p. 50 | A YEAR OF EVENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1873

A YEAR OF EVENTS.

A GLANCE AT 1872.

Some of its Tragedies, Disasters, Results, and Sensations.

[From the Boston Herald of Dec, 30, 1872.]

NEVER, perhaps, in the history of the world has any year witnessed so much which has a peculiar interest to the general reader as that which is now closing. There have been numerous and appalling disasters by fire, flood and wind, attempted assassinations of crowned heads, massacres innumerable, political revolutions, fierce agitations of questions of social reform, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and in every field in which the newspaper seeks to become the chronicle of the day, from the depths of degradation and depravity to the pinnacle of sublime thought and morality, from the inception of gigantic enterprises to the wreck of fortunes in an hour, come scores of events which bear the impress of sensation and have startled by their suddenness the reader as well as those engaged in perpetuating their history, In the accompanying glance at the events of the year we do not pretend to give an exhaustive review, but only to call the reader's attention to a summary of the leading events in the briefest manner possible:—

Our Local History

is replete with incidents of sensational character, among which, scattered throughout the year, is a succession of

DEEDS OF BLOOD.

The first of these (happening before the year began, but not entering the calendar published in the HERALD at the close of 1871) was on

Dec. 25. The murder of Patrick Sullivan in Haymarket square by Chas. A. Hobbs.

Dec. 31. Attempted wife murder in South Boston, by Michael McCarty.

Jan. 20. John McLane fatally stabbed in a seaman's quarrel on board the steamer Tiber at East Boston, by Samuel Hanson.

Feb. 17. Murder of Charles F. Storer in Chelsea by Azro B. Bartholomew, on account of a woman.

April 17. Fatal stabbing of George Thornton by Bernard McCarty, on Prospect street.

May 2. Murder of Peter Kenney by his brother-in-law, Richard Keefe, in South Boston.

July 16. Death of Mrs. Barrien on Merrimac street for which, her husband Amphilogene, was tried for murder and acquitted.

Aug. 6. The Emma Hackett mystery; an unknown woman jumps overboard from the Old Colony Railroad wharf, and before she dies at the City Hospital, gives the above name, and search for her identity fails.

Aug. 17. James McElhaney murders his wife at the Highlands.

Sept. 19. Arrest of Jesse Pomeroy, the boy who for two years had tortured in out-of-the-way places younger companions.

Oct. 6. Michael Glynn kills, with a blow of his fist, a friend named Thomas Carley at the South End.

Oct. 13. Mr. Charles Lane, a well-known merchant, shot and killed in his own doorway by an unknown man.

Oct. 19. Frank Clifford stabbed and killed on North street by Abiather Grant; Thomas Hamsen killed with a chisel by a fellow-workmen, Stephen Foley, in Cambridgeport; murderous assault by Charles Cunningham on James Jordan in South Boston, on account of Cunningham's wife.

Oct. 22. Fiendish attack upon his wife, while asleep, by John Curley, with a hatchet.

Nov. 2. Timothy Deasy stabbed and killed on Cambridge street by Maurice Lomasney.

Nov. 6. Discovery in Charles river of the mutilated remains of Abijah Ellis, who was murdered the night before in the stable of Leavitt Alley, at the Highlands, for which Alley is now awaiting trial.

Dec. 13. Aaron Wood, the hermit, murdered at South Acton.

FIRES.

First in mind, but not in date, was the terrible disaster of Nov. 9, in which 65 acres, covered with the finest class of buildings in Boston, were burned over, entailing a loss in buildings and merchandise of nearly a hundred millions, driving hundreds of our merchants out of business and scores into poverty, taking employment from more than 20,000 people, whose sole source of income was the salary they earned, and the most common, and the most unchanging, whose men in every department, and, more terrible than all, causing the death of more than a score of persons, most of them firemen and others engaged in the endeavor to save the property of others. Besides this fire, which was supplemented next night by gas explosions and rekindlings, there have been other conflagrations which, but for this great one, would have been classed as disastrous, among which are the following:—

May 13. Burning of the lock-up at Neponset, with Daniel Webster Appleton in one of the cells at the time.

July 7. Burning of the Continental Sugar Refinery at South Boston; loss, 175,000.

July 29. Destruction of Chester Guild's tannery at Charlestown; loss, $85,000; 125 persons thrown out of employment.

