Time Machine Trip to July 1908

By Lyle Hansen

July 3, 1908

Over one hundred "bad order" freight cars from Fond du Lac and Green Bay arrived at the shops here Monday to be repaired. The indications are that short hours at the shops will be a thing of the past after the 4th of July.

Grover Cleveland, the only surviving ex-president of the United States, died Wednesday morning at his home in Princeton, N. J. President Cleveland was the 22^nd and 24^th President of the country.

Marshal Richard Conlan requests people to take all possible precaution against accidents tomorrow on the 4^th. 

The new power launch which was built last spring by Mel Raught and Hugo Weifenbach has been christened the Ka-ka-lin. A six-horsepower gasoline engine furnishes the motive power and it thought the 25-foot boat will develop a speed of eight miles per hour. The boat should easily carry twenty passengers.

July 10, 1908

All flags for the government now have forty-six stars, a new star for Oklahoma having been added July 4.

Although it is generally conceded that Kaukauna has more wet groceries than can profitably do business in a city of 6,000 inhabitants. Still all the wet goods men were Johnny on the spot Tuesday and had their ante of $200 license promptly made. A total of thirty-four saloons licenses were taken out for the ensuing year.

Little Chute - At their annual school meeting Monday the taxpayers voted to establish a high school and to build a second story to the present public school. There was a large attendence and the vote carried 51 to 11.

July 17, 1908

Saturday was one of the hottest days ever recorded in Kaukauna. Thermometers in the shade registered all the way from 92 to 106 degrees, while those unprotected from the rays of the sun ran up to over 130 degrees. The large thermometer of the Kaukauna Drug Company ran up to 120 degrees, its limit, and burst. Haas & Hohmann had one that ran up to 132 degrees and fearing it would burst they took it into the store. The heat was so intense that nearly all outside work had to be suspended.

July 24, 1908

A lone bandit, with masked face and armed with a revolver, attempted to holdup passenger train No. 5 on the North-Western road a few miles north of Appleton. The robber boarded the train at Appleton Junction, and when the train was a few miles out of that place he crawled down from the tender and covered Engineer Louis Wandell of Kaukauna with a revolver. Fireman Gustav Pahl struck the man over the head with his coal scoop, felling him to the floor. He then took the revolver from the bandit, who managed to jump from the engine and escape.

Ossining, N. Y., July 21. – Charles Rogers and Angelo Laudiero, murderers, were electrocuted in Sing Sing prison early in the day. Rogers was the first taken to the chair. His execution was without special incident taking two contacts. In the case of Laudiero a bright flame came from the electrodes at his head and an odor of burning hair filled the room.

July 31, 1908

The city of Kaukauna is threatened with a possible water famine and all those using the water works system are cautioned to be as careful as possible about the amount of water drawn, or it may become necessary to shut off all the private taps and reserve the water in the reservoir and standpipe for fire protection only until such time as the present difficulty can be surmounted.

Letter sent to Montana – If anyone has come across a young man with lop shoulder and a pair of bow legs and answering to the name of French, please forward particulars at once. His heartbroken father is here at the Gulch and wants to know what has become of him. If any of the cowboys around here hung him for horse stealing, forward the particulars just the same. It will ease his father’s mind to know his fate.

Atlanta, Ga., - Further disclosures of irregularities and inhuman treatment of convicts were brought out before the legislative committee investigating the conduct of the state prison officials. Ed Strickland, who said he had worked in 100 camps, testified to the cruelty of the wardens. The cries of negroes being whipped were in the air almost all the time at the brick company camp.