Memorial Day 2011
Despite periods of heavy rain which cancelled parades in adjacent towns, Clinton paid tribute to its fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, first with ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier followed by the casting of a wreath off the Indian River bridge for those lost at sea.
The flying of a flag in the Indian River Cemetery for Memorial Day was made possible by Dave Middletown who installed a new rope on the 40 foot pole.
Photos by Mary Jane Fritz
This one is for you.
A bird census taken during a two week period in 1935 reported sighting more than 90 varieties in Clinton and Madison, to according a newspaper account in the Clinton Recorder in the June 6th issue of that year.
The census, sponsored by the Hartford Society of Bird Study, was undertaken by an unnamed a resident of Madison.
The Recorder specifies this may not be the complete list of birds---which could fool this editor who found the article interesting for the number of birds she never heard of.
The 1935 list of birds follows: Holdoell's grebe, loon, red throated loon, herring gull, laughing gull, common tern, cormorant, American merganser, black duck, white winged scoter Canada goose, bittern, great blue heron, green heron, black crown night heron; least sandpiper, greater yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs, Bob White, ruddy turnstone, killdeer, semipalmated plover, pheasant, mourning dove, broad winged hawk, sparrow hawk, osprey, yellow billed cook;
Also, kingfisher, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, red headed woodpecker, flicker, whip poor-will, chimney swift, humming bird, kink bird, crested flycatcher, Phoebe, least flycatcher, blue jay, crow. starling, bobolink, cow bird, red winged, black bird, meadow lark, orchard oriole, Baltimore oriole,, bronzed grackle, purple finch, gold finch, English sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, white crowned sparrow, white throated sparrow, chipping sparrow, field sparrow, song sparrow, swamp sparrow, chewink, indigo bunting, scarlet tanager, purple martin, eave swallow, barn swallow, tree swallow, bank swallow;
And, red eyed vireo, black and white warbler, blue winged warbler, parula warbler, yellow warbler, magnolia warbler, chestnut sided warbler, yellow palm warbler, prairie warbler, oven bird, Maryland yellow throat, red start, catbird, hermit thrush, brown thrush, house wren, long billed marsh wren, white breasted nuthatch, chickadee, wood thrush, Wilson's thrush, robin, bluebird.
Clinton Historical Society librarian Ann Colson examines a replica of the Cheseborough Pond's plant with Bert Godwin to be added to his diorama of a portrayal of downtown Clinton in 1915.
Ironically, Bert's completion coincided with the current owner, Unilever's announcement that it will close the plant by the end of 2012 after 120 years of operation.
Bert's diorama with its running train is available for viewing on Wednesdays in Old Brick's library from 9 a.m. to noon.
Out with the old
A concession stand, a familiar landmark at Waterside town beach which has served several generations of Clinton beachgoers, was demolished in June.
In with the new
A new beach facility containing bathrooms, showers, storage area for lifeguards and concession stand is under construction and expected to be completed in mid August.
Despite periods of heavy rain which cancelled parades in adjacent towns, Clinton paid tribute to its fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, first with ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier followed by the casting of a wreath off the Indian River bridge for those lost at sea.
The flying of a flag in the Indian River Cemetery for Memorial Day was made possible by Dave Middletown who installed a new rope on the 40 foot pole.
Photos by Mary Jane Fritz
Fire Department opens June 2nd
Nate Clark identifies the firemen in early photographs of an exhibit by the Clinton Historical Society in museum room paying tribute to the Clinton Volunteer Fire Department's Centennial anniversary of its founding. Michelle Parrish, the society's curator, organized the exhibit which will be available for viewing this summer on Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m. in the town hall. There is a book for residents to express their sentiments, reminiscences and appreciation to the volunteer firemen.
The editor's "for the book" experience follows.
Putting out the fire
on a manure pile
Our visit from the Clinton Fire Department happened years ago when our younger son and his neighborhood friend were about four years old and playing in the yard with their toy wooden guns, while I sunned on the back step talking on the phone.
Suddenly, the boys came running, shouting, "Fire! Fire!"
Sure enough at the back of the property black smoke and flames rose from the stockpile of horse manure.
While the firemen rushed to the rescue, the boys confessed to setting the fire. They said they had decided to make rabbit stew, and started the fire for cooking while they went off hunting for a rabbit.
When the fire was out, I apologized profusely, and one fireman said, "Lady, every kid should be so lucky to have a manure pile to set on fire."
The Fire Department's centennial celebration will be held the weekend of September 16-18.
Bert and Jinny Godwin, retiring librarians of the Clinton Historical Society's Archival Library were honored at the society's annual meeting and carry in supper May 6 in the town hall green room. Ann Colson was welcomed aboard as the Godwins' successor. The library, located at Old Brick, is open 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays.
There were lots of choices at the dessert table for the members of the Clinton Historical Society at the society's carry-in supper and annual meeting.
commerates Neuberts' Fiftieth
Carl and Ruth Neubert were as surprised as motorists when they saw their 50th wedding anniversary on display beside the road in front of their home on Chittenden Hill Road.
