Salem in 1898

World Events

• The British government makes a 99 year rental agreement with China for occupation and control of Hong Kong.
• "Remember the Maine!" is the rallying call in the Hearst newspapers, a major element in America declaring war with Spain over Cuba. The Battle of San Jun Hill brings fame to the Buffalo Soldiers (black enlistees) and Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders.
• Annie Oakley promotes the service of "50 lady sharp-shooters" who would furnish their own arms. The earliest political action toward women's rights in the military.
• The U. S. captures Guam, making it the first overseas territory. The Hawaiian Islands are annexed. By the Treaty of Paris, which ends the war, the U. S. also acquires the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
• Henry James publishes Turn of the Screw.
• Caleb Bradham names his carbonated drink: Pepsi-Cola.
• New American Book: The Turn of the Screw, Henry James, World of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. and The Ballad of Reading Goal by Oscar Wilde.

In Salem
Our entrance into a war with Spain over their possessions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands still effects national policy and world opinion. Here is a parade of local troops, perhaps the Oregon Second Company of Volunteers, proceeding west on State Street.
Paving the streets of Salem will not begin until 1907, so we hope these marchers had the advantage of a day without rain. Spectators have not ducked under the generous store awning, but mist diffuses the signs and store fronts. In the background (behind the flag) we see a streetcar, but beyond that the other landmarks are lost. We can just make out the old Marion County Courthouse rising a block away.
On a sunnier day, the troops lined up in front of the State House. They are dressed in full and hats, bedrolls over their shoulders and rifles held at their sides. Three company officers are standing in front of their troop.
One imagines this is their last formal photograph before they leave Salem. This is from the Cronise studio and reflects the outstanding artistic quality of Thomas Cronise photography.

When you visit
The State Street store on the corner (where Dr. Pearce's Favorite is advertised) was replaced by the Masonic Temple a few years later. Today, more than architecture has changed on State Street. Beginning in 1907, our downtown streets became paved. The streetcars disappeared in 1927, replaced buses. The automobile was firmly established by that time. Today, a horse would have a difficult time maneuvering in our downtown traffic. American troops, leaving for an overseas war no longer parade on State Street.

Other events

• Charles A. Bishop, one of Salem's outstanding citizens and prominent businessmen, becomes mayor and will serve 4 years. His wife Fannie, is the daughter of Thomas Kay, local woolen mill owner of that time. Mr. Bishop was the owner of a successful men's clothing store. He was a founder and served as Vice President of the Pendleton Woolen Mill, still operating successfully. Their imposing home was at 765 Court Street, the former residence of the Murphy and Rose families.

• The photograph above, taken this year, shows the facade of the Capitol Brewery at 174 Commercial Street. The brewery is located in a handsome, two-story stone building. Two wagons in the street are for ice delivery and transport of barrels. On the sidewalk are a group of men, perhaps employees, posing for the photographer. Perhaps a few are just passers-by, enjoying the moment. The Salem Convention Center occupies this site today.
• The original Territorial Library, housed in the State House, is damaged when a storm blows off part of the roof. A stereoscopic view is found in the Oregon Historical Photographs Collections. These books and documents are now housed primarily in the State Law Library.
• Among the many stern-wheelers using Salem's Willamette River piers, is the Altona. These steamboats transported flour from the Willamette Flouring Mill on Front Street. The boat dock just north was always busy as inland farm crops were loaded for export. By this year, steamboats at the foot of Trade Street were graced by affectionate names such as Ramona, Gypsy, and Ruth.
  Steamboats were also enjoying the attention of Salem citizens as they took excursions to Albany and Corvallis. In 1885, a gingerbread-decorated City of Salem entertained riders with music from the local Masonic Band. However, the Altona was part of a vanishing fleet. By 1898 Salem was moving east, away from the river as the railroad supplied the transportation need of the farm co-ops and fruit processors.

