Index Pages in this issue: 1 2 3 4
THE AMITY STAR
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF BETHANY AND WOODBRIDGE
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
GEORGE D. VAILL
LITCHFIELD TURNPIKE, BETHANY, CONN.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Full year - 52 issues - $4.75
6 months - 26 issues - 2.40
3 months - 13 issues - 1.20
Single copy - .10
Vol. I, No. 2 Friday, December 8, 1950
Progress Report
As we round out our first full week and plunge into the second, we can report that the infant is thriving and looks as though it would be worth raising. Enthusiasm still runs high, among those who are enthusiastic. There is a noticeable falling-off in the ranks of the skeptics. And no one has yet even suggested giving the editor the traditional horse-whipping. It is hoped that this is not due entirely to the relative scarcity of horse-whips.
The loss of electric and telephone service, coming when it did, was partially responsible for the fact that the first issue was a little thin from the news standpoint. The response to that thin issue, however, gives us feelings of hope for the future.
In spite of our threat of last week -- to deprive the reading public of further enlightenment unless subscription money were laid on the barrel-head immediately -- we are once more, for the last time, sending this regular issue to everyone in both Towns, primarily to achieve the widest possible ciruclation for our SPECTACULAR OFFER, which appears in another column. Next week we shall mail by subscription list only.
Communications
"The Amity Star" welcomes communications on all topics, but it reserves the right to edit or quote from letters as it sees fit. No communication, however, will be considered for publication unless it is signed. The writer's name will be withheld if he so requests.
Letters should be addressed to The Editor, "The Amity Star," c/o The Bethany Press, Bethany, Conn., and should be as brief as possible.
BETHANY NOTES
Continued from page 1
Miss Roberta Mary Stein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Stein, of Spring Road, Prospect, was married on November 11 to Franklin Harold Atwood, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Atwood of Bethany. The ceremony was performed in Prospect by the Rev. Thomas J. O'Connell of St. Anthony's Church.
"The Amity Star" has received, by way of professional exchange, a copy of "El Defensor," an English-Spanish weekly newspaper publshed at Socorro, New Mexico, by Albert D. and Alice B. Morgan. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan lived for several years in the house now owned by Edgar B. Cartmell, on the Litchfield Turnpike, and are well remembered by Bethany residents.
Edward Hollweg, seriously injured in an accident on the Waterbury-Naugatuck road several weeks ago, has been discharged from St. Mary's Hospital in
Continued on page 3
THE STAR REPORTER
Having expressed, in issue No. 1, a determination to acquire maturity and wisdom as rapidly as possible, we now take pleasure in calling attention to what may be an encouraging sign: in this, issue No. 2, we are printing our first retraction (see page 1, column 1), to correct the first error of fact to be called to our attention. Surely this must indicate that we are on our way. One of the most popular indoor sports of some of the Larger Newspapers is printing retractions, and the practice has given many of them an air of sophisticated old age greatly to be envied by their upstart colleatues.
To have an error "creep in" (this being the traditional mode of ingress habitually chosen by errors) grieves the flinty heart of any editor, but his grief is effectively dispelled as soon as someone points out the mistake and, by so doing, bears witness, beyond a reasonable doubt, to the fact that the paper (or a portion thereof) has been read.
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Naming a child or a newspaper is a serious business, for an infelicitous choice at the time of the launching can have a profound effect for good or evil in later life. With the help of a good many volunteers, most of whom approached the problem with a disconcerting note of frivolity, the staff of this journal cast about for an appropriate name. Suggestions poured out at the rate of twelve for a dime. The first one -- "The Bethany and Woodbridge Weekly Palladium-Intelligencer" -- proved to be too costly to set in type and would have required a front page almost four feet in width. It was, for these and other reasons, abandoned. Other offerings selected the name of one town and omitted the other, thus inviting disaster at the outset. "The Bethany Bee" and "The Woodbridge Pantograph" were both ruled out in the interests of harmony. Understandably brief consideration was also given to "The Bethbridge Weekly Herald and Examiner" -- and not wholly on the strength of its mileage.
The name "Amity" seemed like a natural choice, both for its historical associations with the two towns and for the fact that the highway bearing that name runs like an arterial lifeline through both communities.
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The Eccles[ias]tical Society of Amity was established by New Haven Colony Church and civil authorities in 1737, and provision was made for the erection of a meeting house for the members of this growing community, many of whom had long resented having to travel all the way into New Haven for religious services. Included in the Society's territory were the present townships of Bethany and Woodbridge and parts of Beacon Falls and Naugatuck.
In 1762 the inhabitants of the northerly end of the Parish succeeded in having another subdivision made, so that they could have their own meeting house still closer to their homes. This northern section adopted the name Bethany Parish; the southern part continued to be known as Amity until it became the Town of Woodbridge in 1784.
Population figures for the period beginning 160 years ago give the Bethany and Woodbridge totals together:
1790 - 2,124
1800 - 2,198
1810 - 2,030
1820 - 1,998
1830 - 2,052
In 1832 Bethany acquired township status, and comparative figures for the next few years show how she struggled to maintain her supremacy over Woodbridge, held it with a plurality of 2 persons in 1850, and finally lost it when the Beacon Falls and Naugatuck sections seceded in 1871. Not until 1950 did Bethany again have as many names on the roster as in the census of 1870. Woodbridge's period of greatest increase was between 1930 and 1940, Bethany's in the last decade (when the number gained exceeded the total population on record in all the years from 1890 to 1930). The two towns together now total 4,118.
