The Connecticut Citizen
NUGGET #69
Connecticut Citizen, The, was a “weekly” newspaper published in Ridgefield. The first and only issue was Oct. 8, 1892. It said its aim was to “battle on behalf of the farmers, mechanics and laboring class of Western Connecticut in favor of lower tariff taxation, purer politics, and just state representation.” The Citizen backed Grover Cleveland and Adlai Stevenson for president and vice president in that year’s election (Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison) and may have been backed by Melbert B. Cary, a wealthy Ridgefielder and a Democrat who was chairman of the Cleveland and Stevenson Campaign Club in Ridgefield and in 1902 ran for governor of Connecticut.
More Historical Nuggets
First Pride Day, 1998
FIRST ‘PRIDE’ DAY: “A Celebration of Community: Straight, Gay and Lesbian“ took place in 1998, on the Community Center lawn. Just a year later, a Rainbow Flag was flown for the first time in the nation over a state capitol, Hartford, on March 21, 1999.
Hezekiah Scott (1789-1879)
Hezekiah Scott was a weaver and operated a distillery on the brook near his home on Barlow Mountain Road — a stream now called Kiah’s Brook.
Paving
The first road paving, part of a state experiment, was done on the eastern end of Branchville Road around 1912. Catoonah Street was paved in 1922.
Lillian Barnard Gilkes and Louise “Lulu” Davidson
Gilkes, Lillian Barnard, (1903-1977), was a nationally recognized scholar, author and critic who lived at 93 Olmstead Lane with stepsister.
