Osaka Wears Mask in Memory of Breonna Taylor at US Open

Naomi Osaka wore a mask bearing the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor before and after a first-round victory at the U.S. Open.

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/osaka-wears-mask-in-memory-of-breonna-taylor-at-us-open/2326841/

With No Certain Season, High School Athletes Leave Connecticut to Find a Place to Play

High school football players are waiting. Waiting to see if the lights will turn on, on Friday nights. To see if the band will play or if the whistle will blow. But some players showed that they’re done waiting. “It’s heartbreaking,” said Bloomfield football coach Ty Outlaw. “Guys have been moving around to play football.” Two of Bloomfield’s players made...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/with-no-certain-season-high-school-athletes-leave-connecticut-to-find-a-place-to-play/2326775/

NFL Takes Over Investigation of Washington Football Team

The NFL has taken over the independent investigation into workplace conduct within the Washington Football Team, a person familiar with the situation said Monday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been publicly been announced. The person said Commissioner Roger Goodell discussed this step with owner Dan Snyder, who was supportive....

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/nfl-takes-over-investigation-of-washington-football-team/2326772/

CBS Sports Examines Racism With ‘Portraits in Black'

CBS Sports will devote five hours of programming Sunday to examining racism in sports

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/cbs-sports-examines-racism-with-portraits-in-black/2326755/

New COVID cases at UConn, Trinity reports first on-campus case

As of Monday afternoon, 58 residential students on the Storrs campus have tested positive or are showing symptoms of the disease, data from the school shows.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/New-COVID-cases-at-UConn-Trinity-reports-first-15528701.php

Listen: How a postmaster general from CT and a legacy of racism shaped USPS

The nation’s fourth postmaster general, a Connecticut native, encouraged Congress to prevent Black people from carrying the mail, out of fear of rebellion.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Listen-How-a-postmaster-general-from-CT-and-a-15528473.php

$12-an-hour minimum wage goes into effect Tuesday

The state’s minimum wage is set to increase from $11 to $12 an hour this week, part of a gradual increase up to $15 planned over the next few years.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/12-an-hour-minimum-wage-goes-into-effect-Tuesday-15528520.php

Police: Woman stabbed man for allegedly looking at nude photos of her daughter

A Bridgeport woman was arrested after police said she stabbed her boyfriend after she claims she caught him looking at nude photos of her daughter.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Police-Woman-stabbed-boyfriend-for-looking-at-15528346.php

Report: CT nursing home’s COVID errors posed ‘imminent harm to life’

Three residents who tested positive for the disease at the 102-bed Norwich nursing home have died and a fourth resident has been hospitalized.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/Report-CT-nursing-home-s-COVID-errors-posed-15528304.php

Lamont, lawmakers agree to extend emergency powers to Feb. 9

Since March, when the governor’s executive powers began, Lamont has issued nearly 90 separate orders, many of which contain multiple sections.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/politics/article/Lamont-lawmakers-agree-to-extend-emergency-15528077.php

Trinity College reports first COVID case on campus

A spokeswoman for the Hartford school said the positive result was recorded on Saturday “through our campus testing program for a student who arrived on campus recently.”

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/Trinity-College-reports-first-COVID-case-on-campus-15528045.php

Kentucky Derby, Louisville Prepare for Weekend Without Fans

The fastest two minutes in sports will also be the quietest in Kentucky Derby history

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/kentucky-derby-louisville-prepare-for-weekend-without-fans/2326485/

Analysis: Vaccines are political both parties agree, poll says

Both Democrats and Republicans believe that the COVID vaccine development process is driven by politics, not science, according to a Stat News poll.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Analysis-Vaccines-are-political-both-parties-15527492.php

Police ID Bridgeport man, 24, killed in Sunday shooting

Heriberto Marquez, 24, was found dead from a gunshot wound in Bridgeport, police said.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Police-ID-Bridgeport-man-24-killed-in-Sunday-15527315.php

Coaching Great John Thompson of Georgetown Dead at 78

The college basketball coaching great John Thompson of Georgetown has died

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/coaching-great-john-thompson-of-georgetown-dies-at-78/2326378/

Shelton police: Drunken driver was speeding at time of serious crash

Police said the 23-year-old woman was drunk, in possession of cocaine and driving faster than 60 mph when she crashed into another car in early March.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Shelton-police-Drunken-driver-was-speeding-at-15527272.php

Kids Walk to benefit CT Children’s Medical Center

The walk is set for Sept. 26 at Great Hollow Lake.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Kids-Walk-to-benefit-CT-Children-s-Medical-15527242.php

Sylvester Poli, Negotiating Cultural Politics in an Age of Immigration

By Rafaele Fierro

On a beautiful late-August night in 1910, a crowd gathered at 10 Howe Street in New Haven to celebrate. Mayor Frank Rice and his wife were in attendance as were other politicians along with corporate heads, lawyers, and doctors, all come to celebrate Sylvester and Rosa Poli’s 25th wedding anniversary. The New Haven Evening Register called the gala event “one of the handsomest entertainments ever given in the city.” The Polis turned their lawn into “enchanted gardens with hundreds of Japanese lanterns” and an orchestra played music into the wee hours of the morning.

Entertainment Entrepreneur

Sylvester Poli

Even though Sylvester Poli had, by 1910, become a highly recognized and respected entrepreneur, he was just at the beginning of his long and successful career. Ultimately, he owned 28 vaudeville and movie theaters throughout New England, including Waterbury’s Palace Theater and New Haven’s Bijou Theater which he created. He built other movie houses that each seated well more than a thousand people in cities known for their blue-collar character: Bridgeport and Hartford in Connecticut; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is no wonder, then, that his anniversary brought together so many—more than 100 in all—from New Haven and beyond.

Oak Street, in New Haven’s working-class Italian section, was just around the corner from the Poli’s celebration on Howe Street. Though that neighborhood stood in marked contrast to the evening’s festivities, no walls or gates segregated the poor from the affluent Poli, a self-described commoner who had come to America with virtually nothing. He enjoyed living among the working poor. They worshipped together at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church, a short distance from his home. Poli, moreover, understood that his clientele, the people who made him what he was, often were not men and women of means. Movie-going in the first half of the 20th century tended to be affordable even for those with little disposable income. (It cost about 25 cents to see a film as late as the 1930s.)

The New Haven businessman’s ascendancy into the theater business occurred just as industry burgeoned in Northeastern cities. The region’s many industrial factories attracted thousands of immigrants who found the hours long and the wages short. For many, the better life they had imagined had not panned out. Factory work proved long, difficult, and grinding. Conditions were sometimes deplorable.

Movie-going offered the urban masses a brief respite from life’s daily toil. Poli viewed himself as their guardian, offering an outlet that bound members of his community together and provided a powerful antidote to the crime and poverty plaguing poor neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, garage owners, carpenters, and clerks mingled alongside the politicians, lawyers, and businessmen at the Poli’s 1910 anniversary party.

Combating Prejudice Against Immigrants

Few Yankee names appeared on the guest list, however. Yankees generally found Poli’s ethnicity reprehensible, but his connection to vaudeville—a new form of marketable entertainment they derided—made him even more contemptible. According to historian Douglas Rae, the near universal admiration for Poli reflected the decline in status of the New England old guard. The Yankee elite perceived their culture as “progressively diminishing,” due in large part to the increasing numbers of immigrants who’d come to US shores since the 1870s. It is not a coincidence, for instance, that Yale graduate and eugenicist Madison Grant published his Passing of the Great Race in 1916, around the time that Poli and other recent immigrants rose to power.

To many Yankees, the entrepreneur symbolized a rapidly changing New England—and not for the better. For his part, Poli proved adept at traversing class, ethnic, and cultural lines. His involvement in diverse civic groups and his commitment to the local immigrant community earned admiration. In 1915, for example, the Italian-language newspaper Il Corriere del Connecticut and the New Haven Times-Leader reported extensively on Poli’s efforts, which not only underscored his heavy involvement in the Italian community but also undermined Yankee charges that Italians exhibited conflicting national loyalties. As time went on, Poli’s attachment to the working poor strengthened and his desire to help overcome negative stereotypes deepened. During the First World War, he helped establish a National Guard Company of young Italian soldiers who proved their American patriotism by joining the 2nd Infantry Regiment. Later, during the Great Depression, he organized a benefit in collaboration with the Jewish Welfare Society and the New Haven Register to aid the city’s poor.

The theater magnate’s popularity even overcame the Italian North-South cultural divide that existed on both sides of the Atlantic. While a solid majority of the state’s Italians hailed from southern Italy, Poli himself came from Tuscany to the north. By the start of the 20th century, Connecticut’s northern Italians had formed an organization called the Northern Italian League to distinguish themselves from southern Italians—and to make sure that Yankees understood the vast cultural differences between the two groups. Yet, few cared from where in Italy Poli came.

End of an Era

The great theater mogul retired in 1934, after which time large companies, including the Loew’s Group, began purchasing his establishments. Others were torn down or remade into restaurants. A few remain; most have since disappeared. New Haven’s urban renewal projects of the 1950s and ‘60s saw to the destruction of most of the properties on Howe Street, Poli’s home included. In their place developers built North Frontage Road.

