1905 Wilkes-Barre Record Almanac, Luzerne Co. in 1904

COUNTY OF LUZERNE IN 1904


	One of the principal events of general interest in Luzerne County during 
1904 was the courthouse imbroglio.  There was no work during the entire year 
owing principally to the disagreement between the county commissioners, the 
contractor and the architect.  The question is noted more in detail in another 
article in this issue of the Almanac.

	The flood of March, 1904, was the most damaging in the memory of 
the people and it was the fourth inundation since the latter part of 1901.  Traces
 of the ice deposited on the lowlands in certain places remained until July.  The 
scheme for the purchase and removal of the Nanticoke dam was revived and it 
was decided to ask the court to prevent coal companies from filling up the channel 
of the river with culm and other refuse.  Details of the flood are noted elsewhere.  

	The winter was one of the most severe on record.  Early in January the
 frigid spell began and it continued with little interruption until spring.  Ice formed to 
a depth of two feet and more.  The lowest temperature registered in the county was
 January 5 at Orange and White Haven, at each of which places 37 degrees below 
zero was recorded.  At the Wyoming Valley Hotel in Wilkes-Barre 22 degrees below 
zero was registered and on Public Square 12 degrees below zero.  There were not 
many days in January and February when the mercury went above the freezing point.  
The summer of 1904 was moderately warm.  There were spells of quite warm weather, 
but no extremes, the mercury not reaching 100 degrees on any day.  March 14, 1904 
there were four inches of snow and April 19 a quarter of an inch.

	There were during the year some echoes of the smallpox epidemic of 1901 
and 1902.  A case was discovered at Luzerne Borough in January, two in Wilkes-Barre
 in January, two in February and one in March in Wilkes-Barre and one in June at Lee 
park.  One child died in Wilkes-Barre in January.  

	The record of capital crimes in the county during 1904 was not so great as
 in recent former years, only six murders being recorded.

	The mines of the county worked quite regularly during the year, with the 
exception of short periods of suspension during the latter part of the summer, owing
 to overproduction.  Although things had assumed their normal condition after the 
1902 strike the coal companies did not take off the increase placed upon the price 
of coal to local consumers.  Coal cost a dollar and a dollar and a quarter more a ton
 than before the first strike.  The work of the Conciliation Board in preventing strikes 
and events about the mines during the year are noted elsewhere.

	January 21, 1904, James Pollock of Luzerne Borough, who escaped from
 the Luzerne County jail for the third time July 8, 1903, was captured at Wyoming in a
 saloon.  He gave the officers considerable trouble before he was again landed behind
 the bars.  Pollock has been a singular prisoner, because of the fact that despite all 
precautions he has three times managed to escape from that institution.

	The efforts of the city authorities to prevent another such record of death as
 followed the Fourth of July celebration in 1903, when nine deaths occurred in the county 
from lockjaw following the use of blank cartridges, bore good fruit.  There was only one 
death during 1904 in the county from that cause, that being in the Hazleton region.  
There were six fire alarms in Wilkes-Barre on July 4.

	There were some events of note in military circles.  In June three battalions 
of the Ninth Regiment and one battalion of the Thirteenth of Scranton attended the 
Hawkins monument unveiling at Pittsburg.  June 22 the regiment left for the division
 encampment at Gettysburg and while there the regiment’s twenty-fifth anniversary was
 observed.  The officers and some friends presented to Col. Dougherty a magnificent 
punch bowl.  Capt. Kenny of Co. B, of Wilkes-Barre, resigned in August.  The twenty-fifth 
anniversary banquet of Co. D, at Hotel Sterling Nov. 4 was an elaborate affair.

	Ann incident showing the rottenness existing in some of the townships and 
municipalities of the county developed during the year when an investigation into the 
affairs of Duryea Borough was conducted.  The investigation lasted for some weeks 
and it was found that there were made out in the course of several years orders to the 
amount of about $20,000 for which no valid claim could be found.  Several arrests were 
made.  Evidence against not all of the guilty parties could be secured.  An ex-street 
commissioner was in September convicted of conspiracy.

	The court during the year ousted the school board of Pittston Township and
 appointed another board in its place.  The charge was failure to properly conduct the 
business of the board.

	May 2 the Supreme Court handed down a decision deciding against ex-Treasure
r F.C. Kirkendall in the case wherein he claimed certain fees for the collection of State taxes.  
The courts in the county in May handed down a decision declaring unconstitutional the act 
authorizing the court to appoint a receiver for the collection of State taxes.  The cumbersome
 system in vogue in Wilkes-Barre the year previous remained in force during 1904, taxpayers
 being compelled to go to three different receivers to pay their taxes.  At the meeting of the
 third class city convention in Wilkes-Barre in September it was decided to present a bill to 
the legislature asking that the city treasurers in cities of the third class be empowered to 
collect all the taxes.