They were married on March 4, 1961 in Clinton's First Church of Christ. Ruth's maiden name was Funk.
Responsible for unusual celebration greeting were Ruth's niece and nephew, former Clinton residents, Christine Vliet Marvel of Atlanta and John Vleit, children of her sister Jane.
Carl also presented Ruth with a 50th Happy Anniversary wake-up call at 12:30 a.m. on Friday.
The Neuberts have two children, Carl Jr. and Shaylene Canestrari who produced five grandchildren for them to relish.
The family celebrated Friday night at a home party.
Morgan Founders Day
Lots of memories were exchanged at April 10th's Morgan Founders Day, sponsored by the Clinton Historical Society, Morgan School Alumni and The Morgan School.
Dottie Washburn, a graduate of the original Morgan School, spoke on the curriculum and traditions of
her era.
Retired English teacher and Department
Head Patrick McKiernan, without naming names, recalled humorous events
of his career at Morgan.
Keith Dauer related his experiences
as a Morgan graduate who returned to be a teacher.
Following the program in the library,
tours were provided of the school.
Founders Day celebrants
Photo credit: Faith Fisher
honors prestigious history
The house where Charles Morgan was born which eventually evolved to become the current site of Saldamarco's.
Did you know when Charles Morgan gave the money to build The Morgan School on Main Street that he also set up a $200,000 endowment fund which paid the education costs of all Clinton's students for a 60 year period, between 1871 and 1933?
Did you know that the architecture of current Morgan School facility constructed in 1951 was considered so innovative that its design plans are on file in the Library of Congress?
Did you know that the house in which Charles Morgan was born is now the site of Saldamarco's; and that the location of The old Morgan School was across the street?
With The original Morgan School in the background, the Class of 1897 pose with the statute (still in place) of their benefactor, Charles Morgan.
And, were you aware that academic standards and prestige of the original Morgan School attracted top scholars from all over the state and even overseas?
On Sunday April 10, the Clinton Historical Society, Morgan School Alumni and The Morgan School invite the community to The Morgan School Library from 2 to 4 p.m. to learn the history and traditions of an extraordinary school system that once made Clinton the envy of Connecticut townships.
The program, beginning in the Library at 2, will include: a history of native son and shipping magnate Charles Morgan, a description of a student life at the original Morgan school, a short history of the school and a panel discussion between current and former teachers and students.
A tour of school facility will also be offered and conducted by current students.
Literally, the Clinton Historical Society would like to know and is asking for the citizens' help in identifying persons, and in many cases places that appear in the catalogued material donated to the Old Brick archival library, on East Main Street, opposite Waterside Lane.
Citing a noteable example, the Society librarians are begging for Cheseborough Ponds retirees to sort through 2,000 photographs that have been passed on by Unilever, the company's current owner. They cover numerous eras and activities---workers on the line, product demonstrations and social activities like bowling tournament winners.
Old Brick's library is open on Wednesday mornings, 9 a.m. to noon on a drop in basis. There is plenty of working table space. Name your topic of interest, and presto, the librarians shall present it and in addition to having fun, you'll be participating in the preservation of Clinton's history.
When pumpkins and potatoes were the town dock's neighbors
In 1945, the town dock's neighbors were two farmers, a salt marsh and meadowlands, a far cry from today's landscape of neatly lined up houses with quarter acre backyards, marinas and several condos.
Louis Esposito owned and farmed both sides of Maplewood Drive. His daughter was the late Laura Schubert who lived out her lifetime in a house on her father's property overlooking Esposito Beach, named for her family.
Peter Malchiodi, with his two sons, Bernie and William, owned and worked the land on both sides of Cedar Island Avenue up to Neck Road. It was his daughters, Rose Gasparini and the late Elvira Repetti who have donated the use of land for St. Mary Parish's soup kitchen garden.
Malchiodi also maintained a small shop at the town dock at which he sold his produce, later adding a restaurant called Sea Scout, of which his wife, Louise disapproved. When Peter turned his back, she flipped the open sign to closed. When she wasn't looking, he flipped it back. Subsequently, Malchiodi opened a second shop on Main Street, between the Coffee Break and the attorney's office, which Bernie later converted into the Country Tavern.
In 1942, the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor and the Malchiodi sons went off to war.
Rose, the youngest child, was in high school then. Her best friend was Shirley Wright whose father owned the Clinton Hotel where the CVS parking lot now is located. Shirley had a horse and the two would go riding through the open meadowlands of Riverside Drive. Later when Rose went to Stone's Business School, Shirley would meet her at the bus stop with the horse; Rose would hop on the back for a ride home.
Rose recollects that her father planted celery where St. Mary's garden is located. She says her family called that area the "hollow" because it dipped below the adjacent land and flooded in the winter for beautiful ice skating. She remembers her father sitting there under a favorite tree on summer evenings, smoking his pipe, Also, she remembers at the end of Cedar Island Avenue a small shipyard which used the boat launching facility, currently operated by the town.
With little help available for farming, and beginning to feel their age, Malchoidi, followed by Esposito, began selling off lots in anticipation of a post World War 11 housing boom that would come with the return of veterans.
