The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1905-08-23
WILMINGTON.


h the excursion to Watch Hill, etc., OF
o Saturday.
2 The Center school will begin th'
/. first Monday in September, the Attn
i Miss Katherine F. McHugh OF Soutf
/. Norwalk teacher.
We are informed that there are twe
{ more Rider descendants in town
Mrs. e. J. Holman and Romano
; Tucker being grandchildren OF the iate
Sally Rider Holt
4 We wouldn't be without our Native
Herbs, David Matthewson OF Mount
Hope the hustling agent, for almost
anv consideration. One tablet acts
charmingly as slight Alternative, and
l two or three of them will cure any
body of almost anything.
For centuries the Greek. Roman
and Anglican churches have practlceo
(either by immersion or sprinkling)
baptising or christening their babies
thus Inducing them into the church
IL seems now that the Protestant,
paedo- baptist bodies only "conse-
: crate" their children, which is very
: interesting ceremony. A Bohemian
child was SO consecrated in the Con-
gregational church here Sunday.
Needham & Bramble have bought
of Mrs. Emily S. Carpenter her wood
lot north of her house, formerly own
ed and occupied by DR.. Chester Car
penter. We understand there is no
relationship between the two families
either by blood or marriage. Years
ago the late DR.. Chester Carpenter,
DR.. Silas Partridge and DR.. +. l..
Dickinson were the three practicing
physicians in town. Alas, now there
is not one, even, in town-since the
departure to South Coventry of W.. L.
Higgins, M. D., representative from
that town.
Prof. and Mrs. E. @. Phelps are
visiting at the residence OF A. f.
Pearl. Mrs. Pearl and Phelps are
granddaughter of the late Zebediah
Marcy. Prof. Phelps has been a
prominent teacher of music in Brook
lvn. N. Y, for forty years, nearly
all that time taught on the board of
education and was retired on a gener-
GUS pension in 1900; has also been
organist and choir master in many OF
the largest churches in that city.
His compositions are we'll known
throughout the country. He is son
of Connecticut; Middletown was his
birthplace.
We insert the following from dis
tant subscriber of The Press: Sever
al items in the last weeks Press led
me to think you had been ransacking
your chambers of memory, where
some nice things are stored away.
Your do-mi sol do reminded rue of
the earlier pitch of fa-sol-la, fa-sol-
la, mi fal of my fathers time. and the
tuning fork, though not much used
after my remembrance. AS early as
1834.5 there was a good orchestra in
the Hollow, where we then lived.
Of those who composed the orchestra
I recall Rufus and Origin Weston,
ddIV0y AAUOAS NAOAOAOOAAOS
S. D. Merrick, clarionette or flute !;
Thomas Keep, fife, and think that
Joel Smith was a member. They
used to gather on pleasant summer
evenings on the little green in front
of John Heath's comb shop, and near.
ly in front of DIR. Partridge's place,
about 1887 or 8. Stephen Weston
presented the double bass viol of his
own make to the church, and the full
orchestra was established. My i'm
preston is that at the first Harvey
Vinton played the violoncello and
owned it, but that after his death
D. K. Reade took his place. I am
also reminded of the first singing
school ever attended, taught by
B. F. Taylor, about 1888, in the
hall over the old hotel, where another
generation were taught the rudiments
of do-re-mi ia sol la 81 do. It was a
large class and nearly filled the old
hall, and from it developed the large
choir that for nearly fifteen years
filled the old gallery of the church.
There we're the James Weston girls,
the Rufus Parsons girls, Jane and
Hannah Dimock, Louisa Marcy, eliza
Hunt, from the east part of the town,
and the Skaters and others from the
west. Probably the two best bassos
were William Golf and William +.
Shaffer, and lots of others who came
in to make up the fine choir of those
early days. Your "reminiscences in
The Press remind me of SO many
things of the early days at the old
homestead that I am inclined to put
some of them on paper. The old shop
to which you refer, where were made
the first machine-made spools, had
really quite a history. I presume
that Capt. Robert Sharp built it, as
the Lord and Weston farms were a
part of his place at the time that we
moved to our old homestead in 1886.
The shop, with the II story house,
was owned and occupied by James
Holt, Jr., a brother in-law of Capt.
Sharp and brother of Timothy Holt,
I'd. At the time of which / write
Mr.. Holt was, and for many years
did, carry on quite business in max
ing wagons. There he had the first
machine for morticing hubs and the
first machine that I ever saw for turn
. ing spokes and axe helves. There
was in the basement a blacksmith
forge and outside frame for shoeing
oxen. The power was breast wheel,
about seven feet, with about three
! feet buckets. AS you limited in The
Press the wellington Thread company,
of which the late Elisha johnson
was president, sent Mr.. Holt in the
early forties up in New Hampshire,