Norwich CT is struggling. Struggling to continue as a city. Struggling just to survive. We, the residents and tax payers are part of that struggle and we are dependent on our paid, elected and volunteer leaders to lead the way with that struggle.
In addition to creating and maintaining the place that we all want to live in, our leaders are charged with letting others know that Norwich CT is alive and well and open for business.
That is where I think Norwich is woefully inadequate. Not that the leaders don’t try, but they are allowing a fear of making a wrong move stop them from making any move at all. I also do not think that anyone (paid, elected or volunteer) has stood up and said, “I don’t know the difference between the terms advertising, marketing and branding as they can be used for a municipality.”
Not having an understanding of terms can be seen as unprofessional or ignorance and nobody wants to be seen as that. While in fact, asking questions and defining terms is a position of strength. Ever notice that in a legal contract the terms are usually defined. Defining terms assures that everyone is speaking the same language and has the same understanding and expectations of the results.
According to the American Marketing Association marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.
Marketing is the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer and includes identification of the product, determination of the price, selection of distribution channels to reach the customer’s place and the development and promotional strategy.
Advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to a product, service, or need through paid announcements commonly in media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet or billboard or more formally the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.
Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets by establishing a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.
Has anyone seen Norwich CT do any sort of marketing?
Has anyone seen Norwich CT do any sort of advertising?
Does Norwich CT have a brand?
If you answered “No.” to even one of the three questions than whatever is being done is not effective. If the residents don’t know what the City of Norwich CT stands for we, the residents cannot expect others to. So let’s start demanding more from our elected, paid and volunteer leaders as well as more from ourselves by writing positive articles, hosting positive discussions and making our City of Norwich CT a better place to be today and tomorrow.
Are you working on your family genealogy? Finally looking at the Federal Census? When you get done marveling at all the information it contains look at it again. You may be looking at only one of the many schedules that are available.
Genealogists usually begin with the population schedule. That is the schedule that lists the individuals, race, age, birthplaces, residence, medical information, jobs, etc. But in 1880 a supplemental schedule was added called the Dependent, Defective and Delinquent classes. This schedule listed by name blind, children, deaf, homeless, idiots, indigent, insane, mutes, and prisoners.
From 1850 to 1880 the Social Statistics schedule listed all cemetery facilities within city boundaries, including maps with the cemeteries marked with name, address and general description, procedures for interment, cemeteries no longer functioning and the reason for their closure.
Also listed were trade societies, lodges, clubs and other groups including their addresses, major branches, names of the executive officers, membership statistics, meeting and financial worth. Churches information included a brief history, statements of doctrine and policy and even a statistical summary of membership by county.
Other information on the social statistics schedules include the aggregate value of property, a breakdown of taxes paid, a list of schools, colleges, and academies with their numbers of teachers and students, a list of libraries and their number of books, a list of newspaper and periodicals published within a community, the number of paupers supported by the community, the number of criminals convicted within the previous year, and the number of convicts in jail.
The industry or manufacturing schedule, available for 1820-1880 censuses give more specifics about manufacturing, mining, fishing, mercantile, commercial and trading businesses. The schedule lists the names of the individual, company, or corporation, a description of the type of business, the amount of capital invested, the quantity and value of the resources used, the quantity of yearly production, numbers of people hired, etc. In 1870 distinctions were made between child and adult labor and in 1880 the companies were classified into categories.
The threshold to be listed on the industry schedule was $500 worth of materials. So many farmers were listed on both the industrial and agricultural schedules because they had a profitable sideline. For example a farmer could grow wheat or corn and own his own mill to process his grain and that of his neighbors.
Agricultural schedules recorded the statistics for farms, plantations and market gardens and included names of the owners, operators, tenants, sharecroppers, agents, managers, total land acreage, value of the farm, machinery, livestock, staples produced, even the value of animals slaughtered.
Just because you find one reference for the person you are looking for does not mean you have found them all. Keep looking!
Update to my March 14, 2014 blog about a friend using marmalade to sweeten her tea. Over the past year and a few months I have collected a number of new tea recipes that can be used to make the most refreshing caffeine free hot and cold teas. I also visit the tea area everywhere I go and make notes and purchase boxes of some of the more interesting combinations I find.
Then the fun begins as I play with how to make it myself and also how to improve it.
Iced tea for me has to be a bit stronger than my hot tea so I suggest increasing the amounts of flavorings you use to get just the right of strength you are looking for; but the basics for hot and cold remain the same.
If you don’t want solids floating in your tea or at the bottom of your cup, use a mesh tea basket or a disposable paper coffee filter for anything that is a solid. Jams, preserves, marmalades, fresh herbs, or spice solids can be in with the tea leaves you use. I use disposable coffee filters more than I should and have learned to make a little bag with the filter, twist the top and tie a piece of string tightly to it so when the bag sinks to the bottom of the pot, I can still lift it out easy peasy.
The most important thing is to let it steep. The longer it steeps the stronger it becomes. Heating fruit juice in place of water or even cut with water can also make some amazing rich flavors. Check out the unusual fruit juices in the imported or foreign foods sections of your favorite stores. I am really partial to peach and nectarine juice. For iced tea I have been using a half cup of preserves in a quart of water.
Anyway, here are a few more combinations – The choice of with caffeine or decaffeinated tea, green, black or white, teabags or loose is up to you. It is all good.
Apple Spice Tea – Apple juice or apple cider with cinnamon stick stirrers and cloves
Apricot Almond Tea – Apricot nectar with almond extract or apricot jam with almond extract
Caramel Apple Tea – Caramel and apple juice or apple jelly (and I like to mix in lemon rind)
Caramel Tea – Caramel sauce dissolved in a water don’t hesitate to add a dash of chocolate.
Cherry Vanilla Tea – Mix cherry preserves or cherry juice, with a dash of vanilla.
Ginger Peach Tea – Add peach preserves, or peach nectar to ginger tea (sometimes I add mint too)
Ginger Tea – Add fresh ginger, crystallized ginger or ginger jelly.
Lemonade Tea – Warm the lemonade and tea and I add honey.
Mint Tea – Use fresh mint leaves or mint jelly..
Pomegranate Tea – Pomegranate juice cut with water..
Raspberry Tea – made with raspberry preserves (with or without seeds)
When you live in Norwich CT you are told many legends of how the rest of the world revolves around your home city. When you visit places in the rest of the world, you realize that it does.
In Washington DC there are a number of places that by their function and purpose must represent the beauty, power, strength and vision past, present and future of the residents of the United States. One of the places where diplomats and the world’s most powerful leaders and elite meet and greet one another is the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the State Department.
There standing tall, not quite 92 inches tall, as a part of their permanent collection, in quiet dignity against a neutral wall stands an old friend. A Thomas Harland eight-day weight driven clock, (wound once a week) made in 1776 in Norwich, CT.
Remarkably it still plays six tunes, four times a day (3, 6,9, and 12 o’clock) that were popular in the day Lass of Patty’s Mill, Shady Bowers, Minuet by Handle, Lovely Nymph, Ms. Hales Minuet, and Psalm Tune. The mechanism resembles that of a music box in which the hammers are activated by pins protruding from a rotating barrel. The tunes are selected by setting the pointer in the dial arch. The tunes play on ten bells struck by hammers which are tripped by four pins at irregular intervals on the face of the strike train great wheel.
The maintained provenance says that it was according to tradition made by the apprentice of Thomas Harland (1735-1807), Benjamin Hanks (1755-1824), for his father, Uriah Hanks (1736-1809) of Mansfield, Connecticut, left to Uriah’s youngest son, Rodney Hanks (1782-1846) of Mansfield, left to his first son, Frederick Freeman Hanks (b.1805), left to his son Edward Page Hanks of Jersey City, New Jersey, left to his grandson, Mr. Frederick L. Hanks and the donor of the clock to the US Department of State.
Legends and tales are a wonderful thing but I find they are even better when I can uncover even more information that makes the tale a truth. Be proud of the past and even prouder to be a part of the future.
Grateful thanks to the Office of Fine Arts, Diplomatic Reception Rooms staff for their interest and patience as I learned the story.
Inventors Coit and McNamara
Super Bowl Sunday is February 7th and there will be lots of gatherings at family, friends and bars. But it’s what is going on behind the bar that interests me. Once traditional beer in America meant only British-style ales brewed with top fermenting yeasts, ranging from light pale ales to chocolate-colored stouts and porters. In the 1840’s American brewers began making German-style lager beers that require a longer maturation period, a bottom fermenting yeast and were more temperature sensitive.
German immigration was soaring and so was the consumption of the lager beer. Norwich , CT was brimming with men and women with inventive ideas seeking to make their mark on the world and lucky for us the United States Patent Office was keeping track of some of them for us.
John McNamara and John Coit had a better idea with their US Patent 000326017 Beer Drawing Apparatus dated September 8, 1885. I wonder how long it took them to make it. How many kegs it took to test the apparatus and to make certain it worked “just right?”
I haven’t been able to discover if a fortune was made on this patent or for how long it was the rage before another newer, better model took its place but Norwich was certainly a place for people with hopes, dreams and ideas and on special occasions I think we should all offer a toast to the men and women who were not afraid to put their ideas forward. Thank you John Coit and John McNamara!
If you have a new or better idea Norwich is still the place to make it happen. Norwich is still the place to create a dream and to see it through. The first step the saying says is the hardest and it is yours to take. Begin your journey today.
Every year I try and run this blog tribute to William Tyler Olcott in great hope that there will be a young reader who will choose to follow his lead and follow their own star.
Norwich has long had a connection to space, the moon and Norwich has long had a connection to space, the moon and yes even the stars. Be nice! The reason is not just because we have a lot of space cadets in this city.
William Tyler Olcott was born January 11, 1873 and chose to live in Norwich, CT as a lawyer and amateur astronomer. His home was Glebe House, at 62 Church Street. The building is a two-and-a-half story dwelling, plain except for an elaborate wide cornice with very heavy dentils. A wooden observatory, was added by Olcott, with a revolving hexagonal tower was perched behind the roof. The observatory was removed by the Otis Library when they used the house as a children’s library.
In 1909, after attending a lecture by Edward Pickering, Olcott developed an interest in observing variable stars. In 1911, he and Professor Pickering founded the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Olcott also published several books to popularize the field of amateur astronomy. Including one for children so they could share in the dreams of the universe.
NASA named a crater on the moon in his honor for his dedication to space observation. I don’t pretend to understand the information on the craters location but for those of you that do from a Moon information site I borrow the following for you.
Olcott is a relatively fresh crater on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the south-southeast of the craters Seyfert and Polzunov, and to the north of Kostinskiy.
This crater lacks any significant appearance of erosion from subsequent impacts, and its features are relatively well-defined. The rim edge is generally circular, with a slight outward bulge to the northeast and a larger bulge to the south. It has an outer rampart and some terraces and slumped edges along the inner wall. Several low ridges lie near the interior mid-point, with the western pair near the center and the eastern peaks offset towards the eastern rim.
The satellite craters Olcott M and Olcott L form an overlapping pair along the southern outer rampart of Olcott, with the smaller member of the pair Olcott L overlapping Olcott M. The satellite crater Olcott E is partly overlain by the eastern rim of Olcott.
William Tyler Olcott died July 6, 1936.
January 1, 1893 was certainly a night to remember in Norwich, CT according to the Los Angeles Herald front page. The LA Herald reported that while a cock fight was in progress in a third floor room of the Miantonomoh Hotel a squad of police surrounded the house and demanded admittance to the room. Then ensued a panic and fight on the part of 100 men all trying to escape.
Without a moment’s hesitation the whole company plunged through a door at the rear of the room and amid sounds of crashing panes of glass and splintered sashes, dived headlong, three stories, to the ground.
Some fell on the tops of carriages and three or four on the backs of frightened horses. Most of the men escaped serious injury and fled down the country roads and across the snowy fields, but some lay helpless on the ground. One, Edward Walsh, struck a projecting ledge and his skull was crushed in from the temple to the lower jawbone. He died instantly. Another man had an arm broken and four others are nursing broken legs. The police arrested seven men, including the cripples, but most of them were released on bonds.
A small article in the Marshall County Republican of January 7, 1875 retold a Norwich Bulletin article about Norwich resident Rear Admiral Joseph Lanman who was the commodore of the Pacific Squadron early in the Civil war and later led part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and a naval division during the bombardment and capture of Fort Fisher, a stronghold that protected the sea entrance to Wilmington, North Carolina thus closing the last major Confederate port on the Atlantic coast.
But in Norwich he was better known for never having smoked a cigar or made use of tobacco in any form during his long life and active service. He also was remembered for his claims to having never voted in his life or attended a political meeting of any sort.
Learn more about Admiral Lanman at http://connecticuthistory.org/connecticuts-naval-contributions-to-the-civil-war/#sthash.slzFEqnD.dpuf
On Saturday, January 9th, 2015 at 11 AM in the Community Room of the Otis Library will be an Open Space Community Forum. Its going to be a discussion of what the City of Norwich needs to do better and how individual citizens can help, do and encourage.
Jeff Guo wrote an article in a recent Washington Post about the History of Smiling in Photographs. Guo wrote about a University of California, Berkeley and Brown study to be delivered in December 2015 that analyzed senior yearbook photos from 1905 to 2013.
Guo said the researchers measured the size of the smiles and how the mouths went from flat to the open and toothy grin we are all familiar with. The researchers said it was due to a change in society. That society was responsible and expected portraits to be serious. I ran to look at the yearbook of my father and a few others that have found their way to my home over the years.
My survey says the smiles did grow wider and they were much less forced as I progressed closer to the yearbook of my great niece. Then I started to remember what it was like when the photos were taken or at least what it was like when my school photo was taken.
There was the stress of photo day. Wearing the right outfit. Having my hair combed just the right way. Then the classroom stress as the teacher and the student waited for the announcement and the time Miss Elzin would be ready for our class.
I did not and still do not have an easy face to photograph and so Miss Elzin would frown at me, order me to fluff my hair and tell me to fold my hands and look forward. I had an over lapping and chipped front tooth so smiling for me was not encouraged. Years later braces and a filling gave me a very nice smile but I still hate having my photo taken.
Anyway, I hope that the study takes into consideration how long it took to set up the camera and the flash back in the day. It was film that had to be changed in the dark and had to be removed from the camera in the dark as well. The blinding flash bulb had to be changed after each flash. There was a lot of waiting involved. Today, with a digital camera it takes a mere second to snap a photo or three. The flash of an easy grin, smile or smirk can be preserved forever.
I think that it is not that people have a wider smile now than they once did but that we are more relaxed with our technology and it and us are more adept at capturing those perfect smiling moments. Thank you Kodak marketing for making generations aware of the importance of photographing every instant of our lives.
I am all excited over a simple idea I saw on the internet. I know better than to simply suggest it and hope that someone else with better connections than I will make it a reality. So I am going to throw this out to the universe known as Norwich, CT and then if I don’t hear from anyone I am simply going to do this one myself. YES. It is that easy.
I am going to sponsor a “POT LUCK” this spring. Another term might be “Plant Exchange” but doesn’t a “Pot Luck” sound more fun. It is simple enough. People start a selection of seeds, or divide their plants, or put their volunteers (plants that like to spread even when they are not wanted to.) into paper cups, pots, eggshells, whatever they have and then freely exchange them so that participants hopefully go home with a large variety of plants they might not otherwise have in their gardens or homes.
No money can be exchanged. If both parties agree, it is fine that only one person gets a plant in an exchange. It is all about sharing what we have with others. I really want to invite the Norwich Police Department to participate in a “Pot Exchange” but I am not certain anyone would find it as amusing as I do.
For a well-known and easy location I am considering the parking lot across from the beach at Mohegan Park. It is even on a bus route! No registration. No names. No money. No guarantees. No limits to what you bring or what you take away.
Start looking at those containers beneath the sink or in the bag in the back hall (you know the one) fill a few with dirt and the lets all meet in the spring. I don’t have a date yet although a Saturday or Sunday morning in April would work well.
I am really hoping that there are lots of interested people with greener thumbs than mine to make this work and become a Norwich tradition.
The leaders and employees of Norwich have got to come to come to the reality that the days of autonomy and independence of individual departments is over. They have got to realize that everyone must work together for any one individual, let alone the City of Norwich to progress.
Why is it so important that the Senior Center, Adult Education and the Recreation Department have separate bulletins? For heaven’s sake department heads join forces and add Otis library programs and ask the churches, schools, scouts, fire departments, and anyone else with a formal program to join in too. If you are not certain who they are, ask. Someone will help you. YOU should be demonstrating and promoting yourselves as leaders in making Norwich a bigger, brighter and better city to live in.
We all want to have jobs with financial security but what better way can there be to establish yourself as indispensable than to find new, better and more cost efficient ways of getting things done. Imagine how thick and exciting the pamphlet would be if it were to list all of the activities available for toddlers, school children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens to do in one place instead of own individual fliers.
The time has got to come to an end of, “If you didn’t know to check with so and so or look there” you really weren’t interested. Norwich is a city, residents and visitors have lots available to them and its time we became loud and proud of what we have to offer.
Whether you are an elected official or an employee it is time for you to stand up and lead, follow or get out of the way.
Great project happening in Taftville documenting its history in film and they are looking for videotapes of any of Rene Dugas’ talks. Anyone who has information or such tapes is asked to contact Samuel P. Browning at TappingReeve@aol.com.
Like all of the communities of Norwich , Taftville has a rich and colorful history and I am hoping that this documentary will be more than the standard recitation of the mills were built and people came to work there. “Look at the factory building. It is very long and has a bell tower. People came from far and wide to shop there. The mills were famous for their quality cotton, wool and velvet cloth.”
Those are the standard stories for all of the communities that have a mill. I am desperately hoping for the stories of the people. The romances, the shopkeepers, the land barons (yes, there were a few. The pieces of land or house may have been small, but for those that had scrimped and saved it was an estate as large as any castle known and it was theirs.
I want to hear the stories of the sports stars who came home to Norwich to run their tavern. Regular readers of my Norwich Bulletin blog know this story well. I want to read of the great fires of Taftville so I am hoping the documentarians will be accessing the news film libraries locally as well as in Boston, Providence and New York. There is so much more available than ever before.
I have blogged a few of the crimes of Taftville that came from other cities and states. Those stories built the impressions of how people outside of the area saw Norwich and Taftville.
There are stories of the adventures and misadventures of the school children and the mischievous adults, the faithful, the unfaithful, the disappearing (there were quite a few), the murders and the occasional mayhem.
Deep in Norwich City Hall there are some amazing plans and maps of how the streets were laid out. OK some have them have wandered away and are now framed on the walls of private homes but there should be enough left to tell quite a story. The growth of the neighborhoods is also documented in the city directories. Names, addresses, ages and occupations can be found there. Not just men but the women as well. Who were the first female voters of Taftville and why were they the first? By the way does anyone know how many US Presidents have visited Taftville?
I can’t wait to see this project and hope it inspires the other Norwich communities to rise up and tell their stories.
Valentine’s day is not my best holiday. I think of it more as a retail free for all. Everyone demonstrates their love or admiration for another by purchasing stuff.
Did you Know?
Juno is the Roman goddess of love, marriage and women, but the name June has fallen out of favor with new parents more interested in naming their children after fruits and cities.
While over 190 million cards are given for Valentine’s Day, the number is still second behind Christmas. The City of Verona, Italy post office still receives over 1,000 letters addressed to Shakespeare’s Juliet from Romeo and Juliet.
In the 1800’s doctors would prescribe chocolate to patients suffering from lost love. Now Americans purchase over one billion dollars of chocolate for this one day alone without a prescription.
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the poem “Parliament of Foules,” in 1375 and is credited with being the first to mention Valentine’s Day. Chaucer wrote that on February 14th birds and humans go about choosing their mates.
“For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there his mate to take,
Of every species that men know, I say,
And then so huge a crowd did they make,
That earth and sea, and tree, and every lake
Was so full, that there was scarcely space
For me to stand, so full was all the place.”
Wearing your heart on your sleeve was popular before it was advertising for your favorite city, beer or sports team. In the Middle Ages, men and women would pull names out of a bowl, and would then wear that name on their sleeve for the next week.
In Norwich in the February 6, 1875 Evening Mail there was the following announcement
“Married, at Norwich, Sunday evening, 31st December, Dr. Enoch Smith, so called, aged 66, more or less, a renowned collier, to the amiable and accomplished Miss Mary Melony, a celebrated tailoress, aged 26 next grass.” I am hoping that means she will be 26 next spring.
Buddha was once asked the difference between I love you and I like you. His answer was If you like a flower, you pluck it. But when you love a flower, you water it daily.
This weekend is also the great Backyard Bird Count. So if you are not a regular feeder of our feathered friends but want to participate you can purchase cracked corn and seeds by the handful at Agways on 217 Otrobando Avenue, Norwich, CT. norwichagway@gmail.com or http://www.norwichagway.com They are very helpful and will even give you directions to Mohegan Park Center and Brown Park. It just takes 15 minutes of your time to count the birds you see on the ground and report them on www.birdcount.org. Please mention you saw this on Norwich Nuggets and thank you for participating!
Why is it that when I start looking at anything one of the first things that begins to appear in my notes is a list? Never the same list twice but a list of things I need to check out, things I need to compare, things, things, things!
This time I began looking at retirement communities; different communities across the country and not just in Norwich or in Connecticut.
My list this time began pretty simply with things like distance from family, friends, weather, restaurants, shopping, educational facilities, entertainment, public transportation, transportation, (bus, train, plane, ferry.) And that was just about the surroundings. Then I began a list of all of the amenities of the individual centers. The list started out pretty simply but when I tried to add all the things that made each place that I looked at interesting all I can say is thank heavens Excel can really expand without end.
Facilities can be found nationally in every state, city and community. Most of them have websites with enhanced pictures so you have to be careful to check everything before you sign on any dotted line. You also have to decide what you are looking for and how you are going to pay for it. What are the banking facilities like in the area you are interested in? Will there be mortgage, purchase fees, maintenance fees, entrance fees, monthly fees, parking fees? When was the facility built? Updated? Renovated?
Are you looking to move into an apartment, condo, cottage, assisted living? Steps, stairs, elevators, handicap access? What about the shower or bathtub? Are the rooms big enough to have furniture and a wheelchair? How big is the kitchen? Not for catering purposes but for being able to prepare meals and heat up water for tea. Can I reach the cabinets and do the counters come in colors for people with vision problems, what is the lighting like? What are the floors like?
Then there are the comparisons of the facilities and what they have that might be needed in the future. Things such as skilled care beds, memory loss units, meals, exercise programs, physical therapy, walking trails, pool, library, activities room, classes, Wi-Fi access, beauty salon, wood shop, emergency call button, storage and housekeeping services.
All of this is only the tip of the iceberg of the items that need to be examined and compared before a move can be made. What comparisons am I missing?
One of the best kept secrets of Norwich are the Pineapples of Norwich, CT. The pineapples are hidden in plain sight and can be found in abundance on Laurel Hill, Bean Hill, in Yantic, Greenville, Taftville and Norwichtown.
Pineapples equate with hospitality because as the remote islands of the Caribbean were discovered in the 1600’s the natives would hang the fruit at the entrances to their homes as a welcome to strangers. It wasn’t long before colonial houses began showcasing the fruit through images in paintings and carvings into the columns at their entrances, common areas, fences and gates. The pineapple became a symbol also of extravagance, prestige, and wealth. So much of an extravagance that some people would rent a pineapple for a special event decoration in their parlors or living rooms. The pineapple was soon carved into trays and wooden bowls reserved for guests.
Often when a visitor spent the night, he was given the bedroom which had the pineapples carved on the bedposts or headboard–even if the bedroom belonged to the head of the household. But it was not only that the wood-carvers etched the immortal symbol, but the needle-workers hands have preserved this symbol in family heirlooms over the centuries. Items such as pineapple samplers, table cloths, and crochet doilies. Modern decorative items include pot holders, towels, small framed accents, drink coasters, decorative flags, brass door knockers, curtain finials, stair-rail and mailbox posts, and welcome mats.
Just as in past period times, colonial, Victorian and homes of today are still decorated with paintings, photographs, and even logos adorned with the pineapple as the universal symbol for hospitality although our sailors are no longer bringing the fruit home from a faraway place and placing it on the gatepost.
