Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago – July 1924

Wm. Bowns lost a horse last week owing to its falling through the barn floor.

LIME ROCK – Mrs. Mary Dunn and son Edward are at her father’s on Sharon mountain.

Considering that we had rain on St. Swithin’s Day, the weather has been unusually fair and pleasant. So much for one old superstition.

Arthur M. Everts of Ore Hill has still a few seek no further apples which he has kept in his cellar since last fall. They are still very tasty.

Mr. and Mrs. William Raynsford, Mr. Anderson and Miss Gladys Osborn motored to New York last Sunday to witness the base ball game between the Giants and St. Louis teams.

Up to date the supposed wild cat at Lincoln City and Davis Ore Bed has not been disposed of.

Vincent Stuart is enjoying his vacation from his duties at the Journal office this week, and is doing some fishing, base ball playing and other pleasurable things to pass away the time.

One of the boys at Camp Harlem got home sick last week and alarmed the camp by disappearing. The state police soon located him a few miles away, where he was attempting to get back to New York by walking and securing auto rides.

A dog belonging to Charles Dubois apparently went mad in Judd’s barber shop on Tuesday morning, and it was judged best to shoot the dog at once, which was done by Mr. Judd. There is no evidence that the dog had previously been suffering from any disease, and so far as known had not bitten any other dog.

Messrs. Jack Tompkins, Edward Carter, “Hop” Rudd, Harlan Taylor and Vincent Stuart are enjoying life in camp on Mt. Riga. We want the general public to be prepared to listen to some real fish stories when the boys return.

50 years ago – July 1974

It’s not easy to go to sleep while a war is going on around you. It’s no fun to have to lie on the floor as bullets and shells whiz past your head. But for Daphne Becket, the 11-year-old granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Campbell Becket of Lakeville, the horror of war became reality just over two weeks ago. She and her older sister Sandra were vacationing in the Cyprus city of Kyrenia when 600 Greek soldiers commandeered the National Guard to carry out a coup. After a dramatic escape and a stop at her home in Geneva, Switzerland, Daphne is now spending what remains of her vacation in Lakeville with her grandparents.

A new public walking trail has been established in Falls Village. Unsurprisingly, it is called the River Trail, as it follows the east bank of the Housatonic River south of the HELCO power installations. It is an attractive trail on level ground, nine-tenths of a mile long, passing through white pine woods that boast some massive and magnificent specimens. The trail is marked with light blue blazes and each end of it is indicated with a sign.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Roraback law offices on Main Street in Canaan. The venerable building with its wooden facade was raised early in the summer in 1874 by Alberto T. Roraback, the first of three generations of lawyers to serve the community. The family tradition is now carried on by Catherine Roraback.

Fourteen-year-old Billy Segalla received congratulations from his instructor from the Nutmeg Soaring Association after he soloed in a soaring plane on Sunday, July 21, his birthday. Billy had been up in the soaring plane a number of times, and has flown with his father, but could not solo until he turned 14. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Segalla.

FALLS VILLAGE – Charlotte Kester, who has served as librarian at the David M. Hunt Library for the past 17 years, has submitted her resignation. Mrs. Kester is only the third librarian in the 83-year history of the library.

25 years ago – July 1999

Late Tuesday night, firefighters from more than a dozen fire companies in New York State and Connecticut began battling a brush fire at Macedonia Brook State Park that was expected to consume between 20 and 30 acres of forest. The fire call came in 8:07 p.m. Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning firefighters were just beginning to get the situation under control. Because the fire may have been burning a long time before a passerby called 911, “by no stretch of the imagination will the fire be out in a short period of time,” to Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection forester Don Smith said.

Canaan volunteer emergency workers were kept busy late last week with a series of four intense calls within a 20-hour period. In the midst of preparing for fund-raising activities planned for the final weekend of Railroad Days, Canaan Fire Company and North Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps members responded to a calcium fire, an electrical fire, a head-on collision and a truck that ripped down overhead wires and snapped a utility pole.

In his fourth run in Canaan, Winsted’s Bob Dwyer beat the heat, the defending champion and the rest of the field to win the 1999 Canaan Road Race last Sunday in a time of 28 minutes, 6 seconds. The record time is 27:41 set by John Barry in 1996.

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