Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Wendy Taylor, Kent Memorial Library.
Sept 5
The work of harvesting the tobacco crop is well along and about 60 per cent. of the crop is under cover.
Mail Carrier Thomas Kennedy is taking his annual vacation of two weeks. His place is being taken by Francis Milligan.
Charles Bidwell, a tobacco farmer living in the western part of the town, was painfully injured at this home…while hanging tobacco in one of his sheds. While reaching up with a lath of tobacco to hang it on the poles, the pole on which he was walking broke from under him, letting him to the ground onto a pile of lath and lumber. He fell about twenty feet and for some time was in an unconscious condition. Dr. Pendleton of Granby, who was called, found Bidwell suffering with severe bruises and contusions about the body and several broken ribs… and internal complications are feared. [He lived another thirty years. Phew!]
Sept 12
The recommendations of the board of finance for the coming year are as follows: Dirt roads, $16,000; stone roads, $18,750; cutting brush, $1,000; bridges, $5,000; snow removal, $1,000; tools, $1,500; motor vehicles, $6,000; town yard, $250; schools, $78,000; insane poor, $1,400; outside poor, $1,200; emergency aid association, $1,500; farm wages and supplies, $4,000; indemnity bonds, $700; printing, $1,400; salaries, $5,000; personal taxes, $500; voting machines, $100; fire protection, $1,100; courts, no recommendations; interest, $2,500; Decoration Day celebration, $300; tree warden, $800; town plan, $300; library, $1,000; Town hall, $1,500; park, $1,000; town clock, $50; taxes, $8,000; tax rebate, $100; sheep and dogs, $100; contingencies, $1,000; new schoolhouse, $5,000; village of Suffield, $4,100; public health, $100. The above make recommended appropriations totally $170,250. Of this amount the following amounts will be received by the town from sources as follows: From sate school grant, $2,800; personal taxes, $3,400; uncollected taxes, $8,000; corporation taxes, $47,000; and cash on hand $21,052.26, making a total estimated receipts of $82,252.26.
Two children of Martin Gumboski of South Main street have been suffering from toadstool poisoning. The children gathered toadstools, thinking them to be mushrooms, and after eating them were thrown into convulsions. They are improving, but are not yet out of danger.
Sept 19
Edward Haskins, aged 29 years, was instantly killed… by contact with a high-voltage wire, while working on the lines of the Northern Connecticut Light & Power Company near the Warehouse Point depot…
Fellow workmen rushed to his assistance and summoned a passing motorist, who proved to be a New London doctor. Harvey Slamon of Thompsonville assisted and the prone method of respiration was used for twenty minutes before the rescuers gave up hope…The deceased was born in this town, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Haskins, and had always lived here…The funeral was one of the largest ever attended in this town and floral tributes completely filled two large automobiles.
Sept 26
There have been several complaints of rowdyism at the south end of Main street and last week attempts were made to break into the Polish store at the lower end of the street.
A light frost…was a reminder that winter is approaching. The tobacco crop is practically all under cover so that the farms escaped damage. The peach crop, too, which was unusually large has also been harvested.