	The pure food crusade in the county was one of the important events of the year.  
Dr. B.H. Warren of the State Pure Food Department sent out agents and several of them 
worked a considerable length of time in the county.  First of all a number of grocers were 
arrested, charged with selling adulterated spices, etc., and the cases were disposed of by 
the merchants paying the fines or the cases being sent to court.  Then a number of liquor 
dealers were arrested charged with selling adulterated blackberry brandy.  These cases 
were similarly disposed of.  A number of milk dealers were later in the year arrested, 
charged with using as preservatives formaldehyde and boracic  acid (spelling exactly as
 in the almanac).  The latter arrests caused a great deal of indignation, as formaldehyde is
 a poison, particularly to infants and invalids.  The authorities would take no fines in these 
cases, but the offenders were sent to court for prosecution.  Dr. Warren announced that 
the investigation would be kept up.

	During the year only one resident of Luzerne County died in a foreign country 
while in the service of the United States- Harry Hughes of Hazleton, who was drowned in 
the Philippines in July.  Since 1889 forty-two young men from Luzerne County have met 
death in foreign countries while in the service and thirty members of the Ninth Regiment 
died while encamped in the South during the Spanish-American War or at home of disease
 contracted in the South making a total of during the five years of seventy-two.  

	An unusually sad incident occurred in February.  On the second of that month four 
members of the Palmer family of Parsons- father, mother and two children -were buried from
 the home of the parents of Mr. Palmer in that place, they have met death in the Iroquois 
Theatre fire in Chicago.   

	February 25 there occurred in the City Hospital, Wilkes-Barre, the death of John
 Lucky, a foreigner who lay in that institution for sixteen years with a broken back.  During
 all that time he was unable to move the lower portion of his body.  The case was an unusual
 one owing to the length of time that the patient survived the injury.

	In March the court handed down decisions, refusing a large number of liquor 
licenses in the county.  At Lee Park only one of the licenses remained.

	On the 1st of September free delivery of mail went into effect in Ashley, Kingston, 
Dorranceton and Westmoor.  Six new carriers were added to the Wilkes-Barre office.  Kingston 
and Ashley remain letter stations and mail is distributed from those offices, although they remain 
under the jurisdiction of the Wilkes-Barre postmaster.  Dorranceton is a number station and the 
carriers start with the mail from Kingston.  Westmoor is a part of Dorranceton.  In November free
 delivery went into effect in Edwardsville and Luzerne Borough also, those places being also 
known as number stations.  Two more carriers were added to the force.

	Among the accidents in the county during the year a few are worthy of a special note.  
At Sebastopol, near Pittston, April 7, four children of Mr. and Mrs. William Burke were burned to 
death in their home at night.  Other members of the family had a narrow escape.  There were two 
explosions at the Oliver powder and dynamite mills.  In one one man was killed and in another a 
few weeks later two men were killed.  One man was blown to pieces so that only a small portion 
of his remains could be found.  In March four men were killed in the Dorrance mine in Wilkes-Barre
 by the carriage being hoisted against the sheave wheel instead of being lowered, and in May five
 men were killed by an explosion of gas or dynamite in the Lance mine in Plymouth.  November 2 
ten men were killed in the Auchincloss mine at Nanticoke by the carriage getting beyond control 
and the men falling down the shaft.

	A serious fire of the year was the destruction of the Miner-Hillard mill at Miner’s Mill 
April 13.  The loss was $175,000, with $112, 000 insurance.  Preparations were immediately 
begun for rebuilding.  

	During the year the traction company leased the Plymouth and Larksville line and 
cars were run to and from Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.

	The declaration of the Master Builders in September for an “open” shop and the 
employment of union as well as nonunion carpenters was one of the principal events of the 
year in labor circles.

	There were 27 drownings in the Susquehanna from Bloomsburg north during 1904.  
Mostly bathers and suicides.  This record is not exceeded in any year.

	November 13 heavy, watery snow fell all day and it caused general demoralization
 throughout the county.  Scores of poles went down and with them the wires.  Both telephone 
companies suffered thousands of dollars in damage and not for a couple of weeks was the 
confusion of tangled wires entirely righted.  Street cars were stalled and telegraph service 
was cut of for a few days.

Typed by Sue Wagner, 10 Jan 2009