Turning Back the Pages - May 7, 2026

125 years ago — May 1901

The new school house at Chapinville was formally presented to the district by Mr. Robert Scoville in behalf of his mother, Mrs. Frances W. Scoville on Thursday. The new building is a neat wooden structure containing two rooms opening into each other, a teachers’ room and a splendid basement that can be used as a winter play room. All the modern ideas in regard to ventilation, heat and light are incorporated in the building.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Everett have returned from their wedding tour and are staying in Sharon until their home is ready for them in Millerton.

A.H. Heaton is suffering with a large carbuncle on the side of his neck and is under Dr. Bissell’s care.

Wanted, to employ a person who is accurate at figures for a short time monthly at their home. Address Marcus B. Simpson, Salisbury, Conn.

100 years ago — May 1926

Swat the fly now and save killing a million or two later on.

Some take chances with their lives in drinking bad hooch, some try to beat the train to the crossing, and some do jaywalking. They say there is a fool born every minute but some one must have advanced the time, or stepped on the gas.

Millerton which went on daylight saving time has already tired of the change and most of the business places have returned to standard time.

A woods fire at Twin Lakes last Sunday afternoon threatened to destroy the Barnum, Brandegee and Cady cottages. Several acres were burned over, and one cottage did catch fire but the blaze was quickly extinguished. A large number of men in that section assembled with brooms, shovels, pails, and anything handy for fire fighting, and did some effective work in checking the blaze.

50 years ago — May 1976

The indulgence of using “throw away containers” has been voluntarily discarded by a considerable number of Sharon residents. They have made it a habit to deliver bottles and newspapers to the Sharon Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts have turned a profit on the arrangement, though not without a great deal of hard work. Myron Allen, Boy Scout Committee Chairman who initiated the recycling project, seemed somewhat relieved this week that this latest enterprise of the Scouts would soon be taken over by the town. The new facility, on Route 41 one-fourth of a mile south of the junction of routes 41 and 112 near Lakeville, is not a dump as such, but rather an area to deposit waste which will then be hauled away by truck. The cost of transporting unusable garbage can be defrayed by the sale of recyclable materials.

The Salisbury Store, a department store under the proprietorship of Bud and Chrys Trotta, will open Monday in the former Shagroy Market space on Main Street in Salisbury village. The Trottas, assisted by their daughter Beth and their daughter-in-law Carol, will offer house and family goods ranging from infants’ clothing to men’s and women’s jeans and sneakers, and from Corning and Pyrex ware to Luminall paints. Other items on the shelves will include Buster Brown clothes for children, school supplies and stationery, toys, jewelry, hardware and tools and small electronic appliances. The store will be open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day except Sunday.

The Canaan Bicentennial Commission has endorsed the idea of a beard-growing contest as part of this summer’s Bicentennial observance. The idea was presented to the commission during last Thursday’s meeting by Richard Brooks of Stadium Systems. The contest will be open to all comers and growers. The town welcomes contestants from neighboring towns who wish to join in the contest. Contestants will march in the gala parade on July 24. Judging will take place after the parade at the block party in the Town Hall parking lot.

CANAAN — Sgt. Ronald G. Greene, son of Francis G. Greene of Canaan, has received the Bronze Star Medal at Yokota Air Base, Japan. Sgt. Greene was cited for meritorious service as a fuel supervisor at U-Tapao Airfield, Thailand. Now assigned at Yokota, he serves with a unit of the Pacific Air Force. He is a 1962 graduate of Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village.

25 years ago — May 2001

With land management comes compromise, especially when it comes to foresting. The need to harvest timber to meet operating expenses in a working forest can mean putting aside the preferred environmental approach. The ideal is to have another source of income. At Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk, that ideal is about to become reality. Owners are negotiating the terms of a $4.1 million grant that will allow the state Department of Environmental Protection to buy an easement on the state’s largest privately owned forest. What that means, according to Starling Childs, whose grandfather bought the land nearly a century ago, is a long-term working endowment that will ensure that Great Mountain stays just as it is — a working forest dedicated to research and education.

Two Canaan men survived a crash landing at Great Barrington Airport April 28. Ralph Stanton Jr., 51, and Noel Anderson, 59, consider themselves lucky. Despite the fact that the single-engine plane he bought a few days earlier may not be salvageable, Mr. Stanton is grateful that his friend will be OK. Mr. Anderson sustained the only injury between the two, a cracked vertebrae that could keep him out of work for several months. “I think I hurt my pride more,” said Mr. Anderson, who has had his pilot’s license for 30 years. “It’s just one of those things. We don’t know what happened,” Mr. Stanton said.

Colin Gold, a senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, has been named an exemplary student and community member by the Governor’s Coalition for Youth with Disabilities. He will receive a plaque and a check for $1,000 from Gov. John Rowland later this month.

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