Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Wendy Taylor, Kent Memorial Library.
April 6
The warm rainstorm of Wednesday gave some of the farmers an opportunity to get down tobacco that was hanging in the sheds. Some of the late cut tobacco was not sufficiently cured to take down during the fall storms and when it gets dried out it takes a long period of cold rain to dampen tobacco sufficiently to take down.
The open season on brook trout started… but owing to the cold weather catches were light… The mountain brooks are still lined with snowdrifts and the woods are filled with ice on the north side of the hills.
The choir of the Sacred Heart church will give a dance in the Town hall.
April 13
Tobacco workers in the Fuller warehouse went on strike Tuesday morning, demanding an increase of 75 cents a day. A raise of 25 cents a day was offered but was refused by the men.
Cold weather for the past week has hampered the work of the tobacco growers in getting ready for the spring work. Very few tobacco beds have been planted so far this year, and many have not yet been plowed. Very little plowing has been done as the ground is frozen solid nearly every morning.
The stone road between Kent corner [Main Street and Kent Avenue] and the Windsor Locks line has gone to pieces rather badly this year, the frost boiling the mud through the macadam in a number of places. The state highway department has repaired the breaks as far as possible.
Suffield Grange gave a hash and pancake supper at Mapleton Hall Thursday evening…Home-made candy, potted plants and cut flowers were on sale.
April 20
The bodies placed in the receiving vault at the old cemetery during the winter have been taken out and buried. Beside the thirteen from this place there was one from East Granby and one from Thompsonville.
Mrs. George Martinez, who has recently returned from Florida, was operated on at the Springfield hospital, Monday, for gall stones.
April 27
Walter M. Luce, aged 59 years, a native and former resident of this place, was killed in the freight yards at Buffalo, N. Y. Tuesday morning. Mr. Luce was a railroad engineer and the morning of his death had trouble with the air breaks. He got out of the cab to fix them and while working about the engine, it started and killed him instantly. The deceased was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Luce and for a number of years was baggage-master at the Suffield station, afterwards going on as fireman. He left this place about twenty-five years ago. He leaves a widow [Cora B (Hummel) Luce] and three brothers, Albert, Robert and Leverett, all of Springfield. The body will be brought to this place and services will be held at Cooper’s undertaking rooms Saturday afternoon at 1 o’clock. Burial will be at the Woodlawn cemetery.
The annual May breakfast under the auspices of the Mapleton Hall Association will be held in Mapleton Hall next Tuesday. The usual preparations have been made for the event. The usual menu, including shad and lamprey eels, will be served. It is the social side of this yearly event that has made it famous and former residents of this section that moved far away plan to make their visits to this town coincide with the date of the May breakfast, so as to see as large a number of the old friends as possible. Good home cooking is also a feature that has helped make the affair popular.
Tax collector W. W. Pomroy has collected a little over $70,000 of the town’s taxes, which is a little less than was collected at this time last year. A list of the uncollected personal taxes is being made up and those who have not paid will be required to settle.