Time Machine Trip to April 1912

Hello Fellow Time Travelers,

Well it’s time to fire up the old “Time Machine and travel back in time to April of 1912.

For today’s trip Gerald Degroot will be sitting in the front seat and operating the Time Machine.  The big wheel is spinning, the years are clicking back and in no time, we are back on East Second Street on Kaukauna’s Southside.

Charlie has left the papers for us on the chair out front of the Times office.

Charles E. Raught – Owner, Editor & Publisher

Let’s see what’s in the news this month.  

"If you would like to be a Time Machine driver, contact me at hansenlyle5@gmail.com and I will add you to the list."   

Your old newsman - Lyle Hansen

April 5, 1912

Undertaker C. J. Jansky now has in use a new ambulance which he has had constructed so as to fit over his Flanders auto. The ambulance is arranged so that Mr. Jansky can also use it to haul around caskets, rough boxes and funeral apparatus, as well as convey bodies if necessary.

April 12, 1912

The Crystal Theater on Second Street, south Kaukauna, has been leased and taken over by new management and will be formally opened on April 13.

KAUKAUNA FIRE DEPARTMENT & CITY HALL

A member of the state board of control paid Manitowoc a visit recently for the purpose of inspecting their penal institution and placed his stamp of disapproval on the present police station. It seems that the Manitowoc police station is arranged after the style of the Kaukauna common council over the fire department barn and the odor is so strong that the rooms have to be fumigated daily. The City Hall and city clerk's office here smell more like a livery barn than a council chamber.

April 12, 1912

The town of Kaukauna is in a fixing puzzle just at the present time. Having had their school house condemned at the state inspector for rule schools they have not as yet been able to come to any definite arrangements as to what to do next. 

Chief of police McCarthy hereby serves notice that bicycle riding on sidewalks must be discontinued immediately or rest will follow. There will be no exceptions to the rule. Wagon coasting on sidewalks must also be stopped.  The sidewalks must be safe for pedestrians.

April 19, 1912

New York, April 18 – Thousands wait in awful doubt. The list of cabin passengers of the Titanic saved and missing, has been amended by the addition of names to the list of survivors as ships respond by wireless. Far out at sea near the Cunarder Carpathia and her sad company of survivors of the Titanic tragedy are the cruisers Chester and Salem. A full list of those that were saved after the great White Star liner crushed herself against an iceberg and dropped to the ocean floor is yet to be completed.   

The local declamatory contest was held in the High School. First place was awarded to Agnes Vandenburg, second honor to Florence Black and third to Margaret Kuehne.

The Regenfuss Brewing company has had to enlarge the bottling works due to the cramped quarters in which that department has been housed. The firm has enjoyed an increased amount of business. The bottling department will be conducted in a part of the former malt house where a comfortable room with electric light, heat and power has been provided. Electric motors furnish the power to drive the machinery.

Mr. Roosevelt compare dealing with Columbia on the Panama Canal question to “Nailing cranberry jelly to a wall.”

It is evident that the new income tax is very unpopular and that strenuous efforts are being put forth to try to present it in a light more favorable than in which it now appears to the people.

The season for good sucker fishing is now on and fisherman can be seen daily wending their way to some favorite spot along the river. Hundreds of fish are being taken now from the shallow creeks which empty into the river at various points. Suckers, red horse and carp are now running up these creeks in large numbers. The sucker variety of fish are very good at this time of the year when properly prepared.

April 26, 1912

Notice was received this week that the Kaukauna High school was to be retained on the accredited list of North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

Otto A. Look, proprietor of the Kaukauna Drug company, is more firmly convinced than ever that it pays to use printers ink. Last Saturday was the first anniversary of his proprietorship of the store, which event was duly advertised and celebrated by a special sale. Otto says the result far exceeded expectations. 700 to 800 people visited the Kaukauna Drug company store Saturday and it was the printer's ink that help to get them there.

Mrs. Mary Rice and Mrs. Anna Kemp, twins, held their 70th birthday anniversary Sunday together at the Kemp home on Oviatt Street. They came to Kaukauna about 1850 and have lived to see remarkable changes wrought in the home of their adoption. Where it was only a hamlet them, Kaukauna, a busy manufacturing city now stands. Other wonderful changes have also been made through all the surrounding country.