Summary: Oneonta, while it was still McDonald's Mills, was slowly becoming a place of interest for many to do business. Many of the early settlers in the late 1700s and early 1800s were building homes and starting mills, but also fabricating stores downtown.
The area soon witnessed the establishment of sawmills, hotels, taverns, stores, distilleries, schoolhouses, and village manufacturers. Several churches were established too in the early 1800s, many of them active in the anti-slavery movements. McDonald's Mills was really taking shape, and would become renamed Oneonta in the early 1830s. It was incorporated as a village in 1848, and its population was 2,000 by 1865!
Businesses were also started by many of the newer immigrants that came to the area after the 1865. Joe Farone moved to Oneonta in 1881, and began a store and a restaurant around South Main St. There was also Constantino DiLello, who immigrated from Italy in 1895; in 1910, he started a grocery store on Prospect Street where his family also resided. In the Sixth Ward, there was C. Zummo Grocery where Bella Michael's is located today, operated by Casimiro (Jack) Zummo from 1933 to 1963. These are only a handful of examples out of dozens of local grocers and stores that were operated throughout Oneonta!
Info: The collection of city directories at the GOHS are full of advertisements from old Oneonta businesses. If you scroll down the following page: https://oneontahistory.org/research/ you will find the section with some of the digitized directories, specially one labelled "1941-1942 (Business Directory, pages 157-203 only)".
As evidence, answer the following questions: Scroll through the Business Directory pages listed above. What kinds of businesses are listed in these books and where are they located? What are some that stuck out to you, and why? Are some of the listed businesses perhaps made redundant by advancements in technology overtime, if so, which ones?
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1. ERIC - Economy