March 17This Week in History
1932 Archive
January
Friday, January 1, 1932
Rising temperatures turn snow into rain. The rain continues all night, a total of 1.6" falls. Roads are slippery late in the afternoon.
ANSONIA - The Capitol Theater is closed for the day, the police reported not single car was parked on Main Street, which was very unusual.
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid has raised $19,174.58 - more than anyone else in Valley (partly due to the fact they were the first relief group to organize), but short of the $20,000 goal it established in 1931. The group spent $7,450.77 for labor in 1931.
January 2
ANSONIA - Second annual doll carriage show and parade held at the Boston Store.
SHELTON - Vital statistics given for 1931 - 106 deaths (52 of which were at Laurel Heights). 178 births, 69 marriages, and 175 arrests. This compares to the 96 deaths, (22 at Laurel Heights), 163 births, 89 marriages, and 275 arrests in 1930.
January 4
ANSONIA, DERBY, & SHELTON - The mayors of these three cities meet at Ansonia City Hall, where they agree to press the Derby Gas & Electric Company for lower electricity rates.
DERBY - Accident involving an automobile striking a horse pulling a wagon. The horse was killed, the two wagon occupants were injured.
January 5
ANSONIA - 112 city World War I veterans need work. 40 are in desperate need, 72 are doing a little work but not enough to support themselves or their families.
DERBY - A 70 year old woman is struck and killed by a car on Water Street.
DERBY - The local J.C. Penney store on Main Street has above average volume compared to the other 1400 stores in the chain.
OXFORD - The Sentinel says that while Oxford families are undergoing hardship in the Great Depression, few if any are truly destitute.
January 6
ANSONIA - General sentiment in the City that a new Ansonia High School is needed.
ANSONIA - Last November and December, the Salvation Army, cooperating with Mayor's Relief Committee and Ansonia Mutual Aid, gave out 798 garments and 100 pairs of shoes to 117 families.
DERBY - Madame Nina Tarasova, a Russian singer of peasant songs, gives a recital in Derby Methodist Church hall. The event is sponsored by the Derby Woman's Club.
SHELTON - The Board of Education votes to make the controversial move to not extend contracts to married teachers after May. Some of the effected teachers have worked for the City for 10 to 20 years.
Thursday, January 7, 1932
Orthodox Christmas. Hundreds board two special trolleys which carry Seymour residents to the Russian and Greek churches in Ansonia to celebrate.
January's rainfall already exceeds that of the entire month of December 1931. 3.08" fell so far. Wells that nearly went dry have been replenished.
January 8
ANSONIA - Fourth Annual Police Department Ball is held. Special trolleys are used to bring the over 2000 people who pack into the Ansonia Armory to dance to an 11 piece orchestra.
DERBY - A large three-engine New York City to Boston airplane gets lost over Derby in a dense early morning fog and snow squall. The aircraft flew up and down the Housatonic River at 1000 feet, trying to get its bearings, and crossed over the city several times. Finally it caught sight of a beacon light (a string of which ran between New York and Boston, through the Valley) and continued on its way.
DERBY - Silver Hill Road improvements are nearly done. The rest will have to wait until Spring. Derby Relief Fund men are now working on improving Sentinel Hill Road and Sodom Lane.
SHELTON - A volunteer firefighter is injured after he is struck by a car on Church Street while parking cars for the Huntington Fire Company Ball.
January 9
ANSONIA, DERBY, AND SHELTON - The mayors of the three cities agree they will not get into a rate fight with the Derby Gas & Electric Company over their electricity rates, because the court costs would be too high.
January 10
DERBY - William Dunne, the teacher who was with Principal Costello when he was killed in an automobile accident last month, is discharged from Bridgeport Hospital. He is now recovering at his home in Derby.
January 11
DERBY - Max Durrschmidt, a longtime local contractor and president of Max A. Durrschmidt, Inc., dies at his home on Atwater Avenue.
SEYMOUR - Mutual Aid of Seymour has registered 270 men. Its total pledges are up to $7,831.94
SEYMOUR - A new wooden hotel building on Housatonic Avenue partly burns in the early morning. The structure had been under construction several years, and was owned by New York City parties. It was located across from Actor's Colony, and those residents put out most of fire with hand extinguishers.
January 12
ANSONIA - 215 men have been given 4489.5 hours work, and were paid $1,795, by Ansonia Mutual Aid between December 14 and January 9.
SEYMOUR - A section of the Naugatuck River that had a longstanding problem with people throwing refuse in it has been cleaned by Seymour Mutual Aid. The health officer vows to keep it that way.
SHELTON - A 45 year old Maltby Street man is invited into the basement of Shelton Congregational Church by City Treasurer George Willis, who knew him. The man had been unemployed for a long time, and was despondent, so Mr. Willis invited him to have some of the food that was being served for a Kiwanis Club meeting. Suddenly the man takes out a vial of cyanide, and before anyone can stop him drinks a fatal dose of it.
SHELTON - The Stolzman & Chernin bakery reopens, after being damaged in December 20 fire.
January 13
Warmest January 13 in the area's history. The temperatures climb to 65, and fall to only 56 overnight.
ANSONIA - A 32 year old Tremont Street man walks into the Ansonia police station, surrenders a gun, and confesses he shot his ex-wife. She is found at his address in critical condition and rushed to Griffin Hospital.
ANSONIA - A gas station at 21 Beaver Street is held up by 2 men. An attendant knocked unconscious when he hesitated. They try to break the lock on the cash register but flee when someone screams outside. A 12 year old boy gets a good description and license number. (See Shelton below).
DERBY - The Derby Relief Fund spent $4440 to put 202 men to work. An additional $360 has been spent for food and clothing for destitute cases.
SHELTON - Two men hold up a gas station at the corner of Howe Avenue and Grove Street, and escape with $31 and cigarettes. These are same two who unsuccessfully held up an Ansonia station the same night. A third man served as the getaway driver, and speeds south toward River Road. Stratford police set up road block at the Shelton border, but do not catch the criminals.
SHELTON - Shelton Social Services distributed 1200 lbs of meat in divided among 205 baskets, along with canned goods and vegetables, over Christmas.
Thursday, January 14, 1932
Temperatures rise to 68 degrees. It feels like early May.
ANSONIA - Ells-Wood Rebekah lodge No. 9, IOOF, celebrates 40th anniversary in its hall on Main Street.
January 15
An unusual number of seagulls have been seen flying up and down the Housatonic River and Naugatuck River.
SEYMOUR - The State begins replanking the covered Broad Street Bridge.
SHELTON - Six state policemen make four raids in Shelton. A slot machine is found at a Howe Avenue pool hall leading to one arrest. Another slot machine and a small amount of moonshine is found a couple doors down, leading to another arrest. Raids at two Center Street locations yield nothing.
January 16
ANSONIA - Eight city industries - American Brass Company, HC Cook Inc., Farrel Birmingham, Ansonia O&C, Cameron Electrical Company, Ansonia Electrical Company, Ansonia Manufacturing Company, and the SO&C all announce they will match employee contributions to Ansonia Mutual Aid dollar for dollar.
ANSONIA - A new branch of the Fulton Supermarket opens on 5 Maple Street.
DERBY - John West, President of Southern New England Ice Company says if not enough ice is produced naturally, due to the warm weather, his firm will expand the capacity of the former Derby Avenue brewery to do so. If the winter closes without ice being able to be harvested naturally, it will be for the first time in 26 years.
SHELTON - Since November 9, Shelton Mutual Aid has employed over 200 men each week, for a total of 3076 days labor, and paid $9228.
January 17
ANSONIA - The woman shot last week by her ex-husband on Tremont Street dies of her wounds at Griffin Hospital. He will now be charged with murder.
January 18
ANSONIA - State and City police are investigating the theft of 5 automatic revolvers from the Ansonia Armory.
January 19
ANSONIA - The 1931 Ansonia Grand List counts 2401 houses, 1366 barns & garages, 2813 lots, 435 commercial buildings, 73 mills, 2636 acres, 40 horses, 133 cows, and 2856 automobiles in the City. For the first time since automobiles began appearing on the Grand List at the turn of the century, their number has decreased, with 116 less than 1930. Also, only 14 new dwellings were constructed. These numbers are attributed to the Great Depression.
ANSONIA - Last week, Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 139 men, who worked 2,222 hours for $888. To date 354 men have worked, and were paid a total of $3,230.55.
SEYMOUR - The covered Broad Street Bridge is now closed to traffic for replanking.
