Roundup
Plouffe captures State Open championship
Woodstock Academy senior Avery Plouffe may have saved her best for when it counted most.
Plouffe uncorked a throw of 41-feet, 4 ½ inches in the girls’ shotput competition at the CIAC State Open championship Saturday.
That was more than good enough to become the best in Connecticut in the event as the throw was almost three feet better than Bloomfield’s Payton Sirdine and gave Plouffe the individual state open championship.
“It’s crazy to think that I have become the athlete that I once looked up to,” Plouffe said. “I have to thank my bestie, coach (Gerry) L(aMontagne), coach (Josh) Welch, my family and teammates who support and encourage me to be the best I can be. I’m looking forward to competing in New England’s next week.”
LaMontagne was more than happy with Plouffe’s performance.
“I’m absolutely thrilled for her,” he said. “Winning a state championship in Connecticut is the culmination of a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Avery has demonstrated all of those qualities during the course of this season and her competitive spirit was on full display (Saturday)., throwing for a personal best and school record in the biggest moment of the season for her against a very talented field.” 
The throw broke her own school record by 4 inches.
“Avery has really started to process everything and is catching back up to her indoor season personal bests last year,” Welch said.
Plouffe will not be traveling alone to the New England Championships Feb. 28 in Boston.
Fellow senior Emma Weitknecht will also be on hand after a fifth-place finish in the 55m hurdles in 8.38 seconds.
“She struggled on the first hurdle in the preliminaries but she kept her composure. She made the finals by a hair but came back to run one of her best times of the season which kept her alive for New England’s and will help her prep for Nationals,” Welch said.
Senior Eli Manning is also eligible to make the trek to Boston as he finished sixth in the boys’ shotput with a throw of 49-feet, 9 ¼ inches, good enough for sixth place.
Lily Morgis fell just shy of qualifying for New England’s as the senior placed eighth in the shotput.
The 4x800m girls relay team of Olivia Tracy, Nova Almquist, Claire Bruneaux and Bella Amlaw finished 11th while the boys 4x800m team of Lucas Hecker, Sam Greene, Jackson Durand and Ronan Curran was 12th.

Girls’ Basketball
The girls’ basketball team finished up the regular season with 11 consecutive wins as the Centaurs downed both Fitch and Plainfield in the final week of the regular season to finish 16-4 overall and 7-0 in Div. I of the ECC.
“It feels great. It feels really good. We’re excited to keep going and keep winning,” said senior Allison Camara.
The Centaurs will keep going as they will host an ECC tournament quarterfinal.
That game is currently scheduled for Wednesday but the weather may be the determining factor.
Woodstock finished off the regular season with a 52-42 win over Fitch on Friday.
“They are quality,” coach Will Fleeton said of the Falcons. “Our league is tough. When I was a fairly new coach, I was like, ‘What’s with all this ECC hype.’ Obviously, after a few years, I realized that you are in a battle every night.”
The battle this time was with Fitch junior Synna Waters.
She scored 28 points in the first meeting between the two teams and finished with 27 to keep the Falcons (9-11) in the game.
The Centaurs did have the lead throughout the contest.
They opened a 17-5 lead in the first quarter by holding Fitch to 2-for-9 shooting from the floor and were still up by nine at the break.
Two quick buckets by Camara and Kaylee Saucier put the Centaurs up by 13 to start the second half and they never led by less than 10 the remainder of the way.
Fleeton glanced down at the scoresheet at the end of the game and liked what he saw.
Saucier led the Centaurs with 11, Elise Coyle had 10 and both Camara and Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain added nine apiece.
“That’s what I want and it’s nice to have in year four that we have no labels, everybody defends, everyone can score, That’s our goal right there,” Fleeton said pointing at the scoresheet.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs easily prevailed over Plainfield, 77-37, on Senior Night.
“I think it enhances their memory,” Fleeton said of getting a win on Senior Night. “I think as the years go on, you kind of forget those things. You will remember Senior Night but not the results. I think it matters as far as the happiness and joy they feel now.”
The Centaurs jumped out to a 16-point lead by halftime and scored 24 more third quarter points to go up by 31 going into the fourth.
D’Alleva-Bochain led four Centaurs in double figures with 22 while Vivian Bibeau added 15, Camara 13 and Coyle 10.
Coyle is the team’s only junior starter and has gradually begun to assert herself.
That will be important when the Centaurs will not have their seven current seniors in uniform any longer.
“She played quality minutes for us last year but was still trying to find her way and be comfortable. To see her like this now, this is what I envisioned. She has slowly climbed her way up and she is there now. She is believing it, poses another threat on the floor, rebounds and defends well. She fits into the scheme of things,” Fleeton said.
Cam’rynn Cross paced the Panthers (15-4) with 13 points and Neveah Dailey had 10.
Prior to the game, the Centaurs recognized seniors Campbell Favreau, Saucier, Avery Danis, Simal Ilhan, Bibeau, Camara and D’Alleva-Bochain in Senior Night festivities.
“I’m going to miss these girls so much,” Camara said. “We have a special bond. We get along really well and have been playing together for a long time. We know how to work with each other really well.”
Coyle was one of the few on the varsity unit not being recognized.
“I’m going to miss them a lot,” Coyle said. “It’s going to be a big change next year without four of our five starters. We will rebuild and I have confidence that we will be able to make the changes to, hopefully, have a good season.”

