Life in Falls Village, generations ago

Longtime Falls Village resident Rev. Cyril Wismar (1918-2012) shared with The Lakeville Journal his remembrances, written in May, 2011, of a Falls Village/Town of Canaan of a different time. His wife of 68 years, Sylvia, was glad to allow us to share them now with our readers.

Part 1 of 2

In the beginning, God created Canaan, 1738, and it was a land of milk and honey. The farms were dairy farms. That which was extracted manually from the cows was transported by horse-drawn wagons. Skip along to the 20th century, early, the wagons went to the large Borden Creamery which was located alongside the railroad track off of Lime Rock Road. The station was at that time a single freight car. Later it burned down and a new building was constructed, which still later became a house.

May 5th is a celebratory day, not in the framework of a Mexican Army victory, but for a happy abode here in the beautiful  hills of northwest Connecticut.

On a  very bright and beautiful 5th of May, 1925, my father, my brother and I first set foot on what is known as the Wismar property. If you will pardon some personal references, let me go on to tell you that my parents had purchased 60 acres (more or less) from the estate of Fred Dean. At one time his property had included the beautiful Dean’s Ravine. He sold it to the state of Connecticut for $6 per acre.

On the 60 acres my parents bought through the Strout Real Estate Agency,  there stood one house, one outhouse, one vacant schoolhouse, three barns, a granary and a milkhouse.

The house had been the residence of the hired hand and his rather untidy family. The main house, three-tenths of a mile down the dirt road known as Barrack Mountain Road, had burned down. All that remained was a cellar hole. In time, another house was constructed by my parents and served as a residence for the tenant farmer.

My father felt very strongly that farmland should be farmed. That small house has subsequently been enlarged. Should you inquire as to the cost of the 60 acres, one house, etc. when my family bought it, the answer is exactly $1,925.

According to my mother, the house had “all the modern inconveniences.” No plumbing, no electricity, and we had kerosene lamps. The pump at the kitchen sink was rather temperamental, and we had to haul buckets of water from the spring some 150 yards down the road, and of course, there was  no telephone. My mother cooked on a wood stove.

The land’s one dirt road ran very close to our house. There was very little traffic. Monday through Saturday we were sure one car would pass. The driver of the black Model T Ford was Mr. Morse, our mailman. On occasion my mother would have forgotten something when shopping in the village and would ask Mr. Morse if  he would mind bringing the needed items the next day. He always did. The other assured traffic was that of neighbor Myron Dean on his way to the Borden Creamery. He would stop his wagon and fill the two milk pails that had been set out on the porch for that content.

It  wasn’t until about 1930  that the road was paved and then the name  was changed from Barrack Road to Music Mountain Road. The path of the road had been very close to the front of the house. Mr. Lee Kellogg at the time of the paving made a deal with my parents. He could run the road through the pasture if we would have  a stone wall put up along it. That is what he did, and it is  over that wall  that a stile was constructed which is something of a marker along the road today.

When the road became a paved two-lane thoroughfare, electricity was also made available. Halfway down the road between the two barns and the granary there may be seen a large stone monument which bears this inscription: “Canaan  Resolves, August 17, 1774.”

Those statements were drawn up in the one-room school that once stood at that site, and the Resolves may be found on Page 8 of the Town of Canaan Records, Volume A. The farmers of the area had decided that they would set aside their farm implements and picking up their muskets head off to Dorchester Heights to join Washington’s troops in fending off the invading redcoats from England. Behind that marker there stands an old and beautiful maple tree which was planted by the children in the school at that time, August 17, 1876.

Second part next week.