March 20, 1998

The Newtown High School Band was proclaimed the Grand Champion of the 237th St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City on Tuesday. Jim Dumas, director of the high school band, described the Newtown musicians as “tight, very together.” Newtown played the piece “Birdland” 21 times in the hour it took them to march up Fifth Avenue from West 45th to West 78th Street. Newtown has performed in the parade for the past 21 years. The last time that they were the grand champion was in 1995. Led by flutist James Galway, Irish pop star Phil Coulter and Grand Marshal Albert Reynolds, former prime minister of Ireland, the 80-band parade drew hundreds of thousands of green-clad spectators.

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The Board of Selectmen Monday voted to create a seven-member task force to assist the Planning & Zoning Commission in its efforts to regulate development in Newtown. The group will work under the direction of P&Z to take a close look at the town’s plan of development and its zoning regulations. The task force, created for just a one-year period, will await specific duties from the P&Z. The board will include Joe Bojnowski of the Board of Selectmen, P&Z members Dan Fogliano and Lilla Dean, and residents Kurt Gillis, Eleanor Mayer, Eric Roundy and Jim Setz.

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Commander Douglass T. Biesel became the campaign of the USS Philadelphia, a nuclear fast attack submarine with a crew of 14 officers and 127 enlisted men. A large group of family and friends from Newtown attended the change-of-command ceremony at the naval base in Groton to watch Cmdr Biesel become captain of the 360-foot submarine. “When I enlisted in the Navy after I graduated from Newtown High School in 1975, battleships weren’t on active duty so I chose submarines. It was the best decision I ever made,” he said this week.

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Moppin Sauce made quite a triumphant return to Newtown last weekend, performing a show to a very enthusiastic — and large — crowd at The Fireside Inn. The band, which plays the music of the Seventies, brings the look of the same decade into each of its shows, with band members digging their favorite wardrobe pieces out of the closets for each performance. Last weekend’s show also marked the performance debuts of three new members of the band, bringing the group total to nine members. Now performing with Moppin Sauce are guitarist Mike Connolly, drummer Bob Henderson, and backing vocalist Carrie Valenta. They join Kathy Buda, Glenn Dean, Tim McMahon, Spencer Real, Cass Stevens, and Ed Zang.

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The Newtown High School Markettes won first place in the dance division at Southern Connecticut State University last weekend. Everyone knew who the girls from Newtown were right after their three-minute performance, a Ladies Night mix of things like rap and “Foxy Brown,” brought down the house. More than 60 teams attended the competition, hosted by the SCSU cheerleaders. The dance teams were judged on a number of different things, most of them technical like facial expressions, straight lines, synchronization, and levels of difficulty.

March 16, 1973

The Board of Selectmen’s budget for 1973-74 as submitted to the Board of Finance yesterday came to a total of $2,665,482, First Selectman Frank DeLucia announced. The proposed budget includes provision for a full-time field man for the assessor’s office, professional sanitarian, and night dispatcher for the Police Department. Provision is also made for a half-time zoning enforcement officer and a half-time dog warden.

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An original watercolor of the Belden House, home of the Newtown Historical Society, was presented on Tuesday afternoon to the Society by the Union Trust Company. Making the presentation to Raymond Doyle, president of the Society, were George E. Northrop, vice president of the Union Trust Company and former Treasurer of the Society, and J. William Font, assistant treasurer and manager of the Newtown Office. The painting will hang in the Cyrenius H. Booth Library for the public to see before moving to a permanent location in the Belden House.

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Lexington Gardens officials have been hoping for a May 15 opening for the new facility off Church Hill Road, and the main building is now under construction and going up rapidly. When finished it will be of Colonial design with a brick façade. A greenhouse will be attached to the rear. Many of the trees in the area have been saved and the building is well back off the road. Morganti Incorporated of Ridgefield is the contractor.

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The Stony Hill Inn was the setting for the annual dinner-dance of the Hook and Ladder Company last Saturday night and a most enjoyable time was had by the 56 attending. During the evening, the Company honored Kenneth Pelletier as the outstanding member of the year. Chief Lee Glover presented a gift on behalf of the company to Mr Pelletier. Fred Mayer, the oldest member of the Company, was also in attendance, as was Chief Joseph Elias of the Fairfield Fire Department, among other distinguished guests. Dancing was to the Lanno Brothers Orchestra. Following the dance, an early breakfast was served at the fire house with Ed Shanley and Paul Alexander, chefs in charge.

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Robert G. Neubauer of Fairfield entertained and instructed an overflow meeting of the Newtown Historical Society’s members and guests last Monday evening at the Library, on “collecting” Seventeenth, Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century gravestones. Strictly speaking, recording them is his hobby, on film and on paper. His hunt for prime examples of the stonecutter’s art has taken him from Long Island Sound and the off islands to Nova Scotia, and inland through all New England and halfway across New York State.