Poli did not live to see his home’s destruction. He died in 1937, arguably the worst year of the Great Depression. Ironically, at the same time, movie-going became more popular than ever—this time as an escape from the cruel world of economic calamity.

Dr. Rafaele Fierro is an Associate Professor of History at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, Connecticut, and is the son of Italian immigrants.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/sylvester-poli-negotiating-cultural-politics-in-an-age-of-immigration/

Labor Day Closing Notice (9/7/20): One Day Delay, Curbside Refuse & Recycling Collection

Newington Town Hall, Lucy Robbins Welles Library and other municipal facilities will be closed for Labor Day, September 7, 2020.

from Newington, CT - News Flash https://www.newingtonct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=1449

Police: Woman, 20, found fatally assaulted in Ansonia neighborhood

Police said they found the woman when they responded to a report of a hit-and-run accident in a quiet Ansonia neighborhood.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Police-Woman-20-found-fatally-assaulted-in-15526829.php

Lamont declares Aug. 31 Overdose Awareness Day in CT

The governor will attend an event Monday to raise awareness of opioid addiction.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Lamont-declares-Aug-31-Overdose-Awareness-Day-in-15526766.php

Bridgeport PD: Two people injured in Monday morning shooting

Police did not release any information on the extent of the victims’ injuries.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Bridgeport-PD-Two-people-injured-in-shooting-15526722.php

For His Father: a Poignant Alaphilippe Win at Tour De France

French rider Julian Alaphilippe has dedicated his win in Stage 2 of the Tour de France to his father who died in June

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/hes-back-alaphilippe-takes-emotional-win-at-tour-de-france/2326174/

Bridgeport PD: Three shot at memorial for homicide victim

Three men were injured early Sunday morning after a shooting at a memorial for Friday homicide victim George John, according to officials.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-PD-Three-shot-at-memorial-for-15525650.php

Out-of-state fees resume Monday at Connecticut parks

Visitors to Connecticut state parks will need to again pay parking fees as of Monday.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced Friday that nonresident visitors will be charged parking fees at some parks, that number eventually growing to 22. A list can be found at the DEEP website.

The state has not collected these fees this season, except at three of the four shoreline state beaches, due to COVID-19 prevention measures and staffing limitations.

Anyone in a Connecticut-registered vehicle can park free of charge at all state parks and forests year-round through the Passport to the Parks program.

The new system will require visitors arriving in vehicles registered outside of Connecticut to purchase a parking pass online or by phone when they arrive at the park, according to a release. Signage at each park location will provide instructions on how to make their payment and complete the form to be placed on their vehicle’s dashboard to confirm payment.

The collection system will be tested at various locations throughout the week. Additional staff will be deployed to oversee initial implementation of this new system and assist visitors with its operation.

Park staff and DEEP Environmental Conservation officers will be able to view transaction logs to compare against parked vehicles. Failure to pay the required nonresident fee may result in a $75 ticket, according to the release.

For most parks using this system, the fee is $10 per day on weekdays and $15 per day for weekends and holidays. Squantz Pond and Silver Sands each require a fee of $15 per day on weekdays and $22 per day for weekends and holidays.

Nonresident visitors to shoreline...

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Out-of-state-fees-resume-Monday-at-Connecticut-15525511.php

Bridgeport sees second fatal shooting of weekend

A 24-year-old man is the victim of a fatal shooting in Bridgeport.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-sees-second-fatal-shooting-of-weekend-15525422.php

One hospitalized after Derby crash

A crash around midnight Sunday sent one person to the hospital and cut power to part of Derby.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/One-hospitalized-after-Derby-crash-15525340.php

Connecticut’s Mulberry Craze

By Bob Wyss for Connecticut Explored

Spreading its leafy limbs before the former Mansfield Town Hall is a tree of a non-native species that once covered many of the hills and valleys of Connecticut—a black mulberry. And almost directly across Storrs Road on Route 195 bordering the Altnaveigh Inn stands a second, a white mulberry.

Two hundred years ago tens of thousands of cultivated mulberry trees dotted the Connecticut landscape. Few have survived the ravages of time, the harsh Connecticut climate, blight, and the foibles of mankind. Those that remain are relics of a strange chapter in Connecticut’s history, one that featured a fabled fabric, get-rich-quick dreams spun by promoters, hucksters, and swindlers, and, finally, panic and ruin. It is the story of a burgeoning but short-lived cottage industry that was unique in the young, 19th-century American nation.

The story begins with the mulberry tree and the silkworm, which is a type of caterpillar. The silkworm prefers a diet of mulberry leaves. It produces a cocoon which, when unraveled, can be spun into silk thread. The process of silk production is called sericulture, and 200 years ago Connecticut, especially Windham and Tolland Counties, was the epicenter of US raw-silk production.

Silk worms from A Manual Containing Information Respecting the Growth of the Mulberry Tree by J.H. Cobb, 1833

Early Experiments in US Silk Production

The Chinese discovered the secrets of mulberry leaves, silkworms, and silk production 4,000 years ago and threatened death to anyone who revealed those secrets. These new threads, which had a greater tensile strength than metal cable, could be spun into a luxurious fabric that was so desired that it opened up trade across half the globe on the famous Silk Road. Eventually the secrets of sericulture spread throughout Asia and Europe.

Silkworms were first imported to Virginia as early as 1613, but efforts to build businesses around them in American colonies such as Georgia, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania were only marginally successful. In 1734 the Connecticut Colonial Assembly passed legislation offering financial incentives for silk growers. Two individuals ended up succeeding in bringing silk production to Connecticut, where others had failed. One was Nathaniel Aspinwall, a horticulturalist. In the 1750s Aspinwall planted mulberry trees at a nursery he owned in Long Island and later in Mansfield and New Haven, Connecticut. Aspinwall also raised and distributed to customers the silkworm eggs needed to produce the caterpillars and cocoons.

The second individual was Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, who kept a diary of his silk-raising activities from 1763 to 1790. According to Edmund Morgan’s 1962 biography, Stiles was obsessed with the concept of silk production and found it “a kind of El Dorado to lure the prudent and industrious as surely as others were lured by a fast horse or a legend of gold in the hills.” Stiles experimented with silkworms and production, going so far as to name some of his worms with monikers such as General Wolfe and Oliver Cromwell. In the 1780s he formed a company that promoted silk production through churches throughout the state. He shipped seeds and planting instructions to fellow ministers at Connecticut parishes. The ministers were to plant the seeds and cultivate the young trees. After three years, each minister was to distribute one quarter of his trees free to local families while continuing to cultivate the rest. Because mulberry trees could grow as tall as 30 or 40 feet, they were planted in orchards, along roadways, or in hedges, in an attempt to control their growth.

While red mulberry trees are native to North America, silkworms preferred the leaves of the imported white mulberry trees. They also tolerate and will eat the imported black mulberry. The white mulberry was not fussy and grew easily in the often-rocky Connecticut soil. However, its leaves could not be harvested until the tree was five to eight years old. One acre of young trees could feed 540,000 worms; once fully mature, those trees could provide enough nourishment for a million silkworms.

Feeding the silkworms, Cheney Brothers, Manchester, ca. 1880s – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated

A Laborious Business

By the early 1800s Connecticut was a national leader in silk production and by 1840 was producing three times as much silk as any other state. In Mansfield alone in 1825, three-quarters of all households were involved in silk production. Families were producing from as little as five pounds of silk to up to 500 pounds per year. There were so many mulberry trees in town that some owners rented out their orchards, selling shares that represented a portion of the leaves that could be harvested.

While quantity was high, however, quality was a problem. “The reeling was very poor,” wrote L.P. Brockett in his 1876 history of silk (The Silk Industry in America, George P. Nesbitt & Co.) “The threads, when wound, spun, twisted and dyed, were uneven and gummy.”

Raising the worms was time-consuming, and reeling the thread onto a spool was even more challenging. David Rossell, in his 2001 unpublished doctoral dissertation on the silk and mulberry craze, noted that the amount of leaves the silkworms consumed could reach “frightening quantities.” One ounce of eggs would produce 40,000 worms, which would grow in a series of stages over several weeks. In the first stage, which lasted four days, the 40,000 worms only consumed eight pounds of leaves, but by the final stage, which took seven days, they consumed 15,000 pounds. During this time the worms needed to be protected from birds, insects, and rodents, and the worm’s excrement had to be collected and removed to prevent disease. Once the cocoons were spun, the cocoons were cured in an oven to kill the moths before they could emerge and puncture the silk threads of the cocoons.

Silk reels from A Manual Containing Information Respecting the Growth of the Mulberry Tree by J.H. Cobb, 1833

Women usually tended to the silkworms and also reeled the thread. “Everything, it is admitted, depends on the reeling,” wrote William Kenrick in an 1835 silk-growing manual. The cocoons were heated in near-boiling water to remove a fibrous outer coating and then carefully reeled, usually on a specially developed silk reel. A bar attached to the reel distributed the thread as it came out of the water. Stossel explained that the bar needed to be moved back and forth so that when the silk played out upon the spool, each strand would lie crosswise atop the others. This was necessary to prevent the silk threads from sticking together and tangling. The water had to be just the right temperature, and the spinner needed to be vigilant in adding new filaments to the reel and cocoons to the water. The process took years of experience to master. Too often Connecticut women did not have the time, and younger children who were sometimes assigned the task lacked the maturity and training.

