Here’s a peek into a box (one of six) of Ely and Lord family photographs, diaries, letters and other goodies donated to the Lyme Local Archives in August 2024 by Parker and Diana Lord! This box is filled with materials related to Isabel “Belle” Ely Lord (1871-1959). She’s second from the right in the photo….
The Essex Savings Bank has distributed funds from a $120,000 charitable budget to 84 local charities participating in its Community Investment Program according to the wishes of bank customers, expressed through ballots in a February promotion. Customers were able to select up to three charities on their ballots, and the bank tallied up the votes…
One of the advantages of living in a former artists’ colony is that these creatives have left their stamp on a number of local houses. One is the famous wood engraver and printer Thomas W. Nason’s custom built home at 282 Joshuatown Road. We know a lot about this house, designed by accomplished local architect…
Many people in Lyme today are unaware of Lyme’s World War II memorial monument . It is seated on the ledge opposite Town Hall and Consolidated School for almost 70 years now. I hope that some background will generate appreciation of its uniqueness and significance to Lyme. Private citizens of Lyme took the initiative to form a…
The Lyme Local History Archives is honoring the life of Joseph A. Caples of Gungy Road, Lyme, Connecticut (1874-1954) for Black History Month, 2016. He wrote a memoir (1949) and several diaries (1913-1941) which are now in the Archives’ Collection. They are unique and historically important documents. He wrote: “I am starting this little Memoir from way back in…
One of the many letters in the Archives was written by the late Dr. Julian Ely (1894-1980) in 1918 when he was serving in France during World War I as a Private in the U. S. Army medical department. He grew up in Lyme, CT and would become a much-loved physician to the people of Lyme, following…
In 1918, Pvt. Harold Clark (1894-1963) was a new draftee in the U. S. Army during World War I from Lyme, CT. He was a rural, young man drawn into a world of places, types of people and cultures new to him, lonesome for home and the “beautifulest” place on earth, near the Connecticut River. He…
Many individuals and communities are interested to learn who the first settlers were in their current home or ancestral area. This can be for many reasons — to establish family lines, track property history or to understand cultural diffusion and the local historical heritage, to name just a few.
The recent news of Ebola and measles epidemics raises the question of whether a quarantine has ever been implemented in Lyme to prevent the spread of contagious disease through isolation or confinement of contagious individuals. The answer is “Yes”. There has been no shortage of contagious disease in the history of Lyme during the colonial…
In 1748/49 six proprietors (landowners) of Lyme, Connecticut petitioned the New London County Court for permission to create a “common field”, based on the laws and practice of the Colony, to allow townspeople to share in its benefits, in this case good meadowland at the edge of the Connecticut River for salt hay and animal grazing.The documents…