In the 1950's, construction began on the Connecticut Turnpike, which provided jobs for returning veterans to build homes, and enabled city folk to become suburban commuters. Many veterans, Rose remembers, bought her father's lots.
Near the end of the war, Rose's mother, Louise, was looking out the kitchen window when she saw the postman make a delivery to her husband in the field. She watched him throw his hat to the ground and begin walking toward the house. Rose said her mother knew immediately that one of their sons would not be coming home.
Rose meanwhile was at the Clinton House having lunch with Shirley when Shirley's father came over and said, "Rose, you need to go home immediately. Your mother and father need you." And she too knew that a brother had been killed.
The brother was Bernie who worked as an engineer on a B-17. What made his death even more tragic was it was his last combat flight before being eligible to return to the states.
A copper sculpture, in memory of Peter Bernard (Bernie) Malchoidi, has been placed by his family in the Commerce Street Park on Main Street.
When Clinton native and Doris Kelsey, who is in her 90th decade, began school in the one room Mill District schoolhouse on Glenwood Road, Warren Richards Sr. provided the bus service in his nursery business truck equipped with wooden benches, with the older students assigned to sit in the rear to make sure the younger ones didn't fall off the back.
Contrast Doris' 1920's school bus transportation with today's big yellow buses equipped with every imaginable safety device--- with it likely being a only matter of time before the state legislature mandates all Connecticut students be strapped in with safety belts.
Today's school bus drivers are no longer part timers looking to pick up some pin money. They are professionals who have received 40 hours of driving instruction and 40 hours of classroom instruction, plus testing by a state inspector to receive certification for driving one of Clinton's 22 full size buses and 10 smaller size buses for its enrollment of 2,039 students (last year's figures,)
Prior to being accepted for training by First Student, the company holding the bus contract in Clinton, bus drivers have been drug screened, undergone state and federal background checks and passed a motor vehicle test.
Tom DeSario is one of First Student's 12 summer trainees, half of which will be assigned to Clinton with the others going to area shoreline towns. (Training classes are also held year round.) DeSario holds a pilot's license and flies an airplane he built. He compares earning his pilot's license to earning a school bus driver's certification.
Other current trainees' backgrounds include a former business owner of a construction company, a machinist, heavy equipment operator, postal worker and a recently retired commercial pilot. Once certified, school bus drivers must undergo proficiency testing every two years with a state inspector.
Included in the classroom instruction is training in case of accident, and incidents of security (close the door which locks it from the outside, and call for help) and icy conditions (slow down and gear down; the weight of bus will retain the stability.)
Prior to starting the school year, all school bus drivers make the rounds of their routes with a trainer, while also ensuring the proper adjustment of all seven mirrors and similar equipment. Prior to the school day, every day, each driver runs through a 10 minute check list of his/her bus from front to back, inside and out; and a no questions asked, automatic dismissal is an activated cell phone on a bus driver's person.
One of the perennial problems for drivers are parents who want custom bus service for their child. First Group's manager Frank Kulick notes that such requests cannot be granted by the bus driver but must be submitted to the school authorities.
Finally Kulick sympathizes with taxpayers who are currently forced by the state legislature to pay for a school bus seat for every student in the district, whether the student uses it, or as many high school students with their own cars do not.
Kulick says yes, his company would lose income by downsizing but it would save on fuel, and could save the school districts millions of dollars.
Nebraska teen & grandparents
Summers are a treasured time for 17 year old Taylor Venn of Nebraska.
Not only does it bring a reunion with her grandparents, Carl and Mary Jane Fritz but it is also a homecoming to the town in which she was raised and left her heart when in middle school she moved with her family to Nebraska.
In June, when school lets out Taylor is the first one on a plane to Connecticut to spend the summer. Accompanying her is her nine year old brother Jaden, while a five year old brother Jake remained home in Nebraska.
Taylor's arrival this year coincided with a period of cloudy, cool and rainy days. No matter. Like her grandparents, she's a reader and the Henry Carter Hull Library is one of her favorite places.
Had she remained in Nebraska, temperatures would have been soaring in the low 100's, and with her friends she would have been seeking relief swimming in lakes, fishing in rivers, hiking, camping, riding horseback and archery.
Taylor's typical Clinton summer with her grandparents involves sunny days at the beach, swims in the Indian River off her grandparents' backyard, a trip to New York City and to Boston, and visits with her other grandmother in Hamden.
This summer's highlights included a visit to the Cloisters in New York City, lunch at Sarba's Cafe in Clinton, a walk to the gazebo at the town beach, a special gourmet cake baking, and lovely books to read into the wee hours and in cool corners on sizzling afternoons.
After lunch on the porch, Taylor serves as the perfect model for an exquisite broach from the amber collection of jewelry that the Cafe Sarba imports from Poland. And what grandmother could resist a purchasing a small remembrance-----not Taylor's.
Taylor also is giving computer lessons to her grandmother.
In Nebraska, Taylor thinks of becoming an archeologist.
In Clinton, with her feet once again in beach sand, the possibilities expand, as expressed in her poetic thoughts written following her June homecoming walk with her grandmother:
"Combine the first beautiful day of summer with the impulsiveness of a young person's whimsical spirit.
