This portrait of Silas Bronson hangs high on a wall in the Silas Bronson Library in Waterbury. (Robert Rafford photo)
#MIDDLEBURY
It Happened in Middlebury
By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD
A television program that aired from 1958 to 1963 used to conclude with a narrator saying, “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.” There have been fewer stories in Middlebury, to be sure, but there are plenty that keep us enthralled.
As the Middlebury Historical Society works to collect our town’s stories, family information is a priority. These families shape and add character to our town. We collect newspaper clippings, family scrapbooks and genealogical information about all our families.
In many cases, newspaper obituaries are the major source of information about our families, especially in the town’s early years, and we have been compiling obits for many years. We have hundreds of them neatly indexed in four volumes. Browsing through obituaries can inspire us to see what a varied mixture of Middlebury folks have accomplished and how fortunate we have been to have them grace our town.
For example, the Hartford Courant reported in 1940 that George T. Johnson, the state’s oldest druggist, died. He was born June 29, 1852, in Middlebury, the son of David D. and Sophia (Stone) Johnson. He had read about the Norfolk Navy Yard, so at 17, in an effort to join the Navy, he went to the railroad depot and asked for a ticket to Norfolk. Because of the paltry sum of money he had, the stationmaster thought he meant Norfolk, Conn. Arriving there, he was disappointed to find, not an ocean, but a local druggist who needed a clerk. In need of money, he began a job at $6 per month with room and board, and thus began a 70-year career.
Sister Mary Maria Benigna, daughter of William P. and Mary I. Johnson (as in the Mary I. Johnson School), died in 1999. She taught biological science for 36 years and was a founder of St. Joseph College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Providence College and a doctorate from Catholic University. Her father died in 1969; he served on the Middlebury police force for more than 50 years and never carried a gun.
When Mrs. Frances (Coe) Abbott, “Aunt Fanny,” widow of the Rev. Bennet Tyler Abbott (1836-1905) of Middlebury died in 1943 at the age of 102, a friend recounted that she and her husband vividly remembered when they heard the news, shouted outside their windows, that President Lincoln had been assassinated.
Arthur Willis Bissell’s obituary in 1942 shows that he was postmaster in Middlebury for 20 years and ran a general store here that was first located where Westover School now stands and then was relocated to where Pies and Pints Restaurant now stands. The obituary of his daughter Katherine in June 1905 shares the sad news that she drowned in Bantam Lake at the age of 23.
The City of Waterbury owes a debt of gratitude to Middlebury native Silas Bronson. His obituary in 1867 shows that, out of an estate of over $1 million, he left the sum of $200,000 to Waterbury for a public library. The Silas Bronson Library is at 267 Grand St. in Waterbury.
Please share your family’s photographs, scrapbooks, artifacts, newspaper clippings and other biographical material with the historical society. If you are interested in your family’s history, please contact the society.
Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To join or contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or call Bob at 203-206-4717. Your membership would be a valuable addition.
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