Unless the process went smoothly the silk would be uneven in size and sported fluff and even bits of cocoon and other waste. Cloth woven from such substandard silk presented an uneven appearance. As textile mills began to develop in the 1820s mill owners found it easier to import raw silk supplies from Europe and Asia than to depend on domestic suppliers, even in Mansfield, where the first mill in the nation went into operation in 1810.  Meanwhile, the demanded for finished silk products was rising, and in 1824 the U.S. was importing more than $7 million in silk clothing and other products.

Dreams of Wealth Fuel a Market Frenzy

Despite the inferior quality of domestic silk and mills’ preference for foreign imports, a mulberry or silk craze emerged in the 1830s. It may have been spurred by the arrival of a new species of mulberry, the morus multicaulis. Originally propagated in Asia and the Western Pacific, the multicaulis grew far more rapidly than the other mulberry species. It also had stalks and branches that drooped close to the ground and wide leaves several times larger than those of other species. This eased the time and expense of harvesting, prompting promoters such as Edward P. Roberts, who wrote an 1839 mulberry tree manual, to suggest these costs could be cut up to 90 percent.

And there were many boosters. Congress, worried about the balance of trade in luxury items, commissioned a manual promoting silk production that was published in 1828; owners of nurseries that sold mulberry trees also wrote manuals. State legislatures, including Connecticut’s, offered new financial incentives or bounties that would be paid both to the growers of mulberry trees and for the number of silk reels produced. Many of the nation’s newspaper readers were farmers, and the publications featured numerous stories promoting silk production. Hardly anyone mentioned the many real difficulties of sericulture.

By 1830, John D’Homergue and Peter Duponceau reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that “suddenly and by a simultaneous and spontaneous impulse the people of the United States have directed their attention to this source of national riches…Everywhere, from north to south, mulberry trees have been planted and silkworms raised.” The Niles Weekly Register, based in Baltimore and considered by historians to be one of the nation’s most influential newspapers of its time, reported that at one agricultural fair more than 70,000 mulberry trees had been entered for various prizes.

As the 1830s progressed prices for the trees soared, as did profits for those selling them. By 1837 a new publication, the Silk Culturist, listed for sale two million white mulberry and 320,000 multicaulis trees. A Hartford nursery sold 300,000 trees in one year. Meanwhile, the Farmers’ Register, a newspaper published in Petersburg, Virginia, reported in its January 1837 issue that one farmer invested $17.50 in mulberry trees and made a $2,500 profit. A sale in Germantown, Pennsylvania of 260,050 trees netted $81,218. Nurseries that could charge $4 for a hundred multicaulis in 1834 could get $10 the next year and $30 by 1836.The New England Farmer reported, “We hear daily reports of individuals who have made their thousands and tens of thousands of dollars and the storekeeper, farmer, mechanic, etc. rush from their useful employment into the grand speculation.” Another writer exclaimed: “the product increases too fast – we grow rich too rapidly.”

Cocoonery, Cheney Brothers, Manchester, ca. 1900 – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated

By the 19th century this kind of speculative fever was not new to either American or other economies. In the 1600s the Dutch had experienced tulip mania, in which prices rose sky-high for tulip bulbs. Arthur Cole, in his 1926 article “Agriculture Crazes: A Neglected Chapter in American Economic History,” noted that speculation of various crops was common during this period in America. He described several such speculative phenomena: “Merino mania” surrounding a Spanish-bred merino sheep that produced highly-sought fine wool; “Berkshire fever” involving a hog that produced fine quality bacon; and the Rohan potato, which from a single tuber could produce 50 pounds of tubers. Each new product was introduced to wild acclaim, causing prices to climb to unsustainable levels until there was an inevitable price collapse. Cole quoted one writer of the time who observed that “your sober farmer is after all a little tinged with speculative fever whenever exotic plants or animals are brought forward.”

The mulberry speculation lured lawyers, physicians, merchants, and such prominent people as Daniel Webster. Prices for mulberry trees reached the point where they were considered more valuable for sale than they were to harvest for silkworms. Even a futures market developed, with owners selling notes of agreement to later purchase trees.

Pierced silk cocoons, Cheney Brothers, Manchester, ca. 1920s – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated

Along with the speculators came the frauds. Some purported to sell multicaulis seeds but substituted instead turnip or other seeds. Others sold silkworm eggs that came from fish or even were made of beeswax. One of the strongest charges of fraud was leveled against one of the biggest proponents of domestic silk production, Samuel Whitmarsh of Northampton, Massachusetts, who wrote a sericulture manual and had a major nursery. Whitmarsh was accused of selling multicaulis seed for $480 a pound when the product was actually white mulberry seed worth $15 a pound at most. According to Rossell, Whitmarsh put up only a “feeble defense,” which ultimately became pointless when all of his holdings were wiped out by the coming crash in mulberry prices.

Other key players in the waning days of the craze were Ward Cheney and his brothers Frank, Ralph, and Rush. The Cheney Brothers began growing mulberry trees at their farm in Manchester, Connecticut, and a second farm in Burlington, New Jersey. They made huge profits and at one time owned 100,000 mulberry trees. In 1838 two of the brothers sailed to Europe, where they bought 65,000 trees and boasted they would make a return of 700 percent. But many of the trees died in shipping.

The men returned to Europe in 1839 and bought even more trees. This time the trees made it, but they arrived just as prices were falling and panic was setting in. The Cheneys eventually declared bankruptcy but recovered to develop in Manchester what eventually became the premier silk textile plant in North America (See Hog River Journal, Spring 2005).

The Mulberry Craze Collapses

Historians do not make clear what caused the collapse in mulberry prices. The fall came after the general financial panic of 1837, which had actually caused mulberry prices to soar as investors took their cash and used it to buy more trees, which seemed a safer haven. Much of the blame has fallen on boosters who downplayed the labor involved in silk production while over-inflating the potential profits. Another factor was that the multicaulis was poorly equipped to weather the harsh winters of the northeastern United States.

Through 1839 prices fell at alarming rates. Trees that at the beginning of the year could fetch $1 to $1.25 by the end of the year could be had for 2 to 4 cents. One auction of 30,000 multicaulis trees that would have sold for $20,000 just a few years before now had no takers. Many nurserymen began burning the trees or using them for compost.

Some speculators faced ruin. According to Brockett’s 1876 history, one group of investors on the east coast loaded their entire inventory on a ship that they considered unseaworthy, bought insurance on the cargo, and sent it to New Orleans and up the river to Indiana. They were shocked and devastated when the worthless trees reached their destination.

No place was struck harder by the panic than Connecticut, especially Mansfield. Not only did many lose money, but the financial collapse was followed in 1840 by a harsh winter that killed many of the trees. In 1844 blight wiped out virtually all of the remaining multicaulis. Connecticut farmers had had enough.

Efforts to revive the domestic silkworm crop later were tried and failed in California. After the 1840s, while demand for silk remained strong, raw materials for its production were imported. Eventually the emergence of artificial fabrics destroyed U.S. silk production once and for all.

On a June day in 1881 a few sericulture veterans gathered at a home in Mansfield to reminisce about the old days, according to an account in the Willimantic Chronicle. Each speaker recalled how they and their neighbors had cultivated the trees, nurtured the worms, and spun the thread. They wondered what had gone wrong. Joseph Conant, who had had his own ups and downs over the years in the silk business, had heard enough. “Instead of cultivating our hearty trees and improving ourselves with patience in the reeling our excellent cocoons,” he said, “we made haste to be rich.”

No one disagreed with him.

Bob Wyss is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut who lives in Manfield and has authored two books and numerous articles.

©Connecticut Explored. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Connecticut Explored (formerly Hog River Journal) Vol. 8/ No. 3 Summer 2010.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/connecticuts-mulberry-craze/

‘I Now Pronounce You Lucy Stone’: Stratford to present live-stream showcasing famous feminist

A one-woman show about an abolitionist and activist who was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree, will be live-streamed at 7:15 p.m. Sept. 3.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/I-Now-Pronounce-You-Lucy-Stone-Stratford-15523049.php

Police: Wilton man dies in Massachusetts crash

Massachusetts State Police are investigating the collision.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Wilton-man-dies-in-Massachusetts-crash-15524947.php

CT woman ties state record with ‘massive’ pike catch

“I still can't believe I pulled it into my kayak without flipping over or having my toes bitten off,” she said.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/CT-woman-ties-state-record-with-massive-15524932.php

Bucks Resume NBA Playoffs After Sparking Historic Stoppage

The Milwaukee Bucks came to the arena and prepared for a game, just as they did three days earlier

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/bucks-resume-nba-playoffs-after-sparking-historic-stoppage/2325988/

Several buildings in downtown Seymour evacuated due to fire

There was no word on any injuries.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Several-buildings-in-downtown-Seymour-evacuated-15524537.php

Bridgeport police identify Shelton man killed in Friday shooting

George John, 25, died after being shot in the chest Friday, police said.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-police-identify-Shelton-man-killed-in-15524452.php

Cliff Robinson, Former NBA All-Star, Dies at 53

Former Warriors forward Cliff Robinson has died at the age of 53.

