By Beverly Clinkingbeard
News notes from Westboro:
In 1915, Westboro was a busy town and this may be what they were discussing. The citizens’ comings and goings were recorded, sometimes with editorial comment.
FEBRUARY
“English services at Berlin church on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Everybody cordially invited. Dr. Schimmelpfennig, pastor.”
“Dr. Schimmelpfennig spent Sunday at C.R. Rolf’s.”
“John Eberts moved from Yale vicinity to their farm near Blanchard [on] Monday.”
“There were seven cars of cattle and hogs shipped from this point on Tuesday.”
MARCH
“James Jones, George Daniels, C.W. Sawyer, F.B. Wilkinson, James Teague and others went to Rock Port Monday to attend court.”
“Miss Panzy Barger has been re-elected as one of the professors in the William Wood college, Fulton, Mo., for another year. Miss Barger is one of Atchison County’s young educators who are making good at distant points.”
“J.D. McCrander shipped a load of cattle to St. Joseph Monday. He went from there to Winston to visit his brother-in-law, T. Mumford.”
“Freight Train Wrecked – The southbound freight train was partially wrecked at a point about two miles north of here. Tuesday morning, five cars being thrown from the track by the spreading of the rails. It was a bad place in the road made by the recent rains and snows and it was fortunate that the engine had passed it before the crash came. The third car back from the engine first went off the track and was followed by the other four, the ties being smashed to pieces and the rails torn up. The first car was loaded with potatoes and the owner was traveling in the car with them, but fortunately was not hurt. A car of hogs and a car of cattle were derailed and smashed off the trucks, about twenty hogs being killed and two fine steers each had a fore leg broken. These were killed by the section men who were soon on hand and the remaining cattle and hogs were rescued from the car and turned into nearby fields. The wrecking train came up in the afternoon and the train was cleared late that night.”
“Emil Winters of Page Center, Iowa, the owner of the cattle that were in the freight train wreck here Tuesday, spent the day in town while the track was being cleared and repaired.”
MAY
“A.L. McPherson of St. Joseph was here Tuesday and took a look at his ranches in this section.”
“There were 218 present at the Methodist Sunday school last Sunday. This is the third largest Sunday school in the county and is within a half dozen of the second largest school. Arrangements will be made to make the county Sunday school convention which meets here next month one of the best ever held in the county. Westboro is a Sunday school town and there are some able and enthusiastic workers in the school here.”
“An explosion in Spencer’s jewelry store last Monday blew out the plate glass in the front window and rather demoralized things generally for awhile. It seems that during the summer of a day or two this month Mr. Spencer had use for his blow torch after which he placed it on the stove. Last Monday, he concluded to build a fire in the stove, but forgot to remove the blow torch. However, it soon removed itself and the windows above mentioned, making a report that caused many to imagine that the town had been struck by a torpedo from a German submarine.”
LATER – 110 years, 2025
Do you wonder why the editor would think to equate the jewelry store explosion with a German submarine firing a torpedo into the town? Or even be entertained that a torpedo could possibly reach the middle of the USA? Today, adversaries of our nation threaten us with the capability of sending disaster from their submarines to anywhere in the world. We believe them and assure them we can adequately retaliate.
Submarine warfare was at-tempted in the Civil War and by 1915 (WWI), the Germans had effectively mastered underwater navigation and mayhem. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat horrified the world when it torpedoed the British passenger liner, Lusitania, resulting in the death of 1,198 people, 128 were American citizens. Officially, the German’s said it was a mistaken identity; however, the ship was rumored to have a cargo of ammunition and weaponry.
Many lives were lost, so how suitable was it to equate the store explosion with the Lusitania tragedy? We’ll never know if there were those who took it seriously and were afraid of a torpedo blasting Westboro, or picked up on what may have been an editor’s attempt of humor. Either way, yesterday’s newspapers often exhibited strong opinions, argued politics, entertained, and told everyone’s business.
’Til next time.
