Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago —
September 1923

Messrs. Chaffee and Hickey report from the West that their horse is winning some great races.

The S.N.E. Telephone Co. has been installing new and additional cables in its underground conduits in this village to provide increased wire capacity.

As an illustration of the trend of real estate values in Lakeville it is understood that Mr. H. Roscoe Brinton, who bought Mrs. C.L. Bradley’s place last August has received an offer of $2000 more than the price paid by him for the property. Lakeville property of all kinds appears to be increasing in value.

ORE HILL — Fred Douglas has moved from the John Holloran’s tenement house to one of the Salisbury Iron Corporation’s houses.

50 years ago —
September 1973

Sunday, Oct. 14, will be Bill Barnett Day in Salisbury, and sponsors of the event hope that residents will turn out in large numbers at the Town Grove to greet the retiring first selectman and his wife. This was outlined at a meeting of interested citizens called Monday night to plan an appropriate celebration to mark William B. Barnett’s 27 years as Salisbury’s top elected official.

A Taconic man, Richard W. Chase, is the first president of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority. He was named by the board of directors of the state Department of Environmental Protection on Sept. 5. The authority will build and manage a $250 million statewide solid-waste disposal and recovery system. 

A mass of cool air that swept in from Canada brought the season’s first frost to higher elevations in Northwest Connecticut Monday morning. Sept. 10 is an unusually early date for such harbingers of fall. They followed by less than a week a prolonged hot spell and a high of 95 recorded in Lakeville last Tuesday.

A Tom Sawyer party of persons, each with a paint brush in one hand and a can of beer or soda in the other, last Saturday repainted the picket fence that surrounds the 18th century burying ground on Tichnor Road in Ellsworth. The project was the inspiration of Millie May, who operates an antique shop in Cornwall Bridge; her sister, Mabel Cote, and Ralph Dunbar. “We got an estimate of $150 for the job, which seemed like more money than we could come up with,” said Mrs. May. “So we made it a picket-painting picnic. We sent four teams out — each starting at a far end of the fence on the inside or outside. Everyone was very neat and careful — no paint splashed around. We met in the middle, washed our hands and sat down and had lunch.” What appears to be the oldest stone in the burying ground is dated 1778.

25 years ago —
September 1998

SALISBURY — The town is in the doghouse with the state Department of Agriculture’s Animal Control division. The town’s dog pound, a temporary facility located at Bar-Mike Kennels, did not pass inspection this week. The town’s pound is separate from Bar-Mike’s facilities which are up to snuff. 

A Sunday evening bicycle ride turned into tragedy for a 14-year-old Canaan boy, who was seriously injured when he was hit by a car on Salisbury Road (Route 44) near his home. Aaron Roth remained in the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford this week, where he was flown via LifeStar helicopter immediately following the accident. His condition had been upgraded to “good” and he had been transferred from the intensive care unit as of Tuesday, according to hospital spokesman Chris Boyle.

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