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/cliff-robinson-former-warriors-forward-and-nba-all-star-dies-at-53/2325923/

Bridgeport officials warn residents to guard against coronavirus, as Fairfield County ‘at risk of outbreak’

“We must take this seriously now in order to mitigate a surge in Bridgeport,” said Director of Health Lisa Morrissey in a statement.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-officials-warn-residents-to-guard-15524393.php

Former UConn Basketball Player Cliff Robinson Dies at 53

Cliff Robinson, who played for the University of Connecticut from 1985-1989 and went on to play 18 seasons in the NBA, has died. On Saturday, UConn Men’s Basketball tweeted “the UConn basketball family mourns the loss of a legendary player and person, Clifford Robinson.” Robinson averaged 15.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in 109 games for the Huskies and he led...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/former-uconn-basketball-player-cliff-robinson-dies-at-53/2325885/

Halladay’s Revolutionary Windmill – Today in History: August 29

Halladay’s Wind-Mill from Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs: A Practical and Copiously Illustrated Register of Rural Economy and Rural Taste, 1858

On August 29, 1854, Daniel Halladay a machinist, inventor, and businessman patented the first commercially viable windmill—Halladay’s Self-Governing Windmill. Halladay had been approached to work on the design by a local Ellington businessman, John Burnham. Burnham was involved in the pump business and understood that if a reliable source of power could be found to bring ground water to the surface he could significantly increase his customer base. Windmills had been used for centuries to grind grain, draw water, and power machines. So what was revolutionary about Halladay’s design? It allowed the windmill to automatically turn to face changing wind directions, and it regulated and maintained a uniform speed by changing the pitch of the sails—without human oversight.

The Tolland County Gazette reprinted an article from the New-York Tribune, in July of 1854, describing Halladay’s invention of a windmill with its self-furling sails: “the wind wheel is ten feet, and it has been in operation for six months without a hand being touched to it to regulate the sails.” The article went on to detail the unique design stating that the windmill would stand still during a storm with high winds, the edge of the sail wings facing into the wind, and as the storm died down the wings would gradually resume their position to catch the breeze. The windmill had also successfully drawn water from a well 28 feet deep, moving it more than 100 feet to a small reservoir in the upper part of a barn. The cost of this new-fangled invention was only $50 with the cost of the pumps and pipes running an additional $25.

Halladay quickly formed the Halladay Windmill Company of Ellington, eventually moving the firm to South Coventry and manufacturing there until 1863. Burnham encouraged Halladay to move the business to Batavia, Illinois, to be closer to the expanding Midwestern market and to better capitalize on the growing number of water-thirsty steam engines making their way across the country on an expanding network of railroads. Farmers and ranchers on the Western plains and prairies also looked to Halladay’s US Wind Engine and Pump Company. Its products sold in the thousands to this market, where the ability to harness wind power made it significantly easier to provide much needed water for crop irrigation and maintaining livestock.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/halladays-revolutionary-windmill-today-in-history-august-29/

For Health Workers, the Pandemic Tour De France Is a Big Ask

Racing around the southern French city of Nice this weekend, Tour de France riders will speed past a hospital where health workers are traumatized by their battle against the coronavirus

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/coronavirus/for-health-workers-the-pandemic-tour-de-france-is-a-big-ask/2325801/

UConn could face largest budget shortfall in school’s history

UConn officials on Friday said the school is potentially facing the most dire financial situation in its history, and warned that an existing $74 million budget deficit could skyrocket if the university is forced to shut down again because of the pandemic.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/UConn-could-face-largest-budget-shortfall-in-15523461.php

New Haven Athletes Express Frustration Over Canceled Season

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference is moving forward with all fall sports, including high school football, but it’s a different story in New Haven where the school district has canceled high school football competition in the fall. “It just doesn’t make sense,” said Hillhouse senior Gianni Bethea. “You work so hard as a senior and this is your last year...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/new-haven-athletes-express-frustration-over-canceled-season/2325685/

Lawsuit: Former Bridgeport school assistant superintendent claims she was illegally fired

Dr. Christiana Otuwa, a former assistant superintendent of schools in Bridgeport, claims in a lawsuit against the city and Board of Education that she was illegally fired.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Lawsuit-Former-Bridgeport-school-assistant-15523075.php

Former home contractor makes first restitution payment in 11 years

A former home improvement contractor convicted 11 years ago of defrauding homeowners of more than $200,000 has finally made a restitution payment.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Former-home-contractor-makes-first-fraud-15522785.php

New Adopted POCD 2020-2030

The Newington Town Plan and Zoning Commission has adopted a new Plan of Conservation and Development for 2020-2030.

from Newington, CT - News Flash https://www.newingtonct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=1453

TPZ Notice of Decision 08/26/2020

The Town Plan and Zoning Commission took the following actions...

from Newington, CT - News Flash https://www.newingtonct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=1451

New Adopted POCD 2020-2030

The Newington Town Plan and Zoning Commission has adopted a new Plan of Conservation and Development for 2020-2030.

from Newington, CT - News Flash https://www.newingtonct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=1450

NBA Playoffs Resume Saturday as Sides Detail New Commitments

The NBA playoffs will resume Saturday after the league and the National Basketball Players Association detailed the commitments that made players comfortable continuing the postseason

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/nba-playoffs-resume-saturday-as-sides-detail-new-commitments/2325479/

Monroe able to provide evidence in PURA review of Eversource storm response

Town residents will be able to submit their accounts of how Tropical Storm Isaias affected them for Eversource hearing.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Monroe-able-to-provide-evidence-in-PURA-review-of-15521873.php

Analysis: How llamas and cats might save us from COVID

Researchers are looking at both llamas and cats for ways to treat coronavirus infections. Really.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Analysis-How-llamas-and-cats-might-save-us-from-15521876.php

CT nursing homes fined for not testing staff for COVID

Avery Nursing Home in Hartford and Hamden Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Hamden were each fined $1,140 for the lapse.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/CT-nursing-homes-fined-for-not-testing-staff-for-15521610.php

CT maxes out budget reserve as coffers approach $3.1 billion

With the state’s rainy day fund exceeding the limit for the first time in 19 years, lawmakers are pushing for more funding to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/CT-maxes-out-budget-reserve-as-coffers-approach-15521485.php

Warrant: CT man threatened to kill cops if sick dog dies

Christopher O'Neal told a UPS worker about his plot to kill Old Saybrook police officers if his sick dog died, according to an arrest warrant.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Warrant-CT-man-threatened-to-kill-cops-if-sick-15521532.php

NWS: Mild weather for a day, then rain and storms return

Widespread rain — with an inch or more possible — is expected all day Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/weather/article/NWS-Mild-weather-for-a-day-then-rain-and-storms-15521429.php

Thousands without power after storms rip through CT

The day after strong thunderstorms — and possible tornadoes — swept though Connecticut, thousands of people remain without power Friday morning.

As of 6 a.m., Eversource reported nearly 21,696 customers without power and United Illuminating had 13,149.

One of the hardest hit towns in Eversource’s territory was Branford with more than 96 percent of its customers without electricity Friday morning. Bethany, where a possible tornado touched down, more than 80 percent of residents remained without power.

Eversource said crews worked through the night to restore power.

“We’re focused on assessing damage in the hard-hit towns of Newtown, Cheshire and Madison,” the company said Friday morning. “We’ll be using night-capable drones to get the best view of the storm’s impact so we can assess the damage as quickly and safely as possible.”

Most of the Eversource outages are in western Connecticuut and along the shoreline from Branford to Madison.

Eversource has not yet provided restoration times for most towns.

United...

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Thousands-without-power-after-storms-rip-through-15521367.php

And They’re Off!: Harness Racing at Charter Oak Park

by Andrea Rapacz for Your Public Media

The day was cool and 10,000 spectators crowded the stands at Charter Oak Park to see the gray stallion Alcryon come from behind to beat the great trotting mare Geneva S. and the flagging favorite Nelson in the Charter Oak Stakes on August 28, 1889.

Directum. Letterpress broadside advertising a race at Charter Oak Park, after 1894.  The great trotting stallion Directum set the world’s record at 2 minutes 5 seconds in 1894 – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated

Charter Oak Park opened in 1873 near the Hartford/West Hartford line. In addition to a race track, it also came to include Luna Park, a popular amusement area, and the grounds served as the venue for the Connecticut State Fair, an annual two-week event.

The mile-long race track at Charter Oak Park was especially designed for harness racing, though in the early 1900s it was also the site of bicycle and automobile races. It was one of the best-known tracks in New England and many famous horses and drivers raced there. Harness racing, a type of horse racing where the driver sits on a two-wheeled sulky attached to the horse by a harness, was wildly popular in 19th-century America. The horses are required to run with a specific gait—either pacing (when the front and back legs on the same side move in unison) or trotting (when the front and back legs on opposite sides move together). The horses in the images for this article are all trotters.

