Turning Back the Page - June 26, 2025

125 years ago — June 1900

LIME ROCK — Raymond Woodin sustained severe injuries from a fall from his bicycle the other day in Salisbury. He is about again but is lame and is badly scarred about the face.

Teamsters are now hauling charcoal from several “good jobs” to the furnace here. A large stock of ore from the Old Hill and Davis mines is being accumulated also.

Murry G. Hoag of Canaan, 89 years old, says that Dec. 16, 1840, is the date when the first passenger train arrived in that village. Canaan was then the northern terminus of the Housatonic railroad.

On Thursday Miss Scoville had the misfortune to lose a very fine solid gold pin near W.C. Witter’s residence. The pin was in the form of a Roman gold snake in the head of which was a large emerald and the eyes were formed by two small diamonds. Shortly afterward it was found by Dr. Orton and restored to its owner, who values it as a keepsake.

SHARON — There will be an exhibition of F.A. Edison’s moving war pictures next week Wednesday evening June 27th. Benefit Village Improvement Society.

The victims of the measles are, this week, too numerous to mention, nearly every family containing children has been, or is being, visited by the disease.

From the pond at Chas. Peck’s place, a party of four, recently, within two hours caught one hundred and four bullheads.

Joseph Hanley of Hillsdale is the telegraph operator during Mr. Marvin’s absence.

Miss Phebe Miller is enjoying a brand new bicycle, and is already an accomplished rider.

A rail road motor-cycle went over the C.N.E. road on Tuesday. The machine was driven by gasolene and was making fast time when it went through this place.

A.I. Cowles is getting to be a raiser of fancy potatoes. He has no less than eleven different varieties, some of them very rare and expensive, planted in his garden, and some of them are already in blossom. He gets up with the sun goes to bed with the moon and proposes to have some tubers if hard work and the right kind of seed will do it.

100 years ago — June 1925

Quite an important real estate deal was made on Monday. A co-partnership of E.O. Wagner and Harry Miller purchased the Holley Block of the Holley Mfg. Co. It is understood that extensive repairs and alterations will be made in the building after the new owners assume possession July 1st. The exterior of the building will be painted white, and a new green colored asbestos roof will replace the present one. Changes will be made to the interior of the building. The first story will be remodeled to meet the needs of the tenants, and the second floor will be converted into apartments, and when finished will afford quarters for a number of additional tenants. It might be interesting to state this is the first change in ownership of this plot of ground since the year 1795, it having been in the Holley family since that date to the present time.

Only nine days to the Glorious Fourth and the small boy’s cup of happiness is full.

The Journal office is being repainted. Come on with that subscription which is in arrears.

50 years ago — June 1975

Officials of Sharon and Amenia learned suddenly this week they have until Oct. 1 to make new landfill arrangements. The giant Curtiss-Wright Corporation told Amenia it wants the town out of the corporation-owned landfill by that date. While Amenia leases the property directly from Curtiss-Wright, Sharon in turn has a contract with Amenia to share the lease cost in return for Sharon citizens’ use of the Route 22 site.

John Lewis Sochocki, 17, of Canaan drowned Monday night in an accident at the Falls Village Recreation Center. Young Sochocki graduated only last Friday from Housatonic Valley Regional High School. He was swimming with 8 other family members and friends at the unguarded, unlighted pool shortly after darkness fell. According to State Police Sochocki jumped from the diving board into 8 to 10 feet of water and failed to surface. He was finally pulled from the water by Colin Wrightman, a camper from New York City, and Paul Collier of Falls Village, a friend.

Rumors of an offer of $2½ million to the Erickson Brothers of Salisbury for their property near Lion’s Head apparently have no firm foundation. Harold Erickson said this week that he had been approached a couple of weeks ago by some persons saying they could go as high as $2½ million to obtain the site for a sanitary landfill. The Ericksons’ contract to operate a landfill for the Town of Salisbury will end in the summer of 1976. These persons did not identify themselves or their backers, however, and Mr. Erickson said he “thought it was just a joke” and “didn’t pay too much attention” to the proposal. If his visitors return, he said, then he will take them seriously and will ask them for proof of the authenticity of their offer.

The former Iron Dube on Under Mountain Road in Salisbury willl reopen in the fall under new ownership and a new name. The inn is now the property of Louis and Doris Schroeter, former owners of the Morgan House in Lee, Mass. The Schroeters this week were in the process of moving into and beginning renovations on the building, hoping to be ready for an early fall opening.

Friends and relatives of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Stein Sr. gathered at Lee H. Kellogg School Tuesday evening to honor the couple on the occasion of their 63rd wedding anniversary, and to note Mr. Stein’s many civic contributions. The evening’s program included reminiscences by town officials and music by the Grammas and Grandpas.

25 years ago — June 2000

A debate that has raged through the state for the last several years regarding the Housatonic River seems to have been resolved. Last week, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection released a document mandating that hydroelectric plants in Falls Village and Kent cease their practice of storing water and then releasing it to generate power. The document, called a 401 Water Quality Certification, is just a draft and may still be changed on the basis of comments made to the DEP until the end of the day July 20.

The Northwest Corner may be 3,000 miles from California, but many area residents felt and heard the rumbling Thursday of an earthquake that was centered just west of Springfield, Mass. According to an Associated Press story, preliminary readings showed that the 12:03 a.m. quake scored 3.3 on the Richter Scale. According to the AP article, Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver, said a quake of that size is not that uncommon in New England.

FALLS VILLAGE — A large black bear climbed onto the patio of Leone Young and Chris Morley’s house on Undermountain Road during cocktail hour Saturday evening. It did not stay for drinks. Ms. Young, her aunt and a cousin were outdoors enjoying one of this spring’s rare dry evenings when it came up the stairs and poked its head around the corner. It ran off after Ms. Young and her aunt shouted at it. Ms. Young feels confident the bear did see the three people on her patio and was not afraid of them, but she did not sense it had come to attack them. Nevertheless, the visit did create some anxiety for the three because Ms. Young has a broken leg. “My aunt said the first thing she thought of was ‘how are we going to get Leone into the house?’” Ms. Young said.