Where to go?
What to do?
For a Nebraskan, the Clinton beach seems to be the ideal place. Walking among the exquisite roses to the gazebo certainly puts a mind in fanciful space.
Approaching the gazebo the beckoning waters could make anyone envision just about anything. The mystery and potential are endless.
Standing at the rail and looking out in any direction it's hard to not build a castle in the air.
What awaits me out there?"
in third referendum
Clinton voters approved a $31,137,306 education budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year by a margin of 540 votes in a third referendum on June 8.
The voter turnout was 2792, with 1666 voting yes and 1126 voting no.
to its spring concert June 3rd
On Friday night June 3rd at 8 p.m., the auditorium of Andrews Memorial Town Hall will resound with the voices of The Choral Club of Clinton as it presents its annual spring concert, this year marking its 85th performance.
The Choral Club is one of Clinton's few social alliances to have survived the dramatic cultural changes over the last century. And it has the distinction of being possibly the oldest choral group in the state, and even nation.
Seward Hull founded the Choral Club in 1926 in the name of good fellowship and love for singing. Because he was too soft hearted to reject anyone, he held no auditions, a tradition that exists today.
As in Hull's time, the chorus is composed of mainly amateurs singers whose only formal training has been in church, school and other community choirs.
Among the current singers are a dentist, a math professor, a retired pastor and banker, teachers, several retired professional musicians and homemakers. The Club welcomed six newcomers this year with Billie Watrous, Charles Stannard and Dottie Burgon holding the longevity records going back 50 years.
Most are Clinton residents, with others coming from Guilford, Old Lyme, even Stamford and Groton.
This is Michael Carnarah's second year as choral director. He is a graduate of UMass and conducts the North Branford High School and Catholic Middle School choirs. Joyce Baxter has been the accompanist for two decades. Gail Carlisle has served as Choral Club president for close to the same amount of time.
This year's program features spirituals, folk tunes and a narrated history of "100 Years of Broadway", encompassing 40 musical selections which include Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Stephen Sonheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Following the performance, the audience is invited to a reception in the Green Room.
Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the box office.
A tradition of fellowship has resulted in the Choral Club of Clinton being the oldest choral group in Connecticut. Some scenes from a recent Tuesday night practice.
So Much For That
by Lionel Shriver
Will any of his characters get their just rewards? (continued on Linda's page)
The Three Weissmanns of Westport
by Cathleen Schine
"If you're looking for a break from heavy duty reading-and a few laughs-this might fit the bill. (continued on Linda's page)
The Unamed
by Joshua Ferris
"Tim Farnsworth has a disease which no one has ever heard of. (continued on Linda's page)
Main Street properties
Clinton's 350th centennial anniversary is two years away but the Arbor Garden Club and Clinton Historical Society are getting a head start by placing identical flower pots of perennial plants on nine historic properties on Main Street.
But it's just the beginning, and by celebration time in 2013, the collaborating gardeners and historians hope to have Historic Planter Markers on every historic Main Street structure.
A Historic Planter marks the Eliot House, next to the town hall, built in 1783 by George Eliot. A ninth generation of Eliot's descendants still own and have continued to occupy the premises. Over the centuries, the spelling of Eliot has been changed to Elliot.
Properties to date receiving planters include the Eliot House, Stanton House, Old Brick, the Matteis' home, Waterside Antiques, The White Dress, Beauty Library, Loftus house and Miriam Green's book store.
send thank you notes
One student wrote, "It's the best field trip I've ever been on."
He referred to the Clinton Historical Society's recent field trip hosting the Pierson School fourth graders through a tour of Old Brick.
There was so much to show and to demonstrate that it took more than a dozen Society volunteers to guide the small groups of students through the house, gardens, library and tool museum.
One girl was so excited by her introduction to Clinton's Old Brick history that she couldn't wait for her mom and dad to attend a duplicated tour planned for the parents.
Taking turns running the train around Bert Godwin's 1915 replica of Clinton Main Street was a highlight for Pierson School visiting fourth graders. Society volunteers are Charlotte and Ted Neely.
Caitlin, a student in Mrs. Skidmore's class, summarized the sentiments of her classmates in the following thank you letter.
Dear Old Brick Volunteers,
Our class thanks you so much for making our day and putting smiles on our faces!
We had a fun time eating the plants, exploring the house, playing with the tools in the tool shed and racing the trains in the library.
(To)Volunteers in the toolshed: I had so much fun playing with the tools. My favorite tool was the corn one, where you put a cob of corn in the machine and the cob comes out of the machine with no corn.
Volunteers in the house: I liked exploring the house and seeing the clothes and toys they used. My favorite part was just seeing everything. I thought their textbooks were cool looking.
Volunteers in the library: My favorite part was when we got to control the trains. I also liked doing the puzzles and finding my road on the maps.
Volunteers in the garden: I loved smelling and eating the herbs in the garden. My favorite was the lemon one.
