HOP BOTTOM (FOSTER): The first annual reunion of the descendants of Major Seth Bisbee was held near Foster on Saturday, September 2. The ancestors and parents of Major Seth Bisbee were of Puritan stock; his mother was Jane Bradford, a descendent of William Bradford, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620 and was one of the signers of the Famous Compact on board the Mayflower. And in 1621, on the death of John Carver, was elected Governor of the Colony. Seth Bisbee commenced the study of law in the office of his brother, Noah, in Boston. But at the call for troops in the war of 1812, they both enlisted. Noah was killed at the battle of Lundy’s Lane, near Niagara Falls, in Canada, and Seth was wounded. Noah, 3rd son of Major Seth Bisbee, served his country in two wars. In 1846 he enlisted and served under Gen. Zachary Taylor during the campaign which closed with the battle of Buena Vista. In the Civil War he was wounded and lost a leg at the battle of Antietam. Martin V. Bisbee, of Montrose, a veteran of the Civil War, and his sister, Mrs. Hannah Bisbee Howe, of Great Bend, are all that remain of the children of Major Seth Bisbee.

DIMOCK: C. W. Barnes sold two new wagons, of his own make, at his shop last week for $150 dollars.

UNIONDALE: L. P. Norton thinks he will move from Lover’s Avenue to Pleasant View on North Main Avenue. The neighbors say they are sorry to have them move, and others say they are glad they are coming. Of course, it is on account of that little woman of his. ALSO, Miss Leora Wells, of Elkdale, had an operation for the removal of a tumor, which weighed 40 lbs, one day last week. Dr. Craft, of Herrick Centre, performed the difficult operation, assisted by Dr. Merriman, of Lake Como, and Miss Coogan, a trained nurse from Carbondale. Stick another feather in the doctor’s hat. Miss Wells is having splendid care and is doing nicely at the home of her sister, Mrs. William Coon, where the operation took place.

BURNWOOD: A farewell party was held at the home of Henry Cobb, Thursday evening; all report a good time. Mr. Cobb will soon move to Starrucca, where he has secured a position as foreman at Crossley’s acid factory.

FRANKLIN FORKS: Mrs. Howard Reynolds and children, of Factoryville, spent part of last week with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Wheaton, of Salt Springs.

HALLSTEAD: A force of over 50 people are employed at the cut glass works. ALSO, work on the oil well has been once more started toward drilling a new hole as the broken drill in the old hole could not be gotten out of the way.

LENOX: J. E. Corey, Byron Cameron, Albert Philips, A. J. Cameron and Berton Corey attended the [Civil War] soldiers’ encampment at Heart Lake, Sept. 6.

SUSQUEHANNA: Elmer Tingley, son of the late Dr. H. A. Tingley, died after a lingering illness at Elmira, Saturday, Sept. 9, 1911. Mr. Tingley was for many years a resident of Susquehanna and at one time train dispatcher for the Erie Railroad. A few years ago he resigned his position with the Erie company and went to Elmira where he established a private school for teaching telegraphy. He is survived by his wife and one sister.

TUNKHANNOCK: Some time Saturday night three of the six prisoners in the Wyoming county jail succeeded in escaping the watchful eye of Sheriff Doty. It is felt that a saw was secreted by visitors and handed to one of the prisoners. A reward of $25 for each fugitive is offered, all of who are still at large. They are as follows: William Boyle, highway robbery; 5’, 9” tall, weighs 150 lbs, dark complexion, black moustache and hair. A coal miner with a quite noticeable brogue. Albert Williams, horse stealing, weighs 135 lbs, is 5’, 9”, dark hair and moustache, restless eyes set back in head. Wore brown slouch Fedora hat, brown coat, black trousers and tan shoes. Believed that his wife accompanied him. She is a short, fat woman, and was dressed in a brown suit. Easily recognizable as [she] was out of ordinary proportion. Stanley Bourer, aged 19 years, charged with assaulting officer. Smooth face, light hair, weight 170 lbs. Wore dark serge coat, light cap and trousers, low black shoes.

NEW MILFORD: O. C. Whitney is planning to buy large quantities of apples this autumn and is already loading cars at Kingsley. His large evaporator at New Milford is now in operation and is averaging 400 bushels daily. In Montrose, R. B. Stroud is attending to the buying of apples for him.