The next time you are out on a walk, look for the pineapples as visual reminders of the welcoming and hospitality of Norwich.
I can forgive February for being in the center of winter for only one reason, it’s the month of the Great Backyard Bird Count or the GBBC.
It is held on President’s Day weekend every year. This year the 19th annual GBBC will be held Friday February 12, through February 15, 2016. Everyone can participate, from beginner bird watchers to experts, at home, school, work, outside, inside, parking lots, alone or with family and friends anywhere in the world. Even Norwich Connecticut. There is no cost and there are no age minimums or maximums.
For Norwich the GBBC is free marketing that Norwich is an environmentally aware community, that builds community, family and multigenerational relationships. The GBBC builds retail sales by selling a variety of bird and animal products. It is all about education in everyday life and by the way I was able to match this 15 minute activity with CT Core Curriculum in all grades from pre-K – 8. Not including anything that can be done, reviewed and studied on the bird count site which includes information on migration patterns, climate change, hostile habitats, views of counts by city, county, state and country. Have you ever wondered where else sparrows, and woodpeckers might be seen?
Pen and paper is encouraged but not required if you have a better memory than I do. You can even enter your numbers directly from your phone if it has an internet connection to the website www.birdcount.org. Check out the latest educational and promotional resources too.
Each checklist submitted during the GBBC helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how birds are doing, and how to protect them and the environment we share. It is important to know where the birds and just as important to learn where the birds are not. Last year, more than 140,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, creating the largest instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.
Bird populations are always shifting and changing. For example, 2014 GBBC data highlighted a large irruption of Snowy Owls across the northeastern, mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes areas of the United States. The data also showed the effects that the polar vortex had on bird movement around the country. There are some spectacular images in the 2015 GBBC Photo Contest Gallery and on the program website participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during and after the count. Be sure to check out the Explore a Region tool to get an idea of what you can expect to see in your area during the next GBBC.
If you have questions and comments, please contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology or the National Audubon Society at Cornell Lab of Ornithology (800) 843-2473 or gbbc@cornell.edu or the National Audubon Society citizenscience@audubon.org
March 2016
On March 20, 2016 I was very happy to attend a joint presentation of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus and the Norwich Diocesan Choir at St. Patrick’s Cathedral here in Norwich CT.
A little over an hour it was a beautiful performance by the famous, and by friends, neighbors and members of their family. Beautiful voices telling a story through words and music.
The program notes were still a bit over my head but they included little interesting tidbits that the average person doesn’t know about how the music for a particular selection was created or changed over the years. Why do we find it so hard to believe that a masterpiece of any kind was not perfect the first time it was ever set to paper or performed?
The other thing that never fails to amaze me is how music can be blended together with such power and statement from composers that lived in the 1700’s (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)) with one that was still composing and teaching in 1920 as Gabriel Urbain Faure was.
A peek at the ECSO 2016-17 season program was on the back page and tucked between the expected concerts of symphonies and concertos are a January 29th family concert with selections from Swan lake, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella, On February 18th the Instrumental Competition Winner, Joanna Wu will play selections for the flute but on March 25th is the Eastern CT Symphony Women’s Chorus with the concert I am most looking forward to hearing Star Trek V; Main theme and March of the Klingons, Atmospheres, Star wars: Throne Room and Finale and The Planets. What a great program that will be. Be certain to get your tickets early and know that there are almost no bad seats at the Garde Arts Center in New London, CT and there are some great places to eat a meal or have a snack before or after the performance. If you are interested in becoming a subscriber for the Eastern Connecticut Symphony or want further information please call them at 860.443.2876 or www.ectsymphony.com.
Men and women love to dance. Organizations need to raise funds. Really popular from about 1915 to the late 1940’s were the Dance Halls where men could hire a woman for “10 Cents a Dance” in a fancy ballroom. So why isn’t some organization sponsoring something like this now in Norwich, CT? Maybe the price should be raised to $10.00 a dance?
A perfect location would be the Ballroom at the Wauregan. It is a small enough room that it can easily be lined with small tables and chairs, the acoustics do not lend themselves to verbal clarity for speeches but music from the swing era, big band and the like would sound wonderful. The length of the room gives the demonstration dancers the room they need to perform while the audience has full view.
Back in history it was a great way for singles to meet and instantly gave them a place to begin their conversations. Some of the dance halls were the stuffy fancy dress we see played out in the movies. Some were not so fancy and the men and women were of the neighborhood and working fulltime jobs and spending and earning a little extra cash while socializing and having fun. Fluency in English never appeared to be a problem as the music played on. Locally there were places like the Norwich Inn and Ocean Beach in New London in addition to the more notorious neighborly locations.
Come on Norwich organizations lets show some imagination, some humor and some fun. Just because it has not been done recently does not mean that it should not be brought back in a new and updated format. Instead of tickets for the evening of dance consider a punch card or a really old fashioned card where the partner signs up in advance for the dance. Keep the price reasonable and market the event by offering dance lessons before the event.
It is time for Norwich to have some fun!
If you were going to plan Norwich CT as your vacation destination what would you plan to do and see? Where would you stay? Where would you eat? What souvenirs would you purchase?
Norwich is host to a number of Airbnb properties that range from very affordable to absurdly expensive and vastly over-rated as well as a Holiday Inn, Norwich Hotel, Courtyard by Marriott, Rosemont Suites and the Spa at the Norwich Inn.
If you do not have your own transportation Norwich does have limited bus service, taxi, Uber, various rent-a-car services and access to Zip in nearby New London. New signs to various areas of the town are in the process of being placed to make your travel on foot and by car easier.
Like any city in America there are plenty of places to eat. Most specialize in the fried foods preferred by the area residents but there is Vietnamese, Chinese, an Irish American Pub, Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern, sandwich shops and even a brewery that is perfect for lunch or an early dinner. If you are looking for a greater selection of fine dining than two of the largest casinos in the world are at your disposal.
For unique souvenirs visit Uncas Pharmacy and McKenna’s Flowers they each have wonderful and special Norwich items that are not available anywhere else.
Rainy days are never a problem as there are the expected art galleries and museums like Slater, Gallery at the Wauregan, Norwich Art Center and an indoor skating rink. There are also the most unexpected treats on almost every street corner. The main Fire Station has a wonderful collection of fire apparatus and pictures that tell the story of how fire protection has grown and changed over the years. If you pop over to the Yantic Fire Station you can see one of the largest collections of early 20th century action fire photos collected anywhere in the United States.
Taking a hike is not restricted to the paths within the almost 400 acres of Mohegan Park but go to Occum and wander the village, trot the back or the water side of the Taftville mills. Look up into the sky and in the trees for the large eagle nests. Visit the fish ladder. To build excitement for your visit check with the Norwich Department of Public Utilities to see if there is an otter in residence during your stay and if it is starring on CCTV. Maybe spend a day at the uncrowded beach at Mohegan Park or plan a romantic picnic in the Rose Garden.
If you are into fishing there are plenty of places for you to catch and release. Norwich has three main rivers, the Shetucket, the Thames and the Yantic. All of the rivers are stocked with fish and are accessible by land, boat, kayak and canoe.
Norwich residents can plan a weekends of stay-cations high-lighted with visits to Dodd Stadium for ball games, or games of golf and swing practice. In the evening there are live plays and music performances.
Nothing to do? Let me introduce you to one of the best kept secrets in no less than three states.
I have a close and dear friend whom I love to pieces but he drives me absolutely crazy with his belief that everyone is honest, true and would never lie on purpose. I promise you he is on every possible sucker list in the known universe and a few other planets that can only be reached by inter-galactic wormholes and the U.S.S. Enterprise.
He replied to letter he received from someone he had never heard of before that said she needed help and just a small sum of money would help. My friend has a good, well-meaning heart so he sent a check for a small amount.
Using the information on the check and the all-important bank routing number another check was created for a larger amount. The larger check was cleared through an automatic clearing house. Fortunately or not there was enough money in the account for that check, but when other, honest, checks were written suddenly there was a shortfall. His bank sent a snail mail notice to my friend while fees, charges and penalties built up even though there was over-draft protection.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to check your bank activities and bank balances every month. You only have 60 days to report any irregularities to the bank if you have a hope of getting your money restored.
My friend was targeted three times within the last year. Don’t let this happen to you or to the ones you care about and love. I witnessed a lady in line the other day purchasing some items and handing the clerk a blank check. The check was run through the register and handed back to the lady who promptly threw it away on her way out of the store. Think of all the information that was on that check. I wish I had thought about it at the time because I would have told her to be more careful.
Check your statements and look for abnormalities. Do not believe every story you hear or read from a stranger. Keep your information safe by using the shredding days provided by the banks and other businesses. Be wary and be safe.
At the information desk in the Norwich City Hall were a few copies of a new publication to me, The Haitian Voice. Partially in English and partially in Haitian it gives tremendous insight into what other places such as Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Stamford are doing to welcome and promote different ethnicities to their communities.
Learning centers for education basics for both children and adults, health centers, tax filing information. A lengthy article giving tips on how car financing works was well worth reading and I wish I had read the article by Nathaniel Sillin before I last went car shopping.
Norwalk is pushing its Multi-Cultural Festival scheduled for July 9th and welcoming new vendors and new activities. Bridgeport articles are promoting summer programs and books to keep ‘young imaginations going during vacation.’ It is never too early to begin promoting programs and to build excitement in young minds for things that will happen in the future.
An article about international soccer went straight over my head but I did understand enough to see it was a schedule of international team games being played throughout the United States.
Sadly there was nothing, nothing, not a mention of anything being offered in Eastern Connecticut. We have a large, active Haitian population in Norwich and the surrounding areas and I am encouraging them to write articles about their activities past, current and future and to submit stories and poems and anything else the Haitian Voice will accept. Be loud and proud about your community and all that is going on here. Do not wait for someone else to take the lead and do something. Let your voice be heard!
Check out the website www.haitianvoice.com
Big cities have already begun advertising their summer events. The big cities have the staff that realize how important it is to communicate that there is something going to happen and that the event is going to be large or small, fun and exciting, interesting to a small group of people that can be enlarged greatly if more people know about it. These professionals understand that many small events can be promoted together to form a patchwork of eye-catching events.
Have you seen the write-ups about summer in Providence? Weekdays. Weekends. Morning, Noon and Nights there are things to do. Places to go. People to see. Norwich, CT has those same weekdays and weekends. Norwich is open morning, noon and night too but we don’t like to let people know that. In Norwich we prefer to keep our events to ourselves or perhaps to keep them a secret from outsiders.
Residents of Norwich, CT are becoming more vocal that there is nothing to do and no place to go. Well folks, it is time to stop waiting for our leaders to take action. It is time to start waiting for someone else to take charge. It is time to start working together ourselves. Come on church groups, scout groups, neighborhood groups, historic groups. Let everyone know when you are planning your event and when they are on the same weekend see if you can join forces so people have the opportunity to do more than one thing.
Find someone in your group who wants to write articles or ask a friend and supply them with the basics of your event. You know the stuff to answer, who, what, when, where, why, how much and add a few details such as who should be attracted to what you are promoting. For example if it is a book sale do not tell about the hard work of the people sorting the books, tell the story of how one of the books was a favorite of a now older little one who wants it to go to a new home and be a favorite there. When you write tell a story and not a novel. Let’s join forces and bring some new people and some new money to the coffers of Norwich. Together we can do this.
March always brings in the winds of change. Imagine how the residents of a place where the school rooms were still a single room structure felt when they read in the Evansville Daily Journal in March 1856 that thirty citizens of Norwich CT had founded a Free High school and endowed it with $81,000, of which $50,000 is a permanent fund, the rest being in land and school buildings. The same generous citizens proposed to endow it still further, so that every school district in New London County could send one scholar to the school – free of charge.
How successful and wealthy a community we must have appeared to those readers. What on earth has happened to us? When did our gratitude change to entitlement?
Norwich had some environmental issues too according to the Marshall County Republican of March 1870. It seems that Norwich was suffering a plague of doves. The Bulletin reported that the birds swarmed all over the city, taking possession of ornamental cornices and sidewalks. Neither people or church belfries were safe as the birds swarmed in countless numbers on the wharfs in the vicinity of grain warehouses, and multiple garrets of the buildings as well as wherever a clapboard was off or a window pane was missing to let them in. The doves were called the vagabonds of the city and the gamins of the air. Some enterprising men caught three baskets full in a church belfry one night, but there were just as many flapping their wings there the next day.
Did you report seeing any doves during the Great Backyard Bird Count in February?
Is there a reader of this blog that is a relative of a Mr. P. E. Sparks of the firm Sparks & McPherson? He was married in Parkville, CT on March 9th, 1868 to Miss Elizabeth Brierly of Norwich. The announcement was found in the Montana Post that sent their best wishes for every happiness , both present and prospective that could fall to the lot of mortals but they had hoped for a few pieces of cake to celebrate the occasion.
Once upon a time the Norwich Bulletin would solicit recipes from its readers and print them in a mini cookbook with other helpful hints. What a wonderful resource for those working on a genealogy to find a family members favorite recipe or two with perhaps a comment on how it was served or how their unique twist came to be.
What an amazing resource these tiny publications can prove to be. I happened on a holiday cookbook from 1983 and recognized submissions of three favorite recipes I haven’t made in ages. One was for an onion pie with a packaged crescent roll crust. Made with whipping cream it was decadently rich. I hope no one tried to serve it with my Sauerkraut salad. Yes, I entered a recipe to make canned sauerkraut more palatable. More than a cup of sugar can make anything taste good! What was I thinking? Thank heavens it did not win the contest. My last recipe was for a carrot loaf that was more crushed pineapple than carrot. Haven’t made that loaf in years either.
So who won the prizes of a $100 shopping spree at Shop-Rite, and fifty dollar gift certificates at Beit brothers in Uncasville and Dayville, Rogers kitchens in Norwich and Brodeur’s IGA in Plainville? Lianne Roberts of Griswold won the main prize with her Mini Meatloaf Rolls. Genevieve Kukich of Norwich won in hors d’oeurves with her Sauerkraut Balls. Mary A. Seimann took first with a robust Ham and Broccoli Chowder. Rich and thick it can also be used as a main course or served on biscuits. The dessert winner was Constance Beckwith of North Franklin with her Cranberry Cream Cake and last in the drinks category was a simple mix of wine, club soda, cognac and fruit submitted by Carleen Banas of Oakdale.
I mentioned the winners but the true treasures are all the recipes that were submitted with hope and pride. Check out those boxes of recipes and look on the pages of the recipe books that sit quietly on the shelf. At your next family reunion or event ask everyone to bring something that was a family favorite from a time gone by with a condensed card telling its story. Don’t let anyone get away with a quick pickup of a fresh fruit tray from the grocery or a grocery roasted chicken or cold cut platter. Revel in the laughter and joy of recalling your memories and the stories of your families past..
The past couple of weeks have been a completely new adventure for me. A familiar journey for many has been a path with a surprise beginning and lots of stumbles, roots and trips before my life has settled once more onto smoother ground; for a good long time I am praying.
My thanks to the staff of Backus Hospital who paid lots of attention to me, laughed at my really bad jokes and kept their eyes on my various lines, drips, drains and telemetry while walking miles and miles between myself and their other patients.
The poor nurses and patient care technicians watch, observe and report every little movement, every milestone (large and small) and must hear the most amazing stories from people whether they are interested or have the time or have stuff happening in their own lives. I learned most of the staff I met do not live in Norwich and travel 45 minutes to over an hour to work at Backus. While their work schedules seem chaotic to many of us I enjoyed their tales of hikes along wooded trails, and even a hurried shopping trip fraught with misadventure after misadventure. A wicked sense of humor is a requirement for those working in a hospital. The shopper was not having the best day but as she retold the trip it was clear she knew how funny it was to someone completely uninvolved.
The food was delivered with a military timely precision and removed with the same by people who checked the tray and wrote notes and circled what was eaten. ”Didn’t you like it?” “You have to eat to gain strength.” I did eat but the delicious food was in servings too large for a single person. I promise that when I am more mobile I will have a meal or two at the cafeteria.
With little and no fan fair from the billing department I was transitioned in and out of the emergency room, in and out of same day surgery into and out of acute care and home. The bills have just started to come in and I am certain there will be an amazing amount of hair pulling to come but so far so good.
My grateful thanks to all at Backus on the front lines and those behind the scenes who made my stay short and as pleasant as it could be.
It is almost May 1st and time for that spring time tradition. Yes ladies and gentlemen it is time for the planting of the banana. Don’t be silly. Bananas don’t grow well in Connecticut but the peels of the banana break down in the soil and add nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous to the soil that roses and other plants just love. It all started for me when I had left a banana on the counter so long it had passed the banana bread stage. I had read an article how roses liked bananas so I Googled a hole near a rose bush, planted the banana and filled the hole back in. That year the bush produced beautiful roses.
I bragged how the roses were all due to my planting the banana and a tradition was born. At the Leffingwell House Museum beside the flag pole is a Norwich Rose and I hope someone is still feeding the rose bush its yearly treat of a banana. The all natural compost of the banana builds up and improves the quality of the soil.
The addition of potassium to the soil strengthens the stems, helps developing buds to grow and mature for longer periods of time and helps the leaves keep from turning yellow and brown during the summer while also helping to boost the overall immune system of the plant and those surrounding it.
Of course, fertilizing with a single banana is not enough but adds some lighthearted fun to cleaning up the yard and doing a bit of gardening.
Used coffee grounds are also great for helping plants to grow because it has a carbon to nitrogen ratio of about 20 to 1, the grounds lighten the weight of the soil and so it attracts earthworms that aerate and loosen the surrounding soil, and some of the other pests and bacteria’s don’t like it. In my head I have an image of a slug with a hangover from sipping on the dish of beer slowly moving over to the dew soaked coffee grounds. Slugs love beer but tend to drown. If you don’t brew your own coffee, ask at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts for their used coffee grounds. Roses also love Epsom salts, crushed egg shells and orange peels.
Happy spring and happy gardening to all!
Norwich CT has access to some wonderful fresh water fishing. We have three active rivers, the Thames, Yantic and Shetucket and numerous public ponds and lakes. All are stocked with a variety of fish. On the first day of fishing season, bright and early in the morning the shores are lined with people fishing laughing and saying how they have found just the right spot as there is always fish to catch there.
And? I say “and?” because it is a stocked area. That means that the fish are bred somewhere and the babies protected from being eaten by the adults. Then they are fed and given extra vitamins so that they will grow up quickly. The fish respond to the yummy treats cast onto the waters. Then they are trucked to their new home a few weeks shy of the opening of the season and left to fend for themselves. By opening day they are hungry and longing for the meals supplied by their humans.
Then comes the magic of the opening of fishing season when food suddenly appears all around the fish even when they are trying to get a little sleep in a deep and dark hidey place or under a rock. There is a trick though. This time the food comes wrapped around a sharp piece of metal that gets stuck in their mouth or throat or sometimes the tail of the poor fish. I don’t quite understand how this happens but I have seen it for myself.
I like to give the fish a fighting chance, so I don’t go fishing until about a month into the fishing season and in the mean time I have been known to toss fish food available from various sporting stores and dried corn into the water to watch the fish swim and leap and jump and just have a very good time.
One person I talked to bragged how he doesn’t eat fish but likes the sport and so he catches and releases his fish after he removes his hook from their mouth. It’s too much trouble to remove the hook from the throat or stomach so he’ll cut the line before turning the fish loose. And somehow this does not seem wrong? When I was young I recall how we would stand very still in the water and the fish would come to investigate a new play area and we would grab them with our hands. Some, ok many escaped and some became dinner but at least they had a fighting chance for survival.
Help Norwich, CT celebrate the 46th Anniversary of Earth Day by helping to clean up our streets and public areas. On April 22nd from 9 AM- Noon Encore Justified at 102 Main Street in the downtown area is sponsoring a street clean-up. Encore Justified is bags, maps and gloves for a downtown clean-up. Get there early and enjoy some coffee, donuts and fruit to give you energy!
Norwich, Ct officials don’t like to brag so none of the clean-up and celebration events are posted on any of the local calendars of events including the one on our official City of Norwich website or any of the international sites. If for any reason you are interested in seeing what other places do to celebrate the earth that are open to the public please find a sampling at https://goo.gl/Ci2fHZ.
It is not just the downtown area that needs to be cleaned up and freshened up. Lets trim the bushes back from the corners and away from the sidewalks so people can walk down them safely. Let’s move the trash cans off the sidewalks too. It’s a bother but folks, the trash cans are on wheels so they can be moved.
On April 23rd by the lower Pond in Mohegan Park from 10 AM – Noon come help build a bird blind using all natural materials found in the area so people can secretly spy on the birds of the park and area.
There may be a whole host of other clean-ups and activities having to do with Earth Day this week and they are really not a secret and I know they are open to the public but because Norwich residents somehow equate publicity and calendar of events with bragging, the public never really knows all of the events that are going on unless they know where to look or are somehow involved in the event. Sigh. We really do have to work on that. Hope to see you on the streets!.
It’s that time of the year when the ladies interested in revolutionary period history begin to have their “teas.” It always makes me wonder which side they are representing. Tea in the day, while a favorite drink of the ladies of the time was a very British drink and the tea figured prominently and was taxed heavily in the Stamp Act.
Story tellers love to tell the story of the men who met and formed the “Sons of Liberty.” How they met in the local taverns of Norwich before declaring themselves officers and taking off to form battalions and armies to drive away the English rule. But now it is time to hear the rest of the story.
Allow me the honor of introducing you to the “Daughters of Liberty.”
The “Daughters of Liberty” were the rulers of the family, farm, manufacturing, import/export and domestic and commercial finances. While the men were grandstanding about, the women, wives and daughters took their pledges not to buy a dress, ribbon, glove or anything else that came from England. They were determined not to pay a penny or a half-pence in taxes. They formed spinning societies to make their own yarn and linen and wove the cloth for their own clothes and that of the men as well. Their clothes were not always a fashion statement, but an important political statement.
The Societies were not small sized groups. On May 1st 1766 101 women gathered in the court house at Norwich CT for a day of spinning skeins of yarn, contests for speed, quality, and quantity. Was it a coincidence that Christopher Leffingwell opened his spinning and weaving businesses in 1766 too? In the Leffingwell House Museum is a set of kitchen towels and apron made from flax grown, spun and woven into cloth on Wawecus Hill in the 1800’s.
Older women had pledged to give up their much loved tea drinking and developed all sorts of herb teas using catnip, sage, mint, clover, chamomile, leaves of berry bushes, violets, and rose hips pretending how much they were enjoying them. Have you ever tasted “Hyperion Tea?” For stronger tastes the tree barks of the willow and sassafras were used. Not the modern one of oolong from a box but the one made of dried raspberry leaves? A mixed leaf tea produced near Portland, Maine was so popular during the American Revolution it replaced the teas of the British East India Company and was exported tax-free to England.
To learn more about how you can harvest tea from the wilds today I recommend this from the 2014 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazine/issues/2014/jul-aug/wild-herbal-tea.html
This blog is directed specifically to the commercial restaurants, caterers, chefs, cooks, restaurateur’s, managers and other purveyors of soup, stew and food in Norwich, CT. When I go in to your establishment for a meal please stop telling me what you are serving is homemade when obviously all you did was open a can and heat it up. You didn’t even add a sprinkling of parsley or cheese or a single additional vegetable to the offering which differs in no way, shape, form or taste than the smaller can I can purchase all by myself in the grocery store.
Homemade should mean that someone in the establishment I am visiting should have had a hand in the making of the item. The way things stand now, Homemade is a brand name of the commercially available product you are pawning off to unsuspecting customers as your own. Do you really believe that a homemade soup should contain enough salt to burn the average person’s tongue with its strength? Why is that when the claim is made the soup or stew is homemade there is no aroma wafting gently from the bowl? Luke warm, tepid, and room temperature are not the food temperatures I am looking for on a cold day. There are government restrictions on the temperature foods can be kept at, prepared at, cooked at and served at but serving soups with a film across the top from its sitting around is not a solution or a protest.
If your server can place a sizzling hot, watch you don’t burn yourself, platter in front of me, why can’t my food be so hot that I need to wait a minute or two before I shovel it in my mouth quickly so that I can clear your chairs so you can seat your next customers.
