Part of Thomaston's History

As my half-brother pointed out to me, our grandparents home was included in a book on the history of Thomaston, CT that was published back in the mid-1970's.   Just checked, and I do remember right, that the book was published around the time of the town's centennial celebration.  Thomaston's website notes that:

  On July 6,1875 Thomas Town became Thomaston in memory of Seth Thomas and the separation from Plymouth was confirmed by the State Legislature.

So, it was in the summer of 1975 that Miss Rosa Gangloff's extensive book "Thomaston - It's Origin and Development" was published.  I think everyone in town at the time remembers seeing this book and poring through it to see if you could find anyone you knew in the many pictures included throughout the book.   I found a used copy for sale today on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Thomaston-Development-Rosa-F-Gangloff/dp/B004440AH6

If you're from town, and the link still works, take a peek at the cover - I'm sure it will bring back memories.

Well anyhow, on Bob's advice, I figured I'd stop by and see if the town library had a copy.    So one Saturday afternoon last month, about 5 minutes before they closed I rushed into the library.  Tried to get over my flashbacks of how it looks exactly the same as when I was a kid!   The librarian knew exactly what I was talking about and went in the back to get me their copy.   So, as both Bob and I remembered, there was a picture of our grandparent's house right there on page 70!



Here is the description included of the house:

Two houses above the Lundberg's property is the Andrew Goldsmith house.  Andrew Goldsmith was the father of Samuel, who with his son built several houses on Walnut Hill.  The Goldsmiths preferred houses with an ell.  They also built a multipurpose room upstairs for weaving, sewing or quilting and spinning.  Here looms or quilting frames could remain until completed without disturbance.

Otherwise their houses followed the pattern of large granite blocks "set in the dry," chestnut timbers and wide planked floors.  The windows were six over six.  In the Andrew Goldsmith house the wide boards around the bottom of the kitchen walls are original.  The fireplace has a Dutch oven and a cupboard above the mantel.  There is a butler's door to the pantry. All of the hardware on the doors is original.  There are six rooms downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs plus the multipurpose room.  The bathroom and electric wiring are modern additions as is the closed-in porch and carriage house.  The barns were built across the road from the house near an excellent spring of water.  A wooden trough allowed the cattle to drink at the spring which ran constantly.  In dry weather neighbors were allowed to take the water needed.

We lived in the house for just a bit when I was in kindergarten.   I do remember playing jacks at Easter in the closed-in porch and liking the old farmhouse.  It had a lot of character.  As the story was told to Bob, Charles Skerstonas purchased this farmhouse and the sixty acre farm for cash after working as a crane operator upon arriving in the US from Lithuania. 

Mrs. Gangloff's book doesn't note when the house was built nor when it became the "Chas Skerstonas House" but I thought it was every exciting that we got our place in the history book of our town!