Miller's Beach Chronology
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| A. Waldron Miller |
1923: Henry Alvin Miller dies. (He was a charter member of Southwick Grange and had one of the finest collections of Indian relics in Connecticut.)
c. 1924: A. Waldron Miller radically transforms his family's massive lakefront property into a popular tourist destination, Miller's Beach.
1926: Miller's Beach starts a new advertising campaign announcing the opening of their new water toboggan and bathing pavilion; the campaign also touts Miller's as the safest of all Congamond beaches. Florence Luke of Thompsonville, Connecticut, is struck when a rider in a toboggan behind her crashes into her while riding down the popular incline water coaster off Miller's Beach in August. (Luke obtains prominent lawyer Samuel Sisisky to represent her in her $10,000 suit against Miller's Beach, which accuses slide owner Waldron Miller of negligence.)
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| The Manitou |
1929: Two tobacco field workers drown at Miller's Beach in June. The Boy Scouts award sixteen-year-old Walter Regnier a Court of Honor swimmer's certificate; he drowns at Miller's Beach a few days later (June 30). Samuel Sisisky dies of an undisclosed illness on July 9. The Rice family of Granby, Connecticut, holds their reunion at Miller's Beach in August; A. Waldron Miller, proprietor of the resort, serves up a clambake to the attendees.
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| The base of the Water Toboggan at Miller's Beach |
1931: A brush fire burns out of control at Miller's Beach on April 13. (See story below). Miller's Beach employee Wesley Noles of New Britain, Connecticut, escapes with minor cuts and bruises after his car goes over an embankment and lands in Congamond Lake on July 12.
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| Henry A. Miller |
1933: Miller's Beach offers amateur boxing and wrestling bouts starting at 9:00 p.m. on July 26; the matches occur during the Ballroom Dance's intermission on a vast, artificially lighted float anchored just off the beach. The Grange holds a very successful "mystery auto ride" in August. The caravan of about 20 automobiles (roughly 80 people in attendance) meets at Consolidated School; from there, they follow a lead car on a pleasure ride ending at Miller's Beach, unbeknownst to the attendees ahead of time. Participants enjoy an afternoon of games, dancing, live music, a basket lunch, and more.
1934: A. Waldron Miller's sister, Minneola, becomes proprietor of Miller's Beach. Construction of a new state road from Miller's Beach to Suffield Center starts around July 1.
1935: Concerned about crowds and devaluation of real estate, Minneola Miller, the owner of Miller's Beach, one of the largest and most popular summer resorts on Lake Congamond, speaks out against a proposal to build a dog racing track next to her property. A. Waldron Miller falls seriously ill in May and dies. Charles Neurath drowns while attending his class picnic at Miller's Beach on June 26. A locked car containing Rene Byron's registration is found at Miller's Beach on July 14. (See separate stories below)
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| The Causeway Leading to Miller's Beach |
1937: Florence Luke slips and tumbles while walking down the stairs in her home around midnight on August 15. A doctor makes a house call, and not knowing Luke broke her skull, he deems she will be ok. However, she takes a turn for the worst and is brought to a hospital, where she later dies. Constables recover the body of fifteen-year-old Richard Jensen, who drowned at Miller's Beach on September 5. Donald S. Healey and James Mala of Westfield, Massachusetts, see a three-foot alligator sunning itself along a bank at Congamond Lake on November 1. They pump eight shots into it, killing it. (It is believed that the alligator was the one that went missing from Miller's Beach earlier in the summer and reportedly attacked at least two or three bathers, but their accounts couldn't be verified.)
1940: Ida B. (Waldron) Miller dies.
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| Samuel Sisisky |
1946: Minneola Miller's bankruptcy trial gets underway after repeated delays.
1949: Minneola Miller offers youths in Southwick and Suffield the use of a building on her property to produce amateur plays.
1950: A kerosene heater tips over and ignites a sofa, two chairs, and a rug in a cottage at Miller's Beach on the morning of March 2. The Suffield Fire Department saves the structure, which suffers about $300 in damages, mainly to the furnishings.
