A Look Back: Aug. 17, 2024

200 Years Ago

■Persons desirous of purchasing or hiring houses, shops, or stores in the pleasant town of Northampton, or purchasing or selling farms or other real estate in its vicinity, or more remote, are invited to call at the office of the subscriber in the Court House, Northampton, where orders and requests in furtherance of the above objects will be promptly attended to.

■D.D. Stebbins. Died, at Cummington, July 18, Sally, daughter of Mr. Mitchell Dawes, aged 16. The sabbath before her death she was well and joined with her associates in the meeting house in singing praises to God. The same companions followed her remains to the tomb, and during the interment they stood around the grave a sang a dirge.

100 Years Ago

■Swinging off the main gravel road leading to Plymouth Notch, President and Mrs. Coolidge and their son John stopped at the little hillside cemetery where a month ago they buried their young son, Calvin, Jr. Proceeding after a brief stop at the grave to the Coolidge home, they will spend a vacation of ten days at the home of the president’s father.

■A citizen in Northampton has received a letter from San Antonio, Texas, from a traveling salesman there much interested in politics, requesting buttons and blanks and advice necessary to form a Coolidge Club at San Antonio. The writer prophesies that the Republican vote from the South will surprise the North in showing what it can do to support Coolidge.

50 Years Ago

■Gov. Francis W. Sargent said here last night that his long-time friend, President Gerald Ford, is “the most straightforward person you ever saw in your life.” Sargent spoke at a four-county Republican reception at the Colonial Hilton Inn, attended by some 300 people.

■Raymond E. Duda of East Street, Easthampton, has been selected as Massachusetts’ outstanding dairyman and winner of the Massachusetts Green Pastures Contest. Duda owns and operates the Lazy D. Farm, 510 acres of land in Easthampton.