Also included in the evening will be a display of art work by Cooperstown Central School elementary students and the unveiling of the DVD featuring interviews with older Cooperstown residents that have been done as part of a fourth grade project at CCS.

Additionally it is our understanding that any descendants of the 1907 Cooperstown Centennial committee members who attend on the 21st will be introduced to the assemblage. As our regular readers might remember, we have been encouraging anyone who is a descendant to let us know. To date we have heard from descendants of Gerald D. Ellsworth, Harris L. Cooke, Ralph Ellsworth, Fred Lettis, Frank Mulkins, Michael Hanlon, and Michael P. Kraham. We suspect there are more in the area, given the number of committee members who were involved in the centennial celebration.

The membership of each centennial committee has been carefully preserved in the book, The Cooperstown Centennial Celebration 1907. We are fortunate in that we now own the copy which belonged to the he-we’s grandfather who was a member of the Printing Committee. We have noted, as we have perused the various committees, that there is nary a woman on them, something which is not, we are happy to note, the case with the 2007 Cooperstown Bicentennial Committee.

And finally, the evening will conclude with a special concert by members of the Cooperstown Community Band which will include an original march, "The Cooperstown March and Two Step," which was written by J.B. Cohen for the Centennial Celebration in 1907. There was talk that the band concert might be on the front lawn, but we assume that was a weather permitting plan. And the way the weather has been acting we are not certain how permitting it might be. But, we do know that refreshments will be served, no matter what the weather. We hope to see you there.

While we were gathering information on the 1907 Centennial descendants, we received an e-mail from Mark Kraham with a list of descendants of Michael P. Kraham who are still in the area. And while Mark does not live here, we gather he visits Cooperstown on a regular basis and, in fact, told us he is always looking for a reason to make the trip here. He also shared what we thought was a rather interesting story.

He wrote: "...I visited your home a few years ago and talked with Gerry about our dads. My father Rohan "Curly" Kraham along with Charlie Ellsworth and Bill (last name unknown) left on an adventure in 1929 to make it big in Hollywood. I recall my father saying that it was during the Depression and the three young men thought perhaps they would starve to death. So they decided to head back to NY. My father said while they were in Hollywood he went to a casting call in an effort to get work. While there he met another young man who had movie aspirations. As my father talked with the young man they both decided that Hollywood was a tough town and that it was questionable as to whether they would make it. My father, Charlie, and Bill returned to Cooperstown. Meanwhile the young man my father had met at the casting call must have stuck it out and remained in Hollywood. He was Sterling Holloway, who went on to have quite a career as a character actor, most notably for his voice-over work particularly becoming the voice of Winne the Pooh."

We must admit that we did not know of Charlie Ellsworth’s 1929 travels, or his aspirations concerning Hollywood, although the he-we must have known. We thank Mark for sharing them with us. And we hope he will drop in for a visit the next time he is in the area.

In closing, several weeks ago now, we mentioned we had come across a website which had been set up by a Cooperstonian. At the time we mussed that there must be other such websites. However, to date we have only heard from one other area resident, fellow columnist Jim Atwell who wrote: "Allow me to cite another local website: www.JimAtwell.com." We thank Jim for reminding us of his website which we must admit we have looked at from time to time. Are there other websites by local residents? Please let us know.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths

NOTE: The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.