Turning Back the Pages

125 years ago — January 1900

Mrs. Katherine Frink of Salisbury gave an enjoyable whist party to a number of friends.

Mrs. James McDonnell slipped on the ice last Saturday, and injured her left hip quite seriously. She has been under the care of Dr. W.B. Bissell since the accident.

The new school building at Dr. Knight’s Institution is beginning to assume shape. The frame work is already up and the sheathing on. When finished this building will be a great convenience, will be thoroughly modern in equipment and add greatly to this excellent institution.

The young people have had great times this week and last coasting down the different hills about the village. There were double rippers, toboggans, big sleds and little sleds. On Thursday evening of last week Mr. and Mrs. Travers Jerome gave a very enjoyable coasting party to a number of friends.

While loading ice on Indian Pond on Thursday, a team belonging to James Macklin in some manner got into the lake, but were gotten out safely after much hustling on the part of those present.

The through car from Norfolk to New York has been discontinued. This will be a cause of regret among a large number of people who used this through car in their going and coming from New York. It is to be hoped the management of the two roads will again find it profitable to put on the car.

Mr. Robert Scoville has presented the corporate members of the Library Association with handsomely bound volumes of the new library catalogue. The library has procured a typewriter for its librarians and a new stove has been placed in the temporary reading room.

100 years ago — January 1925

In the last two thousand years, only fourteen total eclipses of the sun have been seen from the territory which is now New England. On the 24th of this month (Saturday) the people of Connecticut are to have their last chance to see nature’s grandest spectacle. If any of the babies born this month live to be a hundred years old they may see the next one which comes in 2024.

ORE HILL — William Rowe has been ill with an attack of grippe. The Genito family have all been ill and under the doctor’s care.

A.F. Roberts’ Reo delivery truck caught fire on Wednesday and was considerably damaged. The Lakeville Hose Co. was called and extinguished the blaze.

A new street light has been installed near Benjamin Cleaveland’s residence on Pettee Street.

See what the street plow did toward opening the walks after the 10 inch snow fall of Tuesday? If you want this work continued after future storms hand your contribution to the snow plow committee.

Miss Margaret Egan has received a five pound box of Masterpiece Chocolates from Lovell & Covel Co., Boston, Mass., as a radio prize, for sending the first telegram from Connecticut to station WEAN, Providence, Rhode Island, in a contest held there last week. Needless to say Margaret is quite pleased.

Mrs. Hunter of Lime Rock was in Lakeville Saturday to visit the dentist.

LIME ROCK — The death of Mrs. Richardson was a great shock to our community. She will be greatly missed. She leaves two sons, Milo of this place, and Edward of New York.

50 years ago — January 1975

All was going swimmingly in production of The Lakeville Journal last Wednesday night when a bolt suddenly broke and sheared off our folder, and the press ground to an abrupt halt when we were half-way through printing the “B” section. It was impossible to make immediate repairs, and The Journal appeared courtesy of The Berkshire Courier in Great Barrington, Mass., which printed the remaining papers in emergency on short notice. Our sincere apologies go to readers whose papers were delayed and who may have inadvertently received the wrong sections.

A testimonial dinner honoring Dr. Josephine Evarts (Mrs. Charles Demarest) will be held March 22 at 7 p.m. at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville. “Dr. Evarts is not retiring, thank goodness,” said Mark B. Cohn, chairman of the dinner committee. “It is just high time that we recognize this lady of great stature who has played such an important role in our communities.”

The new Whitridge Memorial Wing of Noble Horizons, Lower Cobble Road in Salisbury, has opened its doors. The new wing offers complete 24-hour nursing care for 30 beds.

The first physical signs of construction were apparent this week on the site of the future Market Place of Salisbury, in the area behind the Salisbury Bank and Trust Company branch office. A bulldozer began work on Monday, but that operation was held up by the intensely cold weather. By mid-week, a construction shack and portable sanitary facilities had been erected, and action was expected to resume when the weather moderates.

Canaan residents voted Tuesday night to purchase a 2.55 acre portion of the former Lawrence Playground on East Main Street from the State of Connecticut for $15,450. The purchase returns about one-half of the original field to town ownership. The field was purchased in 1957 for the proposed relocation of Route 7.

Leroy M. Beaujon, a Canaan resident who devoted 40 years of his life to furthering recreation in Canaan, was honored at Tuesday night’s town meeting. The Canaan swimming pool building will be dedicated to his memory and will henceforth be known as the Leroy M. Beaujon Memorial.

Dorothy Edell, who has operated the Globe Thistle motel in East Canaan since 1956, has announced that she will open a new kennel on her property this spring. The motel was closed early this year. Miss Edell said that her kennel will be known as East Farms Kennel and will be able to board about 25 dogs of small breeds. She says that she is known for being “a nut for dogs” and that she wants to make her new kennel the “nearest thing to home away from home.”

There will be no public access and no public fishing on Cream Hill Lake this spring unless the state changes its mind and renews a lease with Ralph Scoville. When Mr. Scoville wrote to the state asking for an increase in salary and state leasing fee, he was told that “already high inflationary pressures make it impossible to justify your salary increase demands in either services rendered or recreational opportunities available.” The lease had been a “handshake agreement” with Mr. Scoville’s father Frederick while he ran the boat renting business from 1938 to 1952 and it continued with Ralph Scoville before becoming a formal lease two years ago.

Gerald Blakey has been appointed General Manager of the Housatonic Valley Rug Shop. Mr. Blakey started with the firm in 1955 as a carpet installer, and for the past two years has been in sales. He is tax collector for the Town of Cornwall, a member of the fire department, a trustee of the First Church of Christ, and is active in many community affairs. His wife is the former Patricia Benedict. They reside with their three children in Cornwall.

A young Salisbury skier, John Harney Jr., will represent the United States in the World Biathlon Championships in Italy this summer. Harney, a 20-year-old graduate of Salisbury School and a student at Williams College, is a member of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association and has skied for SWSA on many occasions.

25 years ago — January 2000

The charm of the Cornwall Inn will remain the same, but its buildings will undergo a major renovation. According to Tom McKenzie, who along with three other business partners recently purchased the inn, work on the buildings has started and rooms should be available by the first week in February. The restaurant and bar are scheduled to open a month later. The inn’s upgrade includes refurbishing the smaller bunkhouses behind the main building. The bunks will cater to those passing through the area while hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

Kent Affordable Housing’s first parcel program house was delivered earlier this month and is expected to be ready for its occupants by mid-February. The Jones family from Kent was selected from dozens of applicants to live in the two-story Cape home on Locust Lane. Through the parcel program, general contractor Concept Homes LLC of New Milford built and delivered the 1,300-square-foot three-bedroom home. The Jones family will have a 99-year lease for the land and a government-backed mortgage with New Milford Savings Bank for just under $100,000.