Document text
'AR5Or
f -at
i
o '-lre)e,cci f e-)
Tel 3
(130,4-1.)
Francis Donovan,
Thomaston,00nn.
Tuesday,Dec. 20 '38
live to be my age,boy,and you see a lot. But I'll bet you there
ain't many men around here rem mber the things I do. Yot3/ find any with any
better memori.es than me,in tour travels? I often thoiht if I'd gone to
school,and could handle them big words,and had the/proper edux education,
h'vt, with my memory,'
wold have been something./
"'Then I was a shaver,' went to school a while at thrJ old academy.
Dan Iebster was the teacher--httxxx he waOnayor of laterbury afterwards.
Tellsir,the day Barnum's circus played ilaterburyla bunch of us kids.
heard somehow that the special'train d F7one of' the track down by the
quarry. Thee w.,.s a stonewall down the and a' ma switch track. le played
hooky from schnol and went down thert,and sure enough the last car had
iumned the track and top -led into,the river. Some was injured,but there
wasn't nobody killed.
"John Suart was on the train. It was carryin' a big bunch of people
down towitex to see the circAs. knd John,he waded across the river and
come up the road to brinrr, news uptown. The old cars were made of wood,and
they were sma11,1-ut t'-ley/Wasn7't nobody killed. Here,' want to show you
some+hing.
Mr.Botsford Foerinto the "front room," reappears with two small,well
varnished pieces ofrlight-colored wood. "Slats from the window of that
train," he says proudly.
"Now th.eils.,Inother time,the e was a clouThurst,and up at Lead Mine
Brook they was a washout and the train went over., The last car went down
t he riveriaxixiAlgxixx way oast the bridge and finally lodged against a
hank. Nine person-. was drowned in that wreck. Then the word got around
town people grabbed clotheslines and poles and lanterns, --it was at night
and went up to see could they help. La rry McDermoti-„he was conductor on
the line afterwards for a good many years,wer that train.s
,he was on 4
ifit 15744
water boy. boy. He got saved. One fellow held onto -the baggage car door,and he
got purled out. There was one man,I forget his name,they couldn't find. His
-'rife wa stlyin' in Thomaston, over at somebody's house on Chapel street.
Ihe looked across tee river in the mornin' and she thought she saw a body
'yin' in the bushes by the movement shop. She got the notion it was her
husband,and she started to cry and carry on,but they wouldn't let her go
over there. And sure enough when they went to lookpit was her husband.
"That mu,?t have hen in 1867--I was a very small boy at the time.
Them Ne-e the two worst train wracks we ever had in Thomaston.
Mr. Botlford remembers that he has never shown xxe me his snapshots.
He brings out a huge batch,many of them lam scenes from the Adirondacks,
where he has anent summer -acations or many yeara.It is increasirely
evident that Mr.Botsford is a nature lover. Hic, little jaunts into the country
begun aimlessly when he first acnuired a car many years ago have resulted
in a deep appreciation of landscapes and horizons and waterfalls and
what he calls "UN "vie -as," so that when he sets.out on a trip these days
i is with the idea ox in mind of seeing some particularly attracti-re
natural Itsplay. He has vivid recollections of the trips he has taken
through /estern Connecticut ad ut—er New York state and is tam fond of
describing them,of mentioning with the pride of a discoverer,/i Iiktitx
axitxmf.x out of the way places "not fifty miles from here," where some
phenomenon of nature may be seen,or where there is a "Lover's Leap," known
only to the initiate. 3a ys he:
"Most people when they start out
to Jim's in Canaan,' and off they go.
for a t,"ip,they say,"Let'sgo over
They don't pay no more attention to
the countryglaevor to landmarks,than if they was travelin' blindfold.
"But you go with me,mnd I -can point out things to you.I'll tell you
'A mile above here,there is a fine old bridge; or,here's where the road
-3
turns off to that waterfalls:
"I 13.',e to go over a road both ways. Because when you're drivin' a car
you got to be caxsajekxxxasx careful and you can only look on one side.And
if you come hack over the same route,you can see the tillgxstx things you
missed, on the way up,see what I mean?
"The oads have ben changed 50 much the last few years,ites all you can
do to keep up with 'em. I see places where they's ben whole towns cut
off ,because they switched tAxxxx the road in another direction. There's
a litt'e place called neaverbrook over here muut near New Milford 7'cxare
,that haripened. It happened, up in Pawlin,New York,and thxecsx thxJaaxx
that'sa good sized town. Some of t P old landmarks are disay4larx dis-
aPpearin'.
There's a valle7 up in New York state I wish you could see,for it's one
of the sweetest sights I ever lay eyes on. You come up on top of this hill,and
you. look down,and there is it before you,all pines,as far as thxyx you can
see. You go domn,-„nd lown,and it's like dippin' into a cool green sea on
a hot summer day. -rid what do you think they done? They cut the main highway
off just before you come to it,and if you want to go throu7h there,it's an
o,lt of the way trim.
"''he're coin' to do the same thing down here to Howd's Mills,they say.
There's one o4' the prettiest spots in this section of the state New Yorkers
come up here,and they rave about that there rod.Of course it's a little
narrow. I suppose they got to blast through when they're build in' a
highw-,,y,'Hut it seems a shame. There's a seven mile stretch mx pxxx up
between New Boston and Otis where they done that,and it's as barren as
it can be.
"I got something else here I want to show you,lonr7's we're lookin' at
pictures. Mr.Botsford emer es from the "front room" with still another
-4-
(15,161s:xxnariamtiyx album from an apparently tmsrilxiaztibmIx inexhaustible
These.are all post -cards and greetin' mxxn cards." licrawrizzi=xn,rti-c)atrx
alt;SWV>trat:*;cfic He holds up a "view of Plymouth Hollow,1852
'The' -'s the tpn-ery,and the Case shop and the cemeteryrhere used to
be a grove of apple trees up there,befoe hey started the cemetery. !Veil,
"sir,this kmst.hurricane we had little while ago blew down n apple tree that
grew from the last seedlinl of that grove.
"Thcy:made po,Itcards out of everything,years ago. Nein4s one of
ronl. SEle -ht they called it on the card? Emerald Late! Get the
connection? Here's one of the old wire rOom,down'the shop. See th-t
machine there I worked, in the draftin' room Irten that machine 7715
designed and' I ttkntix helped design it. I know every bolt and nut'
on it.
"Here's' one from the _.rldinondacks. Saint:Patricks
day card. See what it sa7s? 'To that Irlshman called Mike.' Know who that
7757 Mc! And that name is trxrErxtnxmsr.x as dear +.0 me as my ri-ht name.
ne7cr 7as called Mille any placef.clse. Rut u-1; there,they neve-
callnd myxanx7x.tx- me any other n=c.