January 20
DERBY & ANSONIA - Jazz legend Cab Calloway, along with his pianist and tap dancer, appear as entertainment for about 300 people at a Derby Fire Department card party at the Hotchkiss Hose Company No. 1 on Caroline Street, to benefit the unemployed. Afterward, the group dines at Sam's Restaurant on Main Street in Ansonia, where they begin singing and dancing into the early morning and sign autographs. All are very entertained at both locations, the Sentinel's Ansonia section headlines "Calloway entertains, and how, at Sam's".
Thursday, January 21, 1932
DERBY - Rev. Andrew J. Plunkett, pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Shelton for the past 13 years, has been appointed to replace the late Father Fitzgerald as the new pastor of St. Mary's Church. He will only be the third pastor assigned there in the last 42 years.
SHELTON - Rev. John J. McCabe, of St. Mary's Church in Jewett City, will succeed in Rev. Andrew J. Plunkett, who is taking over St. Mary's parish in Derby.
January 22
ANSONIA - There were 54 less births, 18 less marriages, 22 more deaths, and 25 more tax liens in 1931 than there were in 1930 in Ansonia.
ANSONIA - Spector Furniture will move to the Ansonia Hotel building at 332 Main Street. They had been at 415 Main Street since 1924.
SEYMOUR - The Selectmen pass a curfew for boys 16 years old or younger. They must be off the streets by 9 PM.
January 23
SEYMOUR - The replanking of the covered Bank Street is completed, and it reopens for traffic.
SEYMOUR - The Town's 1931 Grand List shows a $56,520 loss.
January 24
ANSONIA - Fire guts the Mazzola dry goods store in the Larkin Building at 441 Main Street. Miss Ann Larkin, principal of the Elm Street School and her relatives who live upstairs flee, but the fire does not reach their apartment.
January 26
With mild temperatures continuing it does not appear that there will be an ice crop this year.
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 148 men a total of 2204.5 hours and paid them $881.80 last week.
SEYMOUR - Seymour Mutual Aid employed 172 men last week, its largest force ever. A total of 299 men are registered for the workfare program.
January 27
DERBY - The City's 1931 Grand List shows a slight increase over last year.
DERBY - Due to lowering contributions, the Derby Relief Fund will reduce its weekly employment force from 100 to 35.
DERBY - There were 103 marriages and 106 deaths in 1931 in Derby.
SHELTON - Instead of following the usual practice of giving a gift to Shelton High School, the Class of 1932 will thoroughly clean up the school and grounds.
Friday, January 29, 1932
SEYMOUR - The State Public Utilities Commission agrees with Seymour and Beacon Falls in their fight over water rates with the Seymour Water Company, which is ordered to reduce them substantially.
January 30
SEYMOUR - The Board of Selectmen enact parking rules on Bank Street. Cars may only park on one side between Third Street and Main Street.
SEYMOUR - The Town's vital statistics for 1931 are births - 103, marriages - 49, and deaths - 76. This compares to 111 births, 51 marriages, and 51 deaths in 1930.
January 31
DERBY - Father Plunkett, who was just transferred from St. Joseph's in Shelton, preaches his first mass as pastor at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church.
February
Tuesday, February 2, 1932
Cloudy skies prohibit the groundhogs from seeing their shadows.
ANSONIA - In the past week Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 146 men a total of 1972.5 hours and paid them $789. Today, despite a snowstorm, 25 men continue to work on North End sewers, while 16 work at Athletic Field.
SEYMOUR - Five cases of smallpox are discovered. The victims are removed to Englewood isolation hospital in Bridgeport. They are all children, from 2 families, who are neighbors on Broad Street.
February 3
SEYMOUR - Another 5 smallpox cases are found, making a total of 10. As before, the victims are all children, 5 brothers and sisters who reside on New Street. All affected houses are under quarantine. Vaccinations are taking place in the public schools.
SHELTON - The Board of Education votes 4-3 to ask the Board of Aldermen for an $80,000, two wing addition to Shelton High School.
Thursday, February 4, 1932
ANSONIA - The Tremont Theater, which was built in 1926 by Max Olderman at the corner of Main Street and Tremont Street, is badly damaged by a two-alarm fire. The fire is discovered around 9:45 AM when the owner of the Valley Novelty shop, which was on the the first floor, smell smoke and open a trap door to the basement, which was on fire. She and a customer flee smoke billowed into the shop, leaving the trap door open. When the smoke begins pouring out of the front door, it encompasses the whole building, darkening the windows and catching the attention of the 76 women employed by the Ansonia Dress Company factory on the third floor. This is fortunate, because the early discovery allows all of them to flee down the two flights stairs to safety. The Captain of Webster Hose Company falls through the trap door in the novelty shop into the basement, but is pulled out by his men only slightly injured. Another group of firemen, led by the Fire Chief, went to the third floor, and finding the dress factory empty started opening windows. At that point, the entire floor was engulfed in flames. The Chief and most of the men ran down a staircase, but one Webster fireman was trapped and leapt out a window. Hundreds of people gasped as the fireman dangled from the window by his fingertips as flames roared above him. Firemen pulled the life net off the Eagles' hook and ladder truck, and along with the crowd called for him to drop into the net, but he refused. Other firemen shot water into the window from hoses in the street, darkening down the flames and allowing him to climb back in and dash down an interior stairwell to safety. He suffered from smoke inhalation. The two first floor stores, the Valley Novelty store and a confectionary suffered heavy smoke and water damage. The Tremont Theater, also on the first floor, suffered less damage. The Hevesy bowling alley on the second floor was badly damaged by smoke and water, while the Ansonia Dress Company was completely destroyed. For the week following, inquiries were held on the fire, as the Chief insisted that there were actually two separate fires (although most likely the fire climbed behind a wall or void to the dress company on the top floor). The City was also extremely lucky that all 76 women in the crowded dress factory survived before the place was incinerated. Max Olderman vowed to repair the building.
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid's funds are nearly exhausted. At a meeting held today, it is voted to cooperate with city officials on 5 municipal projects to ensure program will continue at least until May 1.
Heavy rain begins falling in the evening hours, turning to snow by midnight.
February 5
The snowstorm that began the night before leaves 4 to 6 inches on the ground, making it the first substantial snowstorm of the year. Telephone wires are down in Derby and Shelton. Heavy rain returns later in the morning, getting rid of much of the new snow.
SEYMOUR - A 10-year old West Street boy is diagnosed with smallpox, the 11th case in a week.
SHELTON - D. N. Beard purchases old Huntington Piano Company building from the New York corporation that held it for the last ten years. The factory once employed 400 people, with it four upper floors devoted to manufacturing pianos, and the ground floor serving as a showcase. There are rumors Sears & Roebuck is planning to put a store there.
February 6
ANSONIA - Since Ansonia Mutual Aid was formed late last year, the workfare program has employed 804 men, who have worked 13,041 hours and were paid $6,054.13. This week, 150 men worked 2,152.5 hours on 3 projects and earned $861. Income for past week was $1,771.41.
SEYMOUR - Seymour Mutual Aid employed 166 men this week, the most since it was formed.
February 8
ANSONIA - The Board of Aldermen directs Corporate Council to make an application to the state Public Utilities Commission for a reduction of electrical rates by the Derby Gas & Electric Company.
SHELTON - The Board of Aldermen vote down Board of Education's request for an $80,000 addition to Shelton High School by a vote of 4-1.
February 9
DERBY - Major General Smedley D. Butler is the guest of the Woman's Club of Derby, Ansonia, and Shelton at the Sterling Opera House. His talk centeres on law enforcement, and how it can be applied selectively depending on who people were in town and what they did. At one point he gestures toward a Derby police officer, and states that he no doubt knows which people in the audience can get away with parking in front of a fire hydrant, and which ones would get tickets. He keeps the audience of 1,000 laughing with jokes, and his speech is picked up by the State newspapers which begin debating the pros and cons of his argument.
SEYMOUR - The Town's Health Officer orders a general vaccination of all Seymour residents against smallpox to begin immediately. One more case is discovered on this date, a 10-year old Bank Street boy. A basketball game between Seymour and Derby High Schools is postponed because too many Seymour players have sore arms from the vaccination shots.
February 10
Working with the Mutual Aid charities, the Salvation Army recently distributed 328 garments and 49 pairs of shoes, to 85 different families.
DERBY - The Connecticut Hotel Association meets at Hotel Clark. They adopt a resolution that will be forwarded to President Hoover asking for repeal of the 18th Amendment.
