100 Years Ago Today - December 2023

Look at these statements from headline articles in The La Porte Daily Argus in December 1923. Terminology, capitalization, and what makes headline news can be different. Yet accidents, business, crime, and war still make headlines. Want to read the whole article? It’s on microfilm in the Indiana Room at the Main Library. Staff will be glad to help you access it. 

 

December 1

Governor Warren T. McCray today put an end to all rumors that he intended resigning because of the indictments returned by the Marion county grand jury yesterday charging him with forgery, embezzlement and larceny.

December 3

Robbers were at work Sunday night in Low’s Clothing store. They purloined two suits of clothes, a dress overcoat and a sheepskin overcoat, the total value of which was less than $200.

December 4

George Vexanet confessed murdered of “Gaby” Flouquet, the girl he loved, waited impatiently for death today.

December 5

Robbers broke into a large clothing store operated by Gust Reiss at Knox Tuesday night and stole 175 suits and 155 overcoats of $10,000 retail value.

December 6

The Chicago American league baseball club known as the White Sox, filed articles of dissolution with the Secretary of State here today.

December 7

Ralph Ren, age 8, son of William Ren, a Standard Oil Company employee, living at 411 Grove street, was badly bruised when struck by a taxi driven by Henry Elsworth, 507 1-2 Michigan avenue, Thursday afternoon. The child was running home from school when hit by the machine.

December 8

Chicago, December 8 – Rose Borth, 12-year-old victim of a demented kidnapper, rested her tired and abused body in a hospital today following five days of imprisonment in a tiny attic bedroom.

December 10

Scranton, Pa., Dec. 10 – No real progress has yet been made toward reaching five men entombed in Mount Jessup Coal company’s slope at Jessup, ten miles from here, since Saturday. Officials say it may be tomorrow before the men are reached.

December 11

Four convicts made a dramatic escape from the Kansas state prison here last night – the second group to gain their freedom from the penitentiary within a week.

December 12

The life of a nomad held too much appeal for Charles Werner, 13, and Nealin Wheeler, 14, Knox boys, and Monday night they boarded a passing freight train and started out in the world for adventure.

December 13

J.F. (Jock) Cathcart, living at Pinhook, was injured in a headon collision between two automobiles at Forrester’s corners, south west of Pinola on the Lincoln Highway, about 4 p.m. Wednesday.

December 14

The number of automobile license plates which are being sold daily in La Porte indicates that as many local persons, and probably more, will drive automobiles in 1924 as in 1923. The numbers sold, at an early hour this morning was 184 for passenger machines and 86 for trucks.

December 15

Court guards were dragging the harbor at Michigan City today for the body of George Wojasinski of Michigan City, thought to be a victim of a war between two rings of bootleggers.

December 17

Employees of the LaPorte Telephone company will erect the community Christmas tree on the court house yard Monday.

December 18

Prospects are that there will be 200 present at the first Advance-Rumley tractor school which will be held at Bushnell, Ill., from Jan. 8 to 11.

December 19

A cash prize of $7 will be given to the winner of the Y. M. C. A. Bible essay contest, which is being conducted for the school children by the Boys’ Work department of the Y. M. C. A. Five dollars will be given to the writer of the second best essay and $3 to the boy or girl who wins third prize.

December 20

Michigan City’s Monte Carlo, a flat over a grocery store at Second and Center streets, was raided by six police officers at 2 a.m. today and 30 persons, including several prominent business men, were placed under arrest.

December 21

A Ford car and the garage in which it was parked were badly damaged by fire today when James Peck, 608 Division street, used a lighted lantern when he looked in a gasoline tank to determine how much gasoline remained.

December 22

First LaPorte announced a missing man, then Michigan City stepped to the front with two missing, and now Valparaiso has come into style by reporting that one of its citizens has disappeared.

December 24

The mother and 3-year-old son who were burned Friday when a can of coal oil near a kitchen stove in their home at Hibbard, Marshall County, exploded, died from burns they sustained.

December 26

Christmas carols were sung around a Christmas tree, erected on the court house yard, by about 100 school children and a male quartet late Monday afternoon.

December 27

Prince Regent Hirohito of Japan, narrowly escaped injury this morning when an attempt to assassinate him was made.

December 28

Unsportsmanlike tactics on the part of fans at the high school basketball games has been condemned by W. G. Ludlow, principal of the high school.

December 29

The arrest and confession of Edward Frye, 87, 718 1-3 Michigan avenue, that he is the father of a child to be born to a 14-year-old girl, recently a pupil in the Central school, in two months, came today in wake of agitation over the moral conditions among high school pupils.

December 31

Four men have been convicted in city court during the last two days of receiving liquor from a common carrier.