Turning Back the Pages - July 17, 2025

125 years ago — July 1900

D.R. Spalding of Falls Village, who was eighty six years old July 4, does all the raking on 200 acres of meadow land.

The selectmen of Norfolk are going to see that all unregistered dogs are killed.

A large black bear was seen on the Van Deusen farm near Indian Mountain last Tuesday. It is said the animal drove a party of haymakers from their work, and then escaped into the woods.

Sixty-three years ago Jabez Alvord, then 16 years old, of Winsted, lost a penny near the hearthstone of the old family residence now being torn down on North Main Street. He remembered it and looking for it one day last week found it.

SHARON — The body of Chas. Sweeney was brought to his home here on Tuesday from Rochester, Penn., where he was killed by falling from a telegraph pole. The burial will be in St. Bernard’s Cemetery today.

Census taker for Salisbury, Mr. A.L. Felts, finished his labors in Lime Rock Saturday. He says it’s no “cinch” making up the many schedules, counting heads, guessing the age of old maids besides other unpleasantries. He doesn’t want the job next time.

NOTICE — Bicycle riders, you must keep off the sidewalks of this town, and also have a light on your wheel at night when riding.

A.F. Roberts has received word that his nephew has been rescued from the Fillipinoes and is now with his family.

Mr. Harry Hawley, a bookkeeper employed by Johnson, Lindell & Co. of Canaan, was drowned while bathing last Sunday afternoon. Hawley had been in ill health for some time and it is supposed that he suffered from heart failure. He was 45 years old and leaves a widow and five childen.

While driving by the railroad station in this village on Saturday last, Henry Smith’s large bay horse, driven by Mr. Timothy Morrisey, became frightened at a freight train which was switching at the time and ran up on the bank near the milk station, and in coming down the bank the horse stumbled and fell headlong against the freight, which was then standing on the main line, completely breaking his upper jaw and mutilating his mouth in a horrible manner. Fortunately, Mr. Morrisey escaped uninjured, with the exception of a slightly sprained knee. Veterinarian Delaney was summoned and pronounced the horse’s case as hopeless, the whole upper jaw being motionless, and consequently the horse had to be shot. This is hard luck for Mr. Smith, as this was the only horse he owned, and it certainly was a fine one.

On account of numerous robberies in the past year or two of stations along the Central New England Railway, arrangements have been made by which all the money in the telephones and chewing gum machines is to be taken out every night, and the thieves hereafter will find poor picking along the Central New England. Weighing machines have been discontinued in stations.

100 years ago — July 1925

Last Saturday Phillip Farrar of Long Hill was coasting down Barack Matiff at twenty-seven miles per hour with a truck not equipped with pneumatic tires. He was arrested by Officer Ringrose and paid a fine of ten dollars and costs at nine dollars and ninety-six cents.

The fire siren refused to operate properly the early part of the week. Electrician Stanley Mather overhauled it and found some rusted out wires which he replaced, thus restoring the siren’s efficiency.

Private William Atkins of the U.S. Marine Corp is home on a 15-day furlough. Private Atkins is stationed on the submarine tender U.S.S. Camden and has recently returned from the Pacific maneuver via the Panama Canal.

50 years ago — July 1975

Sharon should explore all chances of continuing to dump its solid waste in Amenia, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection said this week. Until all hope of working things out with Amenia is gone, the DEP said, the department will not even study the feasibility of Sharon’s sharing use of the Salisbury landfill.

Thomas Corcoran of West Hartford, formerly of Lakeville, was the winner of a …freezer and a side of beef in a raffle sponsored by the Lakeville Hose Company at its annual carnival last weekend. Other winners were Ralph Zilinek of Falls Village, who won a $500 wardrobe and Barbara Barnum of Great Barrington, Mass., who won a Franklin stove.

In Washington this week as staff members in the office of Congressman Toby Moffett are Sarah Gallup and Michael Flint, both of Lakeville. The internship program is being sponsored by the Salisbury Democratic Town Committee.

“At last we have a stop sign,” Ted Mix of the Sharon Association noted this week. His remark followed installation of a stop sign at the junction of Routes 7 and 4 on the Sharon side of Cornwall Bridge. “The Sharon Association first requested it some years ago,” Mr. Mix said, “and has purused the matter with various state agencies. It is very pleased to see that its recommendation has been carried out.”

An air search for some strayed cattle ended in an emergency landing and a ride to Sharon Hospital Saturday for Fred Segalla, 60, of Sodom Road, Canaan, and Martin Barnswilder, 36, of Sheffield. The incident occurred when Segalla ageed to take Barnswilder up to search for some cattle which had strayed from land the Sheffield farmer rents in Canaan. The two men had been airborne in Segalla’s 1939 Piper Cub for about 15 minutes when the engine spluttered and died and Segalla made a forced landing in a cornfield owned by Norbert Zinke. Both men suffered cuts and bruises and were taken by ambulance to Sharon Hospital where they were treated and released.

No cause has been unearthed for a mystery ailment that afflicted approximately 30 campers at Camp Kent last week. The Kent and Warren ambulances were called to the camp on South Spectacle Lake Tuesday evening, July 8, to administer oxygen to a group of youngsters suffering from coughing and respiratory difficulty. Local and state health authorities have investigated the incident, coming up with little in the way of an explanation. According to camp owner David Polansky, the children were suffering from “mass hysteria.” There have apparently been no serious after effects from the incident.

25 years ago — July 2000

With the announcement that Sharon Hospital plans to sell the facility to a for-profit firm, questions are being raised about the proposal and the buyer, whose former company filed bankruptcy. Essent Healthcare, headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., expects to finalize the sale by late this year or early 2001.

More than 200 boaters, canoers, rafters and kayakers paddled down the Housatonic River below West Cornwall July 9 to protest the state Department of Environmental Protection ruling to return the dams at Falls Village and Bulls Bridge to “run-of-the-river,” which will make portions of the river unnavigable during the summer months.

FALLS VILLAGE — Declaring he wants justice for his mother who was brutally murdered in 1973, Peter Reilly has requested the state police to test DNA in strands of hair found in the victim’s hand at the crime scene. Mr. Reilly was 18 and a senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School when he was accused of the murder after state troopers forced him into a false confession following 24 hours of interrogation without legal counsel. He was exonerated in 1977, in part thanks to efforts by New Britain attorney Paul McQuillan, who was named special prosecutor in the case in 1976. It was through Mr. McQuillan and attorney Hugh Keefe of Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante of New Haven that Mr. Reilly submitted his request for the DNA testing.

WASSAIC, N.Y. — For the first time since 1972, when Penn Central abandoned the railbed, passenger trains rolled up the Harlem Valley north of Dover. More than a hundred people turned out Monday for the grand opening of Metro-North’s new Wassaic and Tenmile River stations in Amenia.

LAKEVILLE — For the past few weeks, signs have been posted on Farnum Road cautioning drivers to slow down for “pups.” Well, it turns out those are coyote pups and the Department of Environmental Protection has a caution of its own: Don’t feed them. Apparently, several area residents have been nurturing the five pups since their mother was killed after being hit by a car. Feeding the wild creatures will eventually be bad for both the animals and the humans that live around them, said DEP wildlife biologist Paul Rego.