Aug. 19. Great fire at the corner of Pearl and High streets.

Sept. 26. The Congress street fire; loss, $100,000.

Oct. 22. S. S. Houghton's store in the Pavilion, on Tremont street, destroyed; loss, $250,000.

Nov. 18. The fire in State Street Block, loss, $200,000.

Nov. 20. The fire in Rand and Avery's printing house on Cornhill; loss, $200,000.

Dec. 22. Fire on Washington street and Temple place; loss, $150,000 or more.

Dec. 26. Burning of the new Small-Pox Hospital, just being completed.

Dec. 27. Burning of Philadelphia Steamship Company's sheds on Long wharf; loss, about $100,000.

THE ELEMENTS.

The year has been notable for storms of every description: principle among those in Boston were the following:—

Feb. 4. Great snow-storm in Boston and throughout New England, blockading railroads and impeding travel.

June 5. Heavy gale and great fall of rain. Yacht fleets ashore, and vessels wrecked on the coast and several lives lost.

July 4. and Aug. 28. Terrible thunder squalls; much damage by rain and lightning in Boston and throughout New England.

Dec. 25 and 26. Intense cold and great fall of snow, blocking all the railroads and effectually stopping travel out of the city for hours.

OTHER MATTERS.

Jan. 23. Mutiny of the crew of the bark Warren Hallet in Boston harbor.

Jan. 30. Bursting of Brock's Commercial Agency; a hundred clerks left without wages or employer.

May 7. The farce of towns voting on the question of allowing ale to be sold.

May 10. End of the cooper's strike, which has been in progress several days, by the employers' according to the demands of the workmen.

Aug. 1. Visit of the Japanese Embassy to Boston.

Oct. 22. The accident on the Eastern Railroad at Seabrook; two persons killed and several wounded.

Oct. 20. Sudden appearance of the horse disease in Boston, lasting several weeks, and almost paralyzing business.

Oct. 23. Gilmore's benefit and ball, the last public performance in the Coliseum.

Oct. 26. Great torch-light procession under the auspices of the Republican party.

THE PEACE JUBILEE.

One of the events which will be long remembered in connection with the history of Boston is the "World's Peace Jubilee," which begun on the 17th of July and closed on the 4th of July. As early as June 20 of the previous year the matter began to be publicly talked of, Mr. P. S. Gilmore, its projector, then making the announcement of his intentions at a session of the National Musical Congress at Music Hall. Subsequent to this he obtained the indorsement of President Grant, went abroad and secured the promise of co-operation of foreign talent, came home and started the public by his announcement that celebrated regimental bands from France, England, and Germany, would appear. Impressing public-spirited men of affluence and prominence with the truth of his statements and the feasibility of his project, they aided him with guarantees of money, devoted their time to the perfection of plans, and succeeded—after the wind had blown down the first great arch of the originally planned building and thus changing from necessity the plan of architecture—in erecting the immense Coliseum and inaugurating the festival. On three different occasions there was an audience gathered of over 65,000, listening to the music of a thousand instruments and nearly 20,000 chorus singers. The foreign bands were present, the National Marine Band from Washington aided in the general musical clamor. Strantz and his waltz attracted, eminent vocalists sang their best, the operatic chorus and the banquet of artists gave beautiful selections. For all this the Jubilee was a financial failure, and the guarantee subscribers had to make up a large deficiency. The festival had many successes in other directions, however, and will make the memory of its projector green for a long time.

EVENTS ELSEWHERE.

The history of the world is replete with so many incidents of a specially interesting character that we can hardly draw the boundary as to importance in running down the list to such proportions as our space will allow. However, the war of the elements, disasters by sea and land, seem to be so numerous that we place the most prominent of them first in order:—

DISASTERS ON LAND AND SEA.

Jan. 11. Colliery explosions in Wales; many miners killed.

Jan. 12. Powder house explosion at Dix Island, Me.; several persons killed.

Jan. 18. Explosion in a cartridge factory in Greenwich, Eng.; large numbers of girls burned to death.

Jan. 23. The news arrives of the horror on the steamer Nada, bound to Alexandria, Egypt; 35 persons swept overboard during a gale and drowned.

Dec. 22, 1871. Steamer America, running between Rio and Montevideo, burned at sea, and 87 lives lost.

Jan. 24. Great storm in England; the House of Parliament damaged by the wind.

