Chenango County Personalities 1905

Chester A. Benedict

Utica Saturday Globe, September 1905

 

Chester A. Benedict

The time has long been when one of the familiar sights upon the streets of Norwich [Chenango Co., NY] is Chester A. Benedict and his dog.  Mr Benedict seldom if ever comes down from his suburban residence at Plymouth [Chenango Co., NY] to the county seat without his constant canine cantering at his heels.  The accompanying picture is hardly familiar without some evidence of his faithful follower, but the camera chose to do things differently and leave his dogship out.  Besides his dog, Mr. Benedict is famous as a leading correspondent for the county papers, serving up his home news in an original and graphic style.

 

H.A. Walworth

Utica Saturday Globe, November 1905

 

 

H.A. Walworth

Smithville, Chenango Co., NY

 

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  The Chenango County Board of Supervisors convened in annual session at the Court House Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock, the meeting being called to order by Clerk W.B. Leach.  The roll call disclosed the presence of every member of the board.  Ex-Chairman, William E. Beardsley, of Coventry, nominated H.A. Walworth, of Smithville, for chairman and he was unanimously elected.  Upon being escorted to the chair by Messrs. Beardsley and Dalrymple, the chairman made a brief but appropriate speech in recognition of the honor conferred upon him.  Mr. Walworth has been a member of the board for a number of terms and will bring to the discharge of his new duties the benefit of many and varied experiences as a lay member of the body.

 

Clerk W.B. Leach was nominated for re-election by Supervisor, N.P. Bonney, of Norwich, and was the unanimous choice of the board.  After a brief speech thanking the supervisors, Mr. Leach read two communications from the comptroller, one stating that the aggregate valuation of the county, was $18,707,337 upon which a State tax of $2,880.93 was assessed and the other in reference to stenographer's fees, the county being obliged to raise $971.72.  Both were referred to committees.

 

F. Joseph Schorn

Utica Saturday Globe, December 1905

 

 

F. Joseph Schorn

 

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  This community is to be congratulated upon at last securing a resident representative of the Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals.  Nominally Norwich has had such a representative for years, but either the occasions for action were rare or for some reason the representatives failed to act--at any rate they were seldom heard from after the announcement of their appointment.  Not so however, with Mr. Schorn.  He was no sooner appointed than he got right in anything he undertakes.  The result has been that a number of cases have received needed and prompt attention.  among these instances is that of a horse neglected by its owner and while sick left to shift for itself.  No sooner was the condition of the animal brought to the attention of Mr Schorn than he took steps to secure relief for the suffering brute, while the owner was brought up facing the law for his allege cruelty. 

 

The latest instance of  Mr Schorn's interference in behalf of his equine charges was in the case of a pair of horses owned by a Plymouth man residing near the reservoir, who it is alleged, drove the team 12 miles to Norwich.  While here their condition was discovered by Agent Schorn, who found them at two blacksmith shops several blocks apart, one on American avenue and the other near Scott's mill. The owner claimed he came into possession of one of the horses by trading a load of wood with Morris Freidman the junk dealer.  The other he secured from Charles Dye.  Both were poor and decrepit and hardly able to walk.  They were taken to the Palmer House barns and the next day taken to the ravine south of the village and shot.  The owner when arrested and arraigned before Recorder Mallory pleaded guilty to the charge of cruelty, consented to the killing of the team, was given a suspended sentence, and walked home over the 12 miles he intended to drive the team, arriving home about midnight.  His brother was arrested with him for intoxication and locked up over night.  In the morning the latter's wife, who had walked 12 miles to hunt him up, found him in the lock up.  After her arrival he was arraigned and given some sound advice by Recorder Mallory, and allowed to go home with his devoted wife to their three small children, under a suspended sentence.

 

Agent Schorn has his eye out for other cases requiring his attention, and will consider it a favor to be informed of any instances of abuse or cruelty either from overwork or from any cause.  His vigilance will not allow them to go uninvestigated, and his energy will bring the guilty ones to justice.

 

Mr. Schorn has shown his public spirit and efficiency as a public servant in other capacities, notably that of mayor, and while in no position has he been found wanting.  In none has there been a wider or more worthy field for the exercise of his varied talents than in the protection of dumb animals, to which he has devoted himself with becoming assiduity, and in the prosecution of which all lovers of animals will uphold him.