Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/author/todd-vibert/)
Looking for something to do now that school is out for the summer? Why not come to the Salmon Brook Historical Society on a Sunday afternoon and learn about the history of the town we live in? Tour the society’s five buildings to see how Granby has evolved to what it is today.
In the last issue of the Drummer, I wrote about Granby’s Civil War hero, Colonel Richard E. Holcomb, who died in battle at Port Hudson, Louisiana. When Holcomb’s body was returned to Granby for burial, many of his things were sent back in his trunk, such as his canteen, his uniform, with all the shoulder boards of his rank as Lieutenant, then Major, and finally Colonel.
On a walk through the Granby Cemetery in Section A, you may notice a monument that’s nearly 15 feet tall. This monument belongs to Richard E. Holcomb, a Granby Civil War hero killed at Port Hudson, La. on June 14, 1863.
In the 1966, two sisters and Salmon Brook Historical Society members, Mildred Colton Allison and Carolyn Colton Avery donated the Abijah Rowe House to the society.
James Lee Loomis and William Mills Maltbie were not only giants of Hartford’s business community—Loomis was president of Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company and William Maltbie was the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court—but they also led various organizations in Granby.
In the July/August Drummer edition, I wrote about how Granby was full of volunteers, mentioning many organizations such as the Granby Club, Bridge Club, and the Boy and Girl Scout chapters. One organization I overlooked was the Freemasons of Granby, a very early civic organization and the oldest fraternal organization in the world.
r the past couple years, many people have groused about the construction in the center of town, taking detours down streets such as Copper Hill, Griffin Road and Hungary Road, and increasing traffic through neighborhoods.
Two months ago, I wrote about the 1973 Granby field hockey team winning the first-ever field hockey tournament in Connecticut. After they won the title, all the players on the team were given dictionaries by the board of education. Today, if a Granby team wins a championship, they receive jackets for their accomplishment, as the field hockey team recentl
As we all endure the construction in the center of town and look forward to seeing the improvements to Granby, I can’t help but think about how much our town has changed.
Fifty years ago, on Nov. 17, 1973, when Mary Brynes scored the winning goal with 28 seconds left in the second overtime, Granby’s Field Hockey team beat Guilford 2 to 1 in the first ever Field Hockey State Championship. As author Rob Penfield stated, this win “put Granby on the map.”