Boys’ Basketball
The boys’ basketball team was hoping to walk off the floor with a share of the ECC Div. II regular season title. Killingly had other ideas.
The Trailblazers did what they did in the previous meeting between the two on the Trailblazers home floor earlier in the season.
In front of the largest crowd of the season at the Alumni Fieldhouse, Killingly got off to a fast start.
The Centaurs could not recover.
As a result, Killingly put away the 75-50 victory early last week over Woodstock and clinched the ECC Div. II regular season title for itself.
The Centaurs finished the regular season with a close loss on the road at Waterford, 56-55, on Friday.
That left the Centaurs with an 11-9 record and dropped them to 5-3 in Div. II of the ECC.
Woodstock, the sixth seed in the Div. I tournament, will have to go on the road for an ECC tournament quarterfinal game against third seed Norwich Free Academy on Thursday.
The Centaurs hung in early as they traded baskets with the Trailblazers.
But Killingly was on a tear as they shot better than 50 percent from the floor and opened a 10-point lead by the end of the first eight minutes.
Quin Crowley was the biggest thorn early and proved to be that way throughout as he scored seven first-quarter points en route to a 27-point effort.
 “I knew this was going to be tough,” said coach Donte Adams. “They have a great program.”
Crowley added nine more in the second quarter but he had a lot of help as the Trailblazers made seven of their nine shots and enjoyed a 44-23 lead at halftime.
The Centaurs did get as close as 14 points, 55-41, with 1:30 left in the third quarter but Killingly put eight of the next 11 points on the board to put out the fire.
Xawier Matwiej led Woodstock Academy with 16 points while Drake Abdullovski, who came in averaging over 21 points a game, was limited to 13 and Jamie Dean Stewart contributed 12 points and four blocks.
In addition to Crowley, Killingly (14-6, 8-0) got 14 from Ethan Hall, 12 from Greyson Marquez and 10 from Quinn Sumner.
Prior to the game, the Centaurs recognized their 10 seniors on Senior Night.
“It’s coming to an end but the guys played hard all season, were fully committed and I’m happy to see them move on to the next level and take on whatever they decided to take on. There is a lot of leadership in that group but we have guys ready to step up and have benefitted from the example of these seniors,” Adams said.
Ryan Chabot, Lawrence Liu, Ramond Joachim, Jame Dean Stewart, Alec Nunes, James Dong, Vuk Lisancic, Nate Couture, Philip Feanny Aleman and Mert Coker were all introduced.
Adams only had the opportunity to work with some of them for a year.
“They made an impact,” Adams said of those that had a brief stay in a Centaurs’ uniform. ”I only have been able to coach them for one year but I’ve known them for two and I have built a relationship with them. I’m happy to see how far they came from last year to this year.”
The Centaurs had a chance to be the fifth seed in the ECC tournament and travel to Killingly rather than NFA but need a win over Waterford to accomplish that. The Lancers had other ideas.
Parker Spencer took over in the fourth quarter. The guard scored all of Waterford’s points in the fourth, 11 of his 21 in the game, to keep the Lancers in front of Woodstock.
Waterford also played some good defense.
The Lancers held Woodstock’s top two scorers Abdullovski (nine points) and Matwiej to a combined 15 points.
The Centaurs opened the week on a great note.
Woodstock played Plainfield for a second time this season, and like the Killingly game, the script was essentially the same.
The host Centaurs allowed the Panthers to hang around until the fourth quarter which Woodstock  went into with a six -point lead.
Things went the home team’s way in the final eight minutes as they quadrupled their opponents’ offensive production and recorded a 74-50 victory.
“The guys put defense first and that’s the outcome when you defend on the other end of the court,” Adams said of the 24-6 advantage put together by the Centaurs. “To hold a team like that to six points in a quarter and we get 24 is definitely a defensive effort and I’m glad the guys put it together and got the win.”
Matwiej scored seven of his 12 points in the decisive fourth quarter and Woodstock Academy hit four 3-pointers, including one by Abdullvoski who led the Centaurs with 26 points.
Brayden Marquis led Plainfield (12-7), which saw its eight-game win streak come to an end, with 17 points while Cole Cheney added 12.

