This week in history

Catch up on past weeks in Valley History in the Valley History Archive

From the pages of the Evening Sentinel

This Week in Valley History...

January 4 - 10

100 Years Ago - 1909

Monday, January 4

The Valley cities and towns are raising funds for sufferers of a catastrophic earthquake in southern Italy.
DERBY - James B. Atwater is sworn in as the new Mayor.

January 5

DERBY – There have been many complaints of late that the horses currently used to pull the Bassett Hook and Ladder truck are too light for the job, and heavier ones are needed.

January 6

Heavy rain which began yesterday ends early today, totaling 2.07”. The Naugatuck River has risen 4'. Temperatures are in the 50s.
ANSONIA – A trolley jumps the track at Main and Elm Streets, and smashes through a fence, into an embankment. A woman holding an infant is said to be "severely hurt".
DERBY – There was a very small increase in the City's Grand List, from $5,761,721 in 1907 to $5,806,216 in 1908.
SHELTON – There is controversy that the Board of Education has thus far ignored the Town of Huntington’s order to reopen Lower White Hills School, due to the greater amounts of children living in the neighborhood.

January 7

January 10

DERBY - Rumors of pending raids keep City saloons closed on Sunday. It is noted that there are more than the usual number of police officers looking into store windows, today, but no raids. Saloon owners are upset that false rumors curtailed their illegal Sunday activity.

75 Years Ago - 1933

Thursday, January 4

SEYMOUR – An illegal liquor plant containing two stills is found in an old Seymour Ice Company icehouse on the Ansonia Road. Four Ansonia men are arrested. Many are surprised that such activity is continuing since Prohibition has ended and liquor is now legal.
SHELTON - Huntington – “The weather during the past week has been ideal for sleigh riding and both young and old in the locality have taken advantage of it”.

January 5

DERBY - William Parker Dexter, 81, dies at his Cottage Street home. Born in Vermont June 22, 1852, he came to Derby 1873, and was employed at Sterling Piano from that year, until the company went out of business in 1925. He was in charge of the finishing department for over 50 years. He continued to service the old local pianos up until the end of his life.

January 6

SHELTON - Rev. Frank S. Morehouse of the Church of the Good Shepherd marries local girl Alta Lyons. The newspaper calls it one of the largest attended marriages in Shelton history.

January 7

Rain and mild temperatures remove the last of the snow. 1.13" falls.
SEYMOUR – A Derby Avenue man nearly drowns in Plush Mill Pond when he falls through the ice while taking a shortcut. He is rescued by neighbors on Second Street and the Citizens Engine Company which is nearby.

January 8

Today sees the largest payroll since the CWA began - $23,543 to 1,347 Valley workers in Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, and Shelton.

50 Years Ago - 1958

Sunday, January 4

High winds all night long into the next morning.
DERBY – A parked car is crushed when wind blows down a tree on Coe Lane. 20 roofs on Sentinel Hill are damaged. The low income housing project at Direnzo Heights sustains wind damage, too.
SHELTON – The new Boy Scout shooting range at the Cawthra Farm off Shelton Avenue is blown off its foundations.
SHELTON - Shelton and Derby firefighters extinguish a fire on a diesel locomotive near the freight station.

January 5

DERBY - Mayor Dirienzo sworn in for sixth term.
SHELTON - Mayor LeMay is sworn in at 12:01 AM, replacing outgoing Mayor Cicia. The Board of Aldermen are sworn in at 800 PM. One of their first official acts is to lay off the former street commissioner (also a foreman) and 5 others dropped from the Street Department, setting up a showdown with Teamsters Local 145.

January 6

ANSONIA – City police officer Charles Piwonski dies after a short illness. He was a police officer for 27 years.
ANSONIA – Evening Sentinel newsman Edward Cotter Jr. fights a fire with his own fire extinguisher in a store on the corner of Tremont and Factory Streets, after a police officer kicks in the door. The two have the fire under control before the fire department arrives.
SEYMOUR - Fire guts a year-round cottage just above Actors' Colony Inn.
SHELTON – The Shelton Canal freezes, shutting down production at Chromium Process and B.F. Goodrich Plant #4, idling over 700 workers for a day.

January 7

ANSONIA – The Army Corps of Engineers recommends extending the loan of the Bailey Bridge to Ansonia to December 1961, due to the imminent replacement of the Bridge Street Bridge.
ANSONIA - Burglars break into Pine High School, and ransack the offices of the Superintendent and Principal. They roll a heavy safe into a corridor, in a failed attempt to try to open it with a blowtorch stolen from the machine shop.

January 8

DERBY - Vandals have heavily damaged the refurbished park ranger's home at Osborndale State Park, located just north of Kellogg homestead on Hawthorne Avenue.

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