***

Mrs Eleanor Clark of Grays Plain Road had an unexpected visitor, Wednesday afternoon. A female grouse, losing her bearings, crashed through the living room window at the Clark home, flapping and bumping around the room, finally coming to rest on the mantel above the fireplace. A call to conservationist Jim Jones brought help in a hurry. Mr Jones was able to capture the frightened grouse, and showed her the way out.

***

 Newtown’s 1975 Grand List has been released by Assessor Vivian Mayer’s office; the total taxable net assessments it lists, before revision by the Board of Tax Review, total $260,546,567, up $88,318,495 or 51.28 percent over last year’s Grand List of $172,228,072.

***

Fred Lajoie was recently elected chairman of the Newtown Building Commission to succeed Maurice Nezvesky. John Stiles was elected secretary.

***

Anyone planning to enter Newtown’s Bicentennial Stitchery Show and Contest is requested to submit an entry form by May 1 to Mrs Carol Lehmann, chairman of the event. Items for the show may include clothing, coverlets, tablecloths, drapes, wall hangings, pillows, novelty items, or any other item displaying hand stitchery. The two main categories will be embroidery and quilting.

***

As far as Janis Nezvesky is concerned, it’s not called women’s lib; it’s just doing her own thing. Janis, the 20-year-old daughter of Mr and Mrs Sam Nezvesky of Huntingtown Road, has just become the first woman member of the United Fire Company at Botsford. In fact, she is the first woman to join any of Newtown’s five volunteer companies, and she takes it very matter of factly.

***

Ruth Stout, author and gardener, will be the speaker at the next meeting of St Rose Women’s Club, which will begin in the school library immediately following Mass in the church. The Lenten service will begin at 7:30 pm. Members are urged to bring guests to hear the inimitable Miss Stout describe her gardening adventures.

***

The Country Steppers, Newtown’s colonial dance group, will be performing in Brookfield on Tuesday, March 30. The Steppers, under the direction of Chip and Elaine Hendrickson of Newtown, will be demonstrating American country dances of the Revolutionary era. Longways, cotillions, six- and three-handed reels will be included in the program.

MARCH 9, 1951

Scoutmaster Paul A. Cullens reviewed the past year’s activities of Newtown’s Boy Scout Troop 70 and sketched the organization’s setup at the meeting of the Rotary Club of Newtown held at the Parker House Monday night. The summation was a part of the Boy Scouts of America practice of reporting annually in each community to the sponsoring organization and asking for continuation of the sponsorship.

***

First Selectman A. Fenn Dickinson presided at a manpower discussion meeting of the Newtown Civil Defense Council and heads of Newtown’s service organizations held last Friday night at 8 o’clock in the selectmen’s office. Present besides most of the council members were: fire marshal Walter L. Glover; chief ambulance driver John R. McMahon; chief air raid warden George M. Stuart; Harry F. Greenman, emergency transportation; and William H. Knox, special constabulary.

***

This week is the 75th anniversary of the birth of the telephone. Seventy-five years ago Alexander Graham Bell, while still trying to reproduce the human voice over a wire, accidentally spilled a jar of battery acid. “Mr Watson! Come here, I want you,” he shouted to his assistant, and that was the first sentence ever spoken over a telephone line. The incident took place March 10, 1876, in Boston.

***

Heading the list of construction projects to be undertaken by the State Highway Department with the opening of the 1951 construction season is continuing the work of relocating US Route 6 in the Newtown area, according to an announcement this week by Commissioner G. Albert Hill. Bids for the project will be opened at Hartford March 26.

***

Officers Edward McMahon and George Bunnell of the State Police of Ridgefield Barracks are continuing their investigation of a series of three breaks into eating places on the Newtown-Danbury Road which occurred late Sunday night or early Monday morning. The places entered were the Park Diner, Newtown, and the Avalon Inn and Sherman Diner in Stony Hill District, Bethel.

***

Among the Newtown boys who are serving in Korea, perhaps no one has seen more active service and actual warfare than Pfc Harry Stadie, who is a member of Company D, 6th Medium Tank Battalion of the American forces. Pfc Stadie, who is the son of Mr and Mrs Otto Weiss of Hawleyville district, is known to his Newtown friends as Harry Stadie Weiss. He graduated from Hawley High School in June, 1949, and enlisted the following September. He reached Korea in June, 1950, and has since seen much actual combat during the intervening months. His letters home have given many graphic details of battle, ranging from accounts of superficial wounds and inclement weather to death and destruction of the worst kind in wholesale proportions.

***

The adjourned session of the annual town meeting will be held in the gymnasium of the Edmond Town Hall on Thursday evening, March 15, at 8 o’clock. Action will be taken on the recommendation of the Board of Finance that a tax rate of 21 mills be laid on the Grand List of 1950 to cover the expenses of the town for the 1950-51 fiscal year.

MARCH 5, 1926

First Selectman Thomas F. Brew has just had installed a new five tube radio set by John J. Keane.

***

George B. Beers, that popular Newtown citizen, won second prize, a silver cup, in the veteran fiddlers’ contest at Bridgeport last Thursday evening. The result was very close, and the judges had difficulty in making their decision.

***

The six engineers who are drilling for the foundations for the proposed dam on the Housatonic River for the Connecticut Light and Power Company are boarding at Mrs Thomas Maguire’s on Washington Avenue.

***

Wallace N. Mitchell and L.P. Jones united forces and filled their ice houses this week.

MARCH 8, 1901

W.A. Leonard, the popular proprietor of the Newtown Inn, has decided on some substantial improvements on his model house. He will have a piazza erected on the rear of the house. It will be 56 feet long and 10 feet wide and will add greatly to the attractiveness of the building. He also contemplates putting in a bowling alley in the basement.

***

Patrick Blake of Hanover, who was so unfortunate as to have lost the sight of one eye, has had the defective member removed. The operation was performed at the Bridgeport Hospital.

***

The loss sustained by Mrs Patrick Carroll by the burning of the cottage occupied by Mr Tatty at Sandy Hook has been satisfactorily adjusted through the agency of W.A. Leonard.