From the Capitol Journal:
About a hundred and fifty persons marched in the T. T. Geer ratification jubilee from the Willamette Hotel to Reed's Opera House. Several American flags floated in the breeze, but the effect was made somewhat ridiculous by the number of banners extolling Ko-Da, "It drives out rheumatism" and Mexican Worm Lozenges, "They are the best."
The newspaper complained that the habit of spitting on downtown sidewalks had become universal among residents of Salem. This was a filthy habit which no gentleman would be found guilty of. There were sections of Salem's business district, the paper said, completely covered with tobacco spit making it impossible for ladies to pass over those walks without having their skirts saturated.
In May, a memorial service for brave sailors who went down with the Maine in Havana harbor the previous February was held at the First Methodist Church. A large picture of the Maine, draped in crepe, was displayed above the altar.
(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.

Salem in 1897

World Events

• A cyclone in Australia devastates the small city of Darwin, destroying almost every building. Many "coloured people" working in the pearl industry in the harbor were drowned.
• Tate gallery opens in London. In France, Claude Monet begins his water lilies series of paintings that he will continue until the end of his life.
• Excavations for wealth: Drillers in Oklahoma strike oil on land leased from Osage Indians, leading to a population boom. The Klondike Gold Rush begins as first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle. Jack London sails to Alaska where he writes his first successful stories.
• "The Stars and Stripes Forever", a patriotic march, is performed for the first time.
• "Katzenjammer Kids" is the first American comic.
• The Bayer pharmaceutical company markets their new product: Aspirin.
• Notable new books: Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand.

In Salem
This photo is of the pickle and cider factory established in 1897 by Gideon Stolz on Summer Street between Mill & Bellevue. He had started Salem's first cider and vinegar works in 1879, then entered into partnership with two Portland businessmen. They incorporated as the Pacific Cider, Vinegar, and Fruit Preserving Company that relocated to Portland. Stolz later sold his interest in it and returned to Salem to begin this company. He operated under the G.S. label. In addition to his former products, plus mincemeat, catsup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and sauerkraut, he had a bottling line for soda beverages. He operated as Gideon Stolz Company under the "G.S." label. In the 1930's & 40's many of the products were discontinued as more emphasis was placed on beer and wine.

When you visit
The factory site was purchased by Willamette University in 1965 and is now occupied by campus housing and tennis courts. Looking north as you travel on Bellevue, you can see the former industrial site where these facilities are now. The last owner of the factory was Willard Marshall, mayor in that year, who was married to the granddaughter of Gideon Stolz.

Other events

• J. A. Richardson is elected mayor.
• The construction of the Minto Island water filtration system is started by Salem Water Company, forcing river water in a suction pipe to pass through subsurface sand and rocks.
• The Kay Woolen Mill has manufactured the first bolt of worsted goods manufactured west of the Mississippi. The Kay mill would be a leading employer of Salem workers for the next three generations. The site is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and comprises the complex of buildings now known as the Willamette Heritage Center.

• On November 29, F. R. Anson, agent for the Salem Electric Railway notified the public that the streetcars (above) would have the following routes: leave Willamette Hotel (later the Marion) for the Southern Pacific depot via the State House; for the Insane Asylum with a transfer to Garden Road available; and to South Salem. In addition, street cars left the Methodist Church on State Street going south to Morningside or north to the Fairgrounds. The Capital City line used one carriage as a hearse. The casket was placed crosswise on a seat and pallbearers accompanied the casket to Rural Cemetery. From the car they carried the casket uphill to the gravesite.

• The Civil War soldier memorial statue is erected in City View Cemetery.
• Edward M. ("Pap") Waite, a beloved citizen, died on July 13 while participating in a celebration for a baseball game between two local teams. The Waite Fountain would be erected in his memory by his widow, Louisa, the sister of Eugene and Werner Breyman. The couple lived in a fine, Italianate residence on the southwest corner of State and Winter streets, the later site of our Carnegie Library. At her death in 1907, the newspaper reported, " Her husband, E M Waite, went some years ago, almost without warning. They were for years probably the most joyful old couple in Salem. They were the life of any company. They were always young in spirit, although well along in years."

The Salem Sentinel newspaper reports on December 11, "Several States are already making efforts to prevent the murderous institution of football. Modern football is too brutal for civilized Oregon." Willamette University records show that it had ventured into the rough sport officially in 1894 with no recognized coach or schedule. It played Pacific College (Newberg, which became George Fox University in 1949), winning 18-4 on Nov. 17, 1894, and met the Salem YMCA five times, losing four of them. Then, with a little more prestige, WU was able to play in 1895 against the University of Oregon, Oregon Normal (now Western Oregon State University), and Oregon State. The Salem high school had no team until 1904.

