Unfenced: The Hidden Cost of Fire Protection, Granville 1954
A spring morning in Granville, Massachusetts, turned into heartbreak for the Duris family on May 11, 1954. Two-year-old William A. Duris was playing in the front yard of the family’s home on Beech Hill Road alongside his sisters, three-year-old Deborah and four-year-old Andrea.
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| Beech Hill - Granville, Massachusetts |
The children’s play was interrupted when the girls suddenly rushed inside to tell their mother, Barbara Duris, that William had fallen into a hole in the backyard.
Barbara ran outside, calling out for help to her own mother, who lived nearby. In a frantic rush, she jumped into the water-filled hole and pulled her son out. Though he had only been submerged a short time, William’s small body had already turned blue.
The hole, about four to six feet deep, was one of several maintained by the town for fire protection in areas without hydrants. Like others, it had no fence or railing to keep children away.
Barbara raced her son to Noble Hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts, as her mother desperately continued artificial respiration. The hospital was alerted by the telephone operator that William was on his way, but despite every effort, it was too late.
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| Noble Hospital, Westfield, Massachusetts |
Medical examiner Dr. Arthur J. Logie examined William’s body at the hospital.
William's body was laid to rest in his grandparents' family plot in Westfield.
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Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
William A. Duris: 04/22/1952 - 05/11/1954
William’s maternal grandparents lived in Westfield but moved to Granville. They also lived in Florida. They are buried with him in Westfield. His grandmother died in 1978. His grandfather died in 1983.
William’s parents married in Lebanon, New York, in 1949. William’s father, Andrew P., is believed to be a centenarian living in Florida.
The Duris family moved from Granville to Westfield.
Water holes are important protection for farms and buildings. Water holes reportedly did not reduce insurance rates because insurance companies required hydrants after they became commonplace.
Horse-drawn wagons and automobiles routinely ended up in water holes and cisterns. Several people have drowned in them.
William’s sister Deborah was injured in a car accident in 1968. She was the passenger. The driver may or may not have been her boyfriend at the time.
William’s brother Richard was charged with minor in possession of alcoholic beverages in 1971.
William’s maternal grandfather found himself in trouble in 1933. He pleaded guilty to stealing articles valued at around $56 during an 18-month period from the new Sears, Roebuck and Co. department store, which opened on Main Street in Westfield in January 1932. Among the items he stole was a portable typewriter. He sold the stolen typewriter to an Agawam man, who police arrested for receiving stolen property. (He later faced an additional charge for stealing a typewriter from a person on East Silver Street. He pleaded guilty to this charge, too.)