The Harger Farm The Umansky family lived at the old Nelson Harger place near the crossroads of the Otis and Tolland roads in West Granville, Massachusetts. When Minnie Umansky returned home from Tolland (Massachusetts) around three o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 27, 1911, she found it odd that all the doors were locked, one barricaded with a beer keg. She heard her baby crying inside the home and called out for her mother-in-law, Rosa "Rose" Umansky, but there was no response. After finally gaining entry, Minnie found the kitchen smoky; her mother-in-law's bedroom ransacked. She quickly grabbed her baby and ran to her nearest neighbor's house, Charlie Sheets, which was less than 3/4 miles away. Charles' son Albert accompanied Minnie home. While searching the house for Rose, they found a pillow smoking in the oven in the kitchen. When their search of the house turned up nothing, they checked the barn and walked around the property. Again, ther...

Alton E. Holcomb of Granville, Massachusetts, married Pauline B. Lathrop of Hartland, Connecticut, on June 8, 1875. The couple welcomed two daughters, Clara, born on March 9, 1877, and Maud on July 15, 1880. (Pauline's mother died shortly after giving birth to her, and she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in Hartland.) When Pauline fell ill sometime around 1882, she traveled to Bridgeport, Connecticut, for medical care, leaving her husband to raise their girls and attend to the household alone in her absence. After a few months, Alton sought help. In May, he induced Pauline's friend, Miss Mary Giddings of Hartland, to move in with him and the girls, and in doing so, it did not take long for neighbors to become suspicious of the pair's rapidly developing relationship, one of intimacy.  Mary returned to Connecticut in October, first visiting relatives in Hartland. Alton showed up there on or about November 28, and he and Mary then headed to Torrington, where th...