by Mike Sherfy, KnoxPages.com reporter
This Week In Knox County – 100 Years Ago. January 1, 1915. Lacking the distraction of a college football game to occupy their thoughts, Knox County residents of a hundred years ago celebrated the turn of the calendar with usual round of oyster dinners, dances, and celebrations. The editors of the local papers—like media outlets today—padded their pages with reflections on the events of the past year and indulged in some predictions of things to come.
The Democratic Banner took a statistical approach to their commemoration with an analysis of the community in 1914. “The passing of an old year or the coming of a new is a period which brings joy and gladness to the heart and soul of every figure-lover,” it began. “For one solid day, he may gloat over an endless array of figures showing that there have been so many murders, accidents, births, deaths, suicides, divorces and what not during the year just ended. For him and his ilk, the Banner presents the following figures, gleaned from the records of three of the city’s departments.”
From the Police Department, the Banner noted that there had been 1,259 arrests made in the city of Mount Vernon during 1914. “Of this number, 986 were merely vagrants,” the article explained, “so the actual arrests, where a fine was concerned, numbered 279. Excluding “vags,” more people were arrested in September than any other month, while February holds the honor of having the least number come into the clutches of the law. During August and September, not a vagrant was lodged in jail, which is only to be expected as it is much nicer to sleep outdoors in warm weather. A few less than 275 of these “vags” were put up by the city in December—an unusually large number.”
From the Fire Department, the Banner reported that there had been only twenty-one calls during 1914. “This is a little less than the general average of fires in a year,” it explained. “In January, July and September, the department had not a single call. They were busiest in April and June. No terribly destructive fire occurred during the past year.” The article failed to note the numerous small fires that had been contained or put out without the fire department’s intervention. It also failed to mention the travails of the fire department in procuring and operating its first gasoline-powered fire-engine—purchased over the summer, delivered late, and apparently unable to achieve double-digits on its speedometer when faced by even the slightest incline.
From the Cemetery Board, the Banner reported 140 burials in local cemeteries during 1914. “It is a peculiar thing, noted by local undertakers, that the largest mortality of the year was in December [with 21 internments—nearly twice the number of any other month]. This is quite exceptional,” the editor added, “as this season of the year ordinarily produces but few deaths.”
The editor of the Knox County Republican took a less data-driven approach to his reflections and attempted to look ahead to the coming year. Outside indicators, he reckoned, tended to contradict one another even when predicting matters as basic as the weather. “The caterpillars indicated a late spring and the goose-bone indicates an early spring,” he explained, dismissing speculation as little more than hokum. That, however, did not stop him from waxing philosophical about likely things to come: “In point of disasters resulting from floods, earthquakes, fires, steamship and railroad wrecks, the record of 1914 did not quite equal that of 1913, but the great European war, which has involved, more or less, nearly all of the civilized world, more than made up for any deficiencies. This war will not only continue over into the year 1915, but additional nations will in all probability become involved in it before the year is many weeks old. The New Year will doubtless have its full quota of disasters, and while it may bring only happiness to some, for the majority of earth’s dwellers, it will not be a cycle of unalloyed pleasure. Nevertheless, a happy new year to all!”
The Republican’s bleak cynicism continued a few days later when, on January 5th, it commented on the notion of New Year’s Resolutions: “Our wisdom in not making any New Year resolutions is shown in the fact that we have already broken every one that we thought of making.”
A century later, we COULD reflect on the problems and incidents in our community as the Banner did. Drug arrests, a few tragedies of various sorts, poverty statistics, the performance of area businesses and schools, and such likely paint a portrait of Knox County worth pondering. Or we COULD take the Republican’s philosophical approach to consider the “big picture” of the state of the nation and the world today. But, unlike our predecessors a century ago, we have the scholar-athletes from a nearby college to consider. They had a game on Saturday and I have heard that they will be playing another in a week or two. Reflections and prognostications around here may have to wait until those young men in scarlet-and-gray stop playing around and get back to their studies.
Good luck with those resolutions.
