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The Chronicle-Express: Consolidation, January 1, 1926, of the Yates County Chronicle (1824) and the Penn Yan Express (1866); the Rushville Chronicle (1905) and the Gorham New Age (1902) The Yates County History Center’s volunteers have gleaned these entries for your enjoyment from their digitized newspapers. You can access them at the free site www.nyshistoricnewspapers.com. For more information about the YCHC, visit www.yatespast.org.

150 Years Ago

May 22, 1873

The largest freight train that ever passed over the Northern Central railway, it is said, was one of forty cars, a few days ago.

A boy by the name of Jolly was in town last Saturday with a wolf he had just brought from Colorado. The boy belongs in Benton and said he had been three or four years in Colorado near Denver. It was not far from that place where he caught his little wolf, which he said was only three weeks old. We imagine the wolf will hardly be a pleasant pet when he grows large enough to develop his wolfish antecedents.

A very large amount of timber lies along the shore of our lake new Hammondsport, more than is usually seen there, ready to be floated through the canals on rafts. Charles Welles, who resides near Penn Yan, has over a million feet of timber on the east shore of the lake above Grove Spring.

100 Years Ago

May 23, 1923

Several matters of general public interest were brought to the attention of the Village Board at their meeting last Friday evening. One of these was the desirability of the village securing a suitable site on the lake near Penn Yan to be used as a Municipal Park and bathing beach. For generations the youngsters of Penn Yan have used unmolested the beach along what is known as “The Pines” as a place to enjoy swimming.

This site is gradually being bought up by private individuals and in a short time will be closed entirely to the younger boys of the community. The only other desirable site for such a purpose is the Excell property on the east side of the lake, which was used last year by the Chamber of Commerce as a Tourist Camp. A village ordinance prohibits swimming in the channel and accordingly the beach along the Tourist Camp was used daily by the children of Penn Yan for bathing last summer. In order to save this property from falling into the hands of private owners, four public spirited citizens purchased the site for the very reasonable figure of $3,600 with the hope that the village would eventually purchase the site for a municipal park and bathing beach. Accordingly, the board of trustees at their meeting last Friday evening voted to lease this property for the above purposes until the proposition of purchasing the property could be submitted to a vote of the taxpayers next March. As this is the only available site on the lake front near Penn Yan for a community bathing beach, it is generally felt that it should be secured to the village and become a village property.

Approximately 200 children of the lower grades took part in a May festival, which was held in the gymnasium of the Liberty Street School Wednesday afternoon.

The program consisted of winding of the May pole, songs, drills, etc. Miss Florence Caldwell, music teacher of the Penn Yan public schools, was the director of the pageant.

The Penn Yan Chamber of Commerce played a merry host to seventy wholesalers and manufacturers of Buffalo who stopped overnight here last Thursday on the last leg of their annual three-day excursion to towns in Western New York. The spirit of hospitality for which Penn Yan is famous made itself felt from the moment the Buffalonians stepped off their special train of ten cars on the New York Central until the parting song was sung at the banquet served at the Masonic Temple in honor of the visitors.

75 Years Ago

May 20, 1948

One of the big events of the school year will be held in the Junior High School auditorium next Tuesday night May 25, at 7:45 o’clock, when the 90 members of the combined school band will present their annual concert. The concert has added importance this year, because proceeds from the sale of tickets will help to build up a fund for new uniforms. The present uniforms, purchased in 1933 when Penn Yan had a band that went to the Chicago World’s fair and placed third in the national contest, have done a lot of traveling and suffered a lot of hard wear since their memorable first appearance.

Grand jury rising Wednesday afternoon, returned two sealed and two open indictments. The open indictments were for Frank Wolter of Potter township, assault second degree, in connection with a farmhouse shooting, and Charles King, forgery second degree, in connection with the passing of checks in Penn Yan. Ralph Hall, held in jail for action by the grand jury in connection with the alleged theft of a truck from the Pierce Freight Trucking depot, was not indicted.

Nearly $9 million will be spent in expanding and improving electric power facilities in the Finger Lakes region in the next three years as a part of the New York State Electric & Gas corporation’s long range program, according to E.W.

Vick, district manager. The major phase of the program will be the construction of an addition that will double the production capacity of the company’s 60,000 horsepower Greenidge generating station at Dresden. Work will start this spring with the station scheduled to go into operation early in 1950.

50 Years Ago

May 24, 1973

Sgt. Kenneth Maloy was named Penn Yan Chief of Police effective June 8 at 4 p.m. by the Village Board at its business session Monday night. Also, Sgt. Maloy was appointed Acting Chief from May 28 to the June 8 date, serving for Chief Donald Campbell, who leaves for a twoweek vacation prior to his official retirement date, June 8. A native of Penn Yan, Sgt. Maloy was graduated from Penn Yan Academy, then joined the United States Air Force, serving until March 1965, when he received his honorable discharge. He joined the Penn Yan Police Department on a part time basis in the summer of 1965 and became a full time officer April 2, 1968. He became sergeant in October 1968.

Around the World in Fashion: the annual 4-H Fashion Show was held last week in the Dundee Central School.

Laurie Denton of Dundee, Diane Sharkey and Amy Borglum both of Penn Yan, were chosen to represent Yates County at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. They were selected from the more than 150 4-H girls who modeled their own creations and native costumes representing 21 countries. Girls who were chosen to vie in the District show in July at the Lodge on the Green, Corning, were Gail Sisson, Lisa Fingar, Patti Joyce, Diane Sharkey, and Amy Borglum, all of Penn Yan; Marlene McMinn of Branchport; Barbara Slingerland and Laurie Denton, both of Dundee.

In recent area high school track & field action, Bucky Campbell, a junior pole vaulter from PYA soared to even greater heights last week in a meet against Mynderse. Campbell, who had cleared 12’6” earlier in a Waterloo meet, went up to 13’3” against the Blue Devils. The vault was only 1 inch off the league record. Jim Swarthout, Jim Beardsley, Mike Hoban and Jim Butcher set a school, meet, and track record in the two-mile relay at Bath in 8:38.3.

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