Thursday, May 30 – Memorial DayThis Week in History
1935 Archive
January 1 - July 24
January
Tuesday, January 1, 1935
The turn of the New Year is starlit and clear, but by 2 AM it starts snowing, turning it to heavy rain in some places.
ANSONIA – “Ansonia welcomed the new year in much the same way as other communities, large and small, in this great nation. At midnight, there was the usual bedlam of noises, fireworks, the tingle of bells and the tooting of automobile horns mingling with the joyous shouts of young and old at public and private gatherings, as they welcomed 1935”.
ANSONIA – The Capitol Theater holds its annual midnight show.
DERBY – “The New Year was ushered in Derby last night and the old year was ushered out with a number of street and dance hall fights that kept police busy. Drunken celebrants of the advent of the New Year were noisy and quarrelsome to say the least and at an early hour this morning practically every cell in the local lockup was occupied by someone 'sleeping it off''. So as not to start the year by giving the celebrants a police court record, the authorities dismissed the boarders this morning with a severe lecture. There is no doubt it was a noisy, quarrelsome, and wet celebration”.
OXFORD – The precipitation stays as snow, accumulating to 4”.
January 2
DERBY – The famous Spanish dancer ‘La Argentina’ thrills audiences at a packed Gentleman’s Night at the Sterling Opera House, sponsored by the Derby Women's Club.
Thursday, January 3
SEYMOUR - The owner of Tingue Mills is arrested by immigration agents, who want to deport him back to Germany for overstaying his visa. He states he is confident he will avoid deportation.
January 4
DERBY – After the appearance of La Argentina at Sterling Opera House yesterday, community pride in the building is on the upswing. Many compliment the fact that almost every seat is a good one, it has great acoustics, and a deep and wide stage. Some hope to make improving the building a FERA project.
January 7
DERBY – George Sullivan is sworn in as the City's new mayor. He immediately summons the new Board of Aldermen into a meeting, and recommends a 100,000 bond issue for public improvements to avert a 3 to 4 mill tax increase, in order to attract more FERA activity.
OXFORD – “The old time days of activity in the ice harvesting in this section is almost a thing of the past, there being only a few who still harvest a supply for the summer. Those who still depend on the cold weather for providing an ice crop are reported as cutting 10 and 12 inch ice of most excellent quality”.
SHELTON – Democrat Frank Crofut is sworn back in as mayor by his predecessor, Republican Mayor Daniel Shelton. Two years ago, Shelton defeated Crofut, and Crofut swore him in. The harmony between the two parties does not last long, however. That evening, when the new Board of Aldermen hold’s their first meeting, Democrat Robert Beardsley is elected Aldermanic President on a strict party line vote of 4-3. Some Republicans objected to Mayor Crofut casting the deciding vote.
SHELTON – “The most popular place in Huntington at the present time is the skating pond on 'Millcroft', the property of Mr. & Mrs. John B. Russ of Huntington Street, where night after night parties of young people can be both seen and heard enjoying skating on the ice followed by hot coffee and other refreshments in the spacious log cabin sitting on the edge of the pond. Parties have included members from the various churches in Shelton, and local organizations as well as private individuals”.
SHELTON – About 70 to 100 dozen shirts, worth $1000, are stolen from the United Shirt and Blouse Company on Center Street.
January 8
The State Department of Health estimates as of July 1, 1935, Derby's population will be 10,888, Shelton's 10,438, and Ansonia's 21,153. The estimates are based on births and deaths in those cities since the 1930 census. However, local people don't believe much of it, saying the opening and closing of factories has much more of an effect on the local population then births and deaths.
ANSONIA - Nelson Pickering, President of Farrel-Birmingham, calls the New Deal ‘a tragic failure’ before the Ansonia Chamber of Commerce.
ANSONIA – Yet another fire breaks out in the vacant Powe Street tenement building, but it is confined to a closet.
January 9
ANSONIA – Thieves break into the Connecticut Fruit and Grocery Company on Water Street, where they steal 3 to 4 tons of sugar, loading it onto one of the company’s trucks, which they also steal.
DERBY – $1,000 worth of jewelry is stolen from the Henry Haugh Jr. home on New Haven Avenue.
Friday, January 11
ANSONIA - Dr. William H. Conklin dies of an illness at his home on North Main Street after an illness. The son of Irish immigrants, he was born Fairfield, and earned his medical degree in 1882. He opened an office in Ansonia a year later, where he practiced until his death. One of his sons died in service with the US Navy during World War I.
SHELTON – The City’s 1934 vital statistics are: Births – 143; Marriages 94; Deaths (not including Laurel Heights Sanatorium) – 105; and Deaths at Laurel Heights – 81. Compared to 1933, there was the same number of births, 3 more marriages, and 3 more deaths (1 more at Laurel Heights).
January 12
DERBY - Yale University announces it is canceling the Yale Regatta on the Housatonic, also known as Derby Day, this year, due to scheduling conflicts.
January 13
The year’s first snowstorm dumps 3” of snow overnight.
DERBY – A two alarm fire breaks out in the Christensen Building on the corner of Hawkins Street and Seymour Avenue. The entire fire department, as well as Ansonia’s Charters Hose responds on 2nd alarm. The firemen battle the blasé for over 3 hours in a snowstorm, and ice forms everywhere. The entire building including 3 apartments and Christensen's grocery and meat store, is gutted. Neighbors take in the homeless. First Assistant Chief Roger Bradley is injured by glass in his arm, and two other firemen have cold-related injuries. It is believed this worst fire in the City in two years was started by hot ashes in a coal bin in the cellar.
January 16
ANSONIA – A fire is discovered in the basement furnace room of the First Congregational Church on South Cliff Street at 11:20 AM, and spreads to two Sunday School rooms upstairs. Although the sanctuary isn’t affected by the fire itself, the entire church is charged with smoke, even pouring out of the steeple, leading many spectators to think the entire edifice is on fire. Choir vestments and hymnals are destroyed in the Sunday School rooms. The church’s Annual Meeting, scheduled for tonight, is moved from the sanctuary to the parsonage. The cause is later blamed on spontaneous combustion in a soft coal bin.
Thursday, January 17
A snowstorm begins at 6 AM. By 11 AM 3” to 4” has fallen, before the snow turns to sleet then rain.
ANSONIA - Three young men are arrested, and five juveniles await hearings, in connection with the recent arson fires at the vacant tenement on Powe Street. The State Police did the investigation.
OXFORD – “A group of men whose names at present are withheld, but with ample financial backing, are making inquiries relative to a large amount of property located on the so called 'Otter Rock Trails' section. At the time of the development of this property a number of years ago, many people bought lots and some built summer homes. The project did not develop as expected, the years of depression came, and in consequence many of the holdings are in a way to be on the real estate market under tax sale. A redevelopment of this property would undoubtedly enhance its value and add much to its desirability as sites for summer homes”.
January 18
ANSONIA – A fourth young man is arrested in connection with the Powe Street arsons.
January 20
ANSONIA - Over 500 Russians gather at a rally at the Ansonia Opera House. They urge the United States to sever all relations with the Soviet Union, and to ‘wipe out’ any attempt by Soviet agents to cause trouble in America. They also pass resolutions protesting mass executions in the USSR. Two New York City men, believed to be communist agitators, are thrown out of the meeting.
DERBY - Two boys are injured in sledding accidents. The first occurs at Hawkins Street and Eleventh Street, when a sled slides under a car which fortunately stops in time. The boy has 3 broken ribs. The second accident involves a 10 year old, who suffers 2 broken arms when his sled strikes a gatepost on Cullen's Hill on Hawthorne Avenue. A third accident has no injuries, but results in a close call when a child rolls of his sled moments before it slides under a moving car.
January 22
ANSONIA - The Michael J. Comcowich Post, VFW draws up a resolution urging the United States to keep out of the World Court.
DERBY – In light of the recent accidents, the police order all sledding on City streets to immediately stop.
DERBY - An unpopular petition to establish a 4-pump gas station at 263 Elizabeth Street is denied after a public hearing.
January 23
A snowstorm starts after dark, bringing 24 mph winds and heavy snow.
Thursday, January 24
The morning after the snowstorm reveals snow up to 1' on level ground, with drifts 2-3’ deep in the Valley, and 7’ or more in the hills. Schools are cancelled. Trolleys are off schedule until noon. Hundreds of FERA workers assist the City workers with snow removal in the Valley downtowns.
ANSONIA – Two fires break out today. The first is a chimney fire at 4:40 PM on Cheever Street Extension. The second one breaks out at 7 PM in a closet and extends into the attic on North Fourth Street. A 15 year old boy is burned, though not serious. While neither fire is particularly serious, the firemen are very hampered by the zero degree temperatures.