March 12, 1948

Thanks to the quick thinking of Lloyd J. Riemersma, 22, of Michigan, driver of a furnace-laden trailer truck, more than 40 children escaped injury Tuesday morning when the truck he was driving went out of control and the brakes failed on Sandy Hook hill. The school bus, owned and operated by Clark A. Page, was stopped on the right side of Riverside road taking on its passengers when the heavy truck and trailer shot past, grazing the bus. By swerving to prevent a collision, Riemersma’s heavy vehicle rolled through Sandy Hook’s unprotected intersection, up Riverside road, and crashed through a large evergreen on the property of Austin J. Keane and struck a 30-inch tree. The impact of the crash telescoped the engine and cab. Apparently Riemersma took his feet off the pedals an instant before the crash and threw his body to the right of the wheel, for he escaped being crushed. He was nevertheless pinned against the seat, his legs caught in the wreckage of the cab, until he could be removed from the vehicle and taken to the hospital.

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Mr and Mrs William Wenzel of Sandy Hook announce the birth of a daughter on March 5th at the Danbury Hospital. Mrs Wenzel is the former Lucy Crouch.

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Tax Collector “Bob” Camp returned home last week from a three-week stay in Florida, reporting a fine time.

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Ralph Bowen and Duncan and Tom Stephens are at their respective homes in town, enjoying the two-week spring vacation from their studies at the Wooster School in Danbury.

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The Newtown High School girls lost their League championship game last Friday afternoon to a very experienced and energetic Thomaston High School team on the New Milford floor by two points, 35-33. The Thomaston girls led by three points at half time, but the Hawley girls closed the gap and led by two points when the last quarter started, and even had a six-point lead at one time.

March 9, 1923

Beauty and industry very seldom are associated with each other, and yet our newest Newtown industry brings to our town a touch of beauty which makes us glad to welcome it. Charles A. Steck of Bethel, who has chosen Newtown as a site for his fast developing nursery and landscape business, is a native of Bethel, having lived there for over 40 years. … Mr Steck’s business, located on the knoll of the Bussey farm, may be reached through Elm Drive, off Sugar street, or directly from the Bridgeport state road near the Newtown cemetery. The line of business will include all branches of nursery work, landscape work, spraying, and country estate work, and will specialize in fancy evergreens and hardy flowers, and five acres will be devoted to flower culture alone.

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OBITUARY — MRS GEORGE W. STUART: Mrs Amelia B. Thornhill Stuart, wife of George W. Stuart of the Borough, died on Sunday morning, after an illness of several weeks’ duration with grip and complications. Mrs Stuart was the daughter of the late Samuel Thornhill and Elizabeth Skidmore Thornhill of Brookfield. … Mrs Stuart was a communicant of Trinity church, and a woman held in the highest esteem by her neighbors and intimate friends. Mrs Stuart was 56 years of age.

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OBITUARY — GEORGE W. STUART: The Borough loses another valued and substantial citizen in the death on Wednesday noon in the Roosevelt hospital in New York of George W. Stuart, the veteran carpenter and contractor. Mr Stuart was 80 years old, and had been quite active up to the last year. In his active business days Mr Stuart built many residences in town, and was a competent and thorough workman. In his earlier days he worked with Otis & Gillette and later with Charles B. Glover. He was a man of honesty of purpose, and upright in all his dealings. Mr Stuart was twice married. His first wife was Catharine Erwin, a daughter of Dr Erastus Erwin. For his second wife he married Amelia Thornhill, daughter of Samuel Thornhill of Brookfield.

Funeral services for Mr and Mrs Stuart will take place on Friday at 2 p.m., from their late home in the street. Rev J.L. Lasher will officiate. This is the first time in many years, a double funeral service for husband and wife has taken place in this town.

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E.R. Botsford is at Ithaca, N.Y., spending a few weeks with his son, Harold E. Botsford, assistant professor of poultry husbandry at Cornell University.

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George Clark is out riding in a new Ford car, purchased from Lillis & Hurd of Sandy Hook.

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Judge Mathewson and C.P. Sandford are of course very fine men. But their action in trying to force a name on to our lake the local people do not want, reminds us of the actions of the village or ward busybodys [sic] who attended to everyone else’s business except their own. Newtown in a town meeting has voted that this lake shall be named Zoar lake. Zoar lake it is and Zoar lake it is going to stay.—[Editor of The Bee]

March 18, 1898

TOWN TOPICS: The adjourned and special town meetings were held at the Town hall, last Saturday afternoon, and they will go on record as the most peaceful gatherings ever held in this town to discuss town matters. Everybody seemed in good humor and all wanted the same thing done quite evidently. Sometime after 2 o’clock Town Clerk M.J. Houlihan read the warning for the adjourned town meeting from last October. On the call for a chairman Aaron Sanford was the choice of the meeting. The business was the fixing of the tax rate.

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Rev Robert Carter of Washington, pastor of the Congregational church in that town, who preached at the Hawleyville chapel, Sunday night, was the guest of Mr and Mrs A.G. Baker.

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Mrs Mary Botsford of Botsford passed last Friday as the guest of her schoolmate, Miss Julia Duncombe.

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Clarence Sears has broken ground for a new shop on his Huntingtown property. It will be 25x50 feet with a basement and 22-foot posts and will be a general purpose building. Mr Sears expects to manufacture a lawn mower for the season’s trade. A knuckle joint cider press purchased of Palmer of Mianus will press apple juice for the farmers next fall and a wood lathe will hold sticks for turning into posts.

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Master Willie Bader of Washington passed Wednesday in town, the guest of A.P. Smith.

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Justice M.J. Cavanaugh is wearing a happy smile these days. It is a son.

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.