1950: Volunteers of the Southwick Fire Department remain on duty all night after multiple fires break out on the evening of Halloween, including a brush fire on North Longyard Road. They believe pranksters set the blazes. The following night an abandoned cottage at Miller's Beach goes up in flames and is a total loss.
1951: A United States District Court judge denies Minneola Miller's attempt to revive her 10-year-old bankruptcy case with a retrial.
1953: The Town of Suffield starts foreclosing proceedings on Miller's Beach. Departing Miller's Beach in a boat with his father, seven-year-old William Joseph Schiessl Jr. falls out and drowns on August 13; his body is found on August 15. A summer cottage at Miller's Beach burns to the ground on November 1.
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| Cottage at Miller's Beach |
1956: Minneola Miller files suit against those she calls conspirators forcing her into bankruptcy. Among the eleven defendants in her almost five-million-dollar suit, where she requests a trial by jury, are The Town of Suffield, $300,000; Suffield Savings Bank, $300,000; and Malvy Realty Co., $300,000.
1957: Russell Gillette Jr. (20) suffocates to death when fire tears through his parents' home at Miller's Beach on January 1. (See story below.) Attorney Francis Fahey of Thompsonville, Connecticut, buys Miller's Beach and evicts Minneola Miller after she refuses to move from the property as agreed. (Minneola is defiant; sheriffs carry out the eviction order.)
1959: Property surrounding the Miller Estate (Cannon Estate) hits the auction block. Fire tears through an abandoned cottage at the former Miller's Beach on the evening of July 18.
1962: Minneola Miller speaks out against a proposal to build a trailer park on her former property.
1976: A Suffield resident appears before the town's Zoning and Planning Commission with a proposal to build 18 houses on 10.5 acres with 1,100 feet of lakefront on the former Miller's Beach property. (He offered to sell the property to the Town of Suffield in 1975, but the town failed to act.)
1928 Triple Drowning
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| James Clark |
Having learned of James' absence, the sheriff was further convinced that he, too, drowned; his trousers were found in a boat on South Pond (along with a large bunch of hotdogs and rolls).
In disbelief, Mrs. Clark reportedly traveled with the sheriff to Southwick Ponds.
On Monday night, Charles Loomis threw a party at his lakefront cabin.
However, Loomis later told investigators that he rented his cottage to John Hayes and Gleason Allshouse, a deputy fish and game warden recently transferred from Congamond Lakes.
According to witnesses, the liquor was flowing, and Loomis, two girls, and four other men set out in a boat made for four.
They departed from the shore at South Pond, heading towards Miller's Beach, when the wake from a passing boat flipped them over.
Earlier, Clark and other partygoers temporarily left the party, taking a boat to Miller's Beach to buy hotdogs and rolls.
James, who was in the passing boat, dove in to help rescue those capsized, apparently stripping off his pants before diving into the dark waters.
The five men in the other boat swam safely to shore. Unfortunately, after searching, the men realized that the two girls had drowned.
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| The Scene at Miller's Beach |
When the sheriff returned to Congamond with Mrs. Clark, he used grappling irons and recovered James' body from almost the exact spot where the two drowned girls were found.
The Springfield Police Department called the sheriff, asking him to return the pulmotors obtained using his name.
Police found the missing car Hayes took in the woods with about $200 in damages. The owner of the car, who lived in a cabin at the lake, didn't want to press charges - but instead, tried to work it out with Hayes - who turned himself into the police. Suffield Chief Cooney demanded an investigation.
The three drownings caused an uproar, with residents complaining about the constant wild parties at Southwick Ponds. They hoped the triple drowning would help curb the lawlessness and drinking.
James Joseph Clark: 1900 - July 16, 1928.
Mary Andrews: abt. 1904 - July 16, 1928.
Helen J. Welch: abt. 1904 - July 16, 1928.
Gleason C. Allshouse: June 1, 1904 - January 5, 1994.
