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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story
The following news items were gleaned from The Charlotte Observer from 100 years ago. The Charlotte Observer and other local newspapers from as early as 1869 are available for viewing on microfilm in the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County's Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room. |
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July 1 | Today a new anti-spitting ordinance goes into effect along with a new anti-banana peel ordinance. The old banana peel ordinance has never been enforced so that several people have taken severe falls. Citizens should look forward to greater cleanliness. There are some things of which it is only necessary to remind well-behaved people. (This ordinance was following the lead of Atlanta and other southern cities that had already passed this law.) |
| The committee on buildings recommended to the board of aldermen the erection of an 18 room school, designed by architect F. I. Milburn, with an additional story of 6 rooms. The mayor is to secure passage of a bill in the next meeting of the Legislature giving the city the power to issue school bonds, not to exceed $100,000. This money raised will pay for building in Wards 3 & 4, and the remodeling of the building in Ward 1. |  |
July 2 | A trolley ride is planned in Charlotte for tomorrow night. It’s a Dutch treat as far as the men are concerned. |
July 5 | The board of school commissioners met yesterday and voted to re-elect all teachers. Six new teachers are being added next year. |
July 7 | The East Avenue Nine and the Hilliard Chreitzberg’s Nine cross bats at the park tonight. |
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A traveling salesman got into an argument after returning from a trip to Augusta over the number of arrivals at hotels in Charlotte vs. Augusta. After counting the arrivals in both cities, he found Charlotte had 3 times as many in the Central and Buford alone as in all the hotels in Augusta. |
The Messenger is a new weekly newspaper just started in Waxhaw by D. M. Litaker. The first issue was well received.
July 8 | The Charlotte baseball team will play baseball against the Mountain Islanders for the first time today. The Mountain Island team will be coached by Oldham, one of the finest coaches and catchers in the South. |
Mr. F. W. Woolworth of New York and his attorney spent yesterday in Charlotte looking after the Woolworth mining interest. Mr. Woolworth is now having the Greir mine, below the Oliver Oil Mill, worked as an option to buy it. While he was here, he decided to have the Earnhardt property opened up.
The next handsome house to go up in Dilworth will be built by Mr. E. D. Latta, president of the 4 C’s, and for whom Dilworth takes its name. Mr. Latta will build on the corner of the boulevard, by the big tree at the pavilion turn. He will erect a house in keeping with his own ideas of elegance, and which will still further beautify his namesake.
July 12 | Ensign Walker of Charlotte arrived yesterday to visit friends and family. He had been stationed on the Nashville and was the officer in charge of the gun that fired the first shot of the War (Spanish-American). |
July 13 | The Household of Ruth, an order among colored people, had a long parade in Charlotte yesterday. |
July 14 | Mrs. E. C. Harris, the aged lady who made the trip from Texas here alone, recently has presented Miss Fannie Harris with a table that belonged to Hezekiah Alexander, one of the signers (of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence) and an ancestor of the Harris family. |
July 18 | The Chamber of Commerce committee, the full 11, will meet today. |
| Rev. Royel G. Shannonhouse, son of Mr. Joseph G. Shannonhouse of Charlotte, was ordained by Rev. C. L. Hoffmann. He preached his first sermon at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. |  |
July 22 | Mrs. Amanda Gibson has 2 new musical compositions-"I Will Be True" and a waltz "My Love’s Praises." Both are excellent. Mrs. Gibson is from Charlotte, and Charlotte people can claim her work with pride. |
July 26 | A cedar gavel from a tree at the battlefield at Manassas, VA was given to the Julia Jackson Chapter of the Children of the Confederacy. |
July 27 | The colored firemen of the city will go to Washington, NC on Monday to attend the annual tournament. |
The school board has decided to let teachers already in the schools compete for the vacancy left in the 9th grade. A man has always been hired by special examinations. However, Chairman Anderson feels that women are as capable of filling the position as a man. If they could pass the exam and were due a promotion, they would be eligible. The board acted on this suggestion.
July 28 | The 4C’s Co. filed a deed of trust yesterday in the clerk’s office with the Mercantile Trust & Deposit Co. of Baltimore to secure a payment of $500,000 with a 30 year interest rate. This is the largest moneyed transaction, individual or corporate, ever recorded in the clerk’s office of this county. |
July 30 | Dr. Chauncey Rakestraw will begin a residence on Elizabeth Ave. that will be an ornament to Charlotte's eastern suburbs. Dr. Rakestraw will have a suite of offices in his residence. The building will be of colonial style with large porches, tower and porte cochere. It will command a beautiful view of the city, and the house will be the gateway to Highland Park. |