— A Southwick Time Machine Story of Faith In the summer of 1913, a large canvas tent appeared on baseball fields, village greens, and open fields as it made its way through parts of rural Hampden County, Massachusetts. Wherever it was raised, evening hymns drifted into the surrounding neighborhoods as curious residents gathered beneath the canvas for worship, music, and community. Meetings were held each evening. There were Bible studies, worship, speeches, special gatherings for women, music, and social events. Activities and games for children took place on the lawn out front. The tent was equipped with seats, a platform, a desk, an organ, and hymn books.  Traveling with the tent were three young men who spent three months moving from place to place.   The 1913 Gospel Tent pictured in Hampden during its final stop of the season. Standing in front of the tent are the three young men who traveled with it throughout the summer.    The Gospel Tent wa...

   — A Southwick Time Machine Original On Saturday morning, August 31, 1918, Franklin A. Latimer Jr. had just completed business at the Third National Bank in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was returning to the offices of the Bradstreet Company in the Whitney Building at 310 Main Street, where he served as the company’s representative for Western New England, a territory consisting of 250 cities and towns.   Crowds at the Third National Bank in downtown Springfield around Christmastime, 1912   Around 10:30 a.m., Franklin stepped into the building's small, crowded elevator cage and began the ride upward toward his office on the fifth floor. The elevator was crowded for nearly the entire trip. At one point, the passengers suddenly surged backward and forward inside the cage, jostling everyone aboard. Franklin thought little of the commotion. When the elevator stopped at either the first or second floor, three men stepped off before the car continued upward. Between th...

  — A Southwick Time Machine Original People had long gathered at Southwick Ponds to fish in its spring-fed waters, but in 1886, a directive from the selectmen to crack down on illegal fishing placed a local constable at the center of disputes involving fishermen, members of two well-known local families, a prominent steamboat captain, and a debate over what truly counted as fishing. Black Bass, Congamond Lake, Southwick, Masachusetts   On Sunday, September 26, 1886, two groups of fishermen were at Southwick Ponds pursuing pickerel. Approximately nine men were involved. They fished from rowboats, with one person rowing while another attended to lines trolling in the wake of the boat. The outing attracted the attention of Constable Addison H. Coe of Southwick.  Likely watching from his secret hiding place on shore, Constable Coe identified the men and had warrants sworn out, charging them with fishing with line and hook in Southwick Ponds on the Lord's Day. When the men ap...

  — A Southwick Time Machine Original   Around 6 o’clock on the evening of Saturday, August 19, 1922, Mrs. Joseph Bouchard of West Springfield, Massachusetts, received a telephone message she would never forget. The caller was Mrs. Cora Root of Southwick, a member of the well-known Root family, which operated a large tobacco farm in town. She informed Mrs. Bouchard that her daughter, Zelia, had married Mrs. Root's son, Carleton E. Bigelow, that afternoon in Westfield, and that the newlyweds had left on their honeymoon in Northampton. She then hung up the receiver. Despite the telephone call, Mrs. Bouchard refused to believe the marriage had actually taken place. The following day, Zelia's parents traveled to Southwick. They went to the Root farm with the local deputy sheriff and then brought their daughter back to West Springfield. The events quickly erupted into a public dispute between the two families over the bride's age, her home life, and even who had purchased her cl...