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...

  — A Southwick Time Machine Original True Crime Account George Gasper was born in Hungary in April 1866. Seeking a better life, he decided to go to the Land of Opportunity. Arriving in America in 1884, he settled in Westfield, Massachusetts, before purchasing a farm in the Hillside section of neighboring Southwick around 1890. (His future wife, Caroline, came over in 1886. The pair wed in Westfield on November 22, 1889.) With Caroline becoming pregnant in 1890, the Gaspers needed extra help on their farm, so George enlisted the help of his mother, Anna, and stepfather, Andreas, to move from Hungary. But, with more and more children added to the Gasper household, George's aged parents could only do so much, so he hired a young farmhand named Andrew in the spring of 1902. (Between 1890 - 1900, the Gaspers had seven children. Sadly, one died at birth, and one died within two months of being born.) When Andrew fell ill that summer, Anna gave him her full attention while caring for him...

  —  Part of the Southwick Time Machine Tribute Series   Mrs. Dintzner Mrs. Dintzner was born in Montpelier, Vermont as Joyce Fidelia Joslin. (Her middle name was chosen in honor of her grandfather's sister.) Joyce was active in the Waitsfield (Vermont) Federated Church and her local 4-H Club. Later in life, as Mrs. Dintzner, she would pass along the skills she learned as a little girl in 4-H to younger folks, having been the arts and crafts instructor for the Southwick Parks and Recreation Commission's Summer Playground Program for several years.  By age 10, Mrs. Dintzner was performing piano solos. As part of a 1954 piano recital, she performed "Musetta's Waltz," from the 1896 opera La bohème,  and "Desert Night." At that same recital, she performed a duet with a classmate - using one piano, they performed "Sheep May Safely Graze," composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1731. In 1956, young Joyce, who attended the Bethany School of Dance in Mon...

—   A Southwick Time Machine Biographical Reconstruction    In early 1948, Albert S. Adams purchased a lot on College Highway in Southwick, Massachusetts, and started constructing a building to house what would become his namesake clothing store. (Southwick was rapidly growing during this period, which saw the opening of Congamond Cleaners and Battistoni's new hardware store in the center of town that same year.) Adams Clothing held its grand opening on July 1, 1948. Believed to be Southwick's first clothing store, it carried a variety of men's fashion and ladies' apparel, shoes, and the complete line of Hanes underwear.        Albert's store was an instant hit with residents. Thieves liked it, too.    Adams Clothing sold Eskiloos (circa 1964)       The first break-in at Adams Clothing occurred on December 17, 1948, with thieves entering the store through a cellar window and making off with a large quantity of merchandise. Thie...

Authorities arrested Augusto Rotelli in 1916 in Southwick, Massachusetts, for violating the state's Masher Act. (It was reportedly the first arrest in Southwick under the act.) At his arraignment on December 5, Augusto pleaded not guilty to insulting a woman in Southwick. The court issued a continuance and set his trial date for Saturday, December 9. At his trial, Augusto turned the tables on his accuser, testifying that she led him to his flirtatious behavior and that the two had been flirting for about two weeks.  Victorian Era Hatpin The judge halted Augusto's disparaging testimony and found him guilty. However, His Honor decided that he would impose no penalty because Augusto and the woman complainant said and did things so reprehensible that the testimony was deemed unprintable. The complainant, believed to be Mrs. Frances Liska, accused Augusto of making advances on her in one of the American Sumatra Tobacco Company's barns in Southwick, where they both worked. The Ma...