100 Years Ago Today - March 2024

Look at these statements from headline articles in The La Porte Daily Argus in March 1924. 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. 

 

March 1

Fire starting in the boiler room at the Boston store shortly after 4 o’clock Friday afternoon resulted in an estimated loss of approximately $50,000 and threatened not only the destruction of the store but menaced the entire business block on the south side of Lincolnway between Jackson and Clay streets.

March 3

A fine of $100 and costs and a suspended sentence of one year in the Indiana women’s prison at Indianapolis was the punishment imposed upon Mrs. Stella Jankowsk, 203 Brighton street when she pleaded guilty before judge J. C. Richter in the circuit court this morning to the unlawful possession of a still.

March 4

Information was received here today of a violent earthquake in Costa Rica, according to an unconfirmed report the loss of life was heavy.

March 5

Tiring of her husband’s attitude of indifference Mrs. Michalins Wojcik, proprietor of a grocery store on Park street, filed suit in the circuit court ttoday for divorce from Joseph Wojcik. The couple were married January 9, 1909 and separated on February 23^rd of this year. Mrs. Wojcik charges in her complaint that her husband freqquently brands her as unchaste and tells her to go ahead and associate with other men.

March 6

Members of the senate investigating committee announced this afternoon that the subpoenas would be issued for local officials of the American Telephone and Telegraph company to question them concerning reports that they set up a branch telegraph wire connecting the white house with McLean’s private wire from the Washington Post to Palm Beach, Fla.

March 7

The blinding snow storm, which throughout the night and early today, swirled around Chicago, hampering traffic and driving thermometers down more than 20 degrees, claimed three lives today.

March 8

Mrs. Mary Alice Gray, 73 years old, said to be the original of James Whitcomb Riley’s “Little Orphan Annie,” died at her home here today. Mrs. Gray’s acquaintance with the poet began when she was living in the neighborhood of Greensburg, Ind. and she was generally recognized as the one Riley had in mind when the poem was written, although several other claimants have ben advanced. 

March 10

Fire of unknown origin, starting at 1 o’clock this morning in a shed adjoining the residence of Walter Groholski, 126 Stanton street, forced members of the household to flee through a rear window, and caused an estimated loss of $150.

March 11

The stocks of wheat, corn, barley and oats on farms in the United States this month are valued at $1,236,136,427, according to estimates made public this afternoon by the department of agriculture.

March 12

The ancient dispute between the Pope and the Italian government is at an end, according to a Rome dispatch to the Daily express. The Pope is no longer to consider himself a prisoner in the Vatican. The Italian government will surrender to the Vatican the whole of Vatical Hill, of which the Holy See at present only holds a portion.

March 13

The library invites the school children to another story hour this week. The younger children will especially like “The Gradual Fairy,” and for the older ones, boys in particular, there will be “Rikki Tikki Tavi,” from Kippling’s “Jungle Book.”

March 14

The membership of the La Porte Chamber of Commerce was increased to 272 by the intensive membership drive staged Thursday, according to final figures made public today by the Secretary R. E. Teverbaugh.

March 15

An earthquake of pronounced intensity occurred this morning about 5,900 miles north of Washington, according to records at Georgetown university here.

March 17

The trial of Governor Warren T. McCray, on one of the fifteen indictments began in criminal court here today before Special Judge Harry O. Chamberlin.

March 18

The senate today passed the Norris constitutional amendment resolution moving ahead the date for the convening of congress and the inauguration of the president.

The amendment provides that congress meet on the first Monday of the month in January following the November election, and that the president be inaugurated on the third Monday in January.

The vote was sixty three to seven.

March 19

Declaring he was convicted by a “verdict given under inferences, suspicions and the mass psychology of war time,” Dr. E. A. Rumley, former owner of the New York Evening Mall, and two of his attorneys were taken to the Westchester penitentiary today to serve sentences of a year for conviction in 1918 under the “trading with the enemy act.”

March 20

The government’s $200,000,000 worth of ammunition and explosives now stored at Raritan, N.J., will be transported to the army base at Ogden, Utah, by water, the war department announced today.

March 21

Harry F. Sinclair, multi-millionaire oil magnate and owner of the Teapot Dome lease will refuse to testify when he is called before the senate public lands committee tomorrow, International News Service learned this afternoon.

March 22

All magazine publications of questionable moral influence are to be banished from LaPorte stands according to a statement made today by Prosecutor J. B. Dillworth, who is in receipt of instructions to that effect from Attorney General U. S. Lesh. The war against these publications in its scope and has been instituted by the Indiana Parent-Teachers’ association.

March 24

The Japanese war minister announced that he has learned officially that Russia is threatening mobilization against Japan, said a Central news dispatch from Tokio tonight.

If Russia mobilizes, Japan plans to join other powers in making a protest to Moscow.

March 25

Los Angeles – The age of the skull and skeleton of the diminutive pre-historic man found here by laborers while excavating today was estimated at between ten and 25,000 years by Dr. Lester Tock, head of the University of California Department of Paleontology who was brought here to examine the fine. The huge frame was preserved by the composition of the soil.

March 26

Havre, France – Squadron Commander A. Stuart MacLaren, of the British Royal Air force, and two companion airmen, who were compelled to land here on the first leg of their round the world flight, took the air again at 11 o’clock this morning.

March 27

Edgewater Beach radio station, Chicago, WJAZ, and WLAG, Minneapolis, have been heard in New Zealand, approximately 8,400 miles away, which establishes a new broadcasting record for both stations, it was said at WLAG studio this morning, where the following letter dated Feb. 28 was received: “Last evening while listening I picked up your music and speech very loud and clear in our little town of McTueka, New Zealand…”

March 28

Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty retired from the cabinet today under conditions that amounted virtually to a removal from office by President Coolidge.

March 29

Accompanied by a high wind which at times approached the intensity of a gale, the first severe rain storm of the season arrived in LaPorte late Friday and continued throughout the night. At 10 oclock this morning the temperature began dropping rapidly and hail followed in the wake of the rain. Damage amounting to several hundreds of dollars occurred at the home of Jerry Bunton, in Kingsbury, at 1 o’clock this morning, when the residence was struck by lightning.  

March 31

Mrs. William Gregg, Jefferson avenue, won the recent guessing contest conducted by the Pusch grocery store. Mrs. Gregg estimated the weight of the sack of flour on display at 299 pounds and five ounces, its actual weight was 299 pounds.