Jan. 23. A snow blockade, continuing for several days, begins on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Throughout the latter part of January there was great suffering and loss of life on the Western plains on account of the cold weather.

March 4 to 10. Snow blockade between Bangor and Halifax; drifts from 15 to 18 feet deep.

March 4. Loss of ship Great Republic during a gale on the passage from Rio to St. John, N. B.; crew saved.

March 26. Earthquake in California, Nevada, and Arizona; much damage to property; a whole valley moved several feet; from 30 to 50 persons killed and hundreds injured.

April 6. A large portion of Antioch, in Syria, destroyed by an earthquake; 1500 lives reported lost.

April 8. Great rain-storm in the South-west; land slides numerous, bridges swept away, railroads flooded, towns submerged, and other damage done.

April 11. The steamer Oceanns, running on the Mississippi, bursts her boiler, takes fire, and is destroyed; some 80 lives lost. Boiler explosion on the tug Davenport, in New York harbor; 6 killed. Ice freshet in the Merrimac river, N. H.; several bridges demolished.

During April a terrible eruption of Vesuvius occurred.

May 17. Loss of the steamer Tripoli, from Liverpool for Boston, off the Irish coast; passengers and crew saved. Great rain in Kansas; towns submerged and railroads badly washed.

May 23. Wreck of the steamer Baltimore, of the North German line, by a collision; passengers and crew saved.

May 27. Boiler explosion on the tug Epsilore, in New York harbor; eight persons killed.

June 21. Boiler explosion at Columbus, O.; scores killed and wounded.

July 9. Explosion in a flour mill at Glasgow; eleven persons burned to death.

July 11. Earthquake on Long Island.

During July disastrous floods occurred in Brazil, in which buildings were undermined, churches destroyed, animals and persons drowned, and suffering and privations ensued to a terrible degree.

Aug. 26. Tornado in Illinois; immense loss by the destruction of buildings and crops.

Aug. 30. Steamer Metis sunk off Watch Hill, R. I., by a collision, amid scenes of horror; many lives lost.

Aug. 15. Steamer Bienville, from New York for Aspinwall, burned at sea; 34 lives lost.

Aug. 24. Burning of the steamship America at Nagasaki, Japan; 19 lives lost.

Sept. 2. Freight steamer Nevada burned on Long Island Sound; crew saved.

Sept. 7. A steamer explodes her boiler on Magdalene River; eight killed.

Sept. 13. Steamer Guatamala lost on the Mexican coast; 23 persons perish.

Sept. 25. Loss of ship Nazarene and all on board, off the English coast.

Sept. 28. Great storm through the entire western country; crops, buildings, vessels, and lives, destroyed.

Oct. 7. Explosion in a coal mine at Morley, Eng.; over 40 persons killed.

Oct. 11. Eight persons killed by the fall of a building in Louisville.

Oct. 14. Steamer Lac du Belle founders on Lake Michigan; five lives lost.

Oct. 22. Steamer Missouri, from New York for Havanna, burned; 80 lives lost.

During October the river Po, in Italy, overflows its banks; 40,000 persons are rendered homeless, the damage to property is immense, towns are entirely submerged, while dead cattle and wrecks of buildings strew the land.

About Nov. 14th, 80 vessels were wrecked on the coast of Pomerania in a gale, and there was also great loss of life and property on the land.

Nov. 16. Six women killed by the fall of a scaffolding in Jackson, Mich.

Nov. 22 to Dec. 18. Terrible gales on the English coast; many vessels wrecked and scores of lives lost.

Dec. 1. Great gale and storm at St. Johns, N. B.; wrecks and loss of life, buildings blown down, and railroads submerged by the waves.

Dec. 4. Wreck of steamer Cresswell, from Falmouth to Cork; 21 passengers lost.

Dec. 22. Eight coal miners suffocated by an explosion at Silverdale, Eng.

Dec. 12. News of the loss of the emigrant ship Franklin, from Hamburg; 80 emigrants lost. Boiler explosion at Black river, Md.; several persons killed.

Dec. 21. Explosion of a powder mill near San Francisco; several workmen killed.

Dec. 24. Loss of the steamer Germany off the coast of France; thirty persons perish.

Dec. 24 to 26. Most intense cold for fifteen years, accompanied by gales and heavy fall of snow; thermometer from 8 to 50 below zero throughout New England; ice gorges and destruction of steamers in the Mississippi and Ohio; snow blockades throughout the north, with trains stuck everywhere, entailing suffering to passengers and railroad employes; shipwrecks and loss of life.

