19th century Putnam — Garden raiders

Note to would be garden thieves: Make sure that you select a farm with a sound sleeper.

“A correspondent of The Star in Putnam tells about two young men who became hungry the other night and made a raid on the garden of Robert Graham,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Aug. 25, 1893. “It appears that Graham slept with one eye open, and the next morning an officer called on the two raiders. They were given the privilege of paying forty dollars or going to Salem jail. They paid.”

In other 19th century Putnam news collected from historical newspapers of the region:

• The Putnam correspondent must have been a student of great literature.

“A number of young people ‘tripped the light fantastic’ at Charles Williamson’s February 25,” the Putnam correspondent of The Granville Sentinel reported on March 7, 1892.

John Milton coined the phrase “tripped the light fantastic” in the 17th century to mean dancing nimbly or lively to music.

• Putnam was blessed with optimum mid-winter weather.

“Good sleighing here, and those who have wood and logs to draw are making the most of it,” the Putnam correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Feb. 1, 1889.

The worst of winter was yet to come.

“The blizzard which struck this place Friday evening of last week drifted the highways running east and west quite badly. They are passable at present,” the Putnam correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on March 1, 1889.

Still, Spring came, and planting season was commenced about two weeks earlier than usual.

“Farmers in this vicinity have nearly finished sowing, some are panting potatoes this week,” the Putnam correspondent reported on April 26.

• Lumberman in Putnam who had been idle because of lack of snow were quite happy when Mother Nature issued a back-to-work-order.

“At noon Monday, a snowstorm set in which continued about forty hours, leaving about of foot of snow and ten below zero,” and enabling lumbermen to return to work, the Putnam correspondents reported in The Granville Sentinel on Jan. 23, 1892.