Turning Back the Pages - July 10, 2025

125 years ago — July 1900

The largest fire Salisbury has ever witnessed occurred on the evening of July 3rd at about 9:30 o’clock, at which time the large residence of Miss M.M. Johnson on Main Street was totally destroyed. The origin of the fire is as yet only a matter of conjecture. The alarm was rapidly spread and scores of men flocked to the scene and through the efforts of the level headed ones the greater part of the contents of the house were removed to a place of safety. The water from the one small faucet was hardly noticeable and the hose was finally abandoned and the faucet and pump were used to fill the pails of a bucket brigade. The building was valued at about $4,000 and the insurance amounts to $2,000. It is hard to understand why, after such examples as have occurred of late in Salisbury and this place, that property owners continue to object to some organized method of fighting fire such as forming a fire district and having an efficient fire company that will amount to something in an emergency.

Miss Nellie Ryder of Falls Village started Thursday morning for the Klondike region, there to meet and marry Ulysses Grant Myres, who has been in the gold country two years. Her mother accompanied her as far as Chicago.

The convention of dancing masters recently held at Asbury park has decided that hugging in the waltz is not proper, but the partner must be held off at arm’s length, with just a light touch of the finger tips. A few more rules of a similar nature and the dancing teacher like Othello, will find his occupation gone.

Judging by the rapidity with which the nations are going to war, it is hoped that no more peace conferences will be held until the year 2000. It is the rule for pugilists to shake hands before commencing to fight and it looks as if the nations had adopted the rule on a larger scale.

Quite a number of Sharon people attended the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Ellsworth Congregational Church on Tuesday.

Baldwin Reed’s son, James, who is in the Klondike region, has been very sick in a hospital in Dawson City; was so delirious that he had to be bound hand and foot to be controlled. A letter from him, dated June 1st, stated that he would soon be able to go to work again.

LAKEVILLE — A.B. Landon is now the owner of “E.J.C.” having traded his large road mare for the trotter with E.J. Chaffee of South Amenia. This horse is a good one and Mr. Landon will probably start him in some of the Wells Hill races.

A jolly party composed of A.J. Morse and family, Martin Strong, Fred Seeley and wife and T.F. Dexter and family, all of Salisbury, are camping at Warner’s Grove this week. Messrs. Morse and Strong’s steam launch will add greatly to the enjoyment of the party.

100 years ago — July 1925

The summer issue of the telephone directory, delivery of which began this week and which is effective upon receipt by subscribers, is bound in a more substantial cover stock of dark brown, a color not hitherto used on the telephone directory. With this heavier cover stock, the directory will stand up better under the constant usage given this book. The design on the cover also is new.

Mr. W.B. Lawrence, properietor of the Gateway has evidently acquired the hotel habit. Last week he purchased the Harlem Valley Hotel at Millerton, taking possession July 1st.

There is no use in trying to dodge the fact — all the good men are married, a fact which was fully demonstrated at last Saturday morning’s base ball game between the married and single men. The benedicts rolled up seven big runs while the bachelors could not even get a single solitary score. Such old timers as Sam Whitbeck, John Bohlman, Charles Barnum, George Traver, Rev. Frank Lambert, H. Roscoe Brinton, Fred Ellis, Stanley Mather, A.E. Bauman, M.G. Fenn and George Ostrum and Del MacLain carried the banner of matrimony. The flapper chasers consisted of: John Neville, Jim Smith, Vin Stuart, “Taller Head” Hoysradt, Irwin Patchen, Gerald Bauman, “Cock Robin” Melius, Clem Bauman and Theodore Garnes. These young whipper snappers never had a chance with the old war horses, as may be seen by the score, but the young blades were gritty and stayed till the last man was down. Next year they say they are going to reverse the story.

Just for the sake of decency it is suggested that some of the young ladies wear their night gowns over their imaginary bathing suits when walking the streets after coming from the lake.

50 years ago — July 1975

Passenger trains definitely will return to Millerton, Lettie Carson, president of the Harlem Valley Transportation Association, asserted again this week. Mrs. Carson cited renewed and detailed assurances from New York State officials to support her statement.

Dr. William H. Zovickian of Sharon is a pretty happy fellow this week. His borrowed tortoise is back. Not just any old turtle, but an African Spurred Tortoise, one of only six in the United States. His benefactor, and the tortoise’s, is Linda Decker, who found the reptile in the driveway of her home on Herrick Road Tuesday morning, nearly three-quarters of a mile from the Zovickian property on Ellsworth Road from which it had wandered — or escaped — last Friday, July 4. Ms. Decker, whose property adjoins the Zovickian property on the rear, heard her dog barking Monday night. Tuesday morning she found the African Spurred Tortoise in her driveway, completely unharmed. “I’m very relieved,” Dr. Zovickian said, adding that he had visions of having to replace the tortoise. It was a female tortoise, borrowed for breeding purposes as part of a program to determine whether the beasts will reproduce in captivity.

An estimated 600 Sharon residents turned out on a near-perfect day last Friday to attend the July 4th picnic sponsored by Sharon Heritage ‘76. Picnic baskets in hand, they began assembling on the Sharon Green well before the 11:30 a.m. starting time to enjoy a day of fun, games, music and socializing.

Officials in Amenia and Sharon this week continued their search for possible new town landfill sites. Owners of the present Amenia landfill have said it will close in less than three months.

The State Labor Department’s quotation last week of a 16.5 unemployment rate figure for Salisbury in May has local officials puzzled. The state describes the unemployment rate in Salisbury as having risen from 14.5 in April to 16.5 in May. However First Selectman Charlotte Reid sees little real evidence of an increasing unemployment problem here. “The town picks up emergency short-term” cases of persons who are waiting to receive aid from state agencies, Mrs. Reid said. Therefore the town situation should reflect the unemployment picture accurately.

Work at Wangum Village, the Canaan housing for the elderly project, is more than half completed, according to Housing Authority Chairman Arthur Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin said Tuesday that he has now paid the contractor for 51 per cent of the work. Baldwin said that all buildings have now been erected and that most of the doors and windows are in. The plumbers and electricians are at work and sewer lines are being laid to the buildings.

25 years ago — July 2000

LIME ROCK — It was a fitting activity for the man who has made faster Internet access a personal crusade. David Maffucci, owner and founder of Visionary Computer here, took a high-speed turn around the race track at Lime Rock Park last week. Although not exactly the type of souped-up vehicle one expects to see on the track, Mr. Maffucci’s Crown Victoria did fulfill one requirement for track access that day: it was Ford-powered. At last week’s Shelby American Auto Convention, all cars were required to have Ford engines. Mr. Maffucci said the Crown Victoria “has a little more go” than the Jeep Wrangler he normally drives. It’s probably a bit less tippy on the turns as well.

The discovery of a framed photograph in the Douglas Library basement, probably stored there for decades, is very timely. As Elm Watch volunteers form an alliance with the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and heighten efforts to save the area’s trees from Dutch elm disease, an enlarged photo of “The Famous Elm” has come to light. This week, Elm Watch volunteer Tom Zetterstrom painstakingly removed the old paper, wood and newspaper backing on the matted photograph, replacing it with an acid-free board and re-hanging it in the library.