Thursday, February 11, 1932
ANSONIA - The Aerie of Eagles will abandon their old quarters at 230 Main Street, and take over entire top floor of the Terry Building at 88 Main Street as their new hall.
SHELTON - A 1000 gallon still, and 4 vats containing 300 gallons of mash are found by State Police in a raid on a farm off Waverly Road in Huntington. So large was the still it took all night to dismantle it. The farmer is arrested and released on $500 bond.
February 12
ANSONIA - 900 high school students gather at the Capitol Theater for a Lincoln Day assembly.
DERBY, ANSONIA & SHELTON - The 27th Annual District Nurse Association Meeting is held at Hotel Clark. A total of 11,539 home visits were made in 1931 - including 8,474 nursing; 2,625 advisory; and 440 for social service. There were 1962 cases, 1300 of which were new. Of the new cases - 644 were in Ansonia, 390 were in Derby, and 275 were in Shelton.
SHELTON - The First Baptist Church changes plans to build a new church at 444 Coram Avenue. Instead it will build an addition with a larger kitchen and dining hall on the old church at Howe Avenue and White Street instead.
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid workmen tearing down an old barn behind City Hall, that served as a work shed and catch-all for city departments An old carriage shed used to shelter horses of town officials many years ago will become a 3-car garage.
February 13
ANSONIA - 3 men are stealing coal from the freight yard east of Wooster Street are discovered by the Railroad Police. One is caught, but later escapes and allegedly fires a concealed handgun at another Railroad Officer. Four shots are fired at the suspect as he tries to flee across the trestle spanning the Naugatuck River. Half way over, he appears to have been hit, and then falls between the tracks into the river. The Ansonia Police are called, though there seems to be a considerable delay in calling them after the early morning shooting. The Railroad Police claim they did not see anyone get out of the water.
DERBY - A ten month old Derby collie named Future of Arken wins high honors at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden.
SEYMOUR - A high school basketball game against Milford is called off due to the smallpox outbreak. In the past 10 days 5,000 of the approximately 7,000 people in town have been vaccinated.
February 15
ANSONIA - It is now feared that the man who was shot on the trestle two days before was a popular retired lightweight boxer who lived on Jewett Street, who has not been seen since the incident. But the fact that he may have been the victim raises new questions, as he was not seen as the type of person to steal or get violent.
DERBY - The Derby Relief Fund is continuing, despite a reduced workforce due to lack of donations. Great improvements have been made to Sodom Lane.
February 16
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid made $1469.89, employed 176 men 2124.5 hours, and paid them $846.60. 156 are working at Athletic Field, 10 at Holbrook Court where new a wall is being built, and 10 more are making new meeting hall for the American Legion at the Ansonia Armory.
February 17
ANSONIA - A Bank Street, Seymour man walking to Griffin Hospital to visit his sick wife is struck by a car on Clifton Avenue near Howard Avenue, and is extremely critical. The driver is held for reckless driving.
DERBY - Southern New England Ice Company will expand its plant on Derby Avenue, due to the fact there is no ice crop this year.
OXFORD - Oxford schoolchildren will be vaccinated against smallpox.
SEYMOUR - Abandoned house owned by the Birmingham Water Company, about 1.5 miles north of Actors' Colony on River Road burns down. It takes the Fire Department 2 hours to put it out with water drafted from the Housatonic River.
Friday, February 19, 1932
All Valley schools hold patriotic celebrations and assemblies in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington.
February 20
SEYMOUR - Six of the twelve smallpox cases, all of which were juveniles, have recovered, and returned home. The remaining 6 are improving. There have been no new cases.
ANSONIA - Big patriotic service at the Methodist Episcopal Church for the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Over 500 attend, and many veterans' groups are represented.
February 23
ANSONIA - The police raid a barn behind a Columbia Street house, where they find 5 vats containing 5000 gallons of beer, and another containing 500 gallons of cider brandy mash, along with the latest brewing equipment. 1 arrested. The Sentinel describes the operation as a "huge hootch plant".
ANSONIA - The shifting of the Naugatuck River 200 feet west of the American Brass Company plant, off Liberty Street, has been completed. The large digger that was a landmark in the City through the long process is being dismantled.
DERBY - Ralph Greenleaf, world champion pocket billiard player, appears at Jeff's Smoke Shop on Main Street, Derby.
Thursday, February 25, 1932
DERBY - All 40 car operators, bus drivers, and shop men of the Derby Division of the Connecticut Company vote on a 10% wage cut. It is feared that if they do not accept the cut, layoffs and even closing of trolley lines will follow.
DERBY - Former state representative John F. O'Sullivan dies. The Cottage Street resident conceived of Island Park, and extended Caroline Street to the island that now bears his name. Read his full obituary and interesting life here.
February 26
SEYMOUR - After a 3 week lapse in new cases, an 11 year old Pine Street boy is diagnosed with smallpox.
February 27
ANSONIA - Fire badly damages a Star Street apartment.
DERBY - The results of the Connecticut Company vote are in. The Derby Division narrowly voted to reject the wage cut, though the proposal was defeated by a higher margin elsewhere in the State.
February 28
SHELTON - 500 gather at Clark's Hall to protest Mayor Crofut's removal of Bennett M. Beard as Street Commissioner. A road builder, he has served in government since 1909, and many say his removal is political. The mayor only says he "had cause", and won't elaborate.
February 29 (Leap Year)
ANSONIA - 200 attend a Board of Apportionment and Taxation meeting to protest the 1.5 mill increase in the tax rate, to 27 mills, but are unsuccessful in stopping it.
March
Tuesday, March 1, 1932
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 204 men in the past week on 4 projects, and paid them $1,272,40.
ANSONIA - A 39 year old nurse is shot 3 times by her husband when she enters her home on 139 Clifton Avenue, and is in extremely critical condition. He wanders downtown in a daze, and calls for someone to arrest him. There is no known motive, and everyone is perplexed. In the days that follow, it is learned that he was drinking a home brew of moonshine, and had no recollection of what he had done. When he realized what he had done, he was inconsolable, leading the police to term the entire case as "pathetic".
SHELTON - Two Echo Hose firemen injured fighting a fire that gutted a Gordon Avenue house.
March 2
ANSONIA - Two boys' clubhouses burn down overnight, making four fires in such clubhouses in the last 2 months. It is now believed rival groups are burning each others' clubhouses down.
Friday, March 4, 1932
DERBY - 500 attend a Women's Club meeting at the Derby Methodist Church, in which famed novelist Kathleen Norris is the guest speaker.
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid is in financial trouble. The workfare group has a "demand note" from Shelton Trust Company of $500, and it only has a balance of $337.01 in its bank account.
March 5
DERBY - The Derby Relief Fund has been working on improving Marshall Lane, which has been in bad shape for a long time.
March 6
A storm brings 28 mph winds, and 1.3" of rain falls. Trees are blown down, tin blows off some roofs.
SHELTON - Fanned by the high winds, a fire destroys a chicken coop and incubator shed on Riverview Avenue. The place was empty, though 400 chicks were expected following day.
March 8
ANSONIA - 250 men worked 4125 hours this week on 5 projects for Ansonia Mutual Aid.
ANSONIA - The President of the Savings Bank of Ansonia, William A Nelson dies at the same home he was born, at 235 North Main Street.
DERBY - George B. Chamberlin, born February 14, 1855, dies. He ran a large farm on Academy Hill which included Brownie Castle.
DERBY - The Fitch Smith estate on 14 Seymour Avenue is sold to a Shelton man. The mansion's grounds front both Seymour Avenue and Elizabeth Street, and its dimensions are 311' x 270'. Until a few years ago it was occupied by his daughters, the last of whom, Miss M. Helen Smith, died about 1930. The mansion would be razed on September 3, 1953, to make room for the new St. Mary's School, which is St Mary - St. Michael School today.
OXFORD - Only 21 residents attend a town meeting, due to very cold winds. They vote to set a tax rate of 18 mills - which was 7 less than last year. (Democracy works!)
March 9
ANSONIA - The Board of Aldermen votes to rescind its earlier vote to petition the Public Utilities Commission for a reduction in electrical rates, and accept the Derby Gas & Electric Company's offer of a rate reduction, which amounts to about $5 less per customer per year.
DERBY - The 25-year old alarm tower at Storm Engine Company on Elizabeth Street is in dangerous condition and must be repaired.
SHELTON - Former mayor Bennett N. Beard, president of Shelton Tax and Rent Payers' League and recently fired Street Commissioner, tells a large gathering of his group at Clark's Hall that an "invisible power" that they thought they had got rid of in the 1930 election still controls the current administration. The disillusioned group is talking of forming an independent party.
