When contemplating the last century, things certainly change, which is to be expected. Yet, in looking back over the past one hundred years, there is a singular similarity in comparing times past with the present.
The year 1912 was an election year. Because William Howard Taft, the current President, was not popular with some members his own party as well as the populace, there was change in the air for who would next occupy the White House. Theodore Roosevelt, who had stepped down in 1908 and endorsed Taft; publicly announced that he disliked Taft’s policies and decided to run for President again. When he failed to get the Republican nomination (which went to the incumbent), TR decided to run independently in a party of his own making: the Bull Moose Party (also known as the Progressive Party). Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the scholarly Virginia-born governor of New Jersey and former President of Princeton College, was the Democratic choice for the nomination.
While campaigning for the Presidency in Milwaukee, Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest, just before giving his speech, by a disgruntled and deranged tavern owner named John Shrank. Roosevelt, though seriously wounded, insisted upon going ahead with his speech, believing that it was his last one to deliver on earth. As soon as he finished his oration, the former President was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately the former President survived the assassination attempt, though the bullet was never removed.
Because the popular Roosevelt was once again in the running for Commander-in-Chief, and perhaps because of his brush with death, many in the nation voted for him. Pennsylvania, in fact, was one of the states whose electoral votes went to Roosevelt. Other states, like Ohio, went for Taft, and the votes were sizably split with three in the race. With the Democratic South voting solidly for one of their native sons, Wilson became the 28th President of the United States – the first President of southern birth since Zachary Taylor last vacated the office with his untimely death in 1851.
Wilson, who was born in Staunton, Virginia on December 28, 1856, was too young to fight in the Civil War, but grew up staunchly supporting the Confederate cause. As a youth he met the aged Robert E. Lee. The general’s train stopped briefly in Staunton, and he shook hands with the people at the depot while on his last trek through the south in 1869. As President, Woodrow Wilson visited Gettysburg during the 50th anniversary of the battle, in the year 1913, during the first year of his tenure as President.
One hundred years ago, New Mexico and Arizona became the 47th and 48th states. Fenway Park opened in Boston – and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Giants in the World Series.
In 1912 the first neon sign appeared in Paris, the tank – soon to be an integral part of warfare – was patented, and stainless steel was invented in England. In Belgium, Monsieur Neuhaus, a candy maker, introduced the praline, the first filled chocolate.
In 1912 First Lady Helen Taft planted the first of 3000 cherry trees, a gift from Japan, in a spring ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Also in the spring, one of history’s greatest tragedies unfolded in the North Atlantic with the sinking of the Titanic, on her maiden voyage from England, on April 15. Over 1500 men, women, and children perished after the massive ship collided with an iceberg late in the evening on April 14. The ship, built in Belfast by the prestigious White Star Line, was considered, tragically, unsinkable. When the Irish builders of the Titanic learned of the disaster, they averred that the ship was fine when she left the docks in Ireland – and that the only reason she sank was that she was piloted by an English captain.
On the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, on April 15, 2012, the Titanic Museum opens in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the exact spot where the historic ship was built a century ago.
In 1912 the Red Cross was officially established, and that same year, its founder, Civil War nurse Clara Barton, died at age 90.
The year 1912 marked the centennial of the War of 1812, when the United States went to war with England a second time. Two veterans of that war were noted Gettysburg men: the town’s founder, James Gettys, and the man later known as the Hero of Gettysburg, John Burns.
New England native Leon Leonwood Bean had been tired of wet shoes after hunting, and had hired a cobbler to make him a pair of waterproof boots. He liked them so much that, in 1912, he opened a mail order business, called L.L. Bean, for camping and hunting supplies, with the patent for those waterproof boots as one of his most exclusive items.
A widow from Savannah, Georgia, the former Juliette Gordon, had lived in England for many years, the nation of her husband, William Low. In 1911, she met Lord Baden-Powell, who explained to her his establishment of the Boy Scouts. Excited to offer the same for girls, she returned to Georgia and in 1912 established the Girls Scouts of America, with the first troop organized in her native town.
In New York City, in May 1912, the largest demonstration to date was given by thousands of women, dressed in white, in a massive parade of suffragettes for women’s rights.
In 1912 the Summer Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden. The American athlete considered the greatest athlete in the world at that time was Pennsylvania man Jim Thorpe, who won gold medals in the decathlon, featuring ten track events, and the pentathlon, consisting of five events which included discus and javelin throws, and the long jump.
In 1912 Picasso was making headlines for his new method of painting, known as Cubism. The first celebrity magazine, Photoplay, debuted that same year. In film, Mack Sennett introduced the Keystone Kops. Movies were still in Nickelodeons one hundred years ago – the following year, 1913, would introduce the first theaters, built exclusively for the showing of films.
Another rising star in show business was a new song writer who had emigrated from Russia as a child and settled in New York City with his family. Getting his start as a singing waiter, Israel Isidore Baline, at age 23, taught himself to play the piano and began writing songs. In 1911 he wrote the song Alexander’s Ragtime Band and by the end of the year he was famous. In 1912, he decided to officially change his name to something more American and chose the moniker Irving Berlin.
In Alaska, Mt. Kat Mai, located about 750 miles south of Juneau, erupted for three days, spewing ash all over the world – even reaching Africa, about half a world away. It was the largest eruption of the 20th century, easily surpassing that of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.
Another news story making headlines in the year 1912 was the kidnapping of the child Bobby Dunbar. The mystery of his whereabouts ended, happily, eight days later when the boy was found alive.
In 1912 the Cadillac was introduced as the first self-starting car. Not needing a hand-crank to get it to operate, the Cadillac was immediately popular with those who could afford its higher price.
Some famous people born in the year 1912 included First Ladies Pat Nixon and Lady Bird Johnson, Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun, singers Woodie Guthrie and Perry Como, internationally acclaimed chef Julia Child, actor Gene Kelly, and comedian Danny Thomas.
In addition to the aged Clara Barton, those who passed away one hundred years ago included Dracula author Bram Stoker, who died at age 74 after a long illness, and aviator Wilbur Wright, who succumbed to typhoid fever at age 45.
Sources: Blake, Walter H. Hand Grips: The Story of the Great Gettysburg Reunion. Vineland, NJ: Walter H. Blake, 1913. Copy, Gettysburg National Military Park. The Gettysburg Compiler, May 13, 1912 and August 26, 1912. Microfilm, Adams County Historical Society. Oates, Stephen B. A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: The Free Press, 1994. Whitney, David C. The American Presidents. New York: Doubleday Books, 1993 (8th Edition). “Obituary of Bram Stoker”, The London Times, April 22, 1912. Additional information on the Titanic from Belfast, Northern Ireland (in 1912 it was still part of the Republic of Ireland). Reagan, Ronald, “The Man Who Wrote ‘God Bless America’ Turns 100”. Reader’s Digest, May 1988. Mt. Kat Mai information Bobby Dunbar kidnapping gleaned at Wikipedia.com. Neuhaus information gleaned at their chocolate store in Brussels.
