March 2, 1904 Incorporation of Village Approved

The Spring of 1904 had a number of events occurring which overlapped and influenced each other. The aging Lehigh Valley Railroad station was in need of replacement, and the Railroad was wanting to change the name of the station to be more inviting for arriving passengers. At the same time the Farmer village residents were seeking to become incorporated, thereby giving them street lights and better sidewalks and roadways.

To find a new name for their station the Railroad asked for suggestions and offered that if a new name could be selected, they would build a new station.

It is interesting to look at the newspaper articles to see what was being said about the incorporation, not very much. Official notices were placed for the petition for incorporation, for the public hearing to discuss the issue and the election notice. Only one article mentioned discussion, and that was reporting on a debate held by the Bradford Debate Club. The article in the February 19, 1904 issue of the Farmer Review noted, “Last Friday evening was very pleasing to all in attendance. Six young men debated the subject, “Farmer should be incorporated,” and both sides of the question were well argued. The judges awarded the decision to the affirmative side.”

March 4, 1904 Farmer Review: Farmer Incorporated. The future destiny of Farmer was favorably decided on Wednesday afternoon, March 2, 1904. One hundred and eighteen votes were cast—72 for and 48 against the proposition, making a majority of 26 in favor. The election of officers will take place in due time, and some system of street lighting arranged for. The roads and walks will be properly cared for, and we are able to assure the Lehigh Valley railroad company that our village will try and be as attractive as the new depot they propose to build here.

The new name for the station went into effect on May 1, 1904. Later that month the Farmer Review included a notice about the name changes and a bit of the paper’s history.

Special Notice May 15 the Lehigh Valley railroad company changed the name of their station at Farmer to Interlaken. Postmaster F. H. Johnson, on Monday, received notice from the postmaster general that the post office name will be changed to Interlaken at the beginning of the next quarter, on July 1, ’04. [1904] 

This paper was started by the present publisher on July 23, 1887, as the Saturday Morning Review. At the solicitation of D.C. Wheeler and Rev. Lewis Halsey, the name was changed to the Farmer Village Review, to incorporate the name of the village. When the “Village” was dropped from the post office name, in 1892, the word was also dropped from the paper’s name. At the end of the present volume, July 23 next, we shall again change to keep pace with the onward movement of our village, and will call it The Interlaken Review. Farmer Review 5/27/1904 [As it happened, the Review changed its name with the first issue in July, rather than waiting for later in the month.]

It should be noted that the name change did not come without controversy. Even though the Lehigh Valley Railroad had first offered the new depot in exchange for a new name, and had awarded Georgiana Wheeler the honor of the name she had suggested, there were still those who “asked them to reconsider their decision to change the name of their station at Farmer to Interlaken, and, instead, call it Creston.” Farmer Review article April 8, 1904

In the end, all three, Station, Post Office and Village were called Interlaken. This was the name suggested by Miss Wheeler, the local teacher, after she had spent time in Interlaken Switzerland, and thought it fit well with our area.

The renaming of Farmer to Interlaken was the main question on the March 21, 1905, ballot to elect officers for the village. “The question: ‘Shall the incorporate name of the village of Farmer be changed to the village of Interlaken,’ was the real centre of interest at this election, the name of the post office, depot, telegraph, express and telephone offices already having made that change…seventy votes were cast.” When counted 47 said yes, 23 no and one was blank. The article noted the change “takes effect immediately upon the filing of the certificate of the vote,” which happened at 7:06 p.m. on March 21, 1905. [Interlaken Review March 24, 1905]

As a side note, I have yet to find any information on who or why the name of Creston was proposed. What has been found were several poems on the question of incorporation and name changes. One is shared here from the June 3, 1904 Interlaken Review.

Interlaken

Interlaken now, you see

Farmer though, we used to be;

But we’ve enterprising grown,

And must reap as we have sown.

Citizens when they go away,

Will not be bothered all the day,

By having strangers asking how

It happens that they follow the plow.

Electric lights and sidewalks laid,

Every new improvement made,

All are proud of this new town

That has turned old Farmer down.

We have left old friends for new,

We have left old Farmer true,

On the old we’ve turned our backs,

For the new are making tracks.

Farmer had to us grown dear,

It was a friend for many a year,

When long away and homeward bound,

How sweet to us the name would sound.

Of course the name was very humble,

And we would be the last to grumble,

But Farmer has a back seat taken

For this new-fangled Interlaken.

Two notes: the new railroad station was not built until 1910, and that will be covered in June as its own Snippet From the Past.

The Historical Society is sometimes asked, “is the Farmers’ Museum on Main Street a museum for the Village of Farmer?” The answer is no, it is a museum for the farmers and the agrarian way of life of this area and all rural areas. Just the reverse of the poem’s comment.

Dewitt’s Diary March 2, 1954

Temperature 28 this morning. South west wind and broken clouds. One inch of snow.

Had a shooting in the House of Rep in Washington yesterday. Five members wounded.

The United States Capitol shooting incident of 1954 was an attack on March 1, 1954, by four Puerto Rican nationalists; they shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol. They wanted to highlight their desire for Puerto Rican independence from US rule.

The nationalists, … began shooting at the 240 Representatives of the 83rd Congress, who were debating an immigration bill. Five Representatives were wounded, one seriously, but all recovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_shooting_incident_(1954)