Don’t get me started on this fresh baked on the premises nonsense. The ingredients are mixed somewhere else, shaped somewhere else, assembled somewhere else, frozen somewhere else, shipped from somewhere else and then possibly baked in your oven to be sold to me. Once more, if I wanted something frozen that I can bake myself, I will go to the grocery store.
Thankfully Lazizah Bakery, 125 Yantic Road, Yantic and Occum Pizza 30 Taftville- Occum Road, Occum are two places where I have been able to find soup served hot and where the staff could tell me the ingredients and the names of soups did not match the Sunday supplement advertisements for canned soup specials. Norwich needs more places that take pride in themselves and their offerings to the public.
If there is any interest in the voting of women in Norwich, CT after viewing the Suffragette movie at the Otis Library on April 1st. People may want to start looking at the local news of 1901 and 1902. Long before the Suffragettes were marching and protesting for rights women in Norwich and other Connecticut cities and towns were voting. Sometimes on very limited issues and sometimes not.
At the turn of the twentieth century the women of Connecticut were encouraged to vote in local elections concerning library and school issues. From the 1902 list of eligible voters of the City of Norwich CT the following list of women led the way to the freedom to vote we enjoy today and maybe it is time for the Historical Society and other history devotees to begin to explore more about the role of the women of Norwich, CT.
While people are racing to the Otis Library to search the microfilm and microfiche some may also want to explore who the men in the lives of these women were who so obviously encouraged them to become voters and to exercise their right.
2nd District Women
Swan Jennie P, 71 Maple
Swan Amos C, 71 Maple
Willey, Grace E, 52 Asylum
Willey, Herbert, 52 Asylum
6th District Women
Avery Eliza Hane, 8 Hamilton Ave.
Avery Addison, 8 Hamilton Ave.
Briggs Jennie A, 15 Penobscot
Calvin L, 15 Penobscot
Billings Addie L, 1 Hamilton Ave.
Billings Chas W F, 1 Hamilton
Billings Mary A, 1 Hamilton Ave. see above
Buell Rachel B, Mulberry No male match at address
Bushnell Nettie L, 64 Main No male match at address
Campbell Minnie, 5 Elm No male match at address
Davis Jennie L, Corning Road
Davis Geo W, Corning Road
Davis John Mason, Corning Road
Green Mary M, 21 Penobscot
Green Frank E, 21 Penobscot
Harris Elfie L, Mulberry No male match at address
Harris Harriet A, Mulberry No male match at address
Mathieu Ida A, 68 Main
Mathieu Byron, 68 Main
Rathbun Nellie M, 18 Williams Ave.
Rathbun George P, 18 Williams Ave.
Rathbun Wm S, 18 Williams Ave.
Service Nellie I, 9 Hamilton Ave.
Service John A, 9 Hamilton Ave.
Spaulding Sarah S, 20 Main
Spaulding Edwin, 20 Main
Spaulding Will, 20 Main
Storms Annie B, Palmer No male match at address
Vetter Amelia, 1 Hamilton Ave.
Vetter John, 1 Hamilton Ave.
Williamson Ellen F, 62 Main
Williamson John F, 62 Main
Williamson Joseph, 62 Main
Young Elizabeth C Palmer
(I checked to see if there was also a male voter at the same address with the above listed results.)
People tell me the same history of Norwich CT stories until I am screaming for relief. So I continue my quest to bring the lesser known history of Norwich CT to light with the hope that people will become curious and look more deeply into what is around them.
Few Norwich residents know about Henry Wells Holly. He was a carpenter in Norwich CT in the 1850’s and 1860’s. He found his niche in life carving and assembling staircases and handrails. Holly was one of many talented and gifted craftsmen and workers who did the actual construction of the homes and mansions tour guides will tell you about. But the tour guides, sadly, will tell you only about the property owners. Not tales of the craftsmen yet their work is still being admired. Some of the work is still in place, some destroyed, some has been moved to new homes and some is for sale in re-sale fixture shops.
Holly wrote two books. The first printed in Norwich, CT was The carpenter’s and joiner’s hand-book: containing a complete treatise on framing hip and valley roofs. Together with much valuable instruction for all mechanics and amateurs, useful rules, tables, etc. … and Illustrated by thirty-seven engravings. The book is still being used for reference and can be purchased in bookstores.
The second was The art of saw-Filing Scientifically treated and explained in Philosophical Principles with full and explicit directions for putting in order all kinds of saws from a jeweler’s saw to a steam saw-mill. It is illustrated with 44 engravings. It was published in New York by John Wiley, 535 Broadway in 1864. With grateful thanks to the University of Michigan and Google it has been digitized and can be read at https://archive.org/details/artsawfiling00hollgoog
Henry W. Holly was a prolific inventor as well as carpenter. Always busy with his hands and looking for solutions to make life easier for the residents of Norwich, CT. Holly registered patents for a wide variety of items through the United States Patent Office which was still in its infancy and not nearly as officious as it is today. Holly registered a Music Leaf (page) Turner on February 6, 1849, a perpetual calendar on January 3, 1865, and an implement for drawing nails on January 14, 1868. Wells also worked with A. F. Smith on an improved roller for a wringing machine (an early version of the modern washing machine) on July 7, 1863 before he left Norwich to make a new home in New York where he continued creating new and novel patents and wooden works.
Dear Artists,
Residents of Norwich, CT invite you to participate in En Plein Air Norwich, CT. A program that is encouraging artists, their families and supporters to roam, investigate and enjoy our many parks, greens, parades, and architecture. Norwich was settled in 1659 and boasts some of the oldest and newest architecture and scenery in the state of Connecticut. We invite you to visit and draw, sketch, paint or photograph our city.
In addition to our downtown, other interesting areas include Yantic, Laurel Hill, Occum, Taftville, Norwichtown, and East Great Plains. Accompanying is a list of some areas you may find of particular interest. Some places may take more than one day to investigate. Please consult the activity calendar on the Official City of Norwich CT website http://www.norwichct.org/index.aspx for special events, and celebrations.
While no date has been selected, plans are in progress for you to display one of your art pieces featuring your view of Norwich, in a November 2016 art show.
There are no fees or sign ups required. Please share this invitation with anyone and everyone you feel might be interested as an artist or as a day tripper. I can be reached at berylfishbone@yahoo.com or 860.887.9000 and will be happy to answer any questions or concerns and please watch for our En Plein Air Norwich, CT Facebook page.
Sincerely,
Beryl Fishbone
Are you looking to do something a little different on Saturday, April 9, 2016 between 10 AM and 4 PM? How about attending a FREE EVENT on antique firearms of Norwich CT at the Sprague Rod & Gun Club, 90 Bushnell Hollow Road, in Baltic, CT? At 12:30 and 2:30 there will be a talk about the companies that manufactured firearms in Norwich, CT.
Norwich was the “firearms center of New England” from the Civil War through the Great Depression. Rumor has it that there were more firearms manufactured during the Civil War in Norwich than anywhere else in the country.
Most of us recognize the name Smith & Wesson and a few of us know that their operations began on Central Wharf in Norwich before they moved to Springfield Massachusetts. But what do we know about Bacon Arms Co, Osgood Gun Works, Hood Firearms and more? The Guns of Norwich Historical Society was formed in 1995 by a group of people with an interest in historic firearms from the 1700’s through the 1930’s as the last of the gun and ammunition manufacturers closed their doors in 1931.
Anyone interested in the joining, supporting or attending their meetings is welcome on the 3rd Wednesday of every month in the Yantic Firehouse at 7 p.m. No reservations are needed.
Tao Tao Holmes on May 18, 2016 wrote an article asking for nominees for the Best Trees mentioned in Literature. He suggested casting your mind back to your childhood stories and to choose a favorite or two or more.
The trees of the stories he mentioned are the ones that are familiar to us all as ones we read as children, as adults to our children and the ones that we read to our grandchildren.
Holmes talked about The Giving Tree, by poet Shel Silverstein, the iconic baobabs in The Little Prince, the Ents from The Lord of the Rings, and Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas. There’s the beloved Magic Treehouse series, the wheel-trees in His Dark Materials, and Winnie the Pooh’s crucial honey tree.
Other people suggested Sam’s hemlock Homestead from My side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: The Tree of Heaven by Betty Smith. The Tumtum Tree from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll or Charles Dodgson and the Lemonade Tree in Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. I would drink nothing but lemonade for an entire summer. Then came Lord of the Rings and the Guardians of the Galaxy: Groot. From J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Whomping Willow and The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton. Do images from the movies flash in your head or the images you created as you read the words on the paper.
But to this list I want to suggest The people in the Trees by Hanya Yanaj Ihara, it is a visit into the mind of a sociopath, Into the Woods by Silje Bekeng is not the other side of the fairy tale but a young Norwegian holding up a mirror of self-discovery, the plane ride and layover could have extended and I was busy reading Fig Tree John: I am Indian in Fact and Fiction by Peter G. Beidler. Fig Tree John was a real man who began an industry. Johnny Appleseed was not alone. Compare The Juniper Tree by the Brothers Grimm versus the tale of Snow White. The Affair of the Gallows Tree by Stephen Chalmers is probably why I read lots of mysteries and crime books. My suggestions are a little more along the line of adult reading but the images they evoked in my head are even more real than the ones of the youthful books. What tree books do you suggest?
It is spring and I know I am not alone in wanting to play in the earth, in the dirt. I want to rip out stuff and I want to plant stuff. I want to move stuff. I want to see stuff grow because I have placed it in a place where it is happy.
On Saturday from May 28th from 9 AM – 11 AM in the parking lot by the Community Garden at the back of Lee Memorial Church 294 Washington Street (the church across from the gas station) will be the second FREE Plant Swap of Norwich.
The rules are simple enough. Bring the inside and or outside plants you do not want or have room for to give away to others. Come prepared to adopt the plants others do not want and give them a home. Come with plants and leave with plants. Come with empty hands and leave with plants. Spend two hours or spend two minutes. It is all up to you. Just come and satisfy your curiosity. Our Plant Swapin’ community, just like Nature herself, is generous, there’s always extra!
Flowering plants are also being collected for the US Post Office Flower Power Project. Flower identification helpful but not required.
There is absolutely no exchange of money. The only green that is exchanged belongs to the plants.
2016 EXPLORE! From the Last green Valley is free and available for your year round activity needs. Never leave home without it! You’ll never have to travel far and away to see new and different places again. Take the time to explore what is so close to home first.
In the new book check out the Mystery Meanders. I need to start practicing for the two walks I made my free reservations for. Night Sky Views is new and while Norwich is the home of William Tyler Olcott (See my January 11, 2016 blog. NASA named a moon crater for him.) we have no formal viewing station so check out the dates of the 2016 Celestial Event Calendar on page 10 and set out lawn chairs with your neighbors in your yards, parking areas, baseball fields or Brown Park.
Air line State Park Trail for bicycling and Mountain biking is open flat, easy and extends for almost 50 miles. The Northeast Opportunities for Wellness (NOW) provides children with the opportunity to participate in a variety of athletic programs.
Boating and fishing has multiple pages dedicated to it along with camping. Eight packed pages called Paddling are for those who like peace and quiet on the waterways.
Feel comfortable with a day of Retail Arts, Antiques and Uniques on pages 84 and 85; and enjoy summer concert of another town from the list on page 28 at the end of your day. I want to try Disc Golf. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Norwich does not have a course but fortunately half a dozen other nearby towns do. Then come 14 pages of hikes, strolls and walks in circles, ovals, rounds and squares all filled with history and nature and stories. Oh the stories each walk will tell! Labyrinths/Mazes, Letterboxing and geocaching, Outdoor sites and activities can be found in every nook, cranny and corner when the museums and historic sites have driven you outdoors.
Horseback riding and horse camping fills two pages and a third page lists the safe places to hunt. While dirt bikers/motorcyclists and snowmobilers can find safe and welcoming places to ride listed. Skate Parks too have a list of their own.
You can have your National Park Passport stamped at places listed on page 74 when you check out the State and Federal Parks and Forests, as well as places for swimming and scuba diving, or winter activities such as ice skating, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and ice fishing.
Theaters, entertainment and a great listing of places for a taste and a sip conclude the catalog that will put an end to all who cry “I am bored. There is nothing to do!”
It is the time of final exams and the time of graduations from Nursery school and from Universities. At all the graduations and promotions The Graduation March, or Pomp and Circumstance, will be played and most listening to it the first or hundredth time will know that there are words to go with that slow and determined beat.
Lyrics were applied in 1902, when the trio melody section of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D composed by Edward Elgar in 1901, became the song Land of Hope and Glory, was used in a graduation ceremony for the first time at Yale University in 1905.
King Edward VII thought the trio melody would make a great song, so Elger combined the music with lyrics by poet A. C. Benson to become the song Land of Hope and Glory, which he incorporated, into the King’s Coronation Ode in 1902.
All the lyrics I read, and there are quite a few. Make a promise of hope. A promise of a great future. Trust in the powers of belief, of freedom and a hard won peace. Most of the lyrics allude to the leadership of a King which as an American I cannot quite go along with but can in his place imagine the leadership of the President and both houses of Congress,.
In other countries the music is not just played but the participants sing the words loudly and with pride.
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
The chorus is sung with Elger’s melody from the trio section of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, familiar as The Graduation March.
-Chorus of Land of Hope and Glory by Edward Elger and A.C. Benson (1902)
Congratulations on your hard work and best wishes for a bright future to all who march in 2016.
While doing the research for the 225th Anniversary of the Norwich Bulletin I came across this fishing essay printed August 17, 1908 called THE ANGLER. It is from a gentler time when the paper printed poems and essays as well as the news from foreign places. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. I did not have luck finding the author’s name.
In a warm summer’s evening, look at the patient angler; his eyes constantly fixed upon a floating quill. A little gust of wind deceives his fight; or his hand shakes the line, and causes an undulating motion of the cork; his heart bounds with transitory joy; but all is still again, and expectation gives a joy more calm. Many minutes now elapse in silent watchfulness. – – At length his patience is no longer kept in suspense – – the float, the frequent jerks, is snatched slanting below the surface of the flood. He feels the tremulous motion in his hand and pleasure thrills through all his frame: anxiety and hope though not unmixed with fear, engross his whole attention, and cautiously he drags the struggling victim to the light. Here when he views the unexpected magnitude of his glittering prize, his joy is at its utmost reach. What object could at this moment tempt him to quit his station? Intent upon his sport, he one moment pulls, then seems to yield, then gently draws the exhausted victim, till at length, exulting, he takes the scaly prisoner in his hand. But, alas! With his victory, his pleasure ceases: for having disengaged the poor creature from the hook, he throws it down with indifference, and proceeds to fish again, that he may again enjoy the pleasures of anxious expectations.
Thus in all pursuits: the pleasure of expectation appears to be the great compensation for the frivolity of enjoyment; but an evil which is dreaded, when it arrives usually is found so much more than it was expected to prove, as pleasure eagerly desired, when possessed is found to fall short of what it had appeared to the imagination.
Is anyone else being annoyed by the organizations that request the honor of your attendance or support of an event or charity but can’t be bothered to tell you what the event or charity is? In Norwich CT this is the latest thing being done in the name of “branding.” Put the initials or the name of the organization right up front and the rest of the details won’t matter. Are you kidding me? That my friends is not branding. Branding is a marketing strategy that involves creating a differentiated name and image – usually using a logo and/or a tag line to establish a presence in the consumer’s mind to attract and keep customers. Frequently a ploy used in retail consumerism. It is a very effective strategy in competitive markets. It’s a wonderful thing on a shopping bag. It tells everyone you found something to buy in a particular store.
Branding is not appropriate for small not-for-profit organizations where no one knows your name or your purpose to begin with. For a small organization to grow and succeed in obtaining or raising funds for their charity people have to know and identify who you are. If you are going to use the initials of your organization, which is never, ever recommended, be consistent with their use. Make certain that people know what event and the details of the event you are sponsoring so that your name or initials will become synonymous with the event and with the quality of the event. When an event is well run, and successful, people notice who was behind it and the organization that sponsored it.
By the way, if you want people to support, donate or show up at an event; it is important that you tell them about the event and the details of the event. The items you need to place an event on your personal calendar. WHO is sponsoring the event? WHAT is the event? WHEN is the event? WHERE will the event take place? WHY is the event being held? HOW MUCH will the event cost? Do not play hide and seek with the details. Do not annoy your potential sponsors by making them have to go on line and click in multiple places to seek out information. My time is valuable and it’s annoying. Be up front. You are making me suspicious of what else you may be hiding when I have to work to discover the basic information such as the time of the event or if it’s in a specific room of a large venue.
If you are not proud enough of the event to put it in large size print, do not hold it. You should not be doing things you are not proud of. If you want people to show up be certain to put your event on every calendar you can. The church, the municipal calendar, the newspapers (even the papers you don’t subscribe to or read), local radio stations, cable television, high school, technical school and community college stations. If you want people to support your event by showing up, you have to invite them.
If you need help, please contact me and I will help you or refer you to someone who can. The Norwich area has a great many resources ready, willing and able to assist you.
There must have been a glow of pride surrounding the residents of Norwich Connecticut when articles reprinted from the Norwich Bulletin such as this one from the April 15, 1882 Indianapolis leader appeared in papers across the United States and Europe. 134 years later, in 2016, Norwich residents have mostly forgotten this fund and struggle to pay for the education of all students within its domestic borders.
“On April 12. John F. Slater, of Norwich, CT, has signified his intention to create a fund of $1,000,000, to be known as “The John F. Slater Fund,” for the education of freedmen, the fund to be vested in a Board of Trustees, which includes ex-President Hayes, Chief Justice Waite, William E. Dodge, New York; Governor Colquitt, Georgia; James P. Boyce, Kentucky, and Wm. A. Slater, the donor’s son.
Slater explains: “The general object which I desire to have exclusively pursued is the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States and their posterity by conferring upon them the blessings of a Christian education. The disabilities formerly suffered by this people, and their singular patience and fidelity in the great crisis of the nation. establish a iust claim on the sympathy and good will of humane and patriotic men. I cannot but feel compassion is due, in view of their prevailing ignorance, which exists because of no fault of their own.”
Slater suggests the education of teachers for the colored race may be the wisest purpose to which the fund can be put If after thirty-three years three-quarters of the Trustees shall, for any reason, agree there is no further use for the fund in the form of an Institute, Slater authorizes them to employ the capital to the establishment of foundations subsidiary to those existing in institutions of higher education, so as to make them more freely accessible to poor colored students. Under the present institution of the fund, he expressly wishes that either principal nor income shall be expended on land or buildings for any other purpose than that of safe and productive investment for income.
John F. Slater has been identified with the business Interests of Norwich since J840 and is Director in several banking, railroad and manufacturing enterprises, lie Is very wealthy and has one of the finest estates about Norwich. His father John, came from Derbyshire, England, with a brother Samuel in 1806, established the village of Slatervllle R, I., and built several mills in New England.”
How nice it would be if someone would step up with a donation to fund the schools of Norwich now.
Sometimes I run across articles from the newspapers that remind me that some things don’t change except the date. For example this article I present in its entirety from the Norwich paper of April 3rd, 1805.
“In 1788, this state owed one million, nine hundred thousand dollars, and the treasury was empty.
In 1804 the State of Connecticut did not owe a cent, and had in her Treasury four hundred and fifty-two thousand, six hundred and sixty-nine dollars, seventy-seven cents, in funds of the civil list; and one million two hundred and thirty-eight thousand, six hundred and seventeen dollars and twenty-nine cents.
The people of this State draw out of the treasury, every year $78,855.76 cts.
The amount of all their state taxes is no more than 41, 400.00
So that they draw out, more than they pay $37,455.76
Thus, people of Connecticut, you have a Government which does not cost you a single cent to maintain it; but which annually pays you above thirty seven thousand dollars towards defraying the expense of educating your children; and your State is above two millions of dollars richer than it was seven years ago. O! if ye knew your happiness, ye would be the happiest people on earth. – N. E. Republican. “
The cycle of being broke and having a surplus is the norm for federal, State and Local coffers. There is always a surplus when the candidates run for election and the coffers are empty all while they are in office. A rise in taxes is desperately needed so that there can be new hires, raises for the employees, more services and better education for all. How can anyone say no?.
I hate budget season and having to pour over financial reports and staring at columns of numbers and what I really hate is having to ask people to justify the jobs of their staff and themselves. What do you do and why are you necessary? What makes you important to my company or in this case my city? Why do you spend money the way that you do? Isn’t there a better and more cost efficient way to get the same things done? If it can be repaired with an elastic band, gum and a paper clip a new one is not needed. I just hope that there was municipal accounting education evening for the members of the Norwich City Council and the Mayor before there were the department budget hearings and if not before the budget vote. It’s not just about raising or lowering taxes. It’s about what can be done currently and in the future.
Municipal accounting is generally open and transparent because the citizens of a city have the right to know how its money is being used if not spent. Municipal accounting is the accounting branch that focuses on the accounting for cities and towns.
In addition to taxes cities receive income from any number of sources that include fees, fines grants, loans and gifts. Some may have strings, limitations, use and reporting requirements.
Just like any business there are also a number of ways that the disbursement of funds to employees, private contractors, insurance, and even utilities is handled. Every payment is tracked with a clear record from its cause to its payment. The records are open to the public for inspection and are usually audited by a certified firm that the accounting practices are honest and above board and the records are regularly checked for signs of irregularity that could indicate embezzlement or financial privilege abuse.
Lots of companies manufacture software for use in municipal accounting that can be adapted for use determined by the cities size, and accounting needs. Proper software also allows for the generation of statistics, reports and responses to public inquiries from individuals and media interested in the use of their public funds.
Mohegan Park has the latest brochure touting another treasure of Norwich, CT. The brochure is only available at Norwich City Hall and at the Information Center by the Norwichtown Green. The squirrel on the front cover announces – A rural woodland park located within Norwich, Connecticut.
On the inside, is an easy to read map in various shades green of the almost 400 acre park. Detailed in ovals are the locations of the multiple pavilions, ponds, beach, and playgrounds. The clay tennis courts on Mahan Drive received special mentions as did the rose garden and the future home of the Chelsea Botanical Gardens. Parking and restrooms have their own symbols.
Following the trails marked in red, blue, green, black and brown are easier to on the map than in the park but the information as to whether it is maintained or left to use and nature is clear. Up to the individual user of the trail is whether it is can be used for walking, jogging, running, hiking or weather permitting cross-country skiing.
The animal control building is easily located and I encourage everyone to check into the pet adoption program. The future home of the Chelsea Botanical Gardens is outlined and noted that it is currently closed to the public. The trails from the rest of the park have been carefully removed from the designated area at this time. I hope that sometime in the near future there will be trails once again free of cost and open to the public.
The two back panels are dedicated to the history of the park, its multiple expansions and the special recognitions it has received since its dedication in 1906. The parks participation in the 2002 Bioblitz program organized by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and its identification of 1,898 species is also noted. The sizes and depths of the two man-made earthen dams located within the park are detailed as well as it being a state designated trout park and so well-stocked at the start of each fishing season with trout, sunfish, largemouth bass, brown bullhead and channel catfish. There are directions to the park if you are a local or visitor to the area, hours of park operation and the website for park pavilion rental.
Finally there is a concluding paragraph with a lovely summary of all that residents know Mohegan Park to be, “The Park is a welcoming pedestrian oriented destination where one can experience woodlands, water features, play areas, swimming, picnic areas, and a nationally recognized rose garden all at no charge. “
The only thing not included in the brochure is that Mohegan Park is available as a stop on the Southeastern CT Area Transit District bus route.
I hope to see everyone there this year at one point or another..
I have been very open in my annoyance with the Chelsea Botanical Garden Organization for vacillating between doing very little for over twenty years with the property they leased in Mohegan Park from the City of Norwich and then indiscriminately chopping down trees so that investors could have a better idea of the scope of their project while destroying the homes of the area wildlife. But fair is fair, and when the group does something good for the community than they deserve well-earned praise. Maybe a small garden could be planted in the cleared area?
