Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Wendy Taylor, Kent Memorial Library.
November 2
Several tobacco damps during the past two weeks have given the growers opportunity to take down crops that were ready. Karl C. Kulle has opened his warehouse on Depot street and the W. S. Pinney warehouse opened last week. The warehouse packing tobacco for the association will open in about two weeks. The crop this year looks promising and the growers feel much encouraged at the prospects of good weight and quality.
A neighborhood Hallowe’en party was held at the warehouse of Albert A. Brown in Boston Neck… The evening was passed with games, dancing and other amusements.
There were several parties about town and ghosts and witches were abundant.
November 9
Clarence Broughton, a rural postal delivery man, is taking a two weeks’ vacation which will be spent in Guilford. During his absence his route will be taken by Allen Button of Mapleton avenue.
November 16
The Walker ice house, the largest of those owned by the Berkshire Ice Company at Congamond Lakes, was totally destroyed by fire…causing a loss estimated at over $100,000. The building, which had a capacity of 60,000 tons of ice, was 350 feet long, 240 feet wide and 42 feet high and built entirely of wood. It was located on the west shore of the middle pond.
The fire was discovered about 8 o’clock and had a good start. The flames spread rapidly through the huge building and when the roof fell there was such a mass of flame as is rarely seen at a fire. The roof was supported by steel trusses and as those gave way sparks shot high in the air. Some of them were carried to the Congamond ice house about 1200 feet away, and landing on the roof started small fires, but men stationed there for the purpose were able to put them out.
The chemical fire apparatus from Southwick Center and apparatus from this town were called and did effective work.
The origin of the fire is not known, but it is said that for some time there had been ill feeling between employees and a foreman. A recent change in the wage scale of the men occasioned hard feeling and there are many who believe the cause of the fire is related to this ill feeling. The origin of the fire is being investigated.
The “Stony Brook Camp Association” has completed its dam on the brook in Boston Neck. The camp site which is on the property of R. J. Greer, is a pretty location which has been used for the past two years by a colony of campers from this town and Windsor Locks. Plans have been made for the construction of several cottages at the camp at the camp next year. The new dam is six feet high and floods a considerable area.
November 23
The Polish Roman Catholic Society of America, of which there is a branch here connected with St. Joseph’s Polish church, celebrated its 50th anniversary in this town.
November 30
The Emergency Aid Association will start its campaign for the sale of Christmas seals, the proceeds from which are used for the fight against tuberculosis…During the past year the association has expended $400 from the fund derived from the sale of these seals to provide nursing, attendance, hospital care, clinical aid, food and medicines for tubercular patients and much suffering has been alleviated to restore the health of children showing signs of tuberculosis is possible if certain treatment is begun in time, and is a work in which all should be willing to contribute one dollar.