Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — 1922

The United States Civil Service Commission has announced an examination to be held at Lakeville on Jan. 18, 1923, to fill the position of rural carrier at Lakeville and vacancies that may later occur on rural routes from that post office. The salary of a rural carrier on a standard daily wagon route of 24 miles is $1,800 per annum, with an additional $30 per mile per annum for each mile or major fraction thereof in excess of 24 miles. The salary on motor routes ranges from $2,450 to $2,600 per annum, according to length. Separate examinations for motor routes and wagon routes are no longer held. Women will not be considered for rural carrier appointments unless they are widows of U.S. soldiers, sailors or marines, who are physically disqualified for examination by reason of injuries received in the line of military duty.

The ground was white with the first snow of the season on Friday morning.

Paul Cleaveland has started the building of a new cottage on Wells Hill.

50 years ago — 1972

Connecticut highway officials are prepared to break up any ice jams in the Housatonic River this winter before they damage the historic covered bridge at West Cornwall, District Engineering Manager Rowland Killingbeck told The Lakeville Journal this week. The covered bridge is now being reconstructed and a temporary span has been built just south of it. Area residents had cited a danger that the two piers for the temporary bridge might catch ice and cause it to back up so as to affect the covered bridge, which has a single pier in the middle of the river. Acknowledging the possible danger, Mr. Killingbeck said the contractor is keeping a crane with a clamshell bucket located below the two bridges at a point where it will be able to break up any ice or obstruction. Other steps such as the use of explosives also could be taken in an emergency, he added.

Mr. and Mrs. David O’Keefe of Oakland, N.J., have purchased the Sharon Motor Lodge on Route 41. The O’Keefes, new to the motel business, purchased the lodge through an ad in The New York Times.

Yesterday, Mrs. Aldo Beligni thanked the State Police and “people from all over Canaan” who assisted in the successful search for Richard Beligni, Christopher Strattman and David Ohler (all in their teens) who had been lost on Canaan Mountain Tuesday afternoon until 6 a.m. yesterday morning. The young men went hunting, it got dark very quickly, and they lost their way in the woods. The young men found their way home out of the woods at dawn.

Linda Gatti of Granite Avenue in Canaan, and a student at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, has been chosen to participate in the 1973 Congressional Seminar in Washington, D.C.

25 years ago — 1997

Dr. Vincent J. Peppe has closed his office due to illness, ending 53 years of practicing veterinary medicine in Canaan.

Car buffs may be pleased to know the legendary Cunningham name has been resurrected and is turning out cars again. The Cunningham C-4R model sports/racer which just went into production at the Lime Rock Road garage, was originally built in West Palm Beach, Fla., by the Cunningham Car Company.

Eating in a boathouse may not sound appealing to most people, but eating in The Boathouse, which is the name of the new restaurant coming to Lakeville, may. The Boathouse will be in the building formerly occupied by the Golden China on Main Street in Lakeville. Its menu will feature extra-large portions of meat and seafood. The atmosphere, said Daniel O’Brien, co-owner with his wife Wendy O’Brien, will be casual. 

Cornwall resident Helen Coley Nauts, founder of the Cancer Research Institute in New York City, is the recipient of the National Institute of Social Sciences’ gold medal award for distinguished service to humanity. The honor was presented to Ms. Nauts last Wednesday at the annual NISS gold medal awards dinner at the Union League Club in Manhattan. The 90-year-old Ms. Nauts, who was born in Sharon in the house behind the clock tower near the Town Green, has been a summer resident of Cornwall since the 1940s.

These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.