Dec. 26. Fall of a church floor in Newberry, Pa.; 300 persons precipitated to the cellar, 14 killed and 30 injured. Immense snow slide near Central City, Utah; ten teamsters buried alive, of which six were recovered.

DESTRUCTIVE CONFLAGRATIONS.

This has been a year of fires, and taking the Chicago fire out of the list of last year, and the Boston fire from this, the last twelve months have seen some destruction by the fiery element than 1871, even, did. Among the great conflagrations in other places were the following:—

Feb. 15. Great fire in Toronto; 12 firms burned out; loss to stock and buildings, $500,000.

March 4. A fire in Philadelphia destroys $1,000,000 worth of property.

March 7. Several steamers burned at Cincinnati; loss, $250,000.

March 21. Car works at Jeffersonville, Ind., burned; loss, $400,000.

April 14. Thirty-five buildings in Ayer, Mass., destroyed; loss, $200,000.

May 2. Jayne's building, and others in Philadelphia burned; loss, $750,000.

May 15 to 20. Immense forest fires in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; villages, mills and camps among the property destroyed.

July 12. Five hotels and many other buildings in Alpena, Mich., burned; loss, $200,000; several lives burned.

July 24. Great fire in the Erie Railroad machine shops at Jersey City; 500 men thrown out of employment; several killed; loss, $200,000.

July 25. Burning of the Catholic Orphan Asylum in Westchester county, N. Y.; loss, $250,000.

July 29. Large sugar-house in New York burned; 150 men thrown out of work; loss, $300,000. Great fire at Hunter's Point, N. Y.; a large oil refinery and other buildings and several vessels burned; loss estimated at millions; several fatalities.

July 30. Fire at Jefferson, Texas; loss, $150,000; $400,000.

Aug. 1. Burning of the Dean Academy at Franklin, Mass.; loss, $150,000.

Sept. 25. The Ohio Lunatic Asylum at Newburg burned; loss, $350,000; several persons burned to death.

Oct. 2. Destruction of the Escurial Monastery, in Spain, sometimes termed the eighth wonder of the world.

Oct. 3. An immense amount of cotton reported burned at Bayland, Texas.

Oct. 4. Conflagration in Patterson, N. J.; loss, $200,000.

Oct. 13. The Town of Newtown, Cal., nearly destroyed by fire.

Oct. 18 to 20. Terrible prairie fires and great loss of crops near Omaha.

Nov. 21. Much of the village of Galva, Ill., destroyed by fire; loss, $500,000.

Dec. 11. Fire in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York; loss, $100,000; 23 fatalities.

Dec. 23. Several business blocks in Portland, Oregon, destroyed; loss, $500,000; several firemen injured and one or two killed.

Dec. 23. A dozen buildings burned at Helena, Ark. Fire at Canaan, N. H.; loss, 50,000!

Dec. 24. Destruction of Barnum's Museum and adjoining buildings in New York; loss, $500,000. Fourteen buildings burned in Fontana, Kansas. Twelve buildings burned in Elmira, N. Y.; loss, $50,000. An entire block on Center street, N. Y., burned; loss, $350,000.

Dec. 26. Destructive fire on Franklin street, N. Y.; loss, $200,000. Fire in Carbondale, Ill.; loss, $75,000. Fire in St. Louis; loss, $185,000.

Dec. 27. Destruction of the Berkshire Print works at North Adams; 200 persons thrown out of work; loss, $150,000. Car shops burned at Adrian, Mich.; 150 men thrown out of employment; loss, $75,000.

NECROLOGY.

