Granville Then & Now – July 27, 2023

By Erik Pekar

Road improvement was one of the topics mentioned in the Granville Sentinel of July 27, 1923: "At a special meeting of the county board of supervisors held late Thursday afternoon in the Hudson Falls court house, an appropriation of $7,600 was made for the repair and completion of the Comstock-Granville road. The work on this road is now at a standstill and the highway is in bad condition. The state commissioner of highways has promised to take this road over into the trunk line system provided it is repaired by the county. The appropriation of $7,500 makes a total of $20,000 for the construction of this road which is 5.2 miles in length. This amount is considered by the county commissioner of highways a reasonable amount for this length of road."

The state did eventually take over the road in question, as it became part of State Route 22. Most of it is still used as such, with a few portions here and there bypassed for more direct roads.

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An interesting item gave birthday greetings of a different sort. "Troy Times: In a casual way, just as if it were nothing extraordinary, J.L. McArthur remarks in the Granville Sentinel that it is forty-eight years since he started the Sentinel. That is quite a voyage on what the genial editor calls 'the uncertain sea of journalism.' Congratulations, Colonel, and many happy returns. It is now contended, as the result of scientific observation, that juvenile precocity continues to superior maturity. It is just as true that the good do not die young, but continue to bless the world with their presence. The Granville Sentinel, prosperous at forty-eight, and The Troy Times, ditto at seventy-two, are substantial proof."

The felicitations on the part of the Troy paper, and remarks by Publisher McArthur, were both a little premature. The first issue of the Granville Sentinel is dated September 17, 1875, which means they were off by two months. The volume-issue count did jump up to the next volume and reset the issue number with the July 20 issue, so this could have been the source of the confusion. The volume convention would be discarded in 1935 in favor of using the ordinal number of years since 1875. The dissonance between the volume-issue increment and the actual years passed would not be solved until 1994, with 1995 being the first year where the first issue was "Number 1" of the volume. The switch to tabloid size that year resulted in another jump in volume-year numbers, which would not restabilize for a few more years. Since then, the system as appeared more or less accurate to the years since 1875, with the issue numbers resetting yearly.

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A church group in Granville gained itself a new pastor: "Rev. J. Parry Jones, who came to Granville from Wales a few months ago to supply the pulpit of the Welsh Presbyterian church, has accepted a unanimous call to become its pastor. Mr. Jones is an exceptionally bright young man and a fine preacher. He has already received a most cordial welcome in the community. The church parsonage is being made ready for the occupancy of the pastor and his wife."

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Two Granville residents went off to go fishing and caught something: "Craig Weir and little son, Nelson Ramadill, visited a brook near Belcher Tuesday and brought home the finest catch of trout ever exhibited in town. Two of the larger fish, weighing from three-quarters to one and a fourth pounds were caught by the young lad. The boy is named after an old Saratoga sport, J.N. Ramadill."

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Lake Saint Catherine was in its busy season, and some had made a long tradition of going to the lake: "This is the fifty-seventh year that W.B. Miller of Granville has been at Lake St. Catherine. There were no cottages on the west side of the lake when he first came here. Idylwild was  the first and owned by the late Henry Reynolds of Granville. Today from Mrs. Guild's cottage on the west shore around the lake to what was formerly known as Grey Gables, there are cottages of all descriptions, about eighty-five in number and forty-three of them are owned by Granville people."

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A section regarding auction sales included this seemingly late mention of a Granville business: "Twenty-eight horses will arrive at the Central House Livery barn, Granville, N.Y., and will be sold at auction Saturday, July 28. Horses weigh from 1,000 to 1,600 pounds. - P. Myers." The livery was the last remaining building of the former Central House, a hotel that stood at the corner of Main and North Streets, and which burned in February of 1917. It was the last full-fledged hotel establishment operating in the Village of Granville.