Connecticut western news., 1911-04-27
DEACON STEVENS STORY Continued from First Page)

Joyce place back of Camps drug store and used for storing the hose cart and afterward bought by William Shields, who moved it to his premises and after John Cudney bought the Smells pro- perty 1t was moved again and made part of house and is now owned by the Whitfords.
 The next place is the Adam farm house. The occupants of this house that remember were John Huntington,
 Wolcott Adams, Hiram Dings, James Bragg, MT. Anderson and Maitland Osborn. who was conducting the farm when the barns were burned. The house is now occupied by Charles Butcher. On the opposite side of the road near the Borden plant was the old show ground, It was>on these grounds
 that l saw Van Amburg's menagerie, the first exhibition of wild animals had ever seen. remember being in the road near where the railroad crossing now is,
 when part of the teams came in. head ed by huge elephant, and seeing a young man driving fine pair of cream colored horses belonging to Phelps Day.
 (perhaps they belonged to his circus be. fore he went to New Jersey) met the elephant near the Adam farm house. The horses were so frightened that they took the young man and rig up the bank and came near going over the fence, but he managed to keep himself and wagon right side up until the circus teams had
 passed, thus avoiding general smash up.
 Going on we pass house built by
 Whiting Knickerbocker and later owned
 by MT. Pequigney and now owned by E.
 W. Warner. Also the house built by
 John A. Beckley and occupied by the
 late s. O. Beckley until his death. It is
 stlll occupied by Mrs. Beckley. Next
 the town hall, built by a joint stock
 company in 1856 and later bought by T Frederick Watson, who owned it until
 1893 when it was purchased by the town
 and enlarged and much improved.
 The Episcopal church was built soon
 after the advent of the Housatonic rail
 road. I remember seeing it when in
 course of construction, as also the stone
 house built by Frederick Watson, who
 occupied it until his death and it Is still
 owned by his wife who is now Mrs.
 Junius Rhoades.
 . Next the hotel, erected by William
 Adam when the Housatonic railroad
 was being built. I remember the first
 proprietor was John Barstow and after ward Major Peck. Miss Mary Peck tells
 me that her father conducted this hotel
 seven years, and that he died there.
 After his death it was owned and con-
 ducted by different parties, among whom were I. P. Stevens Oliver and Sartial Root, D. A. Riker and J. A. Mcdonald, until it was bought by E. W. Warner.
 who conducted it until it was bought by
 the late William Canfield who made ex- tensive improvements and it is now
 known as The Garfield. I also remsm-
 Der that the south east room in this hotel , was used as 8 waiting room and ticket
 office and the basement as a baggage
 room by the Housatonio Railroad Com
 pany and there was long platform on
 the west side between the hotel and
 tracks where passenger trains stopped to
 discharge and take on passengers and baggage and this continued until the Central New England Railroad was
 completed and the new union depot
 built. The Housatonic railroad freight depot stood where Ives 6 Peirce's mill , now stands and the engine house di- rectly across the track from the freight
 house. For detailed description of the } hotel and it's many proprietors sea the Canaan Scrap Book.
 Directly across the road from the hotel was building erected by George O. Catlin whom we'll remember, as also do all those that succeeded him. This building was always used as & store and the post office was also kept there for some years. will here quote from the Canaan Scrap Book: "The store which for many years stood on the east side of , the Housatonic tracks facing the War ner House was erected shortly after the building of the road, by George o. Cat. lin, who conducted a mercantile busl. ness for few years, when he sold out to MT. Caulkins who continued the business until he died. It was then dis posed of to Benjamin Jones and Griswold Humphrey about 1859, and on the disso' s lution of the latter firm Deacon Charles Kellogg and Luther Brown became the proprietors. In 1866 Samuel O. Beckley purchased Deacon Kelloggs interest in the business and the firm was changed to Brown 6 Beckley. and i'll August oi S the same year MT. Brown, whose failing health necessitated his withdrawal from active business, sold out to s. c. Beck ley and the building was purchased by Oliver Beckley. MT. Brown died the | txl1 Inc t1l