News from 1902 (August)
August 1 - Secretary Fleming of the Pan-American Exposition Company said this afternoon that upwards of 100 claims of creditors entitled to a share of the $500,000 relief appropriation made by Congress had been presented. Letters informing the creditors in question of their rights will be mailed to them a second time.
Director General Buchanan is not expected to arrive here for several months yet.
August 6 - With the destruction of the Electric Tower at the Pan-American grounds there are presented daily scenes of danger faced by the workmen with the utmost nonchalance. The tower is being razed from the top downwards. Each steel beam must be detached separately and lowered to the ground by a gin pole. The height at which operations were commenced upon the dome was 375 feet. The workmen crawl about on the beams which have been denuded of the covering of staff and lathing preparatory for this work, unscrewing a nut here, driving out rivets there, and all with as much apparent calmness as if they were squatting upon their heels upon the ground.
It may be thought by some that it is no more dangerous to take down the building that it was to put it up. It is, though, for the simple reason that staging was used in erecting the tower, whereas not a scaffold has been placed to assist in taking it down.
Yesterday, fascinated specators from Delaware and Elmwood Avenues, Amherst Street and all the adjacent region watched almost breathlessly the removal of the last beams that formed the dome. Two men could be seen crawling up and down the convex side of the beams that curved over the well of the tower like the davits of a ship. There was not a single rope to hold on to. At the top they removed the last bold and rivet and fastened the gin rope. Then they slid down the beams to the foot of the dome and removed the bolts and rivets there. The beams were removed to the ground by other workmen.
It has been stated that the Chicago House Wrecking Company paid only $60,000 for the buildings and that it has already cleared more than that. Frank Harris, president of the company, refuses to affirm or deny the statement.
On Monday he will be the defendant in an action in Municipal Court by Lafayette Grove to eject him from that part of the grounds belonging to the Pierce property which was sold under foreclosure to Mr. Grove. Several buildings stood on the premises when the notice was served upon Mr. Harris to get out. It was expected that he would be forced to pay rent, but Mr. Harris was too shrewd for that. He simply turned a full force of men upon the buildings in peril, and when Monday comes the ground will be occupied by only unsightly heaps of rubbish.
August 9 - While working on the Agricultural Building at the Pan-American grounds yesterday afternoon Frank Kelly, 25 years old, lost his balance and fell to the ground, a distance of 40 feet. In his fall he struck a number of projecting boards and when picked up was unconscious. He was taken to the General Hospital in the ambulance where it was found that his right hip and arm were broken and his right side and head were badly bruised. Kelly's home is in Oswego and he has been in this city only eight weeks, boarding at Amherst and Bridgemann Streets. The doctors at the hospital said this morning that he will recover.
August 22 - Mayor Knight, in a proclamation issued yesterday, suggests that memorial services be held in all churches in this city on Sunday, September 14, the anniversay of the death of President McKinley, and that the Stars and Stripes be displayed prominently throughout the city on that day.
The proclamation reads as follows:
"The 14th day of September, 1902, will mark the first anniversary of the death of the beloved and lamented William McKinely, President of the United States, and no city in the land has greater cause fittingly to commemorate the day that Buffalo, within whose gates the President met his tragic death.
"It is my desire and, as chief executive, it is my earnest request that our people should that day give their thoughts to its proper observance in memory of him whose name is revered wherever it is known. As the anniversary falls this year upon Sunday, it is meet that the clergy make his glorious life and noble death the theme of their discourses on that day, and I would suggest that special McKinley memorial services be held in all the churches throughout the city.
"It is also most fitting that the national emblem be displayed in his honor, and I desire to urge upon all our citizens to display the Stars and Stripes in such a manner as to pay proper tribute to his memory. On the day following this observance let the lesson be inculcated in the minds of our children with special exercises in all the public schools of this city.
"In order that there may be some special observance worthy of the day, in addition to those mentioned above I have selected the following as a committee to make suitable arrangements:
"Horace A. Noble, Rev, Charles Edward Locke, Rev. Daniel Walsh, Rev. W. Y. Chapman, Anselm J. Smith, Henry Zipp, James L. Quackenbush, Edward R. Rice, Gibson L. Douglas, Sr., Abraham J Elias, Hobart Weed, Maj. W. A. Mann, Gen. Samuel M. Welch, Jr., Col. George C. Fox, M. J. Healy, Joseph P. Dudley, Truman G. Avery, Dr. Charles S. Butler, Hon. James Sweeney, Frank S. Fosdick, Fred Brennisen, G. Barrett Rich, Dr. William C. Krause, William T. Roberts and Eugene Klein.
"It is my wish that all our citizens cooperate with this committee in paying our greatest respect to the revered memory of President McKinley.
"Erastus C. Knight, Mayor"
August 28 - Elgin, Ill. A rope ladder, an ambitious spouse and a well-filled purse are reported to be the immediate reasons for Chiquita, the smallest woman in the world, jumping her contract with the Bostock-Ferari Carnival Company, of which she was the star attraction.
Between 4 and 5 o'clock yesterday morning the midget and her 17-year old husband, Tony Woekner, descended a rope ladder hung from the balcony of the best suite of rooms in the Cottage Hote, Milwaukee Street, and escaped.
Chiquita, who is 32 years old and stands 30 inches high, is said to be Frank C. Bostock's ward.