Turning Back the Pages

125 years ago — February 1900

Grant Gilson, age 25, a descendant of the Schagticoke Indians, was found frozen to death on the Skiff mountain road in Kent recently.

SHARON — A daring robbery was committed right in our midst on Wednesday evening of last week. While Mr. and Mrs. Frank Harris were at the Eli Perkins lecture their house was broken into, by a back window, and searched. The thieves were evidently after money as they touched nothing but two purses, from one of which the money had been removed by Mr. Harris just before leaving the house, and the other fortunately contained but a small sum.

SHARON — Miss Ree Bierce is having serious trouble with her ears. She has been housed up for several days.

Miss Edith Bliss of Brooklyn is visiting her cousin, Miss Laura Chapin.

A new McPhall piano has been put in the residence of R.D. Jones by Joseph Brinton. The instrument is an upright encased in antique mahogany, and is pronounced by good judges to be remarkably sweet of tone.

100 years ago — February 1925

Miss Nellie Pectal of Falls Village was seriously injured at Canaan on Monday evening. She had alighted from the railroad gasoline bus and started to cross the track when the bus suddenly backed up, threw her to the ground, her right foot going under the wheels, just above the ankle. She was hurried to Winsted Hospital, where the amputation just below the knee was found to be necessary. She has since been doing as well as can be expected.

Miss Margaret Hall and John Finkle were up from New York to spend the week-end at their homes. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Brill took them back to the city on Monday in their auto.

The frost is said to be practically out of the ground, and many of the country roads are almost impassable.

Editor Loope of the Millerton Telegram paid the Journal Office a fraternal visit on Tuesday. Editor Loope is recuperating from an attack of rheumatism which had him down and out last week, but he is out again, showing that you cannot “keep a good man down.”

TACONIC — David Holmes is erecting a semi-bungalow on his lot near the chapel, and it is now at the shingling stage.

50 years ago — February 1975

The jobless rate rose sharply in January for every town in the Northwest Corner, according to the Connecticut State Labor Department. Salisbury again topped the list with 226 persons, or 13.5 percent of the town’s 1668 person labor force, without jobs. The statistics include some persons who normally supply a family’s principal income. But they also include many who are secondary income earners, youths trying to enter the job market for the first time, seasonal workers and others.

Becton-Dickinson of Canaan, the Tri-state’s region largest manufacturer and biggest single employer, is in the process of laying off approximately 50 full time employees. The word of layoffs at B-D came less than two weeks after General Electric announced it would close its Norfolk plant next month, ending the jobs of more than 30 employees.

George VanSantvoord, legendary headmaster of The Hotchkiss School from 1926 to 1955, died this past week at his winter home in Williamstown, Mass. He was 83 years old. During three decades in Lakeville, Mr. VanSantvoord, popularly known as “the Duke,” left a strong imprint on the school, its students and faculty and the community.

The new Connecticut chess champion in the junior high school division is David Janello, 15-year-old son of Sylvia Surdoval of Kent and Kenneth Janello of Bridgeport. David, a ninth-grader at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, outplayed 5 opponents Saturday in 11 hours of tournament activity. He has been playing chess since he was 6 years old, and has been in organized competition for a little more than 2 years.

Thomas Fransioli of Cornwall has been commissioned by the British ambassador to the United States to do a painting of the embassy residence in Washington, D.C. The painting will become part of the permanent collection at the residence. Two paintings by Mr. Fransioli, views of Salisbury and of Pocketknife Square in Lakeville, were recently purchased by the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company. His works are also owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Whitney Museum in New York, the Seattle Art Museum, and many corporate and private collections.

25 years ago — February 2000

The Housatonic River Initiative filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass., Tuesday to intervene in the proposed consent decree for the cleanup of PCB contamination in Pittsfield and in the Housatonic River. The contamination was caused by the General Electric Company plant in Pittsfield. The group, which is based in Pittsfield and has been at the forefront of the cleanup effort, hopes to intervene in the negotiated settlement for the cleanup of sites contaminated by GE. It wants to ensure that properties in Pittsfield and the length of the Housatonic River are adequately cleaned and that public health and safety and the environment are protected.

Alexis Savage of Sharon will travel to Stamford this weekend to participate in the Connecticut Pride’s “Hot Shot” contest. Alexis qualified by winning her local round of competition in Sharon and advancing to the county finals in Kent, where she won her age group, 11- and 12-year-olds, by one point to advance to this weekend’s state finals. Alexis is a sixth-grade student at Sharon Center School and the daughter of Andy and Kim Savage.