From the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal, selected and lightly annotated by Lester Smith, Historian of the Town and the Suffield Historical Society
December 7
Dr. Harold M. Brown has moved into the house recently purchased by him of Charles S. Fuller on North Main street.
The [war] relief workers have shipped two more large boxes of supplies to Boston for distribution.
December 14
At a meeting of the local branch of the Red Cross Monday, 1,840 compresses were folded and inspected, about sixty women participating in the work. The local branch meets in the home of Mrs. S. R. Spencer on Wednesday of each week to make the garments needed in the war relief work.
The inventory of the estate of the late Martin J. Sheldon has been filed at the probate office in this town. The estate is probably the largest ever probated in this place and the appraisal will probably be well over two million dollars.
December 21
The public schools will close today [Thursday] for the Christmas vacation and will re-open Monday December 31st.
December 28
Since this town voted no [liquor] license the late bars from Springfield and Windsor locks have been well patronized and the unusual number of drunks have made them unpleasant, especially on Saturday nights.
January 4
The past week has been one of most trying winter weather. Every morning the mercury has been below zero from two to twenty degrees and by noon has managed to get back to the zero mark in preparation for another slide. . . . The houses where water pipes did not freeze have been the ones where they were not put in.
Owing to the scarcity of fuel, the Baptist and Congregational churches will unite in all their services for the next three months, beginning January 6.
Mrs. Arthur N. Beach is sick at her home with erysipelas, and is being cared for by a trained nurse.
January 11
The receipt of two or three cars of coal this week has helped to keep the fires going for a few days longer, but the situation still looks serious and every effort should be made to make coal go as far as it will.
The heating apparatus at the hose house on Main street [behind the Town Hall] has been installed by the Oliver & Howland company of Springfield and is now in working order.
Mr. & Mrs. Weston L. Stiles entertained the members of the Mapleton whist club at their home on Main street Tuesday evening, with four tables in play.
January 18
The war rally held in the Town hall Wednesday evening, under the auspices of the State Council of Defense, was largely attended, the hall being crowded.
The mid-year meeting of the trustees of the Suffield School was held last Saturday morning. . . . It was unanimously voted to place the school on a military basis. This means no radical change, as for the last two years the school has been emphasizing the military drill and has been gradually introducing military methods. The school is already supplied with uniforms which are worn by the students on drill days, but will now be worn all the time.
January 25
The assessors have completed their work, and the abstracts are ready for the board of relief. The grand list this year is $5,953,463, an increase of about a half million dollars over last year. [The highest individual listing, by far, was $128,471 for George M. Hendee.]