1898

Years:	1895 1896 1897 – 1898 – 1899 1900 1901

Significant events from 1898.

February

J. B. Dillman sells his restaurant on South College Avenue to F. F. LaRue.

Dill & Bridwell pay off a mortgage on the Model Grist Mill to the First National Bank.

Arthur Helms has the Bowman room on the west side of The Square renovated into a bowling alley.

March

• 1st - An early-morning fire in Stanford destroys the Thomas Sparks store building, including a Masonic hall, and damages some other buildings.

• D. W. Condor purchases the livery stable of Ab. Howard (Howard planned a new stable in Worthington).

• The Wilhite & Niceley photography studio is dissolved. Mr. Nicely continued on in the photography business, but Mr. Wilhite moved to Chicago to become a comedian.

• Rev. T. C. Probert resigns as pastor of the First Baptist Church.

• Samuel Morris sells his blacksmith shop to James Quinn.

April

1st - Thomas Bayne, an Ellettsville sawyer, buys the Bloomington Bray Saw Mill. He planned to move it down to Guthrie.

26th - Bloomington soldiers are called up to the Spanish-American War. Colonel T.J. Louden rides downtown to the fire department just after midnight and sounds the riot call. An hour later the soldiers and 500 well-wishers muster at the armory, and the soldiers leave on the 11:00 train.

May

• 31st - Jake Tidd is Whitecapped in Smithville, apparently to keep him quiet concerning the identities of local whitecappers.

• John O'Harrow purchases the Lindley Drug Store.

July

• 9th - Monroe County superintendent Thomas J. King skips town. He had run up more than $6,000 in debts by forging names on various securities. He had been in office only about a year.

• The Indiana Stone Railroad Co. begins work on a new route, avoiding Smithville Hill and opening access to new stone works. The new route went from Clear Creek station 10 miles south to Harrodsburg and required 19 bridges as well as much filling and new cuts.

August

• 5th - Offices of the Ellettsville Farm newspaper burn, with a loss of $1500.

September

• 2nd - Four men are killed in a premature dynamite explosion at the Pike Quarry, between Ellettsville and Stinesville.

December

• 25th - John O. Rush is whitecapped in Salt Creek Township. A party of masked men force open the front door, take Rush outside and beat him with hickory switches. Rush later sued several men he believed responsible.

Unspecified

• Moses Kahn opened a clothing store in the basement of what is now Fountain Square Mall

• Bloomington is connected by telephone to the towns of Spencer, Ellettsville, and Clear Creek.