The stated mission of Chelsea Botanical Gardens is to develop and maintain botanical gardens and a butterfly pavilion incorporating education, research, and conservation. For seven years they held a butterfly release fundraiser but that was halted out of concern for the plight of butterflies. The monarch butterfly population has decreased 85% according to The Natural Resources Defense Council due to the reduction of waystations that provide the resources needed to nurture the monarchs through their four stages of life during the summer months and send them safely on their wintering migratory routes to Mexico in the fall. The Monarch Watch brochure states: “Without milkweeds throughout their spring and summer breeding areas in North America, monarchs would not be able to produce the successive generations that culminate in the migration each fall. Similarly, without nectar from flowers, these fall migratory monarchs would be unable to make their long journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico.”
For the first time, Chelsea Botanical Gardens is working with Monarch Watch, a nonprofit educational program located on the West Campus of the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas, that focuses on all aspects of the monarchs’ life cycle.
Hart’s Greenhouse & Florist in Norwich, Canterbury, and Preston; Burnett’s Country Gardens in Salem; Smith Acres in Niantic; Otis Library and Dixie Donuts, both in Norwich are distributing a total of 300 free packets of seeds, donated by the Charles C. Hart Seed Company in Wethersfield, CT called “Plant For Pollinators” a colorful mix of annuals, biennials and perennials selected to attract butterflies, birds and bees, a Monarch Watch brochure, and a drawing of a sample 5’ X 5’ butterfly garden or waystation.
Waystations can be created at schools, in home gardens, parks, along roadsides and in any other unused land. Just a few milkweed and nectar plants can make a difference. While waystations will help the monarch, it is also essential that the widespread use of herbicides be discontinued. Monarchs need our support, and no effort is too small.
Chelsea Botanical Gardens has added a label to the back of the seed packet listing the Latin names of the seeds and their website for further information. Well done and thank you for beginning your mission in the community.
My name is Beryl Fishbone and I am making a public request to the employees and elected officials of Norwich, CT. My request is to stop thinking and using the City of Norwich, CT as your own personal fiefdom. Stop considering participation in State, Federal , National and International programs as intrusive, without local benefit, or beneath the character of the fine and great City of Norwich, CT.
Let us stop now, this very second, the delusion that if a program does not come from within a favored circle of individuals within the city limits of the city; it is bad, evil and malicious and certainly not worthy of consideration.
This has nothing to do with the budget per se but, certainly there can be some benefits to my suggestions. Participating in a variety of programs is additional publicity for the City even if it is only the listing of the name. Thanks to the internet more people are seeing a wider variety of event listings and are looking to see what is being offered close to them, even if they don’t go to that particular event, it is nice to have the option. Listing Norwich, CT as a participant is advertising the City as a good place to live, with an active community, involved residents and as a place to see and be seen if you are looking to reach a particular population. Yes, I am referring to advertising revenue for newspapers; radio, television and closed-circuit such as found in the local gyms and hotels and please don’t forget the all-powerful phone app. Please, leaders of Norwich, CT I implore you to please stop turning away people and their money. Yes, you, by not encouraging participation in programs YOU are telling people from outside of Norwich they are not wanted, or needed. That may be because you live outside of Norwich and do not pay taxes here but I do. So I want to see lots of people come from outside of this community to leave money in our businesses. Where people see successful businesses, they want to bring their business. Where there are successful businesses, there are jobs, increases in property values and the possibility of some tax relief to the residents. Yes, I am ultimately looking for some tax relief.
I do not know where the participation invitations are sent within the City Hall, whose office or desk or if they languish in the postal room but I want someone to find them and to distribute them to wherever or whomever it may be appropriate and lets hop on the band wagon of whatever it may be for a bit of a free commercial ride whenever and wherever we can.
For anyone interested in video production for a hobby or for a career, Comcast access offers a FREE class at the local to Norwich, CT studio on program planning, studio techniques, field production, editing and more tricks of the trade. This is a general class for open to the public of all ages.
Age is not a restriction or a requirement, so you can be 10 years old or 110 years old and still be welcome. You do not need to have your own equipment, just a willingness to learn how to use the equipment of other people properly and with practice, confidently.
This is the perfect place for middle and high school students interested in careers in television, movies, video and the arts to begin learning the trade and practicing different techniques with real equipment as well as a chance to work with professionals. The facility includes a full service video production studio with three Cameras, Audio Console, and an all in one computer based system for Video Switching and Character Generation and a Remote Editing Console. Four separate remote video production packages are available for shooting on location. A separate Non-Linear Editing Suite is available for editing as well as another Suite for videotape editing.
Everyone has to begin somewhere. Once you are trained, area residents are encouraged to produce programming that will appear on Comcast cable channel 14. Be the young person who applies for the job and can say yes to having experience using real equipment and an understanding of the language as it is used in the studio.
Keep in mind, Public Access provides an opportunity for local residents to express their opinions, views and ideas through non-commercial television programs which they produce themselves at no cost using Comcast Cable facilities.
This is the class for the senior citizen who works with the church, political candidates, and neighborhood groups and wants to get the word out about their topics. Training is provided on an individual basis to meet the goals of a specific program or project. It is the Producer of the project who is directly responsible for organizing and scheduling the training sessions with the Public Access Coordinator. Whether you want to be in front of the camera lens or behind the scenes lining up shots, writing scripts, working in the studio or critiquing the work of others, this is the class for you.
Residents of Norwich, Bozrah, Colchester, Franklin, Preston and Sprague please call 860.887.3446 or visit the Comcast studio at 238 West Town Street, Norwich, CT 06360 or check out the Comcast website at www.publicaccessstudios.com for more information.
Members of the community wishing to produce a program themselves outside the Comcast Cable facility, or have access to a non-commercial, pre-produced program, are welcome to apply to the Public Access channel for a time slot. They can accommodate playback of DVD-R video formats based upon availability. Outside programs are considered for transmission based on the requirements set down in the Public Access Operating Policies.
Amos and Jerusha Brewster of Norwich, Connecticut married in 1761. Amos, served in the Revolutionary War and died of wounds received at Fort Mifflin, PA in 1777 with “The strength of old New England valor so strong in Amos he fell with his face toward the foe.” (Brewster Genealogy.)
The widow, Jerusha Brewster, and the couple’s four children lived at the couple’s Canterbury, Connecticut home. By 1800 she was living with her daughter and son-in-law, Lovisa and James Morse.
It was a very difficult relationship between the in-laws and for several weeks in 1802 Jerusha visited her other children. But when she returned in April, the relationship with her son-in-law got worse.
Newspaper accounts say that the morning after she returned home, Jerusha made pancakes for her daughter and three grandchildren:
“She had been absent from the family for more than a fortnight; she left a bowl of flour in her cupboard; and the morning after her return she made some pancakes of the flour; while she was preparing her breakfast, two of her grandchildren came into her room, to whom she gave cake. Soon after, her daughter, Mrs. Morse, who always treated her mother well, came in with her child of nine months old; she ate two, giving the child a piece, and went out.
“Mrs. Brewster then began her breakfast, and had nearly finished, when the children and the mother were taken with puking, the two children first, then the mother and infant. The daughter, Mrs. Morse, sent word to her mother not to eat any more of the cakes; she came into her daughter’s room, and in about five minutes was taken with the most violent and racking vomiting. The physician was called and by proper antidotes arrested the fatal progress of the poison in Mrs. Morse and her children, but had no efficacy upon the old lady.
“A jury of inquest sat upon her body and gave a verdict of “poison, and by design.” The body was opened and a considerable quantity of arsenic taken out. The cakes that remained were examined, and pieces of poison were found in them. “
Suspicion immediately fell on Jerusha Brewster’s son-in-law James, also a Revolutionary War veteran, and some sources say he served as a teen under General Washington, because it was well known James and Jerusha had lived together “quite unhappily.” But with no proof against James in the murder, the authorities could do nothing more than question him and let him go. He and Lovisa moved to Centerville in western New York, where they passed away, her in 1841 and him in 1845.
At Jerusha’s funeral, the minister, Rev. Waterman, chose to deliver a sermon aimed at her killer, speaking on the Biblical passage from Corinthians: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.”.
“I wasn’t at the meeting, so now I am in charge of publicity. What should I do?” Stop whining for one. It won’t do you any good, get you help or out of the job. So, assemble the information you will be needing.
Who is sponsoring the event.
Who is the event for.
What the event is.
When the event will take place date and time
Where the event will take place, room, Venue, Street location, City, State, Zip Code
Why is the event being held
How much does it cost
Advance tickets, sellers, registration and payments
No more than a 3 or 4 sentence blurb about the event
Website
Facebook Site
Contact Person Name: phone number and e-mail
The list of the posting site passwords. To keep hackers from posting events under your organizations good name, a password may be needed for posting to some sites. Be certain you have the correct passwords.
And get to work. Who has community calendars in your area? Radio Stations, television stations, newspapers, local gyms, local hotel/motels, cable companies, weekly advertising papers, churches, Chambers of Commerce, libraries, schools, Craig’s list, stumble and other groups and organizations all have community calendars. Some may be linked together but most are not so get ready to spend some time.
If your event is open to the public and you want a lot of people, post it everywhere and include the larger newspapers that are out of your area but people in your area might subscribe to or read when they are looking for something to do. If you don’t really want people, then skip advertising all together.
Go the appropriate webpage. Click on Calendar. Click on Add event. Then follow the links one at a time and fill in the line with the appropriate information as requested. Be certain to review it before you click save. Click save. Sigh deeply and move on to the next. Do not hesitate to add your information to the free advertising papers calendars. Don’t be surprised if the radio station asks you to call in on a certain day and time for an on air interview. Consider having the local high school, technical school or Community College film a commercial for your event or the event itself. Great practice for the students and a start for next years event. During the event have people ready to Facebook, Tweet and otherwise communicate the event. Consider a backdrop board with the pertinent information time, place, cost all ready for a selfie. Have a blurb already written for the newspapers and send it in with a selection of photos ready for the newspapers web page and next edition. All of this is free advertising. Paid advertising will have to wait for another day.
On Friday, May 26, 2016 at the Garde Art Center in New London CT I learned something. I learned that the State of Connecticut Department of Economic Development has plans and programs that are available to residents of the State of Connecticut but are not promoted in Eastern Connecticut. So little is known and promoted about the programs that not one representative was present in the 100+ person audience from an Eastern Connecticut Bank, any Chamber of Commerce, Municipality, small business development center, business development office of a municipality, CT business incubator located in Eastern CT, or municipal public/private business authority such as a Main Street program or our own NCDC. People had traveled from Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and even New York City but less than ten of us locally were there.
CTNext was begun in 2012 and has worked with more than 1,100 companies to build a more robust community of entrepreneurs and to accelerate startup growth by providing access to talent, space, industry expertise, services, skill development, and capital to foster innovation and create jobs for people in Connecticut and to maximize the growth potential of each business. Solutions are tailored and often combine funds with resources from financial leaders to provide venture capital and strategic support for early-stage technology companies; grants that support innovation and collaboration; and connections to a well-established network of partners and professionals. Visit www.ctinnovations.com for more information. No one I spoke with was aware that the City of Norwich had downtown spaces available and had bonded money to help encourage business. Hope I haven’t overstepped my bounds as a taxpayer suggesting that perhaps Norwich become a part of the space solution.
There was not one company from Eastern CT in the “Shark Tank” like presentation competition and a $10,000 grant may seem small when starting a business but dollars and experience add up. For some presenters this was their first time before an audience selling the idea of their product, and for others this was merely another notch in their belt of experience. CaroGen of Farmington was proud to announce they had just received a $300 thousand award and were still presenting. (They were not a winner this time.)
There is also VentureClash the $5 million global business competition to provide early-stage companies worldwide with an opportunity to grow their business in Connecticut. It is aimed at the most promising early staged companies within the financial technology and digital health innovation and technology fields and includes access to a critical network of investors, mentors, talent and customers. Time runs out the end of June to apply for this years round but visit http//ctinnovations.com/opportunities/all or just visit www.ctinnovations.com to see what is available and what is new or coming up.
There is more in the world than what we see in Eastern Connecticut and it is time to demand more from our economic and political leaders.
I just made the most wondrous of discoveries about Norwich. You all probably know this and it’s just one more item in a lengthy and growing list of things I did not know about Norwich or the State of Connecticut Department of Economic Development and Tourism website. They have a whole page devoted to Public Art. There is even a reference to a Public Art Blog whose Content was Last Modified on 11/10/2014 10:54:28 AM It is quite obvious that Norwich had nothing to do with assembling the list but I certainly have some places to visit on a rainy day. I wonder if the art sites know about this listing? Can Norwich add to the list? Was this list assembled for tourists? Taxpayers? My apologies. I have many more questions than I do answers.
There is an Art in Public Spaces (AIPS) Registry database for artists who are interested in pursuing public art opportunities in Connecticut. The AIPS Registry is open to both Connecticut artists and Out-of-State artists and is the primary resource used in selecting artists for Connecticut’s Art in Public Spaces projects.
With one entry, registered artists are automatically reviewed and considered for public art projects administered through COA’s RFQ process. Learn more about the registry by reviewing the Art in Public Spaces Registry Guidelines. Artists may select ONLY one (1) discipline within the Art in Public Spaces Registry. The disciplines include: Architectural Integration / Multi-Disciplinary, Mural (2D), and sculpture (3D).
Locations of Public Art Sites Art in Public Spaces Program Norwich, Connecticut New London County
The City of Norwich is located in eastern Connecticut. The three state sites include works of public art commissioned through the Art in Public Spaces program.
Norwich Technical High School,
Robert Roesch Take Flight, exterior sculpture.
Three Rivers Community College
Geoffrey Bates
Gigi Horr-Liverant
Karin Schneider Now, the World is Asleep, pastel paintingArthur’s Monolith, pastel diptych
Secret Garden (1987), pastel with marbleized paper.
Department of Transportation, Branch Office, 171 Salem Turnpike
Silvia Taccani
Taccani
Carmela Venti
Venti
Venti
Venti Journey, photograph, entrance lobby & galleryNexus, photograph, entrance lobby & gallery
Weather or World Related, monoprint, entrance lobby & gallery
Mona Lisa Reincarnated, monoprint, entrance lobby & gallery
Anxiety, monoprint, entrance lobby & gallery
Mystic, monoprint, entrance lobby & gallery
American, monoprint, entrance lobby & gallery
Balance, East of Oswegatchie, monoprint, entrance lobby & gallery.
Just so we are all clear about this, there will be other offices on the ballot in November in addition to the Office of the President of the United States. Most of the other offices YOU will have the opportunity to vote on will have more of a direct impact on your life, opportunities, taxes and general welfare.
One of the offices you will have the opportunity to vote on is for your State Representative. In the Connecticut State House we have 151 members representing 169 towns. The term of office is two years and the base pay is $28,000 plus an additional $4,500 for undocumented expenses.
A State Representative listens to the concerns of constituents and works to reduce their challenges through legislative action, and finds resources to support the success of their district. A large part of the Representatives job is to address persistent problems, such as lack of employment opportunities in an area.
The Representative and staff are responsible for doing the research for proposed changes to existing laws and for new initiatives (these are often called bills.) Attendance at many committee, local, county, and specific meetings is required. Some meetings are face-to-face and others are electronic.
Social events are often attended to create or reinforce contacts with discretionary funding resources or contacts that may be useful for different projects. Significant improvement projects and initiatives need funding and may need convincing others the project is beneficial to all.
Prior to voting there may be a lengthy hearing and debate cycle as the Representatives listen to arguments that attack or support the bill, depending on how each representative perceives the bill will affect the people being represented. In addition, Representatives may also voice the opinions and perspectives of business leaders, lobbyists and every day constituents and not their own.
The State of Connecticut budget cycle encompasses two years. The budget cycle sequence is
Budget instructions are sent to state agencies in July.
State agencies submit their budget requests to the governor in September.
Agency hearings are held in January.
Public hearings are held from February through June.
The governor submits his or her proposed budget to the state legislature in February.
The legislature adopts a budget in May or June. A simple majority is required to pass a budget.
Now you know what part of the job of your State Representative is, find out who is running for the office in your district and be sure to vote for your candidate of choice on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.
In the Atlas Obscura of July 13th Tao Tao Holmes tells how Wallace Idaho has declared itself the center of the Universe. Norwich, CT has declared itself to be the center of New England being equidistant from Boston and New York since time before an independent America was a real consideration. So why don’t the great marketing gurus make the proclamation today loudly and with pride? Do you ever get the feeling that the leaders, volunteers, elected and paid are ashamed and embarrassed of Norwich, CT? If they are not, than why haven’t they celebrated like Wallace Idaho?
Why can’t Norwich, CT have a little fun and install a manhole cover or an inscribed brick and celebrate the fact. Granted to locate the exact spot may need to be done using old maps showing the old roads but imagine how many selfies will be taken? How many visitors will exit the highway just for the photo opportunity?
The real mid-point between Boston and New York using a combination of Interstate routes 84 and 95 is in Rocky Hill, CT but that city is not using the declaration at the moment and with some adjustment to old routes and its proximity to Providence a point near the Bean Hill Green can be proclaimed “Norwich, CT The Center of New England.”
Descriptions of the town in the article give ideas, and inexpensive ideas at that, for what Norwich could do to make itself stand out. On the corner of Bank Street and Sixth Street in the quaint mining town of Wallace, Idaho, you will find a manhole with a red pinpoint in its center. Initially, it seems like an ordinary sewer cover, but step a bit closer and you’ll realize it says “It is the Center of the Universe.”
The town of Wallace is four by nine blocks with a current population of 784 citizens much less than the 40,000 of Norwich. But in 2004, the mayor made a proclamation: “I, Ron Garitone, Mayor of Wallace, Idaho, and all of its subjects, and being of sound body and mind, do hereby solemnly declare and proclaim Wallace to be the Center of the Universe.” Lots of press coverage with laughter and good natured fun. But it brought people to Wallace that would not otherwise have visited.
According to Wallace and the theory of probabilism, probabilism (from Latin probare, to test, approve) refers to an ancient Greek doctrine of academic skepticism. It holds that in the absence of certainty, probability is the best criterion. The idea behind the Center of the Universe originated with four friends at a local bar called the Smokehouse, on the same corner as the manhole cover. One member of the party was Shauna Hillman, the director of the Northern Pacific Depot Railroad Museum, who describes herself as “the official janitor of the Center of the Universe.”
When asked why Wallace is the Center of the Universe. “Why not?” she responds. “That’s the answer to why is it the Center of the Universe.” The second answer: “Prove it isn’t.”
Anyone can come touch their toes to the Center of the Universe because one of the four bar pals visited Moscow’s Red Square and saw a “Kilometer Zero” medallion placed into the ground from which distances in Russia were traditionally measured. The man came back to Wallace and thought: We can do that.
Norwich, CT can do that too.
I screwed up. I deleted the credits of the original article of July 13, 2016 on Wallace Idaho belonging to Tao Tao Holmes and Atlas Obscura. I try very hard to give all credit where it is due and am very embarrassed about this error and omission. My apologies and thanks to the Norwich Bulletin for catching my error. Please read the original Tao Tao Holmes article http://www.atlasobscura.com/…/the-selfproclaimed-center-of-….
In Norwich, CT the response to recent violence in America is to hold “Vigils.” A vigil service is a time for family and friends to offer stories, reflections, and eulogies on the life of the deceased but when it’s held in communities where the deceased are not known it morphs into long drawn out affairs where religious and political officials lecture those gathered on how they should behave and how it’s ok to be angry but not ok to be violent. Very appropriate lectures for six year olds and very common lectures for those in anger management and substance recovery.
The speakers have completely forgotten to whom they are speaking. They are speaking to the very people who have come together in peace for a communal moment of prayer for the people injured or dead in whatever the recent catastrophe was. No doubt the people in attendance have already gotten the message of peace and solidarity. Our city was not where the violence occurred.
Every speaker says the names of the dead and how they should not have died, but there is not a second spent on how we can honor their memory. Honor their families, friends, loved ones, and communities. Norwich residents are very big on etching another brick, or putting another plaque on a rock but not very big on saying and demonstrating how to work together.
Our city has fiefdoms with rulers who choose not to share their assets, wisdom or experience with others because if they did they might not be seen as the biggest fish in the pond but as a minnow in a puddle and heaven forbid all the puddles should come together to form a pond and increase the water supply and a place for the fish to grow larger and explore more.
Instead of having another prayer group or vigil to pray for the memories; can’t it be time to honor those who carry on today, to those who have been injured or died by a demonstration of how we can work together for the greater cause of our community. Isn’t it about time we make the conscious choice to honor the past, through the actions of today for a better tomorrow?
Commit now to spend ten minutes every week doing something for your community. Wave to your neighbors, pick up trash and throw it away, smile at a stranger, say thank you to the store clerk, join a committee. It is all up to you.
When you are looking for answers in issues of public policy there is usually a thread that will lead to money and expenditures. It has always been that way and probably always will be. A friend was kind enough to send me this bit from the January 1, 1923 Norwich Bulletin. –
In 1922 over 74 miles of road was improved by the State Highway Department for $2,796,728.80 and that included building the Bascule Bridge in Mystic for $289,179.33.
A. W. Bushnell was the division engineer in Norwich supervising the laying in New London County of 59.45 miles of concrete, trap rock, native stone, and bituminous macadam that were used in the laying of the Norwich-Westerly bituminous macadam road, and the Hartford-New London concrete road and some other smaller road projects all improved for $2,215,914.69.
There was such obvious pride in the reporting of the projects, developments and completions. How transparent a project appears to the public than when a spread sheet is published in the newspaper listing by County the town, the road, the surface kind, the length in feet and the cost.
For example in New London County, gravel for the 1,708 feet of Newent Road, between Norwich and Lisbon cost $4,616.06.
The bituminous macadam used for the 22,436 feet of the Norwich-Westerly road shared between Norwich, Preston and Ledyard was partially completed for $132,771.25.
The abutments of the Occum Bridge between Norwich and Sprague cost $3,236.47.
200 feet of concrete at the Taftville Grade Crossing cost $2,827.91
The rest of the $2,505,094.02 and 313,900 feet was shared among the other towns of New London County. $35,674.20 was used for 12,863 feet in Tolland County and $265,960.58 for 64,844 feet in Windham County..
The Norwich CT City budget has been set in stone for the next year or more but the financial education of the elected officials is now only just beginning. Public finance is not the same as private and corporate finances. The public cannot sit in on the financial training sessions that I hope are taking place for our elected officials here are a few guidelines to keep in mind.
*Balancing the budget with a one- time only fix offers a temporary solution for one year but makes the following year even more difficult to budget and balance.
*Borrowing money for operating costs adds to the public’s long-term debt without creating any related future public benefit.
*Transferring costs from one fund to another only creates the illusion of finances being in balance but the financial facts have not been changed and the financial problem is still there.
*It is important to recognize the long-term consequences of financial deals made in the heat of the moment. What seems like a great deal at the moment is nothing more than a payday loan in the future for someone else to have to deal with. Elected officials have to understand that they are stewards not only of the present but of the future as well.
*Funding development projects with bonds backfires when a projects tax revenues don’t deliver and the government (taxpayers) have to pay out the difference to the bondholders from the general fund. There must be an open and honest discussion of what will occur by the government if the project does not go well. This is not being a nay sayer, this is merely a demonstration of good financial planning for all eventualities.
*Temporary windfalls are part of recurring economic cycles and should not be relied upon. They should be applied to single opportunity programs that will help to maintain expenses and debt as costs rise in the future.
*Shortchanging pension obligations increases the long-term liability and does not make it go away. Everyone involved has to understand the future effects of increasing the retirement age and paycheck deductions.
*Financial planners always have to begin with assumptions about interest rates and expected earnings on investments and portfolios. Because of the world economy it is better to assume a lower rate of return on the unfunded liabilities and to be happy if it is actually higher.
*It is easy to lose track of how much money is actually owed with all the special funds and circumstances. Norwich has an excellent auditing system that incorporates antifraud programs, ethics policy, performance measures, best practices and offers advice on the financial management of fixed assets, cash receipts and accounts receivable when needed. We need to allow them to do their job and to listen to what they have to say.
How did your town learn of the War of Revolution? We celebrate the end but who agreed to start it? Who promised that your towns residents would join in? May I humbly present the opening for Norwich, CT – THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION IN NORWICH.
The following documents are sufficiently explained in the text. They
form, connectedly, a good illustration of the state of feeling which
was prevalent in Eastern Connecticut at the opening of the war of
Independence.
