— A Southwick Time Machine Original Series | Tales from the Field Robert J. McComb, a Suffield, Connecticut native who entered the tobacco business around 1912, returned home from Avon, Connecticut, in March 1916 to become assistant manager of the American Sumatra Tobacco Company’s Southwick Plantation. Despite its name, the plantation straddled the Connecticut–Massachusetts border, occupying land in both West Suffield, Connecticut, and neighboring Southwick, Massachusetts. At its height, it encompassed roughly 300 acres, reflecting the enormous scale of Connecticut River Valley shade tobacco operations during the early twentieth century. The American Sumatra Tobacco Company stood among the dominant forces in the shade-grown tobacco industry.  Vast fields stretched beneath white cheesecloth tents produced the delicate wrapper leaf used for high-quality cigars. The company’s operations crossed town and state lines, with plantations, curing barns, labor camps, and warehouses spr...

What follows is drawn from historical records and contains descriptions that, even by the standards of the day, shocked all who heard of it. — A Southwick Time Machine Original | True Crime       A False Promise   In the spring of 1870, David Scott of the Feeding Hills section of Agawam, Massachusetts, began courting an Irish girl from Suffield, Connecticut. Townspeople later described the young woman as prepossessing in appearance and said that she had a good reputation.   The relationship soon turned serious. Before long, the pair became engaged.   Scott proposed that they travel to Springfield, Massachusetts, where a Catholic priest would solemnize the rites of marriage. The couple made the trip together, but after meeting with the priest, Scott informed the girl that the ceremony would have to be delayed by one day. He persuaded her that a single day would make no difference and suggested that they spend the night at a first-class hotel.   When th...

Allegations of voter fraud in Southwick, Massachusetts, had residents questioning the integrity of the voting process following the arrest of Clinton Aldrich, who was charged with illegal voting on Election Day, 1868. The case attracted considerable interest throughout the region. Aldrich appeared in the afternoon session of Westfield Police Court on Saturday, November 14, 1868, with Judge M. B. Whitney presiding. Massachusetts State Senator Henry William Fuller was counsel for the defense, while H. B. Stevens represented the Commonwealth.    Henry William Fuller, circa 1868   Southwick Selectman Aurelius Moore was called as a witness on behalf of the Commonwealth. Under direct questioning, he testified that he saw the young Aldrich place a piece of paper into the ballot box, but he was not sure what, if anything, was on it. Upon being recalled, Moore testified that when he counted all the ballots, each was filled in for either Republican or Democrat, and that there were ...

On July 10, 1951, a Holyoke, Massachusetts, judge fined Gus W. Vasilocosta of Suffield, Connecticut, five dollars for failing to slow down at an intersection. It was a minor traffic violation, one of thousands routinely handled in local courts. Two years later, on Monday, December 14, 1953, Vasilocosta was driving his convertible coupe westward along Thompsonville Road in Suffield. At the same time, Paul O. McGinnis of New Salem, Massachusetts, with his passenger Anthony M. Symanski of Hatfield, was traveling south on East Street in a 2½-ton truck carrying four work horses. East Street and Thompsonville Road intersected just ahead of them. The two vehicles approached the crossing. Locals had a name for it: “Death’s Corner.” At 11:31 a.m., they collided.   Gus Vasilocosta’s wrecked coupe following the collision at “Death’s Corner"   The impact forced Vasilocosta’s coupe into a cement retaining wall as the truck continued forward before overturning. It also tossed the horses fro...