This day in Mohawk Valley history: June 10, 1902

The Utica Observer, June 10, 1902, Utica, Oneida County, New York

Filling the Canal With Mud.

Rome, June 10. (Special.) – By authority of the Common Council, after the Board of Health had condemned the lower pond, and on a proposition submitted by the owner of the pond. J. Charles Hale, the old dam at the West Dominick street bridge has been torn out so as to let the water off that the channel of the creek (Wood creek) may be deepened and narrowed and the pond filled in. By reason of taking the dam out a trouble not looked for has arisen, which is the washing into the Erie Canal of the sand and mud from the pond which is forming a sandbar across the canal. Foreman Cadmus of Cayuga and T. R. Jones, the section superintendent of Utica, came here and they estimate the damage to the canal at about $700. The steam dredge, now at work in Syracuse, will have to be brought here to dig out the sandbar. There is no way in stopping the stuff from flowing into the canal till it has all gone out. Mr. Hale is probably liable for all damage as he furnished $1,000 bonds to indemnify the city against any damages arising from taking out the dam. A force of men is now at work in straightening the channel.

Down-the-Valley Towns.

C. S. Hayne & Co. of Albany have recently compiled and published a 1902 directory of Herkimer, Mohawk, Ilion and Frankfort in a single volume. The book includes, besides the usual lists of the inhabitants alphabetically arranged, a classified business directory, lists of banks, newspapers, churches, etc., and altogether is a well arranged and credible piece of work. Hayne & Co. are now at work on a directory of Little Falls.

Valuable Old Records.

Rome, June 10. (Special)-Miss Ida Revely has presented to the lodge of Rome Odd Fellows several valuable and old volumes of Odd Fellows’ Journals from the estate of the late Rowland Fox, who was a member of the first lodge of this city, Gansevoort Lodge, No. 242. Among them are four volumes, 1847-’50, “Gazette of the Union, Golden Rule, Family Companion:” two volumes of the “Mirror of the Times,” 1850-’51. All are in a splendid state of preservation.