From the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal, selected and lightly annotated by Lester Smith, Historian of the Town and the Suffield Historical Society.
July 6
Wednesday was one of the quietest Independence Days ever celebrated in this town. The banks, library and most of the places of business were closed, but the lack of noise made it seem more like Sunday than Fourth of July. . . . In the evening a good many people went to Riverside to see the fireworks.
The [military conscription] registration lists in this town have been compared with the military census list and the personal tax lists, and in the opinion of the registration board not a resident of the town of the prescribed ages tried to avoid registration.
Last Saturday the neighbors and friends of Thomas Sweeney gave him what might be called a planting bee. His wife had been seriously ill for a long time and his work being delayed for various reasons. Four acres of tobacco was waiting to be set. A force of men from this section [Zion’s Hill] got together and furnished teams and with two tobacco setters, they transplanted the whole four acres.
July 13
About 11:30 last evening another automobile smashed into the Boston Neck bridge near Brookside, but fortunately no one was injured.
The private garage of Howard C. Cone on North Main street was broken into early yesterday morning and a new $59 shoe removed from the rear wheel of Mr. Cone’s Cadillac touring car and taken.
July 20
A heavy wind storm, accompanied by hail, did considerable damage in a small area in the western part of the town Tuesday night. . . . Several of the syndicates in the western part of the town sent gangs of men to help out Hatheway & Steane Wednesday and there were about 500 men in the field putting on new cloth and setting up the plants that had been blown over by the wind.
July 27
The Suffield Agricultural Society has made some progress in winding up its affairs, and will be ready soon for dissolution. . . . The old race track and the ground occupied by the grand stand and the space for the midway will be put to more utilitarian uses.
Town Clerk L. G. Allen has bought an American flag, 10 by 15 feet, with the money he obtained by public subscription and the flag will be presented to the town at a public flag-raising.
A party of girls, under the supervision of Mrs. Mathew Leahey, are camping at Congamond Lakes.
August 3
W. H. Moshier, aged 28 years, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was killed and two others injured in a motorcycle accident at the oil mill bridge [East Street across Stony Brook] about noon today.
A no-license committee [local prohibition] has been formed in town with Howard A. Henshaw as chairman and Ray Goodale secretary.
Nelson Talmadge is spending two weeks at Cape Cod and Needham, Mass.
August 10
The milk dealers of the town have decided to raise the price of milk to consumers to 12 cents a quart.
August 31
W. S. Pinney is having his warehouse equipped with a plant for heating, ventilating and humidifying and will have it in operation soon. Mr. Pinney has been experimenting for the past three or four years and last year had a small plant installed, which worked perfectly.