CALL FOR A TOWN MEETING.
(The original is in the possession of Mr. Wm. C. Gilman, New York.)
The Inhabitants of the Town of Norwich by Law (Qualified to Vote in
Town Meeting are hereby Warned to Meet at the Town house in Said Norwich
on this first Monday of June Next at two of the Clock in the Afternoon to take into Consideration the Melancholy Situation of our Civil
Constitutional Liberties Rights and Privileges which are Threatened with
Destruction by the Enemies of his Majesty’s Happy Reign & Government
over the American Colonies and to Do Whatsoever Shall be thought
Expedient to Manifest our Loyalty to the King and faithful Endeavors to
Promote the Hearty Affection which Every Good Subject hath for the
General Good of the British Empire which is in the Most Happy Condition
when Every Individual is Secure in the possession of his Person, Family,
Property & Privileges under the Paternal Protection of a Most Gracious &
Pious Prince, as also to take into Consideration some Memorials for High-
way, Paid for in Said Town and also to Act any Thing Else that may be
fairly offered.
Samuel Tracy,
Benj. Huntington, I Selectman
Barnabas Huntington, i Men.
Elijah Brewster, J
Norwich, May 30th, 1774.
RECORD OF THE TOWN MEETING, JUNE 6, 1774.
(From the Town Records.)
At a very full meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Norwich, legally
warned and convened in the Town house, in said Norwich, on the 6* day
of June, A. D. 1774, the Honorable Jabez Huntington, Esq., Moderator, Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to the meeting house, and there immediately opened, that more convenient room may be had for the number of the people now assembled. The meeting was opened at the meeting house accordingly, where the following resolves were passed almost unanimously :
Voted, That Samuel Huntington, Esq., Mr. Isaac Tracy, Capt. Jedediah Huntington, Christopher Leffingwell, Esq., Elisha Fitch, Esq., Simon Tracy, Jun., Esq., Capt. Joseph Trumbull, Benj. Huntington, Esq., and Capt. Zabdiel Rogers, be a committee to draw up some sentiments proper
to be adopted and resolutions to be come into in this alarming crisis of affairs, Relative to the Natural Rights & Privileges of the People, and to lay the same before this meeting.
On the same day, on receiving the report of the Committee —
Voted, That we will, to the utmost of our abilities, assert & defend the Liberties and immunities of British America ; and that we will Co-operate with our Brethren in this and the other Colonies in such reasonable measures as shall in General Congress, or otherwise, be judged most proper to
Relieve us from Burthens we now feel, and secure us from greater evils we fear will follow from the Principles adopted by the British Parliament, Respecting the town of Boston.
Voted, That Capt. Jedediah Huntington, Christopher Leffingwell, Esq., Doct. Theophihis Rogers, Capt. “William Hubbard, and Capt. Joseph Trumbull, be a standing Committee for keeping up a Correspondence Avail the Towns in this and the neighboring Colonies, and that they transmit a Copy
of these Votes to the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Boston.
I search primarily for anything and anyone that has a connection to Norwich, CT but when I stumbled on this story of Mary Katherine Goddard of New London I felt I had to share her story.
Mary Katherine Goddard was born in New London, CT, on June 16, 1738, the daughter of Dr. Giles Goddard, a wealthy doctor and postmaster, and Sarah Updike Goddard.
Her father died in 1762, and her mother moved with Mary Katherine and her brother William to Providence, RI.
Her mother loaned William the money to start Providence’s first newspaper, The Providence Gazette and Country Journal. William traveled frequently, though, leaving mother and daughter to run the newspaper.
Five years later, William started the Pennsylvania Chronicle in Philadelphia with several partners, including Benjamin Franklin. Mary Katherine followed him to Pennsylvania and took over the Chronicle when her mother died in 1770.
By 1773, the British authorities were interfering with the mail, eventually forcing the Goddard siblings to shut down the Chronicle. Again they moved, this time to Baltimore, where William started the Maryland Journal. Again Mary Katherine ran the newspaper while William traveled. She also served as Baltimore’s postmaster.
In July 1776, the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the British army. They took the Declaration of Independence and other papers to Baltimore. In January 1777, heartened by the Continental Army’s victories at Princeton and Trenton, the Congress ordered a second printing of the Declaration of Independence with the names of all the signers.
The Continental Congress asked Mary Katherine Goddard to print the Declaration of Independence for distribution throughout the colonies. It was the second printing of the Declaration, but she was the first to print it with the names of all 56 signers on it. She agreed, though she risked her life to print the document as the British still considered it treason.
When the war ended, she and William had a falling out, and she stopped printing the paper. She continued as postmaster of Baltimore until 1789, when she was forced out of the job, over the protests of the Baltimore business community.
She stayed in business selling books, stationery and dry goods until the early 19th century.
Mary Katherine Goddard, one of the most important printers of the American Revolution, died on Aug. 12, 1816..
Why can’t Norwich, CT attract nice restaurants? Nothing against fast food, burgers, pizza and Chinese but on occasion I enjoy a place where you are greeted with friendly servers, and not everything on the menu comes with fries. How about if we ask some of the successful towns, like Colchester, CT what the secret of attraction is? Granted they have a smaller population and the commercial areas are more concentrated but there just has to be something else. Something that we are missing out on here in Norwich, CT.
What is it that Norwich, CT is doing that discourages new, interesting and down-right unusual businesses? Are we flagrantly discouraging businesses? Are we silently giving signals that we do not want a business here? What do we need to correct? Let’s find out where we are making our errors and fix them.
Norwich, CT has exits directly off Interstate 395 and Route 2 & 32. Both of these highway systems are the major transportation routes of Eastern Connecticut, so how can we matter-of-factly accept that we do not have the traffic for any of the larger chain restaurants but we are perfect for another fried burger joint. We have a population in Norwich of 38,000 people, with access to the neighboring towns and we do not have the population required? Maybe we need to look at someone else? Why, are the taxpayers of Norwich so accepting of not being worthy of a place that sells food that is not quick or deep fried?
When a new to Norwich, CT restaurant does open up; it does not open up with its “A” game, but rather opens up with a sorry whimper and a plea to be forgiven for not being ready to open. What? That sounds utterly ridiculous. If you are not ready to open on time; DELAY THE OPENING UNTIL YOU ARE.
Norwich, CT has a tremendous variety of multi-cultural fast foods that all have the same bland taste and differ little in preparation. We count Caribbean, Indian, Chinese, American, Italian and Greek restaurants among fast burger and chicken joints and I have eaten in most of them but I can’t talk about taste, texture, presentation or even smell of any of them. I refuse to accept that I am the only person in Norwich who wants a multi-sensory experience in my meal. When I prepare a meal in my home it has taste, texture, smell, so why shouldn’t I expect that when I eat out?
Let’s start talking about what we, the residents and taxpayers want in our restaurants. Let’s stop being so accepting of whatever crumb we are given and start raising our expectations and demanding better.
There is always a lot of chatter about past parades so I would like to present from the June 29, 1842 Norwich Courier, The Order of Arrangements for the Norwich Washingtonian Temperance Celebration.
All participants shall meet at their designated place at half-past eight A.M. to be escorted to their position on Franklin Square.
At nine o’clock precisely, the procession will move from Franklin Square, under the direction of Col. Charles Clarke, Chief Marshal of the day.
THE ORDER OF PROCESSION WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:
Norwich Brass Band.
Military
Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council
Civil Authorities of the Town of Norwich
Fire Department
Committee of Arrangements
Reverend Clergy
Norwich Washington Total Abstinent Society
Washington Societies from neighboring towns
Temperance Societies of the Town and City of Norwich.
Friends of Temperance, and Citizens generally.
The Cold Water Army.
From Franklin Square the Procession will move onto Shetucket street, into Water Street, passing west through Water Street, will enter Main Street, pass through Main Street, into Union street to the “Park” or Little Plain.
At the Park the procession will halt for three-quarters of an hour, where there will be a GENERAL MEETING, at which a few short Addresses will be delivered. A portion of the Park will be expressly reserved for the ladies and children.
After the exercises at the “Park” are closed, the procession will move up Broadway, through Broad Street into Washington Street, and passing down Washington Street, will enter Church Street. As the procession moves through Church Street , the Cold Water Army will file off and enter Rev. Mr. Bond’s Church, where A MEETING OF THE COLD-WATER ARMY will be held. This meeting is designed for the Cold Water and Sabbath Schools. The teachers and all members of all neighboring Sabbath Schools are requested to attend this meeting. Several interesting addresses to the children may be expected.
From Church Street the procession will move down Union street to the new Baptist Church where a meeting of the WASHINGTONIANS will be held. Addresses from Mr. Nagle a member of the New York City Howard Auxiliary Washingtonian society, and from others will be delivered at this meeting.
The doors of the Baptist and Congregational churches will not be opened until the meeting in the Park is over, and the procession has commenced moving up Broadway.
Ladies and children from the Park will have ample time to reach either of the churches before the arrival of the procession.
All the friends of temperance are requested to join in the procession.
No gentlemen admitted into either of the churches until after arrival and entrance of the procession.
H.D. Ripley,
Chas. Clark, } Executive Committee
E. R. May,
J.D. Thatcher,
The greatest difference between then and today is that then, the more people in the parade the merrier. The Cold Water Society and the Sabbath Schools were children’s groups against alcohol and the Sabbath schools were early public education. Today parade organizers are tireless in their effort to find reasons to exclude groups, organizations and people. If you want to see parades like they used to be, back in the day, then it is up to you, to take on the responsibilities and to create the vision you wish to see. It’s not only about the costs and the insurance; it’s about taking the time, making the effort, being accepting and being encouraging to others. It is your choice to be a part of the solution to make Norwich a better place.
Ruggles Courtyard Completion
Norwich, Ct has a difficult time completing projects. For example, in 2011 the lower level courtyard of the city hall was named for abolitionist David Ruggles who spent most of his childhood in the Yantic portion of Norwich before moving on to New York City and later making a home and opening a business in Florence, Massachusetts. The Connecticut Department of Culture and Tourism has even had enough time to add the site to its Freedom Trail brochure. You know that did not happen overnight. There have been numerous ceremonies and dedications for everything from the grass used in the landscaping, to the engraved bricks, numerous plaques, a bell, everything but the plaque that was designated as the final plaque because it would mean that the project is complete and the committee can be disbursed.
For a reason I simply cannot fathom, the chairpersons of committees of Norwich, Connecticut do not like to see things through and celebrate their completion. For this committee, there is one last, final plaque to be made, placed and dedicated before the left over funds are returned to the city coffers, the members of the committee publicly thanked and all are released from their duties to move on to other community service. One last opportunity to invite representatives from the David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History and Underground Railroad Studies, 225 Nonotuck St, Northampton, MA 01062 to visit and participate in a ceremony honoring the childhood home of David Ruggles.
September is Freedom Trail month and I cannot imagine a more perfect month to complete this project and move on to the next project. Maybe we need to put time limits on projects? Maybe it is time to make a rule that the purpose and progress of every city project be revisited and reevaluated every five years. Please, can we have an end to unending projects and committees that continue without purpose for generations?
Even in 1895 gossipy news traveled quickly and far. It was not always from Norwich papers that the gossip originated but from other publications such as this tidbit from the August 16, 1895 Yale expositor (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.).
THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORER
Mental Failure the Probable Cause of Her Disappearance
She Avers That She Cannot Return to Her Home In Nebraska—She Seems to Be Sane
NORWICH, Conn., Aug. 7.—Mrs. Annie M. Gardner of Arcadia, Neb., the Christian endeavor delegate who so mysteriously disappeared and whose husband received a letter announcing her death, has been found. She is living at the home of a family living in Norwich Town Green, a suburb of this city. She has been there since July 28, and was discovered last evening. J. W. Landers, who came from Arcadia to-discover her whereabouts and to take the body home, was taken into the presence of Mrs. Gardner and the interview, which lasted a long time, was most affecting. Mrs. Gardner would not admit her identity at first and sat before Lander, who has known her for years, for a long time with an indifferent air, while he told her of her children and broken hearted husband in Nebraska. Finally the woman broke down and tears rolled down her cheeks. Mr. Landers telegraphed to Mr. Gardner, who will start for Norwich at once. Mrs. Gardner, who has been passing under the name of Dorothy Manstield, refuses to return to Nebraska. She says she can never return to her home. The woman to all appearances is sane, but there is something about her actions which it is hard to explain. It is thought she is temporarily demented.
So then what happened? Why could she not go home to Nebraska? Had something happened to her there? Did something happen in Boston? Did something happen at the Christian Endeavourer convention? Why did she take the name Dorothy Mansfield? I have so many questions! And just like the gossipy rags of today I can’t find any follow-up articles that answer my questions.
I wonder if there is a family genealogist somewhere who has a great story hiding in newspapers but is only looking for dates of births and deaths and not the stories of the lives of their ancestors. More and more newspapers and magazines are digitizing their past editions. Keep checking as you never know who or how someone may appear.
Does anyone know the rest of the story of the “Canada Bridge”? The “Canada Bridge” is the short span bridge from Sherman Street to Asylum Street. One story I heard claimed the original wood bridge was constructed by a Canadian firm and another story claimed that all the workers were Canadian and earning money to return home to Canada but I have not found any documentation for the first bridge or any subsequent bridge until a replacement bridge was built in 1954/1955.
In 1954 the bridge was found to be in great disrepair and dangerous enough that it was given priority of state aid funds so work could begin immediately for the safety of the Norwich population
In the Norwich Bulletin of July 27, 1955 is a photograph of the historic cutting of the green ribbon marking the opening of the new bridge. The ribbon was green instead of the usual white at the request of the City Council President Jeremiah E. Sweeney and was held taut by Alderman Mrs. Ethel V. McWilliams and the other City Council members.
All the dignitaries of the day were given the opportunity to say a few words before Officer Darr was given the signal to safely cross the bridge and members of the neighborhood gathered to cheer Mrs. Stella Zagorski of 416 Asylum Street as the first Norwich resident to use the bridge. Mrs. Zagorski was followed by a Post Office Truck and then a host of residents who found great joy in being among the first to cross over the new bridge. Local business people were also very vocal in their hopes that their interrupted business traffic could return to normal.
Anyone interested in the Civil War of the United States? Breaking the law has always been considered serious but sometimes it does require bending and the shortest answer to a question can be the most effective. From our own newspaper of October 6, 1858. “FUGITIVE SLAVE IN NEW LONDON. – We understand there was a sudden stirring breeze of excitement in New London yesterday. A coasting vessel, owned in New London or Groton arrived in port with a fugitive slave on board – said slave having smuggled himself with a jug of water and a ham on board the schooner, as she lay at the wharf of one of the North Carolina ports. He continued to “lie low and keep dark” until the vessel was far on her voyage home. The captain could not, of course, afford to put back all the way to North Carolina for the purpose of restoring the fugacious chattel. He did the next best thing, however – he arrested the runaway, not by due process of law, but upon his own responsibility, conducted him to the Custom House, and delivered him into the charge and safe keeping of Collector Mather to be sent on board the Revenue Cutter.
News of what had been done soon got into the street. State Attorney Willey was forthwith impressed into drawing up a writ of habeas corpus to be used if the occasion required, while Judge Brandegee and Doctor Miner started for the Custom House. They found the Custom Collector and his sable companion sitting very quietly and peaceably together in improving social converse. The Judge asked the Collector if he held the colored gentleman by any legal authority? The Collector said, “No.” Then cut and run, said the Doctor. And cut and run he did, drawing a beeline for Canada. The last heard from him, he was going a 2:40 pace through the neighboring town of Salem. Meanwhile Collector Mather, by way of saving the Union and his collectorship, got out a handbill, offering a reward of $50 for apprehension and return of the ungrateful chattel. We have not heard that there was found any hound in New London mean enough to follow on the fugitive’s track, even for fifty pieces of silver.”
Have you heard the tale of the USS Norwich? Neither had I. From the Naval Historical Center I learned the USS Norwich was a 431-ton gunboat built in Norwich, Connecticut in 1861 as a wooden-hulled civilian steamship. It was purchased by the U.S. Navy in September 1861, and refitted as a warship and assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off the Georgia and Florida coast.
Fort Pulaski is located on Cockspur Island between Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia. The fort was built in the old style of thick brick and mortar for protection and then the tale is told.
“It was cool morning air greeting the men on either side of the sound on the morning of April 11, 1862. The Norwich, a U.S. gunboat with artillery mounted on a barge in Tybee Creek joined the battle already raging. By noon the walls of Fort Pulaski had been breached in two places and Union forces were preparing to launch an assault. Gillmore, breveted to a brigadier general, ordered the artillery fire to concentrate on the remaining parapets to reduce the Rebel’s ability to withstand a direct assault. Now shells were passing through the breach and striking the north magazine where 40,000 pounds of powder were stored. Colonel Olmstead ordered the Confederate flag lowered at 2:30pm, and then raised the white flag of surrender. Gillmore demanded an unconditional surrender. Olmstead had no other options. “
New technology was proving its use during the Civil War. The Union army had used cannon rifles and compelled the Confederate garrison inside Fort Pulaski to surrender. The siege was a landmark experiment in the history of military science and invention.
The USS Norwich continued to perform blockade duty along the coast and in the rivers of Florida and Georgia through the end of the Civil War. She was decommissioned in Philadelphia in June 1865 and was sold there and used as a merchant ship until she was lost at sea on February 17, 1873.
My odd sense of humor just found a new amusement level. My sense of humor wants to go on a road trip to visit and document visits to all of the places named Norwich and then return home to tell people I had just been on vacation to Norwich. Seriously, taking trips to all the places named could take a while.
The original Norwich, located in the United Kingdom (UK) was a town of substance by 1086 and home to commercial woolen mills and leather tanneries. In 2016 it remains a large, sophisticated and bustling city and so it should be visited either first or last as the visitor prefers.
Easiest to visit is our own Norwich, New London County, Connecticut that was settled in 1659 and with some adjustments of borders, politics and incorporation was named in honor of Norwich, UK.
The rest should be visited in any order convenient and documented by story or photograph.
On Long Island is the tiny hamlet of East Norwich in Oyster Bay, New York. The first deed reference as Norwich was in 1696.
East Norwich is separate from Norwich and North Norwich both located in Chenango County, New York.
Norwich, Windsor County, Vermont was chartered in 1761 had an additional “h” that was later dropped.
Norwich, Ontario, Canada was settled in 1793 by United Empire Loyalists Abraham Canfield and Peter DeLong from Connecticut.
Norwich, Muskingum County, Ohio was plotted in 1813, ten years after Ohio became a state.
Norwich Township, Franklin County, Ohio was founded in 1813 by Norwich native, Thomas Backus and is now part of Columbus, Ohio.
Norwich Township, Huron County, Ohio was founded in 1827 and proudly states it was named after Norwich, Connecticut.
Norwich Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania was established in 1815 with the following attribution from the Painted Hills Genealogy Society, “One of the chief early migrations to the new county was in October of 1815 when fifteen families from Norwich, Connecticut came to the Potato creek valley and settled in and near Colegrove. The heads of families that led this migration were: Abbey, Brewer, Burdick, Burlingame, Colegrove, Comes, Gallup, Irons, Smith and Wolcott.”
Norwich Park is an 11 acre open space area and settled community in Roanoke Virginia founded around 1825.
March 5, 1855, by order of the Court of Massachusetts Bay, is the incorporation date of Huntington, Massachusetts. It was named in honor of Attorney and municipal architect Charles Huntington who designed the new town and solved territorial confusion by piecing together the towns of Norwich, Murrayfield and Knightsville as well as two Massachusetts counties and solved jurisdictional confusion issues for the expanding rail road industry of the 1840’s. The original town of Norwich, Massachusetts was incorporated in 1793 after Reverend Stephen Tracy had settled there in 1781.
The town site for Norwich, Kansas was in the area of the Osage Indian Trust Lands and was purchased from William Willhower and James Skillen with the first lots being sold on July 2nd, 1885. The city was named after Norwich, Connecticut with its rich railroad and Indian heritage.
Norwich, North Dakota is an unincorporated township in McHenry County in the Minot metro area since 1901 and was named for Norwich, UK. The name was chosen to please the stockholders of the Great Northern Railway.
Norwich Township of Newaygo County Michigan has a mailing address in Big Rapids, Michigan and Norwich Township of Missaukee County Michigan has a mailing address in Moorestown, Michigan.
The Norwich Mine for copper was in Ontonagon County Michigan.
A portion of Brunswick, Georgia is also named Norwich.
Did I miss any? Probably. Let’s go find them!
I could not be more pleased that we as a city and a nation are paying tribute to the men and women who served in the armed forces in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and everything in between. I am a daughter of a World War II veteran. The men he served with and their families I remain in contact with to this day. Some have passed but the connections, the memories and the stories remain. Some of the stories break your heart. Some make you angry. Some make you laugh.
Laughing is part of survival. More than anything else, finding humor, even dark humor and a cause for laughter will get most of us through our most challenging periods. When the British government banned the import of bananas during World War II and subsequent periods of rationing; shop owners put up signs saying “Yes, we have no bananas.” The wording caused people to smile and to hear the popular phrase and tune in their heads whether they wanted to or not! This was one of the precursors of the dreaded television commercial tunes.
Today many of our song lyrics recite words I am not proud to hear or to sing along to although the tune may be pleasant. Somehow I cannot imagine them becoming catchy children’s songs or being used to make political statements about embargoes such as Yes! We Have No Bananas from the 1923 review by Frank Silver/Irving Cohn will live on forever. There are more verses but this is the first and most well known and is substantially longer than the seven lines we sang. Thank you Merry-Annetta for the news and the memory.
There’s a fruit store on our street
It’s run by a Greek.
And he keeps good things to eat
But you should hear him speak!
When you ask him anything, he never answers “no”.
He just “yes”es you to death, and as he takes your dough
He tells you
“Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today.
We’ve string beans, and onions
Cabbages, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned to-mah-to
A Long Island po-tah-to
But yes, we have no bananas.
We have no bananas today.”
Dear Candidates for Public Office,
Thank you for your willingness to serve and represent your fellow local, state and federal residents, citizens and non-citizens too in public office. For most public offices there are no minimum or maximum age requirements. No education demand. People expect you to be clean, dress nicely and to speak well. For some offices you may need to live within a certain boundary but the specifics beyond that are up to you and your family. You are pretty much free to do what you want, how you want and when you want. Many office holders wear flag pins of the United States, their state or an emblem of their community. Their families may or may not choose to do so.
But for some services to our country there are age requirements and restrictions, rules of dress and deportment, regulations to follow about where you live, how you live and even what you eat, the exercises you perform and how much you weigh.
With a parents or guardians permission you can enter the military at age 17 or as an 18 year old adult even if the drinking age is 21. The expectations of the military take over all aspects of the individuals life and family. Where they live, what they do, holidays, vacations, birthdays, celebrations and sorrows may be missed, and lengthy unexplained absences are not unusual.
The family of an active member of the Armed Forces serving during any period of war or hostilities in which the Armed Forces of the United States are at the time engaged is entitled to wear or display a pin, flag or banner of a white field, with a red border and a blue star for each family member in current service. The family of an elected official, not on current active military duty, is not entitled to a blue star.
The Silver Star is the United States Armed Forces award for gallantry in action. It can only be earned by a member of the Armed Forces while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflicts with an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United states is not a belligerent party.
The actions meriting the Silver Star are above those required for all other U.S. combat decorations but do not merit the award of the Medal of Honor or a Service Cross. The Silver Star is not just a piece of jewelry.
When a member of the military is killed while actively serving in the United States armed forces the spouse, parent, child or sibling is entitled to wear a Gold Star pin. The symbol came into use during World War II with the creation of the service flags displayed to show a family had a son in the service (a blue star) if a son died while in the service, the flag was altered with a gold star, almost covering the blue star so all would be aware of the sacrifice of the family. Mothers of slain servicemen became identified as gold star mothers and the term continues in more generic use of the family today. A gold star pin is also not just a piece of jewelry.
The price for what I have described above was not paid with green bills, a plastic card or on an expense account. The stars cannot be purchased on a whim from a catalog. The price of the stars is in fact paid for in blood, sweat and tears. Learn, know, understand and acknowledge the sacrifice and demonstrate your gratitude without equating it to your missing a lunch or one of your child’s school programs. The costs are not equal.
