The business still exists in
Seymour today, in the revised firm, the Miller-Ward Funeral Home.
Members of the Miller family now operate the Bank Street business.
GEORGE T. CLARK
George T. Clark was born in Bethany in
November 1859. His father was originally a teacher, conducting a select
school in Bethany, but later became a farmer.
Sheldon was taken by his parents to Beacon Falls
when he was two years of age and raised on his father's farm. Sheldon
received his education in the public schools of the town and completed
his education at Redding, Connecticut. He returned to the family farm
and made that his chief interest in life.
The property included about 150 acres of land, and
he used the property to conduct both a milk and ice business. He also
provided rental of horse teams to area farmers and businessmen.
Clark married Mary A. Reffelt, the daughter of a
German immigrant who was foreman of a woolen shop in South Coventry.
They had five children: Frank, Eva, George, Ethel and Rosetta.
The Clarks attended the Methodist Episcopal Church,
which later became the United Church of Beacon Falls.
Clark was a staunch Republican and served as a
member of the local school board and as a school visitor. He served as
selectman in 1897, 1898 and 1899.
ROBERT DOWNS
Robert
Downs was an Oxford farmer who lived on Chestnut Tree Hill Road
where he engaged in bee farming and dairying.
His farm was located at the corner of Chestnut Tree
Hill and the now unused dirt roadway Downs Road, which leads over the
hill to Riggs Street in the vicinity of Jack's Hill Road.
Robert Downs was born in Bethany and came to Oxford
when his parents bought that farm when he was a year old in 1836. As he
grew up, he attended Red Oak School, that school in the joint school
district #11 with Naugatuck and Oxford and also worked on the farm to
help his father. His father died in 1859 and he took charge of the
farm.
Robert Downs owned about 116 acres of land which he
devoted to diary, general farming and bee culture.
