Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — April 1924

Chet Thurston has sold his Durant Six to Torrington parties. He says he just naturally has to get some kind of a car but he hasn’t made up his mind whether he will purchase a Buick, Jewett, Hudson, Chevrolet, Dodge, Olds, Oakland, Nash, Dort, Studebaker, Cadillac or Rolls Royce.

Daniel Lorigan and his force of men have been busy cleaning up along the cement and macadam state roads.

John Matheson of New York has been visiting his parents here.

Stanley Mather says that when he attends the circus, pillows are going to be cheaper because he can get down off the elephant.

(Adv.) Wanted – Second hand Ice Chest that will hold 2 or 3 cakes of Ice. Telephone 49-2 The Jigger Shop

The roads are now rapidly improving and will soon be as good as they ordinarily are.

50 years ago — April 1974

State Police of Troop B in Canaan seized 1,000 pounds of marijuana, probably the biggest haul ever in Connecticut, Monday night in Falls Village. They arrested a 35-year-old Texan who they said rolled south into Canaan from Massachusetts hauling the half ton of “pot” in a rented trailer. Police estimated the street value of the contraband at $300,000. Canaan troopers made the arrest at the intersection of routes 7 and 63 in Falls Village.

Salisbury Boy Scouts are seeking help in rebuilding their paper-collecting shed at the town dump which was destroyed by fire last Thursday night. Although there were rumors around town that the fire had been deliberately set, there appeared to be no evidence to substantiate the story.

The Animal Medical Center of New York City pressed on this weekend with its search for a suitable site in Connecticut for its Equine Infectious Anemia research project. The AMC was barred last Thursday by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture from establishing the center at the former Segalla Stables in Canaan.

Maureen Passini, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Passini of Falls Village, became the bride of James Cavaciuti at St. Joseph’s Church in Canaan on April 20. The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Cavaciuti of Torrington.

The Falls Village Recreation Commission hired Scott Hylton of East Canaan as the new recreation director Monday night, according to Geryl Jasmine, secretary of the commission.

Charles R. Davis of North Kent will run the new IGA market due to open soon at the Kent Green. Confirmation came this week that he had purchased the business. Mr. Davis has been in the retail food business for 25 years and since 1959 has managed a national food chain store in New Milford.

25 years ago — April 1999

Top angler Phoebe Trotta, 10, of Salisbury, caught the largest brown trout (12.5 inches) at the Salisbury fishing derby at Factory Pond April 17, and had the best combined weight, 2.7 pounds.

Work is scheduled to begin soon to pare down a ledge on Route 44, just east of the Blackberry River, in an effort to improve a bad curve at the site. The Department of Transportation will open bids on April 28, with work tentatively set to begin in late June or early July. A total of 96 calendar days are allowed for the project’s completion. It will include cutting back the ledge to improve the line of sight, reconstructing the road shoulder and improving drainage.

CANAAN – The Railroad Street building that still sports the Fuller Hardware sign, years after the store closed, was sold this week to Ronald Scholz, who owns the Mahaiwe Jewelers and its building next door. Plans call for refurbishing his new purchase, which will house two stores and five apartments. The building has remained vacant for about a decade. For a while before that, it housed a toy store and a deli.

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