Richard Atkinson University of Massachusetts 1960 Mr. Atkinson joined the junior high school at Southwick to teach mathematics in 1963 (he replaced Mrs. Stadnicki, who requested a leave of absence). Wasting no time, he immediately got appointed track and cross-country coach. Atkinson and his team hosted Holyoke on September 27, 1963. By December, Mr. Atkinson took charge of the basketball team. The team played and won its season opener at East Granby on January 3, 1964. Mr. Atkinson also coached 14 Southwick High School advanced math students, who participated in the first Western Massachusetts Mathematics League competition on October 25, 1966. Mr. Atkinson was vice president of the Western Massachusetts Track Association (1968). That same year he also took over the duties of putting out the Western Massachusetts track newsletter. Mr. Atkinson and other area coaches volunteered their time in the winter to host youth track indoors at UMass in 1971. The Western Mass Indoor Schoolboy...

Seven Southwick residents were on their way to picnic in Springfield on July 10, 1924. They were riding in a heavy sedan driven by Mrs. Victor Johnson. Around 9:00 a.m., Mrs. Johnson attempted to turn onto Springfield Road (today's Feeding Hills Road) from College Highway. She may have miscalculated her speed as she made the sharp turn, for she lost control of the car and struck a tree. (Some reports say it was a pole; however, a tree is believed to be correct.) All seven were hurt. Passing motorists loaded the injured into their vehicles and rushed them to Noble Hospital. Besides Mrs. Johnson and her two children, Victor Jr. and Emerson, the others were: Miss Muriel Root, Mrs. Emma L. (Dexter) Treworgy, Miss Nina Morgan, and Mrs. Frederick Morgan. Mrs. Morgan's condition was the most serious. - - -  Mrs. Victor Johnson went to the Center primary school in Southwick on April 23, 1925. While she was inside talking with her son Emerson's teacher, he went outside to wait for h...

James Pine checked into the Allen House in Westfield around 8:00 p.m. on December 4, 1888. Although from Southwick, he registered from Easthampton and was given keys to a room on one of the upper floors. When the servants knocked on his door the following morning, they received no response. After a second try in the afternoon produced the same result, the hotel's proprietor, D. L. Allen, attempted to enter Pine's room, only to find the door leading from the hallway locked. He then tried to access a door in an adjoining room, but it, too, was fastened by a key left in the lock. After Allen finally gained entry, at about 3:00 p.m., he saw Pine's lifeless body stretched out on the bed. Next to him was an empty bottle of laudanum. In one hand was a seven-chamber revolver with one cartridge fired. Allen summoned the authorities, who decided that an autopsy was not necessary as it was clear, based on the gun, the poison, and the position of the bullet hole in Pine's head, tha...

Two years before the first Indianapolis 500, there was the Prest-O-Lite Trophy Race, sponsored by Prest-O-Lite, the maker of automotive lighting systems. Billy and Harry Nationally known racing chauffeur Wilfred "Billy" Bourque (26) of Springfield, and his mechanic, Harry Holcomb (23) of Granville , were killed almost instantly during the August 19, 1909, inaugural 250-mile race of the newly built Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There are different theories regarding the cause of the crash, but as they came down the homestretch, it appeared that a loose rear wheel or a broken or faulty axle caused their car to swerve and crash into a fence near the grandstands. The vehicle flipped over three times before pinning the men inside. At the time of the fatal accident, they were in second place. The track itself may be to blame. The materials used in building it were crushed rock and tar, which didn't hold up well. The track's owners had it entirely repaved for events held the ...

Oliver Laflin Sr. was born in Southwick, Mass. He worked in sales at his family's namesake powder company in his hometown (Laflin Powder Co., owned by his father and uncle). He traveled his sales territory by wagon in which he made his sales. As a young man, he moved to New York City, where he became a police sergeant, a position he held for many years. During his career, riots were frequent there. Laflin was injured several times. One time a rioter stabbed him with an ice pick. The pick went through his stomach and came out near his spine. He made a surprising recovery. He moved to Pennsylvania sometime around 1864-65. Laflin was the superintendent of the Moosic Powder Co. He was also a station agent for the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Ashley, Penn. He eventually went into the mercantile business. He retired from business and became postmaster at Moosic, Penn., a capacity he served for nine years. Sadly, a stroke of paralysis took its toll and left him invalid sometime aroun...

 Twenty-seven-year-old James Van Wert of Winsted, Connecticut, was arrested in Southwick, Massachusetts, at about 11:00 pm, Friday, February 3, 1860. Authorities reportedly found him in bed with a woman believed to be his wife's younger sister. If, in fact, true, adultery was the least of his worries. Earlier that Friday, Van Wert and his female companion had breakfast at Day's, a hotel in Otis, Massachusetts, before riding in a one-horse sleigh to nearby West Becket, where they had a second breakfast at Kendall Baird's Tavern. Van Wert paid for their breakfast at each place using a $3 bill, for which he received $2.50 back in change.  As the couple was leaving Baird's, they were recognized by hotel proprietor Mr. Day, who happened to be in town. Finding it rather odd that they had had breakfast a second time, he compared the $3 bill his establishment received to that of Baird's. Meanwhile, the pair arrived at Chester Factories Village, where they stopped ...

Concerned residents and motorists throughout Western Massachusetts couldn't believe their eyes as they tried to determine what they were looking at high in the sky.  Garrett Cashman (27) of Albany, NY, left Wynantskill, NY, at approximately 7:00 a.m. on July 21, 1955, and touched down on Walter D. Anderson's farm on Vining Hill Road in Southwick, Mass., at about 10:15 a.m.  Cashman, a part-time hypnotist and mailorder dancing teacher, made the roughly 80-mile flight across the Berkshires and into the Pioneer Valley suspended from a 35-foot net attached to 82 balloons. The balloons measured five feet in diameter, except two measuring eight feet.  Mrs. Cashman drove to Southwick to retrieve her husband and his flying contraption.  Cashman attracted quite a crowd of concerned residents who phoned police when they watched him as he flew through the air attached to 60 balloons on his first trip, which lasted 21 miles, on September 9, 1954. The balloons were gas-filled wit...