Out of the Past

125 Years Ago

Nov. 10, 1881

President Arthur will take possession of the White House this month. For his own private apartment, he selected the room known as "Nellie Grant's room" in the northwest corner of the building. He did not care to live in the room used by his predecessor, known as the "president's room" because of its painful associations.

The governor of Rhode Island has declared he will audit no bills for liquor used at the entertainment of the French delegation at Newport. The governor is quite right. It seems nowadays that no reception, dinner or business of any kind can be transacted without a lot of rum guzzlers soaking their skins at the expense of the state.

Mrs. Amos Hinkley departed this life last Saturday morning, Nov. 5, 1881, after a lingering illness of diabetes. Born in Gillingham, Kent County, England, she was the mother of thirteen children, nine of whom survive.

On Wednesday, our local barber charged Republicans double the price for shaving, claiming that their faces were double the usual length.

100 Years Ago

Nov. 8, 1906 During a dense fog at 7:30 o'clock Tuesday morning, there was a rear-end collision on the Lehigh Valley Railroad near the depot. Mr. Peter Hauser, who was in the caboose at the time, was seriously if not fatally injured.

Charles Evan Hughes won out against William Randolph Hearst in the contest for the New York State governorship.

75 Years Ago

Nov. 12, 1931

Supervisor A.F. Beiter has offered a tentative budget which would slice over $28,000 off the operating expenses of the town. The tentative budget was arrived at by reducing salaries of all town officials and by eliminating the appointed offices of attorney and engineer.

During the Civil War, William M. Westland of Williamsville answered the call of his country and never came home to his wife and five children. Stephen A. Westland, one of those children, became one of our town's most influential residents. His death on November 4, 1931 was a shock.

The meaning and significance of Armistice Day was brought home to about 1,000 of Amherst's youthful citizens Wednesday by the most pretentious and memorable observance ever given the day here.

Tuesday evening, two valuable young cows of Henry and Harold Wehrung were struck by an auto and hurt so badly the animals had to be killed. The cows got out of their pasture lot on the road in front of the barn in the Sweet Home section.

The Harlem-Kensington section on Saturday of this week will witness the formal opening of the Herzel Drug Store at Harlem Square. The store is housed in a new business block recently erected by Suor and Suor.

50 Years Ago

Nov. 8, 1956

Six Eggertsville boys, ranging in age from 11 to 14 years, are being held by the Amherst Police on charges of six burglaries plus breaking into an untenanted home and willfully committing acts of vandalism.

Merilee Carpenter was elected president of the Student Council of the Sweet Home Central School this past Monday.

25 Years Ago

Nov. 11, 1981

Although she says it's about time Amherst had a woman on the town board, new Councilwoman Lynn Millane doesn't see herself breaking down barriers for women. She is the first woman elected to the Amherst Town Board.

Mrs. Grace Miller Niederlander, 87, owner of the Williamsville Water Mills, died Nov. 4, 1981. Her great-grandfather, Benjamin Miller, purchased it in 1866. He was the first president of the incorporated Village of Williamsville.