The Saga of Bessie Webster – Part III

#MiddleburyCT #BessieWebster #Wakefield By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Part III of V – The April 1913 move from Middlebury to South Street in Bristol for Bessie (Webster) Wakefield and ... Continue Reading →

The Saga of Bessie Webster – Part II

#MiddleburyCT #BessieWebster By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Part II of V – Betsey “Bessie” Webster, a Native American woman, was born into poverty in Middlebury, Connecticut, on September ... Continue Reading →

Middlebury’s Center Schoolhouse – Part III of III

#MiddleburyCT #CenterSchool By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Following the death of Elise Hamilton (Myers) Bristol (b. 1879) in 1924, her husband, Professor William Henry Bristol (1859-1930), ... Continue Reading →

Middlebury’s Center Schoolhouse – Part II of III

#MiddleburyCT #CenterSchool By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD John Howard Whittemore’s offer to build a new Center School was part of a larger plan for Middlebury Center. It was he who had ... Continue Reading →

Middlebury’s Center Schoolhouse – Part I of III

#MiddleburyCT #CenterSchool By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Last year marked the 125th anniversary of the Center School building, located off the Green on Library Road (so named because Center ... Continue Reading →

Middlebury history includes domestic violence

#MiddleburyCT #DomesticViolence This article was originally published in the May 2022 issue of the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer. By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Middlebury, like the rest ... Continue Reading →

Connecticut’s 99-year journey to lawful contraception – Part III of IV

#MiddleburyCT #Contraception #BirthControl This article was originally published in the November 2022 issue of the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer. By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Throughout ... Continue Reading →

Connecticut’s 99-year struggle for lawful contraception – Part I of IV

#MiddleburyCT #Contraception #BirthControl This article was originally published in the September 2022 issue of the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer. By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD In 1879, ... Continue Reading →

Waterbury-Oxford Airport – Part II

#Middlebury #WaterburyOxfordAirport   Waterbury-Oxford Airport runways are shown c. 1970 (left) and in the mid-1970s (right). The cross-wind runway seen above has since been ... Continue Reading →

Connecticut’s 99-year journey to lawful contraception – Part IV, Finale

#MiddleburyCT #Contraception By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD Following the 1940 Connecticut Supreme Court’s 3-2 decision upholding Connecticut’s 1879 anticontraception law, the Connecticut ... Continue Reading →