Turning Back the Pages

125 years ago —
January 1900

At 10:30 last Wed. night fire was discovered in C.B. Dakin & Co.’s store, Sharon, and the fire alarm was sounded. From the top floor in the north east corner in a store-room a small fire was threatening. Firemen were quick to action, couplings were made in a jiffy, a line of hose run up a back stairway right to the fire. It looked as though one good squirt would suffice to put it out, but it was a stubborn fire, burned like chaff, on the inside, and being sided with iron was hard to fight from without. Firemen worked like beavers. Amenia Hose Company was summoned and at 12 o’clock the combined companies were playing stream after stream, with worlds of water and good pressure, but the big clock struck three before the fire was under subjection. This is Sharon’s first fire and Sharon has a right to pat the firemen on the backs for confining the blaze to the one building. As is usual, with the first fire, outsiders hindered the work of the firemen by running every which way, yelling and giving orders, conflicting with the orders from those in charge and causing a general confusion.

SALISBURY — Mr. and Mrs. M.E. Sherwood are receiving congratulations upon a new Christmas present. It is a bouncing boy, born Christmas morning.

Things are beginning to warm up in the political field, but at present they are not a patch on what they will be as the campaign grows older.

Judged by the number of the young people taking music lessons Falls Village ought to be well supplied with music for some time to come.

FALLS VILLAGE — Mr. D.B. Tiffany starts one of his saw mills on a 300,000 foot job on Canaan mountain Thursday.

B.F. Hoyt has everything in the stove line you want. Get your wife a new range. The West Shore is unequalled for a cook stove and the Round Oak for a heater.

Mabel Bartholomew and Ethel Roberts on Thursday of last week picked up a quart of chestnuts in the woods and picked a dandelion in full bloom and Millard Silvernail also picked a couple of thrifty looking dandelions on the George Harrison place. Now all we wish is that somebody would gather some strawberries and watermelons and the list of vegetable freaks would be complete.

Edward McCue is putting up a barn on his land. This building will be constructed from the frame work and lumber of the old annex to the Wononsco House. The timbers are of solid oak and so hard that Ed says he has to dip all the nails in oil in order to drive them without having them double up.

According to one of the distinguished goose-bone prophets this will be an extraordinarily mild winter. The goose-bone is nearly all white. Only the slightest bit of purple could be seen on the tall ends of the bones. The purple indicates cold weather, away off in March probably. All the rest of the bone was white, which shows beyond a question that there will be no winter at all.

C.A. Stupplebeen of Glens Falls is in town interested as usual in the lives of others.

100 years ago —
January 1925

SALISBURY — Miss Marion Eggleston is home from her duties as Home Demonstration Agent in New Hampshire for the week.

The driver of the daily newspaper auto truck ran into the bridge near the Library on Friday. A section of the bridge was broken off and the truck was quite badly damaged. The driver escaped injury.

Mr. Charles Wiesing of Salisbury is ill and confined to his bed, but is able to receive visitors and is always glad to see any of his friends.

Falls Village now has a firefighting apparatus of which it may well take pride. The new chemical truck has arrived. It is equipped with a steel body, a 70 gallon booster tank and 100 feet of hose for chemical, in addition to the pumper rigged with standard couplings so that if necessary hose can be coupled up with companies from other towns. Quarters have also been ready in which to house the new apparatus.

The lake froze over Sunday night for the first time this season.

The icy conditions of the streets have made walking a risky thing and automobiling still more so.

Master Petie Scoville had the misfortune to fall on the ice Sunday, cutting a bad gash over his left eye. Dr. Bissell closed the wound with three stitches, while Petie watched the operation with interest by means of a mirror.

Albert Tompkins caught a five pound bass at Twin Lakes on Tuesday. This is the record thus far this season.

There is said to be a new counterfeit 100 dollar bill in circulation. We have examined our stock of 100 dollar bills and we don’t find a single solitary counterfeit among them.

50 years ago —

January 1975

Close to 70 farmers from New York State and Connecticut gathered Monday at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village to discuss the plight of the dairy farmer today. A bleak picture was painted for the future of dairy farmers by milk producers. “The dairy business is in trouble,” stated Lou Longo, president of Yankee Milk Cooperative. Mr. Longo said “it’s twice as black as he painted it,” referring to statements made by another speaker, Willis Belter, who said, “I don’t know how some are going to make it, even the established ones are caught in it.”

A surprise snowstorm brought a white or whiter Christmas to the Tri-State area Wednesday, leaving from 3 to 5 or more inches of new snow. There was more atop the mountains.

Construction continues at Lakeville Precision Molding Inc. on a new addition to its manufacturing facility, substantially enlarging the size of the plant in Lakeville. The Lakeville plant, a division of The Norton Company of Worcester, Mass., manufactures precision plastic components for such firms as Western Electric, IBM, Burroughs and Polaroid. The 6,000 square foot metal structure will give the plant a total of 20,000 square feet. The new addition will house the firm’s tool room, the shipping department and assorted equipment and molds, all to ease the present overcrowding in the plant.

An era came to an end in Canaan last month when Penn Central Transportation Company ended (at least temporarily) the 102-year railroading history of the old Canaan Union Depot. The Depot was opened Dec. 2, 1872. Just 102 years and 18 days later, its last agent, Frank Zucco, closed the Penn Central Canaan freight office for the last time. Mr. Zucco, who says that he has now closed out four stations (West Cornwall, Kent, Canaan and Lenox) for the Company, will assume new duties in Danbury.

KENT — An Eagle Scout Court of Honor was conducted last Friday to present to Raymond E. Donahue the highest award in scouting. Donahue was a member of Troop II from 1970 until his entry into the U.S. Air Force last autumn. He completed all the requirements for the Eagle rank before his enlistment. He is the fourth local scout in as many years to attain the Eagle rank.

W. Samuel Whitbeck began his second half-century as proprietor of the Salisbury Pharmacy on New Year’s Day by working in much the same fashion as he has almost every morning for the past 50 years. “I’d go crazy if I didn’t,” he declares. But he actually has been working in drug stores in and around Salisbury a lot longer than that. Born in Lime Rock 83½ years ago, Sam managed the store for Clark and Dempsey and then worked for its next purchaser, A.L. Dickinson, before he obtained his pharmacist’s license in 1914.

Annabel Griggs Irving, a long-time resident of Kent, has given more than 280 acres of her land to The Nature Conservancy. The land includes the summit of Iron Mountain.

25 years ago —
January 2000

Nancy and Mark Davis have received a plaque from Steve Hedden, president of the Cornwall Fire Department, making them honorary members of the department. They were honored for their years of help and support which they contributed even though they didn’t have time to become active members. Theirs is only the seventh honorary membership since 1932.

Sharon A. Pilz of Falls Village has joined the Salisbury Bank & Trust Company as a vice president and trust officer. Ms. Pilz has had more than 20 years of experience in the field of trust and financial services.

CANAAN — Douglas Library has received a state Public Library Construction Grant in excess of $50,000. The funding is earmarked for renovations to allow expanded use of the library’s second floor.