HISTORIETTE GROUP

Please note: Historiette Group meetings are held at 7 PM on the first Wednesday of each month unless otherwise noted.  The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 2, at the Gay Kimball Library in Troy.  There will be no meeting in July.

Another productive month! Nancy O'Grady and Jane Silver brought good information with them.  Jane had historic photos and information of her family's life and times in Troy.  Gary Phelps and Fran Merlone, as usual, added some really good topics and conversation pieces.  Once again, Richard Lawrence provided us with valuable photos and verbal history on Troy.

After the meeting Kathy Marrotte suggested I call Tom Matson regarding historical information gathered by his father, Bill Matson.  Tom agreed to look for items suitable for the book.  Fred Lawrence took me on a three hour tour of back roads, discontinued roads, bridges, past mill sites and original residences of some of Troy's oldest families in the northerly part of town.  To do so, he showed me linking roads and birth sites of historical figures, in/or from, Marlborough and Swanzey.  Valerie Britton provided me with pages of State documentation of the rail line and bridges of the Cheshire Railroad through the Troy region to add to my research documents.  I also currently have informational and rare historical books on loan from Gary Phelps. and Valerie Britton of Troy, and Dana Taylor of Richmond.

This book. tentatively named "A Chronological History/Historiette of Troy to 2015" is intended to provide a historical sketch and chronology of the development of the Town, its inhabitants. churches. schools. businesses. etc., with as many notable, memorable and humorous stories of actual daily life of our nineteenth century people.  Dr. Stone's "History of Troy" provided us with an up-dated factual history and local family genealogy of Dr. Caverly's "History of Troy," up to 1897.  Then, with the exception of several brief and topically specialized publications, the life and times of Troy people in the 1900's is sparse.

Please, give us written accounts of your stories (personal or handed down), your memories and recollections of traditional living, working, playing, and socializing over these past decades.