Charlie Kropp lived a modest life in Bristol, Connecticut. Even in his early 80s, it was common for folks to see him driving around town in his red convertible. Charlie was said to be full of life, well-spoken, and well-dressed, a refined gentleman in every sense of the definition. Charlie routinely purchased lottery tickets for the Connecticut State Lottery at Frank's Stationery, a small variety store in the historic Forestville section of Bristol. However, nine days before marrying 68-year-old Rose Paquette in February 1975, Charlie purchased a $25 season ticket for the Massachusetts Lottery's Big Money Game at the Southwick Pharmacy in Southwick, Massachusetts. The season ticket automatically entered Charlie into multiple drawings over an extended period. It also gave him a once-a-week chance at the million-dollar top prize. Frank's Stationery The Big Money Game, an offshoot of The Game, was introduced in March of that year with a top prize of $500,000. Players selected ...

Anthony Krupa of Windsor, Connecticut, dove off a wooden raft into South Pond at Congamond Lake on Thursday, July 4, 1974. Swimming underwater, he resurfaced about 20 feet in front of an oncoming boat operated by Carl Layman of Wallingford, Connecticut. Layman, the lone occupant in the boat, immediately acted but not quick enough. The watercraft's 70-horsepower outboard motor was at half-throttle when the propellor ripped into the right side of Anthony's body - exposing his organs and cutting his arm off at the shoulder. Anthony was bleeding profusely. His younger brother and Layman brought him to shore on the Suffield, Connecticut, side of South Pond. A Suffield ambulance took Anthony to Noble Hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts, where he underwent extensive surgery. Sadly, his injuries were too severe. He died while on the operating table roughly five hours after the accident.  Although it shares a shoreline with Connecticut, Congamond Lake was primarily under the jurisdicti...

Henry N. Cowdery was a constant hunter, so it was common to see him walking around the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut carrying his shotgun. In 1883, he shot and killed a massive four-foot, 22-pound wildcat in Hartland, Connecticut, where he lived before moving to Granville, Massachusetts, in April 1894. After Henry's wife Hattie died in their Granville home on April 23, 1917, he briefly moved to Springfield before returning to Granville a short time later to start work on the new road the state was building. George Oysler, who lived on Maple Street (modern-day Main Road) in Granville, saw Henry on November 8, 1917. And as usual, Henry was carrying his shotgun. The men conversed a bit, and Henry went on his way. Like Henry, George Oysler was well known because he was the village blacksmith in Granville. He mainly did shoeing for horses. When cars replaced horses and wagons, George started welding and doing other ironwork.   George Oysler's House Geor...

Edward H. Chappel was born in Granville, Massachusetts, circa 1862. That year, diphtheria swept through the Chappel's home in neighboring Tolland, Massachusetts. The bacterial disease ravaged the Chappel household, first claiming Edward's eleven-year-old sister Laura on June 28, followed by the patriarch of the family on the 29th. On July 9, Edward's five-year-old sister Mary succumbed, and his two-year-old brother William and his eight-year-old brother Clinton met the same fate on the 10th and 13th, respectively. (It's unclear what happened to his youngest brother - Russell.) Edward's mother sent him to live with some folks in Blandford, Massachusetts. His mother married much older Silas Harrington on December 2, 1863, and the couple welcomed a daughter, Emma (circa 1866), and twin boys, Fred and Frank, in March 1868. (There was a 30+ year age difference between Silas and Edward's mother.) By age 17, Edward moved to Southwick, Massachusetts, and began work as a...

James Hare was a meat peddler for Edward A. Kellogg in the Feeding Hills section of Agawam, Massachusetts. (Edward Kellogg's store was at the crossroads in Feeding Hills Center. It was the largest village store in the area, employing seven to nine clerks and maintaining a fleet of delivery wagons.) Part of James's route included the Longyard District in neighboring Southwick - a place you did not want to be at night, especially if you were someone like James, who was known to carry a lot of money on his person from his meat route, which he would usually finish and return to his Feeding Hills home by 6:00 p.m. However, on November 17, 1898, James's route took longer, probably due to the rainy weather and muddy roads. Feeding Hills Produce was Kellogg's Store at one time. While driving his covered meat wagon through a dark, lonely stretch of the Longyard, a team sped past James as he went up a small hill beyond the last house he passed. The men in the wagon stopped their ...

Prominent businessman Thomas P. Temple and his wife left their home in Waterbury, Connecticut, on the morning of September 19, 1923, to head to the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  Bird's-Eye View of the Eastern States Exposition Driving through Southwick, Massachusetts, Thomas accelerated his luxurious five-passenger Jordan touring car and passed a Ford approaching the Springfield grade crossing on the Feeding Hills - Southwick highway.  Meanwhile, a southbound ice train on the Northampton Division of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, running about 20 minutes late, gave its signal as it approached the Springfield grade crossing. It also rang its bell. The train, consisting of a tender followed by a locomotive (the Congamond Switcher) pulling a caboose, was traveling at a higher rate of speed than usual to make up for lost time. (The tender was in front of the locomotive switcher instead of in its typical spot behind it.) Upon not...

Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Latham Ellis Latham lived in Brooklyn, New York. He was the head of the Latham Automatic Registering Company, which had offices in New York City and Boston. He was also the vice president of the Latham Machinery Company, a maker of bookbinding equipment headquartered in Chicago, where he hailed from. Ellis and his wife had a summer residence in Granville, Massachusetts, at Stow Farm, named for its original owners, Volney and Marshall Stow. Stow Farm had spanned across the original Wildcat Road (a section loosely called Stows Road) at the then-junction of the Westfield and Blandford-Granville roads in an area once known as the Stow District, complete with its own schoolhouse. (The Town of Granville established the Stow School District on April 3, 1815.) In addition to hundreds of acres of farmland and forest, the Stow homestead at one time included at least three homes and several outbuildings, mainly barns and sheds. The Stow family also owned a gristmill and a sawmi...