March 10
ANSONIA - The Eleventh Annual Automobile Dealer's Association of Ansonia, Derby, and Shelton opens at the Ansonia Armory. The show contains 40 automobiles, of 21 makes, from 14 local dealers. Hundreds attend.
ANSONIA - The Irving jewelry store on 102 Main Street Ansonia celebrates first birthday. Its 50 piece birthday cake becomes the most popular food in town when it is learned that there are $2.50 gold pieces hidden inside four of the pieces.
DERBY - Mrs. J. B. Stobierski opens new restaurant at 130 Main Street, featuring "a clean place with home cooking" and a daily dinner special.
SEYMOUR - 4,000 pine trees are ruined by a forest fire that breaks out at the Fountain Lake Watershed, owned by the Ansonia Water Company, on Great Hill.
Friday, March 11, 1932
ANSONIA - A four-family house on 109 Central Street is gutted by fire. One resident burned.
ANSONIA - Bankruptcy sale at Nat's Shoe Store on 132 Main Street causes a crowd to swell inside at the store's opening, breaking a large display window.
March 12
ANSONIA - The Commercial Department of Ansonia High School takes top honors at the Connecticut Business Educators state competition in New Haven. Alice Drozdewski take First Prize in the 2 year typing competition, while Helen Prohorich wins First Prize in the one year typing. Hariet Kryzewski wins First Prize in shorthand, and Olga Lenoff wins Second Prize in 2nd year bookkeeping.
ANSONIA - Over 500 cords of wood was cut over the winter by 396 men with permits, on Ansonia Water Company land.
SEYMOUR - George M. Foster, of 14 Culver Street, has established the Seymour Oil Company. This is the company of its type in town, and it will deliver oil, furnace coil, kerosene, and oil burners.
SEYMOUR - Seymour Mutual Aid employed 153 men last week.
March 13
DERBY - It is announced at Sunday mass that St. Mary's Church has purchased the Fitch Smith property on Elizabeth Street and Seymour Avenue (see March 8). The parcel is intended for future development, no immediate changes will be made now.
March 14
DERBY - Governor Wilbur Cross addresses the Derby-Shelton Board of Trade at Hotel Clark, where he analyzes the conditions and causes of the Great Depression.
March 15
ANSONIA - Two boys, ages 17 and 19, from two Francis Street homes, are arrested in connection with 30 burglaries over the past 6 months in Ansonia, Derby, and Shelton. $5000 in stolen goods is found in their homes. A third suspect is being sought.
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid paid $1838.50 to 272 men last week. 1,879 have been employed to date.
SEYMOUR - The Board of Education votes to cut teachers' pay by 10% due to the Great Depression. The same night, at town hall, all other town employees voluntarily vote to give up 10% of their pay, too.
March 17
ANSONIA - 200 couples dance at a St. Patrick's Day ball given by Company I, of the Connecticut National Guard, at the Ansonia Armory.
DERBY - Friedrich Schorr, leading bass-baritone of the Metropolitan Opera Company, gives a rare recital at the Sterling Opera House for the Women's Club. 1,000 attend.
Friday, March 18, 1932
ANSONIA - All of the machinery from the old American Brass Company fine wire mill in the north end has been transferred to the new mill on Canal Street and Bridge Street.
DERBY - 600 attend a St. Patrick's Day music program at St. Mary's Hall.
March 19
ANSONIA - The four day Home Progress Exposition closes at the Ansonia Armory. 15,670 attended in all. The Armory was so packed today that 7 fainted in the crowd.
ANSONIA - Everett G. Hill, editor of the Evening Sentinel, is stricken in the editorial room of the newspaper, and is rushed to Griffin Hospital.
DERBY - 83-year old man dies after falling into Derby Canal off Housatonic Avenue.
March 20
SEYMOUR - Bishop Adam Philipovski, head of the North American Carpattio-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese, visits the newly organized Russian Orthodox Church at 22 Church Street.
March 21
Freezing rain causes many accidents across the area.
ANSONIA - Everett G. Hill, editor of Evening Sentinel, dies at Griffin Hospital at age 65. He lived at 133 Jackson Street. The Sentinel's editorial page accordingly features black columns today.
March 22
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 217 men on seven projects for 4033 hours this week, paying them $1607.60.
DERBY - The Woman's Club of Derby is providing schoolchildren with a bottle of milk, some crackers, and a straw at each morning recess as a way of combating child hunger during the Great Depression. Those that can pay do, but no one is denied the snack.
SEYMOUR - Seymour Mutual Aid is razing the old Second Street School, built about 1847. See the complete article here.
March 24
ANSONIA - The police stop a maroon car with New Jersey license plates containing a man, woman, and baby on Hill Street. The car fits the description of a car sought in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. The couple is cooperative, and the police and let them go after questioning.
ANSONIA & SHELTON - Milford police arrest 15 Ansonia and Shelton high school students who broke into cottage to have a drinking party.
DERBY - Volunteers plant 100 dogwood trees along city roadways.
Easter Sunday, March 27, 1932
Cloudy skies in the morning, though the rain holds off until 9 PM. The day was mild, but at night the wind picked up, and brought torrential downpours with it.
ANSONIA - The old 2-story James homestead on Ansonia Water Company property off Ford Street burns to the ground, leaving a man and wife homeless.
March 28
2.6" of rain falls in the morning. Brooks and streams are swollen.
DERBY - The Knights of Columbus Paugassett Council No. 28 celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding with a reception at Hotel Clark
SHELTON - Shelton Police Department raid a barn producing moonshine near Laurel Heights Sanatorium and arrest one.
March 29
Ansonia Savings Bank, Derby Savings Bank, Shelton Trust Company, and the Seymour Trust Company, announce it will no longer be necessary to give 90 days notice before withdrawal of savings deposits. This had been enacted after the Great Depression began, to prevent panic runs on savings accounts when financial news turned bad.
ANSONIA - In the past week, Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 193 men a total of 2,592 hours and paid them $1,032.80. Since its founding last fall to combat the Great Depression, the group has employed 2,289 men a total of 36,186.5 hours, and paid them $14,445.80.
DERBY - There have been some problems along the new River Road, constructed by the state two years ago. Nothing will grow in the area where gravel was removed to make the road, adjoining Osborndale Farm. This has resulted in sand slides over the winter, which uprooted some fine old white oaks. Measures are now being considered to halt the environmental damage.
SEYMOUR - The smallpox epidemic is now entirely over.
March 31
ANSONIA - Mutual Aid of Ansonia will employ more men starting April 4.
DERBY - Complaints that the public water supply tastes and smells bad.. It is explained the problems are seasonal changes in the water due to decomposition of leaves that fell into the reservoirs last fall, and that the water is safe. PS - this is why reservoirs are surrounded by pine trees today.
DERBY - St. Mary's Church has put 20 unemployed men to work to help clear Mt. St. Peter's cemetery for the spring. The Church plans pave the main road of the cemetery.
SHELTON - State police raid a "moonshine factory" on Long Hill Avenue, and confiscate a 1000 gallon still and ten 50 gallon barrels of moonshine. One is arrested.
April
Friday, April 1, 1932
DERBY - The Derby Board of Aldermen are equally split over whether the new police car that will be purchased will be a station wagon or a 4-door sedan. Those in favor of the station wagon are hoping the police car can also be used as an ambulance. The debate turns heated until Mayor Riordan settles the tie to buy a 4-door sedan.
DERBY - The Derby Garden Club is getting good responses from property owners to loan land for the unemployed to plant vegetable "Prosperity Gardens".
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid votes to suspend active operations on May 1, but will remain intact ready to respond to any emergency that may arise from the "present economic crisis".
April 2
Derby Gas & Electric announces it will drop its electrical rates, effective April 1.
SHELTON - City resident Donald Waldhaus is selected for the 1932 American Olympic fencing team.
April 5
ANSONIA - Rabbi Jerome Widesky, a noted Jewish divine, of Chelsea, Massachusetts, dies while walking up Platt Street hill. He was in the city to help reunite the B'Nai Israel synagogue on Colburn Street with B'Nai Jacob synagogue of Factory Street, which split over a dispute some time ago. Rabbi Widesky was well-known in New England Jewish circles, and translated sacred texts into English. His death is a shock, and both synagogues vow to continue the reconciliation effort he championed.
ANSONIA - There has not been a case of diphtheria in Ansonia since April 1, 1929.
DERBY - Robert Wiltsie, of 21 Elm Street, is part of the cast of "The Village Virtuosos", which is considered the first "genuine New England" movie.
