Turning Back the Pages - April 9, 2026

125 years ago —
April 1901

U.S. Attorney-General Griggs, who resigned from President McKinley’s cabinet last week, expects to spend the month of July with his family at the Hillhurst, Norfolk.

A peddler crossing Canaan Mountain a few days ago met with quite a serious accident. His horse slipped and fell into water so deep that he had to tie up the horse’s head to keep it from drowning while he went for assistance. After several hours’ labor with plenty of help they succeeded in rescuing the horse and cart.

SHARON — Miss Lottie Miller, the Central girl, is ill with the grip at her home on Sharon Mountain.

LIME ROCK — The Barnum, Richardson Company is receiving a car-load of Fancy Oregon seed oats this week.

100 years ago —
April 1926

Adv.: WANTED — Household assistant for summer months in house with all conveniences. No objection to elderly woman. Mrs. Walter Angus, Taconic.

Local motorists are warned to operate their cars very slowly and carefully while passing through the town of Amenia. A new traffic cop in that place is taking his duties very seriously.

50 years ago —
April 1976

Over the strong objections of a prominent dairy farmer seeking to preserve his view, the Hartford Electric Light Co. has placed a new 80-foot-high transmission pole in the middle of a pasture at the foot of Roberts Hill near the Goshen- Cornwall line. The farmer is Willis Ocain of Cornwall Hollow, the fourth generation of family that has farmed in the same locations. He criticized HELCO and its parent company, Northeast Utilities, for not consulting him on the location of 11 new poles on his property, contending that the pole in the middle mars a prized pastoral scene and violates terms of an easement previously granted by his grandfather.

LAKEVILLE — “Virtually all” of the merchandise taken in a Saturday night break-in at Community Service had been recovered, proprietor Michael Turnure said Tuesday. Several persons saw the burglary in progress but did not report it, according to Turnure. Two garbage cans full of stolen goods were found in the Community Service lumber yard across the street from the store, he said. A wheelbarrow from the store apparently was used to carry the things to their hiding place.

Champion Cairnwoods Quince, leading male Cairn terrier in the country and owned by the Taylor Colemans, returned in triumph to his home at “Wolfpit” in Sharon on Sunday. In competition with 278 other terriers, he was named winner by Judge Peter Knoop at the Western Pennsylvania Kennel Association Show at Pittsburgh. Quince, on a national rating, was one of the top 10 terrier male producers in 1974 and 1975 and top Cairn in dog show wins for the same two years.

25 years ago —
April 2001

CORNWALL — Celebrating 25 years of touring with international arts programs, East-West Fusion Theatre actress Teviot Fairservis from Cornwall Bridge has been selected as a “Connecticut Master Teaching Artist” by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. She has performed and taught for East-West in more than 2,000 schools in 30 states.

SALISBURY — It’s been a rough year for the venerable stone kettle outside Town Hall. The century-old fountain has been vandalized twice in recent months. And, adding insult to injury, local health authorities have now decreed that natural spring water will never be allowed to flow through it again. The Torrington Area Health District required the town to shut off the spring water supply to the kettle in 1998, when traces of coliform bacteria turned up in tests of the water. The water now coming from the fountain is actually regular old tap water provided by Bridgeport Hydraulic Company.

Kent Memorial Librarian Deborah Custer was feted at a well-attended party in her honor last Friday evening. After working more than 20 years at the facility, Mrs. Custer is retiring and moving to Maine.

CANAAN — “It’s so simple,” is often used to describe the most ingenious inventions. But few will be saying “Why didn’t I think of that” when they hear of an idea at one local farm. For now, they are affectionately called “poop pots” by the Freund family at their East Canaan farm. And the name says it all. They look like the peat pots used for starting plants indoors. The difference is they are made from composted cow manure. No, they don’t have an odor and they are perfectly hygienic.

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