Gymnastics
A the postseason continued, it only go ttougher. The gymnastics team knew it would take a near-perfect performance to end up near the top in the Class M state championship.
The Centaurs went in seeded fourth and that is where they finished on Saturday with a 131.325 total.
ECC champs, the Ledyard co-op, won the state title (144.250) followed by Farmington (136.525) and the Ellington/Tolland co-op (134.050).
“We’re happy with that,” said coach Kasey Fillmore. “We had a few mistakes but they came back from them strong and, overall, had one of their best meets of the season.”
Two Woodstock gymnasts, Emma Long and Rhea Desota, qualified for the State Open championship as individuals on Saturday.
Long was best in vault for the Centaurs (9.075) and qualified for the Open in the event while Desota qualified for the State Open with an 8.50 finish in her bars routine.
Long was also best on the beam (8.650) for the Centaurs while Anyah Oatley was best in the floor exercise (8.950).
“Anyah was 4-for-4 and had her best meet of the season, she looked great,” Fillmore said. “Emma did an amazing vault and had a huge finish.”
It was the final team competition of the season for the Centaurs who will lose only Long to graduation.
“That’s going to be tough because she has done an amazing job of leading the team this year,” Fillmore said. “I know of one freshman that we will be getting that will be a great addition next year. Hopefully there will be a couple more and it will keep the program going strong.”

Girls’ Hockey
The five seniors on the girls’ hockey co-op team’s roster spent a little extra time on the ice following their last home game of the season last week.
“It’s crazy,” said senior Ellary Sampson. “We’ve been here so long. I’m just glad that I got to end it with all my friends. The best team ever.”
Sampson, Maci Corradi, Grace Lescault and Avery Nielsen had all been six year players for the Centaurs, starting from when they were middle schoolers. Paige Hinckley was one of the inaugural co-op players.
The Centaurs left the ice with a win over Ridgefield which, for the time, kept their hopes of making the state tournament alive.
But losses to Greenwich, Wilton and to Ridgefield later in the week dashed those hopes as the Centaurs finished 4-15-1.
The Centaurs were able to wear down their Ridgefield opponents who brought only nine skaters with them to a President’s Day morning game and Woodstock skated away with the 4-1 victory.
“We tried to tell them not to (take them lightly because of their small numbers) because we played Simsbury last week with nine players and they gave us a fight so we tried to get that into their heads but that’s hard to do when they look over and see that,” said coach Eric Roy.
Ridgefield helped in that respect, however, as it struck early.

