Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago – August 1924

Fred Constantine is around on crutches due to a fractured bone in his left ankle, received while playing ball recently. At first the injury was supposed to be a sprain, but an x-ray photograph revealed a broken bone.

The young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Fowlkes was struck by an auto driven by Mrs. W.D. Whalen of Millerton on Tuesday evening. The child received a severe scalp wound and a cut on one ear where the fender of the auto struck her. She was treated by Doctors Bissell and Tuttle and it is not thought she will suffer any permanent injury. It appears that Mrs. Whalen turned into Porter Street near the Fowlkes home and the child ran in front of the car and was struck before anything could be done to prevent it.

TACONIC – Clifford Silvernail was taken to Sharon Hospital on Monday for treatment, owing to injuries received while working at F.W. Bierce’s sawmill. It is said a log swung around striking him in the side and tearing some ligaments. Mr. Silvernail had not fully recovered from a previous injury to one arm and much sympathy is felt for him in his hard luck.

LAKEVILLE – Mr. M.D. Rudd has been enjoying a few days vacation from his duties in the State Highway Department.

Where’s the guy that said we were not going to have any hot weather this summer.

50 years ago – August 1974

Welcome rain fell on Litchfield County farms this weekend but the ruinous drought in the Midwest farm belt is already hurting dairy farmers here. Jeff Nye, county agricultural agent, said Tuesday that the price of one leading brand of cattle feed shot up nearly 30 percent in the past week, from $105 to $134 per ton. “With milk prices falling and grain prices climbing,” Nye told The Lakeville Journal, “something has got to be done. Otherwise some of our farmers just aren’t going to make it.”

The State of Connecticut has abandoned, for Salisbury’s use in connection with the projected solid waste transfer station, a portion of the old Route 41 south of Route 112 and west of the present Route 41. First Selectman Charlotte Reid reported Tuesday night that the town will officially acquire title on Aug. 26 to the land it proposes to use in connection with a tract to be leased from The Hotchkiss School. The original right of way was laid out by the Litchfield County Court in 1802. But the town will have to pay $750 to acquire another .51 acre tract from the state between the old and new sites of Route 41, Mrs. Reid added with some bitterness. Any effort to protest the price would require the town to find the prices of two other like parcels of property adjacent to state highways – a practical impossibility.

Midshipman David P. Bolmer is among the U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen taking part in an eight-week summer training program aboard U.S. Atlantic Fleet ships visiting northern European ports. He will begin his sophomore year at the Academy in September.

A fire in the attic of Bread Loaf Mountain, a specialty food and flower shop on Route 7 in Cornwall Bridge, resulted in extensive damage Friday to the upper half of the structure. Two state highway workers passing by, along with store manager Jim Wells and an unidentified fourth person, tried to put the fire out with a garden hose and portable extinguishers. When everything they tried failed, they notified the fire department. Despite efforts to contain the flames to the single-story country-pantry, the fire soon moved to the main structure, causing an estimated $70,000 damage. Five two-week-old kittens perished in the blaze.

Salisbury Marine Officer Frank Verano, along with Connecticut State Police and officials of the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating a complaint that a seaplane landed on East Twin Lake July 25. Officer Verano found the seaplane and attempted to flag down the airplane, but it took off before it could be stopped. In checking with the FAA, Verano found the seaplane to be listed to an air service in Lafayette, La., with a flight plan from Boston, Mass., to Montana. Two boaters on East Twin Lake reported that the pilot told them his compass malfunctioned and that he was lost, but another boater reported seeing the pilot handing a package to another boat operator. FAA ruling permits an emergency landing in a restricted area if an airplane’s equipment malfunctions, but the FAA is investigating because of the report of the pilot’s handing a package to the boat operator.

25 years ago – August 1999

Farmer John Lee, one of Salisbury’s five remaining dairy farmers, will watch about 125 of his family’s cows get loaded onto trucks within the next 60 days as the Lees have sold their milking herd to two men, one from Utah and one from Missouri. When the cows leave on or before Oct. 1, for the first time since 1951 when his family bought the 600-acre farm, Mr. Lee will have a different routine. Since his older brother Abel stopped milking with him, getting help has become increasingly difficult. Lack of help was certainly a major part of the decision to sell. “This is a physically dirty job,” he said, spraying off his bare arms and the floor of the milking parlor.

SHARON – After five years, Randy Milroy, a native of the Hudson Valley, has left radio station WKZE-FM, Salisbury-Kingston, for new opportunities in North Carolina. Andrew DiGiovanni, a Millbrook resident, will move from the midday shift to take over the morning show Monday through Friday. Mr. DiGiovanni has also been named program director.

CANAAN – It was the place where everybody knew your name. John Fracaro made sure of that. When he built Johnny’s Restaurant on Ashley Falls Road, he installed horseshoe-shaped counters so his customers had to face each other and socialize while they dined. The counters and kitchen were separated by a short wall, allowing him to talk to his customers while he cooked. This week, the building, most recently the Canaan Diner, was torn down to make room for the new Canaan Auto Supply. It has been more than a decade since it was Johnny’s, but the memories linger. While folks watched and reminisced about the old Johnny’s Restaurant, the walls of what was last the Canaan Diner came tumbling down Wednesday morning. Delivery of a pre-fabricated steel building is expected next week and, by mid-October, new property owner David Ohler expects to reopen Canaan Auto Supply at the Ashley Falls Road site.

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