Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — June 1923

Mrs. Mercer has opened a tea room at her residence near White Hart Inn.

After an illness prolonged for many months, Miss Clara A. Barnum passed away last Wednesday afternoon, June 6th, in Lime Rock. She was the elder of two daughters, the only children of James H. and Mary Loveredge Barnum. Her sister, Julia L., died in 1883. Those who can remember sixty years back recall Miss Clara as a bright and attractive young girl, the picture of health. Then followed a long period of invalidism, her life narrowed down to the walls of one room. Gradually, she recovered, and for some time, now, she has played an active part in her home town, and will be greatly missed. When her father died she carried on his interest in the village store under the firm name of Barnum and Gager. She was a devoted Churchwoman, and a communicant of Trinity church, of which her father was for many years a warden. With the exception of recent winters spent in Florida, she has always lived in Lime Rock. She was a relative of Wm. H. Barnum, and the last of that family to remain a resident there. With her death, the name, so closely linked with the history of the village, passes out of its annals.

Mr. E.J. Stuart is putting on an addition several feet wide to the east side of Best Theatre. The new addition will permit side aisles in the theatre which will be a great convenience to its patrons.

50 years ago — June 1973

More and more filling stations in this area will be out of regular gasoline this summer and a “more severe” heating fuel shortage is probable if next winter is normally cold, an oil distributor predicted to members of the Salisbury Rotary Club Tuesday. Speaking on “The Energy Crisis,” Geoffrey S. Smith Jr. of Lakeville denied that the shortage had been created by the big oil companies. Nevertheless, he acknowledged, oil company policies have aggravated the shortage in particular lines. Moreover, the big companies are now making more money than before because they are no longer selling surplus gasoline to independent distributors at cut rates and instead have raised their rates on regular brands.

Once the center of Canaan’s civic activity, the old Lawrence Field on Route 44 has today become a weed patch, used by the State as a storage center of highway sand and salt. The unkempt condition of the former town recreation center has distressed many local residents, and recently prompted First Selectman Leo Segalla to object strongly to the way that the State has maintained the property.

Howard Chinatti, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roland Chinatti of Warren Turnpike, has been awarded the Falls Village Scholarship for 1973. The $400 scholarship is awarded annually to a Falls Village student.

25 years ago — June 1998

Falls Village road crew foreman Joe Wright wants to take his vacation to the grave. Over the years, Mr. Wright has accumulated several weeks’ worth of unused vacation time. Thinking he is not going to use all of it, Wright proposed a little trade: He would give up 10 days of that time in return for a $300 plot in the Lower City cemetery. The plot would be for his sister; Wright already executed a similar swap for himself a few years ago. The Board of Selectmen approved Wright’s request at its June 8 meeting. But if Wright thought he could prove an old adage wrong, he was mistaken. “Mr. Wright should be advised that it (the grave) is in lieu of income and is taxable,” First Selectman Gabriel Seymour added with a wry smile. In Falls Village, “death and taxes” reign supreme.

As Charlotte Reid, contributing editor of The Lakeville Journal, prepares to step down from that position this week, her co-workers are beginning to realize the void that will result from her retirement. For Mrs. Reid has an unparalleled wealth of knowledge about Salisbury and the surrounding towns, as well as the people who make up those communities.

The Department of Environmental Protection has been looking at 362 acres of land owned by John Ashton and abutting both Wyantenock and Mohawk state forests. The appraisals will be completed soon, DEP Supervising Property Agent Beth Varhue said.

It took only 15 minutes on Monday morning after Riga Traders opened at 10 a.m. for three dozen each of the new Beanie Babies, “Princess Di” and “Peace” to sell out. Thirty eager shoppers had queued up outside, waiting for the store to open, most of them sent by their offspring with strict instructions to shop for them.

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