Frozen Time: The Mystery of the Insane Swede
While chopping wood near the Southwick-Granby town line on March 7, 1913, a man in Peter T. Malone's employ found a man's skeleton frozen in ice and snow. Near the skeleton, he saw remnants of clothing (a black shirt and dark trousers) but no shoes or hat.
The woodchopper reported his findings to police officers in Connecticut. They determined that the skeleton was in neighboring Southwick, Massachusetts, and notified selectmen there since it was out of their jurisdiction.
Southwick Selecman H. L. Miller and Dr. Edward Smith, a medical examiner from Westfield, Massachusetts, were among those who viewed the skeletal remains. While searching the woods for clues, they found a skull with the lower jaw bone missing some distance away. They also found pieces of a suspender shaped like a noose and fragments of a handkerchief. And, looking up at the tree above the skeleton, they saw pieces of the same handkerchief hanging off a branch. They also saw other pieces of a suspender dangling, which led them to believe that the man committed suicide by hanging himself.
Authorities concluded that the remains belonged to Carl Gustafson, an insane Swede who disappeared after leaving Claus Anderson's house on August 25, 1909. Claus Anderson, a fellow Swede who employed Gustafson, also viewed the remains, which were located about a half-mile from his farm (located on the original Granville Road, later renamed Old Granville Road before becoming Klaus Anderson Road).
Gustafson's remains were a grim sight, frozen solid to the
ground by the unforgiving ice and snow; authorities had to wait until
warmer weather to remove them.
At the time of Gustafson's disappearance, Anderson told the local deputy sheriff that the young man left his house without shoes or a hat. Gustafson reportedly seemed unbalanced, crazed with the belief that someone was trying to kill him.
The deputy sheriff conducted an ongoing search for Gustafson, who had some Swedish friends in Springfield but no known family in America. His friends advanced the theory that someone murdered him and hid his body in some woods in Southwick.
On September 27, 1909, more than 100 volunteers had searched for Gustafson, perhaps not out of the kindness of their hearts but partly because of the $100 reward his Swedish friends offered for his whereabouts.
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Authorities buried Gustafson in an unmarked grave in Southwick Cemetery on March 13, 1913.
Claus's neighbor, John Mason, lived on the road around the corner and had a street named after him, too.
Anderson was having legal trouble in 1912 over a horse deal that went bad; he defended himself and won the case.
His name is sometimes spelled as Gustavson. Carl may be Karl.
Eric Gustafson (17), a farmhand in West Suffield, was killed during severe weather on August 2, 1907. (Apparently, no relation).
Claus Anderson lived on Granville Road (later changed to Old Granville Road and eventually renamed Klaus Anderson Road), a little over a mile from where the Valley Inn Filing Station was at the Putney Road/College Highway split (today's Klaus Anderson/College Highway split).
The Valley Inn was near the Valley Inn Filling Station (Valley Inn Garage, Valley Inn Service Station, Earl Davis' Station, and Valley Inn Gulf Station).
Claus Anderson was born in Sweden on August 13, 1866. He moved to Southwick in 1900 and was instrumental in the Swedish Church there. After a long illness, he died in Noble Hospital on April 3, 1924. An auction was held on June 21 to settle his estate. Items up for bid included a pair of horses, single and double-team wagons, a corn planter, a potato digger, a manure spreader, an ice plow, a tobacco setter, and tools of all kinds.
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