January 15, 1999

HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER of Ellen Parrella.

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When Erin Elizabeth Nelson was born at 2:16 am on January 2, her parents weren’t thinking about The Newtown Bee’s First Baby Contest. Rick and Tammy Nelson of Sandy Hook didn’t expect Erin to be born until January 10. When labor began about 3 am on New Year’s Day it took everyone by surprise. … The Nelsons had noticed the First Baby Contest in The Bee but it still didn’t occur to them that Erin might have been the first Newtown baby born in 1999. It wasn’t until other members of the Newtown Newcomers Club encouraged them to enter that they did, and then found out they had in fact won.

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Stan Siecienski of the Newtown Fish & Game Club stood near his fishing line on the ice of Taunton Lake Monday afternoon. Suddenly, a loud roar echoed across the lake as the ice started to rumble and crack between his legs. Not to worry. Thanks to more than a week’s worth of frigid weather, the ice is plenty thick. The noise and the frightening cracks are created as the ice expands and pushes against the shore. While most people either head south or stay inside by the fireplace, ice fishermen revel in this arctic weather. For them, the cold air couldn’t have come soon enough. Armed with coffee and hot chocolate, bait and tackle, and ice drills, these hearty souls have been converging on Taunton Lake this past week. The Fish & Game Club is expected to stock the lake with more than 1,000 brook trout this week.

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Director of Human Services Karen Hoyt spent her last day on the job Monday. She, her husband Richard, and their son Michael will be moving from Bethel to South Carolina in February. Mrs Hoyt has been an employee in the town’s Human Services Department for ten years, where she served as municipal agent for the elderly and the disabled before taking over as assistant director and then acting director when former director Sheila Knox left. She was appointed director of the department in July of 1997. … “There are a lot of diverse things this office does,” Mrs Hoyt said Monday, including the fuel bank, Salvation Army food pantry, Medicare counseling, food baskets, and referrals and information. The office also contracts with the Family Counseling Center to provide for counseling needs of its clients.

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The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved a controversial application from an Aunt Park Lane couple who wanted to legitimize their existing horse boarding operation. The approval also allows them to build an indoor horse arena on their 22-acre property. After a brief discussion, P&Z members approved the application from Robert and Jody Boles of Aunt Park Lane on January 7. The Boles plan to build a 30-foot-tall, 12,240-square-foot, steel frame, fabric-enclosed horse arena on their land.

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Newtown High School students were selected to participate in the 1999 Western Regional High School Music Festival. The annual event will take place at Stamford High School on Friday, January 15, and Saturday, January 16. The 26 NHS students chosen are among the finest high school musicians selected to represent Fairfield County. Selection was based on an all-state audition held in November. Each student was required to perform a solo. The practice sessions and rehearsals that led to the students’ solo performances were intense and demanding. Students are enrolled in at least one of the music department class offerings, which include Band, Orchestra, Jazz Band and Chorus. … Most of Newtown’s graduates proceed to major in music, said Michelle Hiscavich, director of the Newtown High School music department.

January 11, 1974

State Fire Marshals with the assistance of Newtown Deputy Marshal George Lockwood are still investigating the fire which heavily damaged Greenwich House, a residential hall at Fairfield Hills State Hospital on Sunday, January 6. The first, which was allegedly set by a 24-year-old male patient, broke out sometime during the dinner hour. One patient, Boleslaw Taradine, 53, of Seymour, died of apparent smoke inhalation. Another patient, Thomas O’Brien of Ansonia, was sent to Danbury Hospital and treated for several days for smoke inhalation. Both men were discovered and brought out of the building by Fairfield Hills fireman Fred Jackson.

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Conservation Commission Chairman Theodore Whippie, warning that Newtown’s day of decision on acquiring open space land is nearing, received the Board of Selectmen’s approval at its meeting on Tuesday night, January 8, for use of $9,100 of revenue sharing funds for preparation of base maps and a plan for open space in the town. David Portman of Frederick P. Clark Associates of Rye, N.Y., planning and development consultants, will prepare the plan for the Conservationists. Mr Whippie indicates work on the plan will take up to six months to complete, and an additional $1,500 to finance the preparation will be sought from CDAP funds.

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Newtown’s brush chipper has been taken out of winter storage, according to Road Superintendent Edward Napier, and pickups of brush will be made during the course of the winter although no schedule has been set up. Brush should be left along the sides of roads for pickup.

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The arrival of Daylight Savings Time on January 6 literally threw the country in the dark for the early part of the morning, and those who noticed it more than others were the students on their way to schools and the drivers of the cars who were trying to avoid hitting them. Well, here in Newtown, the school kids aren’t going to have to set out for school in the pitch black anymore. At its meeting on Tuesday evening, January 8, the Board of Education voted to open all schools in the system one hour later. This will become effective Monday, January 14, and remain in effect until the beginning of winter vacation, February 15. By that time school officials feel the morning will be light enough to go back to the regular schedule.

