Mr. Morse Goes Home
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — It was a long way home for Mr. John Morse.
In November Becky Lamb discovered that a non-descript stone leaning on her front light pole was in fact a headstone for Mr. Morse. He died in 1796 at the age of 35, according to the stone. Lamb did a little research and discovered that Mr. Morse belonged in Pomfret. She called Pomfret First Selectman Maureen Nicholson who dropped by Lamb’s home on Tracy Road and picked up the headstone. Then research began to find out exactly where he belonged in the cemetery.
Enter Donna Dufresne, researcher extraordinaire. She discovered exactly where his headstone should be placed and also researched his life. She said it was a stroke of luck that the man died young because that opened up more records to flesh out his life.
A map of the Pomfret cemetery by Dorman Weaver showed Mr. Morse’s headstone was in place in 1950. Sometime after that it ended up in Killingly.
Dec. 14 was homecoming day. The town’s DPW brought the slate headstone. Dufresne, historical society members, and experts including preservationist Ruth Brown of the Connecticut Gravestone Network and expert Keegan Day were there to help. Brown said, “We need to do more on preservation here.”
The headstone has a pointed bottom; however, if the stone were “planted” using that bottom, it would either have to be sunk so low as to cover some wording or it would be top heavy and fall over.
Experts expect to fashion some sort of collar so that it is standing secure but not buried on concrete.
The headstone says:
In Memory of/ Mr. John Morse / Who died Aug. 1796 / Aged 35 / A wit’s a feather and a chief a rod: / An honest man’s the noblest work of God”
The quote on the headstone was written by Alexander Pope, an English poet, translator and satirist of the Enlightenment ear in Great Britain. One meaning ascribed to the quote is: “It is good to be smart and it is good to be a leader, but it is the best to be an honest person.”
Dufresne said: “I was able to identify exactly where the missing stone should be installed because I have the 1950 map from Dorman Weaver’s project on the cemetery. John Morse is buried with the Sharpe family. This led me to believe he had married one of the Sharpes. Indeed, he married Sarah (Sally) Sharpe on March 15, 1795. That same year, John Morse bought 8 rods of land with his business partner, John Phipps (along Rt. 97). The property was sold by John Maguire, who was a tailor.
“The deed implies that there had been some kind of clothier shop, either tailors or dressmaking during the 15 years between the Revolutionary War and the mercantile owned by John Phipps and John Morse.
“John Morse died at age 35 in 1796. He’d only been married one year and the child he had with Sarah Sharpe had died in February of 1796, John died in August. Because he died young and unexpectedly it was likely he was insolvent. I’ve run into several inventories of shop keepers who died insolvent, and the inventories are informative. Indeed, John Morse’s estate went to Probate due to “bad debt”. His inventory is 10 pages long including the inventory of the store which was filled with imported and domestic fabric as well as paint, chemicals, hats, pipes, China sets, pewter, teapots, spices, and more. Several pages of the inventory are devoted to debts he owed to creditors – merchants in Providence – who sailed to the West Indies to procure fabric from Great Britain and the East Indies Trade.”
The cause of death was not available but Dufresne said there were several epidemics around that time.
For the full research on Wed. night, check the expanded version of this story at www.putnamtowncrier.com and at the paper’s FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger. It’s fascinating.
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Resting Place - Finally
The headstone of Mr. John Morse - from 1796 - was returned to his resting place in Pomfret last week. From left: Donna Dufresne, First Selectman Maureen Nicholson and historical society member John Folsom. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photo.
captions, page 4:
Top left: Experts, officials and "finders" at the cemetery with Mr. Morse's stone. Bottom left: Keegan Day speaks to group. Top right: Finding where the stone goes (from left: John Folsom, Maureen Nicholson and Donna Dufresne.)
There are three seasons in high school athletics and Josh Welch is now familiar with all three.
The long-time track coach took over the boys’ cross-country program this fall.
This winter, he is in charge of both the girls’ and boys’ indoor track teams and mentors the girls’ outdoor track team in the spring.
The turnout for the boys’ indoor track program has been good with 28 currently signed on. Only four of them are seniors.
Austin Adams, Charlie Caggiano, Gavin Grant and Joel Koleszar will be the only ones departing the program due to graduation in the spring.
