The Newtown Bee is organizing a committee of interested townspeople to study Newtown’s past as revealed on its gravestones and in its cemeteries. Scattered all over town, and dating back to 1711, these often overgrown plots are gold mines of information about the way Newtown was in its early years. Family groupings, chronologies, epitaphs, peculiar carvings can all provide valuable insights, which are especially appropriate as we approach the Bicentennial year. The Bee contemplates a project including teams of high school students and adults who will explore each cemetery in town looking for different historical facts.

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Friday, April 11, the teachers of Newtown had the day in court which they were seeking to answer an injunction brought by the Board of Education in order to stop the strike called by the teachers on April 7 and instituted on April 8. The court appearance of the teachers was the result of an appeal by Newtown Federation of Teacher attorneys that reasons leading up to the action be heard by the Bridgeport Superior Court judge who signed the injunction, Robert Berdun. The hearing was granted and took place on Friday, April 11, in Bridgeport before Judge Berdun. Present were over 100 teachers who made the trip to court via chartered bus from the Knights of Columbus Hall.

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Once again, the annual “Show and Tell’’ program of the Newtown Historical Society on Monday, April 14, in the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, proved to be an evening of good entertainment and gainful knowledge. Among the items exhibited was a bench made from a rafter used in the building of the Newtown Congregational Church back in 1720. At that time, the church was located where the flagpole is today. It was moved to its present location in 1792. The church has made a gift of the bench to the Society. It will be placed in the Matthew Curtiss House with a suitable plaque. Joseph Wupperfeld, acting as master of ceremonies, exhibited what looked like an ordinary cowbell. However, it turned out to be a US Army camel bell used in about 1852 by the military, who at that time did have a herd of camels which were used in the Southwest for transporting equipment.

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Last week The Bee ran a picture on the front page of Andrei Hudiakoff, of Pocono Road, looking over an unidentified marker in his back yard. Mr and Mrs Hudiakoff were not quite sure just what the marker was or where it came from. Since The Bee first drew attention to this mystery mark, reports of other similar marks along both sides of Interstate 84 have been received. The Bee learned this past week that these markers have been placed along I-84 by the Department of Transportation, which is conducting an aerial survey of the highway to locate “hazardous fixed objects,” such as unprotected bridge abutments, utility poles, and guard rails with exposed ends, which pose a threat to the I-84 motorist.

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A new slate of officers has been elected to serve the St Rose Home and School Association for the 1975-76 school year. They are: president, Mrs Veronica Boyce; vice president, Mrs June Maciolek; secretary, Mrs Pat Prokop; and treasurer, Don Launder. New committee chairmen have also been named: program and activities, Mrs Elaine Borrelli; newsletter, Mrs Jean Otten; maintenance, Jim Walsh; fund raising, Bill Bower; and budget, Dan Amaral.

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Newtown’s own Royal Guardsmen had a busy competitive weekend recently and brought home from it four top awards.

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Mrs Joanne Kemmerer was re-elected president of the League of Women Voters at the annual meeting of the Newtown League Saturday, April 12, in the Hawley Manor.

APRIL 21, 1950

The Board of Education of Regional High School District No. 3 met in the Southbury Consolidated School at 8 pm Wednesday, April 12. The main business of the meeting was concerned with the provisions for dissolution of the District as voted in the referendum on April 8. The board voted to pay the amount owed O’Connor and Kilham, architects, as soon as possible. This amount is $55,983.80. Outstanding capital obligations of the board are as follows: Ropes, Gray, Best, Colonial Trust Co., $41,200; Woodbury Savings Bank, $7,500; O’Connor & Kilham, architects, $55,983.80; Coolidge & Rugg, (approximately) $1,500; (total) $106,183.80. The Board voted to borrow $106,000 to pay off these obligations. It was voted to transfer the real estate and the Board’s interest in Regional plans to the towns of Southbury and Woodbury. George M. Connors and Company of Waterbury was appointed as auditor of the Regional books.

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Madeleine Hewes, the painter, wife of artist Eberhard von Jarochowski, Platts Hill Road, left last Thursday from New York, in company with Mrs E.G. Poindexter of Easton, for a three-weeks cruise aboard a Furness freighter. Their trip will take them as far south as Venezuela, and they will make stops at islands in the Caribbean, touching at ports in both the West Indies and the Greater Antilles.

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The Zoning Commission of the Borough of Newtown, as the result of a lengthy meeting on Monday evening at the Edmond Town Hall, denied the requests of C. Walter Bounty and Willis McNab for the reclassification of their properties on Church Road, and the request of Ralph L. Knibloe for the reclassification of his property on Queen Street. The board’s decision to maintain the classification of these pieces of property as residential, rather than changing to business, prevents the erection of a business block in each case.

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The topic “The America We Want” occasioned much lively discussion and expression of opinion at the Spring Forum of the Housatonic Valley Schoolmen’s League. The meeting was held at Hawley School on Monday and close to 200 participants represented 12 schools in this area.

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The committee for the Veterans Memorial Building states that it has the objective of getting enough donations to complete the building during the present administration of post officers. Plans are being made for the building’s dedication on Memorial Day and that the facilities will be available for use by any organization in Newtown needing a meeting place.

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Officers of the Charles Howard Peck, Sr and Jr, Post 308 VFW and Auxiliary were installed with impressive ceremonies in the social rooms of St John’s Church, Sandy Hook, last Thursday evening at 8 o’clock. For the post, William Weiss, past commander, installed the following: George Jackson, commander; Harold Morgan, senior vice commander; Jerome Jackson, Jr, junior vice commander; William K. Daniells, chaplain; Robert Kayfus, quartermaster; William Slocum, trustee; Herbert Carey and Joseph Hanlon, county council delegates.

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At a special meeting held Friday, April 14, in the Hawley School, the Newtown Board of Education voted to take steps toward planning a Newtown High School. They made plans to call a town meeting which would authorize the board to investigate sites and take an option on a site if necessary; (2) to engage an architect; (3) to appropriate the money necessary to carry out the above; and (4) to report findings and recommendations back to another special town meeting.

 

APRIL 17, 1925

The Mah Jong ice cream parlor on Newtown Street has had a telephone installed. Their number is 194.

 

APRIL 20, 1900

John Stillson had an ox seriously injured last week. Dr Morrell, the well-known Southbury veterinarian, is attending it, and the ox is in a fair way to recover.

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Probably the largest Republican caucus ever held in Newtown to elect delegates to a state or county convention was that on Monday night to choose delegates to the May state convention, which in turn is to elect delegates to the Philadelphia national convention.