Our Town 100+ Years Ago: September 1899, Part I

September 1899. There were celebrations for Montana troops coming home from the Philippines and sad news of people passing away from age, illness or by their own hand. Smallpox cases were reported in Kalispell and Great Falls and the Townsend boys from Waterloo reported on their experience with helping smallpox victims while they were in Valparaiso, Indiana. In Sparkhill, New York, four children died at an orphanage when fire destroyed nine of the ten buildings. In Chicago, nine workers died during the construction of the Coliseum building when 12 steel arches, each weighing 33 tons, fell. Thi...