Late Historian's Legacy Prompts New Canton History Feature

CANTON, CT — The Canton Public Library unveiled a new feature on its Facebook page Tuesday that folks just might want to check out.

Called "Canton Day By Day: A Calendar of Happenings Out Of The Past," the weekly posting takes a look at Canton's past as it prepares to celebrate some major milestones for the next 12 months.

Over the next year, Canton will celebrate multiple 2026 milestone celebrations (America's 250th, the Town of Canton's 220th, and the Collins Company's 200th).

As part of that, each Tuesday, the local library will post "This Week In Canton History."

The feature stems from the efforts of the late Canton Town Historian David Leff, who was working on compiling a calendar of Canton history, with an event for each day of the year.

Leff died in 2022.

The new, weekly feature is part of Leff's efforts before his passing, and the posts are meant to be snapshots of Canton history.

Wrote Leff: "This sampling of happenings from Canton’s past illuminates the character of our community and its changes over more than two-and-a-half centuries. It is by no means complete, nor does it cover all the most important events. It’s a lens for seeing our town flowing in the stream of time. Differences between then and now abound, but the similarities are even more striking."

The first installment looked at Canton's history from July 1-7.

For more information, click on the Canton Public Library's Facebook page at this link.

From May 31, 2022: 'Longtime Canton Resident David Leff Has Died, Town Says'