From a Capitol Journal reporter quoting a Salem alderman: "I am willing the dog tax be collected but I'll see to it my dog is exempt if I have to kill him."To another reporter: "You can tell people who live out in South Salem by their gait. They nearly all step high like a blind horse, having become so used to the walks out there."
To a reporter from a Newport resident: The city council there is considering an ordinance forbidding Col. Compton and Col. Eddy to lead any more ladies into the surf dressed in India silk bathing suits.
(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)

Salem in 1896

World Events

• The first modern Olympic games are held in Athens. 13 nations (including the U.S.) competed. Most athletes are from Greece, Germany and France.
• In July, Democrat presidential candidate Willam Jennings Bryan delivers his rousing "Cross of Gold" speech, but it is not enough to win the election: Republican William McKinley, representing Progressives, is elected.
• Plessy v. Ferguson in the Supreme Court introduces  "separate but equal" concept and upholds racial segregation in the U.S.
• Utah is admitted as the 45th state after the Mormons, who were the majority of residents, renounced the practice of bigamy.
• A group of 12 industrial stocks were chosen to establish the Dow Jones Industrial Average to calculate the value of the companies (now 30 of largest public owned) in current trading.
• Perry and Hutchinson begin offering "Green Stamps" to U. S. retailers. Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook.
• The first volume of Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West is published. Notable fiction of this year: The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett, Tom Sawyer, Detective, by Mark Twain.

                              The former School for the Blind becomes Salem's first hospital in 1896

Glen Oaks Orphanage becomes the Salem Hospital in 1899

In Salem

It was time for Salem to have a hospital. A small one (above) opened its doors on January 1, 1896 in the building at 204 12th street (between Ferry and State) that had formerly housed the School for the Blind. Organized by local physicians and private citizens, it was funded with $752 raised in a public solicitation. Salem Hospital treated its first patient, sewing machine salesman Fred Demeler at the five-bed converted school.
The second photograph is of the Glen Oaks Orphanage that was offered by the Oregon Children's Aid Society in 1899 as a new home for the Salem Hospital. It was on ten acres on Center Street, then called Asylum Street, adjacent to the state hospital.

When you visit
Neither of these buildings exists today. Ferry Street is now interrupted west of 12th Street by the Willamette University campus. The location of the 1892 photograph of School for Blind, our first hospital, was to the rear of the present Gatke Building. The Center Street location of the former orphanage has also had new development as the Oregon State Hospital expanded to the east. In 2010 the area is being rebuilt with demolition of buildings and landscape, and with alterations to Center Street itself.
In 1916 Salem Deaconess Hospital was founded and the former Capital Hotel at 665 Winter Street was acquired for a new hospital facility. The current Salem Hospital continues to expand along both sides of that street and incorporating Capitol Street between Bellevue and Mission Streets.

Other Events

• Our Capital Journal newspaper joins the Associated Press network.
• The First Church of Christ Scientist is officially organized as meetings continue at a hall at the corner of Court and Liberty Streets.

The Wiggins- Crawford House on Court Street

• A house  built at 1759 Court Street will later be associated with the Wiggins-Crawford family. The Wiggins son Fred ran a farm implement store and sold the first automobile in Salem. He married Myra Albert, daughter of John Albert and Mary Holman, and granddaughter of Joseph Holman, pioneer settler. The house went to a Wiggins niece, Mary Follrick Crawford, who lived there with her family in 1972. The house is a significant contribution to the Court-Chemeketa Historic District in the NEN neighborhood. It is featured on the SHINE walking tour.
• Amos Long builds a house at 774 Winter Street. Historically, it is known as the Moon House and been designated as a Local Landmark. In 1997, during the expansion of the North Capitol Mall, it was preserved by being purchased from the State of Oregon and moved to D Street in the NESCA neighborhood.
• On Owens Street, the Italianate/Eastlake Scovell House may have been built as early as 1889. In this year of 1896 Alexander Daue buys the property and lives here with his wife Ida Mae Turner Daue until their new home was built. The family owned the property until 1945; during that time it was probably the residence of Earl Daue and his wife Dorothy. It is now a Local Landmark in the SCAN neighborhood.

