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…
The Lyme Local History Archives lost our good friend, Doris “Doad” Reynolds Jewett, who died December 10, 2013 at 100 years old. She was a volunteer in the Archives for several years until just four years ago. She would walk over from the home she grew up in on Hamburg Cove to the Lyme Public Hall, always…
In the years between 1880 and 1930, there was a big change in Lyme, CT’s population profile. Overall, the population declined by almost one-half. Even more remarkably, the number of households headed by farmers, dropped by almost 70%. Connecticut as a whole at the end of the 19th century was experiencing strong growth in the cities, manufacturing, the railroads, and improved…