When a business or a municipality or a state is short of money does not mean that all efforts to let people know it’s alive stop. “Never say die until you are dead.” So come on leaders of Norwich, CT let’s begin seeing some activity.
What? Why aren’t you moving? Taking an action? Doing something? You, our trusted and worshipped leaders of Norwich are frozen in fear? Perplexed as to what to do because the taxpayers don’t want to fund another plan they don’t trust or take out another loan in the form of a municipal bond and see it go to waste.
Let’s create an understanding of terms so that a plan can be developed.
Advertising is the first thing people think about but it’s really the last thing to be developed as it is the most expensive.
Advertising is the production of advertisements for commercial products or services. Without a specific activity in mind, you should not purchase advertisements. So let’s set that aside.
Campaigns are a great tool. A campaign is an organized course of action to achieve a particular goal. Campaigns take discussion, planning and involvement. Campaigns are created by the talkers with huge ideas that are examined and discussed and argued about until a series of smaller goals is developed and can be implemented. Advertising may be found in the later parts of a campaign. On a personal note I enjoy the synonyms of campaign, or crusade, fight, battle, push, press, struggle, or lobby.
Fortunately not everyone enjoys the same bits of a campaign. Marketing is the action and business of promoting, advertising and selling products and services. It also includes doing the research to discover what the market is looking for or willing to accept. The market consists of the buyers. Buyers are those willing to participate or exchange for goods and services.
Marketing will be a part on many levels of your campaign as it encompasses the research in the beginning to make you sure you have a product that will be wanted by the buyers at the end.
Promotion is where you as municipal leaders, officials, and concerned residents and business people are the most valuable. Promotion is defined as the activity that supports or provides the active encouragement, advocacy, advancement, aid, help, boost for the furtherance of a cause, venture or aim. No money or very little money is involved. Promotion is presenting a positive and united front toward the best goal that can be imagined. It is not saying that all things are perfect or the best or appropriate or brilliant. But it is being willing to say “let’s try it,” or “I need to step away because I am not confident of this program.” Promotion is writing letters, making phone calls and checking out and taking advantage of every program that is working or not working in a place similar to Norwich. It is writing and placing articles in newspapers, magazines, on-line and inviting radio and television to use the natural resources available for their programs, promotions and advertisements.
It is time to unfreeze and to take action. I expect to see promotions for and about the City of Norwich soon. Don’t hesitate to call me with any questions or concerns or inquiries of what kinds of promotions can be done. Together, we can make Norwich a better place.
In the July 13, 1958 Norwich Bulletin was an article written by Mrs. Albert H. Chase discussing the gift of thirteen account books of John Bliss given to the Society of the Founders of Norwich, CT by Miss Edith Bliss. The books currently reside in the collections vault of the Leffingwell House Museum.
The extensive article discusses the contents of the account books in wonderful detail. Mrs. Chase quotes Miss Perkins in her Old Houses of Norwich about a model of a bridge designed by John Bliss and known as the “Geometry Bridge.” Mrs. Chase even tells where to find another newspaper article in the June 20, 1764 edition which included some amazing details we do not see in articles today. “Leffingwell’s bridge over the Shetucket river at Norwich Landing is completed. It is 124 feet in length, and 28 feet above the water. Nothing is placed between the abutments, but the bridge is supported bt Geometry work above, and calculated to bear a weight of 500 tons. The work is by Mr. John Bliss, one of the most curious mechanics of the age. The bridge was raised in two days, and no one was hurt. The former bridge was 28 days in the raising.”
A model of the geometry bridge can be seen by special request at the Faith Trumbull Chapter House of the Daughters of the American Revolution on Rockwell Street.
Don’t you think it would be an amazing exhibit to see the account book and the model together on display? Of course that would mean two local history organizations would have to work together in possibly a third neutral location. Also the account books portion detailing the bridge expenses and calculations would have to be transcribed to modern font from the beautiful flowing handwritten script. Perhaps a member or a few of the Norwich Historical Society could be entrusted with this? Or a member of the Society of the Founders? Or one of the myriad of history teachers, experts or consultants could supervise some students in the handling and transcription of a primary source document. This has the potential of the perfect teachable moment; the bringing to light a new, untapped and unexploited primary source document. The stuff of an historian’s dreams!
Perhaps with sufficient time one of the technology programs could duplicate the “Geometry Bridge” or build a model of the same approximate scale of the modern bridge at Laurel Hill which now spans the Shetucket River at that location.
Norwich native, Samuel Chester Reid has a plaque on a rock in his honor on Chelsea Parade. But when was the last time you heard this tale of his exploits told in Norwich?
Samuel Chester Reid was born in 1783, son of John Reid, a Scottish lieutenant in the Royal Navy who was captured in an expedition against New London, Conn., in 1780, and paroled to Judge Chester of Norwich. He married the judge’s daughter, Rebecca. Their son Samuel Chester Reid became a powder monkey in the U. S. Navy and by the War of 1812 he was made captain of the privateer, GENERAL ARMSTRONG. In September of 1814 through his leadership skills he escaped from the New York harbor during light winds by pumping water on the sails and convincing his crew to tow the ship by rowboats past the British ships. His ship was then pursued by the British squadron across the open Atlantic Ocean. On the afternoon of September 26, 1814 he entered the harbor at Fayal in the Azores. A squadron of three British ships arrived soon afterwards, with 136 guns and 2,000 men. The GENERAL ARMSTRONG had seven small guns and 90 men. In the evening the British attacked with four smaller boats and were beaten off. Later, at midnight, fourteen boats with cannonades and 600 men attacked the Americans again. The British succeeded in boarding the GENERAL ARMSTRONG after heavy losses from cannon fire. In hand-to-hand combat with the courageous crew the British were repelled with many dead and wounded. Reid dueled and killed the British leader with his cutlass. Reid moved all of his guns to one side of his ship by cutting new gun ports during the night in anticipation of further attacks. With the light of dawn the 18-gun CARNATION came in and received a withering fire from the ARMSTRONG, taking so much punishment that she left the battle. As the larger British ship PLANTAGENET with 74 guns began moving in for the kill, Reid scuttled his ship.
On the next day Captain Reid was invited to tea with the surviving British officers at the British Consulate. Reid accepted, ignoring the possibility of a trap. He was cheered and welcomed by the British officers as a brave and resourceful foe. General Andrew Jackson later told Capt. Reid that “If there had been no Battle of Fayal, there would have been no Battle of New Orleans.” Reid had delayed the British expedition against New Orleans for ten days allowing Jackson to arrive there earlier. Thus, Louisiana and the Northwest Territory might now be British if Reid had not engaged them in what has been called one of the world’s most decisive naval battles. Capt. Reid received many honors and was a popular naval hero.
Chickens are the latest pet craze in Norwich, CT. There were a few roaming in the business park, a few are kept in a lovely coop on a side-street in Taftville, there are three brave and hardy hens in the downtown area too. At least they appear to my untrained eye to be hens and not roosters but I probably should not speculate. Keeping two or three or six chickens in at least one neighborhood yard seems to be becoming the norm. The hens help keep the bug population down and the eggs are handy for Sunday breakfast.
For many years there were no chickens to be found roaming the lawns or being kept in small coops, but in 1853 Norwich, the chickens were wandering and pecking everywhere and finding especially tasty were the plants in the neighbors garden. The chickens were quite certain the gardens were planted just for them. So after much attempted reasoning with the neighbors and the chickens the following was printed in the Norwich Courier as fair warning and notice to all on April 27, 1853.
“The Hen Law. – The following is proposed as the proper treatment of hens when found in your garden;
1st On the appearance of hens in your garden, give the owner of the hens notice.
2nd On their second appearance, kill them, and throw the bodies over the fence of the owner.
3rd On all subsequent appearance of hens, throughout the season, kill and eat them! “
I am unaware of any chickens being kept in my neighborhood because we have cats who hunt and on occasion bring birds home as gifts and only one of the neighbors dogs has a reputation for escape and hunting something. Usually he comes home with a tree limb or a lost stuffed animal. No one has claimed either from the collection. At the moment the bugs in the area are under the care of our birds, at least one woodchuck, brown rabbit, numerous squirrels and a few skunks that have made friends with the neighborhood cats.
People are funny. We all see the same things in such different ways. In my blogs I have written about the USS Norwich, The Miantonomoh, Yantic and Shetucket ships. Please read my past blogs to learn more about them. Most of them had at least one but some had many magnificent adventures. The Navy has many of their logs, histories and photos available because these ships are so old there are no more secrets that have not been told.
So let’s stop keeping these huge bits of history secret and start being loud and proud of who we are that encouraged the Navy to name ships after who and what we hold dear in the City of Norwich, CT.
Each of the three rivers in the City of Norwich, CT has some kind of a green, grassy, park somewhere along its lengthy border. Does anyone besides me, think it would be a great teaching moment if on the grass by the edge of the Yantic River, is a small replica of the U.S. Yantic just large enough to climbed upon and commanded by an ever inquiring mind. Nearby or mounted to its deck or hull is its tale, a tribute to its commanders or its crew. Or perhaps it will be the U.S.S. Shetucket on its very own shore. By the Thames River could be a replica of the Miantonomoh, forever keeping a watch for its namesake or maybe it’s the USS Norwich standing proudly to the city that shares its name.
Maybe the future of Norwich, CT is to focus on the positive contributions it has made to this country or at least beyond its own city limits and to stop wallowing in self-pity, finding targets to blame (because it’s obviously not our fault) crumbling architecture, failing neighborhoods, and lack of jobs. Maybe it is time we put on our adult drawers and our boots and stopped waiting for someone else or our selected or elected leaders to do something. I would like this small project to be a starting point. Let’s put the ships of Norwich, Ct back on its shores. Let’s encourage our youth to climb aboard and learn how to face storms, and work together. You know that together we can build a new and better Norwich, CT. One project and one day at a time.
Re-printing articles from the past is not a revolutionary new idea. Reprints allow new generations to look at old information with new eyes, viewpoints, information, technology and influences. Reprints allow the examination of details frequently ignored in the history books and not presented in the movies we now consider perfect representations of the time periods. Sometimes the information spread widely in the newspapers of the time confuses the modern reader because it is in an unexpected format or presented in a way different than what is expected. For example, the following was taken from the Norwich Courier of March 2, 1859.
“NOW AND THEN. – The following extract will be of interest to those who are engaged in contributing to the necessities of the Union troops. In these days of national trial, many of the scenes of our Revolutionary War are being re-enacted, to be recorded, perhaps, in our history as evidences that the spirit which animated our fathers in the first great struggle for liberty still breathed in their descendants in the war of 1861:
Norwich, January 1st, 1778.
Last Sabbath there was a contribution in the several parishes in the town for the non-commissioned officers and soldiers in the Continental army that belong here, when there was collected 346 pair of stockings, 227 pair of shoes, 118 shirts, 78 jackets, 48 pair of breeches, 9 coats, 22 rifle frocks, 19 handkerchiefs, and 258 pounds in money all of which is forwarded on to the army; also a quantity of pork, cheese, wheat, rye, Indian Corn, sugar, rice, flour, wood, etc., which it was engaged to receive and distribute the same to needy families of the officers and soldiers. The whole value of this donation, at a low estimate, will exceed £1,400. – Barber’s Historical Collections.”
There have been many stories written of the horrendous Alms House fire on March 12, 1876. When at somewhere close to 2 a.m. the screams of sixteen mental patients locked in their rooms of the isolated building and unable to escape echoed in minds and hearts of Norwich residents long after their charred remains were removed to rest in the cool earth and unmarked graves behind the hill. Buried in the hill behind the Dog Park on Asylum Street in Norwich, CT with well over 100 other souls who also died penniless, alone, without friends or family or loved ones to mark their graves for future generations. Although holding fast to the tradition of Norwich, CT there is a single rock with a plaque that tells a part of their story.
But those sixteen were not the first innocent victims of the Norwich Alms House. It was reported in the Norwich newspaper of July 19, 1858 with the heading SERIOUS ACCIDENT.
“A bad accident occurred at the Almshouse building, now in the process of erection, yesterday afternoon, soon after dinner.
The staging of the third story suddenly gave way, eleven or twelve men being on it at the time. Six of the men were precipitated a distance of 30 feet to the ground – the others saved themselves by clinging to the uprights or retreating to portions of the staging which had not given way.
Of the six who fell to the ground, four or five were seriously, and some of them, it is portended, dangerously, hurt.
B.F Chappell, bricklayer, of New London, internal injuries.
Edward Moore, bricklayer, New London, badly bruised but no broken bones.
John Johnson, bricklayer, Norwich, badly injured internally, and face badly cut and bruised.
Oliver Ferrall, mason tender, badly injured internally.
John Larry, mason tender, leg broken and otherwise injured.
Michael Ryan, mason tender, leg broken and badly bruised.
The accident is said to have resulted from the fact that an unusual number of men, with mortar and brick, happened, at the moment, to be on the portion of the staging which gave way. We cannot, however, accept this as a sufficient defense against censure! The scaffolding was too slightly built: and a heavy responsibility rests upon those whose business it was to guard well against the possibility of such a disaster.”
I am always on the lookout for great Norwich, CT stories that were carried by other newspapers across the nation. What a grand and advanced city we must have sounded like. Here is one from the September 13, 1895 Marshall County Independent.
“Peculiar Accident that Befell a Trolley Car in Norwich, Conn. The latest prank performed by Nutmeg Lightning was starting Motorman Harlow Ladd’s trolley car at Norwich, Conn., and whizzing it ten rods along the track without any help from the rumbling dynamos that were grinding out refined electricity in the company’s works, half a mile away. Harlow had reached the end of the Greenville route, switched the electric current from the motor, and. brass handle-bars in hand, then stepped across the street upon the sidewalk. The trolley was still connected with the wire, light overhead a big, round thunder cloud, black and threatening, spun slowly about, portentous with muttering thunder. The rest of the firmament was serene and blue, unsullied by a patch of vapor. Suddenly the frowning cloud mass was riven by a zigzag shaft of glittering flame that was shot straight downward against the car motor and made it ring like a bronze bell smitten with a hammer. The report, said Motorman Ladd, was far louder and stronger than a pistol shot. Then, with surprise amounting almost to awe. the motorman beheld his car, Impelled by crude electricity from the clouds, shoot forward eight or ten rods along the track. It did not move very rapidly, and by running he overtook and boarded it just before it came to a halt on the rather stiff grade. In the opinion of motormen and other street railroad operatives, the thunderbolt, heavily charged with electricity, acted on this car motor momentarily in precisely the same way as the regular electric current from the company’s works. In the same storm a trolley car operated by Motorman Ed Ladd, a cousin of Harlow’s, was touched up in a similar way on Franklin square, in Norwich. The car was in motion at the time. A long, zigzag tongue of flame was shot like a javelin straight through the open car. Luckily there were no passengers aboard. Conductor John Cousins, who was on the rear platform and had his hand on the brass railing, received a considerable shock. Motorman Ladd was still more severely shocked. Most of the bolt went into the platform switchbox with a ringing report.”.
I read an article on Facebook about a new organization in Maine that was working on re-introducing native and indigenous plants to Maine thinking how cool this would be for Norwich, CT. Then I returned to my scrolling and promptly lost the original blurb. So I decided to look up the terms I could recall being mentioned but I am certain there are more and better definitions than the ones I paraphrased from the United States Department of Agriculture. Then all the citizens of Norwich, CT need to do is convince the forestry, naturalists and gardening leaders of Norwich, CT to consult with the Connecticut Botanical Society, http://www.ct-botanical-societyorg/ whose President, Glenn Dreyer, just happens to be the Charles & Sarah P. Becker ’27 Director, of the Arboretum and Adjunct Associate Professor of Botany at Connecticut College in New London, (860.439.2144 glenn.dreyer@conncoll.edu) about what we can do to improve the native growth in Norwich. I think it is a great opportunity for Chelsea Gardens to re-establish the educational connection they once had. Perhaps develop a native plant growth area and trail on a portion of the now cleared area of Mohegan Park. Maybe work with the Mohegan Park Advisory Board, Departments of Parks and Recreation, and Public Works to create a native plant open space plan while working on raising the millions of dollars they need for their buildings and restaurant. Just thinking out loud…
Native Plant – A plant that is a part of the balance of nature that has developed over hundreds or thousands of years in a particular region or ecosystem. Only plants found in this country before European settlement are considered to be native to the United States.
Non-Native Plant or Exotic Plant- A plant introduced with human help (intentionally or accidentally) to a new place or new type of habitat where it was not previously found. Note: Not all non-native plants are invasive.
Invasive Plant – A plant that is both non-native and able to establish on many sites, grow quickly, and spread to the point of disrupting plant communities or ecosystems.
Naturalized Plant – A non-native plant that does not need human help to reproduce and maintain itself over time in an area where it is not native and is not invasive.
Translocated Plant – A plant not native to the portion of the continent where it is now found. (California Poppies in New England are an example of a translocated species.)
Opportunistic Native Plant – A native plant that is able to take advantage of disturbance to the soil or existing vegetation to spread quickly and out-compete the other plants on the disturbed site.
Weed – A weed is a plant (native or non-native) that is not valued in the place where it is growing.
Noxious Weed – Any plant or plant product that can directly or indirectly injure or cause damage to crops (including nursery stock or plant products), livestock, poultry or other interests of agriculture, irrigation, navigation, the natural resources of the United States, the public health, or the environment.
We have all uttered the words, “I can’t wait for election season to be over.” “I can’t stand the choices so I am not going to vote.” “My vote doesn’t count.” I can’t wait for the election season to be over either and I am not pleased with the candidate options but not voting; is not an option for me. I cannot be everywhere, at every meeting, in every room with every decision maker that is making a decision that may affect my life or my loved ones’ lives in some way, shape or form. So I vote and participate in my community how and where I can and hope you will too.
The huge numbers of soldiers away from home during the Civil War [April 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865.] created the first need for absentee voting. Some states appointed election officials in various camps and held elections on designated days. Other states had soldiers mark ballots and mail them home, a lot like the absentee ballots of today. But after the war, the states allowed the voting laws to expire until World War II. Then for the first time, the United States Congress got involved and passed laws that encouraged states to permit service personnel to request ballots and to vote while stationed overseas.
But it took until 1986 for Congress to pass the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) to clarify the rules and until 2009 for the Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment (MOVE) Act that required States to change their election laws to ensure that overseas military personnel could register to vote and request ballots electronically. Additionally, states were required to have ballots ready to mail at least 45 days before an election to ensure enough time to return the ballot to be counted.
It took a while but now it is much easier for Americans away from home, and in combat zones, to vote and for those votes to be counted.
In 1864 times were a little different and in the Norwich Bulletin on August 15, 1864 was this article titled “Vote for the Soldier” “We again urge Union men to see to it that they deposit their votes today for the constitutional Amendment allowing the soldier in the field to vote. No excuse for omitting this duty, derived from the pressure of business, can stand as valid. Let no man attempt to foist upon others the responsibilities of action in this matter. The duty is personal to everyone, and cannot be honorably evaded or shirked. And unless there is a disposition to shake off apathy and go to the polls the amendment will be lost and the soldier will be deprived of his rights. Let the vote be emphatic.”
Most of us recognize the name William Wordsworth as a poet and the author of inspirational sentences such as
“The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
“Come grow old with me. The best is yet to be.” Or
“The music in my heart I bore long after it was heard no more.”
but did you know he was married? I came across this notice of death in the March 2, 1859 edition of the Norwich, CT newspaper.”DEATH OF MRS. WORDSWORTH. – The widow of the poet Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, on Monday night last, the 17th. She had reached beyond the age of fourscore years and passed away after a short illness. She was of so great assistance to her husband in all the works he gave to the public, that she was not an unimportant member of the literary world, though a silent one. Her life was long, and it was as pure, beautiful and useful as the most ardent admirer of English domestic character could imagine. The poet could not have been blessed with a household companion more meet for him; and better still, the poet knew and felt the blessing he possessed in such a companion:
“A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a spirit still, and bright,
With something of angelic light.”
For some years past, Mrs. Wordsworth’s powers of sight had entirely failed her, but she still continued cheerful and “bright,” and full of conversational power as in former days. Quiet as her life was, there were few persons of literary note to whom she was not known, and very general will be the regret for the loss of so excellent a woman. ”
But what was her name? Her singular identity. Not a mention. Not a clue was given in the article.
I know that the cold weather is coming. I can feel it in my bones. I see it in the stores with foods for the holidays and clothing that calls out to be layered. I hear people talking about yarn and patterns for crocheting and knitting. I only know one stitch of each so I can’t really join in the conversation. But I knew I had to share when I read an article in the Norwich Bulletin from 1863 with specific directions for what the Civil War soldiers wanted in their fingered mitten.
The soldiers wanted a mitten to keep their hands warm but they needed a finger free in case they needed to fire their gun. The same pattern is used today so that the index finger is free to press the keys on our cellphones. This is above my skill grade but I would love to see a finished product. So, without further ado I present to you the short article titled “About Mittens. – Directions for a Knit Mitten with a finger. –
Cast on sixty stitches for the wrist seam two and knit two for two and a half inches; knit twice plain.
To form the thumb seam two stitches, widening one between them; knit three inches, widening within the seams every third time till there are sixteen stitches between the seams, then every fourth time till there are twenty-four or twenty-six between the seams.
Take off these stitches and the seam stitches on a thread and cast on twelve stitches for the hand: knit on ten for the hand; knit two inches before narrowing off.
Take up the stitches for the finger, and knit it a little shorter than the hand.
Take up the stitches for the thumb, narrow and stop and bind off four stitches, and knit about two inches before narrowing off. “
I went on a tour with a wonderful guide who kept us interested and entertained with poems and ditties about the local folks past and present. The guide swore that all his stories had at least a grain of truth. So when I ran across these poems I thought how wonderful they would be to be recited on the walking tours that include the Huntington Home.
The illustrated poem “Huntington Home” by Edmund Clarence Stedman, was published in the Century Magazine, June 1894.
HUNTINGTON HOME
LADIES, Ladies Huntington your father served, we know,
As aide-de-camp to Washington you often told us so,
And when you sat you side by side in that ancestral pew,
We knew his ghost sat next door, and very proud of you.
Ladies, Ladies Huntington, like you there are no more:
Nancy, Sarah, Emily, Louise, proud maidens four;
Nancy tall and angular, Louise a rosy dear,
And Emily as fine as lace but just a little sere.
What was it, pray, your life within the mansion grand and old,
Four dormers in its gambrel-roof, their shingles grim with mould?
How dwelt you in your spinsterhood, ye ancient virgins lone,
From infancy to bag-and-muff so resolutely grown?
Each Sunday morning out you drove to Parson Arms’s church,
As straight as if Time had not left you somehow in the Lurch;
And so lived where your grandfather and father lived and died,
Until you sought them one by one and last of all stayed pride.
You knew that with them you would lie in that old burial ground
Where through the name of Huntington on vault and stone is found,
Where Norwichtown’s first infant male, in sixteen-sixty born,
Grave Christopher, still rests beneath his cherub carved forlorn.
There sleep your warlike ancestors, their feet toward the east,
And thus shall face the Judgment Throne when Gabriel’s blast hath ceased.
The frost of years may heave the tomb whereto you were consigned,
And school-boys peer atween the cracks, but you will never mind.
A nearby neighbor of the “Ladies Huntington,” Marian Fitch Loomis wrote a reply published by the Bulletin on February 27, 1895.
Edmund Clarence Stedman! ‘tis not quite kind of you,
To mock the ladies Huntington, your friends and kinsfolk, too.
Is’t for revenge, because when young they took you so to task
For boyish prank and caper wild, or deed you fain would mask?
I trow, Miss Nancy “angular” you hardly then did call,
Or Miss Louise, “a rosy dear,” Miss Sarah “large” or “small.”
Or ever dared to speak to them as “spinsters,” “virgins lone,”
With scoff of “Gabriel’s trumpet” or “the old frost-cracked tombstone.”
What was their life, you ask, within that mansion grand and old?
‘Twas nobler far than most of ours, if but the truth were told,
You quite forget to mention their dignity and worth.
Their many acts of charity, their gentle pride of birth.
Do you forget the sunny smile of Miss Louisa’s face?