Children and young ladies of Salem made news this year in the Capitol Journal:
In May, Salem's W.C.T.U. took up a new work. Children not in attendance at Sunday School in any of the city's churches were gathered up and brought to the the W.C.T.U. headquarters where Mrs Snelling served as their superintendent.
In December, Salem's new curfew ordinance became effective. No person under 17 would be permitted on streets or in public places after 8 p.m. from September to February. After February, curfew time was extended one hour. A bell in the First Methodist Church would ring at 7:45 p.m. in the winter and 8:45 in the summer months.
In August, Miss Brown drove from the Red Hills south of town into Salem. En route a masked man stepped from the brush, grabbed the bridle of her horse and demanded that Miss Brown surrender her purse and watch. She reached into her pocket, drew a revolver and threatened to blow out the brains of her assailant if he did not desist and vanish. The story said he did both and expeditiously.
In the next month, Miss B. F., daughter of Mrs. J. A. J., a Salem widow, swore out a warrant in Justice H. A. Johnson's court charging B. D. with seduction committed last December. B. D. , known as a hard-working young man with a good reputation, was arrested and lodged in jail since he could not post bail for $200. This morning, on motion of Charles Park, district attorney, the prosecution was dismissed and the pair was married by the justice before whom the case was brought.
(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)

Salem in 1895

World Events

• Between 1894 and 1896, the Hamidian Massacres of Christian Armenians resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths as the Sultan Abdul Hamid II reasserted Islam as the state ideology. Targeting all ages, the murders were especially brutal. The telegraph spread news of these crimes around the world and the massacres were condemned in Western Europe and America.
• The Kiel Canal, connecting the North Sea to the Baltic across the base of the Jutland peninsula in Germany, is completed.
• Wilhelm Roentgen discovers a type of radiation that will be known as X-rays. Sigmund Freud publishes his theories on mental illness.
• The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty s registered in England. This is the fore-runner of our National Register and regional projects to preserve historical properties.
• The Chicago Times-Herald sponsors the first American auto race and Rudolf Diesel patents his engine in Germany. Mintonette (volleyball) is created in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
• Gillette invents the safety razor.
•  The author of "Casey at the Bat" is identified when Ernest Thayer recites it at a Harvard reunion. This baseball poem has become one of the best-known in American literature,

In Salem 
The new City Hall, splendid in High Victorian Gothic architecture, is completed after two years of complications: both a national economic recession and local problems with construction contracts and bond funding. The structure would serve to house all the City offices, including the police department (with jail in the basement), until 1972 when the current Civic Center was built on Liberty Street. More photographs and facts are found in the Salemhistory website.

When you visit 

The site of the former City Hall is now a quarter-block parking lot on the southwest corner of Chemeketa and High Streets. An interpretive plaque commemorates this historic location. Standing here, looking west toward Liberty Street, you see the rear of the 1947 First National Bank (later the Wells Fargo Bank) designed by Pietro Belluschi. The parking lot and that former bank building constitute a half block area that is proposed for a future mixed-use development. Since the structure is a contributing property in the Salem Downtown Historic District, permission for demolition was requested and obtained from the city's Historic Landmarks Commission. No date for the project has been set.

