A rare Southwick Time Machine true crime original deep from our archives It was 6:30 p.m. on December 26, 1877, when D.W. Bartlett of Southwick, Massachusetts, arrived in New York City, returning from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He had been carrying a satchel and a few small parcels throughout his journey.  Bartlett took a horse-drawn Belt-line car at the Desbrosses Street Ferry, heading toward the New Haven boat as he made his way home to Southwick. Desbrosses Street Ferry & Passenger Station, where Bartlett boarded the horse-drawn car on December 26, 1877 He disembarked at the famed Fulton Market in Lower Manhattan, a bustling institution known for its oysters. As he rose from his seat, he sensed he was being watched. On the rear platform stood three ruffians, staring him down. At that same moment, a fourth man staggered onto the streetcar, feigning drunkenness. The man stumbled against Bartlett and, in a swift motion, seized his satchel. As Bartlett tried to exit, the men on t...

On Wednesday, September 29, 1880, 63-year-old Asa Giles Farnham of Tolland, Massachusetts, traveled to Westfield, Massachusetts, where he sold a load of potatoes and cranberries. As evening fell, he returned to his farm.   Earlier that year, on March 11, Asa had experienced a family loss: one of his brothers, David Frost Farnham, had died of cirrhosis of the liver. Months later, an ordinary autumn evening would turn tragic. When Farnham arrived home, he found that supper was not yet ready, and a disagreement arose between him and his wife, Lucy. The argument became heated. Moments later, Asa left the house carrying a length of clothesline. He walked out to his apple orchard and hanged himself from one of the trees.  — Preserved from the archives by the Southwick Time Machine         What did you think of this story? Let us know.       Help us tell forgotten stories like Asa's.  Support the Southwick Time Machine to...

On June 9, 1874, in Granville, Alfred Hodge , 62, was repairing a fence with Clarence Johnson , 19, when a thunderstorm rolled in. Hodge took shelter beneath a tree while Johnson raised his axe to cut away a limb. At that very instant, lightning struck. Alfred Hodge's Gravestone Granville, Massachusetts   The jolt was so fierce it drove the axe blade and its handle deep into the ground. Hodge was killed instantly. Witnesses said the “electric fluid” entered through his eyes and mouth, traveled through his entire body, and exited through his big toe—leaving a small, burned hole about the size of a pea in his boot as grim evidence of its path. Most chilling of all, the lightning appeared to leave an image on Hodge’s side—an imprint of the very tree under which he stood, as if nature itself had captured his final moment. Clarence Johnson survived but was badly burned and temporarily left unable to use his limbs. It's interesting to note that Clarence's grandfather was born o...

David W. Hunter was a former cigar maker, like his father before him, and long-time resident of Southwick, Massachusetts. He had lived along Congamond Lake before moving to Hartford, Connecticut, where he found work at the massive Billings & Spencer tool manufacturing plant. As the operator hired to run the elevator, he worked closely with the machinery—but on Tuesday, April 4, 1911, something went horribly wrong.     No one witnessed what happened in that shaft. It was only when someone heard his desperate cry for help that workers rushed to the elevator pit and found him at the bottom, the elevator suspended high above. His right hand was crushed, his face and head cut, his left ankle dislocated, and his ribs fractured. The man, once well known throughout the region for his skilled hands, lay broken in the darkness beneath the machine he had operated. He was rushed to St. Francis Hospital. For a few days, there was hope. But his injuries were too severe, his body to...

A Southwick man named John Mason found work far from home on one of Massachusetts' most ambitious engineering projects — the new Slade's Ferry Bridge, spanning the Taunton River between Fall River and Somerset. Construction of the bridge began in October 1874, financed largely by railroad interests. The design called for two levels: the upper deck to carry trains of the Providence, Warren, and Bristol Railroad (operated by the Old Colony Railroad), and the lower deck to serve wagons, pedestrians, and eventually automobile traffic. This dual-level innovation allowed the bridge to serve multiple transportation needs simultaneously, making it an engineering marvel for the era. The bridge would also feature a swing truss mechanism — a sophisticated design that could pivot open to allow river traffic to pass beneath — a capability that set it apart from simpler fixed structures of the time.   Slade's Ferry Bridge It was grueling, dangerous work. On September 15, 1875, Mason was ...