An Early Example of the Photo Finish

Sometimes horse races are so close that it is difficult to determine who won. Today it is standard practice for a photo to be taken at the end of every race showing the exact positions of the horses as they crossed the finish line. In the 1880s, this technology was in its infancy and the photograph showing the conclusion of the 1889 Charter Oak stakes, which Alcryon won by a head, is among the earliest ever taken. The very first harness race ever filmed was shot by the Edison Manufacturing Co. at Charter Oak Park in 1897.

Already by the 1920s, Charter Oak Park was finding it difficult to compete with other forms of entertainment. When Connecticut instituted anti-betting laws in 1925, the racetrack was doomed. It fell into disrepair and was closed in the 1930s. Today, the area bound by New Park Avenue and Charter Oak Boulevard is occupied by strip malls and big box stores.

Andrea Rapacz is currently the Head of Interpretive Projects at the Connecticut Historical Society and has been part of the CHS exhibitions staff since 1995.

© Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and Connecticut Historical Society. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared on Your Public Media.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/and-theyre-off-harness-racing-at-charter-oak-park/

Connecticut judge: Public campaign grants can pay for child care

A Fairfield mother ran for state representative in 2018 and was barred from using public election grants to cover child care.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/politics/article/Connecticut-judge-Public-campaign-grants-can-pay-15521123.php

Analysis: the NBA Restart Is About to Restart, With Purpose

The restart is about to restart.

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/analysis-the-nba-restart-is-about-to-restart-with-purpose/2325243/

Police: 2 shot in the arm in Bridgeport

Two people suffered gunshot wounds to the arm in a Thursday night shooting, according to police.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-2-shot-in-the-arm-in-Bridgeport-15520841.php

Connecticut Sports Figures Add Their Voices To Current Push For Racial Justice

Decades before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, athletes protested. Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised one fist in the air during medal ceremonies at the 1968 games.  Muhammad Ali used his fists to build a platform commonly used for activism. What transpired Wednesday, however, is different. “Many athletes have done it but to have a league do it?...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/connecticut-sports-figures-add-their-voices-to-current-push-for-racial-justice/2325090/

Police: Storm cleanup at UI substation in Ansonia to cause outages

After a tree fell on a transmission line at the United Illuminating substation, thousands of residents were told to expect at least a two-hour power outage.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Police-Storm-cleanup-at-UI-substation-in-Ansonia-15520641.php

Officials: Tornado may have touched down in CT

With the severe thunderstorms came heavy rain and “tornado-like wind speeds” from some parts of the state, according to the National Weather Service.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Officials-Tornado-may-have-touched-down-in-CT-15520677.php

Lamont announces expanded visiting hours at CT nursing homes

Most visitation at CT nursing homes will remain outside, but indoors will be allowed for those in psycho-social need and end-of-life.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/Lamont-announces-expanded-visiting-hours-at-CT-15520576.php

UConn dorm quarantined as COVID spreads on campus

The nearly 300 students living in the Garrigus Suites will be quarantined.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/UConn-dorm-quarantined-as-COVID-spreads-on-campus-15520302.php

State lawmakers hit Eversource CEO on storm response at hearing

More than three weeks after a tropical storm knocked out power to most of Connecticut, state lawmakers on Thursday lambasted top management of Massachusetts-based Eversource Energy, venting the frustrations of ratepayers and charging that a slow response and poor communications were unacceptable.

Members of the legislative Energy & Technology Committee questioned Eversource CEO Jim Judge for most of the day, recounting week-long outages caused by downed trees that blocked driveways, streets and entire neighborhoods for more than a million customers.

While stressing that Eversource isn’t required, like utilities in other states, to provide reinbursement for spoiled food, Judge hinted that the company might provide something to customers, eventually, maybe.

It was the biggest public backlash against a state-regulated electric monopoly since the August and October storms of 2011 paralyzed the state that led to legislation that mandated better response times and improved communications.

State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, said his town experienced about 98-percent outages and 200 roads blocked. “Unfortunately, we had a lot of people who were still without power going six, seven, eight days,” said Steinberg, who noticed a shortage of so-called make-safe crews to partner with local public works officials to clear live lines blocking roads.

“The current regulatory environment is not working for Connecticut,” Steinberg said.

“There was great frustration, maybe it was a communication issue, that there were not more make-safe crews available,” Steinberg said. “Which retarded the reopening of streets and the subsequent restoration work. We saw four, five, six crews, some of them out-of-state crews, sitting...

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/State-lawmakers-hit-Eversource-CEO-on-storm-15520263.php

Tri-state governors charge new testing guidelines are based on ‘the President’s misinformation’

Trump ‘misinformation’ cited by tri-state governors after CDC says people without symptoms don’t need tests.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/politics/article/Tri-state-governors-charge-new-testing-guidelines-15519626.php

Chris Webber Delivers Poignant Message on Players' Protest After Kenny Smith Walks Off NBA Show

Former NBA star and TNT analyst Chris Webber delivered an emotional speech Wednesday in support of NBA players who refused to take the court in their playoff games that night. The five-time All Star was scheduled to commentate on one of Wednesday night’s NBA playoff games from the Orlando bubble when all three basketball matchups were postponed in protest over...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/chris-webber-delivers-poignant-message-on-players-protest-after-kenny-smith-walks-off-nba-show/2324922/

Analysis: Why the 6-foot-distance rule doesn’t make sense

The idea that people should stay 2 meters apart to avoid cactching an illness dates back to the 19th century and ignores modern science, researchers say.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Analysis-Why-the-6-foot-distance-rule-doesn-t-15519483.php

‘People Still Don't Care': Mets' Dominic Smith Tears Up After Kneeling in Protest

Mets slugger Dominic Smith doesn’t care if white teammates join him in kneeling for the national anthem. Doesn’t need them to cut a check to his charity, either. “If you give your time, that’s the only way we can change,” he said. Smith spoke through tears Wednesday night after deciding for the first time to protest during “The Star-Spangled Banner”...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/people-still-dont-care-mets-dominic-smith-tears-up-after-kneeling-in-protest/2324672/

Bridgeport officials: Get inside before storms hit this afternoon

The main severe threat coming from thunderstorms will develop and move into the region between 2 and 7 p.m.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-officials-Get-inside-before-storms-15519390.php

Eversource CEO finally emerges during CT hearing on Isaias response

Connecticut General Assembly members said they understood the challenges faced by Eversource after Tropical Storm Isaias, but held to the stance the utility’s preparations were insufficient.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Eversource-CEO-finally-emerges-during-CT-hearing-15519161.php

The State of CT announces Stage 2 drought conditions

The State of Connecticut has announced that the four northern counties (Litchfield, Hartford, Tolland, and Windham) are experiencing Stage 2 Drought conditions. View the press release and map for details...

from Newington, CT - News Flash https://www.newingtonct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=1448

‘A significant accomplishment’: Eversource defends Isaias response, doesn’t rule out restitution

In advance of CEO Jim Judge meeting with Connecticut legislators on Thursday, the company issued an accounting for its preparation and response to Tropical Storm Isaias.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Eversource-defends-Isaias-response-no-mention-of-15518800.php

Child advocates seek data on CT pedestrian stops

The Center for Children’s Advocacy says there is no data on why youth are often stopped on urban streets.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Child-advocates-seek-data-on-CT-pedestrian-stops-15518695.php

Eversource: Crews ready for today’s severe weather

Eversource said “our warehouses have been replenished with supplies since Isaias so crews have the materials they need.”

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Eversource-Crews-ready-for-today-s-severe-15518670.php

CT faces severe thunderstorms, remnants of Laura

After strong storms on Thursday, the National Hurricane Ceneter has placed southeast Connecticut in the cone of Laura’s expected track this weekend.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/weather/article/CT-faces-severe-thunderstorms-remnants-of-Laura-15518653.php

Youth Basketball League Changes Game Plan to Ensure Safety

In March, everything came to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the high school basketball playoffs. “It was hard,” said Windsor sophomore Troy McKoy Jr. “I honestly didn’t believe it when I heard it,” said Bloomfield junior Lake McLean. After months without the opportunity to play, community leaders Chris Prescott and Steven Samuels, who work to train and...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/youth-basketball-league-changes-game-plan-to-ensure-safety/2324694/

CIAC to Give Update on Fall Sports Plan

CIAC will hold a news conference to discuss their updated Fall Sports Plan Thursday morning. The CIAC originally released a plan for fall football but then hit pause in response to concerns from the state Department of Public Health over contact sports.  The 10:30 a.m. conference will be held at the CIAC offices on Realty Drive in Cheshire. This conference comes...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/ciac-to-give-update-on-fall-sports-plan/2324670/

Nicholas Grillo and his Thornless Rose

By Elizabeth Correia

Nicholas Grillo was a self-made floriculturist who ventured from Italy to Connecticut and found success under the glass panes of his Southington greenhouses. Grillo’s floristry business earned a national reputation for the quality of its roses as well as for developing the world’s first thornless hybrid tea rose.

