NEWS: What a treasure hunt it is looking through old copies of The Era!

We perused some microfilm of Era editions from 1900, and want to share some interesting findings.

March came in like a lion in 1900.

“In the Fourth ward yesterday, there was a peculiar little shower of hail. The hail rattled on the roofs of houses and made holes in the snow. And the off thing about it was that the hailstones consisted of hardened pellets of snow, as large as peas.

“The hailstones of snow were lighter than the icy ones of summer, but were quite compact. The shower only lasted a few moments and did not extend over the whole of the city.”

How strange.

We found a tale of a runaway horse team that nearly caused a catastrophe. Here’s a recounting of the mishap, from Oct. 3, 1900:

“An exciting runaway occurred yesterday afternoon in the alley between Bovaird & Co.’s shop and Emery & Co.’s warehouse. A team of horses belonging to Sheldon Jewett of Custer City was frightened by a Pennsylvania train and broke away from Jesse Robinson, who was holding one of the horses by the bridle.

“The animals ran down the alley at breakneck speed and collided with W.S. Robinson’s team, which was standing at the lower end of the narrow road, knocking them down. The wagon to which the runaway team was hitched toppled over on top of the squealing and kicking equines and for a few minutes, great excitement prevailed.

“The Robinson horses sustained several cuts and the tongue of the wagon was broken. The other pair were uninjured, but the vehicle was wrecked.”

About a month later was a story about a debate in the Bradford High school.

“The High School girls vs. the High School boys will debate this afternoon. The subject will be, “Who did the most for his country, George Washington or Abraham Lincoln?” Supt. Miller, Rev. A.R. Kieffer and Rev. Dr. Henna will be the judges.”

There was no word on who won.