Turning Back The Pages

100 years ago — 1921

LAKEVILLE — “Laddie,” Miss Virginia Thrall’s pet Collie, has disappeared, nothing having been seen of the dog since last Friday. The dog has the regular collie markings and wears a tag marked 50033. Any news of Laddie’s whereabouts will be gratefully received by the Thrall family.

SALISBURY — A little attention to the Undermountain Road is strictly in order. That road is presently unspeakable. The little work with the scraper might help some.

LAKEVILLE — Mrs. Alice Bennett, who has been housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Day, has gone to Sheffield to take a similar position.

50 years ago — 1971

State Trooper Bob Smithwick swears it’s true. The other night a portly gentleman from out of town stopped at the telephone booth across the street from the Lakeville Fire House to make a call. In the process he became wedged into the booth and couldn’t get out. Some 45 minutes later Trooper Smithwick, having been alerted by the State Police Barracks in Canaan, arrived to liberate what by now was a somewhat distraught visitor. It seems that he had a little difficulty convincing the telephone operator he was telling the truth about his predicament.

Salisbury’s new Volunteer Ambulance Service has contracted to buy the former Hamzy Garage on Route 41 as a headquarters, SVAS President W. Rees Harris announced this week. SVAS plans to be in operation by the July 4 weekend with a new van-type Ford ambulance and a cadre of 10 volunteers who will provide around-the-clock emergency service with a regular duty roster.

One of the historic pines which grows out of the rock in Cathedral Pines, Cornwall, was blown over last week in a “Baby Twister” which struck Valley Road during an evening thunder shower last week.

Earl Stevenson Kilson, the last of the Schagticoke Indians to make his home on the reservation in Kent, died at New Milford Hospital on Sunday, May 30. He was 72 years old. A life-long resident of Kent, he was a son of the late Michael and Bertha (Reilly) Kilson. His heritage reached back to Mah-Wee of the Pequot tribe, who established the settlement of Indians on the banks of the Housatonic in Kent, an area first known as Pish-gach-ti-gock (“Where the waters meet”).

25 years ago — 1996

The Lakeville Journal Co. LLC has announced plans to publish a third weekly newspaper, The Winsted Journal, beginning June 21.

SALISBURY — A resident who wishes to remain unidentified for reasons that will become obvious was mowing her lawn recently. Her mower blade kept striking a rock. Exasperated, she stopped and dug out the offending stone, turned it over and, to her surprise, discovered a hollowed-out bowl clearly but primitively carved. Since then, a section of her property has become a miniature archaeological dig for two groups of students, a site so full of possibilities even state Archaeologist Nicholas Ballantoni has become intrigued by samples of finds he has seen and hopes to come to Salisbury to see for himself in mid-June.

These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.Go to www.scovillelibrary.org to find more archives.