Thanks a lot again. Caitlin
This town hall sweeping team was among the 200 Morgan School students, who spent Friday's Husky Helper Day sprucing up Main Street and the beaches. The remaining students stayed to spiff up the school property and provide a concert for senior citizens. All students brought in a contribution to the food bank.
Arbor Garden Club members, l to r, Lucy Elliot, Liz Isaacson and Carolyn Berlepsch prepare the gardens at the Stanton House in anticipation of the museum being open again for Memorial Day and summer visitors.
The Clinton Historical Society hosted its annual Pierson School Days at which fourth grade classes toured Old Brick. Welcoming a student to the Buell Tool Museum are David Townsend, on right, and Scott Renfrew.
Promises in May that spring is finally here
The Pretty Committee begins its annual spring cleaning at the underpass between Post Office Square and High Street, gathering a truckload of trash for the dump.
Commerce Street park comes into bloom.
A stunning display of spring at the Stanton House.
A lawn on Shore Road gets its first mowing.
A treat for the neighborhood is this homeowner's front yard garden.
Ryan Ruggiero and his dad, Ed make their way to march with the Oakland A's team in Saturday's opening day Little League parade. Ed serves as an assistant coach.
Jennifer Bernardo on her horse Splash head for a trail ride in the woods on a serene Sunday afternoon.
Clinton Landing begins
After a year of planning and fundraising, an enthusiastic work crew of Arbor Garden Club committee members and volunteers began the "shovel ready" stage of landscaping Clinton Landing, behind the town hall overlooking the Indian River.
The landscaping will carry a nautical theme with completion date, including the planting of barrels, targeted for mid May.
From counter clockwise, Jeff Cashman who contributed the posts and helped with their installation, Gail Sherry, volunteer Dean Bierken, Jeff's daughter, Heather, Sandy Allen and Amber Bierken.
Making music with the Vece Family
Dan and Bud Vece had the good fortune to be the grandsons of Benjamin Tullo of New Haven who was the first director of the Governor's Foot Guard Band, a master musician and teacher.
Their mother Tilly was a child prodigy pianist who had her first concert in Woolsey Hall at 16 years old.
Their uncles, her brothers, were professional musicians who played all over the world.
When their father, Dan Vece Sr., asked his father-in-law for his Tilly's hand in marriage,
Tullo asked, "What instrument do you play?"
Well, he didn't. So Dan immediately joined a Drum & Fife Corps and began playing the drums. There he met the man who introduced him to playing the banjo that would make Dan a legend in his lifetime along the shoreline.
Dan played his last gig at the age of 101 years, and to that day, never learned to read a note of music.
When Dan and Tilly moved to Clinton, Tilly's concert days were over but she played for the silent movies and was the accompanist for town and school events. All volunteer, Dan Jr. explains, because that's how it was in those days.
In 1933, the students of the Pierson School, including fifth grader Dan Vece (3rd from left) pulled together their own band to play an overture for the school's performance of Pinocchio. School curriculums in that era contained no music program and students who wanted to learn an instrument were taught by an itinerant musician who went town to town, stopping once weekly to give an half hour's lesson for 25 cents.
In those days too, the schools had no formal music program, and shared an itinerant music teacher who went from town to town, stopping once weekly to give students a half hour lesson for 25 cents.
Dan remembers his name, Bellin, and that he gave music lessons during lunch hour so they didn't cut into classroom time, and that he wasn't a much better musician than the youngsters he was teaching.
Fortunately, Dan had his grandfather a trolley ride away to New Haven for his foremost instructions on the trumpet, plus an incentive, "if I didn't play well, he thumped me on my head," Dan quips.
Bud's musical talents were patterned after his mother's. "He was a great pianist, and could have been a professional but he chose to be a singer, " Dan adds.
Some years ago, Dan gave up playing the trumpet, passing it onto his grandson.
Also, some years ago, Dan spearheaded a fundraising campaign to purchase new uniforms for the Jared Eliot band---likely, a soft spot for that age group from his own formative years.
Summarizing the experience of being a family member of three generations of avid musicians, Dan laughs, "We had some great times."
Photo by Carolyn Berlepsch
Rose Buell, Judy McCusker and Ann Colson (left to right) were among the approximate 40 Clinton women who gathered for a combined Mardi Gras, farewell to winter and old fashioned gab fest in the front room at Malone's Sandwich and Coffee House.
a pilgrimage to his grave
Close to a century after his death on a battlefield in France, Howard G. Hilliard's name is remembered in the hometown he left when he enlisted as a U.S. Marine to fight in World War I.
Hilliard was Clinton's first soldier to die in World War I. As such, his name is commemorated---along with Richard H. Jones who was the town's first fallen soldier in World War II and Fred E. Cookson Jr. who hold the same designation in the Korean War---in name of Clinton's American Legion---i.e., the Hillard, Jones and Cookson Post.
The sign post in front the American Legion Hall on the corner of West Main Street and Maple Avenue.
A more poignant and personal remembrance of Howard G. Hilliard can be found in the Clinton Historical Society's archives in a letter to the editor written by a neighbor and friend who recounted her pilgrimage to Hillard's grave in France in 1922. This was four years after World War 1 ended on November 11, 1918.