Other Events

• As the century of beautifully crafted Victorian homes ended, a few more were being built in Salem. Driving north along 13th. Street, a former residence at 901 (above) is an outstanding example of the houses being built in Salem for the prominent citizens of that time. This Victorian Queen Anne residence was designed by architect Charles Henry Burggraf as his own home. It was later the residence of Judge Daniel Webster, Justice of the Peace in Salem 1905-1918. The third owner was Julia Webster, the Judge’s daughter. It was also the home of Thomas P. Burt, a railroad engineer. This National Register property is an example of a historic home being converted into an office without altering its integrity.
• Two other Victorian, Queen Anne style houses built this year, both homes of teachers, have been preserved. The Barquist House was originally on Mission Street where, from 1927 to 1967, it was the home of Carmelita Barquist, a popular high school biology teacher. In 1989 it was moved to Court Street. (See it in the SHINE Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.)  The Hurd House is still in its original location on Marion Street. Originally a rental property, it was purchased by the Hurd family in 1921. Confred Hurd was a teacher at Washington School. These houses are still private residences.
• More typical of the Colonial Revival or Craftsman style homes to be built at the turn of the century are two Court-Chemeketa Historic District homes. The John and Kate Griffith house is on Court Street, across from a residence owned by their son Lewis and daughter-in-law, Ila Spaulding Griffith.  Her sister and brother also owned homes in this neighborhood (See Spaulding 1909). A grandson, Dr. John Griffith, has lived in his parents home all of his life. A beautiful Japanese maple, designated a Heritage tree in 1982, stands in front of the John Griffith house. The Weller-Schramm House on 17th Street was built in this year on the site of the Supreme Court Building on Waverly Place. It was moved in 1916 for the new owners, the Weller family. In 1944, Pietro Belluschi remodeled the house for Alfred and Lucille Schramm. These are also seen on the SHINE Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.

From the Capitol Journal:

Rev. G. W. Grannis, in a discourse for men only held at the Salem YMCA, said that lust was the sin of Eden, that 999 persons out of 1,000 in the race of mankind were products of lust. He denounced the existing condition of matrimony as little better than legalized licentiousness.

A new town hall for West Salem with a seating capacity for 300 and costing $500 was dedicated. West Salem people in attendance were told by their speaker that if they behaved themselves and continued to improve morally, then they would someday be annexed.

These prices prevailed at Strong's restaurant: hot cakes 5 cents, ham sandwich 5 cents, three doughnuts 5 cents, pigs feet 5 cents, fried mush 10 cents, Swiss cheese sandwich 10 cents, eggs any style 10 cents.

In women's fashions, the newspaper stated: "The refined woman is one who avoids exceedingly bright colors for any garment worn on the street. Her gowns are characterized by texture. Indeed, one of the requisites of all her belongings is that they be of as fine as quality as her own nature."

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArtur, 2006.)

Salem in 1894

World Events

• Japan invades Korea, beginning the first war between China and Japan.
• The International Olympic Committee is established in Paris.
•  New Zealand enacts the world's first minimum wage law.
• Russian emperor Alexander III is succeeded by his son, Nicholas II.
• After the queen of Hawaii is overthrown, a republic is proclaimed by Sanford B Dole.
• Coxey's Army, a protest march by workers, unemployed because of the national financial crisis that begun the year before, moves through the northwest commandeering a Northwest Pacific train on their way to Washington, D.C. Two months later, 3000 Pullman factory workers go out on a strike in Illinois.
• Oil is discovered on vast prairie land of the Osage reservation, making them the "richest people on earth." This brought wealth, but problems to the tribe as the Bureau of Indian Affairs allowed non-tribal people to claim membership to their profit. 
• Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.
• Notable new book: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain. Stephen Crane's Civil War novel, Red Badge of Courage, is published as a serial in the Philadelphia Press, a newspaper.  The drama, Arms and the Man by Bernard Shaw, is staged in London.

In Salem


Dr. Luke Port, pharmacist and speculator, completes his new Queen Anne style home designed by William Knighton, but lived there with his wife Lizzie only 16 months. Perhaps the memories were too sad. The stained glass window over the fireplace in the parlor was dedicated to a teenage son lost at sea while sailing to Europe to study chemistry. It depicts three fully blooming roses representing the living Port family members and a rose bud symbolic of the son that was lost. The house was sold to the Bingham family the next year. Judge George Bingham, his wife Willie lived in the house until their deaths in 1924. Their daughter Alice married Mr. Keith Powell in 1915. Upon the death of her parents, she sold her childhood home to the Brown family ~ Clifford, his wife Alice and their two sons, Chandler and Werner. Mr. Brown died suddenly only three years later in 1927. In 1929, Alice Brown commissioned the new firm of Lord-Schryver, the first female owned landscape architecture firm in the Northwest, to design the gardens. They continued to advise this owner almost forty years. In 1935, Alice Brown named the estate "Deepwood" after a favorite children's book of her sons. The Deepwood Scroll Garden earned the nickname "Lower Wedding Garden" following her 1945 marriage to Keith Powell, Alice Bingham Powell's widower. The couple lived at Deepwood until they moved into a smaller, one-storey home in 1968. Following a community campaign to save the property from demolition, Deepwood became a City of Salem owned park and museum in 1971. 

