Historical Wyoming County April 1957 - Old Fulton History

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NECROLOGY (con't)
April 1957
Fred W. Johantgn, 82, retired Perry businessman,.died March I;* , 1957 i
in Daytona Beach, Fla. For more than forty years he operated a men's
furnishings store and was the last survivor of the original board of
trustees of the Perry Public Library. A native of Dansville, he came
to Perry in 1900, and was active in public affairs. Burial at Fillmore,
No Y0
An Associated Press report from Washington revealed the death in
that city, March 11, 1957, of Malcolm S. McComb, economic consultant
to the Commerce Department. A native of Warsaw, he-was educated at
Phillips-Andover Academy and Columbia University. He has served in
a number of Federal posts including that of economic advisor to
General Lucius D. Clay when he was military governor of Berlin.
A retired Perry attorney, John F. Ryan, 86, died in that village,
March ll|_, 1957. A native of Nunda, he graduated from the University
of Buffalo and practiced in that city until 1921 when he became a
partner with the late L. A. Walker, Perry attorney. Subsequently,
he maintained his own legal offices. He was buried in Nunda.
"POOR CORKIE"
(The following newspaper item, date about l893,is from a scrapbook
owned by Mrs. Martha B. Rowe, Editor of the Wyoming Reporter.)
In the recent death of Corkie, a crow aged five years, adopted
in its infancy by Mr. & Mrs. A. F. Belknap of West Middlebury, the
people of that vicinity, expecially the children,lose an intelligent
and humorous friend and playmate. When the bird was two years old he
began speaking the English language and at the time "of'his' < death
(1893) he had become quite proficient in the use of many words, having
an especial aptitude for inserting by-words in a very "T orceable
manner.
"Mama" was his first plainly spoken word, so followed by hearty
"hello" with which he was wont to hail all persons passing the house.
When hungary, he would ask for food by saying "Poor Corkie" several
timeso He also often gave vent to his injured feelings by crying
with all the vigorousness of a whipped child. Like others, he had
his faults, the most decided being a kleptomanism.
On a zero night it was customary to let him in at the sitting
window. At the first peep of dawn however he would loudly "hello"
signifying his desire that someone should get up and let him out.
He was a daily attendant upon the district school and went home with
his girl, Miss Myra Quail ( now Mrs. Earl Ewell of Wyoming), for whom
he had formed a great liking, most every night.
It is strange to relate that he had never attempted to associate
with his fellow crows until the past two weeks when he was
quite intimate with two brothers who came and sat on a limb with him
as he "cawed" and 1, helloed" to them.
Whether these crows had anything to do with his death, it is
impossible to say but the thought is entertained that they poisoned
him because he would hot give up his domesticated life and roam with
them.