The two hour-plus bus ride didn’t hurt the visitors early as freshman Caitlin Byrne scored just 1 minute, 13 seconds into the contest.
Sampson evened things up with a goal with 6:15 left in the first when she got an assist from an unexpected source, the Ridgefield goalie.
“It was kind of weird. Someone told (the Ridgefield goalie) to play it out and she just gave it right to me,” Sampson said.
The Centaurs went ahead to stay when Hinckley tallied with just 16 seconds left in the second period.
Woodstock closed the door when Zi Qing Biondo and Summer  Discordia scored within 29 seconds of one another just two minutes into the third period.
“We had a strong shift and we really showed them that even if they would have tried to come back, they can’t,” Sampson said.
Josie Hatch made 36 saves in goal for Woodstock.
When the Centaurs and Greenwich Cardinals get together, one can expect two things.
A close game.
And overtime.
Sure enough, that’s what happened in the midweek contest with Greenwich outlasting Woodstock, 4-3, in OT.
All of the last four meetings have been decided by one goal and three of them went into a fifth period.
Unfortunately, a goal by Eleanor Fine 2 minutes, 47 seconds into the fifth period also continued another part of the storyline, Greenwich has won all four of the last four meetings.
Sampson scored in the first period for the Centaurs off an assist from Lescault.
Greenwich snuck ahead in the second period before a Biondo goal off a Discordia pass evened up the proceedings early in the third period.
The Cardinals were able to forge ahead one more time before Maci Corradi had an unassisted goal that sent the game into overtime for Woodstock.
Woodstock finished off the season far from home. It had to travel to Ridgefield not once, but twice.
The Centaurs went there on Friday night and were blanked by Wilton, 3-0, in an afternoon contest.
Just about 24 hours later, the Centaurs were back on the bus to the same arena to play Ridgefield for a second time in the week.
The Tigers were a bit more prepared this time with a 15-player roster ready and were able to hand the Centaurs a 3-2 setback.
Ridgefield again took the 1-0 lead with 5:42 left in the first period only to see the Centaurs tie the game on a goal by Hinckley off an assist from Corradi.
Ridgefield went ahead with 29 seconds left in the first period and added another second period tally to go up by two.
Corradi scored less than four minutes into the third period with help from Hinckley and Lescault to make it a one-goal game but the Centaurs, despite some opportunities late, could not get the equalizer.

Boys’ Hockey
Getting that big goal at the right time hasn’t happened often for the boys’ hockey team this season.
But it was the case on Sunday afternoon.
Freshman A.J. Malone got a pass from sophomore Gabe Flannery and was able to push it in to the New Milford net with 33.2 seconds left in regulation to lift the Centaurs past New Milford at the Canterbury School on Sunday afternoon, 4-3.
The game was moved up from a 6 p.m. start to 11:30 a.m. due to a blizzard warning in the state.
The early start seemed to help Woodstock as it got on the board first when Cam Marshall scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season off an assist from Patrick Griswold.
Jackson Aleman made it a 2-0 lead with 6 minutes, 3 seconds left in the opening period with help from Josh May.
The hosts weren’t about to let the Centaurs walk away with the victory, however, as they scored the next three.
The Green Wave closed within one with 1:51 left in the first period; tied the game with 3:24 to play in the second and went ahead just 1:12 into the third period.
Griswold tied the game with 9:16 to play when Marshall returned the favor that Griswold delivered earlier as he assisted on the Griswold tally.
The two teams played even until Malone gave the Centaurs their second win in 18 games.
Woodstock put together arguably its best period of the season
The Centaurs scored three goals in the second period against the Rocky Hill/RHAM co-op last Wednesday. It gave them a three-goal lead going into the final 15 minutes.
Unfortunately, the good was followed by a lot less than that as the Terriers rebounded to score five unanswered goals in the third period to post the 7-5 victory.
May scored his first two goals in a Woodstock uniform with Alex Haggerty, Bruce Walker and Malone getting the other goals in the loss.
Marshall, Aleman, Cam Perreault and Flannery had assists for the Centaurs.
Earlier in the week, the bad news came quick.
A five goal first period for Wethersfield, including two goals in the final minute, essentially determined the outcome of the game as the Eagles skated past Woodstock, 6-1, Monday.
The Centaurs avoided the shutout with an early third-period goal from Haggerty off an assist from Perreault. Woodstock had a further chance to diminish the Eagles’ lead but could not cash in on a 5-on-3 power play opportunity shortly after Haggerty’s goal.
Wethersfield (9-5-1) got a hat trick in the opening period from Jack Leahy and also had three assists being dished out by Nick Socha. Tyler Giangrave and Ryan Pace also scored for the winners in the opening period.
Woodstock finishes up the regular season with games against the Eastern Connecticut Eagles on the road Wednesday and a home game against Lyman Hall Saturday.