OXFORD – “The worst snowstorm of the season swept over the countryside yesterday. Starting in the early afternoon the storm increased in intensity until it developed into blizzard proportions. The high winds piled up the snow in drifts which almost tied up traffic, except on the state roads, over which the state plows were kept busy all night. The main roads were in fairly good condition this morning, but most side roads were blocked, requiring a deal of shoveling before autos could get out. Several of the local dairymen who retail milk in Seymour were forced to make use of ‘Ol’ Dobbin’ to get their milk to market”.
SEYMOUR – Two local women are slightly hurt when a trolley jumps the tracks at the Elford switch, on South Main Street.
January 25
Temperatures as low as 14 below are recorded today.
ANSONIA – The City’s 1934 vital statistics (compared to 1933) are: 92 (103) births, 143 (100) marriages, and 119 (128) deaths.
January 26
With the prolonged winter weather, ice skating and sleighing are becoming popular again. Ice skates are selling briskly, and farmers who still have horse drawn sleighs and teams are renting them out almost continuously. The old sleighs can hold 18 to 25 people. Some skiing is also observed, though this is mostly from people who originated from northern climes and hasn’t really caught on locally yet. Sledding on public streets, while remaining popular, has grown extremely dangerous and will not be tolerated by the police.
OXFORD – “And now are heard those who are peeved at not receiving the mail on Thursday, an yet it is noticeable that those who are crabbing the most have not yet cleared the snow from about their mailboxes making it necessary for the carrier to leave his car to get t o the box the best way he can. Mr. Houlahan, carrier on route one, is well deserving of all the assistance it is possible to give him. It is certain that if it is possible to get the mail through, "Smiling Bill" will make the trip”.
SHELTON – The police starts supervised sledding on Monroe Street, Division Avenue, and Hillside Avenue.
January 27
DERBY – The police restart supervised sledding on North Avenue.
January 28
The extreme cold continues, including -24 in Oxford and -25 on the Seymour-Naugatuck border. There are reports of inkwells frozen in Derby schools, and even a goldfish frozen in a solid block of ice in Seymour High School.
ANSONIA – The City has spent $2,999.70 removing ice and snow this winter. $1690.70 of that is FERA payroll.
January 29
ANSONIA – The City’s Grand List is down $400,493 from last year. The list includes 2,442 dwelling houses, 1,406 barns and garages, 2,891 building lots, 431 commercial buildings, 25 mills (factories), 2,674 automobiles, 24 horses, and 131 cattle.
OXFORD – The Town’s Grand List is up about $20,000 from last year. The list includes 452 dwelling houses, 1,127 outbuildings, 718 building lots, 22 commercial buildings, 2 mills (factories), 430 automobiles, 159 horses, and 375 cattle.
January 30
Today is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday, and “birthday balls” are held across the country to raise money for needy persons.
ANSONIA – 300 couples participate in the Grand March at the Roosevelt Birthday Ball at Ansonia Armory.
DERBY – Lieutenant Anthony Urbano dies at Park Avenue home after a long illness. Appointed a supernumerary in February of 1906, he was appointed a regular patrolman in the Derby Police Department in December. He was promoted to the department’s lieutenant, which back then was second in command, in April 1914. Born in Puglianello, Italy in 1881, he came to America as child, and was the first, and for many years only, Italian policeman in the area. He won statewide distinction for solving major crimes, and often was “loaned” to other police departments to act as a translator or assist in other ways. One of his signature tactics was to disguise himself as a drunk and be placed in a middle holding cell in the Derby Police Department, and then converse with, or overhear conversations from Italian crime suspects. He solved several major crimes this way.
DERBY – Nearly 300 attend the Roosevelt Birthday Ball at St. Mary's Hall.
SEYMOUR – 200 attend the Roosevelt Birthday Ball at Concordia Hall.
Thursday, January 31
OXFORD – A 26 year old West Haven man dies after being accidentally shot while clearing a felled tree on Hell Lane in Great Hill.
SEYMOUR – A 17 year old Third Street boy suffers a concussion when he falls of a double-ripper on West Church Street hill, then is struck by another double-ripper following behind.
SHELTON – The City’s Grand List decreases $100,051 this year. The list includes 1762 houses, 1116 barns and garages, 3399 lots, 153 commercial buildings, 24 mills, 1 quarry, 1814 automobiles, 226 horses, and 1011 cattle.
February
Friday, February 1
DERBY – The police allow nightly supervised sledding nightly on Seventh Street. They have also spread ash on Academy Hill Road and Mt. Pleasant Street to try to discourage illegal sledding there, but it still persists. The police warn will begin confiscate sleds of children caught sledding there.
February 2
ANSONIA – At a special meeting, the Board of Aldermen accept a gift of land on Cook Pond at Jewett Street from the H.C. Cook Company, and approve plans to build a swimming pool and recreation center there, using FERA labor.
ANSONIA – The North Italian Club opens its new clubhouse on Cheever Street Extension.
February 3
DERBY – The police arrests a 28 year old man for breaking and entering. He is taken to New Haven County Jail. He is subsequently charged in a number of recent crimes, but what is disturbing is he seemed to always use young boys for accomplices, some of whom are coming forward. The Evening Sentinel likens him to a ‘Fagin School of Crime’.
February 4
ANSONIA – A truck accidentally knocks over the police traffic booth at Main Street and Maple Street.
DERBY - Officer Frank J. Manion becomes the Police Department’s new lieutenant, replacing the late Lt. Anthony Urbano (Lt. Manion would go on to become the Chief of Police).
February 5
ANSONIA – The City’s relief case load jumped from 711 to 763 last month.
SHELTON – An 18 year old young man from Kneen Street dies at Griffin Hospital after midnight, after a sledding accident the previous evening. A car going up Kneen Street stopped when the driver saw a number of sleds heading for him on the street. The victim’s sled smashed into the stopped car. The police had been chasing coasters off Kneen Street all winter.
SHELTON – Four young men, 3 from Shelton, 1 from Ansonia, are rounded up by local and State police in connection with the January 7 burglary at the United Shirt and Blouse Company on Center Street.
February 6
OXFORD - A 20lb heron, its feet frozen to the ice, is found in Housatonic River. It is freed and returns to the wild.
Thursday, February 7
DERBY - Famous chef George Rector gives a demonstration at the Derby Gas & Electric Company auditorium. The hall is packed to capacity with 350 women, and another 150 had to be turned away.
SHELTON – Huntington – “Farmers in the vicinity are busy getting in their ice for filling ice houses ready for the summer. On most ponds the ice is anywhere from 12 to 15 inches thick, making it nice to handle. If this clear cold weather lasts a few more days, it will all be in and the farmer will not worry about a February thaw”.
February 8
DERBY – The District Nurse Association holds its annual meeting. The nursing staff made a total of 10,257 visits in 1934. This includes 1,571 medical and 1,201 surgical visits, 2,219 visits to chronic patients, 421 Tuberculosis visits, cared for 124 pregnant mothers, and made 55 deliveries.
SEYMOUR – The Seymour Ice Company has started ice harvesting on Pulford's Pond off South Main Street, where the ice is 15 to 16” thick. 40 men are employed, and 25% of the 3,500 tons expected are already harvested.
February 9
ANSONIA – 16 FERA workers complete a storm water sewer project on Hubbell Avenue in Ansonia. They will now join 18 other FERA workers doing a similar project on Dwight Street.
February 11
ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen approves $119,100 in municipal bonds. This includes $22,000 for FERA supplies, $12,300 for a new Websters Hose, Hook & Ladder Co. No. 3 firehouse, $6,000 to connect Powe Street to Central Street, $3,800 for a new Colony Street park, and $75,000 to be kept for relief in the event of another economic emergency.
Thursday, February 14
OXFORD – “The ponds throughout town are covered with 12 to 16 inches of ice of most excellent quality but with few harvesting the same where in former years nearly every farmer had his own icehouse and many men were enabled to get a few days work at ice cutting. To the knowledge of the writer only two local farmers have harvested ice this season”.
February 15
DERBY – Leverett LeGrand Hinman dies at his Derby Avenue home. Born in 1856, he moved to Derby in 1876, and was a deacon at the First Congregational Church for 54 years.
February 16
SEYMOUR – A 68 year old Meadow Street man is hit by a car driven by a 17 year old on New Haven Avenue. He never wakes from his coma and dies at Griffin Hospital four days later.
February 18
ANSONIA – The Board of Apportionment approves a budget calling for a 26.5 mill rate.
DERBY – The St. Mary's Catholic Men's Club is formally organized at St. Mary's Hall, with nearly 400 charter members.
DERBY – The Derby Gas & Electric Company is offering to donate 18 acres of land known as The Ravine, which is adjacent to the new Coon Hollow Park, to the City free of charge.
