100 Years Ago Today - February 2023

Look at these statements from headline articles in the La Porte Argus in February 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. 

 

February 1 

A La Porte amateur prize fighter is fined $1 and costs and sentenced to the penal farm for stealing the beagle hound of a motorcycle policeman. 

 

 February 2 

A man is taken from his coffin and electrocuted at the state penitentiary in Little Rock., Ark. after physicians find the first electrical charge had failed to kill him. 

 

 February 3 

Twenty citizens make an inspection tour of the schools in the southern part of La Porte County to learn what type of school would be best to build in Center township. 

 

 February 5 

Twin boys and their cousin are seriously injured when their car turns turtle at the corner of Monroe and Harrison streets in La Porte after two cars collide. 

 

 February 6 

There are 229 new students in the Advance-Rumely tractor school. They were welcomed at the K. of C. hall, listened to an address, and watched a series of moving pictures on the company. 

 

 February 7 

La Porte city engineer’s office employees find that Clear Lake is only 3 feet and 3 inches at its deepest place. It may need to be dredged of vegetation. 

 

 February 8 

A son, heir sixth removed to the British throne, was born to Princess Mary at Chesterfield house last night. King George and Queen Mary called to pay their respects. 

 

 February 9 

The Boston Store has men’s shirts for $1.00. There have reinforced double shoulders and sleeves in blue chambray, Indigo blue, and indigo blue polka dot. 

 

 February 10 

There are only two survivors in a mine explosion in New Mexico. Men were trapped for 18 hours with dead mates surrounding them. 

 

 February 12 

Mrs. Jane Rutledge is near death. Her late husband Jasper Rutledge was a cousin of Anne Rutledge, once a sweetheart of Abraham Lincoln. 

 

 February 13 

The South Shore line is ordered to increase its fares to 3.6 cents per mile to conform to the rate charged by competing lines. 

 

 February 14 

A brass nail over an inch long was removed from a 17-year-old’s lung. She swallowed the nail 13 years ago and was ill continually. It is thought her health will now improve. 

 

 February 15 

A Chicago boy’s jaw is broken while a “Dr.” tries to pull a tooth. The “Dr.” is a shoemaker who inherited a set of dental instruments by marrying the widow of a reputable dentist. 

 

February 16 

Men who need an overcoat and do not want to spend much money will thank Lows’ Clothing Store. There are 50 which will be just about given away. 

 

 February 17 

Library week was observed last week. Organizations paid especial attention to celebration and business houses placed appropriate exhibits in windows. 

 

 February 19 

There may be two bodies instead of one in the 30-century-old tomb of Tut-Ank-Hamen in the Valley of the Kings. There is a double canopied sarcophagus and a wide variety of jewelry. 

 

 February 20 

A La Porte man mysteriously disappears, leaving his wife and five children, two of which have pneumonia. 

 

 February 21 

When a South Bend man arrives home after making funeral arrangements for his wife, he discovers the body of his mother. There will be a double funeral. 

 

 February 22 

The annual meeting of the County Federation of Women’s Clubs will start with breakfast at the Bay Tree Inn at 11:30. The afternoon session will be held in the New church basement. 

 

 February 23 

Egyptian officials insist that the mummy and contents of the 2,600 tomb of Tut-Ank-Amen remain where they were found, and it is likely that this will be the case. 

 

February 24 

Relics much older than those in the tomb of Tut-ankh-amen are dug up in Mesopotamia. Remains of the city of Ur are found including a temple in which the moon was worshiped. 

 

February 26 

Scores of Greek christian and Ottoman refugees in the detention camp at Scutari are dying daily in the plagues of typhus and small pox ravaging the fugitives. In the past 7 days, 297 died. 
 

February 27 

Milton Sallwasser, son of Mayor and Mrs. Herman Sallwasser, becomes a member of the Order of “Colf,” the highest honorary order in the law school of Michigan university at Ann Arbor. 
 

February 28 

A man is fined $1 and costs totaling $11 for driving his automobile on the wrong side of the street in passing an interurban car standing at the station on Lincolnway.