AllOTSEGO.seniority
THURSDAY-FRIDAY, AUGUST 2-3, 2012
WEEKEND’S
BEST BETS
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‘Curmudgeon’s’ Oneonta Comes Back To Life Dave Brenner (as Ed Moore), right, listens to Debbie Cough read an “In Old Oneonta” essay, “Wonderful Year of 1912.”
parlor at the Swart-Wilcox House, he brought the local historian, onetime Man About Oneonta and selfONEONTA admitted curmudgeon back to life. “He had some rough edges to avid W. Brenner his personality – and he had some has channeled many great edges. He was a very compersonages: SUNY passionate guy,” said Brenner by Oneonta dean, Oneonta mayor, way of introduction before assumchairman of the Otsego County ing Moore’s personality. Board of Representatives, For many local history buffs, Ed Moore, dutiful son, father and husband drawn by Don of course, Ed Moore lives on in and, lately, elder statesman. five volumes of “In Old Oneonta,” Sherwood. For 17 minutes Sunday, selections of his 1,700 newspaper July 29, he channeled Edwin R. Moore, columns that appeared through the 1960s Please See ED MOORE, B3 OTSEGO.seniority and for the 20 people sitting in the front By JIM KEVLIN
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All
Jim Kevlin/
ewing All Her Life Now, Linda Hovey Plans Sewing Museum In Laurens
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he annual City of the Hills Arts Festival brings artists, live music, Ommegang tastings and family crafts to Main Street, Oneonta, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4. Info, (607) 432-2070, www.canoneonta.org. SARAH’S SPOTLIGHT:
Otsego’s Olympian Sarah Groff competes in the 2012 London Olympic Triathlon 4 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, on NBC. Info, http://www. nbcolympics.com. 25th annual Shakespeare in the Valley workshops presents “The Tempest,” 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Aug. 3-4. At 6 p.m., bring picnic and seating. West Kortright Theatre, East Meredith. Info, www.westkc.org, (607) 287-5454.
LAURENS
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inda Hovey is sew-crazy. “At last count, I had 350 sewing machines,” said the Oneonta native. “That includes the little ones. I even have them in the kitchen!” The rooms of her home in Laurens, built in 1880, are stacked to the 11-foot-high ceilings with machines, memorabilia and vintage clothing with plans to turn the front rooms into a sewing machine museum. “I wanted to show what kind of machine a dress could have been made on,” she said, pointing to the lace on a sheer white 1910 graduation gown. “This was done with a tucking-foot-on-a-treadle machine – it could do insert lace like this.” Hovey was born and raised in Oneonta and bought the house in Laurens in 2005, when she and husband RichLinda Hovey’s museumard moved with Lowes’, where to-be is a cornucopia of Linda is a manager. Together, sewing memorabilia. the couple has seven children, four daughters in Rochester and three sons, in North Carolina, Lake Tahoe and Boston. It was the 1995 ice storm in Rochester that started Hovey’s collection. “I used to make bridal gowns, prom, pageant Please See SEWING, B2
LAKESIDE ART: “Art By
the Lake” features landscape art, plein-air painting demonstrations, lawn games, local food, beverage tastings. Free with admission to Fenimore Art Museum. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, at The Fenimore, Lake Street, Cooperstown. Info, (607) 547-1420, www.FenimoreArtMuseum.org/lake. HOPS TOPS: Learn the
history of hops in Otsego County with hands-on activities and tours. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 4-5, The Farmer’s Museum, 5775 NY 80, Cooperstown. Info, (607) 547-1450. IN MEMORIAM: “Raise
SEWING MACHINE CENTRAL TO COUNTY HISTORY
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he sewing machine and Otsego County history are entwined through the person of Edward Clark. After his marriage in 1836 to Caroline Jordan of Cooperstown, Clark, a lawyer in partnership with his father-in-law, Ambrose Jordan, became a frequent visitor to the village. In 1848, he helped a client, Isaac M. Singer, keep control of a crucial sewing-machine patent and, when I.M. Singer & Co. formed soon after, Clark was “legal adviser and half owner,” according to Ralph Birdsall’s “History of Cooperstown.” After Singer’s death, Edward Clark became president of the hugely successful Singer Manufacturing Co. Jane Forbes Clark of Cooperstown, president of The Clark Foundation, is his great-great-granddaughter.
City Of The Hills To Celebrate Art On Main Street
TEMPEST TOSSED:
By LIBBY CUDMORE
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Renee Stanley, OHS health teacher, showed her works for the first time at the 2011 City of the Hills Festival.
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Linda Hovey, above, reviews some of the 350 sewing machines she has collected over the years. She plans to turn her Laurens home into a museum. A golden sphinx, left, adorns an 1898, Model 27 Singer treadle sewing machine
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL • HOMETOWN ONEONTA FOR DAILY NEWS UPDATES, VISIT www.
High the Roof Beams, Carpenters” with the Larchmere String Quartet honors the late Dennis Murray, of Cooperstown. Ah Coopella opens the show. Free, donations accepted. 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5. Windfall Dutch Barn, Salt Springville. Info, (607) 436-3419. ONEONTA ROOTS: Come share your immigrant stories and Oneonta history with others. Free. 1-3 p.m. Sunday, August 5, Swart-Wilcox House, Wilcox Avenue, Oneonta. Info, Tina Morris, (607) 432-0665.
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