Matthew Laflin, Successful Businessman and Philanthropist Matthew Laflin Matthew Laflin was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1803. He worked with his brothers on his family's farm and attended school whenever possible. The Laflin family had deep roots in gunpowder; Matthew's grandfather manufactured saltpeter (sodium/potassium nitrate) for the Massachusetts militia during the Revolutionary War, and he built a gunpowder mill in Southwick. Matthew's father also owned a gunpowder mill. When his father purchased a woolen textile mill, Matthew learned that business, too. (Following his grandfather's death in 1810, the Laflin Powder Company was greatly expanded, eventually becoming the Laflin & Rand Powder Company, later acquired by DuPont.) Matthew took a strong interest in the family's gunpowder business, becoming a traveling salesman and earning a good amount of money, despite his first year in business ending with $800 in debt after his cargo exp...

Charles Raymond Goddard was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, on March 25, 1888. In 1909, at age 21, he was attending Yale. To pay for law school, he sold women's hosiery door-to-door. When he knocked on the Widow Treat's door in Hartford, Connecticut, the seventy-year-old did not buy any of his products. Instead, she presented him with a surprising proposition he could not easily refuse. Charles obtained a marriage license on August 24, and he and the Widow Treat wed on September 1, with the bride wearing a thick veil. Edwin A. Treat, the widow's son, was old enough to be Charles' father. Having read about the marriage in his local newspaper, he went to court on September 9 in an attempt to have a conservator appointed to his mother's vast estate, claiming that Charles was after his mother's money. Charles and his new bride received a summons to appear in court regarding the conservatorship. Meanwhile, a prosecutor who wanted Charles to answer perjury charges h...

Arthur Dean was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, in 1878. He attended Harvard, and two years after graduating, he took his degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Yale, eventually joining the faculty. Dr. Arthur Dean When Dr. Dean transferred to the then College of Hawaii as its second president in 1914, it was a small, struggling college with only 21 students. Before resigning in 1927, he transformed the college into the University of Hawai'i® with 874 students. (He left his position to give his full attention as the director of the Hawaii Pineapple Canners' Experiment Station, the Pineapple Producers Cooperative Association.) The school held its twentieth annual commencement on June 2, 1931, honoring Dr. Dean by renaming its biological building Arthur Lyman Dean Hall and installing a plaque for its former president. Recently, Dr. Dean's work came under fire from Black Lives Matter, who says that he took credit for African-American chemist Alice Augusta Ball's discovery sur...

Shirley Hippert Arrest Photo On December 8, 1947, twenty-one-year-old Shirley Hippert of Congamond Lake, Southwick, Massachusetts, traveled to New York City and checked into the Hotel Taft as Kathleen Hippert. On the 9th, she went to Lord & Taylor, where police arrested her for grand larceny of goods valued at $2,500. Police accused Hippert of stealing merchandise from high-end department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, and returning the stolen items for cash and credit. Authorities said she committed the thefts over 18 months, signing the slips in her sister Ruth Raschilla's name, which brought an additional charge of forgery. Detectives found another $300 worth of stolen goods, reportedly from Macy's, in her hotel room. They contacted authorities in Southwick, asking them to search her home for more stolen articles. Hippert had no criminal record. She initially told police that she was a housewife but later added that she was a divorcee who committed the crimes to su...

Della Artin John and Della Artin lived in Granville, Massachusetts, with their five children. The small Artin farm served as a lodging house for the workmen of the new Springfield waterworks at nearby Borden Brook. John started displaying symptoms of insanity in 1908. In June, he attempted to kill himself by drinking carbolic acid; this led to a short stint in the Northampton State Hospital. Authorities deemed his condition improved, and they released him from the asylum sometime around October; gross overcrowding may have played a part in their decision as the hospital was a dumping ground for the poor, elderly, and homeless. John had a bit of a jealous streak, something the workers said was without reason. But John saw otherwise, having found some letters he thought more than justified his suspicions. On the evening of December 3, he complained bitterly about Della's conduct to Officer Maloney, sharing his supposed evidence with the lawman who said he was powerless to act.  Della...

Miss Celia Censki Celia Josephine Censki, a native of Suffield, Connecticut, lived with her parents and siblings at 92 Oak Street in nearby Windsor Locks. She was employed by the Montgomery Company, working in its namesake mill as a machine operator in the department that made decorative and electric tinsels; her older brother, Benjamin, also worked there. On Sunday, January 16, 1955, Celia's older sister, Ann, went to the Thompsonville Hotel in Enfield, Connecticut, to meet two men from Springfield, Massachusetts: Joseph C. DeMaio and Gerald J. Celetti. The hotel was a place Ann knew well. She met the men around 3:30 p.m. They stayed there until about 5:45 p.m. when DeMaio convinced Ann they should pick up Celia in Windsor Locks for a double date.  After picking up Celia, they went to Springfield and some area nightclubs. Around eleven o'clock, Celia said she was ready to go home. They stopped or were already at a restaurant near the Massachusetts-Connecticut state line, presu...

Burton "Bert" Loomis Burton "Bert" Loomis, a well-known and wealthy tobacco grower from Southwick, Massachusetts, and his friend Napoleon Bascom, who lived with him and his wife, arrived at the Pease House in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, on Thursday, July 14, 1921.  The two men ended up going their separate ways by boat, with Bert continuing onto New York and Napoleon crossing over to Poverty Island.  Bert returned to Old Saybrook on Saturday and negotiated with a boat captain from Springfield, Massachusetts, who was summering there, to take him roundtrip to Poverty Island so he could get Napoleon and then return to the Pease House to get his automobile that he had parked in the garage so the pair could drive back to Southwick. Along the way, Bert took issue with the route the captain had chosen to avoid shallow water, and an argument ensued.  When Bert arrived, Napoleon told him he had decided to stay on the island for a few more days.  It was getting late, but b...