Caggiano, like his coach, is a three-season running athlete with outdoor track being his favorite due to the size of the team and the opportunities the outdoor season presents.
Indoor track tends to be a little more intimate.
Caggiano is more of a distance-type runner. That will be the strength of the boys this year as he is joined by the likes of juniors Christian Menounos, and Colton Sallum and Koleszar, the senior.
Menounos set the Woodstock Academy record in the 1000 (2 minutes, 36 seconds) last winter which Welch believes is about eight seconds off the state record in the event.
Sallum’s mile time has gone down to 4:36 and Welch thinks that could drop into the 4:20 area this season.
He needs to improve 10 seconds to own the school record.
Other athletes who could make a difference include Anthony Beaudreault who has put in a lot of offseason work and Welch feels could be a solid sprinter and 300-meter runner and could even be made into a hurdler before all is said and done.
In addition to having only four seniors, the Centaurs also have only three other juniors besides Menounos and Sallum, Michael and Eli Susi and Aidan Kane.
Caggiano also pointed to freshman Ronan Curran and Bronson Eddy whom he feels have a lot of potential. Caggiano will be focused on the 1000 and 1600-meter races this season.
The boys’ team opened the season on Saturday with an ECC meet where only individual achievements counted as no team scores were kept. Sallum had a good day as he was a dual winner. The junior recorded a personal best 4 minute, 32-second time to win the 1600m and also captured the 3200m in 10:24.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
From left: Joel Koleszar, Gavin Grant and Charlie Caggiano will all be integral parts of the Woodstock Academy boys’ indoor track team. Photo by Josh Welch/Woodstock Academy.
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Pomfret goes 'charger' in big way
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — Hopefully by the end of the year the town will have 10 EV charging stations completed — all on state highways and all near places that draw people.
First Selectman Maureen Nicholson said the eight will be funded by a grant from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and from a “grant” from the VW emissions settlement.
A previous grant from the state covered the EV charging station at the Pomfret Town Hall, said Nicholson. However that station has been nonfunctioning for two, maybe three years.
Plans call for two fast-charging units at the Town Hall, two standard units at the Community Center, four units at Pomfret Community School and two at the library.
Nicholson said that the units at the Town Hall and the library will be slowed by the need for Eversource’s schedule to replace the pole that will supply the power to those units.
Currently bases are being installed for the units.
The cost of the 10 stations is $180,000 and that is “totally covered by the two grants,” according to Nicholson.
She said the town worked with Titan. A committee will set the kilowatt per hour rate.
Costs including software updates, etc. will need to be covered.
Nicholson said that there is an app that will tell anyone where the charging stations are and their rates. She expects the Pomfret units will be popular because they are alongside places that draw the public — library, town hall, school, Community Center. Air Line trail entrances are at the Community Center and at the town hall.
“It’ll be nice to have these units available on this side of the state,” she added.
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Roundup
Centaurs
open with win
Smiles all around. There was little for the Woodstock Academy girls’ basketball team to be disappointed about after it posted a season-opening, 55-43, win over Norwich Free Academy Tuesday in an ECC Div. I game.
“We accomplished some things that we worked on and tried to get ready. I wish I could show you a snapshot of the (white) board downstairs because I think the girls executed everything I put up there and I thought I had a good tap on how we could get this one. We executed it and it all came true. We got it,” said coach Will Fleeton.
The Centaurs came out of the gates quickly as they scored nine of the first 10 points and raised that lead to 14 by the middle of the second quarter.
But the Wildcats did answer a bit late in the first half, scoring eight of the last 10 points to cut the deficit to eight, 28-20, at the half.
Emily Orcutt, who led NFA with 15 points, put down a fallaway jumper just 34 seconds into the second half to cut the Centaurs lead to six.
That’s when junior Eva Monahan went to work.
The 6-foot inside player stepped out beyond the 3-point line and for a second time in the game put down the shot.
Monahan, who finished with a game-high 21 points, then got three points the traditional way, driving to the basket for a hoop, getting fouled and making the foul shot.
Her six points and a pair of free throws by Kaylee Saucier put the Centaurs back up by 14, 36-22.
