Turning Back the Pages - February 9

100 years ago — February 1912

The Observer (editorial): The groundhog certainly saw his shadow last Friday, and judging from the specimen of weather since, he has been delivering the goods.

CANAAN — John Thurlough has sold his drug business to Benjamin and Farnum of Stockbridge, Mass., and they have taken possession.

SALISBURY — A S.N.E. telephone has been put in J.F. Egan’s house, also one in Bradley and Egan’s market.

CANAAN — The Southern New England Telephone Co. is soon to establish a new telephone district in Cornwall. The telephone conditions in that town at present are bad, in some instances there being fourteen or more subscribers on a single line.

50 years ago — February 1962

Two families — one, that of 29-year-old Herman Johnson, his 23-year-old wife, their 5, 3 and 2 year old daughters, and the 9 or 10 year old brother of Mrs. Johnson; the other, the Paul Austin household consisting of Mr. Austin, his adult son, Albert, and a brother-in-law, Albert Wagner — lost all their possessions last Saturday morning when fire all but consumed the two-family tenant house they occupied on the Red Mountain Farm (formerly known as the Hosier farm). Though the frame of the house remained, there was little hope of salvaging the building.

25 years ago — February 1987

Construction of a new Town Hall will begin as soon as the temperature allows, First Selectman Charlotte Reid said Tuesday night. The way was cleared last Saturday when the town voted, by a margin of 617 to 374, to proceed with the controversial new structure designed to replace one destroyed by arson 1 1/2 years ago.

A fire that destroyed the Canaan State Line Pizza on Route 7 on Feb. 1 is under investigation by the local Fire Marshal in conjunction with state Fire Marshal detectives and personnel from Troop B. The fire, discovered at 2:27 a.m., was determined to be of suspicious origin.

 

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