Her silvery curls, her quiet mien and fine old fashioned grace?
Have you no fear lest some near day a younger boy than you
May sketch your picture quite a ill as you Miss Emily’s do?
Edmund Clarence Stedman! Forbear and write no more,
Lest the same ghost you place by them should enter at your door,
And, stalking grimly by your side till in despair you die,
Avenge his daughter’s memory, whose fame you dare decry.
A Liberty Pole is a tall wooden pole planted in the ground, sometimes used as a flagpole and may be capped with a Phrygian cap, liberty cap, flag or ensign.
The Phrygian cap is a soft, red, conical cap with the top pulled forward. In
Paintings and caricatures it represents freedom and the pursuit of liberty.
The Liberty Poles became known as a symbol of dissent against Great Britain. They were often raised during the American Revolution by the Sons of Liberty and then regularly destroyed by the British authorities from the repeal of the Stamp Act (1766) until after the Battle of Long Island (1776). When a red flag or ensign was raised on the pole it meant there was going to be a meeting of the Sons of Liberty or a town meeting to discuss issues with British rule.
One hundred years later, Norwich, CT honored the past by installing another Liberty Pole and the following is how it was reported in the paper of the time.
November 18, 1861 That Flagstaff. – For 3 or 4 days past a hole has been in progress of erection on Franklin Square for the reception of that long talked about Liberty Pole and flagstaff. John Brown began it with an attack upon an old tree that stood there aforetime. He followed it up with an incursion upon an obsolete and forgotten well, and pursued it until away down ten feet to “step the pole. There he had a stone laid for a foundation. Then Jem Ritchie boxed up the hole. Then people gathered around at all hours of the day, and looked wisely into the hole and wondered what it was put there for. Then the first half (from the top) of the pole was brought round and more people got together and looked at the pole. And there is where it is now. It is currently reported that the pole will be raised Tuesday.
November 23, 1861 That Liberty Pole, for the purchase of which a subscription paper has been industriously and energetically circulated among our citizens, is in process of manufacture at the yard of Messrs. J.& W. Batty, in Mystic, and will be raised on Franklin Square this week. It will be a handsome ornament to the square and will probably serve for a week or two, as a convenient place for small boys to break their necks. The Mystic Pioneer gives the following elaborate inscription of the pole:
“The main stick is 85 feet long and 25 inches thick in the partners. The topmast is 75 feet long and 14 inches in the cap. The pole will be placed in a deck which will be sunk in the ground. The topmast will be supported by wire rigging. The pole is made of Canada Pine, and is a beautiful piece of timber. A splendid Liberty Cap will be placed on the top, which was made by Campbell & Colby.”
November 28, 1861 Well omened. – On Wednesday morning just as the top most of the new liberty pole was started on its ascent, after the liberty cap had been set in its place, three large bald eagles were seen soaring majestically over the square. A large crowd of citizens who had gathered to witness the raising, observed the birds, and congratulated themselves on the Omen.
Sometimes events do not work out as planned and that is just a part of life. In the August 8, 1855 edition of the Norwich Courier there was great excitement about the Balloon Ascension which was soon to take place and “certain sure” to put everyone “on the tiptoe of expectation.” “It is understood that the event is to come off or going up next week. The ascension will be made from the Parade, in front of General Williams, from which no better spot can be desired. The balloon will be inflated with gas from the Joint Stock Company’s pipes which will be opened for the purpose at the point indicated. The aeronaut is expected to reach this city from Philadelphia today or tomorrow, and we will probably be furnished with more full and definite information in time for our next issue.”
But in the August 15, 1855 edition of the same newspaper ran the following; – THE BALLOON ASCENSION. – We were shown yesterday a letter, just received, from the gentleman who is to make the Balloon Ascension from this city, from which we learn the cause of his delay in reaching Norwich has been an unexpected ascension of his balloon on its own hook.- He was to make an ascension from Waterbury on Friday last. Having inflated his balloon, he left it in charge, for a few moments, of a ”land lubber,” from whom it made its escape straight away mounting sky high it hovered for a time over the city, then sailed gracefully off toward Long Island Sound where it made its descent, and was captured by some wandering sail. The owner at the date of his letter, was in pursuit if the flyaway; and as soon as he could over haul it and repair the damages, he proposed to come and execute his plan for an ascension from Norwich.”
I guess the aeronaut never caught up with his balloon as I have not found another reference for a Balloon Ascension in Norwich, CT in that time period. Or maybe I am just full of hot air!
Norwich CT historians have discovered cemeteries for great places to give tours in Halloween Season. Goodness knows we have enough of them. But if it were up to me the tour of the season would not be in the Old Town cemetery or the Yantic Cemetery. I want a bit of history, a taste of fear, but most of all I want a great story.
The best spooky story for me can be found in a small cemetery that has little care and few visitors. It’s not located where people see it so it is overgrown with weeds and mostly forgotten. It’s the Alms House Cemetery located just behind the Norwich, CT Dog Park. If you don’t know where to go you won’t find it. You have to drive past the city garage and 245 Asylum St home of Mini Melts USA where Allen Shedroff’s Norwich Meat Packing (NORPACO) was for many, many years.
Before, before, before this isolated patch was home to the Alm’s House. It was located on purpose away from the general population. Much has been written about the fire and the poor souls that died because they were locked in their rooms. Their final screams echoing in the wind when the firemen finally arrived. Few friends, loved ones or people cared and they were laid to rest in a corner of the lawn. But did you know the fire was only another instance in a series of not wholly unusual occurrences in the history of the Alms House?
That is the place I want to be to hear aloud the history of the area. I will be able to see in my mind’s eye a building of wood and brick. I will be able to hear the screams for help as the wind caresses my skin and whistles in my ears. The unkempt grass will tug at my feet and ankles as I imagine it to be a resident not understanding he or she is dead and trying to get my attention to tell a family member of their love. Oh yes the story of this tiny cemetery is my choice for spooky, scary tales of the season. Look for two of the stories of the Alms House in past blogs.
In my head while standing in Brown Park, I picture a statue of a man looking out over the turning basin looking down the Thames Estuary. I like to think that it is a statue of Charles F. Chapman (January 4,1881 – March 21, 1976), or “Chappie.” “Chappie” grew up and was educated in Norwich, CT and developed his avid love of water, boats and motors on the local waters. Like so many others, he left Norwich soon after graduating from Norwich Free Academy and earned a degree in marine engineering from Cornell University (class of 1905). Then he became a writer and editor of the Hearst Publication Motor Boating Magazine (1912 – 1968).
In 1914, Chapman and nine others founded the United States Power Squadron. There he regularly served as an officer and Commander. He even designed the symbol or ensign of the organization used on its flag.
In 1916, when the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt (later 32nd President of the United States) looked for someone to write an instruction manual to teach small-boat operation, including landing craft, gigs, and patrol craft to members of the Navy Reserve, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines he looked to Chapman. In three days, Chapman assembled Practical Motor Boat Handling, Seamanship, and Piloting from many of the articles that had appeared in Motor Boating magazine.
Practical Motor Boat Handling, Seamanship, and Piloting has been constantly revised and updated since its first printing in 1917 and even the name has been changed to Piloting, Seamanship & Small Boat Handling but the basic text has remained the same and on September 3, 2013 celebrated its 67th printing. It is the official text book and reference for anyone seeking their boating license in the United States.
Chapman settled in Manhattan and joined the New York Motor Boat Club serving as its Commodore and for 25 years was secretary of the American Power Boat Association and chairman of the association’s racing commission.
While living on Long Island, he was the Commodore of the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club.
But always looking for a new challenge, in 1971, “Chappie” and Glen D. Castle, founded the Chapman School of Seamanship, 4343 S.E. St Lucie Blvd, Stuart, Florida 34997 with a former Coast Guard cutter gifted by Canadian monks. It’s currently an 8 acre campus with a training fleet of 30 vessels minutes from the Intracoastal Waterway, the Atlantic Ocean and less than 90 nautical miles from the Bahamas.
Chapman died at 95 years of age in Essex, Connecticut on March 21, 1976.
His spirit, interests and basic education were developed and honed here in Norwich so that as an adult he could accomplish great things in other places. I look around at the youth in the park today and wonder which of them will use the education they receive here to do great things somewhere in the world tomorrow.
In the October 28, 1842 Norwich Courier ran the following weather prediction article right on the front page. “SQUIRRELS AND A SIGN OF A HARD WINTER. – The Detroit Advertiser says a squirrel hunt took place in that city week before last. The number killed was three thousand three hundred and sixty. – Other papers ran similar notices like wholesale slaughters. The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser states that for some weeks past, the woods in the neighborhood of Fort Eerie, across the river, have literally swarmed with squirrels. Within the past week or two, they have crossed the Niagara to the American side in vast numbers. The width and rapidity of the river prove fatal to many of them, but little armies of them nevertheless succeed in reaching the shore, whence they push off South. On the Allegany River they are so numerous that it has not been deemed worthwhile to waste powder and shot in killing them. Those wishing squirrel pie, stand on the banks of the stream and knock the little “varmint” on the head with a stick, as they swim across. This apparent general emigration of the squirrels to the South is held by the Indians and others knowing in such matters, to be a token of a hard winter [to come].”
For anyone interested in making Squirrel Stew, here is a recipe from a Leffingwell House Museum Fundraiser cookbook and later recipe bookmark collection. The delicious stew has been successfully made with the substitution of cut up chicken breast for the squirrel.
Squirrel Stew
Ingredients:
1 squirrel, cut up (or 1 chicken breast, cut up)
flour
salt and pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
7 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon thyme
1 cup yellow corn
3 potatoes, cubed
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 medium onions, sliced
2 cups canned tomatoes with juice
2 cups lima beans
Directions:
Roll the squirrel pieces in flour, salt, and pepper.
Brown in butter
Add squirrel and all other ingredients, (with the exception of the tomatoes), to the boiling water, cover, and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
Add the vegetables and continue to simmer another hour. Serve hot.
P.S. this is great crock pot soup and I add more vegetables because I like them. OK you have discovered that I am not a really big fan of lima beans so I switch them out for other vegetables or beans I care more for. Wondering what to do with the turkey wings? They are a great substitute for the squirrel too. Depending on your sense of humor, cut up the wings with the bones and tell your family or guests its squirrel and watch their faces. Priceless!
19th Century Norwich, Connecticut residents knew how to party! There were gatherings, dances, banquets and dinners; the bigger the occasion, the more ale, wine and effusive toasts. Being the “toast of the town” was an honor and serious business.
Toasting was so important in Norwich, CT that for many years in the reporting of the event was a listing of many of the toasts. Here are a few of my favorites that can be used today, in no particular order:
From July 1808 –
The Sages in the Council and Heroes in the field who achieved our independence – May America always deserve and have such defenders.
The State of Connecticut – May its steady habits never be corrupted.
The political parties of our country – May they remember they are AMERICANS, not parties of foreign powers.
Arts and Sciences. – May the Sons of genius never want encouragement from their countrymen.
The Youth of America – May they evince the same ardor, in the support of our independence, that their Fathers did in the contest for it.
The Clergy – May they be pious, wise and sincere.
From July 1828
All men in office – While they are supported by the people, may they not forget to protect the equal rights of the people.
The four great sources of wealth – Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures and Mechanic Arts.
To the Orator of the Day – From the past we predict well of the future.
July 1844
The memory of Eli Whitney – The man who first discovered the way to make the best kind of Gin. without one drop of alcohol.
July 1847
The Fire Department of Norwich – In its improved organization, lays the safeguard of our interests.
The Firemen of Norwich – May they whose business it is to pour water upon fire, avoid the fire-water.
Our Common Schools – May they be more common, by being more cherished
July 1852
To the City of Norwich, A perfect Eden of Love, All too beautiful to sin in, But overall and above all, Its charm and its beauteous women.
The Navy – In 1776, a speck upon the worlds horizon; Its sails now whiten every sea.
Our Country – An asylum for the oppressed of all nations, the citadel of Freedom, and the ensampler of Liberty.
The Army – The right arm of our Government
Success to the nations of the earth now struggling to emancipate themselves from religious and political tyranny,
We can unite in thanks to God for the blessings of Peace, Liberty and Independence.
To the kindness and hospitality of our friends of Norwich – May it be remembered as long as the Quinebaug and Shetucket mingle their waters in the Thames. (July 1844)
Happy, healthy and safe holidays to all!.
On the upper left column of the daily Norwich newspaper in the 17 and 1800’s would be a bit of poetry, prose or an ode of some sort. I was unable to discover an author for this “Address to Gluttons” and even the date is an iffy November 26, 1797. I was able to find it in a few other publications though, so for a time it was quite popular. I made no spelling or grammar changes to the article I found.
AN EATING SONG
“What a charming thing’s a dinner.”
Cheer up gluttons, fill your bellies,
Gormandize whole pounds of meat;
Never piddle o’er your jellies.
But substantial viands eat.
Ev’ry waistcoat quick unbutton,
See the enemies advance!
Charge the turkey, beef and mutton,
Point the culinary lance;
Brandish, boys, your knives and forks all,
As you would in war the spear;
Bloat your paunches like a foot-ball,
Eat in grease from ear to ear.
Still let us abhor the motto,
“Pauca verba”[few words] – damping words!
But good roast beef, piping hot, O!
Spread in plenty o’er our boards.
See the sirloin richly smoking.
Mark the gravy how it springs!
Malcontents, forbear your croaking,
By the gods, we feast like kings.
Come, dexterity exert now,
Deep incisions make with speed!
Wipe your chops, look quite alert now,
Whilst on such strong fare we feed.
Lord! How hot the battle rages!
Conquest desolates the plains:
What? Our appetite assuages!
Let us drink – and eat again.
From the store house – brisk and mellow,
See the brown October fly –
Through the spacious hall we’ll bellow,
“Here’s success to Liberty.”
Whilst we’re gorging without measure,
Hear our greasy chairman cry –
Eating is sublimest pleasure,
“Whilst we eat – we’ll never die.”
Enjoy a safe, happy, and filling Thanksgiving!
On December 22, 1853 the Norwich Weekly Courier printed a lengthy article on Forefather’s Day. I was immediately confused as the date was past Thanksgiving and so very close to Christmas not to mention that is was completely off from the 4th of July.
The writer of the article was of the firm opinion that “It is a pity a little more enthusiasm for the historical antiquities of our country could not be cultivated among us.” There was mention of a celebration of the forefathers on the battleground in Groton the previous fall and the addresses delivered year to year by the most distinguished orators of the country being “rung like a watchword through the land;” and notes made of the “historical antiquities and curious relics to be found still existing at Plymouth.”
So I consulted the internet to learn that the first celebration of Forefather’s Day was on December 22, 1769. The December date chosen as homage to the time of the pilgrims arrival and welcome in “New England and stepping foot on Plymouth Rock” after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower in 1620. In 1802 John Quincy Adams made it a political event by delivering a stirring address that celebrated the Pilgrims as proto-democrats whose Mayflower Compact had laid the basis for the great experiment in republican government to come.
Other aspiring leaders used the occasion to look back on the experience of people grateful for what foodstuffs they could gather and to talk about where America was going.
The bicentennial of the landing 1820 speech was delivered by Daniel Webster, who spoke from atop “the Rock” about how “1620 was the beginning of an entire civilization to come.” He warmed to the subject as “we feel the cold which benumbed, and listen to the winds which pierced them.” A listener of the speech, George Ticknor, wrote, “I was never so excited by public speaking in my life. Three or four times I thought my temples would burst with the gush of blood.”
President Lincoln did not make Thanksgiving, in November, a national holiday until 1863 in a proclamation written by Secretary of State Seward; that expressed thanks for good harvests, great victories and penitence for “national perverseness and disobedience.”
Over the years, Forefathers Day and Thanksgiving have morphed into something very different from 17th-century Plymouth, and the preoccupations of the Civil War. Even the meal differs from the feast consumed of, “a large baked Indian whortleberry pudding, a dish of sauquetach (succotash), a dish of clams, a dish of sea fowl, a dish of cod fish and eels, an apple pie, a course of cranberry tarts and cheese.” At least mine does.
Enjoy happy and safe Forefathers and Thanksgiving Days!
Norwich CT has had a number of great tragedies in its past but thanks to the Indiana State Sentinel of March 22, 1876 we can learn the details of one of its greatest tragedies. Somehow these details of an early fire have been lost as we re-print the photos of a later almshouse fire.
BURIED IN THE BUILDING. THE NORWICH ALMSHOUSE CONFLAGRATION. A GRAPHIC NARRATIVE OF THE DISASTER SCENES OF HORROR AND THE ATTEMPTS AT RESCUE OF THE INSANE AND THE INFIRM NAMES OF THE DEAD AND INJURED.
The Norwich, Ct., correspondent of the New York Herald (filed the following graphic description of the burning of the almshouse at that place: The detailed particulars of the burning of the town almshouse in this city on Sunday night was of a heartrending character. The discovery was made about eleven o’clock by one of the inmates, who was awakened by the smoke, and who, looking for its source, found that it proceeded from the cellar, where the heating apparatus was situated. He at once aroused the superintendent, Mr. G. M. Mills, and the two attempted to enter the cellar, but were driven back by the smoke. Dispatching the pauper to the city to give the alarm Mr. Mills proceeded to arouse the occupants of the house. There were fifty-one of these, distributed through a large three story house with several wings, and that they were still in the building was shown by the appearance of one and another at the windows. At one of the dormer windows in the roof, quite thirty feet from the ground, Nancy Raymond, a colored woman, weighing 250 pounds, appeared and it was with the greatest difficulty that this was done. When help arrived flames were pouring from the ground floor of the main building, and in places bad worked through to the floor above. Access from the upper stories had been cut off, and the horrible fact that a number of poor creatures gesticulated wildly. It was a terrible Jump to the ground below, but the fierce flames were in the rear, and, gathering courage at last, she crowded through the narrow window and dropped. Both of her legs were broken by the fall, the bones being fairly pulverized. This was only one of the agonizing sights. There were no ladders about the place of sufficient length to reach the higher windows, and though the wretched beings within could be plainly seen, nothing could be done to save them. A woman appeared at a window of the second story. An old rickety ladder, found on the ground, was quickly raised, and a plucky young Irishman ran up. He broke through the casement, and dragged the woman out. She was half totaled with smoke and nearly dead from nervous excitement, but revived on being removed to a place of safety. In the wing, in the second story, was Bartholomew Shugrue, a lunatic, 80 years old. A party went to his rescue, but a heavy iron grating, too hot to touch with the naked hands, prevented them from entering the window. A ladder was hastily converted into a ram, and by repeated blows the grating was knocked away. Shugrue seemed stupefied at first, and made no outcry, but when the grating was partly displaced he caught hold of it with his bands and bent it back with unnatural strength, bruising himself seriously. A man ran up the ladder and helped him out, and just in time, for as the ladder was thrown aside after their descent, the fire burst into the room. Eight other patients were helped from windows.
The men’s clothes were scorched by the intense heat. One unfortunate who was brought from the house and left in a place of safety on the ground, had hardly been laid there when she gave birth to a child. She was attended by a number of women and was finally removed, with her infant, to a place where she could be properly treated. At first it was thought that only four of the inmates bad been burned, but the first careful inspection and comparison of the rolls with those saved yesterday morning, revealed the horrible fact that no less than fifteen persons were unaccounted for. During the day one of these was found alive and well, and it is possible that others may have left the building and wandered away; but of this there is not much hope. The search for the dead was begun as early as possible on Monday morning. Before daylight, while the fire companies were still playing upon the burning debris between the walls, two bodies could be seen, lying as they had fallen when the floors above gave way, but burned beyond the possibility of recognition. About 9 o’clock a gang of men was put to work to remove the debris and recover the dead. One corpse was believed, by its size, to be Mrs. Mary Ann Farrell), a woman 60 years old, who weighed 300 pounds. She was almost wholly paralyzed, so helpless in fact that she was unable to feed herself. Her husband, Patrick Farrell, jumped from a window breaking his right arm but escaping without further injury. Another body, from the position in which it lay, was believed to be that of Mrs. Bill, who was insane, and who was in that part of the building used as an asylum. She was 60 years of age, and had been of unsound mind for 30 years. Her husband was a Methodist preacher, but he deserted her unwarrantedly and the shock of his cruelty unsettled her reason. The only other body which could be identified was that of Mary Jane McDonald, a girl about 11 years old. Her mother, Mary McDonald, a woman of 35, was one of those who lumped from the fourth story, her collar bone was broken and she sustained severe internal injuries. She was carried to the police station Sunday night, and as she revived somewhat her first inquiry was for this child. The poor woman was dying with consumption and her injuries which are fatal, can only hasten her death. She was told that her daughter was safe, and was satisfied, but since then she asks piteously why she does not come to her.
A LIST OF THE DEAD
It was believed yesterday morning that fifteen were lost, but one of them, John Garberry, has since been heard from. Leaving fourteen unaccounted for. Their names, so far as they are known, are given below. It will be observed that they are nearly all very old people, most of them probably too feeble to escape.
Thomas Irons, age unknown,
Joseph Martin, aged 70.
Mrs. Phyllis Perrigo, aged 75.
Mrs. Billings, aged 70.
Ellen Wilett, aged 12.
Sarah McNellev, (insane), aged 60.
Mary Jane McDonald, aged 11.
Mrs. Patrick Farrell, aged 60.
Mrs. Bill, aged 60.
Mrs. Williams, aged 35.
Mrs. Williams was seen on the roof while the house was burning, but was not rescued. There are three others said to be missing, whose names cannot be ascertained certainly, making the entire number not accounted for fourteen.
The wounded are:
Patrick Farrell. aged 70. Right arm broken.
Maria Brown, aged 50. Internally injured.
Ann Corey, aged 80. Hands burned.
Mary McDonald, aged 35, injured internally.
Nancy Raymond, aged 50, both legs broken.
According to the Mexico Weekly Ledger of November 16, 1893 “Joshua Barstow, 85, was the only living printer who ever worked at the [type face] case with Horace Greeley [ American newspaper editor well known for his vigorous articulation of the North’s antislavery sentiments during the 1850s.] and still picks up type at night in a Norwich, CT, office. Though he doesn’t look 60, he talks like it and is one of the jolliest old fellows in town.
Norwich, CT news was news all over the country. From the Terre Haute Gazette of November 8, 1871 I learned of some of the excitement that must have been felt that the “largest cotton mill in the world will commence operations in Norwich, CT, in a few weeks. Its capacity is 110,000 spindles.”
A few years earlier though on November 9, 1865 the Indianapolis Daily Herald carried “An exchange states that a police examination into the domestic arrangements of George Miller, of Pittsburgh, develops the tact that for a dozen years his wife and her sister have committed to share the maternal duties of the household, rather than have trouble in the family. Upon which a Norwich, CT paper says: “There’s a similar case in one of our neighboring towns. The product of the two sisters is twenty-one children. The selectmen once threatened to arrest the vigorous patriarch and have him dealt with, but he warned them that if they did, his whole family, consisting then of fourteen children, would be thrown upon the town for support. This was such a serious view of the case to the town authorities that they left the happy family to work out their own salvation.”
I read about the progress of the capture of the robbers of a spring Norwich Bank robbery in the November 24, 1851, Daily Crescent of New Orleans, LA. “There is said to be a prospect of detecting the scoundrel, who, sometime last spring, knocked down and robbed the messenger of the Norwich, CT Bank, of about $30,000. The medium of discovery is the offer of what was recognized to be part of the stolen money at one of the New York banks, a day or two ago. The party who offered the money was from Providence, and measures have been taken to trace the notes back to the robbers, and with some probability of success.”
In Norwich, CT we like to use words that sound powerful. What confuses me is often the context they are being used in. Here are a of the few words I hear used at the Norwich City Council meetings with the typical definitions I am aware of, which may or may not be how the Norwich City Council and Mayor use them. Perhaps it is time to conform to the generally accepted definitions of words or publish our own Norwich, CT dictionary so that we all will know what is being said.
An assembly is a large body of people who meet in a suitable hall to get some specific things done. Most assemblies have some ground rules for their operation, offices such as a speaker or assembly president, and subdivisions such as factions and committees.
An association is an organization in which persons or sometimes other organizations can be members. Its members are typically connected by a common purpose or interest
Boards may be elected or appointed. A board of appeals is a panel of officials, typically appointed by an elected official charged with making decisions on the continuing applicability of administrative decisions.