Cultivating a Career in Floristry

Grillo in his greenhouses in May 1942 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Nicholas Grillo was born on July 23, 1888, in the old Sicilian town of Tusa. As a youth he dreamed of leaving the town’s stone-lined streets behind and living in the United States. It was a dream he realized on May 29, 1906, when he stepped off the SS Liguria with $20.30 in his possession and took up residence with his uncle in Rhode Island.

Within four years, Nicholas had left his uncle’s house to live in Stonington, Connecticut, and worked as a laborer at nearby greenhouses. Boarding and working with him were his brothers Salvatore (age 18) and Peter (age 17) who had recently arrived from Italy. Nicholas was the only one of the three able to speak English fluently at the time and obtained an apprenticeship under Andrew N. Pierson, a floriculturist in Cromwell. The skills Grillo learned under Pierson bred much future success.

In 1915 Grillo set up his own greenhouses at the corner of Canal Street and Burritt Street in the Milldale portion of Southington. He worked as a floriculturist, growing and selling a variety of flowers for wholesale and retail. Nicholas married Southington native Jennie Ann Castaldi in 1917. For a time after their marriage she assisted Nicholas, performing secretarial duties before Grillo’s sister Mary took over for her. Grillo was also able to help support numerous other relatives as they arrived from Italy, often landing their first jobs working in Grillo’s greenhouses or delivering flowers. His brother Salvatore lived with him and worked on Canal Street from 1917 to 1927, at which time he moved to Meriden to set up his own greenhouses with older brother Domenico under the name D. Grillo & Bros. Nicholas’s brother Peter managed the Meriden Flower Garden, and his nephew Joseph established Grillo Inc., Florists in Meriden.

Grillo’s Magnum Opus: The Thornless Beauty

The Thornless Beauty rose in its five stages of bloom. Source: Popular Science Monthly, April 1939.

About the same time that his family established themselves in Meriden, Nicholas Grillo’s career reached full bloom. First, in 1923 he patented the Grillodale rose (named after himself) and eight years later, the American Pride Rose, the flower that won him gold and silver medals at the Philadelphia Flower Show and decorated a float in the 1932 Washington Bicentennial parade. Then, in 1938, Grillo developed the Thornless Beauty—the first hybrid tea rose without thorns. In the early 20th century, hybrid tea roses were among the most popular garden roses because of their large flowers, general hardiness, and sweet smell. Grillo’s Thornless Beauty had a light crimson blossom filled with fifty petals and promptly won a medal at the International Flower Show in New York. Newspapers worldwide hailed Grillo’s innovation and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt even ordered his flowers for display at the White House.

In 1965 Nicholas retired after operating his greenhouses for fifty years. His daughter Josephine inherited the business, fully prepared by her father’s training and a degree in commerce. Sadly, Josephine grew ill and passed away on October 4, 1975, just six months after the passing of her father. The Grillo greenhouses did not outlive Nicholas and Josephine and soon disappeared from Canal Street, but a plaque sits in the gardens of the Barnes Museum in Southington to commemorate Grillo’s lush career.

Elizabeth Correia holds an MA degree in Public History from Central Connecticut State University and works in cultural resource management.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/nicholas-grillo-and-his-thornless-rose/

Oystering in Connecticut, from Colonial Times to the 21st Century

By Doe Boyle

The Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica), designated as the state shellfish in 1989, is a bivalve mollusk that grows naturally in Connecticut’s tidal rivers and coastal bays and is cultivated in seeded beds in Long Island Sound by oyster farmers. Oysters, long a favored and dependable food source of the area’s native peoples, also became a diet staple of early European settlers, who quickly learned how to cultivate and harvest oysters from the Long Island Sound.

“Best Oysters in the Country,” HC Rowe & Co., advertisement, Fair Haven, 1880s – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated

Early Oystering Leads to Fishing Laws

During the colonial period, many Connecticut fishermen began to focus their labors exclusively on the collection of wild, or naturally occurring, oysters. This activity triggered a depletion of the natural beds and threatened the existence of the species in local waters. In the early 18th century the first colonial laws regulating the taking of oysters in Connecticut waters appeared, and some of the earliest town records (in Stonington and Groton, for instance) relate to the separation and designation of individually parceled oyster grounds.

In about 1750, the General Assembly voted to permit shore towns to enact bylaws regulating the taking of shellfish in each town’s adjoining waters. In 1762, a law passed at a New Haven town meeting prohibited oystering during the spawning months from May through August to allow oysters time to mature and reproduce. In 1766, the use of “draggs” (bottom-scraping dredges) was outlawed to further protect the natural beds.

Demand for Shellfish Creates Need for Importation

Unfortunately, the laws that had been intended to protect the beds failed to stop overfishing in southern Connecticut. Before oyster cultivation began in local waters, shortages of “natural growthers” led some oystermen to buy their “catch” in New York, the Delaware Bay, and the Chesapeake Bay. As John M. Kochiss notes in Oystering from New York to Boston (1974), “the commerce in oysters from the Chesapeake…was confined in Connecticut almost exclusively to New Haven, where the largest oyster shops were located.”

Indeed, as reported by Ernest Ingersoll in his 1881 volume, The Oyster Industry: Tenth Census of the United States, 250 schooners imported 2 million bushels of oysters to New Haven’s Fair Haven oyster shops in 1858. These Fair Haven oysters were then shipped inland to such cities as St. Louis and Chicago. By the 1890s, the world’s largest fleet of oyster steamships operated in Connecticut.

Connecticut Oystermen Learn to Cultivate

An oyster house on the New Haven shoreline, 1872 – Mystic Seaport and Connecticut History Illustrated

Town records of early colonists in Groton indicate that some oystermen experimented with cultivation. Groton oystermen bent branches into the water to attract oyster larvae, which would then “set” on the twigs and grow to edible size. For the most part, however, oyster-bed cultivation was unknown in the United States until the 1820s, when the creation of artificial beds began in earnest. Connecticut oystermen gathered the free-swimming oyster larvae, planted them on artificially created beds of oyster shells and raised them to maturity. By the late 19th century, oyster cultivation in the state had developed into a major industry.

In the 1800s, oystering boomed in New Haven, Bridgeport, and Norwalk and claimed modest success in other towns along the Connecticut shore. By the mid-19th century, Connecticut led oyster seed production north of New Jersey. Famed as robust, select oysters of consistent size, with deeply cupped shells and fat meats with a flavorful saltiness, Long Island Sound’s Bluepoint, Saddle Rock, and Great White oysters were known far and wide. In 1911, Connecticut’s oyster production reached its peak at nearly 25 million pounds of oyster meats—higher by far than producers in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Threats to the Oyster and the Oyster Industry in the 20th Century

Schooner in front of Radel Oyster Co., South Norwalk, early 1900s – Mystic Seaport and Connecticut History Illustrated

Increases in the coastal human population, industrialization, pollution, and marine traffic, as well as continued overfishing, threatened Connecticut’s oyster beds after 1920, with production falling drastically after 1950. Predation by such creatures as oyster drills (a snail), black drum (a fish), crabs, and sea stars decreased yield, as did destruction of beds by severe storms, increased amounts of silt, and channel dredging.

Market demand for oysters from 1890 to 1940 also faltered because of economic depressions and because consumers discovered that oysters could contain pathogens. Later in the 20th century, a spike in water temperatures and the resulting bloom of naturally occurring parasites destroyed 80-90% of the state’s oysters, particularly in 1997 and 1998.

Oyster grounds in New Haven Harbor, from the State Shell Fish Commission, 1949 – Mystic Seaport and Connecticut History Online

Aquaculture and the Return of the Oyster

Today, marine biologists are breeding hardier parasite-resistant oysters. Connecticut aquaculture—the farming of aquatic plants and animals—includes renewed oyster-growing operations on underwater leases in Long Island Sound. At the outset of the 21st century aquaculture became one of the country’s fastest growing agricultural industries, and, for Connecticut, oyster farming accounted for its lead in aquaculture production in the Northeast.

In the process of oyster farming, very young oysters are spawned in a land-based or offshore hatchery, moved to a protected off-bottom, floating-dock nursery system where seed oysters grow in mesh bags or cages, and then returned to artificial clean-shell beds for the completion of their growth to market-size oysters. These artificial oyster beds have the same environmental benefits as natural beds, and the oysters that grow under these techniques generally reach a bigger size, have fleshier meats and are better shaped than “natural set” oysters. Among the actively managed beds in coastal Connecticut are those in the Mystic area, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Norwalk.

In the 21st century, Connecticut’s oyster industry is enjoying a slow but steady renaissance. In the year 2008, for instance, more than 160,000 100-count bags of Connecticut-grown oysters, worth well more than $6 million, were marketed throughout the country. Renowned for their quality and flavor, Connecticut oysters, restored by nature and by careful regulation and advanced techniques in aquaculture, seem destined for continued economic importance.