When you visit

The house is located at the southwest corner of Mission and 12th streets, near Pringle Creek. With its Lord and Schryver garden, it is now a premier attraction for local social events and tourists. For more information about this National Register property in the SCAN neighborhood, refer to the Deepwood website.  It is also on the route of the SHINE Pringle Creek self-guided walking tour.

Other Events
•    In September, Company E, 3rd Regiment of Coxey's Industrial Army from Sacramento arrived in Salem 49 strong. At the depot, they set up camp and flew the national flag. They were reported as respectable American citizens on the way to Washington to protest the loss of American jobs due to immigration. Mayor Claude Gatch reluctantly agreed to feed the group at the Boston and P.Q. restaurants at a cost of $6.25 to the city. When the group left for Portland on the freight train that night, about 20 Salem men had joined the company. (See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)
•    Two Salem religious congregations build in this year: the German Methodist parsonage is erected on Winter Street. In 1944 the church sold the residence to Charles Warren. In 1977 the State of Oregon purchased property on the east side of that block for construction of the North Capitol Mall Office Building. A private builder bought this house and the one next door (the Moon house) and moved them to D Street in the NESCA neighborhood. Both historic homes have been renovated. (The story of these houses is found here.)
The Evangelical Church is built on the corner of Chemeketa and 17th Streets and the adjacent parsonage was built the following year. Both are in their original 1894-5 locations, but the function of the church has changed: it is now a private home with a large, ground floor living area and a place for sleeping in the former choir loft. They are in the Court-Chemeketa Historic District of the NEN neighborhood. See this house on the SHINE Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.
 

From the left: Gray and Eckerlen Buildings as they appear today

   
•    The Gray family constructs another commercial building on Liberty Street adjacent to their own, the mustard-colored building at left above. The new building is seen here with three bays of windows on the second floor. In 1909 it was sold to Eugene Eckerlen who owned a saloon on Commercial Street. He rented this new building to merchants and it was known as the New Eckerlen Building. From 1936 to the 1960s, it housed Bishops' clothing store, a popular establishment for men. A fire in 1999 partially destroyed the building, but it has recently been renovated. It is located on an especially handsome block of historic buildings in the Salem Downtown Historic District.
•    Dr. W.Carlton Smith, the first attending physician at the Fairview Training Center, builds a residence on Oak Street near Willamette University. As the Salem Hospital expanded in that area, the house was moved to Canon Street in the Morningside neighborhood. Photographs of this Local Landmark in both locations are found here.
•    In her parents' Court Street parlor, Myra Albert Wiggins lights a fuse, then rushes to join her wedding group for a self-photograph. She had returned to Salem after three years of study at New York's Art Students League. In future years she would choose a professional career as well as being a wife and mother, becoming an internationally recognized photographer.

Original building of the Oregon School for the Deaf

In this year bids property was selected by the state for a school for deaf students and the first building erected. Later used as a tuberculosis sanitarium, it is now a part of Corban College.
 

Salem in 1893

World Events

• Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani attempts to re-write the constitution but a Committee of Safety, led by American businessmen, place the queen under arrest and overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy.
• The Second Irish Home Rule Bill passes in British Commons, but is defeated in House of Lords.
• Grover Cleveland, 22nd. President, is sworn in as 24th. Only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. 
• The World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair, opens.
• A crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a financial depression.
• Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murdering her parents.
• At a special meeting of the American Historical Association, historian Frederick Jackson Turner presents his essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History". His theory is that the opportunities and the fascination with our frontier and, especially the expansion of the American west, has shaped American character and culture.
• The Hill sisters copyright a book of children's songs, one of which is later published, without authorization,  as "Happy Birthday to You". (They win a copyright lawsuit in 1934.)

