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...

Week of May 11 - 17

100 Years Ago - 1908

Monday, May 11

ANSONIA - The Board of Aldermen are talking of suing the trolley company for the manner it repaired the Bridge Street Bridge. The planking on the trolley side of the bridge has been raised a few inches higher than that of the city side. This is causing most pedestrian and horse drawn traffic to favor the city side.
ANSONIA - Phillip Cohen receives a second Black Hand letter. This one chides him for not paying the $2,000 ransom from the original extortion letter, and says he must now pay $4,000 tonight, at the gas tank near the railroad tracks off lower Main Street. As with the previous letter, he ignores it.
DERBY - The local elderly, wandering itinerant, who refuses to settle down despite a trust fund raised for him last year, Johnny o' the Woods, is spotted trying to sleep in a gutter at Olivia Street and Fourth Street. Following local custom in dealing with homeless travelers, he is taken to the police lockup for the night.

May 12

ANSONIA - Alderman John C. Meade has planted two flower beds in front of City Hall, giving it an attractive appearance.
DERBY - About 600 witness a hypnotist put a man to sleep in one of the Hubbell shoe store windows. He's performing over weekend at the Sterling Opera House.
DERBY - Hundreds of automobiles pass through the city yesterday and today, on the first good days of the year for motoring.

May 13

The first open trolley car of the season appears on the Waterbury-New Haven line. However, many have grown to like the new semi-convertible closed cars, which have breezes filtering through them through windows near their tops. These do a much better job keeping rain and mud off their patrons as opposed to the open cars. The only problem with the semi-convertibles is they are "no smoking cars", as opposed to the open trolley cars, in which the last 3 rows of seats are traditionally reserved for smokers.
ANSONIA - City horse owners are upset that the supply of water in the watering troughs at the foot of Foundry Hill and in front of the Boston Store have been cut down. Today lines of horses can be seen at the tanks, but there is little water for them to drink. The Ansonia Water Company is being criticized for putting meters on the tanks, which caused the City to cut back the supply.
OXFORD - The chancel of St. Peter's Church was recently enlarged for putting in choir stalls. The church plans on starting a vested choir.
OXFORD - "The rain of the past week put the ground in fine condition for the reception of seeds, and farmers are now rushing their work as fast as possible".

May 14

ANSONIA - The City watering troughs are back in service to their former capacity.

May 15

ANSONIA - Ansonia receives telegram from Washington DC, stating that the that city has been appropriated $90,000 from Congress to build a new Post Office. This is more money than any other Connecticut city or town will receive for this purpose this year. The facility will probably be on Main Street, near Sentinel building.
ANSONIA & SHELTON - It is announced that Ansonia School Superintendent Edwin C. Andrews will resign to become the Superintendent of the towns of Huntington and Stratford.
DERBY - A Caroline Street man saves a young Polish child who fell off the pontoon bridge between Water Street and the Sterling Piano Company over the Birmingham Canal.
SHELTON - The Borough of Shelton Grand List is now $4,046,237. It includes 579 houses, 76 stores or mills, 141 horses, 3 cattle, 147 carriages, and 795 watches.

May 16

DERBY & SHELTON - An 18 year old man is arrested for trying to crash a dance at the Gould Armory in Derby. He is taken to the police station at City Hall (the Sterling Opera House), where he was locked in a corridor and left unattended. He then sets fire to the corridor to escape. A police officer opens the corridor to investigate, and the suspect runs past him onto the street. He is chased across the bridge into Shelton, where their police chief joins the chase. Acting on a tip that the suspect was sleeping in the Wilkinson Paper Mill on Canal Street, he is found there and arrested, and returned to Derby, along with two of his companions who tried to warn him that the police were coming for him. The fire in the corridor was not too bad - it just scorched the walls and door of the corridor, though it caused a lot of smoke, the suspect intended to create a diversion.

May 17

ANSONIA - A 2-story Beaver Street home that was being used as a workshop is destroyed by fire. The recently located auxiliary jumper on Beaver Street responds, along with Webster Hose Company's new horse drawn hose wagon.
ANSONIA - The basement of the Dwyer Building on Railroad Avenue is raided by the police. Three are arrested for keeping or patronizing an after hours saloon, though many others escape through a back door.

75 Years Ago - 1933

Saturday, May 13

ANSONIA - The Michael Comcowich Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, hosts 18 drum and bugle corps in its annual competition at Athletic Field. Thousands attend, and many more witness a parade through the city. The VFW hosts a dance for the participants at the Ansonia Armory that evening.

May 14

ANSONIA - An unoccupied house at 269 Beaver Street owned by the Derby Savings Bank burns to the ground.

May 15

ANSONIA - The Board of Education approves cutting teachers' salaries by 16% due to the financial stresses brought about by the Great Depression.

May 16

ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 133 men and paid them $870.87 in the past week on 4 projects. 79 worked on the river wall project.

50 Years Ago - 1958

Monday, May 12

May 13

ANSONIA - A volunteer firefighter is burned on his neck while battling a 2-alarm, wind-driven brush fire on the Knights of Columbus and Ansonia Water Company properties off Deerfield Lane. A total of 50 to 100 acres burned for 6 1/2 hours. NIKE soldiers and boys from Explorer Post 10 also help. The fire burns to the edge of the firebreak ringing the NIKE site, but does not cross it.
SHELTON - The former City Clerk surrenders at the State Attorney's office in Bridgeport. He is brought to Shelton, where he is charged with embezzlement, forgery, and other charges. An audit has found he may have embezzled $1,958 from City coffers. He is transferred to the Fairfield County Jail in Bridgeport, where he is held for two days before posting bail.

May 14

DERBY - The East End Hose Company receives a 2000 gallon tanker trailer, which will be pulled by tractor recently secured, from the Air Force at Stewart Air Force Base.
SHELTON - Miss Elizabeth Shelton announces that she will retire at the end of school year after 50 years of teaching, 46 in Shelton. Five other teachers are leaving as well. The Elizabeth Shelton Elementary School on Soundview Avenue is named after Miss Shelton.

May 15

SHELTON - A short circuit causes a $5000 fire to two empty stores on 6-8 White Street.

May 17

OXFORD - Several hundred Housatonic Council Boy Scouts and about 500 parents and friends from across the Valley attend the Annual Weekend Camporee on the Raymond Renker property off Riggs Street. It is the biggest camporee held by the Council so far.

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