February 19
DERBY – The local Post Office warns that stray dogs that tear up the lawn in front of the post office building will be shot.
February 20
SEYMOUR – “An epidemic of mumps prevailed in the Great Hill School last week, causing a very small attendance. Conditions are somewhat better this week”.
Thursday, February 21
ANSONIA – The Police Department makes two liquor raids, on Liberty Street and Broad Street. One woman is arrested at each location for keeping and selling liquor.
DERBY – Dr. Stephen Donovan, a prominent local physician and surgeon, dies at his Elizabeth Street home. Born in 1879 in Shelton, he moved to Derby and started his practice there in 1903. He was known for tending to the poor in the Great Depression, and was a charter member of the Derby Elks Lodge.
February 22
ANSONIA – Verbal approval is received from FERA for the proposed extension of the Pleasant Street storm water sewer across North State Street, to drain Biddy Lamb's Pond. Work will start in four days.
DERBY – The J.C. Penney's store on Elizabeth Street is undergoing renovations to create more display space. The work began yesterday and will finish tomorrow, with the store remaining open. The displays will be rearranged, and some departments moved.
February 23
About 2-3" of snow which began falling last night turns to freezing rain this morning, coating everything with ice.
February 25
ANSONIA – Harrison Tolles dies at his William Street home, which he built 1886. Born in 1845 in Beacon Falls, he conducted a soda bottling establishment in Ansonia 1873 to about 1918.
February 26
An unexpected evening snowstorm drops between 5 to 6 inches of snow. It is only the second major snowstorm of the winter so far.
OXFORD – A house owned by James Gurinsky, called "Twin Oaks" on the lower Oxford road (Route 67), about a half mile from Seymour line, is totally destroyed by fire. The Seymour Fire Department responds, but by the time they arrive the fire has too much headway. A nearby tavern is saved.
March
Friday, March 1
DERBY – The Board of Aldermen approve spending $55,000 of a $100,000 bond measure to purchase and develop Coon Hollow Park. They also vote to accept the adjoining 18½ acre parcel known as The Ravine donated by the Derby Gas & Electric Company. Lastly, the Board approves the improvement of Talmadge Street and Grove Street, using FERA labor.
SHELTON – The Far Mill River Grange will build a new grange hall on Huntington Street, almost across the street from the firehouse, as soon as the ground thaws. Grange members will do much of work. The building will be a 1-story wood clapboard structure measuring 60’ x 32’. It will have double entrance doors on each end, with a small porch over each. This is today’s Century 21 building.
March 2
SHELTON – Local historian Charles Z. Morse endorses a recent suggestion in a letter to the Evening Sentinel, to name the new state road in White Hills “Leavenworth Highway”. This is today’s Leavenworth Road.
March 5
DERBY – A handsome oil reproduction of the front piece of The Saltbox House, which was written by late Derby resident Jane DeForest Shelton in 1900, is presented to Tax Collector Frank J. Buckley. It was painted by local artist Patrick J. Sweeney, and is hung in Mr. Buckley’s City Hall office.
March 6
ANSONIA - The Hub, a store which sells items ranging from 5 cents to $1, moves from 126 Main Street to 152 Main Street, into larger and more adequate quarters.
Thursday, March 7
ANSONIA – The State Senate adopts house bill authorizing Ansonia to issue $250,000 in bonds to erect a new Ansonia High School.
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Police Department launches 4 raids. One breaks up an illegal gambling operation at Liberty Street. The other three are liquor raids, on lower Main Street, Colburn Street, and Canal Street. Four are arrested, one at each location.
DERBY – The Derby Business Men's Association holds a meeting at the Second Congregational Church, where it goes on record as opposing a sales tax.
March 8
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Police Department conducts five more liquor raids, on Liberty Street, Star Street, High Street, Clifton Avenue, and lower Main Street. As with yesterday’s raids, one person is arrested at each location for illegal distribution of alcohol.
DERBY – A FERA survey of people on relief shows that out of 79 US cities surveyed, Derby had the lowest wages. 296 families receiving assistance participated in the survey. Some of the more interesting percentages include the fact that 84% of the families were unemployed. 38% of the households are headed by women. 59% are earning or receiving less than $9 per week ($139.22 in 2009 dollars).
SHELTON – St. Joseph’s Church parishioners have donated old gold to create a reliquary which stands 23" high, and 9” diameter at its base. It is shaped as an and arm and hand holding a cross, the center of which contains a relic of St. Francis Xavier.
March 10
ANSONIA - A kite with a tinsel string makes contact between two power lines on Church Street, causing a blinding flash and a loud boom. Fortunately, the boy on the other end was holding a cotton string that was tied to the tinsel string, and was not injured, but received the fright of his life. Both lines that made contact with the tinsel are shorted out.
SHELTON – An article which appears two days later in the Evening Sentinel relates an incident in Huntington which occurs today: “The pieces of apparatus owned by the Huntington Fire Company can no longer be called ‘antiquated’ in speed after the response to the alarm sent out by the courtesy of the Huntington Telephone Company, on Sunday afternoon. A call for help was sent in by Mrs. William O'Connell from her home on Farmill Street. Immediately the telephone operator rang her ten rings on each line and all who had phones and were at home were told at once where the fire was. The two trucks and firemen were very quickly at the scene of the fire. It appears that the partition near a concrete brick fireplace had become ignited and started to burn along the floor. The fire was soon put out with very little damage”.
March 12
ANSONIA – Two more liquor raids are launched by the Ansonia Police Department. The first on Star Street nets a 75 gallon still, 45 gallons of moonshine, and other alcohol-making products. A second raid on Broad Street nets a smaller. One person is arrested at each location for illegal production of alcohol.
ANSONIA, DERBY & SEYMOUR – The Connecticut General Assembly’s House passes bills adding streets to State trunk road system. They are – Seymour’s South Main Street; Main Street in Ansonia, all the way to Derby Avenue; and Derby Avenue to New Haven Avenue (which is already a State road) in Derby.
SHELTON – The body of a well-known 62 year old Roberts Street man is found in the canal near the Naugatuck Valley Crucible Company.
March 13
ANSONIA – Between 300 and 400 people jam City Hall for a hearing on proposed charter amendments. Most are against the amendments, which include a new Assistant Tax Collector which will also serve as a clerk for the Assessors Office; to reduce the number of Assessors from 4 to 3; to provide a four-year term for the Tax Collector; and to abolish the Sanitary Inspector. The Ansonia Tax League leads the protests.
SEYMOUR – One of longest trailers in the state, 30' long, arrives in Town to move a house at the corner of Derby Avenue and Broad Street, at foot of Fall's Hill, half a mile south to a new location on Derby Avenue, below Union Cemetery. The State purchased the property the house sits on for a new road to be built over the Naugatuck River at Bank Street.
Thursday, March 14
ANSONIA – Charles Stillson dies in his North Cliff Street home at the age of 92. Born in 1843 in Newtown, he came to Ansonia about 60 yrs ago. A building contractor, he built many structures in Ansonia including the Fourth Street School.
ANSONIA – The Jewish Community Center’s First Annual Ball is held at the Ansonia Armory, attracting about 700 people from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Tennessee, and Georgia.
DERBY – The Board of Apportionment approves the purchase of a triangular piece of land on Hawthorne Avenue near Derby Neck Library for $1,500. The tract will serve as the main entrance to the new Coon Hollow Park, and possibly be used for part of proposed new athletic field.
DERBY – A 12:30 AM head-on crash at New Haven Avenue and Platt Street injures 7. The worst injured in Herman Shincel of New Haven, the proprietor of Shincel Bowling Alleys in the Mott Building on Main Street.
March 15
ANSONIA – About 100 Ansonia residents attend the General Assembly hearings on proposed City Charter amendments in Hartford. The group is split for and against the amendments. One State Representatives says if the amendments are approved, Ansonia will turn into a "Little Dictatorship".
ANSONIA – The police conduct liquor raids at two locations, on Main Street and on Central Street. In both raids illegal stills are discovered and one is arrested.
March 16
DERBY – Mayor Sullivan holds a mass meeting at Sterling Opera House, where he discusses the work which will be done at Coon Hollow Park. 300 FERA men are eligible to work on the project, and 35 start in two days.
March 17
DERBY – A bronze tablet in memory of Rev. George Buck dedicated at St. James Church. Rev. Buck (1852-1933) served as minister there for 41 years, from 1887 to 1928.
March 19
ANSONIA - A vacant 3-story tenement block at 111 North Main Street burns in a spectacular early morning fire.
SEYMOUR – Great Hill – “The dirt roads are still precarious especially the one down Rockhouse Hill, a resident testifying that no less then 6 cars became mired there in one day”.
