The South Longyard Plant  A federal Prohibition agent and two Massachusetts State Police officers descended on Luther Hosmer's farmhouse in the desolate part of the South Longyard section of Southwick at about 10:00 p.m. on April 27, 1928.  There, authorities smashed their way in and found a large-scale liquor operation, but not a soul around.  The manufacturing setup was so extensive that they dubbed it "The South Longyard Plant."  F. B. Arnold & Sons Tobacco Luther Hosmer had rented the property to others, perhaps tricked into thinking they would operate the farm. Instead, the so-called renters installed equipment, creating a plant capable of producing large amounts of alcohol, presumably for wholesale.  The plant was so complete that it took workers until late the next day to dismantle the equipment, which included: a 1000-gallon still, two 300-gallon and six 1200-gallon galvanized iron tanks, seventy-five tanks filled with the finished product, a large b...

Calvin Fuller and Edward Cooley arrived at Jesse Hall Jr.'s house in Tolland, Massachusetts, around 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 2, 1837.  Jesse was sitting inside his house reading from a bible; a bottle of rum sat on the table next to him. He invited his visitors to partake in the drink. Drinking alcohol was frowned upon in certain circles, especially on the Lord's Day. About an hour of drinking had passed, and not wanting to be known for keeping an ill house, Jesse would later claim that he asked both men to leave, which Edward did. Before Calvin could go, the pair, at least according to Jesse, started conversing about Jesse's second wife, Lucy, whose whereabouts were unknown.  The topic of Lucy appeared to have started (again, according to Jesse) after Calvin mentioned that he was heading to Granville in the morning. Jesse requested that Calvin stop at Noah Cooley's store to inform the clerk that Lucy had deserted him and that he would not be paying any debts she may t...