Young Amasa Holcomb had felt something amiss when he returned to the seemingly empty house he shared with his parents: Henry and the former Miss Keturah Dibble. It was about five o'clock when the seven-year-old arrived home after school on Thursday, November 17, 1859. Amasa figured his parents were out visiting, so he walked to his uncle's house and spent the night there. The following morning, Amasa returned to the house, which still appeared empty. Having heard a faint noise coming from the cellar, he procured a light and went down to investigate. He found his mother weltered in blood as she lay on the floor in a corner opposite the stairway that led to the kitchen. On the back of her head, she had five-or-six wounds that oozed a jelly-like substance. Her left eye was blackened and badly bruised. A large oak scantling, probably from the potato bin, was found near her. It had bloody handprints on one end and pieces of her head on the other. It looked like she crawled all over ...

Crane Bros. Mill Robert B. Crane of the Cane Bros. paper mill in Westfield starts buying land in the Hillside District of Southwick at the end of 1896. The land borders Mouse Hill at New Road.  He continued his buying spree well into 1897, paying $250 for 24 more acres and 42 rods, according to a deed dated March 8.  Crane accumulates hundreds of acres. Wasting no time, he contracts George W. Smith, a stone mason in Westfield, to excavate and lay the foundation for a large barn to be built at his newly named Sunnyside Ranch. Smith starts the project around the week of March 22.  In addition to crops, Crane’s enormous, state-of-the-art ranch specializes in sheep and other high-grade stock. The farm is known for producing superior products. Even with the passing of its visionary founder, Sunnyside’s reputation for quality remains shown when its lambs, unequaled for their excellence, are featured at W. O. Sheldon’s State Street market in Springfield in 1910.   Over...

Two East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, police officers were making routine checks when they spotted a break-in at the City Line Pharmacy on July 28, 1968. At 3:55 a.m., the officers arrested Ronald N. Authier, a 21-year-old Springfield man who was a repeat offender (a judge had just sentenced him in April to three months in the House of Corrections for violating the narcotic drug law). A second unidentified person eluded officers by jumping out a window. This time police charged Ronald with breaking and entering, larceny in the nighttime, and being in possession of burglary tools. He allegedly stole over $100 worth of drugs and merchandise from City Line Pharmacy. Main Street, East Longmeadow, 1964 (Note City Line Pharmacy on the far right) Fast forward to Thanksgiving morning of that same year. Southwick police officer Henry LaBombard noticed a broken plate glass window and heard an alarm sounding at Community Drugs, located in the Southwick Shopping Center on College Highway, a...

Southwick's Infamous Axe Murder Retold At the urging of her second husband, Francis, who had fallen ill, Martha Ottenheimer was granted parole from the Northampton State Hospital in 1938. Originally thought to be suicidal, she was subsequently committed to the insane asylum for depression. Martha visited her husband and father in Southwick after being initially paroled on February 11. She returned to the asylum on her own accord on the thirteenth. Institutionalized on December 31, 1937, she was deemed cured and permanently released on February 16. Martha immediately returned to her family's homestead on their namesake hill in Southwick. It was a place the Vinings had called home for more than a century. Almost a year before her release, her widowed father, Lester Vining, who still lived in the old farmhouse there, had fallen ill but was doing better. Francis and Martha lived there too. It was the house where she had grown up, along with her siblings: Orpha, Claude, and Elva. (M...

Having enrolled in Suffield Academy, Joseph Edward "Eddie" Tryon relocated to Suffield, Connecticut, in 1919. Eddie's mother conducted a general store near Congamond Lake, and the family had a cottage in Southwick, Massachusetts. During the busy vacation season, Eddie handled the ice end of the business to earn money to pay for his schooling. He also worked at his father's garage in Westfield.  J. Eddie Tryon At Suffield Academy, Eddie was a football and track star. He also played basketball. As a member of the graduating class of 1922, the school paper wrote a tribute to him, saying he was a shining example of "clean sportsmanship and fair play." The article also said everyone loved Eddie for his "modesty and optimism." Upon graduating, Eddie went to Colgate University, where he became a star running back (1922-1925). Being a slippery-hipped runner, he was a great open-field man: elusive and quick, with unerring accuracy and equally vicious tackle...

(This article was originally part of the "From Today's Motorcycle Ride" series, the predecessor to the Southwick Time Machine.) We ride over to the Southwick Inn for lunch. As we enter the foyer, a beautifully enlarged, framed picture of the Southwick Inn from years past greets us. More old photos of this historic structure adorn the walls inside the restaurant/bar area. The Southwick Inn has been owned and run by various people. For a long time, it was named the "Southwick Hotel." Southwick Inn Chronology c. 1780: A tavern is built on the site of today's Southwick Inn. The property consists of several acres, a house, a barn, and other outbuildings. 1846: A fire breaks out in the Southwick Hotel's barn in November. People rush to remove the furniture from the house, which is saved with "great difficulty." However, the fire destroys the barn and 15-to-20 tons of hay. The losses sustained by proprietor S.B. Hodgett are estimated to be around $250...

Once a Southwick institution, Pioneer Dairy started as a creamery-turned-milk bottling plant. The Dairy found great success with its assortment of ice cream flavors, pasteurized milk, and its most popular product offering: Fudgie-Frost (almost always mistaken as Fudgsicle®). Pioneer Dairy Chronology 1903: Future Pioneer Dairy founder Charles Albert Nutter is born on July 25 in the Feeding Hills section of Agawam. His mother, Anna May (Johnson) Nutter, known as Annie, dies from postpartum hemorrhage and shock the same day. Charlie's father, Albert Turner Nutter, sends him to live with Annie's parents, who raise him on their large farm in Southwick's Long Yard District (North Longyard Road). 1912: Albert Nutter remarries. He weds 21-year-old Grace Williams on March 27. 1914: Charlie attends the North Longyard schoolhouse, where he gets routinely recognized for punctuality and perfect attendance. 1915: In a community-wide celebration in Southwick in July, Charlie takes first p...