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 ...