SEYMOUR – Great Hill – “The tent caterpillar is with us again in large numbers and a crusade for extermination is now in order. The egg masses, dark brown in color, may be found in quantities on wild cherry and apple trees, usually near the tips of limbs or branches. Some of the night school pupils are gathering them, one girl bringing 500. Some 20 years ago the pupils of Great Hill School collected many thousands of these masses in an effort to rid the community of this pest”.
March 20
ANSONIA – Rev. Eugene Kryzanovsky, pastor of Three Saints Russian Orthodox Church, dies at 1:10 PM on his 48th birthday, following a heart attack at his 152 Clifton Avenue rectory. Born in Kiev, Russia (now modern day Ukraine), he was a very cultured and educated man, and was good friends with Igor Sikorsky who often visited him at the rectory. He also promoted Russian language courses for Russian children in the Valley. He served as the pastor of Three Saints from 1916 to 1920, then from 1928 until his death.
DERBY – A 19 year old Factory Street man is fatally injured when he is struck by a motorcycle on Main Street at Caroline Street at 1:45 PM. Police officers flag down an automobile driven by Derby High School teacher and coach Leo Ryan, who rushes him to Griffin Hospital, where he dies upon arrival. The motorcycle’s operator, a 27 year old Mt. Pleasant Street man, is arrested. The deceased young man’s family has a tragic recent history, as his father, a local grocer, recently died, and his sister was killed in an explosion at the dump at the end of Caroline Street in 1933.
Thursday, March 21
Sen. William Warren Barbour (R-NJ) introduces a bill for calling for the incorporation of the Purple Heart Association. The veterans’ organization which began in the Valley several years ago is now based in Newark, New Jersey, and has chapters in 20 states.
ANSONIA – A large three-day sale, called New England Days, is being held by 34 Ansonia businesses, begins today. Arrangements are made for free trolley rides to Ansonia from rest of Valley all morning. Unfortunately, a heavy rainstorm negatively affects the number of shoppers, but better weather the next two days increases attendance.
March 22
ANSONIA – The body of Rev. Eugene Kryzanovsky lies in state at Three Saints Russian Orthodox Church today. Many saddened parishioners pay their late pastor final respects, and they, as well as admirers and friends such as Igor Sikorsky pack the church for the funeral.
ANSONIA – A brush fire burns a large area off Rockwood Avenue.
March 23
ANSONIA – With the Hill Street improvements completed, FERA workers will now be shifted to the Athletic Field improvements. A new FERA project will soon begin, laying a storm water drain on May Street. A similar project on Mary Street will be completed today.
March 24
ANSONIA – 20 hens and 3 roosters are stolen around midnight from the Town Farm. The hens provided about 15 eggs a day for Town Farm residents.
SEYMOUR – A Derby Avenue garage containing a car is completely destroyed by fire.
March 25
ANSONIA – A Grove Street Ansonia woman accidentally drowns when she faints into a washtub. The Derby Gas & Electric Company’s inhalator was rushed to her home, but could not revive her.
OXFORD – “For so early in the season the roads about town are becoming fairly well settled, frost is mostly out of the ground and while the roads are some rough, the mud is well dried out”.
Thursday, March 28
ANSONIA – East Side firemen are upset that there have been 20 box alarms in the past 10 days at Hill Street and Root Avenue. All but 1 of them were minor grass fires.
DERBY – The Board of Aldermen vote to purchase a garage on lower Hawkins Street for city trucks and the street department. Buddies Field will be rented through December 1 for sports fields while Coon Hollow Park is developed.
OXFORD – “Some small amount of plowing is being done about the town, but as yet the fields are too wet and heavy for satisfactory working”.
SEYMOUR – Great Hill – “A dandelion in bloom was observed here this week proving conclusively that spring has really arrived”.
March 30
SHELTON – Huntington – “Saturday was a red letter day for the Far Mill River Grange. It was a beautiful day and about fourteen of the brothers made great headway with the grange cellar. They had a tractor, a scraper and trucks, and with these and some shovels, dug out the dirt, carted it away to level other places. With such help the cellar should be completed very shortly. Not to be forgotten was the grange ladies. They made a hot lunch and served it to the men in the old grange hall”. The new grange hall is now the Century 21 building.
April
Monday, April 1
ANSONIA – A free public lecture is given at Ansonia City Hall by Herman Simon of the Socialist Labor Party of America called “Is this the Final Crisis of Capitalism?” He declares only solution to America's problems is “the industrial union organization of workers for the overthrow of capitalism”.
SEYMOUR – It is estimated that the Seymour High School Biology Club's “War on tent caterpillars” has destroyed 4 million of the pest’s eggs so far. Cash prizes will be awarded to those who destroy the most by April 18.
April 3
ANSONIA – Since the start of the year, 18% of Ansonia FERA workers have quit for industrial jobs. Relief Cases were up by 52 in January, down 7 in February, and down 25 in March, for total of 731 by March 31.
ANSONIA – The State House of Representatives kills a bill to establish a dual court system in the City.
Thursday, April 4
ANSONIA – A fire breaks out in section of a barn behind 18 Elm Street. The blaze is kept from spreading to the rest of barn by the neighborhood bucket brigade until the fire department arrives.
SHELTON – While battling a brush fire off Naugatuck Avenue, firefighters find a 77 year old woman severely burned near her home. She is rushed to Griffin Hospital in very critical condition in a fire engine. It is believed she was trying to put out the, and became trapped by the wind-fed field flames. She dies in the hospital the following day.
April 5
ANSONIA – Two bandits, one wielding an automatic weapon, hold up the Sidney Goumas grocery store at the corner North Main Street and Fourth Street at 11:15 PM, stealing $200 in cash and checks.
SEYMOUR – About 9 million tent caterpillar eggs have so far been destroyed in the Seymour High School Biology Club's war on tent caterpillars.
April 6
SEYMOUR – The State recommends closing a number of rural schools, including two in Seymour. Bungay schoolhouse is 27’x18¾’x9½’, is over 50 years old, and can hold 25 students though its enrollment is now only 20. Students have no playground except for nearby Bungay Road. Great Hill schoolhouse was built as a 24’x33½’ one-room schoolhouse in 1893, with the addition of a second, 23½’x24’ room in 1914. 34 children attend the school. The playground is only ¼ of an acre, rocky, and has no equipment.
April 8
ANSONIA - The Sing Lee Laundry, and Evans Print Shop, are gutted in an early morning 2-alarm fire in a one-story brick building 7 Maple Street. The fire started in the laundry, which is a total loss. The flames singe the rear of an adjacent 3-story High Street tenement.
OXFORD – "The heaviest traffic of the season passed over Oxford Road yesterday. The many new cars appearing this spring would indicate that the Depression is over, but perhaps the big question mark better be used".
SEYMOUR – Six are injured when a new sedan crashes into a tree at noon opposite Wislocki's gas station on Derby Avenue. All of the victims are from upstate Connecticut, and were returning after attending a funeral in Bridgeport. The most seriously injured, a 46 year old woman, is transported in the Griffin Hospital ambulance, while the other five are taken in other vehicles flagged down at the scene. The woman later dies at Griffin.
April 9
DERBY – Mayor Sullivan asks all residents to display flags for today’s 70th anniversary of Appomattox.
SEYMOUR – Over 50 people from the Great Hill and Bungay areas attend a Board of Education meeting regarding the State’s recommendation of closing the schoolhouses in those neighborhoods. All are in favor of retaining the schools.
April 10
ANSONIA – After heated debate, the State House of Representatives votes 128-81 to insert a referendum clause to the proposed changes in the Ansonia City Charter.
DERBY – Senate Bill 205, a bill mandating the teaching of American history and government in Connecticut high schools, sponsored by the American Legion posts of Connecticut, and introduced by Sen. Henry M. Bradley Jr. of Derby, is passed unanimously by the State Senate.
Friday, April 12
SHELTON – The Huntington Fire Company will canvass the district to raise funds to replace its obsolete fire engines.
April 13
ANSONIA – Once again, the Ansonia High School Commercial Department sweeps the state competition in Stamford. Miss Eleanor Rae wins the state championship for Typewriting I, while Miss Olga Kazemersky wins the state championship for Typewriting II. Many other Ansonia students win prizes for typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping.
DERBY – Coon Hollow Athletic Field has been approved as a FERA project. At least 118 local men will get work there.
April 15
ANSONIA – Reports that the vacant, boarded up Colburn Street School is being vandalized and used as a haunt for children and gambling leads the Board of Education to vote that they will confer with city officials about transferring the former school to another city department. The Board still wants the yard, however, which is being used as a playground for Grove Street School students.
ANSONIA – The Socialist Labor Party gives another talk at City Hall. The speaker states “there is another war in the making”. He continues the only way it can be averted “is for the workers of America to organize into revolutionary industrial unions with the purpose of taking control of the industries of the nation in the name of the working class”.