In Salem
The city is taking new responsibilities as the Fire Department moves from a volunteer to a paid force. Firefighters on duty this year are shown above as they were photographed that year. The end of the volunteer era actually began in 1883 with the introduction of Salem's first steam fire engine. After the introduction of horses to Salem Fire Department in 1889, there was no longer the need for a 220-man force. It was reduced to 14 paid firefighters and a handful of volunteer "call men". The new, paid fire department responded to a fire on March 15, 1893, at the Wilson residence at Center Street and Liberty Street. The fire was caused by a defective flue and the damage only required a $5 repair. Salem Fire Department responded to 10 fires this year, but two calls were false alarms. The total dollar loss in the City of Salem due to these fires was $110.

When you visit
Salem currently has four Fire Station museums. You may glance at the historic equipment through the street-front windows, or make an appointment through Fire Station #1 and enjoy a guided tour of any museum. Closures of several stations, due to budget cuts, may effect when visiting times are available.

Other events

• Mayor Gatch proposes a site for municipal offices on High Street, but a report of the city attorney suggests a city hall at the west end of Willson Avenue [now Willson Park]. The mayor prevails, but depressed economic conditions cause a two-year delay in completion of the new City Hall.

• On Mill Street, George Eyre builds a residence, seen above as it looked in 2007. It is now a SESNA neighborhood Local Landmark. The Vernacular Queen Anne house had two owners in the ten years before George Eyre purchased it. In 1893 Mrs. Martha J. Atwood acquired the lot and the house was built for her. In the next year, her daughter, Linnie, married A. A. Lee in the new house. Mrs. Atwood sold the property to J. D. Trammel in August of 1903, and Mr. Trammel sold it to George and Ida Eyre a year later. It remained in the Eyre family from 1904 until sold by the daughter, Mary Eyre, in 1996. Mary was a well-known teacher who lived there most of her 101 years. Her brother, David Eyre, a banker with Ladd and Bush, lived on Summer Street in Piety Hill. In the 1940s, his home was part of the evacuation of residences for the construction of the state buildings in North Capitol Mall. The house was purchased from the state and moved to the northeast corner of Mission and High Streets. It is in the Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Historic District of the SCAN neighborhood.
• Thomas Cronise leaves his occupation as a printer and joins his sister Anna in a photography business. Though the 1920s, his studio set the standard for Salem photographic portraits of city life.
• The state spends $11,000 upgrading and renovating the State Fairgrounds, adding new a new water system, floral garden and a mile-long racetrack.
• A copper-clad dome is added to the State House, completing the structure and adding to the dignity of this classic building. For more than forty years the dome was a photographic symbol of the Oregon capitol city.
• This year Johnny Jones is among the few "colored" residents of Salem this year named in the City Directory. Jones was listed as a 47 year-old mulatto working on the steamboat, Willamette. His 16 year-old daughter Mollie was "in school". Another member of his family in Salem was his sister Anna Smith who was doing housework and day labor. Jones later gained considerable local fame as a caterer of style and talent: if you were fortunate enough to secure his services, you were considered a success socially.

Ben Maxwell recalled concerns of moral rectitude:

In an April ministers' strike, clergymen refused to serve state institutions until a more adequate pay was available. Authorities offered ministers $2.50 for a penitentiary service, $4.00 for one at the asylum or reform school. The ministers insisted that the dignity of their labor deserved a better reward. Five dollars a service would be acceptable to them.

In July, patrons near the windows north of the Hotel Willamette dining room complained that the business block across the street possessed a full-fledged bawdy house with windows draped in red to attract attention. Vigorous protests were voiced.

In November, church people were demanding that the council enforce ordinances regulating Salem's saloons and were circulating petitions asking that the license for Bill Anderson's Elkhead Saloon at 217 South Commercial Street be revoked. However, it was noted, when the good folks of Salem were seeking support for some worthy charity, the hat was usually passed at this saloon.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)

Salem in 1892

World Events

• Abu Dhabi becomes a British Protectorate, protecting the English trade route to India. The construction of the world's longest rail line begins: the Trans-Siberian Railway, connecting Moscow with China.
• Grover Cleveland wins a second term: his is the only non-consecutive presidential election.
• School children begin reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in observance of the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day.
• Ellis Island begins processing immigrants arriving in New York.
• Diesel patents an internal combustion engine. Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph. General Electric Company and Carnegie Steel Company are established.
• The Homestead Lockout and Strike in Pittsburg is the most serious industrial struggle in U.S. labor and a major setback for unions and efforts to organize steelworkers.
• John Muir organizes the Sierra Club in San Francisco.
• Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" ballet is premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia. "Charley's Aunt", a comic farce, begins a run in London that will shatter all theater records. Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads, published in Scotland, contains many of his most famous poems including "Gunga Din" and "Mandalay".

