This year of 2019 turns out to be crammed with anniversaries!
*This year we Americans have three important quadricentennials (had to look that one up, and the spell check still doesn’t like it), all centered around Jamestown (founded 1607) in Virginia. This is the four-hundredth anniversary of the first elected representative assembly in America – the House of Burgesses, chosen by vote of the free men of Virginia, to make laws for the young colony.
*That same year saw the first labor strike in America, as Polish immigrants refused to work unless they were granted voting rights, which at first had been restricted to the English-born and their offspring. In three weeks the burgesses caved in, and the newly-enfranchised former Poles went back to work.
*The year 1619 also saw the first boatload of African slaves delivered for sale, starting English-speaking America down a centuries-long trail of crime and brutality.
*The first Steuben County Fair took place in Bath in 1819, making this the bicentennial year! Our fair has weathered world wars, the Civil War, the Spanish flu, the Great Depression, and numerous severe floods, and kept on going. Hooray!
*Over in Schuyler County, the village of Burdett got its start in the same year.
*Bath’s Library opened its doors in 1869 – this is its sesquicentennial year! The library’s first location was in the county courthouse. When it got a permanent home it was named the Davenport Library, after the donor.
*Also in Bath, St. Thomas Episcopal Church laid the cornerstone for the monumental Liberty Street edifice that we all know today. (It’s the oldest church building in the Village.) The Methodist church building was dedicated in Campbell, and First Baptist Church was organized in Addison. Corning Flint Glass Works was in its first full year in Corning.
*As far as centennials are concerned, Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance (originally the Finger Lakes Association) has been bringing visitors to our 14-county region since 1919. Also still with us is the American Legion, formed in Paris a hundred years ago.
*There are 20th anniversaries too! In 1999 Davenport Library celebrated its 130th birthday by moving to new facilities next door… helped out by schoolchildren and others passing books from the old place to the new. The NEW library was named Dormann, for the family that donated funds for construction. Gerald Ford and Walter Cronkite came for the opening festivities, as did Defense Secretary William Cohen. Every living President donated an autographed book.
*Lieutenant-Colonel Eileen Collins of Elmira became the first woman to command and pilot the Space Shuttle. As a teenager she had cadged flying lessons at the Harris Hill gliderport by voluntarily helping out with scut work around the hangar. She went on to Corning Community College, Syracuse University, a master’s degree, the Air Force, and the Astronaut’s Corps. In 1999 she became the highest-flying American woman ever.
*Steuben County Historical Society and Steuben County Historian moved into the old Davenport Library, then renamed Magee House after its 1831 builder.
*U.S. Representative Amo Houghton defied, disdained, or ignored his party by voting against the impeachment of Bill Clinton. The Republican-controlled senate agreed with Houghton, and Clinton stayed in the White House.
*Anyway, this year marks quite a few anniversaries. Find a few to celebrate!