This bizarre triple murder-suicide shocked the innocent world of 1900. No automobiles, three horse-drawn hearses and one CONNIE MACK showed up for the funeral Masses at St. Joseph Catholic Church. NB. In 2001, Sports Illustrated covered the Bergen killings in detail as did the New York Times January 20, 1900.
Mental disorders of that period in history did not have miracle drugs as we have now. Bergen's fame and fortune ended up in hell. Nobody in North Brookfield, today, ever speaks about this incredible community blemish. But in 1933 some good citizens traveled to Philadelphia to invite Cornellius McGillicuddy back to The Brookfields to dedicate a headstone in St. Joseph Cemetery . On July 10, 1934 Connie Mack came back to a roaring crowd of 10,000 well-wishers from all along the East Coast. 'What ae all the people doing here?" asked Connie! He didn't realize his hometown fame.
Only one problem: The Bergen family did not any coverage as the memorial headstone would allow. "CONNIE MACK DAY" was a wonderful picnic & tribute to two favorite sons of the Brookfields; George M. Cohan, the man who owned Broadway and Connie himself. I have heard all about Connie Mack, have heard his squeaky recorded voice and learned from Mr.Leach how Connie Mack was revered to this day. the 1934 event was broadcast live from the North Brookfield Town Common and was heard on the radio in California according to newspaper accounts.
The name 'Connie Mack' is known around the world. I once interviewed Ruth Mack, Connie's daughter at an advanced age of 95 or so and had the pleasure of meeting Senator Mack III and Congessman Mack IV! Connie Mack , the old man," Mr. Baseball" managed the Philadelphia Athletics for so long he will seemingly always be the 'winningest and losingest manager of all times.' The East Brookfield Historical Museum displays all of the poignant Mack memoirs. Dennis LeBeau, is the man to contact in this regard.
As for Marty Bergen's body... some think he was denied a Christian burial and some even speculate "it was thrown over the stonewall behind the cemetery in disgust. An auction of Bergen's estate tells of a Grand Piano being sold.. maybe for $5.00? Snowball Farm got blackballed. Bert Boynton of KKK Fame lived at the Wait Corner location for years. The history room at the North Brookfield library has preserved copies of the North Brookfield Journal.... Check it out! Amazing grace!
I moved to North Brookfield about 8 years ago and stumbled on the Marti virgin story. The more I learned about him drop more compassion I felt for him even though he committed the Unforgivable. Don't understood mental illness back then and everyone treated him like a criminal and crazy person instead of helping and they kept sending them home he kept getting sicker and sicker to the point where he was suffering delusions to the point that he believed that his teammates were blaming him for the death of his young son sadly in the late 1890s. Looking back we can see how he started out really easily normal and progressed to the point of complete Insanity yet nobody was there to help him and he was stuck up on that farm in the snow with his family and God only knows what went through his brain but I'm sure it was not malicious and that's something we will never know. I visited his grave where his name is not present but the names of his family members are on that stone.
ReplyDeleteI guess you could say it was dated devil stole the soul of North Brookfield nobody's talked about it since and I actually brought it up quite a few times and public with people because I was very curious as to a number of things including where that farm was and from my research I'm 95% sure that the Boynton Farm is now where the North Brookfield Sportsman Club is. I'm wondering if you have any information on this item bought every single book on the history of the brookfields every map land eat everything else I try to compile all these things together in my research to find out where it was but I know that they raised the house to the ground after the murders and the farm was sold. I would love it if you had any extra information that I could add to my research cuz I really feel like somebody should be writing a book dedicated to him and to the issues of mental illness in 1900 and how he may have been treated today instead of a tragedy he could have been someone who spoke out about mental illness in could have been I meant or two others who suffered that same problem that were in sports or wanted to just have a normal life. I know that he was a good man and that dude it was one of the best defensive catchers in baseball history so it's not fair to him or his memory I just bury it and Papa's grave With No Name I never talked about it I really feel very strongly that I want people to know his story. I wish I was a good writer because then I would do it myself I really want to find somebody that me about to sit down with him run my ideas by them. I haven't completely throwing out the idea of actually bring it to Stephen King with having him do it in the taste go away and not in a horrific or you way cuz he is a lover of Boston Sports specially baseball in I kind of see this dark slant on the history of Boston Sports I think he would probably be one of the best people that do that one of the most qualified. The main thing is is I don't want his story exploited
I know this is a long message but I really was excited to see this blog today and I wanted to immediately get in touch with you
I live in Warren now but I was told that there's a special NB town history archive in the side of one of the buildings at the basement level in Downtown North Brookfield where I can look at some actual documents and history of the Bergen family
They told me this when I went to the town library's basement to loon and they said they didn't have any records down there
I look forward to hearing from you
=)
J.T. STEENSEN