Wrestling
Overall, coach Cahan Quinn was happy.
There was no surprise advance that resulted in one of his wrestlers finishing in the top six in their weight class at the Class M state championships at Guilford High School Saturday.
But several did advance.
Aidan Soukaloun, Jake Henderson and Jameson Costa all won their first matches  to advance to the Round of 16.
All three, however, fell into the consolation round where they were joined by A.J. Landreville.
Soukaloun and Landreville both won their first consolation matches before falling in the second. Henderson and Costa went out in the first round of consolation matches.
“I saw a lot of overall progress this season culminate in (Saturday’s) performances especially with some of the younger wrestlers,” Quinn said. “Overall for the year, I could be more proud of this group. They have worked hard and reached the goal of getting one percent better every day. I can’t wait to see what the future holds after the performance of this younger group.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

123.1
Three members of the boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams qualified for the New England championship this weekend with their State Open finishes. Emma Weitknecht, left, will compete in the 55m hurdles; Connecticut champion Avery Plouffe, center, will take part in the girls’ shotput and Eli Manning will compete in the boys’ shotput. Photo by Gerry LaMontagne/Woodstock Academy. 

2026 Woodstock Academy girls’ basketball
Senior Night for the girls’ basketball team. Photo by Collin Singleton/Woodstock Academy).
 
2026 WA boys’ basketball: 
The boys’ basketball team celebrated Senior Night early last week. Photo by Collin Singleton/Woodstock Academy). 

Woodstock Academy gymnastics:
The gymnastics team was all smiles after a fourth-place finish at the Class M State Championship meet. Photo by Kasey Fillmore/Woodstock Academy.

 IMG 0523:
Girls’ hockey co-op seniors Paige Hinckley (16, left) and Ellary Sampson embrace after the Centaurs final home game of the season, a 4-1 victory over Ridgefield. Photo by Amy Sampson/Woodstock Academy.
 

.

.

