100 Years Ago in Suffield

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Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Town Historian Lester Smith.

 September 6

A new laundry is being established at the Suffield School and electric washing machines and mangles have been installed. This is along the line of economy and good business practiced by the school. The school has besides its herd of cows, about forty pigs and five hundred pullets and are assured of fresh farm products. . . . At the present time tomatoes are being put up and are being canned at the rate of three hundred quarts a day.

By orders of the State Council of Defense, the Suffield War Bureau will have the streets patrolled Sunday and the numbers of all automobiles will be taken unless the drivers can give sufficient reason for driving on that day.

Arthur G. Bissell of this place won second prize in the Holstein-Fresian class at the Connecticut fair in Hartford this week with his bull King Prilly Fayne.

Rev. Jesse F. Smith will begin his labors next Sunday as pastor of the First Baptist church, and will preach at the morning service at the usual hour of 10:45. Mr. Smith is a returning missionary from Burmah, and is now an instructor at the Suffield School.

September 13

A force of registrars was busy from 7 a. m. to 9 p. m. Thursday registering the men from 18 to 21 and 31 to 46. . . . There were two Polish interpreters kept busy most of the day. During the day 572 were registered, divided as follows: white 545, colored 27; of these 338 were native born, 25 were naturalized, 7 were citizens by father’s naturalization before they attained their majority, 21 were declarants [for citizenship] and 181 non-declarants.

At the first registration, on June 5, 1917, which included those between the ages of 21 and 31, inclusive, 454 were registered in this town. These with the 21s registered this year will make the total registration from this town of men within the draft age about 1100.

The citizens of the town are invited to meet the new board of finance at Union hall this (Friday) evening to hear their recommendations.

September 20

The Suffield School will be on a military basis for the coming year, the military work to be under the supervision of Capt. Johnson of the Canadian army, who has been detailed for that purpose. Military instruction will be compulsory for both day students and boarders.

The following letter was received by Mrs. George B. Woodruff from her son-in-law [Cpl.] J. Horton Dockendorf, who is in Co. D., Machine Gun Battalion of the 102d Regiment of the American Expeditionary Forces . . .

My Dear Mother, . . . I wanted to send you the enclosed copy of an order received upon our relief from the drive . . .

General Orders No. 67

To the Officers and Men of the 26th Division:

On July 16th you entered, as part of the Allied drive against the enemy, and continued the offensive combat until the major portion of the command was relieved on July 25th.

On the assumption of the offensive your position in the line demanded an important and difficult maneuver. . . . You went unafraid into the face of the enemy’s fire; you forced him to withdraw before you, or to accept the alternative of hand-to-hand combat, in which you proved yourselves morally and physically his superior; you gave freely and gave much of your strength, and of your blood and of your lives, until pushed beyond mere physical endurance, fighting night and day you still pushed yourselves forward, sustained almost by spirit alone.. . . and this testimony I give to each of you gladly and with deep gratitude.

C. R. Edwards, Major General, Commanding

Health Officer W. E. Caldwell received a notice from State Health Commissioner John T. Black yesterday notifying him that Spanish influenza is a reportable disease . . . So far there has been only one suspected case of the disease in this town which is now under observation. [The 1917-1920 flu pandemic killed about four percent of the world’s population.]

September 27

Recognition services welcoming Rev. D. W. West as pastor of the Third Baptist church were held Thursday evening.

There has been considerable complaint of illegal shooting about town the last few weeks and on Tuesday Warden Pease started in to investigate. He had not been on the job more than about a half hour before he caught two young fellows looking for game and had already shot two robins.

Miss Mary Mann has gone to Providence where she has entered Brown University. 

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