Doe Boyle, a Connecticut Office of the Arts Master Teaching Artist of creative and expository writing, is an editor, a widely published freelance writer, and the author of 11 children’s books and 2 travel guides to Connecticut, her home state.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/oystering-in-connecticut-from-colonial-times-to-today/

Milford PD: Woman threatened to have others ‘killed by the mob’

A Milford woman threatened to have others “killed by the mob” during a recent incident, according to police.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Milford-PD-Woman-threatened-to-have-others-15517937.php

High School Football is On This Fall

High school football is on in Connecticut this fall, the chair of the Connecticut High School Football Coaches Association confirmed Wednesday night. Harry Bellucci, who is also the Hartford Public coach and a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference football committee member, said there will be a season. The CIAC, which originally released a plan for fall football but then hit pause...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/high-school-football-is-on-this-fall/2324485/

Police: Checks stolen from Easton mailboxes

Police are urging residents to use USPS drop boxes to mail checks after several were stolen from mailboxes in town recently.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-Checks-stolen-from-Easton-mailboxes-15517740.php

Cocaine distribution lands CT man in federal prison

Federal authorities say the New London man was tied to two separate drug organizations in southeastern Connecticut over the last few years.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Cocaine-distribution-lands-CT-man-in-federal-15517524.php

Milwaukee Bucks Don't Take Floor for NBA Game in Apparent Boycott Over Jacob Blake Shooting

NBA players made their strongest statement yet against racial injustice Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of their series shortly after 4 p.m., with the Bucks needing a win to advance to the second round. An NBA source confirmed to CNBC...

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/race-in-america/milwaukee-bucks-dont-take-floor-for-nba-playoff-game-apparently-in-response-to-shooting-of-jacob-blake/2324341/

More than 2,000 power outages in Ansonia after crash knocks down wires

More than 2,000 United Illuminating customers are without power in Ansonia after a crash knocked down a tree on some wires.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/More-than-2-000-power-outages-in-Ansonia-after-15517175.php

Farm stand to open on Bridgeport Hospital’s Milford site

Throughout the month of September, staff and members of the public can buy fresh produce at a farm stand at Bridgeport Hospital’s Milford campus.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Farm-stand-to-open-on-Bridgeport-Hospital-s-15516892.php

Red Cross offers donors haircuts, socks during cancer month

Donors giving blood or platelets during September will receive a coupon for a free Sport Clips haircut via email. Also socks.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Red-Cross-offers-donors-haircuts-socks-during-15516838.php

CT Women's Hall of Fame- Votes for Women - Thursday, September 10 at 1:00 pm

Join us for a virtual program from the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame that highlights the Connecticut women who fought for women’s right to vote. Program is available via Zoom. Registration is required.

from Newington, CT - News Flash https://www.newingtonct.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?aid=1446

Analysis: The (possibly) false hope of a vaccine

We’re all hoping for a vaccine to arrive on a white horse wielding a magic sword and save us from the dragon Corona, and it’s just not that simple.

Yesterday, Anthony Fauci (perhaps the doomsaying seer in our little mythological analogy) warned that a vaccine will take time.

“The one thing that you would not want to see with a vaccine is getting an [emergency use authorization] before you have a signal of efficacy,” he told Reuters, warning that a prematurely released vaccine could do more damage than good. “One of the potential dangers if you prematurely let a vaccine out is that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the other vaccines to enroll people in their trial."

Translation: It’s going to have to be done in a deliberate way. But, even then, as Yale epidemiologist Virginia Pitzer said a few months ago, a vaccine is “not necessarily going to make everything go away so that it's never a problem.”

She said that for a vaccine to help us reach the herd immunity threshold, it would have to have 67 percent efficacy — meaning that it would have to be 67 percent effective at stopping the disease and administered to 100 percent of the population, be 100 percent effective and administered to 67 percent of population, or somewhere between the two.

Meanwhile, a Gallup poll from earlier this month showed that one third of the U.S. population would refuse to be vaccinated. As Pitzer said, if only 66 percent of the population agrees to get the shot, it has to be 100 percent effective to result in herd immunity.

Add to all of that the fact that...

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Analysis-The-possibly-false-hope-of-a-vaccine-15516364.php

Gas leak forces evacuation of Milford houses

The leak reported at shortly after 8:30 a.m. in the Wildermere Beach neighborhood.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Gas-leak-reported-in-Milford-15515850.php

DOT: Norwalk to NY taking 45 minutes on I-95 due to disabled truck

The state Department of Transportation says average traffic speeds through the area are 22 mph.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/DOT-Norwalk-to-NY-taking-45-minutes-on-I-95-due-15515686.php

New regulatory leader faces pivotal probe of CT utilities

Marissa Gillett is the new chairwoman of PURA, which has been tasked with investigating how Eversource and United Illuminating handled Tropical Storm Isaias.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/New-regulatory-leader-faces-pivotal-probe-of-CT-15515745.php

NWS: Fall-like weather followed by Tropical Storm remnants this week

Depending on the track of the tropical storm, the potential exists for periods of moderate to heavy rain later this week.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/weather/article/NWS-Fall-like-weather-followed-by-Tropical-Storm-15515663.php

Caleb Brewster and the Culper Spy Ring

by Andy Piascik

Like many children raised at a time when traversing the world’s oceans was the ultimate adventure, Caleb Brewster dreamed of going to sea. It’s not difficult to imagine young Caleb standing on the shore near his childhood home in Setauket, New York, looking north across Long Island Sound to Connecticut. He undoubtedly dreamt, too, of sailing the far greater expanse of the Atlantic Ocean to the east, out of sight at that distance but alive nonetheless in the imagination of a young boy. Brewster eventually realized his dream and, in so doing, helped shape the destiny of the new United States of America.

Brewster was born in Setauket in 1747 and signed on to a whaling boat as a young man. By the time hostilities between colonial revolutionaries and the British Crown escalated in 1775, he was an expert seaman. He was especially familiar with the many intricacies of the northern Long Island coastline, as well as the 18-mile stretch north to Connecticut, particularly Fairfield and what is now Bridgeport.

Benjamin Tallmadge

Benjamin Tallmadge, painted by E. Ames – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Among Brewster’s acquaintances when he was a young man were members of the Tallmadge family, also of Setauket. Benjamin Tallmadge was a graduate of Yale who became General George Washington’s chief intelligence officer and eventually rose to the rank of colonel. Tallmadge was a classmate of Nathan Hale in college and, in the early years of the Revolutionary War, helped organize the Culper Spy Ring.

Brewster’s friendship with the Tallmadges and his expertise as a seaman made him a natural for recruitment to the Culper Ring. (Culper was the phony name used by Abraham Woodhull, another Setauket native, who was one of the ring’s agents.) New York City was a strong British base of operation during the war and the Culper Ring proved instrumental in securing information of vital importance to the revolutionary cause, and, according to some historical accounts, even played a role in uncovering the spy work done by Benedict Arnold on behalf of the British.

Caleb Brewster’s Espionage on Long Island Sound

With Tallmadge stationed in Connecticut and most of the spy work transpiring in New York City, Brewster’s role was to transport information across the sound from Long Island. Information secured in New York passed to several members of the ring and eventually to Brewster in Setauket. Brewster then sailed to Connecticut and delivered the information to Tallmadge. Frequently, Brewster then sailed back to Long Island to deliver whatever reports and supporting documents Tallmadge gave to a courier who relayed them to Washington via a network of other couriers.

“Culper gets message here and sends across the sound by Caleb Brewster.” Detail of map from General Washington’s spies on Long Island and in New York by Morton Pennypacker, 1939.

The security of New York City and western Long Island were of critical importance to the British and they had a highly developed counterintelligence force throughout the area. On one occasion, a British officer discovered Brewster while he waited to receive information from another member of the Culper Ring. Brewster knocked the officer from his horse and forcibly took some of the man’s possessions before fleeing, thus making it appear that the confrontation was simply a robbery rather than a matter of espionage.

Despite all the precautions they took, some of those involved in the Culper Ring fell under British suspicion. In Brewster’s case, the British knew his name, they knew he lived and operated in and around Setauket, and some accounts indicate they knew he was the primary courier between Long Island and Connecticut. The British never captured him, though. Brewster had a reputation for being extremely brave and some accounts indicate several occasions where he effectively battled British ships far larger than his whaling boat. Of equal importance were his resourcefulness, his seamanship, and his familiarity with every cove and eddy on both sides of the sound. In combination, these enabled him to carry out his work aiding the revolutionary cause.

Life in Connecticut

After the Revolutionary War, Brewster settled in Connecticut and became a blacksmith and a farmer. He was also, for many years, an officer in the United States Revenue Cutter Service, forerunner of the Coast Guard. He died in 1827 at the age of 79 in a section of Fairfield that is now part of Bridgeport. There is a street named after him in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport near where he lived.

Bridgeport native Andy Piascik is an award-winning author who has written for many publications and websites over the last four decades. He is also the author of two books.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/caleb-brewster-and-the-culper-spy-ring/

A Fair to Remember in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Fair is held annually during the last weekend in August and is sponsored by the Windham County Agricultural Society. The society’s goal in sponsoring the fair is to promote and preserve the area’s agricultural heritage. Offering a variety of family-friendly entertainment that includes rides, agricultural competitions, and live music, the Brooklyn Fair is one of the oldest, continuously operating agricultural fairs in Connecticut.