The census figures from 1840 are:
| B | W | |
| 1840 | 1,170 | 958 |
| 1850 | 914 | 912 |
| 1860 | 974 | 872 |
| 1870 | 1,135 | 830 |
| 1880 | 637 | 829 |
| 1890 | 550 | 926 |
| 1900 | 517 | 852 |
| 1910 | 495 | 878 |
| 1920 | 411 | 1,170 |
| 1930 | 480 | 1,630 |
| 1940 | 706 | 2,262 |
| 1950 | 1,317 | 2,801 |
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And now, having laboriously followed us through an examination of the credentials of "Amity," you are wondering why we chose "Star" instead of one of the longer, more impressive names. That's the answer: brevity. Also the star, which can be rendered pictorially, lends itself to decorative use. (You've never seen a picture of an intelligencer, have you?)
Further discussion of the subject can be limited to two literary references, either or both of which may shed additional light in the right places. The first is a limerick written by Anthony Euwer, often quoted by Woodrow Wilson:
As a beauty I'm not a great star,
Others are handsomer far;
But my face -- I don't mind it
Because I'm behind it;
It's the folks out in front that I jar.
And then there is that gem from the pen of Bert Leston Taylor:
A star that has no parallax to speak of,
Conduces to repose.
"The Amity Star," having no parallax whatsoever, and entertaining no hopes of acquiring any, will be content to conduce to repose, if no preferable course of action presents itself.
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"The Amity Star" is happy to announce that no increase in the newsstand price of 10¢ per copy is being contemplated at this time.
The "Star" is one of the few papers in the coutnry which can boast that it has, to date, maintained its original price, in spite of nationwide increases in material and labor costs.
WOODBRIDGE DEFENSE
Continued from page 1
under instruction this week at the police training school at Yale University.
MEETING DECEMBER 12
Another general meeting of the Civilian Defense group will be held at Police Headquarters on Tuesday, December 12, at 8:00 P.M.
New 4 H Club Started by Bethany Juniors
A new 4-H Club, known as "The Jolly Juniors," has been started under the leadership of Mrs. Stanley H. Downs, who is being assisted by Junior Leaders Edith Doolittle, Kathryn Cartmell, and June and Kay Harrison. Meetings are hald after school hours on Tuesday afternoons. Half of the members are learning to sew while the other half learn to cook. Later on the two groups will change places, and it is hoped that every member will thus become proficient at both sewing and cooking.
OFFICERS CHOSEN
Officers elected at a recent meeting were: President, Joella Downs; Vice-President, Mrilyn Simpson; Secretary, Diane Brucksch; Treasurer, Susan Vaill; and Chief Caller-Upper, Judy Wolfe.
The other members of the Club are:
Susan Austin, Mary Bunting, Barbara Cartmell, Susan Clark, Myra Cory, Nancy Hoppe, Janette Johnson, Elizabeth Mannel, Ruth Littlefield, Anitra Sarno, and Marjorie Williams.
This week's meeting was held at the home of Barbara Cartmell.
GAS PIPELINE
Continued from page 1
pressure natural gas. Please give this serious consideration, and do not act in haste.
"Items for property owners whose land is to be used:
"(1) When you sign the perpetual easement, in reality you are giving the gas company a piece of property to do with as they wish, while you retain the right to pay taxes on the property in perpetuity, or as long as you are the nominal owner.
"(2) We feel that all property within one-half mile of the gas line will depreciate.
"(3) The pipeline will not be of any assistance to you or to the town. Since this company is interstate, the town can levy no taxes on the installation.
"(4) If you are in accord with our opinions, let us try to stop their going through our town. Make this a community responsibility. If ncecessary, have a special town meeting and try to do something before it is too late.
"(5) For your further information, we have reports that a New Jersey community passed an ordinance prohibiting the passage of the Texas-New York natural gas line through its territory. The reason given: fear of explosion, fire, and property depreciation.
"Woodbridge Fire Department."
(The clippings reproduced below are printed with the permission of the NEW HAVEN REGISTER, in which they originally appeared in the issues of November 4 and 24, respectively. Ed.)
Texas-N.Y. Pipeline Explodes In Virginia; Heat Cooks 30 Acres
Chatham, Va., Nov. 4 -- (AP) -- A towering blast sent skyward some 550 feet of a new 30-inch Texas-to-New York pipeline on a farm near here yesterday.
No one was injured but the intense heat cooked thirty acres to a bricklike hardness. The explosion was heard for 10 miles.
An intense fire roared for half an hour before the line could be shut off, sending flames hundreds of feet in the air. Firemen could get no closer than a quarter mile.
The pipeline was being installed for the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company by the Fish Construction Company, of Charlottesville, Va.
Windows were broken in the farm house 400 yards distant. Trees were burned hundreds of feet from the fire, and a check was being
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