Schools across our region are pretty much state-of-the-art these days, as far as construction and technology are concerned. They’re designed for a good educational experience for our youngsters.

It might seem to be a stretch of the imagination that a one-room schoolhouse of the late 19th century could be just as good of a learning environment for a farm boy from Van Hornesville.

That farm boy, Owen D. Young, went on to be a board chairman of General Electric and RCA, a diplomat, and later in life provided a much better school for Van Hornesville area youngsters -- all beginning with his one-room schoolhouse experience.

Young was born Oct. 27, 1874, and attended the red one-room school. With money his father obtained from a $1,000 mortgage on the family farm, Young went to St. Lawrence University in Canton, where he graduated at age 20.

Then, acting on a decision he made when he appeared as a court witness in a dispute over a horse trade, Young went to Boston University to study law. He completed the three-year course in two years.

Young joined General Electric’s legal department in 1913 as general counsel and vice president in charge of policy. He became chairman of GE’s board in 1922, a post he held until 1939.

While at GE, he gave impetus to America’s industrial stride and was founder of the Radio Corporation of America, or RCA, and its first chairman.

Young conceived and brought RCA into being in 1919. He arranged for GE, American Telephone and Telegraph, Westinghouse Electric and United Fruit to pool their various radio patents, and RCA was formed.

As a result, the U.S. gained dominance in the radio field, which until then had been limited. From then on, its use expanded as a popular entertainment and cultural medium. Not far from his hometown, General Electric signed on a new radio station in Schenectady, WGY, in 1922. Young served RCA as board chairman until 1930.

Not limited to guiding business, Young was a diplomat. Young and Gen. Charles G. Dawes were official U.S. representatives on a committee of experts assembled by the Allied Reparations Committee in 1923-24, to devise a formula for fixing war damages to be paid by Germany from World War I.

Young was co-author of what was known as the Dawes Plan and supervised the start of its operation. Five years later he was a member of another committee of experts in Paris, which drew up a revised plan for German fiscal rehabilitation and war damage payments.

As a tribute to his diplomacy and leadership, it was named the Young Plan.

Young’s business prominence led him to be mentioned as a possible presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket in 1932. Young announced he would not accept the nomination. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who did get the nod for presidency, and Young said in a campaign speech on Roosevelt’s behalf that business had nothing to fear if Roosevelt was elected.

Young retired from GE in 1939 and returned to Van Hornesville, preferring to be known as a "returned farmer," rather than a retired industrialist.

Prior to retirement, Young was active in regional affairs. In 1934 he had been named as a member of the New York State Board of Regents. In the late 1940s, he headed the commission to recommend the establishment of the State University of New York system.

The schoolhouse where Mr. Young went as a youth had been destroyed by fire many years before. The one built on the same site was destroyed by fire in 1926. In late 1927, The Otsego Republican reported that Young pitched in with a pick and shovel in the construction of a new schoolhouse, wearing old clothes and working side by side with others. In 1928, Young gave the attractive stone schoolhouse to Van Hornesville as a rural central school.

The Owen D. Young Central School District has grown considerably since 1928, originally designed for two teachers and 40 students. Today, there are 49 teachers and staff, for 225 students in the district.

Young passed away in July 1962 at age 87, having lived a productive life for a farm boy from a one-room schoolhouse.

On Monday: A winter tradition in the region has been the Cooperstown Winter Carnival.

City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.