Turning Back the Pages - May 28, 2026

125 years ago — May 1901

Miss Ethel Everts visited her uncle E.F. Sanford at Ore Hill on Saturday.

A band of gypsies passed through this village Tuesday.

SHARON — Walter Peck has recently purchased the merchantile business of Clayton M. Card.

Canaan business men were up-to-snuff-enough to buy a site and present it to the Borden people to locate a factory there; and seventy-five men are already at work.

The residence of Edward Winckworth came near being burned on Thursday morning. When F.H. Chapin arrived with the daily supply of milk about 4 o'clock he noticed smoke coming from the large door mat. Mr. Chapin thought this a singular affair and proceeded to investigate. When he removed the rug he found it to be on fire and a couple boards and a part of a joist of the piazza were also burning. Upon the removal of the mat immediately broke into flames. Mr. Chapin used the first means at hand and doused the blaze with milk from a large can he was carrying. This treatment was effective and the fire was soon extinguished.

The work on the cellar and foundation of the new St. Austin's School on Frink Hill is going forward at a good rate. We understand the school is to be completed by next fall.

For the first time since the G.A.R. was organized the mortality in the order last year went beyond 10,000. Within four or five years one-half of the 400,000 members in 1890 will have passed from the rolls of the living.

The John Brown homestead inn Torrington has been bought for a purpose of preservation by Mr. Carl Stoeckel of the village of Norfolk. The homestead has been placed for the present in the care of Dwight C. Kilbourn of East Litchfield, but it is intended to transfer it to four custodians, who will be chosen from the towns of Winsted, Torrington, Litchfield and Norfolk.

100 years ago — May 1926

Miss Dorothy Curtis and Master Myron Millies are confined to their respective homes with the measles.

Mrs. Eva Ostrom has purchased a Victrola.

Miss Catherine VanHovenburgh our resident nurse returned Sunday from a week's sojourn at Atlantic City.

The Scoville Library is anxious to obtain a copy of the Atlantic Monthly for August 1924, for the purpose of binding. If there is a copy available would the owner please communicate with the librarian.

50 years ago — May 1976

Olympic paddler Eric Evans of Amherst, Mass., took first place again this year in Sunday's one-man kayak slalom event. Evans was upset in Saturday's one-man five-mile downriver race by newcomer Bob Alexander. Last weekend's whitewater canoe and kayak events drew a record field of registrants but only 420 actually raced because of high water. Race chairman Peter Wood of the Salisbury Rotary Club said that at least a foot and a half of water was pouring over the dam above Falls Village, swelling the Housatonic and making competition tough.

Only one person out of 24 questioned this week in a random survey said she was against the sex education course proposed for Housatonic Valley Regional High School. Two were against the idea conditionally, but 16 others were definitely for it. The remaining five hadn't heard about it and offered no opinion. None of the six students interviewed at the high school was even aware of the proposal but four of them said it was a good idea.

Two daughters of Edward F. Murphy of Sharon are graduates this spring. Kim Elizabeth Murphy will graduate June 5 from Stoneleigh-Burnham School, Greenfield, Mass. President of her class, she will participate in a U.S. Olympic training program for skiing in Utah this summer. Carrie Tuthill Murphy received her master's degree May 18 in psychiatric social science from Simmons College, Boston. She will administer Massachusetts' newly developed program to combat child abuse.

Florence Thomen and her mother, Wally Vining, contributed an authentic touch to last weekend's Old North Road Revisited tour. Both women dressed in 19th century costumes for the tour, which covered four towns, New Hartford, Barkhamsted, Colebrook and Norfolk. The dresses have been handed down in the Vining family, who were early Colebrook residents. Mrs. Thomen's dates from the 1850s or 1860s while Mrs. Vining's is probably from around 1870.

An East Canaan couple were among the more than 2,500 candidates scheduled to receive degrees last Friday at the 126th commencement of Central Connecticut State College, New Britain. Mr. and Mrs. Gary Norton of Route 44, East Canaan, each received a bachelor of science degree, Gary in physical education and his wife Karen in biology. Residents of East Canaan since the first of the year, the couple met and married while students at the New Britain college.

FALLS VILLAGE — First Selectman David Domeier met with his board Wednesday afternoon, seeking authorization to invite state engineers to review Falls Village's septic problems. The tiny community of 1,000 residents has never been sewered, and its densely-populated center, with homes closely spaced on small lots, has experienced septic system failures with increasing frequency. Domeier said that he did not know whether the septic systems had been as consistently troublesome before his term in office, but that they seem to be "a problem right now." He noted that there are currently two village center lots with septic system failures — one of which is acute.

25 years ago — May 2001

Sharon Center School principal Patricia Chamberlain was named the new assistant superintendent of Region 1 at Monday's meeting of the regional Board of Education. Starting in July, she will replace Al Suttles, who retires this summer.

FALLS VILLAGE — More than 100 boaters from all over the East Coast turned up Saturday morning for the oldest downriver race in Connecticut (and possibly the second oldest race in New England.) It was the 31st annual Housatonic Downriver race and while there were a goodly number of paddlers in their 60s, there were also a fair number of teens. All proceeds from entry fees were donated to the Northwest Corner Chore Service, a program that provides elderly and handicapped area residents with help doing essential chores such as housekeeping, shopping and cooking.

The Colonial Community Theatre group has moved its office from the downtown theater it hoped to buy, renovate and reopen. But that does not mean the non-profit group has disbanded. Members still active with the group say they are moving ahead with plans, but are looking to the town for guidance, since it appears they have reached an impasse with theater owners Richard and Michael Boscardin.