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Year of the Crash
During World War II temporary military bases were set up throughout the country. One was just outside of Solvay. On July 2, 1944, a military plane crashed while attempting to land, narrowly missing the the Solvay Process Company. That year there were several military plane mishaps in Central New York. |
God Struck Out
On May 18, 1913, Mickey Major and 17 others were arrested in the town of Fleming, NY, just outside the city of Auburn. Their crime? Playing baseball on Sunday. What happened next provided Central New York with several months of drama – and comedy. |
Christmas tragedy
Seven teenagers crammed into a car for a short trip to Skaneateles to buy Christmas presents for the school tree. Moments later driver Leo Major was dead in an accident that also would take the lives of two of his passengers. |
Tony Kane's last voyage
He could have been a character in the old Warner Brothers movie, "The Roaring Twenties," for Tony Kane lived and died in a manner that virtually guaranteed there'd be no happy ending. |
Lost ... then found
William McLaughlin was gone – for almost 20 years – and to many he was dead and forgotten, but one Skaneateles man never gave up hope that someday he'd find his brother and bring him home. |
Buster's scrapbook
1923 was another championship season for the football team from Christian Brothers Academy of Syracuse, which means something to us because one of the stars was a transfer from Solvay High School, a young man named Buster Major. |
Biggest show in town
On a September day in 1929 the talk of the town in Auburn, NY, was a double wedding when two sisters married a a couple of guys from Syracuse, a dentist and a doctor. We were interested because the dentist's name was Major. |
If there's a heaven ...
... then that's where you'll find Dennis McLaughlin and his family, who on Earth endured more than their share of hardship. |
All work and no play
John P. Major of Buffalo, NY, worked at one company for more than 60 years and claimed he never took a vacation because he enjoyed his job too much to spend his weekdays doing anything else. |
Why? The killer wouldn't say
Another John Major, this one John E. Major, was an Auburn, NY, police detective whose last case involved a fatal stabbing. The killer was quickly caught, but 58 years later an important element of the case remains a mystery. |
Better late than never
In 2009 Solvay, NY, elected its first woman mayor. In 1918, knowing women would be voting for the first time, local Democrats went looking for a female candidate, but couldn't find one. |
If this is Baldwinsville, it must be 2 p.m.
In its early years, daylight saving time not only was confusing – you won't believe just how confusing it could be – but it was very controversial, especially where farmers were concerned. |
Too many John McLaughlins?
When a local election in 1895 threatened the existence of every saloon in Skaneateles, bar owners came up with an unusual – some might say hilarious – plan to have the results overturned. |
| Even safety tests were unsafe |
| Household and workplace accidents were common in the 19th and early 20th century. An 1897 accident at Glenside Woolen Mills in Skaneateles involved both a Major and a McLaughlin. |
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