MuralFest: The momentum is over the top
Funds, ideas, pouring in
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
If you touched any part of the “MuralFest Night of Giving,” you would see sparks fly. 
Momentum and the excitement that it encompasses all of northeastern Connecticut are an understatement.
“It feels like momentum!” said Community Coordinator Elaine Turner.
MuralFest Putnam is a public art collaboration that welcomes The Walldogs, legendary sign painters and muralists from across the country/world, who will capture Putnam’s rich history in a series of privately-funded, storytelling murals. This massive project engages local artists, students, teachers, municipal and non-profit organizations, as well as town leaders, businesses, and the community-at-large, according to MuralFest. The artists will descend on Putnam in June 2028.
Efforts include fund-raising, gathering 200 volunteers to help in every way, including helping the Walldog artists, selecting walls in Putnam for the murals, choosing what parts of Putnam’s historic past will grace the walls. Oh and, yes, more fund-raising.
More than $51,000 was raised in the last two weeks, according to Executive Committee, Marketing and Communications Chair Linda Colangelo. That’s more than $96,000 to date, which is 39 percent of the goal. 
Turner said the “last $50,000 to $60,000 to $70,000 is in-kind, so we could actually be halfway there.”
Committee members said, “We’re off and rolling like a Walldog’s paint roller!”
Emida Roller, the project coordinator for Walldogs, said, “It’s really taking off.”
The History Committee brainstorming its way through Putnam’s extensive history. Chair John Miller said topics include: 
Quinebaug Shetucket River Corridor, Native Americans in The Last Green Valley, General Israel Putnam, immigration and culture, Asa Cutler, underground railroad, “yellow blinds,” Flood of 1955, magnesium explosion, Putnam Redevelopment, Mayor and Governor John Dempsey, Congressman William St. Onge, Rose Bove Larose, suffragettes, Windham County Infirmary(became Day Kimball Hospital), Cady Copp Cottage, Bill Shaw Tavern, Manasseh Cutler (wrote the Northwest Ordinance), Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children, Bradley Playhouse, the railroads and the trains (including presidential visits), Chickering House, the Putnam Inn, The City Hotel, Thomas Taylor, the towns that provided the land to create the town of Putnam, the mills 
The History Committee includes: Susan Larose, Carmine Angeloni, Diana Lee, Val Iamartino, Nicole Flagg Nichols, Kathleen Zamagni Jeannie Benoit, Elaine Turner, Pat Hedenberg, Jimi Gothreau and Paul Desautels.
Turner said one important aspect of the effort is the adjoining towns. ‘I need the adjoining towns to come in and be part of it from Pomfret to Thompson and Killingly. They were all part of Putnam and part of telling a story should cross town lines. It should cross all barriers that we’ve created to keep people separate because this is a mutual story. Let’s face it; Israel Putnam did not come from Putnam.”
Maureen Nicholson, Pomfret’s first selectman, echoed those thoughts saying: “This is a game changer for northeastern Connecticut. It’s bigger than one town.”
Nicholson suggested the Air Line Trail abutments/tunnels as a possible site for a mural. The Air Line Trail runs from East Haddam to the Thompson town line and beyond. It has two bridges and three tunnels. Currently resurfacing is underway and the creation of a ramp at the Breault foot bridge will complete the connection to Thompson. “The trail is a huge economic boost for Putnam and the area,” she said. She anticipates the trail work will be completed in 2028.
The abutments/tunnels “are just crying out to be a canvas,” Nicholson said. “I’ve been dreaming about murals for these abutments, for these tunnels. So when I heard about this project, I thought, well, six of them are in Putnam.”
Nicholson said the trail is state property, the Air Line Linear State Park, and she inquired about murals with the state. She said the state is “receptive” to murals being painted on those walls. 
Donations
The MuralFest Night of Giving included: Linemaster Switch Corporation of Woodstock with a donation of $20,000. And Joseph Carlone Sr. of Linemaster and his wife Betty matched the Linemaster donation with $20,000 for a total of $40,000 and the promise to house artists at their Mansion at Bald Hill.
The Putnam Economic Development Commission Trust Fund donated $5,000 and is also in agreement to donate another $5,000 next year, for a total of $10,000.
In addition a donation of $1,113 came from Nicole Ouellette Reigler and family, a longtime family friend of Colangelo and Crosetti.
Fund-raising continues with visits to area businesses and more. Colangelo said “We had a boatload of confidence. We had a basket full of prayers and we set out (fund-raising) and when we can literally say, it was like someone flipped the switch.”
“We are becoming part of history by becoming part of this project,”

Recent Donations
From left: MuralFest's Linda Colangelo, Linemaster Switch's Joe Carlone Jr. and Tim Carlone and Joe Carlone Sr., MuralFest's Laura Crosetti and Elaine Turner and Putnam Economic Development Commission Trust Fund's Paul Grenier. Linda Lemmon photos.

Air Line Trail tunnel rendering

.

