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© Copyright 2003 EPICS TCHA Team at Purdue University, All Rights Reserved.
Downtown Lafayette boasted of seven theaters, most offering motion pictures at least some of the time: the Victoria, the Arc, the Family, the Dryfus, the Lyric at 632 Main St., the Majestic at 657 Main St.,and the LaPurdette.
Lafayette tested a motorized firetruck on hills and turns. Housed at the Central Station and in use from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the machine was painted red, 14 feet long, and carried chemicals, two ladders, axes and 1,200 feet of hose. It overturned on May 5 during a demonstration with a few city officials aboard at Fourth and South, and the City delayed purchasing a motorized truck until Jan. 22, 1912.
Monitor High School opened in Perry Township; and Shadeland High School opened in Union Township. In Wea Township, a high school dating to 1900 gave way to one near Concord Road.
Purdue built the first phase of a building to house the library, previously operating out of cramped space in University Hall.
Between Oct. 20 and Nov. 10, Wallace Long and W.B. Jones from Lafayette drove a 6-cylinder Mitchell automobile 3,352 miles to Los Angeles, via Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, the Great Salt Lake, Utah and Nevada.
Chase Osborn, a rags-to-riches figure who spent a troubled boyhood as a Lafayette newspaper hawker, took office as governor of Michigan.
The Jamison Brothers, automobile dealers, sponsored a 20-day test of one of their Hudson 33 cars. Driver Frank Neuman drove it 100 miles a day, averaged 11.9 miles per gallon of gasoline, had three tire blowouts, and used 2.5 gallons of oil. The Jamisons also sold Chalmers cars. Rival dealersat the time were: Hoffman Moore, 831 Main, selling Maxwells; Walter Sharp, 831 Main, selling Marmons; L.W. Schuessler, 507 Columbia, selling Overlands; Bartee Auto Company, Ninth and Main, selling Fords; J.L. Sheetz, West Lafayette, selling Oaklands; Morgan & Torrenga, West Lafayette, selling Elmores; and Charles Shambaugh, 200 block of Columbia, selling Oldsmobiles.
Car dealers sponsored their first auto show and hill-climbing competition on the auction pavilion grounds south of State Street Levee, and on State Street Hill in West Lafayette.
The Journal and Purdue Alumni Association announced co-sponsorship of an air show to be held June 13 at Stuart Field, with plane and pilot to be supplied by the Glenn Curtiss Company. It would be an 8-cylinder, 60 hp gasoline powered plane. The show would mark the end of Purdue's annual Gala Week.
The Northern Indiana League planned a season involving six 12-man baseball teams playing a 108-game schedule. But the league disbanded July 31 after the Anderson and Bluffton teams ran out of money.
Charlie Shambaugh finished building his low-slung racing car too late to qualify for the first Indianapolis 500-mile race, won by Ray Harroun.
The Journal said the Curtiss Company would sent two aviators and three mechanics for the forthcoming air show. Merchants planned store closings, railroads scheduled special excursion trains. On June 12 it was announced that the pilots would be Lincoln Beachey and C.C. Witmer.
The first airplanes landed in Tippecanoe County in connection with the air show. About 7,500 people jammed Stuart Field, built to seat about 5,000. Some 250 automobiles overloaded West Lafayette streets. At one point aviator Witmer's engine failed and he had to land a mile away on a Purdue University farm.
The first of three amazing weather phenomena in 1911 occurred when temperature reached 104 degrees, a record high for Purdue University instruments, then plunged to a record cold 46 degrees for the date of July 26. [See Nov. 11 for the third episode.]
William S. Haggard, former lieutenant governor, Soldiers Home commandant, editor, lawyer and soldier, died. The State soon named Daniel B. Kehler, the adjutant, as commandant.
Tippecanoe County Commissioners voted to build a 600-foot iron bridge over the Wabash River near Jewettsport, linking Tippecanoe and Washington townships, turning down a petition for a bridge at the Davis Ferry.
In perhaps Lafayette's first automobile fatality, pedestrian Gustave Bonner, 67, died of injuries when hit by a car Sept. 22 at Fourth and Columbia.
Ross Machine Company incorporated with $15,000 in capital. William Ross' Ross Gear & Tool Company was already in operation.
When the nationwide Postal Savings system opened, the first depositor at Lafayette's Post Office, for $5, was 10-year-old Charles Tilton.
A mock battle, speeches and ceremonies marked the Battle of Tippecanoe centennial. Speakers included former Vice President Charles Fairbanks, Governor Thomas Marshall, Governor Chase Osborn of Michigan, and poet Evaleen Stein. Purdue University ROTC students represented Harrison's army in the mock battle. Red Men's Lodge members impersonated the Indians.
A cold wave, referred to by some as the "11-11-11 hurricane," packed wind of 50 mph and dropped Lafayette temperature from 74 degrees at 4 p.m. to 9 degrees at midnight. Damage was heavy in several midwestern states, locally harming buildings, signs, and knocking out electric power.
Martin L. Peirce, 28, telegraph news editor for the Courier and grandson of the banker, died when an interurban railroad car hit his automobile at the Spring Vale Cemetery entrance.
Lafayette city officials considered an offer from agents for Mary Barbee Hook, Los Angeles, to sell the 42-acre wooded hilltop area long known as Barbee's Grove between 18th, 22nd, Ferry and Cincinnati streets, for $13,000 for development as a city park.
George A. Jamison, 58, Purdue University trustee, bank cashier, church and Republican political figure and businessman, died.