In Salem
This year a Salem bank took on a historical appearance: the 1880 Capitol National Bank was renovated in a Richardsonian Romanesque style to copy Philadelphia's First National Bank of the Republic. But our bank has local character: on the arch over one of the second story windows, there is the facsimile of the beaver dollar, a $10 gold piece minted in 1849 when Oregon was a territory. Another western element is the Utah red and Tenino gray sandstone used through much of the facade. Two columns of polished granite supported a half-arch doorway with a stair tower bay. The design was by C. S. McNally in association with W.C. Knighton and the builders were Erixson and Luker. The bank occupied the building until the 1920s.

When you visit
The building you see today is authentic to its 1892 remodel on the upper floors. However, James Payne, a local architect, renovated the ground floor of the former bank building in 1950. Remodeling the new street front required holding up the stone top stories, a weight of over 100 tons, with steel beams in order to introduce a large glass window and double doors for more light. In 1967 Nancy Gormsen, the granddaughter of Robert S. Wallace, the bank founder, opened a business here. In recent years the building has housed a variety of enterprises.
This unique Salem building is often pictured in publicity for our downtown and is the structure most commented on by those who take the SHINE historic downtown walking tour.

Other events

• The Fourth of July is celebrated with a downtown parade.
• Construction of the copper dome for the State House is begun.

• While serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of Obed Dickinson, the former Congregational minister, Thomas McFadden Patton suffers a heart attack and dies hours later. For many years the Superintendent of that church's Sunday school, his sudden death is a great shock to all the members as well as to his family. A stained glass window in the present church sanctuary is dedicated to Mr. Patton's memory. His elaborate Victorian home was a Court Street landmark until 1937. The state library stands on that site today.

Home of James and Flora Watts

• A few blocks east was the Watts Addition, subdivided in 1871 and then enlarged in 1891. James Watt, after a dozen years of marriage, acquired from his family a property where he built a Queen Anne/Eastlake style home for his wife Flora and their family. This is now 1490 Chemeketa Street. Three other Watt residences are neighbors. After her husband's death, Flora lived in smaller, family-owned houses nearby, selling the larger house in 1925. All four of the Watts houses are contributing historic properties in the NEN neighborhood's Court-Chemeketa National Register Historic District. (See these in the SHINE walking tour.)
• Beyond the city limits that followed Mill Creek until 1903, an unknown builder constructed a charming small farmhouse on what is now 21st. Street. The house has had many owners and tenants since 1892, but the best known is Margaret Edwards, widow of William H. Edwards bought the property in 1917 and lived there for ten years. A Local Landmark in today's NEN neighborhood, it is designated as the Edwards House.

Home of Christopher and Elizabeth Paulus

• In North Salem, also outside the city limits until 1903, Christopher Paulus builds a home in quite a different style at 1556 Church Street. Paulus owned the J. K. Gill building on State Street and ran a saloon until he established a building contracting business. This was the home in which he and his wife Elizabeth raised six sons, Robert, Fred, George, Otto, William, and Theodore. This house suffered neglect for many years, but has been restored by the current owners. It is a Local Landmark is in Grant Neighborhood.

Ben Maxwell recalled these local transportation news items of 1892:

• Tom Burroughs' delivery horse shied at an electric [street] car as it came around the corner of State Street then tried to climb a roof. Dell Dinsmoor executed a leap for the rear car steps. The driver received some bruises, the horse got hurt on its side, the shafts of the wagon were torn out and spectators were afforded a little excitement.
• A petition to the council signed by Salem residents on 14th Street between Chemeketa and State asked action to prevent cattle from trespassing upon their lawns. The petition was referred to the committees on health and police.
• Constant complaint has reached the newspaper about the condition of the county road leading up the hill to the Odd Fellows cemetery [later Pioneer Cemetery]. Teams bogged down at every funeral and farmers could not haul any sizeable load over it to Salem markets.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006)