April 6
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 249 men in the past week a total of 3,667 hours, and paid them $867.70
April 7
DERBY & SHELTON - Shelton resident Donald Waldhaus, who will be in the upcoming Olympics, is elected president of the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club at the Hotel Clark
Friday, April 8, 1932
ANSONIA - Hundreds visit the Community Motor Sales showroom at Main Street and Tremont Street, as first of the new Ford V-8 automobiles is now on display.
DERBY - The body of George Beall, better known as Rex Bell a former boxer, is found behind Pinney buildings at the foot of Mount Pleasant Street in the Naugatuck River in Derby. He was last seen falling into the river from the Ansonia railroad trestle, after a Railroad Police shot at him for allegedly stealing a small amount of coal with a group of men, in the early morning hours of February 13. The shooting was controversial because the Railroad Police took three hours to notify the Ansonia Police. An autopsy conducted later in the day claims that Mr. Beall was not shot at all, that drowning was the cause of death. A strange twist to the tragic story was many had come to believe Mr. Beall had swum to shore and escaped. This greatly upset his mother, who stated she knew all along that her son had drowned, as he appeared to her in a vision shortly after the shooting, and told her so.
April 9
SEYMOUR - The roof is removed from the pedestrian portion of the covered bridge on Bank Street. The boards were rotted, and will probably not be replaced.
April 11
ANSONIA - Schoonmaker's Drug Store is held up in Ansonia 2 men. $17 taken.
DERBY - A railroad flagman from Waterbury dies after he falls under the wheels of a caboose about 200 yards north of Derby-Shelton train station.
April 12
Torrential downpours that started late last night have dropped 2.18" of rain. The Naugatuck River is high
ANSONIA - In the past week Ansonia Mutual Aid has employed 235 men a total of 4213 hours, and paid them $1680. The organization has helped 2580 men since it started late last year.
SHELTON - A retaining wall behind 578 Howe Avenue gives way in the heavy rain, and knocks a 5 car garage below it off its foundation, demolishing it and 3 cars inside. A nearby shed containing antiques was also destroyed. The wall was owned by Police Chief William Donovan, who lives above on Perry Avenue.
April 13
ANSONIA - Thomas Mulcahy left Ireland 50 years ago to search for gold in Alaska. He visited Ansonia 20 years ago, where he met Michael Cook, who is now the Mayor. He arrives back in Ansonia on this date, and asks Dan Mulcahy where he can find Cook at the Ansonia depot, not realizing he was talking to his brother until he asked him his name. They had not not seen each other since Tom left Ireland 50 years ago, and Dan, who came to Ansonia after Tom visited 20 years ago, and was told Tom died after he fell into a canyon.
SEYMOUR - Snow squalls on Great Hill
SHELTON - The Shelton Taxpayers' League meets at Clark's Hall, to talk about organizing as a third political party. The members are wary of it, and Shelton Socialists are discouraging it, saying they have been the third party for decades. Former Mayor Beard, who is President of the League, instead invites Democrats to join his organization's cause.
April 14
The water going over the Ousatonic Dam is 3.6' deep, the highest it has been since 1927.
Friday, April 15, 1932
DERBY - Hershey Metal Products is in temporary receivership.
April 19
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 217 men a total of 3,894 hours, and paid them $1,552.50 in the past week.
ANSONIA - Commander Johnson of William H. Gordon Post American Legion declares war against the Great Depression. He says his Post will lay out its "battle plan" at a meeting to be held in three days at Ansonia City Hall.
SEYMOUR - State police raid a chicken coop of a well known Pearl Street poultry farmer at 3 AM. They find 2 large stills in operation.
April 20
DERBY - St. Mary's Church is entered and ransacked overnight, but nothing is taken as there was no money inside.
SEYMOUR - The Pearl Street poultry farmer is arrested for manufacture of alcohol, a violation of Prohibition.
SEYMOUR - Shopkeepers and the public are warned that counterfeit $10 bills are being circulated around town.
Saturday, April 23, 1932
DERBY - Yale defeats M.I.T. on its Housatonic rowing course. Unlike previous years where the Yale races were mobbed with spectators, and other colleges participated, this year only 5,000 show up in this Great Depression Year. There was no observation train or extra police. The races weren't even called "Derby Day", as they had in the past, and the Evening Sentinel says that's just as well because the "entire spirit was lacking".
SHELTON - The construction of the million dollar Nurses' Home and Infirmary at Laurel Heights Sanatorium is almost completed.
April 26
The first thundershower of spring passes by at 7 PM.
ANSONIA - Miss Alice Drozdewski of Ansonia High School wins first place in a national typing contest - typing 90 words per minute for 15 minutes, against 2,000 others. Miss Mildred LaForte, also of Ansonia, places third.
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid spent $1,571.20 this week, for 207 men to labor 3,941 hours. The initial Mutual Aid subscriptions expire in July, and the workfare program organizers are not sure what to do. Their options are to suspend the Program until fall, or try to keep it going through the summer.
ANSONIA & DERBY - 150 plot owners gather at St. Mary's Church in Derby, to form an association to beautify St. Mary's Cemetery in Ansonia. People with plots in Ansonia, Shelton, and Seymour are asked to help the Derby parish.
1931 MOTOR VEHICLE STATISTICS - The State releases motor vehicle statistics for 1931. They are, by city and town:
ANSONIA - 2677 registered automobiles. 88 accidents, with 6 killed, and 49 injured. 51 motor vehicle violations.
DERBY - 1754 registered automobiles. 102 accidents, with 4 killed, and 71 injured. 46 motor vehicle violations.
OXFORD - 381 registered automobiles. 15 accidents, with 1 killed, and 6 injured. 8 motor vehicle violations.
SEYMOUR - 1346 registered automobiles. 58 accidents, with 3 killed, and 38 injured. 67 motor vehicle violations.
SHELTON - 1716 registered automobiles. 65 accidents, with 5 killed, and 35 injured. 54 motor vehicle violations.
April 27
SEYMOUR - Seymour Mutual Aid will try to extend its workfare program to August 1, if it can. There is talk of using the $17,750 road appropriation given by the State to help Mutual Aid keep going.
April 28
SEYMOUR - The Ladies Aid Society of Immanuel Lutheran Church celebrates its 40th anniversary
Friday, April 29, 1932
ANSONIA - Throngs from all over Valley attend the grand opening of City Hall Market, located next to Ansonia City Hall. The store sells food in bulk for lower prices to help combat the Great Depression.
April 30
ANSONIA - A new hard maple floor has been laid at the Ansonia Armory
ANSONIA - Frank Fitzpatrick, of the recently dissolved partnership Gans & Fitzpatrick, has opened Fitzpatrick's Battery & Electric Service Station on 14 Maple Street.
ANSONIA - Hevesy Bowling Alleys reopens for first time since the February 4 fire in the Olderman Building.
ANSONIA - 220 barrels of flour received by American Red Cross for the needy in Ansonia.
OXFORD - 125 attend a special town meeting. They vote to spend $17,500 from the state to improve the dirt roads on Riggs Street, Chestnut Tree Hill, and Park Road.
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid closes after 6 months of workfare relief operations to help the needy.
May
Sunday, May 1, 1932
ANSONIA - The upper 2 floors of the 3 story brick Haggis Building, on 114 Main Street, is gutted by a 2-alarm fire. The top floor was the headquarters of the Michael J Comcowich Veterans of Foreign Wars headquarters. The VFW's furniture, fifes and drums, and other items are destroyed. Their marching band's uniforms, however were spared destruction as they were at the homes of the members. On the second floor, $1200 worth of drugs and chemical in Dr. Senfield's laboratory is destroyed, and it is unclear if valuable X-rays and other machines may have been lost, too. The chemicals caused the fire to be unusually hot and smoky. Dr. Senfield's records are saved, however. A confectionary located on the first floor is ruined by water.
May 2
SEYMOUR - The Citizen Engine Co. No. 2 votes to purchase an E & J resuscitator and inhalator, to aid victims in respiratory distress, smoke inhalation, and drowning situations.
SHELTON - Mayor Crofut asks all city employees to take a voluntary 10% salary cut, due to increasing demands of serving the unemployed. They agree the following day.
May 3
ANSONIA - In the past week Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 202 men a total of 3,901.5 hours and paid them $1,584.20.
DERBY - Meeting at Derby High School, schoolteachers agree they are in favor of 10% reduction in their salaries, the proceeds of which would go towards the overwhelming rising costs of the City Charities Department. However, they make it clear that they want all to participate, not just some of them. Their slogan is "everybody or nobody".