From every calling of life—in literature, science, art, religion, statesmanship, war, etc.—death has taken prominent men, whose history is no small part of that of the present age. Among the most noted of these we find the names of Horace Greeley and James Gordon Bennett, whose monuments are the newspapers they have founded; Major-General George H. Mead, Major-General Halleck, and General Anderson of the U. S. Army, General Ewell of the Confederate Army, and General Wm. Schouler, whose name was so largely identified with Massachusetts' history in the war; Right Rev. Manton Eastburn, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts; Rev. Dr. Seabury, Rev. Norman McLeod, Rev. Frederick Dennison Maurice, Bishop Terrett of Edinburgh, ex-Bishop Sharp of St. Asaph, Wales, and Dean Jeremie of Lincoln, from the pulpit; U. S. Senators Garrett Davis of Kentucky and Peter G. VanWinkle of West Virginia; ex-Senators Grimes of Ohio and Walker of Wisconsin; ex-Postmaster-General A. G. Randall; ex-Senator and ex-Secretary of State Wm. H. Seward; Thomas Scully and John F. Kensett, the eminent artists; Edwin Forrest, the pre-eminent tragedian, and Robert H. Craig, who was no less popular in his line of stage representations; President Juarez of Mexico, Kamehameha V., King of the Sandwich Islands, Carl XV., King of Sweden, and Jose Balta, President of Peru; Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, one of the most prominent of the promoters of telegraphy; Lowell Mason, the eminent musician; Charles Lever, T. Buchanan Read, George Catlin, George P. Putnam, Mrs. James Parton (Fanny Fern), and E. A. Pollard, from the field of Literature; Professors James Hadley and Francis Lieber, both eminent and world-renowned scholars; ex-Congressman Charles Naylor of Pennsylvania, who was active as a captain in the war with Mexico; Earl Mayo, Governor-General of India; Joseph Mazzini, the Italian patriot; the Duke of Persigny; Sir Henry Bulwer, Lord Lonsdale, and the Duke of Bedford.

RIOTS ASSASSINATIONS AND MASSACRES.

Deeds of lawlessness, individual crimes and the work of mobs have been terribly frequent; revenge and the usurpation of law and order seeming to actuate the hearts of men more than ever before, but this may be on account of their recent date and the freshness of their memory. Among these the details of which will be most readily brought to mind by the men as men in the following:—

Jan. 1. A mob in Rochester attempt to take from the jail a negro under arrest for rape on a little white girl; rioting continued for several days, the militia were called out and two men were killed.

Jan. 2. The Windsor Locks, Conn., tragedy, Timothy Billings and wife, keepers of a brothel, and Julia Hayes, an inmate, horribly mutilated and murdered.

Jan. 6. James Fisk, Jr., shot and killed by E. S. Stokes at the Grand Central Hotel, N. Y.; Stokes now on trial for the second time.

Jan. 24. Prof. Panormo mysteriously murdered in the streets of Brooklyn: one of the murderers, a young man named Higgins, arrested Sept. 27.

Jan. 26. Geo. Botts hanged for the murder of "Pet" Halstead, who was well known in Boston.

Feb. 6. Attempted assassination of President Thiers at Paris.

Feb. 29. Attempted assassination of Queen Victoria by Alfred O'Connor, a Fenian.

April 22. Miners' strike and riot in Ostran, Germany; several buildings destroyed, 50 persons seriously injured and several killed.

May 4. Fight between troops and outlaws in Arkansas; eleven persons killed.

May 12 to 15. Miners' eight-hour strike and riot at the Calumet and Hecla mines in Michigan; 2000 men engaged; military called out to quell the disturbance.

July 18. Attempted assassination of the King and Queen of Spain, by five men who fired upon their carriage.

July 22. Strike and riot of mill workmen in Williamsport, Pa.; lasting several days; militia called out; shooting in the streets; one or two killed.

July 29. War of races in Savannah; women and children in street cars assailed and injured by negroes who were not permitted to ride.

Aug. 5. Election riot in Quebec; thousands engaged; many fatalities.

Aug. 17. Tug Helen Brooke and a trading boat which she had in tow on the Mississippi plundered by thieves, and the proprietors, crew and their families murdered.

Aug. 15 to 23. Religious riot in Belfast, Ireland, consequent upon a Catholic celebration of the repeal of the party processions act; the military called out, martial law proclaimed, several street fights, many persons killed, and buildings destroyed by fire.

Aug. 27. A Government train attacked by Indians near Carson City, Colorado, fifteen persons butchered.

Aug. 30. Culmination of the Pope county, Ark., troubles; the County Clerk and a Justice of the Peace killed by a mob; a season of disquiet ensues, and martial law is declared Sept. 7.

Sept. 6. News of the coolie horror on board the French ship Jacques; 65 die on the passage; several were killed during a mutiny.

Sept. 21. The Patenburgy, N. J., riot, between negroes and Irish; four persons killed.

Oct. 4. Twenty-three Camanches killed in a fight with U. S. troops on the Plains.