Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — July 1923

Miss Jane Smith of Salisbury and Miles Roberts and family of Waterbury are enjoying a ten days motor camping trip through Maine. Hilen Eggleston is presiding at the wheel during the trip.

Mr. Archie Lewis of Lime Rock has gone to Torrington where he has a position.

Connecticut State Brief: The term of Edward McDermott, in charge of the Winsted internal revenue office, expired and the office in the town hall was closed. Due to a cut in the appropriation the department decided to close the Winsted as well as fifteen others throughout the state.

A.L. Huggins of Canaan has applied for a permit to conduct an auto bus service between Canaan and Millerton.

50 years ago — July 1973

Farmers in Northwest Connecticut and nearby New York State are now in serious jeopardy, thanks to frozen milk prices, skyrocketing feed costs and increasing urbanization. Although the milk freeze is at the retail level, farmers who sell their milk wholesale are equally affected.

Salisbury village merchants have hired a special constable on a test basis to direct parking on Main Street on Fridays and Saturdays.

A century-old bell that once summoned employees to work at the Holley Manufacturing Company in Lakeville is being installed in a mini-park outside the new building of the Salisbury Bank & Trust Company. Made of solid bronze and manufactured by the Meneelys Bell Company of West Troy, N.Y., in 1867, the bell was installed atop the pocket-knife factory building about 1870 and was used to announce the start of the working day, lunch hour and quitting time.

Cornwall may well be one of the first towns in the state to have women as active members of the Volunteer Fire Department. Strictly a man’s world since its inception on May 25, 1931, the Cornwall Fire Department now has 55 members, and now includes six ladies. When asked about the new development, Fire Chief Richard Dakin said, “Up until 1973 the bylaws stated that the fire department would accept ‘men,’ which we changed to read ‘residents.’”

Fire again struck at State Rep. Gordon Vaill’s home Saturday in Goshen. Fire “completely gutted” the garage, and the house suffered water and smoke damage, according to Mrs. Vaill. This is the third fire in two years on the Vaill property.

The dial tone, busy tone and ringing signal were recently changed for the Canaan exchange according to an announcement made this week by Richard Shanley, district manager for the Southern New England Telephone Company.

25 years ago — July 1998

As of last Thursday, after much anticipation, the Salisbury town kettle is officially back in action. Residents will be filling up their plastic containers over this granite construction for years to come. The new kettle is the outgrowth of more than 500 hours of work by Doug Richardson, a local mason.

Gov. John Rowland told Senate Minority Leader M. Adela Eads of Kent this week he’d vote for her in November — if only things hadn’t changed over the years. “You are my summer senator after all,” Mr. Rowland said at Mrs. Eads’ Tuesday press conference on her plans to seek a 10th Senate term this fall. The governor was referring to his Bantam Lake summer cottage here in the 30th District. “Of course we used to be able to vote twice or more when I was growing up in Waterbury,” Rowland added, in reference to the city’s onetime notorious election practices.

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