May 4
SHELTON - In a very controversial move, The Board of Education carries out its planned laying off of 9 married teachers, employed from 4 to 22 years, to help combat the Great Depression. It is felt that with jobs so scarce, it is not fair for some families to have two wage earners while so many others have none. Five new unmarried teachers are hired in their places.
SHELTON - The Board of Aldermen vote to allocate $10,000 for a special relief fund to start a similar program of the recently disbanded Shelton Mutual Aid. It should be noted that Shelton Mutual Aid was the first such plan to organize in the Valley, and was also the first to disband. It was a private relief organization. The fact Shelton's government was starting to take the responsibility for relief operations, beyond merely doling out money from the Charities Department, was a logical progression as the Great Depression continued to get worse. It also showed a growing dissatisfaction in the policies of President Hoover, whose administration did not believe in government assistance. This would lead to his defeat to Franklin D. Roosevelt later this year, and the New Deal programs that followed.
May 5
ANSONIA - The much-heralded Ansonia Sales Days begin. All downtown merchants participate. Free trolley rides to the sales are chartered to bring people in from Derby, Seymour, and Shelton. "Throngs" attend to view the many bargains.
DERBY - Over a half mile of new paved 20' wide roadway has been laid at Mt. St. Peters Cemetery. There are many other pleasing improvements to the landscape.
Friday, May 6, 1932
SHELTON - Shelton Mutual Aid has its final meeting. 92% of the pledges that were raised were actually paid, a total of $18,483.16. The program lasted for 26 weeks. A total of $15,718.39 was paid to the unemployed in exchange for labor.
May 7
DERBY - A Spanish villa type house will be built at 118 Park Avenue.
SHELTON - Reacting to the suspension of Mutual Aid, the Board of Apportionment and Taxation votes $10,000 to the Aldermanic Relief Committee.
May 9
DERBY - Derby Relief Fund, which was the equivilent of the Mutual Aid organizations in Ansonia, Seymour, and Shelton, ceases operations. Over the winter, it employed over 500 residents who were otherwise out of work. There are now concerns of what to do for the unemployed.
SEYMOUR - Seymour Mutual Aid will stop collecting pledges on June 15, which will effectively shut it down.
SHELTON - The Board of Aldermen appoints the Street Commissioner as the head of all Aldermanic Relief Committee projects. The unemployed will be used as labor on 5 State funded dirt road improvement projects - on Long Hill Avenue, Waverly Road, Isinglass Road, Willoughby Road, and Walnut Tree Hill Road.
May 10
ANSONIA - Gordon Post, American Legion, formally begins its War on Depression. Heads are appointed for four major groups, which are veterans, clubs, merchants, and industrialists. Canvases will soon begin.
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 164 men in the past week a total of 3,622 hours, and paid them $1443.60.
ANSONIA - The Comcowich VFW Post, which was burned out of its headquarters last week, will occupy the second floor of 43 Bridge Street.
DERBY - Griffin Hospital announces a Valley-wide $15,000 fund drive to augment its operating expense fund.
SEYMOUR - Strand Theater is closed for the summer.
May 12
SHELTON - Over 250 unemployed have registered at Shelton Social Services to work for the Aldermanic Relief Committee. Ten began work today fencing and repairing Indian Well Road, while another four are cleaning up the steep bank below High Street.
Saturday, May 14, 1932
ANSONIA - New data is revealed about the 1930 census. Of Ansonia's population of 19,894 people, 32.7% are native white males. 33.5% are native white females. 28.4% of the total population is foreign born. 5.4% of the population is African American.
SEYMOUR - 1000 red pine trees are planted at Legion Park.
May 16
SHELTON - One of the city's two motorized fire engines blows its engine while responding to a brush fire in Well's Hollow. It now needs a new $500 motor.
May 17
ANSONIA - Last week, 194 men worked 3,001 hours for Ansonia Mutual Aid, and earned $1,239.50.
SHELTON - The Aldermanic Relief Committee puts 35 unemployed men to work on various Street Department projects.
May 18
DERBY - Harry S. Hansen, assistant Scout Executive of the Hamden Boy Scout Council of Springfield, MA, is elected Executive Secretary of the local Housatonic Council. He replaces Jerome Higgins, who is now the principal of Derby High School.
DERBY & SHELTON - Summer camps and cottages are being prepared for summer on both sides of the Housatonic River.
Friday, May 20, 1932
ANSONIA - Yesterday, a student at Fourth Street School was sent home due to bad case of poison ivy. This apparently gave some students the idea of rubbing poison ivy on themselves so they would also not have to attend school. They convince about 40 of their fellow students to join them. Today, there was a veritable "parade" of school children walking to Ansonia City Hall, where the school nurse's clinic is located, with cases of poison ivy. School officials quickly learn who the ringleaders of this zany scheme were, but the general feeling is the students have suffered enough to avoid further punishment.
ANSONIA - The Bristol Drug Company, on 96 Main Street, has been in business for 84 years.
DERBY - Dr. Royal W. Pinney, a millionaire who currently lives in New Haven, but spent most of his life in this City, walks into Derby with a harrowing tale. He was held up on the New Haven Road in Orange. When the criminals discover he only has $16 in his wallet, they take a watch, his car, and kidnap a 22 year old female companion he was traveling with, after knocking out one of his teeth. A manhunt begins for the robbers/kidnappers.
May 21
ANSONIA - A suggestion to cancel the children's portion of the Memorial Day parade, due to many children not having shoes or proper clothing is shot down. However, there is still about 150 children who are in need of these items in this Great Depression year. School Nurse Miss Mae Gaffney puts out an appeal for them, so the all of the children may march proudly.
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid's insurance policy has been cancelled. All work on this laudable private workfare program is forced to stop, until a new policy can be found.
ANSONIA & DERBY - Extensive improvements are being made to the St. Mary's cemeteries in Ansonia. 38 unemployed men have been put to work on the projects, their salaries paid through collections taken at several churches.
May 22
ANSONIA - The Webster Hose Co. No. 3 pumper collides with Eagle Hose H&L Co. No. 6 ladder truck in front of the Eagle firehouse, while responding to an alarm. There are no injuries. The ladder truck is out of service.
May 23
DERBY - Police now believe that the girl with Dr. Pinney that was "kidnapped" three days ago was a actually working with the kidnappers, in an attempt to rob him. Among the clues - he only knew her for 3 weeks, she has not turned up, her name does not appear in the New Haven city directories, and there have been no reports of a young girl kidnapped or missing.
May 24
ANSONIA - It is announced that Frank J. Cushner of this city will be one of the first to receive the newly revived Purple Heart Medal
ANSONIA - The Eagle Hose H&L Co. No. 6 ladder truck remains out of service, with a bent frame, though local mechanics are busy trying to fix it.
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 119 men on 6 projects the past week, and paid them $1,203. Negotiations are being completed for new insurance policy.
DERBY - Police are still stumped over Dr. Pinney's May 20 assault on New Haven Road in Orange. It is revealed today that the robbers did not get $200 and 2 valuable diamond rings which were sewn into the millionaire's coat.
May 25
DERBY - Derby Public Library circulated 133,655 books in 1931, the largest amount ever up to that time.
May 26
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid is able to obtain a new insurance policy, and unemployed men return to work for it today.
DERBY - The John H. Collins American Legion continues to distribute used clothing to needy families in Derby. The Legion is also maintaining gardens to grow food.
May 27, 1932
ANSONIA - A 50 year old Howard Avenue man hangs himself at the police department lockup after he was arrested by the State for keeping and selling liquor.
SHELTON - The Shelton Tax and Rent Payer's League organizes the Citizens' Party. 400 are registered, but they need an additional 600 more before a ticket can be put on the fall election. Former Mayor Bennett N. Beard is the chairman
May 28
ANSONIA - 3 firemen are overcome by smoke & ammonia as a fire hits 22 Maple Street. Sundick's Restaurant, a grocery, and 1 apartment are gutted in the 3 story brick building on the corner of River Road. The owner of the building and the restaurant suffers a heart attack from the stress. 2 are removed from the third floor in a "thrilling rescue" by firefighters. One of the rescuing firefighters is on the Board of Aldermen.
ANSONIA - Sandlot baseball very popular in the city.
DERBY - Police officer William J. Burke will be awarded the newly restored Purple Heart.