A board of directors is the governing body of a corporation elected by the shareholders to establish and carry out corporate policy, select the corporation’s officers, make certain major decisions concerning the corporation’s business and finances, and to oversee the corporation’s operations.
A board of education is an elected group of people who oversee a specific school system.
Business is an occupation or trade and the purchase and sale of products or services to make a profit.
Commerce is an interchange of goods or commodities, especially on a large scale.
A commission is a group of people who are entrusted by a government to carry out a task. Commissions are typically defined by local ordinance or state law. Terms are usually multi-year as defined by the applicable ordinance or law. A commission has a specific task or research project, and when complete, reports back to the party that appointed it, and then dissolves (ceases to exist).
A commission can be a committee, and if there is confusion, it is better to use a committee.
A committee is a group of people who meet and deliberate according to fixed rules in order to make a decision or produce a document as a group. The members of the committee have been chosen or delegated by whoever it is that ultimately decides. The members all know each other well, since they are working closely together.
Committees may be “standing” which means they exist more or less permanently, or “ad hoc” meaning their existence will cease when they make their final report.
A commission can be a committee, and if there is confusion, it is better to use a committee.
A council is generally elected and probably has a “term” or a limit of time that it exists before it must go back to the voters.
Etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings change throughout history.
A faction is a group of like-minded committee members that work together to achieve certain objectives, often in opposition to other committee members.
Robert’s Rules of Order is a guide for conducting meetings and making decisions as a group.
A steering committee is a project based or focused on multi-faceted issue, and are appointed on an as-needed basis.
A task force is appointed to focus on a single issue which can be analyzed in a few meetings to formulate a recommendation for consideration by the Board or Committee which formed the task force.
I admit to being a conformist and want what is being said and done by our city council to be clear and straightforward without question as to what is being meant and done.
Thank you for sharing my blog with your friends. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com
View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.
There is a lot of chatter and even a parody of the CMEEC (Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative) excursion to the Kentucky Derby. But the most important participants are a wall of silence as well as they should be. I do not condone the trips. I think it was a very poor business decision, a poor political choice to participate and just an all-around bad option. But, alas who am I but a rate payer in only one of the municipalities.
To me, a board of directors is a group of individuals that are elected as, or elected to act as, representatives of the stockholders to establish corporate management related policies and to make decisions on major company issues.(from www.centerfornonprofitexcellence.org).
Essentially it is the role of the board of directors to hire the CEO or general manager of the business and assess the overall direction and strategy of the business. The CEO or general manager is responsible for hiring all of the other employees and overseeing the day-to-day operation of the business. (Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.) Understanding the roles and responsibilities should be the first task when appointed. (from www.centerfornonprofitexcellence.org)
From the Norwich Public Utilities website I learned Norwich Public Utilities operates under municipal ownership, which means that it is owned by its customers and the City of Norwich.
The Norwich Board of Public Utilities Commission is made up of five members from the Norwich community. Members are appointed by the City Council and serve 5-year terms. The Board of Utilities Commissioners also serve as the Norwich Sewer Authority. The commissioners live in the community as your neighbors, NPU’s commissioners understand the needs of Norwich and are responsible to all the citizens.
Per the CMEEC website The Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative or “CMEEC” is a publicly directed joint action supply agency formed by Connecticut’s municipal electric utilities in 1976 under the state’s General Statutes. Headquartered in Norwich, CT.
CMEEC is responsible for the financing, acquisition and construction of generating resources and implementation of power supply contracts for the purpose of furnishing low-cost and reliable electric power to its members and participants. Electric energy purchase contracts and other resources obtained by CMEEC supply power to each of the community-owned utilities. The utilities in turn distribute the power at retail to local homes and businesses at the lowest prices in Connecticut.
CMEEC is organized as a partnership of five municipal utilities, each locally controlled. Through their ownership of and active participation in CMEEC, the member utilities are represented on the Board of Directors and thus provide the organization’s overall direction and governance.
CMEEC’s member utilities are: City of Norwich Department of Public Utilities, City of Groton Department of Utilities, Borough of Jewett City Electric Light Plant, Norwalk Third Taxing District Electrical Department and South Norwalk Electric Works. In addition to these five voting members of the cooperative, CMEEC provides wholesale power to participating utilities Bozrah Light & Power Company and Mohegan Tribal Utility Authority.
CMEEC represents members and participants as a single-entity participant in the regional Independent System Operation (ISO-New England) and the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL). CMEEC serves as the designated bargaining agent for the State of Connecticut with respect to the New York Power Authority’s allocation of Niagara and St. Lawrence power supply. CMEEC actively participates in industry groups such as: the American Public Power Association (APPA), the Northeast Public Power Association (NEPPA), the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), and the Connecticut Valley Electric Exchange (CONVEX).
Local representation with shared control: CMEEC’s Board of Directors is made up of two representatives from each of the member utilities. The Board sets policy for CMEEC and performs other duties and responsibilities as determined by applicable state statutes and CMEEC’s bylaws. The Board is responsible for operating CMEEC in such a way that power supply services are provided for the optimum economic benefit of all members. Member systems control the process through their active Board participation. Members and participating utilities pay for power based on a rate tariff that reflects a melding of costs of CMEEC’s total supply system.
The business model of NPU is cost-based. Customers pay rates that reflect the cost of the services provided, not simply what customers are willing to pay. This is different from investor-owned utilities, where profits may be maximized for return to individual investors. In contrast, NPU’s municipal ownership returns profit directly to the community it serves. (http://www.norwichpublicutilities.com/about-npu/business-model)
BoardSource, in their booklet “Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards”, itemized the following 10 responsibilities for nonprofit boards. In a for-profit corporation, the board of directors is responsible to the stockholders — a more progressive perspective is that the board is responsible to the stakeholders, that is, to everyone who is interested and/or can be effected by the corporation.
1. Determine the Organization’s Mission and Purpose
2. Select the Executive
3. Support the Executive and Review His or Her Performance
4. Ensure Effective Organizational Planning
5. Ensure Adequate Resources
6. Manage Resources Effectively
7. Determine and Monitor the Organization’s Products, Services and Programs
8. Enhance the Organization’s Public Image
9. Serve as a Court of Appeal
10. Assess Its Own Performance
So I guess we now have to ask the Board members of CMEEC and its CEO to evaluate their performance and their trip and anything else the public doesn’t need to know about. But perhaps we can be wiser in who our City Council appoints to the Commission and their abilities to make the decisions that ultimately fall to the utility rate payers in our city and beyond, whether they are members of this esteemed organization or not.
The Fall 2016 Historical Footnotes Bulletin of the Stonington Historical Society had a great article by Russell G. Handsman called the States’ Family Stoneware Sites in Stonington CT that began with a great paragraph about the history of pottery in Norwich, CT and a quote by our very own Christopher Leffingwell, “The crockery business, he wrote, “should be thought an object [for continued growth] as the consumption of that article is immense,” while the freight costs of imported, European wares “amounts to an amazing sum.” The issue also included beautiful photographs of the Stonington Historical Society Old Lighthouse Museum collection.
Pottery was not manufactured in New England until after the middle of the eighteenth century. Just when the first Norwich pottery began is not known, but on April 9, 1774, Colonel Leffingwell sold his to Thomas Williams. Known Norwich clay pieces are of a deep red color, with black blotches made by admitting smoke into the kiln, and have a special lead glaze.
The second pottery was located on Clinton Avenue. Built before December 24, 1798 by Andrew Tracy, sold to Captain Joseph Hosmer, then William Cleveland from 1805, to May 2, 1814, when sold to Peleg Armstrong and Erastus Wentworth, of Norwich. The Huntington and Backus Company became the Norwich Manufacturing Company, which in 1829 purchased part of the land of Armstrong and Wentworth. In June, 1834, Armstrong sold out his share in the business to Wentworth, so that pottery marked Armstrong & Wentworth, or A & W, dates from 1814 to 1834. The business was carried on by Joseph Winship, who later went to work in the newly opened pottery of Sidney Risley, at the Landing. In the 1857 Norwich Directory is the advertisement of “Sidney Risley, No. 4 Cove St., Manufacturer of Stone Ware in Every Variety. Alvin T. Davis was one of the old drivers for Risley, and his pottery wagon was led with a beautiful pair of Newfoundland dogs hitched on ahead of the horses.
Risley at first leased the property, but in 1856 purchased it and continued the business until his death on April 26, 1875, at age sixty-one. His son, George L. Risley, continued the works until his tragic death on the Christmas eve 1881. He went to the pottery to light the fires under an upright boiler, which blew up through the roof of the building, and landed in the cove about 120 feet away. It is said that the force of the explosion was so great that the 1500-pound boiler passed completely over a fifty-foot elm tree at the rear of the pottery. Mr. Risley was badly injured and he died that evening. An account of the accident appeared in the “Scientific American” in January, 1882.
B. C. Chace opened the pottery about a year later, under the name of the Norwich Pottery Works; in 1885 he was succeeded by George B. Chamberlain, for about two years. The business was then continued by Otto N. Suderburg till 1895, when it was discontinued.
It is hard to realize that all preserves, mostly “pound for pound,” were kept in earthen or stone jars of various shapes and sizes. Homemade beer, cider, wine and other liquid refreshments were kept in stone bottles or jugs. The ink bottles, large and small, were of this stoneware; mugs, pitchers, milk-pans, butter pots, pudding pans, platters and plates, are mentioned in old advertisements. The soft soap, without which no household was kept properly clean, was stored in one of these jars. Some crockery was imported from England, and after the China trade was opened, dishes became more plentiful but it was many years before the use of such ware became general.
So it is easily seen that a pottery was a necessary industry; wagonloads of the red soft pottery and the stone and earthen ware were sent out over the roads in all directions. The early potters rarely stamped their work with any distinctive mark, in this section at least; but those who have seen the red, smoke-blotched or red with yellow trimmings, would recognize the work again. The Leffingwell House Museum has a small collection of the early pottery. Armstrong & Wentworth used the mark, “A & W,” or later, “Armstrong & Wentworth, Norwich.” One of the jugs made by this firm has the owner’s name written in the clay, because he did not want to have his jug mixed up with that of anyone else. Risley’s mark was usually “S. Risley.” The Leffingwell House Museum has a small collection of the early pottery.
I went for a walk near the Norwichtown Green and it reminded me so much of the quaint New England towns that have been created or restored to tell a part of American history. Yes, our little green is the real McCoy but Norwich residents do not give it the promotion that would enhance its success as a place of history.
Imagine what it would be like if on one of the historic walks of Norwich town the group came across an actor who introduced himself as John Barney, the Junior Gaoler [Jailer] in Norwich and he was looking for a John Smith. The rest of his story could be embellished upon from the actual Norwich Packet advertisement of September 8, 1778 that read –
“Made his escape from the gaol in this town, on the evening of the 4th instant, one JOHN SMTH, who was taken up as a suspected person to the cause of America: Had on when he went off, a striped woolen shirt, a red jacket without sleeves, a pair of tow trousers, and is about 50 or 60 years of age, — Whoever will take up said SMITH, and return him to me, shall be well rewarded for their trouble. JOHN BARNEY, Jun. Gaoler. Norwich, September 7, 1778“ What a hoot it would be if later in the walk they were met by another actor playing the part of John Smith, escapee on the run!
If the walk was in the spring, the actors could develop their characters from this Norwich Packet advertisement “FORTY DOLLARS REWARD. Ran away from Norwich Gaol, on Sunday the 26 instant the following persons, viz. ISAAC KETCHAM, who was taken from the west end of Long Island some time ago: He is of middle stature, about 50 years of age, dark complexion, dark hair and eyes, the eyelid of the left eye hanging almost over the same, walks stooping, and has a down look: Had on a grayish coat and vest , leather breeches, and a white felt hat. GEORGE SNYDER, a German, who was taken prisoner, at the northward last year by Gen. Arnold’s army, and has been on parole in this town for some months past; he is full six feet high, well set, about twenty-five years of age, light complexion, light colored hair, talks bad English, and is pitted with the small pox: Had on a regimental coat faced with blue, the buttons on the same marked 25, a brown jacket, leather breeches, and an old felt hat. — Went off at the same time, PATRICK KELLY, an Irishman, who was brought a prisoner from the State of New York in October last, and was permitted to stay in this town on his parole for a few months, then to return to the said State: — Said Kelly is about 34 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches high, red face and reddish hair, light blue eyes, well made; had on a dark brown coat and vest, buck-skin breeches, white shirt, and two pair of worsted stockings, one pair white and the other dark grey, walks remarkable strait, is very fond of snuff, and the produce of the West- Indies. Whoever will take up any of the above persons, and return them to the subscriber, or confine them in any gaol in this State, shall have FOUR POUNDS reward for each. JOHN BARNEY, junr, Gaoler. Norwich, April 27, 1778.” They too could also be met on the walk perhaps with only a nod of acknowledgement depending on the crowd and circumstance.
Of course, the history walkers might only just meet Nathaniel Townsend who on the same date placed the ad for a new milk cow, “Wanted, a good new milch cow, for which a generous price will be given in cash, salt, or German Steel.
Throughout history there has always been an issue; should it be water or wine with supper? On July 6, 1836 the “Song of the Water Drinker” by E. Johnson of Metropolitan Magazine was printed in the Norwich Bulletin and settled for some the question.
Oh! Water for me! Bright water for me!
And wine for the tremulous debauchee!
It cooleth the brow, it cooleth the brain,
It maketh the faint one strong again;
It comes o’er the sense like a breeze from the sea,
All freshness, like infant purity.
Oh! Water, bright water for me, for me!
Give wine, give wine to the debauchee!
Fill to the brim! Fill, fill to the brim!
Let the flowing crystal kiss the rim!
For my hand is steady, my eye is true,
For I, like the flowers, drink naught but dew.
Oh! Water, bright water’s a mine of wealth,
And the ores it yieldeth are vigor and health.
So water, pure water for me, for me!
And wine for the tremulous debauchee!
Fill again to the brim! Again to the brim!
For water strengthened life and limb!
To the days of the aged it added length,
To the might of the strong it added strength.
It freshens the heart, it brightens the sight,
‘Tis like quaffing a goblet of morning light.
So, water! I will drink nought but thee,
Thou parent of health and energy!
When o’er the hills, like a gladsome bride,
Morning walks forth in her beauty’s pride,
And, leading a band of laughing hours,
Brushes the dew from the nodding flowers;
Oh! Cheerily then my voice is heard,
Mingling with that of the soaring bird,
Who flingeth abroad his matins loud,
As he freshens his wing in the cold gray cloud.
But when evening has quitted her sheltering yew,
Drowsily flying and weaving anew
Her dusky meshes o’er land and sea –
How gently, O sleep! Fall thy poppies on me;
For I drink water, pure, cold and bright,
And my dreams are of heaven the livelong night;
So hurrah! For thee water! Hurrah! Hurrah!
Thou are silver and gold, thou art riband and star!
Hurrah! For bright water! Hurrah! Hurrah!
Does anyone else have a person on their gift, birthday, anniversary, holiday list that is impossible to buy for? In the Smithsonian Holiday 2016 catalog on page 52 item number 68279 is the perfect item. It can be a hometown, a favorite vacation place, the place of their school – it is a personalized hometown map jigsaw puzzle. According to the description it “Explores a 6×4 mile area of the neighborhood with the chosen home (or any address you choose) at the geographical center of this unique 400-piece puzzle. Recalling maps at our Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, it identifies main roads, contour lines, transport infrastructure, water features, and notable buildings. Millboard. 18”x12” It is only $39.95 plus tax, shipping and handling.“
Another option and great fun to work on is to take an old map. The real old on paper ones. Available at gas stations and other places before Google maps. Mark a few special places, home, school, church, business, shopping, farms etc. and glue the map to poster board, allow to dry, and then cut into large or small pieces with an Exacto knife. Present all of the pieces in a pretty bag or box and spend some time with that special person assembling the map and talking about the places that are marked and the places not marked. But hint – it’s their map so encourage them to mark the places of their memories.
To increase the level of difficulty I cut all the pieces in the same size and shape. Outer edges may be slightly different but if they are all the same it is still tough. Some of the maps have tiny little print that is hard to read so I have made enlarged color copies for the puzzle. Don’t worry if you have to use more than one piece of poster board the glue will hold the pieces together.
Looking for a way to include the youngest members of the family? Draw an outline of the house from an old photo if you can and ask them to color it in or if you know draw a favorite room – kitchen, living room or bedroom. What was the shape of the school? Was it a big brick block of a building or do the stories told include details such as a clock tower?
For an even more personalized puzzle gift I cut up post cards of the special place and increase the difficulty by placing sets of up to six postcards in one envelope for assembly.
Whatever you choose to do, make it special and your own..
1st Norwich Flying Machine
Norwich, CT once had some amazing residents with high flying dreams. According to an article in the July 10, 1910 Norwich Bulletin, William H. Stebbins and Louis Geynet were on the cusp of completing the first “flying machine” to be built in Norwich, CT. German immigrant Gustave Whitehead flew the first Connecticut aeroplane on August 14, 1901; Brothers Orville and Wilbur made their well known flight on December 17, 1903.
Stebbins and Geynet began studying aeronautics in 1908 and with time graduated from the classroom to a small shed just North of St. Mary’s Cemetery. The two had attended the big airship shows in Boston and New York and studied every little detail as closely as possible before returning to Norwich and beginning their own project. They worked every job they could for the funding of their project and hired a number of assistants with various technical skills over a three month period.
Their plane differed from all of the other planes of the time. Instead of the monoplane or biplane it was three planes. The total width was 24 feet. Then the planes lapped over one another, the top is 24 feet long by 7 feet wide, the center is 20 feet long by 6 feet wide, and the bottom is 16 feet long by 5 feet wide. The curved slightly upward planes are all made of two pieces of laminated Oregon spruce and then covered with a special aeroplane fine woven varnished linen fabric that is air and moisture proof. Aluminum joints are used wherever possible for strength and lightness and then wrapped with galvanized, twisted cable that had a breaking strength of 500 pounds per inch.
The pilot seat is located ahead of the 25-30 horsepower 200 pound Cameron aviation motor, that rested on a maple engine bed fitted into the frame. The steering is similar to an automobile, the balance and elevating device in the front is worked by a steering wheel, while the tail rudder is controlled by a foot, adjusting the steering planes keeps the craft stable and on an even keel.
Six, seven and seven and a half foot propellers turn up to two hundred pounds of thrust with 1,200 revolutions per minute propelling the craft with the speed of an express train. The weight of the plane without pilot is 650 pounds. Three pneumatic tires with springs and a skid will break the force of the landing.
The newspaper story ends with the men expecting the delivery of a specially made tent that will be used as a portable hanger for wherever they choose to test the abilities of the plane as the terrain of Sachem Park is too rough in case of emergency.
Modern Norwich CT leaders are very reticent to market the city, its people and their inventions loudly and proudly. Fortunately past leaders were not ashamed or embarrassed by the city and placed articles and advertisements in local and distant newspapers.
For example, from the July 3, 1816 Norwich Courier “Power Loom. We are informed that Mr. E. Savage, of this town has invented, and put into operation, a loom, to be worked by steam, or water; which it is expected will be of as much utility as many of the numerous inventions which have almost entitled this age to the name of the Age of Invention. The construction of the loom is simple, and answers to weave woolen cloth three yards wide, and the largest cotton sheets without a seam; – fine shirting, etc. we have seen a specimen of the cloth made in this loom, the price of which we are told is very moderate. “
“Greeneville. Some eighteen years since William P. Greene Esq., then and now of this city, but formerly of Boston, bought of various individuals a tract of land on Shetucket River, a part of it lying upon either side of that stream, extending to the distance of about three miles. This purchase is situated one mile northward from Norwich Landing, the principal business quarter of the City, and two miles eastward from the old Town. The valuable facilities for manufacturing presented by the river which flowed through the middle of this tract may be supposed to have struck the observation of this sagacious capitalist and to have induced him to make this investment.
THAMES MANUFACTURING COMPANY. Of the Norwich Water Power Company the Thames Manufacturing Company bought three privileges or mill sites in October of the year 1831. Upon one of these they proceeded to erect a mill, 138 feet long, 43 feet wide and four stories high, exclusive of the basement. The power was sufficient to drive 4000 spindles. The building was of Connecticut river brick, procured at Hartford. The timber, which was mostly eastern, was brought up the Thames. Buildings for the use of the families who might be connected with the factory were soon commenced, so that when the work of manufacturing began, ten or twelve houses were found raised, furnished, and ready to receive tenants.
The machinery was built at different shops in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. A part of it was made at Waltham, Mass. In June, 1833, the manufactory was put in operation. It remained under the direction of the Thames Company about four years.”
Impressing upon the need for parents to participate in the education of their children has probably been around as long as schools have been. New schools are important and while there were many fine speeches at the dedication of the Sachem Street School, the Norwich Courier, on January 11, 1857, realized the importance of also acknowledging and printing the following “stanzas [that] were sung with great spirit and effect by the children of the school under the direction of Mr. Martin.
O dear what can the matter be?
Dear, dear what can the matter be?
Dear, dear what can the matter be?
Parents don’t visit the school.
They visit the circus. They visit their neighbors.
They visit their flocks and the servant who labors.
They visit the soldiers with murderous sabers,
Now why don’t they visit the school?
They care for their horses, they care for their dollars.
They care for their ladies, and fancy fine collars;
But little, we think, do they care for their scholars,
Because they don’t visit the school.
We know we from hunger and cold are protected;
In knowledge and virtue our minds are directed;
But still we do think we are sadly neglected,
Because they don’t visit the school.
Now, if they will come, they’ll find all in their places,
With nicely combed hair, with clean hands and faces,
All pleasant and happy, with naught that disgraces.
O why don’t they visit the school?
O dear etc.”
Do you help out or support your children’s or grandchildren’s class, school or sports events? Do you applaud loudly at their shows and plays? Do you speak in a positive manner of the education your children are receiving? Teaching our children to have a positive attitude is as important as teaching them how to stand up for themselves, for others and how to effectively complain when things don’t go their way. “When in doubt, scream and shout!” is not always the most effective response. Sometimes you just have to “visit the school”.
This new year, make it a point to participate in the schools near you.
I don’t know if this is hanging on a wall somewhere, or tucked in a scrapbook but I found this ode by the Quinebaug Bard printed in the June 29, 1842 Norwich Courier and didn’t recall having read it before. Some things do not change with progress as fires remain to be a fearsome foe today. Check your lights. Check your connections. Check your extensions and electrical spiders. Don’t leave candles unattended even for a minute. The lives and jobs you save may be your own.
MEDITATIONS ON VIEWING THE LATE FIRE AT GREENEVILLE
Dedicated to Wm. P. Greene, Esq.
Oh! I have seen the lurid flame,
Curl like a serpent round the dome,
Leaving a village scarce a name,
With many a wanderer void of home.
And many edifices fair,
Where dwells the virtuous, and the gay,
The stately solemn house of prayer,
In one dark hour swept away.
And oh! That fearful, frightful sound,
The fire bells chiming in the night,
And who are they who may be found,
Without a home by morning light?
Tis twelve at noon, the fearful cry,
Of terror sounds through every street,
Behold the firemen nimbly fly,
And friends and foes together meet.
But all too late the firemen came,
The noble edifice to save,
All wrapped in the broad sheet of flame,
The fearful shriek – stand still the brave.
Now fiercer still the flames ascend,
Infernal cinders rise on high,
The stately tottering walls now bend,
And there is many a tearful eye.
That bell – that sweet toned cheerful bell,
No more shall hail the Sabbath morn,
How sorrowful its parting knell,
Like friend from friend asunder torn.
Down falls the stately building now,
In the indistinguishable fire,
Beheld by many a sorrowing brow,
Whilst many a maiden’s hopes expires.
How many rose at morn in joy,
Whose sole employment now is gone!
Who will the hundreds now employ?
Who will befriend the friendless one?
Ah, this reminds me of the day,
When earth herself shall sure expire,
When all her glories pass away,
Dissolved in one grand orb of fire,
And when it thus shall pass away,
And death and time shall have an end,
Who, who shall then be found to say,
“God is my Savior and my Friend!”
May 28th, 1842