a dantier flavor; the grape clusters may be more graceful and poetic; the pear sweeter, but for "steady diet," as they say, give us the apple every time. We once heard Prof. A. W. Dyke, then principal of Lisle academy, say that "in the morning fruit is golden; in the evening it is lead." We hardly think the adage quoted by Prof. Dyke will apply where the apple is concerned.
Henry Ward Beecher once said: "The best time to eat an apple is between 6 o'clock in the morning and 12 at night.'' Beecher was not ashamed to walk along the streets munching his favorite fruit with all the relish of a farmer boy. He was one of those who believed that there would be far less sickness in the world if more apples were eaten. Yet statistics show that it leads all other fruits in the demand for it. We have our ''apple women'' in all the cities but who ever heard of a "pear woman" or a "plum woman?"
There is a temptation about the ruddy skin of a well-polished apple that the average man cannot resist. He stops at the vendor's stand, puts down his money and walks away with his pockets bulging, and taking big bites from the largest one in the lot. Upon the whole who can blame Adam? But he shouldn't have laid it on to Eve.
The manipulator of stocks watches with anxiety the progress of the corn or wheat crop, but the common, everyday man is far more interested in the condition and prospects of the apple crop. It makes him sad to hear that the fruit will be dear, and correspondingly glad to know that it will be cheap. Just now the nation of apple-eaters is bowed down by the news that the apple crop is an unusually poor one. The small boys who sally out every Saturday with collapsed pockets, return with the mournful news that there are no apples to be found worth bringing home. In this vicinity, it is true, the crop is almost a failure, the few apples that hang on the branches being good for little else but the cider press. But the country is wide, and apples are grown in other places besides Cortland county. Conditions in different parts of the country differ widely. If our orchards bear poorly, our neighbor's trees may be loaded down, and the payment of a few cents freight charges is enough to place his abundance within our reach. Apples may be high this season, but even if they come high, we must have them and even at their highest they are a comparatively inexpensive food.
HERE AND THERE.
Frosty mornings and golden days are with us now, and these days are the most lovely of the year.
Voters are not getting much of a hustle on themselves in Cortland this year, if the registry of last week is any guide.
During the past week farmers have left this city with their pockets full of money, the proceeds of the sales of their potatoes. Good!
Will some one who knows more than the local editor of the Democrat, please tell us why the place where football games are played is called a "gridiron?''
The football craze has seized some of the school boys, and every kid in the corporation has got it bad. The little fellows even play with a stuffed stocking.
The silo scheme is almost universal among the farmers of Cortland county, and immense quantities of the "bovine sauer kraut" have been stored. The silo method saves work for the farmer and gives a clean food to cattle. The green corn is cut up and packed away without the trouble of husking in weather that is more suited to a seat by the fireside. The ground is cleared quickly and the winter grain may be sown without any labor which formerly followed the seeding of corn fields.
Supreme court begins its October session next Monday.
Come Democrats! Wake up and register! Tomorrow is your last chance. Republicans need not head this appeal.
''Cy'' Townsend is managing the bowling alleys in the Riley block, and will serve lunches, including oysters and clams.
Passengers are now taken on the south-bound milk train over the Lackawanna road, which passes Cortland at about 11:30 a. m.
The state convention of Kings' Daughters will meet in Buffalo Oct. 18-21 inclusive. Mrs. J. F. Bosworth and others will represent the Cortland circle.
Rev. U. S. Milburn of this city has the honor of holding the position of president of the Young People's Christian union of the Universalist church of the state of New York.
The new freight depot is a far more beautiful structure than is owned by The Lackawanna company on the entire line from Binghamton to Oswego, not even excepting those two places.
Had the Prohibitionists of Cortland read the Democrat carefully they would not now be mourning over the fact that they cannot have any city candidates on the official ballot, their convention being held too late for the filing of nominations.
No comments:
Post a Comment