Turning Back the Pages - November 20, 2025

125 years ago — November 1900

In the game between the overshoe and the sidewalk, the overshoe gets “stuck” every time these days.

SHARON — No services were held last Sunday in the Episcopal Church, the rector not being able to reach Sharon in time. As usual the services will be held next Sunday, the Rev. Mr. Phillips of New Haven expecting to preside.

Lots of people are fond of swearing at the telephone, but they realize how important it is when a storm comes along and puts it out of business. Yes “blessings brighten as they take their flight.”

A.B. Landon returned Tuesday from Vermont with over thirty fine cattle. He was in Vermont throughout the storm of last week and says he just about froze to death — thought he would thaw out when he got back to Lakeville, but found the climate here about as severe as in Vermont.

Harry Gill is working in the forging room of the Holley M’f’g Co. for a short time.

100 years ago — November 1925

The garage of the Canfield Motor Sales Co. at Canaan was practically destroyed by fire on Saturday afternoon. The garage was formerly a livery stable and being of wood it burned with amazing rapidity, seeming to be ablaze all over almost at once. The fire started when a backfiring Ford ignited oil and gasoline. One of the workmen, John Fallon, was overcome with smoke and had to be carried out. In the building was a large number of cars some of which were saved, although about 21 cars were destroyed a number of them being new Fords in which the company dealt.

The portrait of the late Dr. George H. Knight has been finished by Miss Emmet, and is to be placed in the new building called the Knight Hospital at the Institution at Mansfield. The portrait will be on exhibition at Heaton & Co.’s store for a few days in order to give Dr. Knight’s friends an opportunity to see it.

It was announced recently by the highway commissioner that a concrete road will be constructed from the bridge at West Norfolk to the Norfolk green, a distance of about two miles, the cost of construction being estimated at about $125,000. The present highway is narrow and in places it is difficult to pass large trucks, the drivers of which apparently do not wish to get too near the edge of the road alongside the fence, for fear of cave-ins. The new road will thus require considerable filling to widen it.

LIME ROCK — H.V. Eggleston has rented a house in Lakeville and moved there for the winter.

The work of remodeling the interior of Robert’ Store to provide quarters for the post office has been started. The former dry goods section of the store will be used as the post office, a partition being installed to separate it from the rest of the store.

Clifton Tripp has finished his duties at the Journal office and has returned to his home in Pine Plains.

The coal strike thus far has caused no distress in this section. Most of our home owners laid in supplies for winter before the strike occurred. Some soft coal is being used, but practically everyone has been able to secure coal for immediate needs. Meanwhile the coal operators and miners have lost friends, almost everyone feeling that these coal strikes come with altogether too much regularity about every two years and each time coal gets a substantial boost in prices. The dear public as usual is the goat.

50 years ago — November 1975

New car sales are on the rebound, according to several Tri-State area dealers, after a bad 1975 sales year. Not all dealers report a sales spurt, however, as some find little change from last year’s pattern and say sales are down.

The Lakeville Water Company which provides water service to some 860 customers in the Town of Salisbury, Monday filed a formal application with the Connecticut Public Utilities Commission for a 34 per cent rate increase. Should the full amount of the $21,900 annual rate increase be granted, the quarterly bill of a typical residential customer using 10,000 gallons of water would rise from $7.38 to $9.90. No increases have been requested for water companies in Canaan, Norfolk or Cornwall, which also are owned by the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company.

Salisbury selectmen decided Tuesday night to defer action on a proposal by Resident State Trooper Robert Smithwick to make Academy and Library streets each one-way in an effort to relieve entrance and exit congestion at the new Market Place of Salisbury. Instead they decided to ban parking on Academy Street for some distance back from Main Street to determine whether this will alleviate the problem at the corner.

The promotion of David N. Parker to vice president and executive editor of The Lakeville Journal was announced this week by Journal Publisher Robert Estabrook. Parker has been managing editor for the past 3½ years.

Members of the Canaan Volunteer Fire Company gathered at the Main Street firehouse last Friday to take down the communications tower. The tower was taken down with the help of Tony Ghi’s crane and moved in one afternoon to the new firehouse. Other firefighting equipment was also relocated on Friday.

The American Farmer Degree, the highest degree of membership in the Future Farmers of America, was conferred last week on Robert Wood, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clark Wood of Falls Village. Wood joined 703 other FFA members, representing about one per cent of all FFA members, in accepting the honorary degree at the 48th FFA national convention in Kansas City, Mo. Wood is a student at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

A heretofore nameless road off of Route 7 in Falls Village has been designated as Stein Lane in honor of Arthur D. Stein Jr. The little roadway was named both to honor Stein and to aid travelers seeking homes located along the road. The road was part of a development started several years ago by Ralph Sandmeyer of Cornwall. Initiative in naming the road stemmed from Edward Woebse of Route 7, a nearby resident. Woebse said that many persons would stop at his home seeking directions to the road. Woebse decided upon a name for the road, got Sandmeyer’s agreement to posting the name, and arranged for a bold-faced sign. The post office and other town agencies have been notified of the new name.

The newest resident of Cornwall Bridge arrived on Nov. 14 at 10:13 p.m. Expected in December, the newborn son confounded his parents, Dorothy and Philip Wolfe, by his sudden arrival Friday night. Dr. Josephine Evarts had planned to be on hand to deliver him at home, as she had his sister Catherine. But there was no time. The young father, who had assisted at the earlier birth, delivered the child himself. When “Dr. Jo” arrived she found mother, son and father doing nicely. Having caught his parents unprepared the baby has not yet been named. He is the grandson of Jean Wolfe of West Cornwall and of Mr. and Mrs. William C. Clarke Jr. of Cornwall Bridge. He is the great grandson of the founder of the Dark Entry Forest Association, the late Dr. William C. Clarke.

25 years ago — November 2000

While strongly affirming its support of Essent Healthcare’s purchase of Sharon Hospital, the Ombudsmen for Sharon Hospital met with some questions and concerns at a meeting Friday. About 100 people attended an informational meeting at Sharon Center School to hear the group, which formed to help disseminate information to the public about the proposed sale. James Buckley, former senator and retired federal judge, who serves as chairman of the ombudsmen, opened the meeting, emphasizing that everyone in the room has the same objective: to keep Sharon Hospital as a viable acute care facility.

At last, the town of Lakeville has a new postmaster, Drew Ohmen, most recently the postmaster in Falls Village, took over the position Oct. 21. Mr. Ohmen was stationed in Falls Village from 1993 until this year. He was postmaster in South Kent from 1987 to 1993 and he has worked for the U.S. Postal Service since 1973. In his years as a civil servant, Mr. Ohmen has seen and taken part in major changes in the way mail is sorted and delivered. “The major change is automation, the way the mail is sorted,” he said.

CANAAN — A $22,000 technology grant has been awarded to North Canaan Elementary School. Principal Thomas Gaisford made the announcement at last week’s Board of Education meeting. A portion of the state funding, he said, would go toward updating computer equipment in the school library and increasing capacity in a couple of hubs. Most will be spent to purchase new computers to replace older models.

Falls Village resident Betsy Howie will read from and sign her novel “Snow” Saturday Dec. 2 at the D.M. Hunt Library in Falls Village from 4 to 6 p.m. The reading, signing and reception, which will follow the library’s monthly book sale, will also be a fundraiser for the library. Copies of “Snow” will be available at the library for $15 each. Five dollars from each book sold will be donated to the library.

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