1879
Martha Rogers, …
“… who died a few days ago at Middletown, Conn., for 50 years possessed a fortune; but she was constantly dreading poverty, and regularly spent a part of her time gathering rags and other discarded things in the streets. A room in her house was filled with such rubbish. Yet she gave money liberally for charitable and religious purposes, while she lived, and by her will left $25,000 to various institutions.
From the Marion County Record (Marion, Kansas), Sept. 5, 1879.
1911
Drawn By 96 Oxen
Farmer Drives Them to Cart Twenty Miles to Grange Fair
Special to The New York Times
Middletown, Conn., Sept. 5.–John Cavanagh, a farmer, who lives in the Penfield Hill District of the Town of Portland, decided to take his family to the Grange Fair at Haddam Neck yesterday. There is no railroad running between the two towns.
Mr. Cavanagh owns ten yoke of oxen himself, and by borrowing from his neighbors managed to collect forty-eight yoke, or ninety-six oxen altogether. With these attached to a gayly decorated ox-cart he made the trip, covering the distance of about twenty miles in five hours. The services of twelve drivers were needed to guide the animals on the road.
The line of cattle stretched for more than a quarter of a mile along the road, and it took them five minutes to pass a given point. On his arrival at the fair grounds Cavanagh found that he and his cattle attracted more attention than any other exhibit on the grounds.
From The New York Times (New York, New York), Wednesday, September 6, 1911.
Middletown 366 