In her own words, the following is Miss Elsie L. Bliss' account of her visit to Hilliard's grave.
Surely the village of Clinton will always cherish the memory of one of her sons who gave up his life on the battlefield of France during the World War.
So I feel that the readers of the Recorder will find it of interest to know something of my recent visit to the grave of Howard G. Hilliard.
As a neighbor and friend I felt it a privilege to stand beside the simple wooden cross which marks his last resting place. As I faced those 28,000 crosses above the graves of the American boys lying in the Argonne Cemetery, I felt I had made a pilgrimage to a spot which would forever be hallowed ground.
It was August eight, on a dull day which afterward turned to rain, when I started with two traveling companions. Our train left Paris at seven in the morning and we reached Verdun at noon. We had six hours before getting our return train, which arrived back in Paris at eleven that night.
We engaged an automobile to take us over the battlefields to Romague. First we drove through the city of Verdun, a part of which seems to be in good condition as it had been repaired or rebuilt, while many buildings along the banks of the Meuse River are a mass of crumbling ruins. The only house in the city to escape untouched was pointed out to us.
Before leaving the city I went to a florist shop and purchased a plant to take with me, as Mrs. Hilliard had asked, if convenient. I selected a hydrangea with three beautiful pink blossoms.
Then we started on our rough journey through the scarred and tortured battlefield. It was a depressing sight at best, and we found it especially so in a heavy downpour of rain. We rode 50 miles that afternoon, and in all that time we did not see a livable village. A few had begun to take on a semblance of living again, and in these we saw a few workmen and occasionally a scurrying barefoot child. The houses were wooden barracks, with here and there a brave new dwelling of brick or stone.
But for the most part we saw nothing but desolation. Sometimes a pile of stones marking the spot where once a smiling village lay, but more often there was nothing.
We passed several isolated French cemeteries, some with the black crosses of the German soldiers intermingled with the white ones of the Allies.
I could not forebear thinking that peace at almost any price is sweet compared to such scenes of death and destruction.
We visited the Fort de Vaux. This fort was the scene of many heroic fights and was taken by the Germans June 8, 1916, in spite of admirable resistance of Commandant Raynal. After all other means of communication had been cut off he sent forth a carrier pigeon bearing the message, "We have done our duty." The bird was immediately shot down. Its body lies in the Pantheon at Paris, decorated with the Legion of Honor.
We stopped at the Trench of Bayonets, an extensive monument given by American friends in honor of the brave soldiers who fell on that spot. While entrenched, the water supply was cut off. The commander asked for volunteers to go for water. Twenty boys offered to undertake the perilous journey, only three returned alive.
At last we came upon the American Cemetery of the Argonne at Romague. Bravely, it stands alone on a portion of the battlefield itself, with no surrounding village near it. Beside it is a little frame building facing the cemetery with its row upon row of white crosses, all alike. There is a well kept garden where trees and shrubs are planted and a beautiful fountain is being planned. Workmen were carting rich loam to be sowed with grass seed. As we walked through the light brown, sticky mud, we realized the necessity for this, for the clay soil accumulated on our feet until we could hardly lift them.
Our idea of the hardships of the boys in the trenches was at once intensified and made very real to us.
In the center of the cemetery floats the American flag and the chaplain, Major H. Smith of the U.S. Army, said, "Tell the boy's mother that as long as the American flag flies at Washington, it shall be kept floating here, and these graves shall be cherished and honored. He added, "The Marines were brave boys."
Quite near the front and just at the right of center, we found the grave we sought, with the name Howard G, Hilliard, Corporal 16, Co.5, U.S. M., plainly stenciled upon the white cross. I laid the offering of flowers at its foot.
With bowed heads we followed the chaplain in Our Lord's Prayer. He then offered a personal prayer and concluded with these words, softly chanted to the tune of "Taps:"
"Soldier sleep, rest in peace. Safe repose till darkness is light."
Need a commode or cane? Church program can help
Clinton and Killingworth residents
in need of basic medical equipment such as a walker or wheelchair,
shower seat and crutches may be able to borrow them at no charge under
a program now offered by the First Church of Christ in Clinton.
Donations of medical equipment
are also welcomed but on a pre arranged basis. Drop offs will
not be accepted.
Contact the church office at 860-669-5735, and leave a message at Mail Box 2. Calls will be returned within 24 hours.
Identity 2nd Grade Classmates
This lovely young lady became Miss Shirley Tallmadge, the beloved teacher for four decades of Clinton second grade students.
A box of momentoes, including a collection of class pictures, hasbeen donated to the Clinton Historical Society from the estate of Clinton longtime 2nd grade teacher, Shirley Tallmadge
Miss Tallmadge's former students or parents of students are urged to stop in at the Society's archival library at Old Brick on Wednesday mornings, 9 a.m. to noon, to identify the children.
Miss Tallmadge spent the majority of her lifetime on the family farm in Clinton. She never married. She died on November 29, 2010.
She was a graduate of The Morgan School, class of 1938, and attended Tufts University prior to graduating from Southern Connecticut. She taught her first class in 1942 at the Pierson School and taught for over 40 years.
