Intertwined: The Blade and the Ballot
— A Southwick Time Machine Archival Discovery
On November 10, 1915, 25-year-old William H. Semke of Southwick, Massachusetts, was operating a 14-inch circular saw at the Southwick Road home of his employer, Harry A. Hescock, in neighboring Westfield. Without warning, the blade broke loose from the machinery and struck Semke on the left side of his head. It shattered his skull, laid bare his brain, cut across the scalp at the left temple, and severed part of his nose. He was taken to nearby Noble Hospital, but despite doctors' best efforts, he died there roughly twelve hours later.
An inquest into Semke’s death concluded that gross carelessness on his part was the cause.
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| An illustration of a period saw |
Thirty-seven years later, on Tuesday morning, November 4, 1952, the man who had employed him met a sudden end of his own. Harry A. Hescock entered his polling station in Westfield to cast his vote. He was handed his ballot but collapsed almost immediately afterward, never marking it. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Noble Hospital—the same hospital where Semke had died decades earlier. Hescock had celebrated his 53rd wedding anniversary just three days before.
Two men, connected first by employment and later by the strange symmetry of their final moments, each died without warning: one in a violent accident, the other in the quiet routine of civic duty. Their stories, separated by nearly four decades, converge in a single thread of local history.
— Another lost piece of local history preserved by the Southwick Time Machine
This article is based on primary source research, including but not limited to official records, census data, death certificates, and period newspapers.
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Edited Out/Author’s Additional Research Notes
William Smeke was born on January 7, 1890.
The exact location of William H. Semke's accident on November 10, 1915, remains uncertain. Some sources place it at Semke's home in Southwick, while others report it occurred at Harry A. Hescock's property in Westfield.
Harry A. Hescock celebrated his 53rd wedding anniversary on Saturday, November 1, 1952.
Hescock & Johnson had a large dairy farm on Southwick and Hillside Roads in Westfield. They were one of the largest milk dealers in Westfield. They also did other things, like cut ice and wet (dirt) roads.
On May 25, 1943, a fire leveled the large dairy barn of Hescock & Johnson. Thirty-five milking cows were killed in the blaze, along with a bull and nine pigs. A few pieces of milking equipment were salvaged. The company quickly arranged for a Southwick farmer to temporarily take over the milk route to avoid disrupting service to his customers. The Springfield Rendering Company disposed of the dead cows. Fire investigators believed that the fire started on the east side of the ground floor. Several witnesses reported seeing a flash of light traveling across the sky from south to north at the time of the fire, leading folks to believe a meteor was responsible. Neighbors said that Hescock & Johnson had an ongoing problem of tramps sleeping in their dairy barn. The damage was estimated to be $18,000 and was partially covered by insurance. The company started erecting a new barn by mid-June.
The Hescock & Johnson dairy barn fire was the largest fire in Westfield in 1943. In 1942, a massive fire destroyed the Park Square Hotel in Westfield.
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