DERBY – The Southern New England Ice Company must reorganize, partly due to the suicide of a Boston investment banker eight days ago, who had connection with firms holding large blocks of its stock.
April 16
DERBY & SHELTON – The cities are discussing a joint sewage treatment plant on Island Park.
Thursday, April 18
ANSONIA – A large barn and greenhouse on New Haven Avenue is completely destroyed by a spectacular fire which could be seen for miles.
DERBY – A 25 year old Yale Law Student, flying an airplane on one of his first solo flights, flies low to observe the Yale Rowing Team. He ends up crashing the airplane into the high tension electrical wires over the Housatonic River, just below the Bob Cook boathouse. The plane nosedives into the river. The Yale head coach, Ed Leader, rescues him with the "Boola" motorboat. The pilot is uninjured, other then exposure to the water. The wires bring power from the Devon power plant to interior Connecticut, and one of then snaps in half and falls into the water. While the lights to flicker in Derby, further north there are power failures starting in Seymour, and radiating as far as Hartford and Torrington. According to the Evening Sentinel, this is the first airplane crash in Derby’s history.
April 19
DERBY – The wrecked airplane is pulled out of the river by a wrecker from a nearby garage, and is damaged further during the salvage attempt. Despite several Yale students guarding it, local children descend of the plane, stripped almost anything movable off it, even pieces of the wings. When the young pilot realizes the airframe is damaged beyond salvage, he removes the engine, then leaves the rest of the plane to be picked clean by souvenir hunters.
SEYMOUR – Seymour’s five Protestant churches hold a Union Service at Trinity Church on this Good Friday.
April 21 - Easter Sunday
Easter brings bright skies and warm sunshine.
April 22
SHELTON – A FERA project is replacing the pipe which provides Huntington School with drinking water, from a spring a half mile away on Ripton Road. The old pipe was corroded so bad the school had to use bottled water.
April 23
DERBY – A well-known Seymour Avenue building contractor named Edward Spahr Sr., and his Oxford employee are critically injured when the scaffolding on a house they're working on at Fairview Terrace collapses, plunging them 35' to ground. Mr. Spahr dies at Griffin Hospital the following morning. Born in 1875, he came to Derby as boy, and went into contracting about 35 years ago, building many homes in Derby.
April 24
ANSONIA – Between April 2, 1934, and March 20, 1935, Ansonia received $141,998 in federal funds, mostly for FERA projects
DERBY - A pan of grease inside a Silver Hill Road home ignites while a woman is outside milking her cow, very close to the Ansonia line. Both Derby and Ansonia fire departments respond, but with no water pressure all the firemen can do is prevent the flames from spreading to outbuildings while the house burns to the ground.
SEYMOUR – The Seymour High School closes its War on Tent Caterpillars. 35 million eggs are reportedly destroyed. Prizes are awarded to those who destroyed the most.
SHELTON – About 1:30 AM, a truck is stoned by a car driving on River Road. The car’s occupants also threaten the truck driver. The truck's passenger is injured, and its windshield is shattered. The violence is due to a trucking strike – there was a reported altercation in Seymour earlier this week.
Thursday, April 25
ANSONIA – 200 attend the golden jubilee of the Valley Council, Knights of Columbus, at the Hollywood Inn.
ANSONIA – Another fire partially destroys what is left of the former Volanth barn off Elm Street. It was used as a paint shop at one time.
SEYMOUR – Rev. Martin O'Brien of St. Augustine's church is transferred to South Norwalk. He'll be replaced by Rev. James McCormick, an Ansonia native, who is being transferred from Tariffville.
SEYMOUR – The State kicks off its tercentenary celebrations. In Seymour, factories sound their whistles and gongs for a few minutes a noon, and flags fly everywhere.
April 26
ANSONIA – A plumbing shop behind 82 Broad Street catches fire. Two Fountain Hose firemen are burned, and Fire Chief Theodore M. Terry suffers a twisted ankle when he trips over a hose.
April 27
DERBY – Derby resident Bertrand DeForest elected State Sons of Union Veterans commander.
OXFORD – A Naugatuck man is killed near Red Oak schoolhouse while driving a wagon loaded with manure. He fell off after the wagon hit a bump, hitting his head against a rock. While he lay stunned on the ground, the wagon rolled backward, breaking his neck.
April 28
ANSONIA – Almost 600 attend the 25th anniversary banquet of the Polish Falcons, Nest 212.
DERBY – Henry F. Wanning dies in his Shelton home at age 89. At the time of his death, he was a Director and member of the Executive Committee of Farrel-Birmingham. Born in Webster, Massachusetts in 1846, he moved to New York City at an early age to earn a living after the death of his father, securing employ with the New York Steel Company. He came to Derby on September 30, 1865, with a note from the New York Steel Company President to the President of the Birmingham Iron Foundry, recommending him for a job there. He started work at Birmingham Iron, which was founded in 1836, as a bookkeeper, and he rose to secretary, treasurer, vice president, and in 1891, president of the BIF. Two years later, after the Panic of 1893, he defied conventional wisdom and made a major expansion to the BIF, even though there was no business to justify it. The gamble paid off, when the financial outlook improved the BIF was in a perfect position to take advantage of it. He presided of the merger of the BIF with Farrel Foundry, creating Farrel-Birmingham, in 1927. He also served as President of Birmingham National Bank from 1925 to 1931, and was President of the Home Trust Company from 1924 to 1925, and remained as a trustee up to the time of his death. He married Harriet Downs of Shelton in 1876, and had four children.
April 29
ANSONIA – The National Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander, James Van Zandt, speaks at the Ansonia Opera House. He predicts the Senate will pass the Patman bill for immediate cash payments of veterans' adjusted service certificates, and the President Roosevelt will not dare veto it.
DERBY – The City’s last Civil War veteran, Andrew Dean, celebrates his 90th birthday at his Cottage Street home.
April 30
ANSONIA – The controversial Ansonia city charter bill is tabled by the State Senate. It is ordered to be put at the foot of Senate calendar the following day.
OXFORD – The road over Stevenson Dam is added to the state trunk line system.
OXFORD – “The old church sheds which have stood adjacent to St. Peter's Episcopal Church for over 80 years and which have late have been in a bad state of repair, are being taken down by a group of young men in charge of the rector, the Rev. H. S. Douglass”.
May
Thursday, May 2
DERBY – James D. Kennedy dies at his Olivia Street home. He was one of only three people left alive who witnessed the running of the first trolley car in Derby at midnight on May 1, 1888. Born in New York, he grew up Scranton, PA. He helped construct the first successfully operated electric street railway in Scranton. Shortly thereafter, he was induced to come to Derby, to supervise the construction an electric road between the Wallace factory in Ansonia and the Derby Docks. This line also featured the world’s first electric freight locomotive. He settled in Shelton, and while there supervised the construction of electric roads in Lynn, Massachusetts and Bangor, Maine, and other places. He moved to Derby about 15 years ago. He was employed by the Bridgeport Traction Company, which was absorbed by the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company, and still later the Connecticut Company. For years he was the superintendent of construction for the company’s local division before retiring in June 1930.
May 3
ANSONIA – Mrs. Caroline Drew, widow of postmaster Morris Drew, turns 100. She is the mother of City Treasurer F. M. Drew and another son, and has 3 grandchildren, including Judge Harold E. Drew of Orange, and 5 great-grandchildren.
SEYMOUR – There is an apparent shortage of $2,433.01 in accounts of recently resigned tax collector George Kuss. The Board of Selectmen ordered an audit several months ago when discrepancies dating back to January 1933 were found. He resigned on March 12.
May 7
OXFORD – “The old church sheds, which for many years have stood on the property of St. Peter's Church, Oxford Center, have been torn down. While the sheds were reminders of older days, the removal of same adds more attractiveness to that section of the green and makes room for added improvement to the church property”.
May 8
ANSONIA – The Superintendent of Charities will ask the Board of Apportionment for another $61,750 to maintain the balance for the remainder of the year. They report 44 charity cases were dropped in April, with 687 remaining. These include 120 on FERA, 121 who are on FERA and receiving supplemental relief, and 466 who are on direct relief. Department social workers made 693 home visits. The Federal government distributed 492 lbs of rice, 962 lbs of canned veal, and 643 cans of evaporated milk. 474 quilts have been distributed by the department, as well as 2,329 yards of sheeting and 45 mattresses.
SEYMOUR – Seymour High school principal Ira Creelman resigns. He was hired as a teacher in 1920, and became succeeded Earnest Platt as principal in 1922.
