Culled from May 1908 issues of
The Andes Recorder — 100 Years AgoTHE NEWS IN AND ABOUT ANDES

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Events of a Week as Chronicled by the
Man on the Street

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The village streets are being cleaned up and all the culverts are being re-built.[ Jim Andrews: I am assuming that these were laid up stone blind ditches which drained the open ditches at either side of the road and allowed runoff water to be diverted under the streets to the brook. Walter Armstrong told us that there were a whole series of these blind ditches all over Main Street (and he must have been right because when the new water lines were put in several years ago, many of these got destroyed by the backhoe, and water started appearing in basements that had never had water before.) The actual storm drainage that was just replaced was installed in 1948 when Route 28 was rebuilt through Andes.]

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Thursday the Andes Creamery company shipped its first carload of casein from their creamery here. [JA: Casein is the chief protein in milk and from this cheese is started.]

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George Knapp has removed the low wall along the front of his lot adjoining the sidewalk on High street. [JA: At one time the sidewalk ran all the way up High Street and met the one in front of Rick Shaver’s. And it’s possible there were walks on both sides-Andes was big on walks back then. The present George Knapp told me about removing the flagstones along the street and leaning them up on the bank. The George Knapp house mentioned was the house that preceded Anderson’s ranch and was purported to have been the oldest house in town. It was an old plank house which George Liddle bought from the Knapps and burned down.

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Dr. Jay D. Frisbee [Ed.: this was Doc Frisbee, Andes’ local dentist], George Elliott and William Dickson attended the reunion of Co. F, at Walton on Friday. They served in this company during the Spanish-American war.

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The two plays, “Merchant of Venice” and “The Scheme that Failed” produced at Union Hall on Wednesday evening by the seniors and juniors of Hilton Memorial High School gained the applause of the audience. The manner in which the actors carried out their respective parts did credit to them….The two dramas will be reproduced at Strangeway’s Hall, Bovina Center, on Monday evening, May 11.

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Henry Little, Sr., on Cabin Hill, who is 88 years old, was seized with a apoplectic shock [Ed.: what we now call a stroke] on Sabbath and it was thought that he would not recover, but at last reports he was improving.

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This week W. T. Hyzer took a party of city people on a fishing trip to the Beaverkill and they caught 242 trout. [Ed.: this was before the days of catch and release for sure.]

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It looks as if something would soon be done to remove the unsightly “Cottage Row” houses from Railroad avenue. It is expected that a representative of the estate will be here next week. [JA: Cottage row was a series of rundown rental houses located from approximately Rima Walker’s house to the brook by the tennis courts. They were run down by the 1890’s, so by 1908 it was no wonder that people wanted them removed. Roy Miller told me about Cottage Row when I was a kid and that when the fire bell rang on July 4th, that someone had set fire to the houses on Cottage Row.]

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The sidewalk along the front of the Smith house, owned by Mrs. A. S. Dowie, and in front of J. D. Frisbee’s new house have been re-laid this week making a very great improvement. The walks as far as the hotel will be relaid. [JA: The Smith house is my brother’s [John Andrew’s] up by the library and Doc Frisbee’s was Marty Donnelly’s present office. Doc Frisbee bought the house and turned the building around-it used to have the narrow end face the street and was a business downstairs and an apartment upstairs, and that’s why this item refers to it as Doc Frisbee’s “new” house.]

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The large room in the second story of the “Big Store on the Corner” will be utilized. Partitions are being put in and the Odd Fellows have leased the side next the Hotchkiss & Tuttle store. Several parties are after the other rooms. [JA: Marguerite Fowler told me about the Odd Fellows using the upstairs of the store for their lodge rooms. She said it was very fancy up there-“they had carpets and a pool table.” She also said that the kids used to say that the IOOF (International Order of Odd Fellows) actually stood for “I’m One Old Fool”.]

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House breakers and petty thieves are reported to be doing considerable business on Cabin Hill, and have secured money, potatoes, poultry, etc. [Ed.: Ah, the good old days before electronics, when the petty thieves stole chickens].

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Strike on Ashokan Reservoir

The first strike on New York City’s Ashokan reservoir, in the Catskill Mountains, took place this week when one hundred Italians struck for an increase in wages from $1.20 to $1.25 a day, which was refused. The aqueduct police placed the strikers on a train and they were supplied with transportation to Kingston.

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A Gypsy Band

A band of 80 gypsies camped half a mile from Stamford on Sabbath afternoon and Monday moved toward Oneonta. The outfit included 12 large vans and 25 horses, and they were en route for Buffalo, where they will meet another large party from Chicago. The band were all of one family blood, being the children and grandchildren of two brothers, who came from Brazil.[JA: Gypsy bands used to camp here in Andes and were considered rogues and thieves. My mother said that her mother told her about Gypsies camping frequently in Shavertown.] ~