June 6, 2007

Printed in this space, not long ago, was a pop quiz, something to test one’s knowledge of Oneida County history and trivia. A few people said the quiz should have been tougher.

To those smarty pants I say, “Okay, get out your pencils and see how easy the following 15 questions are.”

1. The Oneida County jail is near the airport in Oriskany, but where was its original location?

2. In 1810, Asa Gray, a world famous botanist, was born where in Oneida County.

3. The Oneida County Board of Legislators originally had what name?

4. The City of Rome was once named what?

5. What was the first airline to provide service to the Oneida County Airport in Oriskany?

6. Before the Oneida County Airport was built in Oriskany, what airport served the county?

7. An aircraft carrier which saw action in Korea and Vietnam is named after what Revolutionary War battle fought in Oneida County?

8. What was the USS Oriskany’s nickname?

9. President Grover Cleveland lived part of his boyhood where in Oneida County?

10. “Insurance That Starts With You” was the slogan for what New Hartford company.

11. What former WKTV news anchor is divorced from former New York City mayor and now presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani?

12. What two things do Marke Lemke, Andy Van Slyke, Karl Spooner, Dave Cash and Ted Lepcio have in common.

13. What Oneida County village was once known as “the biggest little hockey town in the United States”?

14. What do the books “Rome Haul,” “Chad Hanna,” “Erie Water” and “The Matchlock Gun” have in common?

15. Who wrote the first history of Oneida County?


Answers:

1. In Utica, on Mohawk Street near Eagle Street.

2. Sauquoit.

3. The Oneida County Board of Supervisors.

4. Lynchville, after its founder, Dominick Lynch.

5. Robinson Airlines, which evolved into Mohawk Airlines, started serving
Oneida County on Aug. 30, 1950.

6. Despite its name, the Utica Municipal Airport was located on River Road in Marcy. Airlines serving Oneida County at that airport included American
Airlines and Colonial Airways.

7. The USS Oriskany, recently sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be used as an
artificial reef for divers, was named in honor of the Battle of Oriskany, fought
just up the road from the present Village of Oriskany.

8. The ship had two: “The Mighty O” and “The Big O.”

9. In Clinton, and his parents, the Rev. and Mrs. Richard Cleveland, are buried in Holland Patent.

10. Utica Mutual, now Utica National, adopted that slogan in 1964.

11. Donna Hanover. Both she and Giuliani have remarried.

12. All lived in Oneida County and all played major league baseball.

13. Clinton, home of many hockey teams over the years, including the Clinton Comets.

14. All were written by Boonville’s own Walter D. Edmonds.

15. Pomroy Jones, of Westmoreland, wrote “Annals and Recollections of Oneida County” in the 1850s.


If anyone got all 15 correct let me know. I’ll come over and mow your lawn or wash your car or something.

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Joe Kelly is the editor and publisher of The Boonville Herald & Adirondack Tourist and THE GRIFF.