Thursday, May 9
SHELTON – The National Labor Relations Board finds the transfer of Claire Knitting Mills, Inc from New York City to Shelton violates Section 7-A of the National Labor Relations Act, by failing to engage collective bargaining with employees, who were under contract when shop moved. The firm is ordered to offer reinstatement to the New York employees who were laid off when the company closed in the Bronx.
May 10
“Plans are underway for the publication of the Tercentenary Pictorial and history of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, which will be issued during the summer months as the valley's united contribution to the tercentenary celebration and as a permanent record of the progress, growth, and achievement of the Valley's towns and cities”.
The new high-speed New Haven Railroad streamliner train Comet visits the Valley.
ANSONIA – About 4,000 people witness the Comet pull into Ansonia passenger statin, with 2,961 coming on board for a quick tour. So many people come on board that the train is late leaving the station.
DERBY – Thousands meet the Comet as it pulls into the Derby passenger station, with 1,500 touring the interior.
SEYMOUR – 2,000 people, including a number from Oxford, greet the Comet at the Seymour passenger station. Because of the delay in Ansonia, only 15 VIPs are allowed a quick tour of the interior.
SHELTON – A new grandstand has been erected at the Huntington Raceway, along with new guardrails.
May 11
ANSONIA – Reconstruction of the retaining wall behind Holbrook Street School has been finished by FERA workers.
ANSONIA – A fire which began in the kitchen severely damages a house on Mill Street.
May 12
SEYMOUR - A married couple living on Humphrey Street is wracked by the natural deaths of both of their mothers. The husband’s mother passed away yesterday, and the wife’s today, on Mother’s Day.
May 14
DERBY – In the year ending April 1, Derby received $63,024.35 from FERA and spent $59,477.65 of it. The remaining balance is rapidly being spent on developing Coon Hollow Park. The past year’s FERA projects include Chatfield Street improvements, Silver Hill improvements, and mosquito eradication projects.
DERBY – The Derby Business Men's Association votes to close their stores on Wednesday afternoons in July and August.
DERBY – “Motorcycle officer William J. Burke made his appearance today on a brand new motorcycle, a 1935 streamlines Harley-Davidson machine, whose bright white and blue colors attracted much attention. The machine is the latest in motorcycle design and has all the up-to-date equipment. An old model machine, which had been in use in the department for the past 6 years, was traded in as part payment for the new motorcycle”.
Thursday, May 16
DERBY – A newly constructed Texaco gas station opens on Seymour Avenue.
DERBY – The St. Mary's Church Community House opens in the former Fitch Smith house on Seymour Avenue, across from the Derby Public Library. The outbuildings have been removed, and a tennis court and picnic grounds have been added. The residence itself has been remodeled with two kitchens, restrooms, sitting rooms, two large rooms that can serve as meeting halls or ballrooms. The house’s colonial character has been retained. The house would be demolished in 1953, and the present St. Mary’s School was completed on the site the following year.
SHELTON – Patrick Cribbins, of Riverview Avenue, a retired farmer and gardener, dies at age 92. An Irish immigrant, he leaves 69 descendants. The Evening Sentinel reports “During his 80 years residence in this city he saw it grow from a village of 1,300 to a city of 10,000; saw the field of rye give way to Viaduct Square and the city hall; saw the railroad and the telephone come. He used to speak of the (Ousatonic) dam as something that was built ‘not too long ago’, and had a host of anecdotes of the days before electricity”.
May 17
DERBY – A steam shovel, 6 trucks, and 130 men are at work at the FERA project at Coon Hollow.
SEYMOUR – A mass meeting of over 100 former employees of the Herbert J. Grimes Company is held at Town Hall. As a result, three warrants issued for the arrest of Mr. Grimes, relating to his issuing notes in lieu of pay on May 5, payable on July 5. The employees have a total of $7,000 in back wages due them. Mr. Grimes rented the Tingue buildings, from December 1 to May 11, until the Seymour Pile Fabric, Inc. took the complex over. He was staying at a local hotel since the closing, but left town the morning of the meeting. It is believed he may be heading back to his native Germany.
May 19
DERBY – The Yale Regatta is called off due to rough water on the river.
SHELTON – A 22 year old Stafford Springs race car driver is killed at Huntington Raceway when his car veers the through fence, ejecting him back onto track in front of over 1,000 witnesses. He is the second fatality in the track’s history.
May 20
ANSONIA – A 3-alarm fire breaks out at 1:35 AM at Liberty Hall, on May Street, located on the property of Sts. Peter and Paul church. A huge crowd watches the flames leap high into air. The roof is burned off, and the fire also scorched the side of the parish rectory. The building was erected by the parish in 1897, and it served as its church until present edifice was built in 1916. The building was damaged by another bad fire in 1908.
Thursday, May 23
OXFORD – “With the state and federal government seeking ways to carry on relief work by giving employment to the army of unemployed, it is frequently remarked 'why not inaugurate a campaign against the tent caterpillar that today is ravaging our countryside?' Some part of the millions of dollars now being used in relief work could well be spent in measures to control the worm pest. It is a dreary sight to see the trees along the roadsides and in the fields stripped of foliage, to see thousands of webs from which the millions of worms spreads out, destroying the beauty of drivers and of our fields”.
May 24
ANSONIA – City police conduct two liquor raids the same day in the same Liberty Street building, making two arrests.
May 25
DERBY – Board of Charities handled 311 relief cases, involving 1524 individuals in February. This was reduced to 284 cases involving 1356 individuals in March.
May 26
SHELTON – About a thousand people witness Huntington's Memorial Day Parade. Derby and Shelton’s last two Civil War veterans participate, riding in the back of an automobile. Services are held at Huntington Green.
SHELTON – The Derby-Shelton Memorial Services are held at the Shelton High School auditorium. The keynote speaker State Sen. Kenneth F. Cramer of Wethersfield.
May 27
OXFORD – “Farmers throughout the town are concerned over the prolonged dry spell. Feed in many pastures is very scant, necessitating barn feeding. The opinion is that unless abundant rain falls within a few days, the hay crop will be very light, planted crops also are much below normal for this season of the year”.
May 28
DERBY – After her purse is discovered along the Derby Canal bank, the body of an Anson Street woman, who is wife of Derby's FERA paymaster, is discovered after the canal is drained. She had been missing since Sunday night. Thousands flock to the scene.
DERBY – The old Taylor House at 72 Elizabeth Street is being torn down. It was once the home of Jerry Denny, manager of the Derby Angels professional baseball team. The house, composed of 14 rooms, has been vacant several years. It was remembered for its large veranda which was covered with wisteria.
May 29
DERBY – James Stapleton, a Shelton native who had been an undertaker in Shelton and Seymour, but now works in Norwalk, dies in the Town Clerk's Office of Derby City Hall while seeking a transfer burial permit. His brother, Thomas, runs a funeral home at 56 Fifth Street.
Thursday, May 30 – Memorial Day
ANSONIA – It is a long parade on this 350th (Tercentenary) anniversary year of the State of Connecticut. A key feature is historical floats showing State history by each school, and the DAR. The parade starts on Central Street, then proceeds up Main Street, Maple Street, Jackson Street, Wakelee Avenue and Church Street to exercises at Pine Grove Cemetery.
DERBY & SHELTON – The parade starts in Shelton. Both cities have one remaining Civil War veteran each, and both of them participate. The parade stops for ceremonies at the Civil War monument, then precedes to Oak Cliff Cemetery.
SEYMOUR – The parade runs from Broad Street to the park. Notable features are the Town’s Tercentenary Chorus of 80 local residents, and the massed drum corps of composed of the Maple Street School, Center School, and the American Legion.
June
Saturday, June 1
ANSONIA – Biddy Lamb pond has almost been completely drained. Many large bullhead fish were captured as the water lowered. Many tadpoles of the famous Biddy Lamb Spadefoot Toads are found dead too, and the neighbors note an eerie silence now that the peepers are gone.
June 3
ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen is informed that a new, complete, $360,000 high school can be had for $200,000 through securing a 45% federal grant. The Board also unanimously approves a $75,000 emergency municipal relief bond.
June 4
SHELTON – Over 200 girls do not report for work at the United Shirt and Blouse Company at 84 Center Street this morning, over a salary dispute. The problem is the union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, agreed to a set amount for piece work. But that was nullified by the National Recovery Act (NRA). But last week, the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional, so the textile company reverted back to the union contract, which was a lower rate. agreement with Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
June 5
ANSONIA – The State House cannot agree with the Senate over an amendment requiring proposed changes to Ansonia’s City Charter to require a referendum. The bill dies the following day when the legislative session ends.
SEYMOUR – The Seymour Ice Company, founded in 1900, is in receivership.
SHELTON – The striking workers from the United Shirt and Blouse Company hold a rally at White Eagle Hall in Derby.
