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18 | November 7, 2019 | The wilmette beacon SOUND OFF
wilmettebeacondaily.com
Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 2 days ago
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A Word From The (Former) President
News flashes from
1911
John Jacoby
Contributing Columnist
• February 25, 1911:
Alexander Petrie, 38, of
710 Washington Avenue,
Wilmette, claims that he
saw “the first robin of the
year.” He submitted an
affidavit to the Chicago
Tribune, swearing that
“while walking along
Eighth Street in the village
of Wilmette, Ill., I
distinctly heard with my
own ears, and later saw
with my own eyes, a real
live robin — our beloved
robin redbreast.” Petrie
may have been inspired
by colorful and corrupt
Chicago Alderman “Bath
House” John Coughlin,
50, who earlier this year
offered a prize of $5 to
the Chicagoan who produces
“absolute proof”
of the first robin sighting.
(Coughlin’s nickname
reflects his early employment
as a masseur
at a bathhouse). As a
Wilmette resident, Petrie
isn’t eligible for the prize,
but the publicity may
help his struggling real
estate business.
• March 8, 1911: Henry
Mulford, 37, of 931
12th Street, shocked the
Wilmette community, if
not the world, by defeating
all women-entrants
and winning the blue
ribbon for his strawberry
shortcake in the Wilmette
Woman’s Club “domestic
science exhibition.” Mulford,
an up-and-coming
banker at Harris Trust and
Savings Bank, risked his
career by taking the day
off to shepherd his entry.
Observers compared his
achievement to other
ridiculously unlikely
deviations from sexual
stereotypes, like women
becoming officers at his
bank.
• March 9, 1911: A
mammoth explosion at
the Laflin-Rand Powder
Co. near Pleasant Prairie,
west of Kenosha, rocked
the Midwest, leading
millions of people to
believe that the area was
experiencing a major
earthquake. More than
100 tons of dynamite and
other explosives blew up.
Miraculously, only five
people were killed, but
many were injured and
damage was extensive.
The town of Pleasant
Prairie was leveled. In
Chicago, windows shattered,
buildings rocked,
burglar alarms blared,
and people panicked. In
Kenilworth, 300 residents
of New Trier Township
were meeting at the Assembly
Hall to discuss
the upcoming Townshipwide
referendum on
going “dry” when the
building started to rock.
The crowd panicked, and
“men leaped out through
windows and rushed in
a mass toward the door.
Several are said to have
been bruised slightly.”
• April 9, 1911: “Nothing
happened here” was
the claim made to Wilmette
police by everyone
at Albert Zeutschel’s
Gross Point saloon just
south of Schiller Avenue
on Ridge Road, but the
claim was belied by
evidence at the scene: the
blood-splattered sidewalk,
the broken beer
bottles strewn about,
and the broken jaw of
Wilmette resident Frank
Curry, 29. Township residents
voted to go “dry”
only a week ago, and now
at the saloon, nobody
wants to get nobody
in trouble for nothing.
Zeutschel, 51, denied
selling beer to Curry, a
plumber. Wilmette policemen
were happy to drop
the investigation, based
on the technicality that if
a crime was committed, it
occurred in Gross Point,
outside of Wilmette’s
jurisdiction.
• August 25, 1911:
Wilmette’s nightly “trysting
place” at Kline Street
[now Prairie Avenue]
and Wilmette Avenue has
sparked more than amorous
passion this week.
On Monday, a ghost
appeared and frightened
away “four spooning couples.”
It also frightened
Anna Schaefer, 49, of 618
Kline, along with three
of her children, Christina,
19, Frank, 15, and
George, 13, causing them
Please see Jacoby, 19