125 years ago, 1895

The Youngstown Vindicator had a little fun at a competitor’s expense. The paper called a scoop reported by the Youngstown Telegram “The Worst Yet” and noted it “clearly shows who gets all the news, it also shows who does not.” The paper even took the opportunity to take a jab at readers of the Telegram, many of whom lost quite a bit of money in the mishap.

“Readers of the Telegram who were misled by reading the false report of Saturday’s race between the Defender and Valkyrie, as published in that paper in which it was stated that the English yacht was ahead and a certain winner, were indignant when reading the truthful report as published in The Vindicator that the Yankee boat was an easy winner.

“Some of the misguided ones who read the Telegram’s report were foolish enough to make wagers, that the Defender would be defeated, and now regret that they took the Telegram’s word for it. ‘In my opinion,’ said one of disgusted occasional reader of the Telegram, who was so unfortunate as to get hold of a copy of Saturday’s issue.

“The Telegram had better cut out its boastful motto of ‘If you see it in the Telegram, it’s so,’ and substitute in its stead: ‘If you see it in the Telegram, don’t believe it,'” the story continued.

“When it was explained to the gentleman that the report of the yacht race was only one of the mistakes, he said, ‘I have noticed that the Telegram usually gets left off important telegraphic matters, and my advice to it is to make arrangements to get some better service, or else wait until the next day and publish what The Vindicator has to say about happenings over the country.'”

“Thus did the Telegram get roasted all over town. Just about a half hour after The Vindicator bulletined the result of the race, a solitary boy appeared with a piece of chalk and plaintively inscribed the fact of the Defender’s victory on the bulletin board. It was the worst case of scoop ever known in Youngstown.”

40 years ago, 1980

The 105th annual Meeting of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society took members back in time with a trip next door. The event was held at the Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, right next door to the Arms Museum (today the Arms Family Museum). The church was originally the home of Charles Dayton Arms and Hannah Wick Arms, parents of Olive Arms who donated her home, Greystone, to MVHS.

The meeting marked the first time that many MVHS members were able to explore the magnificent architectural wood carvings preserved from the old mansion and used in the church’s sanctuary and altar. The Rev. Roman Braga, parish priest, noted that the church worked to preserve as much of the original structure as possible in its reuse of the building. The stone mansion was built in 1881 by Charles Dayton Arms who worked as a stone mason and brick layer. His wife, Hannah, loved stone houses and this one fulfilled her dreams.

The site sat vacant for about 25 years before the Holy Trinity congregation moved in 1946. During that time, the site was heavily vandalized. The Rev. and Mrs. John Stanila served the congregation early on and were proud to bring a church to the new culture center emerging on Wick Avenue. They were good friends with Mrs. Arms and she was very happy that the building would again be occupied. The Stanilas found that vandals had demolished much of the wood carving by throwing it around the site. Architect Arsene Rousseau handled the restoration and made sure to use as much of the original materials as possible.

The annual meeting also marked the election of new officers including Charles D. Schaff, chairman of the board of People’s Bank and president of the Altronic Division Engine Co.

Former President Warren P. Williamson Jr. described 1979-1980 as “a year of progress for the Mahoning Valley Historical Society and the Arms Museum,” but noted that while it attained a respected place among the area’s cultural and education institutions, the society cannot just mark time. That progress included 135 gifts donated to the MVHS permanent collection as noted by registrar Dorothy Honey, with exhibits and programs bringing in just over 9,000 people to the Arms Museum.

• Compiled from the archives of the Youngstown Vindicator by Traci Manning, MVHS curator of education.