SHELTON – The Chicago-Naugatuck Crucible Company will change its name to the American Crucible Company. The firm was founded by David N. Clark in 1917 as the Naugatuck Valley Crucible Company, and changed name to Chicago-Naugatuck in 1930.
Thursday, June 6
ANSONIA – Rabbi Samuel Bernstein dies in his James Street house at 67. Born in Lomza, Russia (modern day Poland), he lived in Ansonia for 41 years. He was rabbi of B'nai Israel synagogue on Colburn Street, then went to the Sons of Jacob synagogue on Factory Street when B’nai Israel split. By the time of his death, the two congregations had reunited.
ANSONIA – The Board of Apportionment agrees with the Board of Aldermen on the need for a $75,000 relief bond.
DERBY – A police officer sees a laundry truck weaving erratically near the East Side terminal. The truck ignores his signals to stop, instead racing down Derby Avenue and onto New Haven Avenue, forcing other cars from road. The officer, Pasquale Mizli, fires at the truck, and a bullet goes through its rear door and lodges under the dashboard, inches from the driver's leg. The truck stops and the 18 year old intoxicated New Haven driver is arrested.
SEYMOUR & OXFORD – There are now 922 telephones in the Seymour-Oxford Telephone Exchange, up from 311 when the exchange started. There were 1,053 telephones in 1929, just prior to the Great Depression.
SHELTON – The striking employees of the United Shirt and Blouse Company agree to return to work on Monday, after labor and management agree to return to the defunct National Industrial Recovery Act rates.
SHELTON – The Flitco Manufacturing Company will lease part of the third floor of the Bassett Metal Goods factory from the Shelton Industrial Corporation, where they will make ladies' cotton underwear.
June 8
OXFORD – As part of its tercentenary celebrations, Oxford recreates the 1798 Town meeting where the Town separated from Derby. Other highlights include children dancing around a maypole on Oxford Green, and programs held at various old houses in the Town. Governor Wilbur Cross attends.
June 10
ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen unanimously authorizes a $75,000 relief bond.
SHELTON - About 50 cases of an intestinal disorder due to infection from milk have been diagnosed. The State is investigating.
June 11
ANSONIA - In a stormy Board of Education session, School Superintendent Clark recommends his first and second choice for a new Ansonia High School principal. The Board votes 5-3 to go with his second choice, Henry Adams, a teacher, athletic director, and coach at Arnold College of New Haven. He was picked over local teacher Joseph McGee.
June 12
DERBY – The Sarah Riggs Humphreys DAR opens an exhibit of antiques and heirlooms at Library Hall for the Tercentenary.
June 13, 1935
DERBY – Benjamin Bacon is awarded his Eagle Scout rank at Boy Scout Troop 3’s court of honor at Second Congregational Church. Mr. Bacon would go on to become president of Bacon Printing in Derby.
June 14
ANSONIA – The City’s relief cases dropped 16, down to 671, in May.
June 15
OXFORD – “General farm crops throughout town are looking good, although somewhat backward for this time of season. A good stand of corn is reported and with the advent of warm nights the growth will be rapid. The acreage of potatoes in town is about nominal. Small garden produce is doing nicely and promises an abundant supply of fresh seasonal vegetables in a short time. Berries are ripening slowly, but with favorable weather will be abundant in another week or 10 days”.
SEYMOUR – The Kinneytown Dam is transferred from the Ansonia Tax List to the Seymour Tax List. First erected 1844, the dam was kept on Derby’s rolls even after Seymour separated to form its own town in 1850. When Ansonia likewise separated from Derby in 1889, the dam went with it. No explanation is given as to why it took this long to transfer the dam to Seymour’s tax lists.
June 17
ANSONIA – Meeting behind closed doors, the Board of Education votes 5-4 along party lines to fire 4 janitors, and hire four more. Party politics is accused.
ANSONIA & DERBY – 14 young men of Polish descent from Ansonia and Derby are injured, 1 seriously, when the pickup truck they riding in the rear of has its body torn from chassis while rounding a curve. All were employed by the S. D. Woodruff & Sons seed company of Orange, and the accident occurred near the farm in that town near Grassy Hill Road.
DERBY – The Annual Griffin Hospital Trustees Meeting is held. The hospital saw an average of 67 pts per day in the past year. The number of hospital days is divided by city, breaking down to Ansonia 2,039, Derby 813, Shelton 1040, Seymour 336, and Oxford 284.
SHELTON – “No more spring water will have to be bought for the children of the Huntington School to drink, because now they have plenty of their own. The laying of the new water pipe from the spring on Ripton Street to the Huntington School has been completed with FERA labor and the men are now replacing the worn out iron pipes in the school with new copper tubing. All will be complete and ready to use when the children return after vacation”.
June 18
DERBY – The 135 members of the Derby High School Class of 1935 graduates at Commodore Hull Theater. About 1,400 attend. The Salutatorian Jean L. Stier, while Bertha Webber is honored as the Valedictorian.
June 19
ANSONIA – The 238 members of the Ansonia High School and Pine High School Class of 1935 gradates at the Capitol Theater. About 1,800 attend. The Salutatorian Esther Claire Singer of Derby, while Frances Horowitz is honored as the Valedictorian.
ANSONIA - Rain yesterday and today puts about 4' of water into the basin of Hotchkiss Pond. This causes hundreds of spadefoot toads come out, croaking as loud as ever. Dr. Ball from Yale hurries up to Ansonia and takes about 200 toads with him to his private pond in Haddam. FERA drainage of the pond is underway. Biddy Lamb Pond has already been drained.
ANSONIA – Burglars entered new Daniel King clothing store on 105 Main Street near the Cliffway, last night or this morning. They stole 78 suits, 160 pairs of pants, 72 hats, 10 caps, with a total value of $2,200.
SEYMOUR – The 68 members of the Seymour Class of 1935 graduates at Seymour Congregational Church. The Salutatorian Stanley A. Smalec, while Dot Jones is honored as the Valedictorian.
Friday, June 21
SHELTON – 83 members of the Shelton High School Class of 1935 graduates at the Shelton High School auditorium, before a crowd of 700. The Salutatorian is Mieczyslaus Rzasa, while the Valedictorian is Brian Wheeler.
June 24
ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen approve a $75,000 municipal emergency relief bond.
June 25
OXFORD – “It is reported that a number of local dairymen are losing a part, or their entire herd of cows in the compulsory tubercular test carried on under state supervision. To many of the farmers, although they receive a nominal sum for stock taken, it will be a severe financial loss, for replacing their herd will necessitate paying nearly, or quite double what they receive from the State”.
June 26
DERBY – The City’s relief cases increased 8.8% in April, up by 119 individuals. Due to the normal process of new cases being opened and old cases being closed, there is only a net increase of one more case, however – involving 285 families totaling 1,475 individuals.
OXFORD – “For a brief period yesterday afternoon hailstones fell thick and fast in this vicinity, followed by a very hard downpour of rain”.
Saturday, June 29
DERBY – Postmaster Walter DeForest concludes his duties today. He served as Derby’s Postmaster for 11 years, and worked at the Derby Post Office for a total of 44 years. He is being replaced by Acting Postmaster Joseph Kennedy.
SEYMOUR – A scoreboard has been erected at the baseball diamond at Carlos French Field. It uses chalkboards for the score.
June 30
ANSONIA – St. Joseph's Parish opens its newly completed pavilion on Warsaw Park with a picnic, attended by 1,800 people.
SHELTON – Camp Irving opens for the summer season.
July
Monday, July 1
ANSONIA – The Board of Education, in special session, endorses a new senior high school which will accommodate 900 students, with an auditorium for 1,200, on the Farrel-Brooker site on State Street.
ANSONIA – A 35 year old Liberty Street man dies on his way to Griffin Hospital after being stabbed by his 25 year old Central Street friend, at the attacker's home. Witnesses claim the victim slapped the attacker's mother, sending him into a rage.
DERBY – Only 400 visit the Recreation Camp today, due to low water in the Housatonic. 700 visited yesterday.
DERBY – Coleman Brothers’ show opens at Island Park, with thousands thronging the midway. About 1,000 children bringing boxes, barrels or wood for a big bonfire which will be set Wednesday night, in exchange for free carnival rides. The merry-go-round breaks down from so much use.
SEYMOUR - Exactly 650 swim at Legion Pool on opening day.
July 3
DERBY – The City has spent $242,202.39 on idle relief in 18 months, from July 1, 1933 to December 31, 1934. This amounts to $17.10 capita per year, compared to Shelton which is $26.70.
DERBY – A huge bonfire is lit at Coleman Brothers’ show at Island Park, just before midnight, for the Fourth of July. The pile was 20’ high, and the flames leap over 40’ high. Many watch the fire from the Derby and Shelton hills.
