Fullerton Tribune Headlines: 1898

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of skimming over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years. Here are some local headlines from the year 1898.

Spanish-American War

The major national (and local) news item of 1898 was the Spanish-American War, which the Tribune glamorized with the fanciest layouts seen to date, as shown below.

This was the beginning of the age of U.S. imperialism, and part of impetus for the Spanish-American War was U.S. support of Cuban rebels against Spanish rule. Whether or not the Cubans fared better under American influence after the war is a matter of debate.

Home Guard Meets

The Spanish-American War, like all American wars, prompted a surge of ultra-patriotism throughout the United States. Locally, this took the form of the formation of a Home Guard and the erection of a giant flagpole.

The Home Guard drew from prominent members of the community. Here’s (most of) the text of the article:

A meeting of the newly-organized home guard was held Saturday evening in Chadbourne hall, E.R. Amerige acting as temporary chairman.

The hall committee reported there would be no charge for the hall while used for drilling purposes, excepting the actual expenses of lights and janitor work.

The following gentlemen were nominated for captain: B.F. Porter, E.S. Richman, W.E. McFadden, H.C. Head. W.E. McFadden moved to elect Mr. Richman by acclamation. Motion prevailed.

H.C. Head and B.F. Porter were nominated for first lieutenant and on motion the former was elected by acclamation.

E.R. Amerige was also elected second lieutenant by acclamation.

The following committee was appointed to take the necessary steps to procure arms and other equipments: Edgar Johnson, H.C. Head, O. des Granges, W.E. McFadden, W.R. Carpenter.

Drs. Clark and Rich were unanimously chosen as surgeons of the home guard and the house fairly went wild when C.E. Holcomb was declared to be the choice of every member for chaplain of the new organization…

The band and A. McDermont were tendered a vote of thanks for the free use of their halls, and H.C. Head was added to the flag-pole committee, after which the meeting adjourned.

Even advertisers like Hood’s Sasparilla took advantage of the swell of patriotism.

In a somewhat disturbing article, Tribune editor Edgar Johnson argued that one benefit of the war was that Americans were learning more about the world.

Even school children were roped into supporting the war.

The United States won the Spanish-American War, resulting in new American colonies (like the Phillippines), and this provided new business opportunities for enterprising Americans.

A Disastrous Fire

In other local news, there was a massive fire that destroyed some buildings downtown, including part of Stern & Goodman’s store, which was the main store downtown at this time.

Here is the full text of the article:

A raging fire broke out here early Monday morning and destroyed several thousand dollars worth of property before the flames could be controlled.

The fire started from the explosion of a gasoline tank in a small building between the Pacific Billiard parlor and Stern & Goodman’s store, first burning the small building and then the billiard parlor, after which the flames soon reached a large warehouse owned by Stern & Goodman, and the harness shop owned by Ed Culmer. Few of the goods in the warehouse were saved; most of the harness stock and the billiard tables were saved. The harness and leather stock was greatly damaged.

Stern & Goodmans department store, which, with the stock was worth over $50,000, was saved after hard work by at least 100 men and women. Most of the entire stock of goods were removed from the building being scattered all over the streets. The Anaheim fire department arrived in time to do some good work. The buildings across the street were saved. The billiard room building, warehouse, oil storage building and harness shop building were burned to the ground. The loss is fully $5,000, probably more. The Southern California railway had tank cars and apparatus on the road from Los Angeles, but they were stopped at Rivera, as the fire was under control by the Santa Fe’s fire apparatus had reached that station on a special train. The freight train which passed Fullerton just as the fire broke out was ordered back from Orange by Agent Davis who feared that the depot and freight cares on the sidetracks would be destroyed.

Arthur Porter was in the tank house when the explosion occurred and was severely burned. Mrs. Denkle who helped to remove the goods from Messrs. Stern & Goodman’s building overheated herself and fainted, but soon recovered. Several persons were slightly burned.

At the time of the fire there was not a drop of water in the town tank but a bucket brigade was organized at once and was soon carrying water from the large storage tank on Commonwealth avenue, about 200 yards from the burning buildings. The fire extinguishers owned by 5 or 6 residents were also used to good advantage in bringing the raging flames under control.

The large warehouse in the rear of the north room of Stern & Goodman’s store being covered with corrugated iron did not burn. The south side of this building was badly scorched and was ablaze once or twice but it was saved by hard work. Had it went up in smoke the Sansimena block and Stern and Goodman’s department store would have burned to the ground which would have increased the loss $25,000. Two hogs and about 150 chickens belonging to Stern & Goodman were burned. After the Anaheim fire company and the residents of Fullerton had dome so much good work Stern & Goodman served refreshments to all, extending many thanks to the good people who had so ably assisted them.

The intense heat when Mr. Conrad’s building was burning caused the large plate glass window in the Brandle hotel front to break into more than a dozen pieces.