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© Copyright 2003 EPICS TCHA Team at Purdue University, All Rights Reserved.
Local investors formed a Lafayette Telephone Co.
Diphtheria struck again, with reckless rumors of up to 600 cases causing deaths at the rate of 20 a day. But on Dec. 4 an official report to the City Council told of just 16 deaths resulting from 31 confirmed cases.
The Indiana Soldiers Home opened at 6 a.m. with John P. Megrew the first commandant.
Henry W. Marshall stepped down as president of Lafayette Bridge Company, one of his several business ventures. On March 7 he petitioned the County Commissioners for a franchise to build an electric railway from Brown Street Bridge up Riverside (North River) Road to the Soldiers Home. Lafayette Street Railway opposed Marshall's petition because it planned its own route to the Soldiers Home along high bluffs from West Lafayette.
Richard P. DeHart sold more Tecumseh Trail property to Lafayette Street Railway for a riverfront park complex. The Street Railway invited Purdue University students to submit competitive park designs for a $100 prize.
Henry W. Marshall, evidently having dropped his electric railway plan on Riverside Drive, asked for a franchise for a rail line to Battle Ground from Lafayette east of the Wabash River, a notion he later abandoned.
Lafayette Street Railway Company unveiled plans for Tecumseh Trail Park featuring gravel walks, fountains, stone steps, a pavilion over mineral springs, a boathouse and piers, bathouses, horse and carriage sheds, a bicycle checkroom, bandstand, more than 650 electric lights powered by the park's dynamo, a summer hotel and clubhouse, a waterworks, cabins and tepees for rent, and the booking of summer operas and other entertainment. No liquor would be allowed, and there would be electric streetcar service to the gate.
At Purdue University's dedication of the Heavilon shops tower, clock and chimes, the Glee Club sang and a new Purdue University Marching Band played.
The county surveyor approved Lafayette Street Railway Company's proposed track from Salisbury Street in West Lafayette through Happy Hollow bluffs north to the Soldiers Home.
Republican Mayor Noah Justice won re-election unopposed.
As Lafayette bicycle riding increased in popularity, the City Council adopted requirements for bikes to be equipped with lanterns at night, and bells for pedestrian safety.
The "Great John Robinson and Franklin Brothers Combined Shows" performed in Lafayette. Its parade demonstrated a motorcycle capable of going 60 mph and a "horseless carriage," an early version of the automobile.
West Lafayette began offering high school level courses. [Biographical sketches about him indicate that future Governor Harry G. Leslie, about 18 years old at the time, was one of the high school students.]
The Lafayette Call reported that the Monon Shops now employed 300.
Lafayette's City Council and West Lafayette's town board passed ordinances to merge the communities subject to a Nov. 3 referendum. West Lafayette would become Lafayette's 8th Ward. Lafayette would provide fire, police, and electric streetlight service when possible, and would buy the West Lafayette waterworks.
Lafayette Street Railway Company obtained right-of-way and began track-laying to the Soldiers Home via the "high line" route approved through Happy Hollow.
On the basis of an Oct. 17 Call story pointing out that the combined debts of Lafayette and West Lafayette would exceed the legal limit of 2% of assessed valuation if they merged, foes of the merger sought an injunction against the special election in papers filed in Circuit Court. But on Oct. 29 the court declined to stop the election.
Democrat William Jennings Bryan campaigned for U.S. President in a 30-minute downtown parade, a second parade, then a speech in the Grand Opera House.
Republican William McKinley, Ohio-born soldier, lawyer, congressman and governor, won the U.S. Presidency from young Democrat orator William Jennings Bryan, 7,035,638 to 6,467,948. Bryan, an Illinois native lawyer, lecturer and congressman from Nebraska who electrified his nominating convention with the now-famous "Cross of Gold" speech on monetary policy, lost the electoral vote 271-176. Tippecanoe County stuck with its Republican tradition, casting 6,209 votes for McKinley, 4,593 for Bryan. William S. Haggard, Lafayette, won election as lieutenant governor. Lafayette voters, meanwhile, defeated the proposed annexation of West Lafayette 3,059 to 1,828.
In First Presbyterian Church the Laing Brothers Phonograph Concert demonstrated new sound-recording technology. Vibrations on a glass disc reproduced the call of a trumpet, and cylinder recordings played music by John Philip Sousa's and other bands, the chimes of Trinity Methodist Church, and a recitation of the 23rd Psalm.
Fire destroyed the Baldwin Woodenware Works beside the Belt Railway. The 50-by-200-foot factory employed up to 75 people making butter churns and other household products.
A southbound Monon Railroad train and a Lafayette Street Railway Company streetcar collided at Fifth and Main when the streetcar's brakes failed. The streetcar conductor and three passengers escaped injury.