Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Town Historian Lester Smith.
March 7
The adjourned annual town meeting was held in the Town hall last Saturday afternoon [and voted] a tax of 10 mills on the grand list just completed to pay the estimated expenses of the town . . . due and payable April 15th, with a discount of 2 percent if paid on or before that date.
The resolution regarding voting machines . . . was brought up . . . After some discussion it was voted that the selectmen be instructed to buy two machines at a cost not to exceed $2,000.
A meeting was held at the Congregational parsonage last Tuesday morning in the interest of a “Near East” drive in this town. . . . Suffield’s quota is $1,800, about a third of which has already been pledged . . . [Near East Relief was founded in 1915 in response to the Armenian genocide in what is now Turkey and Syria.]
Mr. and Mrs. Karl C. Kulle have returned from a three-months stay at Saranac Lake, N. Y.
William Colson of Co. A, 303d Infantry, returned from France this week, where he has been in the service.
March 14
For several years summer cottages on the mountain and at Congamond have been broken into and items stolen. The matter was finally brought to the attention of the state police with the result that arrests were made and many of the stolen articles returned.
James A. Mix and a young man named Cummings have bargained for the grocery business of O. L. Dart and inventory will be taken Sunday after which the deal will be completed. Mr. Dart has been in business in this town for thirty-one years and for about twenty-five years in the present location [across from South Green].
Leo A. Grouten, manager of the Hilltop poultry yards, addressed the members of the Springfield poultry club at its meeting Tuesday evening . . . among other figures he gave . . . Mr. Hendee’s poultry farm last year yielded an income of $21,352.10, and with operating expenses of $17,508.79, produced a net profit of $3,842.31.
John McQuiggan has gone to his old home in Ireland for a few weeks.
March 21
Alfred M. Gay, manager at the Suffield Pharmacy, has returned from a trip to Wyoming, where he was called by the serious illness of his uncle.
The hotel and property in this place [West Suffield Center] known as the “Terrett House” and owned by A. J. Needham, was sold this week to Joseph Romano, an Italian storekeeper and barber. The price paid is reported to be $5,000. The hotel was at one time used by many out-of-town people for holding dances and receptions. Since this town went “dry” the hotel has been closed. C. E. Anderson, who was proprietor of the hotel several years ago, has lived there with his family. Mr. Romano will use the property for a store and barber shop and will remodel the rest of the building into tenements. There are eight acres of land, a barn and a tobacco shed included.
Tobacco growers from this part of the town [West Suffield] have joined the Thompsonville association this week and will put their crops in the warehouse to be assorted.
March 28
Mrs. Arthur G. Bissell received several cuts and bruises Tuesday by being thrown from a wagon. She was driving a team of horses tandem [one behind the other], and they became frightened of something and ran away, overturning the cart. A physician was summoned, but found no bones broken.
Lieutenant Russell B. Street of this place will speak at the First Congregational church Sunday morning at 10:30 o’clock. on his experiences on the firing line in France. Dr. Street was in France at the front line casualty station.
Frank Demorat has sold his farm of twenty-nine acres at the south part of the town to Fred Samplatski., possession to be given April 1st. Mr Demorat will move to Windsor Locks for the present.
Mr. and Mrs. S. R. Spencer have been spending a couple of weeks at Atlantic City, N. J.
Mr. and Mrs. Weston L. Stiles entertained the members of the Mapleton whist club Wednesday evening at their home on Main street, with seven tables in play. . . The next meeting will be held in two weeks at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Stevens in Springfield.