In 1809, a group of Windham County residents gathered during the harvest to celebrate the season and share their stories of farming and domestic life. (Agriculture still dominated the local economy despite the emerging textile centers growing in towns like Putnam and Willimantic.) Once organized as the Pomfret United Agricultural Society, this group of friends, relatives, and neighbors ensured the operation of a fair every year—alternating locations between the towns of Brooklyn, Pomfret, and Woodstock.

Windham County Agricultural Society entrance sign from the Henry McEwen Collection-Glass Plate Negatives – Killingly Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc. Library

Early fairs consisted largely of cattle shows but included exhibits of needlework and household items produced by local women. After 11 years of operating the fair, the group (now numbering over 100) incorporated as the Windham County Agricultural Society. Several decades later, in 1849, the society purchased land at the intersection of what is now Route 169 and Fairground Road. This land became the permanent home of the Brooklyn Fair and is still in use today.

In recent years the Windham County Agricultural Society has successfully expanded the variety of services it offers to the community, as well as the entertainment available to visitors at the fair. The fair still emphasizes agricultural and domestic manufacture but has expanded its focus far beyond livestock, needlework, and jarred preserves. Recent fairs offered visitors the opportunity to witness chainsaw competitions, dog shows, a pedal tractor pull for children, and live musical performances. The Windham County Agricultural Society uses the proceeds from the fair to fund, among other things, a college scholarship program for local residents.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/a-fair-to-remember-in-brooklyn/

Police: CT man on probation for burglary offense commits another burglary

A city man was determined to be a person of interest in several other burglaries when he was charged with a recent burglary, police said.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-CT-man-on-probation-for-burglary-offense-15514852.php

Silver Alert issued for missing Waterbury man

Waterbury police ask anyone who sees a missing 57-year-old resident to call in the sighting to police immediately.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Silver-Alert-issued-for-missing-Waterbury-man-15514902.php

Feds: Hartford drug trafficker gets 10 years in prison

A Hartford man who officials said was involved in drug trafficking in the city will serve 10 years in federal prison.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Feds-Hartford-drug-trafficker-gets-10-years-in-15514657.php

Vehicle fire causes delays on Route 15 south in Milford

A vehicle fire closed a stretch of Route 15 south in Milford on Tuesday.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Vehicle-fire-prompts-lane-closures-on-Route-15-15514411.php

Bridgeport FD: 3 rescued at Seaside Park; no injuries

No one was injured after three people got stranded on the rocks out at Seaside Park Tuesday afternoon.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Bridgeport-FD-3-rescued-at-Seaside-Park-no-15514406.php

Police: Shooting victim shows up at Bridgeport Hospital

A gunshot wound victim turned up at a city hospital late Tuesday afternoon, according to police.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-Shooting-victim-shows-up-at-Bridgeport-15514332.php

Woman convicted of false rape claims is denied early end to her probation

Nikki Yovino, convicted in 2018 of making false rape claims against two former Sacred Heart University football players, was denied an early end to her probation.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Woman-convicted-of-false-rape-claims-is-denied-15514302.php

Reward offered in Milford bank robbery

Police in Milford are looking for an individual they say is responsible for a recent bank robbery.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Reward-offered-in-Milford-bank-robbery-15514260.php

Man accused of kidnapping, shooting at his ex-girlfriend

A Bridgeport man was arrested after police said he kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint and then shot at her.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Man-accused-of-kidnapping-shooting-at-his-15514202.php

Bridgeport firefighters battle two-alarm fire on Park Ave.

Bridgeport firefighters are battling a two-alarm fire on Park Avenue Tuesday afternoon.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-firefighters-battle-two-alarm-fire-on-15514002.php

Bridgeport police investigate Park Avenue stabbing

Police said a preliminary report indicated there was a stabbing on the 1200 block of Park Avenue Tuesday afternoon.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Bridgeport-police-investigate-Park-Avenue-stabbing-15513865.php

Lionel Messi Tells Barcelona He Wants to Leave the Club

Lionel Messi has told Barcelona he wants to leave the club after nearly two decades with the Spanish giants

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/sports/lionel-messi-tells-barcelona-he-wants-to-leave-the-club/2323738/

Greece: Man United Defender Maguire Found Guilty of Assault

Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has been found guilty of assault at a trial and handed a 21-month suspended sentence following his arrest after a brawl last week on the island of Mykonos, court officials in Greece said

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/greece-man-united-defender-maguire-found-guilty-of-assault/2323712/

Usain Bolt Tests Positive for COVID, Jamaican Official Says

Jamaica’s Minister of Health says legendary sprinter Usain Bolt has tested positive for the novel coronavirus

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/coronavirus/usain-bolt-tests-positive-for-covid-jamaican-official-says/2323698/

California Ski Resort Changing Name, Citing Offensive Word

Officials say California’s popular Squaw Valley Ski Resort will change its name because the word “squaw” is a derogatory term for Native American women

from Sports – NBC Connecticut https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/california-ski-resort-changing-name-citing-offensive-word/2323680/

Analysis: Endangered species at risk from COVID-19, study says

A study published this month suggests that a large percentage of animals at risk of catching coronavirus are listed as endangered species.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Analysis-Endangered-species-at-risk-from-15513326.php

Too many issues leads Fairfield University to switch COVID testing labs

Fairfield University has had to scrap the COVID-19 testing laboratory it used because of what it called an unacceptable number of issues.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Too-many-issues-leads-Fairfield-University-to-15513065.php

Monroe students to return to class Sept. 1

The hybrid model includes both in-school and at-home learning, although special needs students will get services regardless of their class grouping.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Monroe-students-to-return-to-class-Sept-1-15512611.php

Milford cops seek to ID man wanted for stealing leather jacket at mall

The theft happened around 2 p.m. Sunday when the man attempted to conceal a leather jacket in a backpack from Kani Leather Goods, police said.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Milford-cops-seek-to-ID-man-wanted-for-stealing-15512629.php

FEMA approves additional $300 per week for CT unemployed

FEMA’s grant funding will allow Connecticut to provide $300 per week in addition to their regular unemployment benefit to those unemployed due to COVID-19.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/FEMA-approves-additional-300-per-week-for-CT-15512559.php

Multi-vehicle Greenwich crash slows I-95 traffic

The crash, reported around 7:30 a.m., has closed the lane between exits 6 and 5.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Multi-vehicle-Greenwich-crash-slows-I-95-traffic-15512508.php

NWS: ‘Strong to severe’ T-storms possible later today

Some T-storms could be strong to severe, with large hail possible, damaging wind gusts will be the more likely threat, the National Weather Service said.

from News https://www.ctpost.com/weather/article/NWS-Strong-to-severe-T-storms-possible-15512490.php

The Great River: Connecticut’s Main Stream

By Richard C. Malley for Your Public Media

Highway. Barrier. Resource. Sewer. Over the centuries each of these names has been used to describe the Connecticut River. This prominent feature of the state’s physical landscape also provides a reference point for our sense of place (e.g., “east of the river” or “the lower valley”) in a land where local identity still exerts a powerful influence.

The river’s role in Connecticut’s history has changed over time. Native Americans and early settlers used it for fishing as well as for local transportation and communication; later generations saw it as a conduit of wealth, facilitating commerce with other American colonies, England, and, most importantly, the West Indies. From the river’s mouth vessels carried the agricultural and forest bounty of the hinterland to far-flung ports across the Atlantic world. They returned to the river with more than just rum and molasses; they carried news and ideas from other parts of the world as well.

At first the river posed a barrier to east-west land travel, prompting the development of ferries and, later, bridges. The Connecticut occasionally posed major challenges: the normally placid river could turn deadly if weather events like annual spring freshets or the occasional hurricane triggered severe flooding. Dikes and other expensive flood protection measures could do only so much to ease the threat of damage.

Seymour Paper Company, Windsor Locks, ca. 1880s. Access to flowing water prompted construction of factories along the river during the 1800s – Connecticut Historical Society

The advent of industrialization in the 19th century saw the Connecticut’s waters tapped for various purposes, including convenient flushing of wastes from factories and, ultimately, municipal sewers. Meanwhile, runoff from large-scale agricultural activity, in particular 20th-century tobacco culture, impacted the river.

Since World War II, the Connecticut River Valley, and much of New England, has entered a post-industrial phase, redefining our relationship with the river. Recreational fishing, rowing, and sailing are now enjoying a popular resurgence due in part to improved water quality and a physical re-connection between people and the river driven by various public riverfront projects. We have come to appreciate anew the river’s value both as playground and as timeless flowing landscape. On July 27, 1998, the Connecticut River was recognized as an American Heritage River; the Nature Conservancy has designated the lower Connecticut River tidelands as one of the Western Hemisphere’s Last Great Places.

Richard Malley formerly Head of Collections at the Connecticut Historical Society.

© Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and Connecticut Historical Society. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared on Your Public Media

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/the-great-river-connecticuts-main-stream/