Aspinock Memories
Detectives 'spotting' illegal liquor sales mobbed in 1896
By Terri Pearsall, AHS Curator
In light of current events, I found this article in the Putnam Patriot on September 18, 1896 very interesting and I type exactly from the paper: “Quite a sensation was created in this city on Sunday by a mob of over 50 persons who followed two men from the Elm Street House to the station, hooting and threatening the strangers, until they took refuge in the cars and held their tormentors at bay until the train started for Hartford.
“The men had arrived from New York this morning; one being James Hanse, superintendent of a Detective bureau in New York; the other was named William Hennessey, brought here by the former to assist in “Spotting” illegal liquor selling.  They arrived by early boat train and put up at the Elm Street House.  During the day the two detectives made good time and saw a score or more of people enter the house and ascend to an upper apartment, which they readily guessed was to get drinks.  At any rate they followed the crowd and were at once supplied when they asked for liquor.
“Thus fortified with evidence that the law forbidding the sale of liquor on Sunday was being broken, they notified the agents of the State Laws and Order League, under whose orders they were working.  Incautiously for detectives, they gave the landlord notice that he would be arrested for selling liquor illegally and what their mission was.  At once there was an unpleasant rumpus for the “Spotters”, a crowd in the house joined in threating looks and language, and they hastened away to the station to get out of town.  But they had a lot of hornets to follow them desirous of giving them some “Stinging” blows.  The mob seemed eager to reach Hennessey who entered a car, but in desperation he fought off his assailants.  Hanse had sought safety in a forward car.
“The troubles of the pair were not over, however.  When they arrived in Willimantic, they found the police officers waiting for their arrival, having been telegraphed to by some parties in Putnam to apprehend the two men and hold them as prisoners.  Chief of Police Hillhouse obeyed the message and then conferred with Captain Longden of this city.  On learning the facts from him he saw he could not hold these men, and he let them go.  Hennessey was thoroughly frightened, and it was his first experience as a “Spotter” and would not go into the streets of Willimantic, fearing some of the Putnam mob had followed him and might “do him in”.
“Second part came off Monday and was the innings for The Law and Order League Detectives.  Secretary Thrasher of the State League arrived here and proceeded at once to ferret out the assailants of his agents.  Warrants were issued against Charles A. Piper, landlord of the Elm Street House, Levi Smithe and Luke Gibney, who were brought before Judge Warner, who, at the request of their counsel, Attorney Torrey adjourned the case to Tuesday September 22nd and bound them over for trial at $200.  A man named Ryan is accused of being one of the assailants, but no the pugilist Ryan who came here to be trained for a fight he is engaged to have with another noted bruiser, as was reported, but another Ryan who was not to be found; but he too will be arrested if he returns to this city.  The third part will be anxiously awaited by all good citizens.
“September 25, 1896 – We said last week the men who mobbed the detectives of the Law and Order League had their innings on Sunday – Secretary Thrasher had his inning Monday, and the city, so outraged by a law defying mob on a State officer, on a Sunday too, was to have it’s innings this week, Tuesday, and was anxiously looked for.  The ending is quite satisfactory to all who respect the laws of the land.  The two principals engaged in the attack on the officers were Levi Smith, who keeps a saloon and Luke Gibney, a tinsmith.  Gertrude Warner’s father, Judge Warner, fined Smith $40 and court costs for assault on Henessey and J. Hanse, the detectives.  Both men appealed and furnished $200 bonds.
“It is not likely these men realized the enormity of their offense.  They simply allowed their hatred for the “Spotters”, as they call the detectives, to over master their judgment.  They think it is no worse to sell liquor on Sunday as on any other day, and when they don’t believe a thing is wrong in itself; they don’t care about any restrictive law.  And because they think this way, they feel wronged to be exposed by detective work, and thus their animosity against “Spotters”, who are State Officers employed to guard the laws from being violated.  The men acted under a sudden impulse of feelings, and there was no reason to believe they intended to do the men any great bodily harm, indeed, they could have no definite purpose, except to express their feelings of indignation, shared in by many in the crowd who respected the law too much to do or permit bodily harm being done.  The officers of the Law and Order League will not likely be molested again for doing their legitimate duty in this city.”
Apparently, some things never change.  People do not change no matter what era they live in, and it doesn’t take much to get a mob going.  I found words like innings, describing the court hearings, Spotters (is that like undercover agents or snitches?) to ferret out and the detectives being molested by the mob very amusing. 
 I remember as a child when I lived in New Jersey there were blue laws and you could only buy certain things on Sunday.  Such as you could buy canned dog food on Sunday but not a can opener to open it to feed your dog.  It didn’t make sense to me then and still doesn’t now. And as I recall liquor stores were all closed on Sunday in Connecticut until 2012.  So, enjoy your glass of wine or adult beverage at your favorite restaurant this Sunday and be glad you live in this day and age.
This article is thanks to the archives of Aspinock Historical Society. Aspinock Memories graces the pages of the Putnam Town Crier to keep Putnam’s history alive.

.