A History of Social Service in New London County

February’s Second Sunday, on the 14^th, will feature Mary Lenzini, Executive Director of the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut. The VNA is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year and this will be an opportunity to look back at how far we have come in providing skilled nursing assistance in our region. Of course there have been vast changes in the nursing profession over those 100 years as well as amazing changes in medical practice.

As early as 1909 the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut was at work. Black bag in hand, equipped with enema bags, dressing supplies, thermometers and little else, these pioneers visited their patients on foot, by horseback, or by bicycle.

Charged mostly with caring for the poor, new mothers and children, psychiatric and homebound tuberculosis patients, their nursing duties were combined with a large dose of social work.

This Second Sunday program will take place at 2 pm at the offices of the VNA of Southeastern Connecticut, 403 North Frontage Road, just inside the Waterford border next to Springhill Suites and the New London Mall.

[November 1756] Thursd 18 “fair. a publick Thanksgiving in this Colony.  I Set out in the morning with Joshua in order to go to Stonington purpusing to meeting att Groton but the ferry boat was gone over & Stayed there a great while and a small wind & Right against us that wee were Late & the ferrymans cellar being broke open ye last night & Sundrys Stole out I stopt to write a Warrant to Serch & by that means was too late for the meeting and wee went the Lower way to Stonington & Dined att Joshuas between 3 & 4. oe Clock & went to son miners & Lodged there.”

This Thanksgiving Day in Joshua’s 79^th year gives a new meaning to “over the river and through the woods” to a holiday meal with family.  It also points up a difference between Thanksgiving then and now.  The Connecticut colony, according to Joshua’s Diary, as well as the colonies of New York and Massachusetts, usually held a day of Thanksgiving in early November.  These days were “publishd” at the local meetinghouse a week or so in advance and most of Joshua’s entries regarding these special days simply read something similar to this: “Wedensd 16 fair. A Thanksgiving day Throughout ye Collony. Mr. ad. Pr. al d.”  (November 1715).

Thanksgiving was a day of prayer, not of feasting and football, although it is clear from the longer entry above, and others in the Diary that it was also a day to meet with family and/or friends and to dine together.  In fact, as Pat Schaefer notes in A Useful Friend, this gathering together of family to celebrate Thanksgiving may very well have been the expected custom. She points out a sad little entry by Joshua in 1732: “Thursd 9 Cloudy.  a publick Thanksgiving & ye most Malancholy that ever I had.  no Brother Sister or Child with me.”

May you all have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving and may you celebrate it with friends and family.

See an index all the Joshua Hempstead Blog postings.

Was Justice Served? You decide.

Sunday 8 November, please join us at 2pm at the Stoneridge Retirement Community auditorium in Mystic for a special Second Sunday program.

Judith duPont has written an historical account that reads like murder-mystery fiction. But the facts are these: in the evening hours of 19 April, 1874, 17 year-old Irvin Langworthy was murdered in his home on Darling Hill in Stonington (near where present Route 1 ascends what is now know as Lord’s Hill). An attempt was also made to kill his older brother Courtland who was found in his bed in a pool of blood. Suspicion almost immediately fell upon hired farm-hand Bill Libby, but there were some who suspected the Langworthy family.

The brutal murder led to sensational newspaper coverage in the New London Evening Telegram, the Mystic Press and the New York Times. The case was tried in New London County Courthouse and Libby was given a life sentence. But was he guilty? Join us as we look more deeply into this case and we learn more about the community as we see how they reacted to the ongoing saga.

Please read Murder at Darling Hill before duPont’s presentation. She will review the evidence, newspaper accounts, and trial transcripts, but she doesn’t tell us in her book if she believed that Libby was rightfully convicted. We are sure you’ll have an opinion too.

Stoneridge Retirement Community is located at 186 Jerry Brown Road in Mystic; there is ample parking. Refreshments will be served after the presentation.

Event is free for NLCHS Members and Stoneridge residents and their guests. There is a $5 fee for all others.

Please read the book before the presentation. Murder at Darling Hill is available for sale at the Shaw Mansion, at the Stonington Historical Society, and at Bank Square Books in Mystic. Stoneridge residents can obtain copies of the book from Jack Kurrus, apt. 4508.