NFA would not get closer than nine points.
Indeed, Monahan scored 13 of her points in the first half.
She also managed to get NFA into foul trouble as three of their frontcourt players had two fouls before halftime.
Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain saved her scoring for the bookend quarters as she scored six points each in the first and fourth to finish with 12. Saucier added 10.
The Centaurs battled another ECC Div. I opponent, state Class MM champs, New London, and lost, 48-32.
D’Alleva-Bochain paced the Centaurs with 11 points, nine of those came in the first half.
Saucier added eight points including a pair of 3-pointers.
Boys’ Basketball
Fortunately for the team, the season opener last Thursday is now just a memory.
The Centaurs went on the road Saturday for a short journey to Killingly and posted a 60-46 win to even their record at 1-1 on the year.
Senior Hunter Larson broke out for 18 points including four 3-pointers against Killingly while junior center Brady Ericson added 14 points, eight of those coming on dunks.
The Centaurs built a 19-12 first half lead and more than doubled that advantage by the half, going up by 16 points.
The hosts cut into that lead a bit in the third quarter but Woodstock was able to keep its distance in the fourth.
Garrett Bushey added nine in the win.
Just two days before, the Centaurs opened the year with an ECC Div. II game against Waterford and fell short, 55-32.
The two teams were locked in a close battle with the Lancers up by only three, 35-32, after a slam by Ericson.
Unfortunately, the Ericson dunk came with 3 minutes, 23 seconds left in the third quarter and would be the last points of the game for the Centaurs.
Waterford led by seven at the end of the third quarter and scored 16 unanswered points in the fourth.
Ericson finished with 12 points while Larson added 10.
Girls’ Hockey
It was not exactly an easy opening week for the girls’ hockey team.
The Centaurs played four games including three in a row to start the week and finished up with a 4-1 loss to the Mercy/Northwest Catholic/East Hampton Co-op.
The loss dropped the Woodstock Academy Co-op to 2-3 on the season.
The Tigers scored two goals each in the second and third periods to take the commanding lead.
The only goal for the Centaurs came off the stick of sophomore wing Maci Corradi who tallied off an Ellary Sampson assist with 15 seconds left in the contest.
After an opening game the Saturday before, the Centaurs went on the road for games against Hall/Conard on Monday and Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe on Tuesday.
By the time they got on to their home ice at the Jahn Ice Rink on Wednesday for their fourth game in five days, there was very little left in the tank.
It showed in a 7-1 loss to the Smithfield/Coventry/Moses Brown (R.I.) Co-op.
The Centaurs did jump out on top early as Corradi scored her first goal of the season off an assist from Mia Auger just 3 minutes, 17 seconds into the game.
But the Sentinels answered with three first period goals and two more in each of the next two to pick up their first win in two games this season. The Smithfield Co-Op opened with a tie against Rhode Island rival, South County.
Margaret Baldwin had a hat trick for the Sentinels while Kaylin O’Connor added a pair of goals.
The Centaurs were coming off a long trek to Sacred Heart University in Hamden where they pulled out a 4-2 victory over the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe Co-op.
Sophia Gouveia’s second goal of the game with four minutes left in the second period broke a 2-2 tie and proved to be the game winner. Sampson scored her second goal of the season in the third period to add a little insurance.
Mia Williamson and Gouveia each scored in the first period to give the Centaurs a 2-1 advantage before the host team tied it in the second period setting the stage for Gouveia’s winning goal.
Paige Hinckley added two assists for the Centaurs in the win.
The Centaurs opened the week with a 2-0 loss to the Hall/Conard cooperative team. Renee Porter made 26 saves in net for the Centaurs.
Boys’ Hockey
The team gave up three goals in the first eight and a half minutes and three goals in the last two minutes, 58 seconds and fell in their season opener on the road at Providence College to the Prout School, 6-1, last week.
Junior Maxx Corradi scored the only goal of the game for the Centaurs off assists from Troy Daviau and Noah Sampson nine minutes into the second period.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
captions:
Paige Hinckley, left, of the Woodstock Academy Co-Op hockey, Emmy Monchik, middle, of Smithfield and Ireland Wilford of the Centaurs battle for the puck. Photo by Marc Allard.
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