Connecticut western news., 1909-05-20
REMARKABLE FEATS
 OF MEMORY
ARE PERFORMED BY LII. HOWARD
After Celebrating His 7Oth Birthday East GranbY Man Recalls tY Name Hundreds Who Have Passed Away in Sharon and Cornwall.

Sharon and Cornwall.
 l.. II. Howard, of East Granby, W hose full grown name is Louis Henry ITop0- Howard, hns n memory that is Cvpns longer than his name. In fact it is re markable conslGr:in3 tho fact that hs. was born 70 years ago the terth of this month. During his long life Mir u2"&rI Las lived ia Ca&"au, sharon Salisbury and Cornwall and is we'll known in all these places. Among hlsa recent feats of memory is the completion of a list of persons he has known in tho town of Cornwall during the last 4o years all of whom are now dead. He states that the list numbers over zoo Not such simple feat of memory for n man of his years. He has done the same for the town of Sharon with practically the same result in point of numbers Mir Howard was born in Hamburg Germany, May 10, lS39 He came tos this country as boy and spent his carly years in New York state. Subsequently, he has lived in Cornwall % years. in, sharon % and in Salisbury 5. He first secured employment on tho railroad, af. forwards becoming a mason. He hved in Canaan at the time the ol Connecti1. cut Western Railroad was built. H6 worked as stone mason under Stiles Stevens and was also employed on tho Housatonic Railroad during its early days. Mir Howard still tolls the story of how Fred Scamerhorn and he tore down the five arches over the Black berry River, putting the new bridge over on Sunday without delaying train five minutes. Hugh W. Franklin was superintendent of the road at that timo and Charles K. Hunt, of Hunts ville president.
 At the time of the big wreck at Besrs Mile Mir. Howard was brakeman on. the wrecked train.
 Mir. Howard says, "I remember when Ed Warner kept the hotel on the west side of the tracks at Canaan and Rocker kept the Stevens House on the east side"
 Speaking of his railroad days Mr- Howard says, "I we'll remember wheR the Housatonic Railroad did not have n rail on it's entire line-only the old snake heads which were as likely as not to come up through the bottom of the onr- and in several instances instantly killed passengers. I remember all the names of the engines up to 1875 and could name almost all the drivers and conductors.
 "I can remember when good flour sold for $9 a barrel, pork for four cents n pound potatoes could not be given away. .. and good St. Croix rum sold for three cents & glass or one shilling pint. Be- tween that time and the present 1 have known four to be S22.50 barrel, pork. 3S cents pound. and cotton cloth. un-- bleached, 22 cents a yard.
 Probably you do not remember the big mass meeting at Litchheld whens Buckingham ran for governor. was s. Gold, of West Cornwall. Another circumstance that transpired about that. time was the big meeting at the fair grounds at Falls Village, when Honor able William H. Barnum ran against Honorable r. F. Barnum for member of Congress-lively times those; votes Sto0s apiece.
 Folks here are large tobacco raisers and we hope the tariff on tobacco will not be reduced. For miles around there, is nothing but tobacco growing in fields all the way from five to l60 acres in sK- tent. One grower near here has 15b acres under cloth and 100 acres in the open field. have some tobacco Ave years old and if you would like to fill your pipe, Mir Editor. let me know.
 Having just passed my roth birthday feel that will soon join the ranks of some of the old residents here. Samuel Clark died recently. aged lo9 and hiss wife aged 99. There are five mors, young people here, aged l05, lo2, 96. 9E and 92 respectively"
 nF kn Cg~t