She was a lifetime member of the Clinton Historical Society and Clinton Land Trust, and belonged to both the Clinton and Killingworth Congregational churches where she sang in the choir.
Shirley Tallmadge with her second graders that became the seniors of The Morgan School Class of 1965.
Historical Society president named
director of Yale Beinecke Library
EC Schroeder, president of the Clinton Historical Society, is the newly appointed director of Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
EC Schroeder (Edwin C.) has been named director of Yale University's prestigious Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and University Associate Librarian.
In Clinton, EC is more familiarly known as the two term president of the Clinton Historical Society, and husband of Larissa and father to Morgan School senior John and junior Elena.
The Beinecke directorship was announced by Richard C. Levin, President of Yale University
who described EC as having an "impressive breadth of rare book and managerial experience."
EC was the unanimous choice of the university's Search Committee.
A native of Tallahassee, Florida, EC earned a history degree at College of Holy Cross, and the following year, a master's in Library Science at University of Illinois. From graduation, in 1989, he was hired by Yale as part of a Rare Book team and catalogue librarian at Sterling Memorial Library.
In June 2004, he was named head of Technical services at Beinecke, and has served on and chaired numerous professional committees.
As the Beinecke director, EC supervises a staff of 70 employees. His responsibilities include acquisition, preservation, and expanding the ways students and worldwide scholars have to access to the library's collection of renown rare books and manuscripts.
In his personal collecting, EC has a passion for books on Railroad Train Stations and Etiquette. The family enjoys hiking and traveling.
and memories of bygone days
This week-end's reopening of Lupone's Clinton Department Store for a two-day liquidation sale on Saturday and Sunday, December 4th and 5th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is likely to attract as many sentimental memories as bargain hunters.
Lupone's is where Sturges Redfield, Clinton's emeritus philanthropist, bought his trademark flannel shirts; and prior to shopping malls, where most Clinton residents had a running tab for the family's shoe and clothing needs.
Returning shoppers this week-end will find few changes in the store. The tin ceiling remains, and the oiled wooden floor, and the counters and racks with timeless, name brand merchandize, some with Made in USA labels.
The Clinton Department Store began life in 1906 as a cobblers shop in a barn next to the railroad tracks. Its owner was an Italian immigrant named Angelo Lupone who was born half blind. He learned the shoe trade by feel.
The couple had two sons, Amadio and Vince who married sisters, respective, Helen and Rose.
They produced the current third generation ownership, Mario and Louise (Amadio's kids) and Angelo (Vince's son.)
On June 1, 2007, following the Clinton Department Store's centennial anniversary, the trio sadly closed the doors to pursue the career opportunities more amendable to the 21st century.
As a teenager, Faith Fisher remembers going to Lupone's with her father for winter boots, hoping to get stylish shoe boots like her friend's. She left heartbrokenwith a pair of black golashes.
At the upcoming sale, there is a pair of golashes that after 40 years may change Faith's mind.
Diane Gustafson will be going to the sale. She still appreciates the outfitting of their son for the arctic climes in the summer season. "Up they went into the attic bringing back a heavy winter jacket, snow pants and boots, " she recounts.
And there was nothing that could not be found in Lupone's basement. To be invited to go down those stairs and shop for oneself was badge of acceptance to the Clinton establishment.
Few Clinton teenyboppers entering high school prior to the 1970's will forget the experience of being sent to the dressing room with size 14 and 16 gym suits and being told by Violet, "You'll grow into it."
A shopper to the sale this week-end will be Nancy Webster who plans to purchase a flannel shirt---not to wear it but to frame it as a remembrance of an era when a bank president swept the street on a Saturday morning in shirts he bought from a next door neighbor in a store called Lupone's Clinton Department Store.
Entrance to the sale is the "back door" from the parking lot in back of the Edward Jones Building, 7 West Main Street.
Discovery confirmed of rare colonial sluice & cart road
Salt hay in colonial days was essential to the survival of Clinton's early settlers who used it for food and bedding for livestock and to encase the foundations of their homes from the icy winds of a New England winter.
Connecticut colonial records document a petition approved in 1697 for five Killinworth (sic) men to build a "sluice and cart road" across the Hammock River for access to the salt hay that grew wild in the marshes of the great and little Hammock area.
Clinton resident Lou Bougie's speculation that a row of pilings visible at low tide in the Hammock River behind his home were relics of the original sluice and cart road were recently validated by State archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni.
Bellantoni said there is only one other known sluice and cart road in the state and that is hidden in the woods. He recommended the Clinton site be designated a historical landmark, with action being taken promptly before storms can alter the shoreline landscape, and the location is lost.
Residents can view the ancient pilings at low tide from the bridge on Beach Park Road, between The Hammocks development and Shore Grove Road, and looking north up the Hammock River. The Clinton Land Trust maintains a nearby small parking area which residents are welcome to use.
During Ballantoni's visit, another early cart road in Clinton was confirmed, located and accessible in Harbor View at the end of West Road. This cart road would have serviced settlers gathering salt hay, east of the Hammock River over to Waterside Lane.
