105 Years Ago
The July 15, 1920 Colorado Transcript reported the following.
- 2000 chickens were killed when lightning struck the coop at the Industrial School (now the Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center). An employee of the school was in the building when the lightning struck and was “slightly stunned.” The chicken coop was 25’x120′ and burned “in a flash.” There were an addition 7000 chickens in the brooder house, which was ten feet away from the burning coop, but the Golden Fire department was able to save that.
- A young lawyer who was visiting from Denver drowned in Clear Creek and his companion narrowly escaped the same fate.
- The state chemist took samples of Golden’s water and declared that “no city in the United States had water more pure than Golden’s.” The article goes on to say that “Samples taken from the distributing reservoirs show no bacteria and no colon baccili."
- The Golden Chamber of Commerce, then in its first year of existence, was planning to meet to discuss paving some of Golden’s streets.
- Professor O’Byrne finished the 14 year task of writing a mathematics text book. The cost of printing was going to be prohibitive until he thought to have his freshman mathematics students hand-letter his 267 illustrations. He used the hand-lettered pages to produce zinc etchings, which greatly reduced the cost of printing.
- Professor O’Byrne was having a big week, because that same issue of the paper announced that he had married Mrs. Dorothy Foss. Mrs. Foss’s first husband had died two years earlier, during the Great Influenza Epidemic. Mrs. Foss had a two-year old son in 1920, and she continued to run the Foss Drug Store until he was old enough to take up the reins. Professor O’Byrne, who died in 1927, designed the M on Mt. Zion.
- The Sheriff’s Department was puzzled about a seven-passenger Chalmers car that had been wrecked on the Lookout Road. The car was upside down and there was blood on the ground, but there were no occupants and no one to be found in the vicinity. The license plate had been removed, as had the top of engine, which would have had a serial number on it. The tires and all accessories had also been removed.
- Stewart Grocery Company was urging Golden to EAT FRESH FRUITS. Linder Hardware was selling Winchester Rifles and suggested that people take them on family vacations and teach the children to shoot. Robinson’s Cash Bookstore said its patrons should Buy a Golden Pennant for Your Motor Car or as a Souvenir Gift.
- The Gem Theater planned to show Pricella Dean in “Pretty Smooth” on Thursday, Michael Lewis in “Faith of the Strong” on Saturday, and Buck Jones in “The Last Straw,” plus “Silent Avenger” on Tuesday.
- The Local Paragraphs section advised us that H. M. Rubey was going to North Park for a fishing trip. Mrs. Grant Churches and children were spending the week with relatives in Longmont. Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Parfet motored to Colorado Springs Sunday in their new Cadillac.
- A classified ad offered a $500 Reward “for information that will convict and punish the women and men of Pleasantview with Serpents’ Tongues.”