OXFORD - The town holds what is billed as the biggest celebration in its history to commemorate 250th anniversary of the arrival of its first settlers, and the 200thy anniversary of George Washington's birth. Gov. Wilbur Cross gives an address on Oxford Green. A historical pageant is staged.
SEYMOUR - The Seymour Mutual Aid workfare program will continue until June 15.
SHELTON - William E. Jones of 17 Forest Avenue will receive on of the newly re-commissioned Purple Heart medals.
May 29
ANSONIA - Rev. Lewis K. Davis of Ansonia's First Baptist Church gives the address at the City's Memorial Service at Assumption Hall.
DERBY & SHELTON - Memorial Day observances are held at Derby High School. Captain Daniel Strickland of the 102nd Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, is the featured speaker.
OXFORD - Memorial Day observances are held on the Oxford Green. Children from Seymour's Maple Street and Center Schools from Seymour also participate.
SEYMOUR - Union Memorial Day services are held at Seymour Congregational Church.
May 30 MEMORIAL DAY
ANSONIA - Hundreds of schoolchildren march in the Memorial Day parade. Many participate in the exercises at Pine Grove & St. Mary's Cemeteries.
ANSONIA - The pastor of Immanuel Episcopal Church preaches a highly controversial sermon, in which he attacks Prohibition because it is not in the Bible. He also attacks Memorial Day as glorifying war.
DERBY - Big ceremony is held at Mt. St. Peters Cemetery for the dedication of the monument over the grave of Rev. Fitzgerald of St. Mary's Church, who died last December 29th.
DERBY & SHELTON - Derby-Shelton Memorial Day Parade starts in Shelton this year. This parade marks the first appearance of the John. H. Collins American Legion Post Drum Corps.
SEYMOUR - Bright sun, and cool breezes are present for the large crowds attending the Memorial Day parade. Many floats participate this year.
May 31
ANSONIA - Pews and other furniture for new Immanuel Episcopal Church are being purchased from the Grace Episcopal Church in New Haven, which is being demolished. It is hoped the new church can be dedicated on October 2.
DERBY - $500 has been raised by the Board of Education by selling school supplies to students, which is illegal in Connecticut. The President of the Board of Education wants $300 of that money to go to purchasing a used printing press for the school system. He adds if the City followed the law, it would not have the money to purchase the press.
SHELTON - The Echo Hose, Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 holds its anniversary dinner, 50 years from the date it was first organized, at its Howe Avenue firehouse. 3 of 9 surviving charter members are present.
June
Wednesday, June 1, 1932
ANSONIA - In the past week, Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 145 men a total 2159 hours, and paid them $853.40.
ANSONIA - Joseph Staffey, of 178 Beaver Street will receive a Purple Heart medal.
DERBY - The new Lakeview Inn on Lake Housatonic opens. The exterior is green and white, of French colonial architecture. The interior is decorated with hangings of shell pink and moss green. A large dance floor is in the middle of the first floor.
June 2
ANSONIA - Capt. Harold Thompson of the 102nd Infantry Regiment, Company M, of the Connecticut National Guard at the Ansonia Armory, announces a meeting of World War I veterans and others interested in combining Washington bicentennial observances with awarding of Purple Heart medals to Valley residents on June 7. Although they had no way of knowing it at the time, this would lead to a chain of events that would result in the founding of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
ANSONIA - The William H. Gordon Post, American Legion, now has 201 members.
DERBY & SHELTON - Many summer resorts and camps on both sides of the Housatonic River are opening.
June 3, 1932
ANSONIA - State police raid a Wooster Street address. They find a 500 gallon still, 5 gallons of moonshine, and 10,000 gallons of mash. 3 arrests are made.
SEYMOUR - A 13 year old boy playing baseball is killed when he is struck by a truck at South Main Street and Westerman Avenue. The truck driver did not know he hit anyone, and kept going. He was being followed by one of his family members, who witnessed the accident and pulled over the truck. When the driver found out he became "frantic" and tried to cut himself with a knife. He is stopped, and is arrested and held pending an inquest.
June 4
ANSONIA - State police raid a North Main Street address, and arrest 4 on Prohibition and prostitution charges.
June 6
ANSONIA - About 20 city World War I veterans will leave for Washington tomorrow to join the Bonus Army.
OXFORD - A meeting is held at Episcopal rectory by the executive committee of the Oxford historical celebration. It is voted to give $75 remaining in treasury to establish a library in town.
June 7
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid employed 214 men a total of 2853.5 hours, and paid them $1,138.97 in the past week.
ANSONIA - The Ansonia Water Company informs the City Health Officer it plans to shut off water to 20 houses for lack of payment on June 18.
SHELTON - The new Citizens' Party now has over 500 members. Stanley A. Warner elected "permanent chairman" at a meeting in Clark's Hall
SHELTON - The Harris-Seybold-Potter Company sues the City for a reduction of it's 1931 tax assessment, from $183,572 to $65,000.
June 9
ANSONIA - Federal agents raid a Maple Street residence, and arrest 1 on liquor charges.
SEYMOUR - Pledges for Seymour Mutual Aid expire on June 15. There has been no letup in demand for the workfare services, however.
SEYMOUR - The Seymour Auto Company is now a Hupmobile dealer.
Friday, June 10, 1932
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid will suspend its workfare program on July 1.
June 11
DERBY - A grocer on 10 Bank Street extended credit to customers through Great Depression, even though they couldn't pay. Now he himself owes $6,000 in debt. His credit will no longer be accepted, so his store is empty, and his family is now facing hunger themselves.
June 13
DERBY - The Commodore Hull Theater announces that it will operate only on Saturdays and Sundays through the summer.
SEYMOUR - At a Seymour Mutual Aid meeting, it is announced that 1786 bags of flour were received in the past month. 577 have already been distributed.
June 14
SHELTON - The new nurses' home and doctor's cottage at Laurel Heights Hospital are occupied for the first time.
June 15
ANSONIA - State Police arrest a woman for the sale of alcohol on Maple Street, Ansonia.
DERBY - The State funded improvement of Third Street begins, putting some unemployed men back to work.
DERBY - The $25,000 allocated to poor relief at beginning of the year has been exhausted.
June 16
ANSONIA - A man who has been referred to in many recent Prohibition court cases in Ansonia as "the mysterious Mr. Dunn" by State prosecutors finally reveals himself. He is a New London man, whose last name is actually Druin. He was paid $30 a week by State Police to work undercover trying to buy alcohol, or to find out where moonshine was being made. He sometimes wore a fake mustache. Court officials are not amused.
ANSONIA - The American Red Cross has distributed over 1,300 bags of flour to families whose names were recommended by churches, fraternal societies, and citizens. 35 National Guard members from the Ansonia Armory assisted in loading and unloading, and delivering the flour to the needy in trucks.
DERBY - The City's American Legion has received 2,500 24.5 lb bags of flour from the Red Cross. As of this date 500 bags have been distributed to needy families, with deliveries continuing.
DERBY - 6 brand new General Electric refrigerators that will go to Laurel Heights Hospital in Shelton have been on display at the Howard & Barber Department Store on Main Street.
Friday, June 17, 1932
SHELTON - The 3-story, $300,000 infirmary building at Laurel Heights Hospital is nearly completed.
June 19
ANSONIA & DERBY - The General David Humphreys Branch No. 1 of the Sons of the American Revolution, decorates the 42 Revolutionary War graves at Colonial Cemetery and 11 at Elm Street Cemetery.
SHELTON - The new addition to the Shelton Baptist Church is dedicated.
June 20
DERBY - A 7-year old Bank Street boy dies after being hit in the stomach by a baseball at a game he was watching at a Derby playground.
SHELTON - 10 boys and 10 girls graduate from the first ever graduating class from St. Joseph's School.
June 21
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid paid $1,135.80 to 184 men for its workfare program last week.
DERBY - Edward Kurtyka, of 28 Dziadik Court, will receive one of the new Purple Heart medals.
DERBY - The 82 members of the Derby High School Class of 1932 graduate in the school auditorium. It is the largest graduating class to date.
June 22
ANSONIA - The 174 members of the Ansonia High School Class of 1932 graduate at the Capitol Theater
Friday, June 24, 1932
SEYMOUR - The 53 members of the Seymour High School Class of 1932 graduate at the Strand Theater. 7 of the Seniors are from Oxford.
SHELTON - The 83 members of the Shelton High School Class of 1932 graduates in the school auditorium. 700 attend the ceremony.
June 25
DERBY - Miss Margaret Degnan, of Caroline Street, ties for third place in the national oratorical contest in Washington DC, sponsored by the United States Commission on the Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of George Washington.
