Turning Back the Pages - October 29, 2026

125 years ago — October 1901

Frank Byron, one of Sharon’s popular clerks has of late been looking away along the vista of the future and comes to realize that its happiness to him depends largely upon his taking unto himself a wife, and has importuned Miss Anna McDonald of Amenia, N.Y., until she is of the same opinion. They will be married Oct. 30th at the bride’s home in Amenia.

Four Torrington junk dealers have been arrested in that town for carrying on their business without a license.

SHARON — A.J. Bostwick spent a few days in New York last week attending the carriage makers’ annual exhibition held at the Crystle Palace.

The ice man is out of it and now it is the time when the coal man takes his innings.

SHARON — The village streets have been poorly lighted of late, owing to the fact that the water wheel at the electric power house has been so clogged with eels that it has been impossible to attain the required speed needed for the load the dynamo is carrying.

Last week Mrs. Charles McNeil picked a giant puff ball, just back of the house in the woods that deserves mention. This fungus measures three feet in circumference. How’s that for a nice breakfast morsel?

Mr. and Mrs. George Cook of Ore Hill attended the Bicentennial Celebration of Yale at New Haven this week.

The cell occupied by Murderer John T. Hayes in Litchfield jail is the same in which Andrew Borjenson of New Milford was confined until executed six years ago.

LIME ROCK — There will be no preaching in the Methodist Church for several Sundays. The pastor is in quarantine at his home in Falls Village on account of scarlet fever in his family.

100 years ago — October 1926

Mr. Elbert Eggleston has sold his farm to Mr. Sabin of Sharon who expects to occupy the place about November 1st. Paul Cleaveland also purchased about 20 acres of the same farm.

SALISBURY — Mr. Frank Andrews is driving a new Studebaker sport model which he purchased last Saturday.

At this time of the year the water wheel at the Knife Factory is often bothered by being clogged with eels. Thus far this week Supt. H.J. Shaw has removed 21 eels from the turbine their weight ranging from 2 to 8 pounds each. Often the turbine grinds them up into chunks and others are uninjured. The latter are given to those desiring them.

Here’s a little bouquet for our telephone operators. One of our citizens last week had occasion to call up a friend in Utica, N.Y. The call was put through in two and a half minutes, almost before the echo of the bells ceased. Our citizen was surprised to hear his friend’s voice almost at once and it is needless to say that he thinks that the girl operators at Canaan and Lakeville are very efficient — and he is right.

Gaston Cleaveland has entered the employ of Ablahadian’s jitney business.

The world’s greatest “superhighway” has just been completed between Detroit and Pontiac, Mich., a distance of 16 miles. It is 200 feet wide, with twin concrete roadways of 44 feet width, each carrying four tracks, giving a total of eight. Between the twin roadways, there are tracks of an electric railway. Horse-drawn vehicles are restricted to the right-hand track and the maximum speed of all vehicles is 25 miles per hour. The new highway is known as the Woodward avenue, and has required two years to complete.

50 years ago — October 1976

Nancy Hopkins Tier of Lakeville was given the annual Woman of the Year award at the fall New England section meeting of the Ninety-Nines held at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, N.H. The Ninety-Nines is an international organization of licensed women pilots founded by Amelia Earhart. Mrs. Tier is one of the original Ninety-Nine charter members who met on Long Island in 1929, with Miss Earhart. The organization’s goal is to advance educational and charitable causes in aviation. Mrs. Tier has been directly involved with aviation nearly 50 years. She learned to fly near her hometown of Washington D.C. She delivered and sold airplanes, raced and repaired them. She was the Connecticut speed champion.

As many as six Connecticut State Police cars converged at Dutcher’s Bridge between Salisbury and North Canaan early Wednesday afternoon, and a police diver was searching the Housatonic waters below. Passersby reported that there was also a van at the scene. State Police would say only that they were making a routine search for stolen goods. They would not indicate what type of goods had supposedly been dumped into the river.

FALLS VILLAGE — The Planning and Zoning Commission looked favorably Tuesday night on a proposal to sell a portion of the former MacMillan property on Route 126 to the state. The land, which was purchased by the town for use as a sanitary landfill, is largely swampy and cannot be used for landfill purposes. About 10 acres of land is now used by the town out of the 76-acre tract.

25 years ago — October 2001

Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell called Geer Village “a job well done” during Saturday’s groundbreaking, at which dignitaries shoveled symbolic earth to launch construction. The project is the second phase of an assisted living complex that has turned the Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center site into a campus, where all levels of indepedent and assisted living for seniors will be available by next year.

CANAAN — The fire that destroyed about half of the historic Canaan Union Station on Oct. 13 did not destroy the town’s spirit. On the contrary, as in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington D.C., it has served to bring the community together, and it appears that is just what will be needed to bring the depot back.

Ursula McCafferty, former postmaster of West Cornwall, has written a book about the escapades at “Acorn Academy.” She will be signing copies of the publication at the Hughes Memorial Library this Sunday. The author described “Acorn Academy” as “part journey down memory lane, part travelogue, but primarily a walk on the sunny side of life.”

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