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The annual meeting of the Newtown Committee for Housing for the Elderly took place on Monday, January 7, in the office of Joseph Chase on Main Street. Minutes from each of the officers, reporting on the year’s activities, were read. President Stanley Main summarized the year as one of progress. He noted that Newtown was in sight of getting a housing authority after three years of work on the part of the committee. He noted that over the course of 1973, the committee had consulted with developers and experts in an effort to develop a viable housing for the elderly recommendation.

January 4, 1924

EDITORIAL INK DROPS: While nearly every town about us had one or more cases of small pox, Newtown has fortunately escaped. The state authorities think this is because the children and adults were so thoroughly vaccinated by Health Officer Kiernan in 1917. It was a difficult situation at that time but it was very ably handled by the local health officer.

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On New Year’s Eve, 1873, George Beers of Roxbury and Mrs Gertrude A. [illegible] Nettleton, of Bridgewater, were married by the Rev John B. Doolittle in the Congregational church of that town. Announcements of the Fiftieth Anniversary have been sent to their many friends from 301 Summer Street, Stamford, Conn., to which place they recently moved from Danbury and where they are now making their home. During their residence of nearly 10 years in Danbury, Mr Beers held, and still holds, a prominent position in the Danbury Ice Company. Their son, Norman C. Beers, is the Prosecuting Attorney for Danbury and lives in that city. By her first marriage, Mrs Beers had three children, Arthur Treat Nettleton, Treasurer of the Newtown Savings Bank, Joseph H. Nettleton, of New Milford, and Susie F. Judd of Stamford, Conn. A quiet celebration was planned, but owing to the sudden illness of Mrs Beers it had to be postponed.

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Gus Forest of Bridgeport was the guest, New Year’s day, of Mr and Mrs A.P. Smith.

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Fred Johnson of Sugar street was a Bridgeport visitor on Monday.

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Birdsey Parson is assisting with the work in the store of Corbett & Crowe.

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Miss Anna Carmody of Bridgeport passed New Year’s with her sister, Miss Margaret Carmody.

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Miss May Holihan was in Bridgeport, New Year’s, the guest of Mrs Thomas Harrison.

January 13, 1899

Former Sheriff Aaron Sanford of Newtown has just presented the county commissioners with the ominous looking knife with which Edwin Hoyt killed his father in Sherman, for which crime he was hanged May 13, 1880, at the county jail, in this city. This gift to the county commissioners would not perhaps be worthy of more than a passing thought, were it not for the fact that the police department has prized in its collection of weapons a long ugly knife which has for 18 years passed as the knife used by the murderer. … The county commissioners were in Newtown a few days ago granting licenses, and former High Sheriff Sanford became reminiscent in a talk with them. … conversation finally drifted to the Hoyt murder. … Mr Miller told the former official that the knife was on exhibition in the police collection in Bridgeport, and Mr Sanford laughed. “Why I’ve had that knife in my safe all these years,” the sheriff added. He was high sheriff at the time that Hoyt was hanged, and preserved the knife and the black cap used at the execution. Sheriff Sanford went to his home and brought back the weapon, an old fashioned butcher knife. The blade was wrapped in two pieces of paper, which when unfolded proved to be the trial list of the Superior court for the February term, 1880. The former Sheriff told the commissioners that he had retained possession of the knife since the crime, and there could be no mistake about it. … Mr Sanford made the commissioners a present of the knife and they now have it at their office in this city.—[Bridgeport Farmer

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On January 2 John Keane of Zoar, with the assistance of James Carey, Dennis Quinlivan, Michael Keane, Charles Costello, Patrick Shea and John Keane, Jr, killed and dressed a hog that measured in length seven feet, 10 inches; girt, six feet, seven inches. It timed the beam at 807 pounds when ready for the barrel, smokehouse and sausage machine. There are hogs and hogs, but this was a porker!

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The minstrel entertainment at the Town hall, late Thursday evening, was one of the best local affairs given in town in a long time. The young men were appropriately costumed, and the enthusiasm with which they entered upon their work lent interest to the occasion. “The Spinsters:” were not forgotten, and the jokes given at their expense were enjoyed by the audience. Charles G. Peck was heartily encored on his solo and responded with a song, with local hits upon “The Spinsters.”

Do you have photographs of people or places in town from a bygone era? The Way We Were is the perfect landing spot so that your photographs can be enjoyed by Newtown Bee readers. Images can be e-mailed as attachments to shannon@thebee.com, subject line: Way We Were photo. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date. If you live locally and would like to loan a photo/photos, please give us a call (203-426-3141) to let us know when you will be visiting