NICHOLSON/MONTROSE: Editor H. T. Birchard says a party of autoists made the 13 miles between that town and Tunkhannock, one evening recently, in 53 minutes. And yet they call us Montrosers slow. Why Henry, the local drivers who cannot make the 22 miles between Montrose and Binghamton in 70 minutes flat, are considered slow. Montrose has a speed limit of ten miles, according to signs posted, so we may not have long to honk our horn.

FOREST CITY: The Forest City News says: The inquest to determine the origin of the recent fire at South Gibson, held at that place last Thursday, aroused intense interest in the community. O. P. Walker, justice of the peace, presided and John Reese, David Preston and E. L. Hill were the jurymen. About a dozen witnesses were called. F. M. Gardiner, of this place, represented the complainant and H. C. Taylor and W. D. B. Ainey were present looking after the interests of C. W. Davis. They jury found that “there were reasonable grounds to believe that C. W. Davis willfully set fire to the building that caused the conflagration. On Friday he was held in $1,000 bail to appear at court.

SOUTH HARFORD: Our school has 21 pupils. The children, with their teacher, held a picnic dinner Tuesday noon, on the school grounds, under one of the fine shade trees.

BROOKLYN: Ely brothers are building a nice summer residence by the South pond, at their old home farm. Phil Burbank is the contractor.

WILLIAMS’ POND, BRIDGEWATER TWP.: The work of putting the new iron fence around the cemetery is well under way. Mr. Melhuish, of Deposit, has the job.

I received a correspondence from a reader who wanted some limited explanation of the Supreme Court decision which has become known as the Citizens United case. While most political observers understand that the Citizens United case dealt with the First Amendment rights of corporations in the election process, the general facts surrounding the case have been seemingly lost in the translation. For those who know anything about Citizens United, they assume that the case involves big corporate money improperly influencing elections with the conservative wing of the Supreme Court’s tacit approval.

The case itself has an interesting genesis - Citizens United is a non-profit corporation whose purpose was purportedly to educate the public about their rights and the government. Citizens United created a ninety minute “documentary” entitled “Hillary: The Movie,” which it wanted to air prior to the 2008 primary elections. Citizens United planned on purchasing time from cable or satellite providers to air its “documentary.” The Federal Election Commission stepped in and stopped it. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court - and the Supreme Court determined that the First Amendment protected Citizens United efforts.

In the majority opinion, Justice Kennedy wrote: “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress fining or jailing citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” Justice Kennedy went further by noting that there is nothing that would stop application of the restrictions to other corporate entities such as the media when it engaged in political discourse prior to election cycles. To state it conversely, the media was already actively engaged on a daily basis with advocacy similar to that which Citizens United was attempting to purchase on the airways. Why should corporate media be allowed to do it and get paid to do it by its advertisers while Citizens United was denied a similar opportunity when it wanted to actually pay for it?

In his 2010 State of the Union Address, President Obama contributed to the mythology surrounding the Citizens United case when he criticized the Supreme Court for reversing “a century of law to open the floodgates - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections.” In response to this unwarranted and partisan attack on the judiciary, Justice Alito could be seen in the crowd mouthing the words “not true.” Given that Justice Alito had actually been involved in the case, it is not surprising that he knew what the case was all about - and it was not about foreign corporations spending unlimited amounts of money in our elections - or even about reversing 100 years of regulation of corporate speech. In the law, the devil is in the details - and few decisions are truly as sweeping as partisans on either side want to make them. Every case is fact specific - and Citizens United is no different.

Unfortunately, the mythology growing around the Citizens United decision continues to grow in the wrong direction. The reader took up President Obama’s refrain by suggesting that the decision “reversed over 100 years of legislation starting with the Tillman Act of 1907.” The reader went on to question whether corporations “should be granted the same rights as individuals and subsequently be allowed to gather an unlimited amount of money for political donations?” The Citizens United decision did not uniformly and arbitrarily create special rights for corporations out of the blue. The legal fiction of a corporation is well-grounded in the law and there is no dispute that corporations are entitled to the constitutional protections afforded to individuals.