Saturday, June 29
Thursday, July 4
ANSONIA – Several trees are started on fire from fireworks. A fight on Clifton Avenue leads to police being called, who subsequently discover an illegal still in the residence, leading to two arrests. Despite all this, the Fourth is mostly quiet, many spend the day at the shore.
SEYMOUR – State Rep. Seth Beecher, age 67, breaks his neck on his Skokorat Street farm. He was standing on a tree limb, picking cherries, when the limb broke, plunging him to the ground. He is in critical, though stable condition at Griffin Hospital, and it is hoped that he will live. He has represented Seymour in the State General Assembly since 1919.
July 5
ANSONIA – 63 new street signs and 21 refinished ones are being put up all over the City. Only 3 are being put on their own posts, because they are double-sided. The rest are being mounted on utility poles.
DERBY – A 2 year old is saved from drowning in 4½’ of water in the Housatonic River.
July 6
SEYMOUR – The very active Valley sports community is shaken when 23 year old football star Boleslaw "Bill" Lisiewski of Franklin Street, who played for the Seymour Alumni Athletic Club, is killed by lightning while taking shelter from a thunderstorm at Rockwell Park in Bristol. 15 others near him were also hurt, though none fatally.
July 8
ANSONIA – After the Board of Aldermen vote 7-5 to refuse to pay a $419.15 bill for the City Engineer's assistants for the last quarter, City Engineer Vincent Clarke presents a written resignation to Mayor Hart. The Aldermen vote 6-5 to accept the resignation. The mayor says the refusal to fund the assistants is an obstacle in the way of continuing 250 FERA men on the City’s payroll, starting a big uproar.
ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen vote 7-3-2 to purchase the Geloso property, on lower Main Street at the foot of Platt Street, for a new Webster Hose Co. No. 3 firehouse for $2,000.
ANSONIA - Day Camp season opens at the Girl Scout house on Union Street. 54 have registered so far, and the number is expected to increase.
SEYMOUR – The FERA programs close in Seymour today. Workers are anxiously awaiting the new WPA programs to start.
SHELTON – A 2-hour discussion at a Board of Aldermen meeting results in a 4-2 vote to use dirt road funds to rebuild Isinglass Road from Waverly Road to Huntington Street.
SHELTON – Several of the young folks of the neighborhood, as well as picnickers enjoyed bathing in Webb's swimming hole, which is quite a nice sized pool, and has been a favorite bathing spot for the young folks for a number of years. Each year Mr. Webb has generously opened the adjoining lot for the public to drive in with their cars and enjoy a nice time in the water”.
July 9
SHELTON – Girl Scout Camp Milcroft opens for the season off Huntington Street near the Far Mill River.
July 10
DERBY – 700 visit the Recreation Camp on this hot day. Average attendance is between 350 and 400.
OXFORD – Camp Palmer, which is run by the Bridgeport Knights of Columbus near the Seymour town line along the Housatonic River, opened two weeks ago. There were 60 boys in the first group, and 100 are expected in the second group.
SEYMOUR – The Carlos French house on 94 Washington Avenue is being torn down. Documents have been found in the home dating back as far back to August 12, 1835. The barn will be moved to First Street, where it will be made into 2-family house. Carlos French was a U.S. Senator.
Thursday, July 11
HOUSATONIC VALLEY – The Sentinel reports the summer season “is at its height”. Most summer cottages are filled. Camp Pomperaug has 125 Boy Scouts, Stamford Boy's Club on Lake Zoar has 80 campers, Camp Pershing in Shelton has 30 scouts. There are many boarders, particularly from New York City and Brooklyn, at Squantuck.
OXFORD – “The advent of hot weather has brought about an influx of many city people to the country. The summer camps and cottages at the river are nearly all occupied, proving this section of Oxford to be one of the most desirable of summer homes in western Connecticut”.
July 12
A heat wave continues, reaching 97 degrees at 1:00 PM. People are tired from lack of sleep due to the heat.
DERBY – 1,000 swimmers visit the Recreation Camp today to beat the hot weather, more then visited this past Saturday and Sunday. Swimming are held today.
DERBY – Another 10% dividend will be paid to depositors of the failed Mongillo Bank, for a total of 70% recovery of their savings so far.
July 13
ANSONIA – A total of $493,578.68 has been spent on Ansonia relief programs from January 1, 1933 to December 31, 1934. The City paid $162,581.02, with the Federal and State governments contributing the rest. The Federal government in particular has paid 68% of the total amount, and this includes the CWA and FERA programs.
OXFORD – “Swan's Reservoir on Park Road is the mecca for crowds of boys and girls and not a few grownups these sweltering days, several hundred daily enjoying bathing at this pond, even to a late hour of the night”.
July 14
The temperature is 84 and humid.
SHELTON – Over 9,000 visit Indian Well State Park. Over 700 parked automobiles are counted. One of the highlights of the day is the sight of 25 congregants of AME Zion Church in Ansonia being baptized in the Housatonic River.
July 15
Cooling breezes make the day more comfortable.
SHELTON - A coal tar tank explosion in a large tank at the Derby Gas & Electric Company’s works off Hill Street, between Howe Avenue and Canal Street, is heard for miles. The explosion blows a manhole off the top of the tank, and sends flames 60 feet into the air. Two brothers working on top of the tank are slightly hurt. No major fire ensues, but many automobiles choke the area around the scene to see what happened.
SHELTON – Huntington – “Once more the beautiful, wonderful, fascinating "Night Blooming Cereus" can be seen, and again, Mrs. George Boehm of Far Mill Street has kindly arranged it so that the public may enjoy, with her friends, watching one of these plants. She has a huge plant, which is now blossoming night after night these large and exquisite flowers By means of electric lights, and a large part of her lawn set aside for this plant, with seats around, one may go and sit, keep cool, and watch this strange plant open a full blossom in one evening. The best time to see the blossom is after 11 at night and on into the early hours of the morning. This plant may be seen every evening this week, and refreshments may be bought during the evening, the proceeds from which will be donated to Harmony Grange in Monroe”.
July 16
Many observe a total eclipse of the moon late last night and early this morning.
ANSONIA – Girl Scout Day Camp registration is now at 83.
July 17
SHELTON – Leavenworth Road, the new state road built with FERA labor, is now open to traffic, though it still needs shoulders, posts. This is today’s Route 110 from Indian Well Road to the Monroe town line.
Friday, July 19
A violent thunderstorm strikes after 7:00 PM, bringing almost an inch of torrential rainfall and lower temperatures. 225 Ansonia-Derby exchange telephones are knocked out of service.
ANSONIA – The chimney of a 4-family house on North State Street is struck by lightning and toppled.
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Tercentenary Commission has had a medal struck to commemorate the city's participation in Connecticut’s 300th anniversary.
SHELTON – “During the terrible thunderstorm…a cow was struck and killed in the barn of Rubin Schnieder of Booth's Hill Street. The hired man was in the barn, milking the fourth cow from the one that was struck. Another cow received a shock, but will recover from it. The telephone in the house was rendered out of order as were several others in Huntington. A beautiful huge maple tree fell to the ground during the storm. It was one of several on the lawn of Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Denzer of Booth's Hill Street”.
SHELTON – Part of the fourth floor of the Bassett Metal Goods factory is being rented by the Shelton Industrial Corporation to the H. L. Schneider Company of Bridgeport and New York. The firm makes mechanical toys, and employs 75. This is today's Birmingham apartments.
July 20
ANSONIA – Many are noticing and are becoming concerned about the condition of elm trees, whose leaves are being ravaged by beetles.
DERBY & SHELTON – The Shelton Industrial Corporation will purchase the Harris-Seybolt-Potter plants on Housatonic Avenue in Derby and Canal Street in Shelton.
July 22
ANSONIA – The haberdashery store at 105 Main Street is gutted by fire after cleaning fluid explodes.
July 23
SHELTON – Huntington – “The exceptionally good weather during the past 3 weeks has certainly helped in the progress of the building of the new Grange Hall on Huntington Street. The framework is up and the roof completed. The members of the association are hoping to be able to use the hall within the next two months. William H. Thompson of Shelton Avenue is the contractor”.
July 24
OXFORD – “Many favorable comments are made by people outside of town over the prospects of a new state road over Rockhouse hill which will afford a good highway through the most beautiful section of the town, leading from Southford to Quaker Farms over Five Mile hill thence over Rockhouse hill to Great Hill to towns south or over to the river district”.
SHELTON – A nearly 200 year old barn on Phillip Jones’ property is struck by lightning and destroyed by fire. 15 tons of hay is lost inside. The barn was built by Jeremiah Shelton, long before American Revolution. FERA men working on constructing the new Leavenworth Road came to assist from a mile and a half away.