Chief Thomas B. Cooney: January 23, 1860 - October 1, 1945.
John P. Hayes: 1872 - 1944.
1931 Fire
A. Waldron Miller was burning brush at Miller's Beach on April 13 when winds swept the fire onto a neighboring property owned by the Southern New England Ice Company. The massive fire claimed one of Miller's barns and the ice company's stock barn, shed, corn crib, and several small buildings. Firefighters saved the ice company's office, garage, and other structures by soaking their roofs with chemicals and water. Two firemen nearly became trapped when they went into the stock barn to release the animals.
1935 Drowning #1
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| Charles Neurath |
Charles Neurath of Hartford and another classmate rowed into Middle Pond around 1:30 p.m. Jokingly, someone tossed an oar into the water. Charles, reportedly an excellent swimmer, jumped in after it.
For reasons unknown, Charles was struggling to stay above water. The classmate in his boat tried to help, but Charles latched onto his leg, and they almost drowned.
Lifeguard William Kuhs (23), who also attempted to save Charles, was taken to the hospital for exhaustion and listed as "seriously ill."
Classmates and teachers assisted state police in the search for Charles' body but abandoned their search at nightfall.
The search resumed the following day with grappling hooks dragging the lake. Rescuers set up a makeshift headquarters at Saunder's Boat Livery.
While dragging the lake on June 28, a white material believed to be from Charle's bathing suit belt was found.
Over the next several days, grappling hooks grabbed an outboard motor (in good condition with a full gasoline tank), a door from a freight train car, ice spikes, saws, and other ice-cutting instruments.
Days passed with no results. Police contacted the United States Navy's submarine base in New London, Connecticut, and asked for assistance, but their divers and equipment were out-to-sea.
State police, out of desperation, said on July 2 that they would try dragging one more day before taking the drastic step of resorting to dynamite to release the body.
Charles' body was found about 400 feet north of Boat House Point on the afternoon of July 3.
An annual scholarship in memory of Charles was set up, but by September, only a mere $24 was raised.
In December, a dance was planned to try to raise money for the scholarship.
1935 Drowning #2
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| Cottage at Miller's Beach |
Rene Byron was last seen starting out in a boat from Miller's Beach (opposite Smith's Beach on South Pond). He was known to fish alone in the dark. It was standard practice for fishermen to take a boat after hours and then pay the rental fee upon their return when the business opened.
A locked car containing Byron's registration was found at Miller's Beach. On the backseat was a suit and other miscellaneous men's clothing.
Byron's wife said he was supposed to meet her in Holyoke to visit relatives, but he never showed.
Because the boat was floating, there was no telling where he may have fallen out. Six rowboats tied to a motorized police boat dragged the pond with grappling irons.
After a 3-day search, the body of Rene Byron was recovered when one of the searchers, Lawrence Ripley, put his iron back in the water after cleaning weeds off it. Ripley's iron got tangled up in Byron's jacket. Besides the coat, Byron was wearing rubber boots and overalls.
His watch was stopped at 5:00, and he had $10 in his pocket.
Author's Notes:
Lawrence Ripley and Rene Byron were both living in Blandford at the time.
It is believed that Rene Byron is buried in South Hadley.
1957 Fire
A passing motorist reported a house fire at Miller's Beach around 1:50 a.m. on January 1, 1957. Firemen battled the blaze in the new kitchen wing of the two-story house and later discovered the body of Russell Gillette Jr. (20) beside his bed in a downstairs bedroom. Gillette's hand was cut, and the bedroom window was broken as a result of his apparent attempt to escape the thick smoke.
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
There are many accounts of what occurred on the evening of the triple drowning.
Some accounts say that James' friend, John Hayes, stopped by his house on either Tuesday or Wednesday, and he told his wife about the drownings - and then she called the police.
Some reports say she traveled to Southwick Ponds; others don't mention it.
James worked for the City Cab Company. His brother, born in 1880, died in 1912.
Hayes signed out the pulmotors in the sheriff's name.
Thomas Cooney was elected constable 53 times.
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