1. Fred Munn, W. W. Cooper’s foreman in his coal and hardware business, was lost at sea in what shipwreck?
a. The Titanic ocean liner in 1912
b. The Portland steamship in 1899
c. The Lusitania in 1915
2. At the bend in the road between Kent Avenue and Boston Neck Road there were extensive excavations of what type of material?
a. Indigenous artifacts
b. Gravel
c. Bog ore
3. In 1900, Mrs. Cornelia Pomeroy Newton gave a Seth Thomas clock to the First Congregational Church where it was placed in its steeple. An inscription on a plaque in the church said the clock was given in memory of her father and his immediate family. Her obituary said she dedicated the clock to the memory of her mother, Maria Granger Pomeroy, who died in 1839, the same year that Cornelia was born. Around 1906, Cornelia made another donation to the town. What was it?
a. The memorial arch at the entrance to the Old Center Cemetery on Mountain Road.
b. The Civil War cannon on the Green.
c. The memorial stone commemorating the first cigar factory located in West Suffield.
4. In the early part of the 20th century, a small white building was torn down in the Old Center Cemetery. What was it for?
a. Tools to maintain the cemetery.
b. It was a vault to store bodies.
c. It stored the public hearse.
5. What caused the demise of the Suffield Fair which was held on the grounds of what is now McAlister Intermediate School? Choose all that are correct.
a. The automobile.
b. The Eastern States Exposition.
c. The plan for a public high school.
6. In 1884, the property where the first Sacred Heart Church was erected was bought from M. J. Sheldon. The church was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day in what year?
a. 1883
b. 1890
c. 1886
7. Until 1913, what was the status of the Sacred Heart Church?
a. It was a mission church.
b. It served as a training ground for laypeople.
c. It was the designated Catholic church for Suffield, Granby and East Granby.
8. Why was the first Sacred Heart Church demolished?
a. The bishop of the diocese did not like it.
b. The hurricane of 1938 damaged it.
c. It was too small for its congregation.
9. Before the railroad came to Suffield, the south side of Mountain Road from the intersection with High Street to Remington Road was owned by what Suffield family?
a. The Remingtons
b. The Hathaways
c. The Pomeroys
10. In what year was passenger train service ended in Suffield?
a. 1919
b. 1923
c. 1926
Answers:
1. b. The Portland steamship in 1899 is also known as the “Titanic of New England”. The ship was a large ocean-going steamship with side paddles. It provided passenger service between Boston and Portland, Maine. She got caught in the massive Portland Blizzard of 1899 and sank near Gloucester, Mass. All on board were lost. The number of fatalities is unknown, although estimated as high as 245, as the passenger list went down with the ship.
2. b. Gravel. Vast quantities of gravel were hauled from this area for road building. Excavations may have stopped in the early 20th century when tarmac reduced the reliance on gravel to make roads.
3. a. The memorial arch at the Old Center Cemetery.
4. c. It stored the public hearse. Before there were professional funeral directors, each town owned a public hearse. (W.W. Cooper became Suffield’s funeral director beginning in the early 1870s.) A neighbor or a friend of the deceased’s family would harness his horse to the hearse and transport the body to the cemetery. When the hearse building was torn down, the hearse was stored underneath the town hall where it resided for many years until it was given to John Dray.
5. Answers a. and b. are correct. The Suffield Fair could not compete with the Eastern States Exposition which began in 1916. The Fair had ended long before the public high school, opened in 1940, was planned and built. When the Fair closed down, J.F. Barnett bought the property and used the fair buildings to store tobacco.
6. c. 1886, in the same year the cornerstone was laid for the church.
7. a. It was a mission church meaning that it was not self-sustaining but depended on funds from St. Mary’s Church in Windsor Locks.
8. b. The hurricane of 1938 damaged it.
9. b. The Hathaways. Their land was bisected when the railroad came to Suffield in 1870. The Hathaways bitterly opposed the railroad and for a long time did not cash the check from the railroad compensating them for taking their land.
10. c. 1926