Monthly Archives: August 2016

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?

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View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172 and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

 

 

Mrs. Annie M. Gardner

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 Endeavorer 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.

 

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View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

 

 

 

 

 

Canada Bridge

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.

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

 

 

Run!

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.”

Please feel free to share my blog with friends. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

 

 

 

USS Norwich

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.  

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

 

 

Road Trip to Norwich

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, Ohiowas 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 townsite 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. Lets go find them!

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

Yes, We Have No Bananas

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

Cabbageses, 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.”

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

 

 

 

 

Price of Stars

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.

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.

Let’s Promote Norwich

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.

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172  and please read the daily 225th Bulletin Anniversary Nuggets in the newspaper daily.