Happy Birthday Leap Year Babies! February 29, 1924

 

Interlaken Review, Friday, February 22, 1924:

The Review editor [T.P. Hause] is one of the few people in Seneca county who are permitted to have a birthday anniversary only once in four years. Born February 29, 1860, he will celebrate his 15th birthday next Friday by issuing The Review as usual—five of them during this the shortest month of the year. To every person in Seneca county whose birthday falls on February 29^th, he will give The Review one year as a birthday present from the editor. Send in your name and address with year of birth, and you will receive The Review until March 1, 1925, gratis.

       A few columns over that same issue noted, “If there are any persons in this section whose birthday comes on February 29^th, please advise the editor. We wish a list of names. At present, we know of only two –Miss Frances Huson of Ovid and the Review editor.”

The Interlaken Review Friday, February 29, 1924, contained several items celebrating Mr. Hause’s birthday.

       In response to the article on the 22^nd asking for the names of people who celebrated their birthdays on February 29^th was the article entitled Leap-Year Celebraters. [Note: Rd as printed in that time would be Rural delivery, not Post Office pick-up.]

       Among those who have a birthday anniversary today are the following:

Wm K. Grove, Cleveland, 0.

Miss Frances Hughson, Ovid.

Mrs. Dudley Crisfield, Ovid Rd.

Mrs. Augusta Griffith, Montclair, N.J.

Lewis J. Horton, Interlaken, Rd.

Giles T. Scofield, Rochester, N.Y.

Edward Andrews, Waterloo, N.Y.

Erwin Lerch, Fayette (Geneva Rd).

Kenneth Hopkins, Seneca Falls, Rd 4.

Mrs. Anis Davis, Waterloo.

John Mosure, Waterloo.

Thomas P. Hause, Interlaken.

       “Mrs. Anis Davis heads the list, born February 29, 1840. Mrs. Griffith and T. P. Hause were born on the same day in the village of Ovid, and each is the only survivor of their family.”

       With a wide circulation, weekly issues were being sent to many former residents who had moved around the country. Many of whom, having read the call for names in the February 22^nd issue, responded with birthday messages.  

The editor acknowledges receipt of 84 congratulatory letters and postcards up to 3 p.m. February 28th, from Maine on the east to Hawaiian Islands on the west, Honduras on the south and Minnesota and North Dakota on the north—guess most of the States are represented. Also received a box of oranges from Frank W. Grant at Seabreeze, Florida, and a whistle made from a pig's tail (which Ben Franklin said couldn't be done) sent us by our old friend John H. Coryell of Romulus, so we have things ‘all set’ for a good time on our 15th birthday anniversary Feb. 29, 1924.— Thank you.

       Another item from that February 29^th issue noted, “Among the remembrances received by The Review editor, who is celebrating his 15th birthday anniversary today, was the following written by an Interlaken friend who did not wish author's name printed. We thank the author for the sentiment so nicely expressed in the following:

It seems a fitting time to give A tribute that is due

     A certain worthy editor Who prints our fine Review.

 

Because I am not very keen For posies on a bier

     I hope he’ll take this small bouquet I offer now and here.

 

I wonder if we realize How much our little town

     Owes to the efforts of this man For all its wide renown.

 

Coue^* came across the pond To share with us his views

     He couldn’t cause a ripple here To us it wasn’t news.

 

For had not our good editor In most persistent way

     Affirmed that this town “week by week Was better every way”?

 

And just because he said it was We came to think so too

     And so did everyone who read His words in The Review.

 

And each plan to improve the town And each good enterprise

     Has found him ready to assist To boost it to the skies.

 

But there was no one to laud him His merits to confess

     We took for granted all his work, Our thoughts he could not guess.

 

And even as to birthdays, he Has been deprived by fate;

     They only come once in four years And sometimes once in eight.

 

I wonder where they're keeping them— The ones he doesn’t see—

     I think perhaps they’re being saved For one grand jubilee.

 

But like the birthdays hidden so I hope he’ll find some day

     In many hearts the words of praise We thought but did not say.    N

 

       The final item noted in that February 29, 1924, issue of The Review was more tongue in cheek, “Another nice birthday present today is a ton of paper on which to print The Review for weeks to come. (Bill accompanied the shipment).”

 

       The following week, Friday, March 7, 1924, this short article was printed.

When I wrote the original Snippet from the Past items in 2017 it was not a leap year. However, I found that in 1928 T.P. Hause and members of his family along with the community held a celebration in his honor. You can read all about the gentleman and his celebration here: A Sixteenth Birthday Anniversary.

 

Dewitt’s Diary, Friday February 29, 1924, North wind and partly cloudy today the thermometer about 30 degrees. I trimmed in the orchard today; the trees need trimming very bad. I am taking out dead limbs. Edna is baking today.

 

Editor’s note: I wonder if some of the needed trimming was from the snow storm the week before.

^*Coue was a French psychotherapist, “across the pond” being a reference to crossing the Atlantic.