Out of the Past

125 Years Ago

Aug. 18, 1881

During the past week, the condition of President Garfield has been extremely critical. Let us pray that his life may be spared.

Mrs. Millard Fillmore, wife of ex-President Fillmore, died at her residence in Buffalo last Thursday night. She was in her 71st year.

The Rough and Ready Fire Company will have a basket picnic on Aug. 23rd. There has been chartered for the occasion the handsome, new steam yacht Albert J. Wright. The dancing hall at Sour Spring Grove at Grand Island is beautiful and all lovers of the terpsichornian art can indulge to their heart's content.

Bob Humphreys of St. Louis is a peculiar rope manufacturer. He makes nothing but nooses for hangmen. Orders are sent to him by sheriffs all over the western and southern states. The price is $6 apiece.

"Home is the best love. The love that you are born to is the sweetest you will ever have on earth."

100 Years Ago

Aug. 16, 1906

The Williamsville High School will reopen on September 4th.

Work on Mr. John Wooster's house and place of business was completed last week and Mr. and Mrs. Wooster are now occupying the building. The house is complete with gas, water and bath.

Deaths include Mrs. D.B. Howe of Williamsville and Mrs. Charles Eberle of Forks.

75 Years Ago

Aug. 20, 1931

Personal calls will be made on property owners who did not pay their village taxes at the last assessment.

Joseph Snyder of Academy Street has been appointed janitor at the Village Hall, succeeding the late August Stengel, a member of an old Williamsville family, who passed away on Aug. 13, 1931. Known to everyone as "Gus," Mr. Stengel was an employee on the Williamsville trolley for several years.

Congratulations to the St. Mary's baseball team of Swormville, which Sunday clinched the championship in the Niagara-Erie Baseball League.

H.C. Bentley, founder and president of the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance in Boston, Mass., says "Young men must choose some one trade or profession or line of work and by study and training equip themselves to render a specific service. Business is so specialized today that it cannot afford to spend the time necessary to take the untrained man and develop him through the old apprentice method."

Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m., the song service of the Harris Hill United Brethren Church will be held outdoors at Main and Transit roads. All Christians who love to sing the Lord's praises are invited.

50 Years Ago

Aug. 16, 1956

Word reached Williamsville last weekend of the sudden death of Arthur Wahl Fidinger, 60, in Lake Worth Fla., on Aug. 9, 1956. He served aboard submarine D-3 during World War I.

Daniel B. Streeter has been named to the Sweet Home Board of Education to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Hoak. Mr. Streeter conducts a poultry farm, the Aura-Lee Farm, at his home at 1607 Sweet Home Road.

25 Years Ago

Aug. 19, 1981

Members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, on strike since Aug. 3, are asking for an upgrade in the federal government pay scale and a 36-hour week. President Ronald Reagan has refused to negotiate with the union. Tower Supervisor W.W. Rusch of Snyder is one of four non-striking controllers and supervisors who have been working 60 hours per week since the advent of the strike.

Rupert Huck, 92, former Williamsville village trustee and a member of the Hutchinson Hose Co., died Aug. 16, 1981.