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© Copyright 2003 EPICS TCHA Team at Purdue University, All Rights Reserved.
The state legislature passed and Gov. J. Frank Hanly signed a bill prohibiting anyone from selling or giving away cigarettes, cigarette paper or other substitutes, and barring use or possession of cigarettes by anyone under 21. [Efforts to amend the unpopular law failed in 1907. Repeal came in 1909.]
Purdue University started a Department of Home Economics.
Schwab Safe Co. expanded its factory near the Belt Railroad; the Cruikshank pickle factory closed.
Fire destroyed the German Evangelical Church on the north side of Elizabeth between 10th and 11th. Its adult congregation numbered 250.
The Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company planned to build a car barn in the 900 block of Ferry Street, and to build track from Lafayette to Logansport, linking Lafayette to Fort Wayne.
Oldsmobile dealer and mechanic Charles Shambaugh opened an Auto Inn, for automobile sales, repairs, storage and battery charging at 210-212 Columbia St.
A young billiards star named Willie Hoppe played an exhibition match in Parker Byers' billiards hall.
Samuel T. Murdock, Lafayette, obtained Indiana's first state-issued automobile license plate under terms of a new registration law. The plate bore the numeral 1. About 2,200 cars now operated on Indiana streets and roads.
The Journal said Purdue University's Memorial Gym fund drive had reached $40,000 in pledges, including $15,000 from the Big Four Railroad. Trustees voted to add $25,000 as soon as $50,000 had been raised.
Work began on the Lafayette Street Railway Company's extension of track from Tecumseh Trail Park three miles northeast to Battle Ground, and service began on Sept. 14.
Streetcar motorman George Buck dodged death twice in two weeks. In mid-July the electric motor fell from its fastenings as he ran his streetcar on Owen Street. He was thrown through a window and cut. The night of July 28 in a rainstorm his car skidded down Ninth Street hill tracks and into a passing Wabash Railroad freight train. Buck jumped to safety before impact, there being no passengers on board.
Independence Day featured exhibition automobile runs on the half-mile dirt track for horse racing in the county fairgrounds. As 5,000 looked on, Henry Marshall drove a Pope-Toledo half a mile in 52 seconds, one mile in 2:06. Charlie Shambaugh drove a home-built 400-pound racer with a 4-hp 1-cylinder engine on an angle-iron frame.
A motion picture company said it planned to visit Lafayette in September, during a Spanish-American War veterans' reunion, to film a mock run by Lafayette firemen, and the veterans' parade. The "movies" would be processed then shown as part of a firemen's benefit show in the Grand Opera House.
One of Indiana's first automobile fatalities involved the death of John Rynearson, 56, West Lafayette, an oil inspector. His car hit a tree at 15 mph beside a gravel road three miles west of Frankfort. He died of head injuries Aug. 3.
Purdue University founded a short-lived School of Medicine after taking over the Medical College of Indiana at Indianapolis. [As political and academic battles raged, Indiana University ended up with the official "state medical school." But Purdue graduated 122 doctors in the spring of 1906, comparable classes in 1907 and 1908.]
Showman Edward Shields presented the firemen's benefit show in the Grand Opera House, showing "movies" of the firefighters' mock run on Sixth between Main and Columbia streets, and the 160th Regiment's reunion parade. He also showed a filmed comedy sketch, and a reproduction of the Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany. He said a film crew would visit Lafayette again to make a short movie called "A Fire In Darktown" to be shown on Sept. 24.
Selig Polyscope Co., of Chicago, sent a film crew and showman Edward Shields directed shooting of "A Fire In Darktown." An old building on North Ninth Street near Greenbush Cemetery was used for the movie in which an African-American woman was rescued from the burning second-story by Lafayette firemen from Company 1. Shields showed the movie together with other subjects during an Opera House entertainment on Sept. 24.
Organization of Lafayette Life Insurance Company began, and became official Dec. 26. It operated at first from offices in the Emsing Block, southeast corner of Sixth and Main streets.
Per new state law, city and town elections took place the first Tuesday in November. In Lafayette, Mayor Durgan won a four-year term by defeating Republican John Morrisson 3,132 to 2,013.
In unusual political infighting, Governor Hanly asked for the resignation of fellow Tippecanoe County Republican Daniel Storms, the secretary of state, over alleged mishandling public money. This battle ran well into 1906. Storms remained in office, but did not run for reelection.