Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Town Historian Lester Smith.
July 6
Last Saturday a Pennsylvania tobacco buyer started picking up a few crops of tobacco, and this week the rest of the buyers have been hot on the trail.
The banks, library and other places were closed all day Thursday [July 4]. The post office was open from 7 to 11 a. m. and the village carrier made his regular trip. The rural carriers did not make their trips. There was not much excitement in town during the day and no accidents were reported.
Rev D. H. Drew preached his farewell sermon at the Third Baptist church Sunday morning, closing his pastorate there.
July 12
James Jones of Bridge street, while trying to carry home an empty barrel on the handlebars of his bicycle Sunday, lost control of the wheel and drove the barrel through the large plate glass window in the front of H. B. Richmond’s harness store. The barrel was not injured and was later taken to its original destination.
July 19
The executive board of the Suffield Fish and Game Association held a meeting Wednesday evening. At this meeting it was voted to join the American Game Protective Association which has been doing such valuable conservation work throughout the country the past few years.
A shower Wednesday afternoon was a great help to growing vegetation and will add much to the value of growing crops.
July 26
Three children of John Carney, who purchased the John Munn place in Boston Neck a couple of years ago, were taken to the County Home at Warehouse Point Thursday. Carney’s wife left him about three years ago and since that time the ten-years-old daughter has taken care of the house, being left alone for a day or two at a time. . . . There are four children in the family, but the boy of thirteen was left as he was working in tobacco and could earn considerable money.
The selectmen have had the road gang at work on East street the past week and the highway is being put into good shape.
August 8
James Lawler was arrested Tuesday by Officer Gregg and was before Justice Howard D. Sikes Wednesday on charge of drunkenness and breach of the peace. He was fined $2 and costs, which he was unable to pay, and was taken to the Hartford County jail to work it out.
About a dozen babies were weighed and measured at the Center school Tuesday.
August 15
Mrs. James Eagleson of South Main street received word from her son, John A Eagleson, Saturday evening, that he had been gassed and wounded in the hip by shrapnel and was in a hospital behind the firing line on July 16, which is the date of the letter. Young Eagleson is a member of Battery C, Tenth Field Artillery. In a recent letter of July 30, Eagleson writes that he has recovered and was back on the firing line. [This was the Second Battle of the Marne.]
The labor situation in this town is getting rather acute as the cold weather approaches and the tobacco remains unharvested. …It is said that some of the more anxious farmers have bid as much a $10 a day for good men, but most of the good men stand by their contracts and cannot be bought.
August 20
Word has been received here that Earl W. Maloney, a graduate of the Suffield School in the class of 1914, …has been awarded the Croix de Guerre by a French divisional commander for distinguishing himself in recent fighting in France. …During his service in France, which is now over a year, he had been driving an ambulance.
August 27
Arthur G. Bissell of this place has entered his Holstein-Fresian bull, King Prilly Feyne, at the Connecticut Fair in Hartford next week. This is probably the best bull ever owned in this town, as its immediate ancestors are the top-notchers of the Holstein-Fresian breed. He is the son of a four times 30-lb. cow and the sensationally bred King Pontiac Hengerfeld Feyne. The records of his dam and sire’s dam average butter, 7 days 40.68 pounds.