March 2008

1908 and 1958

Glancing Backward

News items from the Naples Record 100 years and 50 years ago

by

Beth Flory

March 1908

Reno Welbourn, "The Wizzard (sic) of Electricity," gave the final presentation in the Bristol Springs Lecture Course. His experiments and demonstrations "excited the wonder of all."

Of local interest was the gathering support for an independent telephone company to supplant Bell. Irving Barber had a private phone connecting his house and his cafe.

New homes were going up on popular Thrall St. The residents would be A.J. Rennoldson, Clark Parker, and A.D. Hatch. Well known photographer L.V. Case leased a studio over the Record office.

Late winter illnesses plagued the area: "la grippe", mumps, rheumatism, pneumonia and quinsy kept Dr. Chaffee on the run.

According to a correspondent from Bristol Springs: "There is one mudhole in our town and that reaches from Edward Goodings' farm to George Bartholomew's place."

The body of ten-year old Milton O'Neill, drowned in Canandaigua Lake, was found by his father who was dragging for him.

March 1958

With the withdrawal of massive snow drifts, the season's litter was revealed, a dismaying and widespread mess. One landowner said he didn't want roads to be improved because that would increase traffic and the accompanying discarded junk and garbage.

Naples' oldest resident, Mrs. Mary Hamlin, 101, died on March 23. The granddaughter of Erastus Hamlin, an early Naples settler, she graduated from the old Naples Academy in 1877.

William Roziskie, 92, owner of property called Gra-Rox on Canandaigua Lake, also died. A Harvard graduate, he was very active into old age. A well known exhibition ice skater, he had taught Grover Cleveland. He was In the Intelligence Service in World War I and was responsible for the detection and arrest of a German spy who was on his way to blow up a New England shipyard.

Locals worrying about spring flooding when the huge snowfall melted were reassured by a County Agricultural Agent who said that the drifts had blanketed the ground, keeping it warm enough to absorb the coming runoff.

Beth Flory's "Glancing Backward" column in the Naples Record is compiled from
old news items that appeared in the Record. Reprinted with permission of the Naples Record.

Index of articles by Beth Flory

CLR Blog | Site Map | Contact CLR