The Harbor View cart road attained historical significance during the War of 1812 when the local militia hauled cannons similar to one on Waterside Lane over its sandy roadway to successfully fight off a British attack, according to research by Victor Mays.
Bougie attributed the vertification of his discovery of the Hammock River 1697 sluice and cart road to the combined contributions of Ed and Helene Vanderoef (who own the sluice and cart site), Ann Colson, Ted Neely, Bert and Ginny Godwin of the Clinton Historical Society library, David Burnham, Vic Mays and Town Clerk Karen Marsden.
Oldest house also oldest U.S. farm?
The Stevens Homestead on Cow Hill Road, built in 1690, was long ago documented by local historians to be the town's oldest existing house.
If an article in the Clinton Historical Society's archives is accurate, it also appears that the Stevens family, into its ninth generation, held the distinction of conducting the oldest continously farm operated in the United States.
The article appears to be a copy of an Associated Press news story, datelined Clinton, CT, April 13 but no year. It accompanied a 1973 letter to Society president Theodore P. Moser from a Stevens relative asking if for help in tracing the article's origin. There is no record of his reply.
The article is based on an interview with the ninth generation owner, Leander Stevens, and contains the following historical insights.
In 1675, the King of England awarded a grant for 45 acres of virgin growth timber on Cow Hill Road to John Stevens of Guilford. The construction of the homestead followed 15 years later in 1690.
The house is described as a salt box with a long slanted roof, low ceilings, large fireplaces, hand wrought hardware and huge beams, and contains a view extending 30 miles on a clear day, including Long Island Sound.
In the article, Leander Stevens cites his downsized farm operations as four harvested tons of timothy and clover on three acres.
He named his two most precious possessions as a framed copy of the King of England's grant to his "great great great great great great great grandfather John", and a group picture of John and his descendants.
The article recites Leander's story of a man stopping by and after looking at the view asking, "Stranger, who owns this land? I want to buy it. Would $20,000 interest you?"
To which Leander replied, "This place is not for sale now or at any other time while I am alive. We Stevens respect our ancestors."
Editor's note: Without doing a lot of research ( for which we unfortunately do not have time), we cannot tell you what happened to the homestead after Leander's death. If someone has this information, we'd be happy to hear it.
We can report that in 2009, the Stevens Homestead was sold with two acres to a Guilford couple, who are not related to the Stevens family.
Clinton's all time, worst traffic jam
Clinton motorists today complain about traffic along Main Street, particularly in the summer months or when there's been an accident on the Connecticut Turnpike.
If it's any consolation, our ancestors faced similar problems too. The following is an account published in a Clinton Recorder, July, 1928, and reprinted from the Clinton Historical Society's Old Brick Hearth and Heart Cookbook.
"All records for heavy traffic were shattered here Sunday when the state temporarily closed the Connecticut Valley Turnpike routing all incoming shore traffic through Clinton. "
A synopsis of the traffic:
"400 vehicles passing every 10 minutes through Main Street; 6 members of the State Police barracks and 2 local traffic officers were assigned to duty between Commerce and Hull Streets; a line of cars was stalled on the Boston Post Road from Beach Park Road to the Clinton Manor Inn, a distance of a mile and a half; the noise of the traffic was deafening and the smell reached to high heaven; the turn west from Hull into Main Street seemed to bother the women drivers in particular and many of them lacked the physical strength to turn the wheel on the run to starboard in order to not lap over both trolley rails."
Everyone feel better?
St. Mary's garden feeds the hungry
St. Mary Parish is one of three Clinton churches participating in the Shoreline Soup and Kitchen Pantry program.
The United Methodist Church provides the site to serve up hot meals on Wednesdays 6 to 8 p.m.
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Advent contributes a pantry site where fresh and canned food is distributed on Wednesdays, 5 to 6 p.m.
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The St. Mary parishioners are the dirt grubbers, the volunteers who get down on their hands and knees to plant, and weed, and harvest the fresh vegetables that provide the nourishment for their sister churches' customers.
St. Mary's garden has been feeding the hungry for 17 years. The garden is located one block north of the town dock on the corner of West Grove Street and Cedar Island Avenue and once was the farming land of the late Peter Malchoidi. (See companion story on the Malchoidi family.)
The garden plot is in fact on loan from the Malchoidi daughters, Rose Gasparini and the late Elvira Repetti.
Bill Kramer, former chairman of the garden committee, is quick to note that in addition to the church volunteers, there are also local community contributors in the church's vegetable growing endeavor. He names Shoreline Gardens, Gater Creek, Grove Gardens, Clinton Produce, Ace Hardware and Stop & Shop; and Larsen & Sons who mows the grass to keep the area neat.
And, in respect to the residential neighborhood, the church gardeners always plant a garden frontage with a border of flowers.
(For ways to become a participant in the feed the hungry program, visit Shoreline Soup Kitchens)
The Arbor Garden Club is also a contributor to the food pantry at the Episcopal Church. Headed up by Diane Gustafson, the club has maintained a vegetable garden in the backyard of the Stanton House for several years. Last summer they contributed 117 pounds of veggies.
