Our town is one of the lucky ones coming through a world-wide pandemic with its hometown newspaper intact. The Lakeville Journal has been serving NWCT since 1897, but in 2019, like many newspapers, it was at a crossroads. Its founding template made its financial survival dependent on advertising and paper sales, but that wasn’t working in the age of digital. The Lakeville Journal was saved thanks to the doggedness of its publisher, staff and board members, and the acumen and generosity of supporters who enabled it to pivot and become a nonprofit.
To remain vibrant, a newspaper needs not only readers but contributors. To that end, I’ve started an op-ed column Hidden Histories to highlight little-known stories, lives and places that contribute to the shared heritage of the community our newspaper serves. The stories are based on findings discovered while I was researching my novel The Latecomers (Little, Brown 2018), a tale of New England life in the last century.
My first Hidden Histories column runs today. It tells the story of Frederick Bauer, who was once a big name in Lakeville, CT but has been all but forgotten there today. This, despite the fact that he donated a park, a pond, an historic train depot and funds for maintaining his gifts in perpetuity. If you’re a history buff with connections to the area, you might be interested in reading it here. Or, if you’re around town, pick up an issue wherever local newspapers are still (thank heavens) sold.