If this were not the case, then law enforcement would never need a search warrant prior to entering and searching corporate property as it could be argued that the Fourth Amendment only applied to persons - not corporations. For those of you with corporations, I promise you that the police cannot simply come onto your property and search it whenever they want to do so without a search warrant. It is also true that the government cannot take corporate property without just compensation - a protection guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. The list could go on and on - but I think you are getting the picture.

The issue was never really about corporations having rights - it was more about the extent to which the legislature could limit or restrict the rights that the constitution affords its citizens and the associations (corporations) that citizens band together to create for advocacy purposes. The Supreme Court simply determined that this particular piece of legislation went too far. Instead of making it a partisan issue, the solution is pretty simple: the Congress and the President need to go back to the drawing board and craft a more narrowly tailored piece of legislation that takes into account the Citizens United decision. If they believe that they cannot do so, and the issue is really needs to be address, the Constitution itself can be amended.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.

Q. What exactly causes my old teeth to decay?

Tooth decay - and gum disease - are caused by plaque, a layer of bacteria. This plaque can build up quickly on the teeth of older people. In addition, seniors have a greater tendency to get decay around older fillings. And we have more fillings than younger people because we didn’t all grow up with fluoride.

Cavities in the roots of teeth are also more common among older adults, because the roots are exposed when our gums recede and we become “long in the tooth.” The root surfaces are softer than tooth enamel and decay more easily.

Dry mouth, which is a lack of saliva, promotes tooth decay. Saliva is needed to neutralize the cavity-causing acids produced by plaque. Most dry mouth - a condition also known as xerostomia - is related to the medications taken by older adults rather than to the effects of aging.

Despite all of the dental problems related to age, seniors are holding onto their teeth longer than they used to. One reputable survey showed that the rate that seniors lose their teeth has dropped by 60 percent since 1960. This improvement has been attributed to advancements in treatment and better oral hygiene.

Q. What should I do if I - or someone in my home - is poisoned?

If you have a poison emergency, here are some steps you can take. The order of the steps depends upon the severity of the problem. You can call 911, call your poison control center at 800-222-1222, search the poison's label for instructions and an emergency phone number.

The following are some general first-aid instructions.

*If you get a poison onto your skin or in your eyes, rinse the affected area in the shower for at least 15 minutes.

* If you inhale toxic fumes, get to fresh air immediately.

* If poison is swallowed, do not use an emetic medicine such as syrup of ipecac to induce vomiting. Doctors no longer recommend using these medicines because there is no evidence they prevent poisons from entering the bloodstream.

Q. How common are headaches?

More than 45 million Americans suffer from recurring headaches. About 70% of headache sufferers are women.

There are primary headaches that are unrelated to another condition, and secondary headaches, which are. Primary headaches include tension, migraine, mixed headache syndrome and cluster headaches. Secondary headaches include chronic progressive, sinus and hormone headaches.

About 90 percent of primary headaches are caused by tension. These muscle-contraction headaches cause mild-to-moderate pain and come and go. Tension headaches are called chronic if you have them more than 15 days per month. They are episodic if you get them less than 15 days per month.

Most tension headaches can be treated with over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen.

If you would like to read more columns, “How to be a Healthy Geezer” is available at www.healthygeezer.com.

Story Hour has long been a fixture at the various locations of the Susquehanna County Library. It is a wonderful opportunity to introduce pre-school children to an organized learning experience. However, this program differs from one library location to another.

Montrose’s Story Hour program started September 6 and runs through May. However, there is still plenty of room for more enrollees. This program is geared toward children aged 3 1/2 to 5. There is a Tuesday and a Wednesday session each week from 10 to 11 a.m. Participants will be registered from one of these sessions and should always attend on the day assigned. Children listen to a story, watch a movie, play games, and make a craft to take home. There is a fee involved with this program.

The Story Hour program at Hallstead/Great Bend location will start on Tuesday, September 20, and is open to all pre-school age children.

Mommy and Me Story Time at the Susquehanna Library location is geared for children 2 plus years of age and is held two Wednesdays each month at 9:30 a.m. Dates are October 19 and 26, November 9 and 16, and December 7 and 14. Parents must have a valid library card to register their child for this program.

To find out the specifics of any of these programs, you may check out the Susquehanna County Library’s website www.susqcolibrary.org or call the location that is of interest to you. The goal of the Susquehanna County Library to be your resource for lifetime learning.