Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago —
January 1924

Hubert Scott and Earl Morey of Salisbury visited in Sharon Valley last week.

Mr. Robie has purchased a large size radio of H. Roscoe Brinton.

TACONIC – Charles Fish has been confined to the house with a hard cold.

The condition of the roads is very bad. The least said the better.

Ralph Hunter has a live owl which he caught one morning this week.

50 years ago —
January 1974

Temperatures in Lakeville rose above freezing Tuesday night and Wednesday for the first time since Jan. 1, following a week of snow, freezing rain and subzero readings. Readings as low as 14 degrees below zero were reported in Lakeville Monday and 10 below on Sunday, although The Lakeville Journal’s recording thermometer recorded only -2 and -3 respectively,

Kenneth Bartram was elected chief at last week’s annual meeting of the Sharon Fire Department, replacing Tom Carberry who resigned after three years in the position.

Sharon Hospital has won full accreditation for two more years, the maximum term for which an institution can qualify. The word came this week from the Board of Commissioners of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. The commissioners commended Sharon’s administration board of trustees and medical staff for maintaining high standards and “for your constant effort to improve the quality of patient care.”

Falls Village lost one of its most distinguished citizens this week when Boughton Cobb, 79, of Under Mountain Road and New York City, died in Roosevelt Hospital, New York City, after a long illness. Mr. Cobb was a nationally recognized authority on ferns and a retired textile manufacturer. Mr. Cobb was the author of “A Field Guide to Ferns,” which was published as part of the Roger Tory Peterson series.

Laura Leifert, a first-grader at the Botelle School in Norfolk, is back with her class this week after a month’s absence. Her parents had kept her at home to protest the Norfolk Board of Education’s refusal to pick her up at her house rather than at the bus stop at the bottom of Estey Road in South Norfolk. Mr. and Mrs. Leifert held the position that to let the child walk down the steep road would endanger her. The Leiferts requested a hearing with the State Board of Education, which upheld the couple’s position and ordered the Norfolk school board “to make the necessary provisions for free transportation” for the child in accordance with state statutes.

25 years ago —
January 1999

Will the Tri-State area be ready, some 50 weeks from now, to handle the widely anticipated “Y2K” or Year 2000 impact? Across the region, from Winsted to Lakeville and Millerton, businesses and institutions are working to prepare for whatever comes their way Jan. 1, 2000. That’s the day when the inability of some older but still critical computer chips or software to recognize 2000 as a valid year may confuse and disrupt life worldwide.

Janet Manko, associate publisher of The Lakeville Journal Co. since last February, has been promoted to publisher. The announcement was made this week by members of the company, which publishes The Lakeville Journal, The Millerton News and The Winsted Journal.

If man’s best friend suddenly develops an itchy contagious skin condition, what do you do? If you’re the owner of a yellow and a chocolate Labrador retriever, you leave them on West Woods Road in Sharon and don’t look back. The dogs were found by Elizabeth Simon, who lives on the road. Ms. Simon told animal control officer Marcia Hassig that she saw them at 5:30 p.m. the day after Christmas, and when she returned at 10:30 p.m., the dogs were loyally standing in exactly the same place. Ms. Hassig said she called about 25 area veterinarians to see if anyone had treated a lab for mange, since both dogs had shaved patches on their right front leg, typical of dogs who have had blood drawn. Ms. Hassig said she is working with Lab Rescue to find them homes.

CANAAN – Robert Albreada’s business is picking up. The operations manager of Reliable Waste Management, based in Winsted, has just purchased Richard S. Ralph & Son’s commercial trash collection route. The accounts, which number about 100, stretch from Canaan to the New York state border. The Ralphs, who have been in business in Canaan for 30 years, will maintain their household customers.

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