Comments by OldHomeTown / LJWorld.com

OldHomeTown (Sarah St. John)

Last login: yesterday

Comment history

100 years ago: Driver in yesterday's auto fatality arrested

Hi gbulldog! There are a few follow-ups scheduled for upcoming days. Stay tuned!

May 2, 2013 at 10:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

100 years ago: Lawrence police perplexed by possible crime scene

"They have been unable to find any clue which would tend to clear up the mystery.."

The mystery will be revealed later this week. Stay tuned, OHT readers!! :-)

April 23, 2013 at 9:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Spring cleaning: Don't forget hidden grime in appliances, electronics

http://www2.ljworld.com/users/photos/...

April 1, 2013 at 1:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

100 years ago: Lawrence experiences edge of 'Easter Tornado' system

With the exception of global events such as the Great War and the influenza epidemic (both still on the horizon at this point) and well-known occurrences such as the Titanic or Halley's Comet, I try to mostly limit myself to events that affected Lawrence and the surrounding area. Therefore, I won't be writing a lot about the storms of Easter 1913 and the famous Ohio Floods of that same spring, but if you are interested, I encourage you to look them up.... but be warned, the first-person accounts can be harrowing.

This is from one short thing I wrote recently:

In the world of 100 Years Ago, I am astonished to find that I knew next to nothing about the violent weather-related events that happened on and around Easter of 1913. I began by reading about the "Easter Sunday Tornados" that swept through multiple states (most notably Nebraska, where Omaha suffered staggering loss of life, but also Indiana and others). Omaha was covered by a late snowfall within about six hours of the storm; there were heart-rending descriptions of shivering residents attempting to do search-and-rescue in the heavy snow, moving heavy beams of fallen buildings to try to find their loved ones, and of the funerals that followed, at least 100 in one day. I was still horrified by those newspaper accounts when I saw, just a day later, the epic floods in Dayton, Ohio, that killed over 350 people and rendered thousands homeless. Heavy rains on already-saturated ground caused the rivers to overflow and the levees to fail; the city was flooded under about 20 feet of water on the night of March 25-26. Explosions in the city led to fires in the entire business section; people were reported to be "leaping from roof to roof" to escape the flames. Other states were not spared the flooding either. Here is a poignant item from the little town of Peru, Indiana, from March 26. "The first report of the loss of life in Peru was confirmed early this morning when Governor Ralston talked over the long distance telephone to Mr. Frank Butler, an attorney, at Peru. Mr. Butler said 100 coffins at least were needed, other bodies had been washed away. He asked that two hundred coffins and food be sent to Peru at once. 'This probably will be the last message you will get from Peru,' said the man. 'Two hundred or more are drowned and the remainder of the residents are grouped on a hill waiting for daylight.'... While the governor was talking, the wire to Peru failed."

March 24, 2013 at 11:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lawhorn's Lawrence: Lawrence's March Madness of 1912

Was there a shoveling ordinance? Indeed, there was! In January 1912 there were already complaints about its neglect: "Everyone about town should see that the walks are cleaned off. There is an ordinance to this effect but it is not noticeable in many parts of town. In one location in West Lawrence the snow has never been cleared away from an incline and walking is very dangerous." And from Feb. 28, 1912: "Four residents of Lawrence, who had neglected to clean the snow from their sidewalks as is required by law, were arrested this afternoon and brought up before Judge Benson in the city police court. They pleaded guilty to the charge and each paid a fine and costs amounting to $10.50. The police department has been obliged to do this and the action of today may be taken as a warning to those whose walks are not cleaned in the future as the ordinance is to be more rigidly enforced in the future than in the past."

Other snowy areas were cleaned up with a little help from the local courts, as in this case from March 5, 1912: "Babe Strode and Levi Washington have joined the ranks of Marshal Carter's show shovelers, taking up their duties this morning. Levi pleaded guilty to being drunk and was fined in the sum of $6.50 which he did not have and was committed. He started to secure this amount with a big snow shovel."

Up-and-coming Clay Center, Kansas, apparently had a new angle on this snow-shoveling business in March 1912: "In Clay Center, Kansas, they have a way of cleaning snow from the walks that will appeal to the down-trodden householder who has been forced to clean his walk about four times a week for the past two months. In Clay Center as soon as the snow stops men are put to work with a team and snow plow and in a short time every walk in town has been cleaned at the expense of the town as a whole."

Enjoy your day -- and be glad we're not looking at that historic 19 inches! :-)

-- Sarah St. John

March 24, 2013 at 11:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lawhorn's Lawrence: Lawrence's March Madness of 1912

Hi folks! It's fun to see these old Lawrence tidbits, isn't it? With Chad's permission, I'd like to let you know (if you don't already) that you can get your daily dose of history at http://www2.ljworld.com/news/lawrence... -- three timelines, one of which is 100 Years Ago, updated daily. (Much better to read these online, as the print edition usually only has room for a truncated version.)

Here is the one from that snowstorm:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/mar...
... with that line I still love: "So fast and heavy did the flakes fall that by afternoon the ground was covered with a heavy 'blanket' of snow, but blanket is not the correct word for who ever saw a 19-inch blanket." Hahahaha!

I always enjoy reading about the annual Clean-Up Day. Remember, this was before city-wide trash collection; homeowners were still in the habit of throwing things on the "ash heap" in the back yard. The removal of all "rubbish" from the residential section of town was looked on as a grand Spring Cleaning, usually on a Saturday. Residents would get up early and collect all their winter garbage; the Civic League would send wagons around the city to collect it all. Another one sometimes took place in the fall, as in 1912 when the Governor of Kansas requested that "everyone clean out their cellars, rake up the leaves and clean up the summer accumulation of trash in the alley and burn or have it hauled away." I bet everything smelled a lot nicer after these Clean-Up Days!

(continued.....)

March 24, 2013 at 11:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

100 years ago: Five-minute windstorm passes over Lawrence

Well, as for the mysterious light, I'm guessing we can at least rule out swamp gas (will o' the wisp), unless there are some bogs or swamps in Meade County that I don't know about.....

And as for the windstorm, it was interesting to me (and a little amusing) that they said the damage was "only slight" but it sounds like it did at least as much damage as our 2006 microburst. (Maybe this one was a microburst too! I guess they didn't know about those back then? And it was followed just days later by some of the worst midwest weather in recorded history.... stay tuned....)

March 22, 2013 at 12:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )