The front page of the May 6th, 1908 Weekly Courier is full of death and destruction.
There’s a lot of really interesting stuff in the May 6th, 1908 newspaper. But you have to look inside to get to it. Everything on the front page seems to be death, disaster, and destruction.
Here’s a quick list of several articles found on the front page: Three Hundred Die in Explosion on Japanese Cruiser; Saloon Element Causes a Riot; Murders Parents of Wife then Seeks Her Life; Fifteen Die in Hotel Fire in Ft. Wayne, Indiana; 120 are Drowned by Capsizing of Russian Ferry; Denver Woman is Assaulted by Negro in Broad Daylight; Panic at May Dance, One Man Injured; Boulder Man Killed At Grand Junction; Ocean Liners in Disastrous Collision; Nine Killed by Naptha Explosion; Denver Policemen Killed by Burglar; Fort Collins Man Held at Glenwood; and Italian Murderer Sentenced for Life.
Whew! Enough of that. Let’s jump inside.
Fort Collins National Bank encouraged patrons to use checks rather than cash.
Here are some tidbits from page 2:
“If it is true–and of course, it is–that the ‘Lord loveth whom he chasteneth,’ He must have an abiding affection for the people of the Cache la Poudre valley, for with drouth, frosts and low priced lambs, the farmers are surely ‘passing under the rod’ this year.”
“The Chicago convention is only a month and a half away. It is then we shall learn who is to be the next president.” (This was in May! It certainly took longer to collect and tabulate votes back then.)
“The claim is made that Secretary Taft will have 505 votes for president in the Chicago convention, or fourteen more than needed to give him the nomination. As there are about a dozen states that have not yet elected delegates it is quite probable that more than two-thirds of the delegates will vote for him on the first ballot.”
I didn’t know this before, but cream of tartar is precipitated out of grape juice.
From the society section:
“The ladies’ union of the Congregational church enjoyed a pleasant meeting at the home of Mrs. J. Wissler, Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Frank Stover’s talk on ‘Missionary Work in Burmah’ was very interesting and instructive. There was a large attendance.”
Note that at the Mountain Ave. Livery Company, special attention was paid to Transients and boarders. (Does that mean that they dressed people who couldn’t afford to dress themselves?)
Newspapers were often sent to other cities to encourage people to move here. So on page 6, there is a long list of the benefits of living in Fort Collins. Here are the first few recommendations of our fair town in 1908:
“Two hospitals
A city of homes.
Altitude, 4,975 feet.
Three public parks.
Population, 11,000.
Two cigar factories.
School population, 2,500.
Bonded indebtedness, $255,000.
County seat of Larimer county.
Court house valued at $60,000.
Five hotels and five restaurants.
A $90,000 Y. M. C. A. building.
A $15,000 National guard armory.
Postoffice receipts, $30,000 a year.”
American Boy was a popular magazine of the time.
Note that you still needed ice to keep the food in your automatic refrigerator cold.
Once you’re done with your spring cleaning, it’s time to buy some new furniture!
Sales on porch shades enable you to upgrade your outdoor experience.
| Every Thursday we’ve been flashing back to a different (randomly chosen) year to get a sense of the issues and events in Fort Collins at the time. But now that “Throwback Thursday” is becoming a “thing” I’ve decided to move newspaper flashbacks to Friday so that I can spend time on Thursdays updating the Forgotten Fort Collins media pages with throwback photos. So join us next Friday when we explore the newspapers of 1964. I’ll also be shifting Monday’s topical posts back one day so that they’ll be coming out on Tuesdays starting next week. |
Source for this article:
The Weekly Courier, Fort Collins, 6 May 1908. I accessed this newspaper through the website Colorado Historic Newspapers.