Thumbing the files For the week of Dec. 8-15

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Cabinet file photo This picture of the Milford Town Hall was taken likely in the late 1800s. In 1900, according ot the town history, 100 teams of horses could be counted around the Oval at one time as well as bands of gypsies, traveling umbrella menders, knife sharpeners, ragmen and other itinerant traffic. H.H. Barber, on the southeast side of town hall, was "the first really fine department store in town," according to The Granite Town.

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For the week of Dec. 8-15

99 years ago, 1912

Mrs. A.W. Beard of Wilton was using a newfangled bridle on her horse: a humane one without blinders or bit. The rider, by drawing hard on the reins, could work an appliance around the nose and head of the animal that was said to bring it into subjection far quicker than the old time bit.

In Milford, complaints were coming in about bicycle riding on sidewalks, and it was especially common on Souhegan and Elm streets.

A.W. Putnam was elected master of Lyndeborough’s Pinnacle Grange for 1913.

Only three deer had been killed in South Lyndeborough, one each by F.A. Pettengill, John E. Dolliver and Robert C. Mason.

E.A. Wright was back to work in the Wilton Center blacksmith shop after a two-week vacation.

In Wilton, John Gibbons, while out hunting, ran across a huge mountain lion. He had a single barreled gun and gave the lion a charge of buck shot, but the big cat showed fight. Gibbons said it was not a bobcat, as it had a long tail and was larger than any bobcat.

75 years ago, 1936

The executive board of the annual Wilton Winter Carnival was considering a scaled-down version because it had become too costly to continue what the paper called the elaborate winter sports show.

This from out of state: The escort bureau idea, which is said to have gone over big in New York City, is being tried in Chicago by a group of young men who offer their services as escorts for young women for a fee of $10 an evening.

Some Wilton deer hunters reported success: Perry Joslin of South Lyndeborough, the Wilton RFD carrier, shot a 180-pound buck. Joe Miller of Abbot Hill got a 100-pound deer. Joslin didn’t kill his deer outright. The animal jumped and disappeared. When the hunter returned to his car, there was the deer, almost on the car and quite dead.

The Strand Theatre in Milford was showing “Piccadilly Jim” starting Robert Montgomery, with Frank Morgan, Madge Evans, and Billie Burke. Movietone News was also on the bill.

Wilton police and state liquor inspectors raided the home of Alfred Martin in Wilton and netted a quantity of contraband mixed liquor. Martin was arrested and found guilty of illegally selling liquor. He got 90 days in the county jail.

50 years ago, 1961

The Milford Unitarian Church was putting on “A Christmas Carol” with tickets going for 50 cents and 75 cents.

The Cabinet’s Rambling Reporter, Bill Ferguson, wondered this in his column: The idea of letting the help help themselves to apples is great for the fruit industry, but what if a distiller of scotch or bourbon was equally generous?

Devine Sporting Goods in Milford had a Winchester M94 30-30 marked down from $83.95 to $75.

In his Wilton sports column, Francis Gros Louis wrote, “The basketball uniform situation for our local high school has reached a somewhat happy conclusion ... the purchase of enough uniforms to go around, thus avoiding the interchanging of sweaty shirts during the game.

25 years ago, 1986

Milford Fire Chief Richard Tortorelli reported that it took firefighters about three and a half hours to extinguish a fire in a vacant wooden house across from the Pine Valley Mill near Wilton. The fire was of suspicious origin.

The Milford Planning Board gave final approval to James Doyle to install a gasoline retail island and two underground fuel tanks at the Meat Shoppe on Mont Vernon Street.

The Wilton Town Hall Theatre was showing “Something Wild” and “The Name of the Rose.”

Bursey’s Farm Stand on Route 101 in Wilton had Nova Scotia balsams for sale.

Norma Sullenger, math teacher at Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative, was a runner-up in the state Teacher of the Year competition.

Wilton High’s boys’ basketball team beat Weare on Weare’s home court for the first time in four years. Denny Claire was the coach.