June 27
DERBY - 400 children flock to the Recreation Camp on this first very hot day of the summer.
DERBY - Charlie Celone's poolroom in on lower Main Street is invaded by 4 men with guns. They line everyone against a wall, and demand they hand over a racing book. When, at length, the owner convinces the group he does not have a racing book, and never did, the gangsters are finally convinced that they made a mistake. So they rob the 12 men in the poolroom of $70 and flee.
June 28
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid paid $1,136 to 166 men for a total of 2,854 hours during its last full week of operation.
DERBY - Police officer William Burke will receive one of the newly recommissioned Purple Heart medals.
June 29
ANSONIA - It appears that Ansonia's municipal playgrounds will not formally open this year due to lack of funds.
June 30
ANSONIA - The local American Legion has $48,000 in pledge cards for their War Against the Depression.
DERBY - The Hotel Clark is now in receivership.
July
Friday, July 1, 1932
ANSONIA - More than a hundred people have applied for teaching positions at Ansonia High School.
July 2
DERBY - Leo Meade, a former Derby resident who served as post office clerk, now lives in Hopewell NJ. He is currently working as a private investigator in the Lindberg baby murder case.
July 3
DERBY - John Stobierski, one of Derby's first Polish residents, dies at his home at 130 Main Street after being ill for 3 weeks. Born 1863, he came America when he was 17 years old. He settled in Pennsylvania, living there for 2 years before he moved to Derby. He worked at Alling Mills, and the Sterling Piano Company in Derby, the Sidney Blumenthal Company (Shelton Looms) in Shelton, and in later years ran a confectionary on Main Street.
DERBY - A small barn on New Haven Avenue near Sodom Lane is destroyed by fire.
SHELTON - Peter Serbinofsky, 24, of New York City, becomes area's first drowning victim of the summer. He apparently had a heart attack while swimming near Birchbank. The Echo Hose H&L Company responds to try to revive the victim, and the car carrying the inhalator is nearly hit by a fast train at the crossing.
FOURTH OF JULY
The holiday is "tame" in comparison to previous years, probably due to the rain that began early in the morning and lasted until 3:30 PM.
DERBY - 7,000 people attend the opening day of the William Glick circus, which features 35 attractions and rides, on Island Park. The event is sponsored by the Polish Falcons.
July 5
DERBY - A pure Holstein cow at Osborndale Farm, named Mantuk Pietje Bess Ormsby No. 858276, is the largest living cow of that breed in the world, weighing 2400 pounds. The cow was born at Osbornedale on July 17, 1923.
July 6
ANSONIA - Ansonia Mutual Aid is now closed, though it may reopen next fall. 142 men worked 2,404.5 hours on 6 projects in it's final week, earning $953.40. The total subscriptions raised to date are $40,787.35 for the workfare program.
DERBY - Osbornedale farm is the first Holstein breeding place in America to have 2 cows complete yearly records exceeding 1,000 lbs of butter fat within 2 weeks.
OXFORD - A 6 year old boy drowns when he reaches for fish being kept at the bottom of a barrel that was sunk into a spring, on a farm in the Governor's Hill section of town.
SHELTON - Camp Pershing, run by the Naugatuck Boy Scout Council, opens for the season along the Housatonic River.
July 7
DERBY - I.M. Thompson & Son Buick dealers, located on Third Street, will move to 166 Clifton Avenue in Ansonia. The firm has been there since 1909, starting out as a livery.
SEYMOUR - The first week of the public swimming pool being open at Legion Park saw a record 3,500 people attend.
Friday, July 8, 1932
Local veterans from Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, and Shelton are planning a September event for Washington's 200th birthday in which the newly recommissioned Purple Heart medals will be awarded to those receiving them.
ANSONIA - The directors of Ansonia Mutual Aid meet, and decide to continue the workfare program for 10 more days.
July 9
Haying going on in the fields. In the old days, factory workers would earn extra money during their factory vacation shutdowns by helping the farmers. Today, 3 men and a tractor can do the job once done by dozens of men.
SHELTON - As the hot weather progresses, many bathers can be found at the Shelton Docks, The Maples, Birchbank, and Indian Well.
July 11
SHELTON - The Boy Scout Camp Irving opens for the season.
July 12
DERBY - Legal skirmishes over the Hotel Clark end when the proprietor who leased it, L. L. Degal, is evicted and possession reverts to its owner, Mrs. Ellen L. O'Brien.
SHELTON - Camp Irving lifeguards rescue two men from a capsized canoe on Lake Housatonic.
July 13
ANSONIA - The City Health Officer notifies offenders to immediately stop dumping garbage into the tail race. The American Brass Company now says the Ansonia Canal behind City Hall will be used as storage reservoir for the new sunken wells they recently installed to obtain water, not filled in as was previously announced.
SEYMOUR - Frank Trevelin and Andrew Masavege, both of Seymour, will receive Purple Hearts.
SHELTON - The Women's Relief Corps presents new American flag to Camp Irving.
July 14
ANSONIA - Rev. Patrick Murphy of Ansonia, ordained as a priest in Rome, Italy 11 days before, died suddenly at Ostia, which is 15 miles from Rome. Much shock and sympathy is expressed in Ansonia.
SHELTON - Isinglass Road - called "the Trapfall reservoir road between Curtiss Corner on Nichols Road and Huntington Street" has been improved and oiled. It is one of the busiest in the City according to the Sentinel, used by Huntington, East Village, and Monroe residents to get to Bridgeport.
SHELTON - Officers are elected for the new United Italian American Citizens' Club, located in a vacant store next to Shelton Theater
Friday, July 15, 1932
All Boy Scout Camps on the Housatonic are now open. This includes Camp Irving and Camp Pershing in Shelton, Camp Palmer opposite Irving in Oxford, and Camp Waramaug and Camp Pomperaug on Lake Zoar.
SHELTON - The City pays a $1 bounty for a gray fox shot off Rocky Rest Road. The foxes are considered pests against chickens. Despite the bounty, many are still seen in that area.
SHELTON - Police Chief Donovan bans all swimming in the Housatonic from The Maples to the Shelton Docks because of fears of swimmers drowning. A total of four drowned in the river last year.
July 16
A soaking rain is needed soon to salvage the drought stricken potato and corn crops.
ANSONIA - David Lee, who sells harness and other horse hardware, will soon close his store on 290 Main Street, where he has been for 33 years. He is the last of Main Street's "old time merchants".
ANSONIA - William Alexander Smith dies at age 66 in Ossining, NY. He was Ansonia's school superintendent from 1880 to 1902.
OXFORD - 100 pullets are stolen from the Lane chicken farm on upper Oxford Road. A barking dog arouses owner, who chases the thieves away. As they flee, they drop sacks containing 30 more chickens.
SHELTON - Camp Irving now enjoys the fire protection afforded by an old Derby Fire Department soda acid extinguisher mounted on an old Ansonia Fire Department jumper.
July 17
Five men hold up the Chestnut Ridge Inn in Orange shortly after midnight. The Derby police spots the getaway car speeding through East Derby. A chase ensues, with speeds up to 60 mph. The chase continues through Ansonia and Seymour, and police from those towns join. The car is too fast, though, and just as it was about outdistance the police cars, it is found overturned near the Ansonia-Seymour line. The police find 2 of the outlaws in the woods on the Ansonia side of the town line. Valley police are searching for the other three.
July 18
SHELTON - The Housatonic Scout Council votes to allow boys 10 years and older who are not Boy Scouts to attend Camp Irving.
July 19
The area's George Washington Bicentennial Committee will hold its observance on September 17. A parade is scheduled tol march though Derby and Ansonia, and a ceremony will be held afterward to honor the Valleys newly decorated Purple Heart veterans. Frank Gates will be the honorary chairman, Local historian Henry Bradley Jr. will speak, and Gov. Wilbur Cross is invited.
ANSONIA - High School enrollment is expected to increase by 160 this fall.
DERBY - The Sponge Rubber Products Company is selling a product called "Spongex", which is byproduct of cutting and trimming other products made at the Housatonic Avenue plant. Spongex is sold in 10lb boxes. Children enjoy playing with them, shaping them, and gluing the pieces together.
July 20
ANSONIA - The City's 3 swimming pools - at Mead School, Fourth Street, and Colburn Street, are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The pools are packed with children every time they are open.
DERBY - 790 visit the Recreation Camp - largest number ever up to this point. Many participate in the new "Learn to Swim" program.
DERBY - Stephen O'Shaughnessy of Hawthorne Avenue and William H. Keefe of Tenth Street wil