Philadelphia Timeline, 1894

1894

• January 10. Theodore F. Baker, paying Teller of the Consolidation National Bank, admitted to the bank officers that he had embezzled about $47,000 of the bank's funds in small sums during the last twenty years. He was committed in default of $15,000 bail to answer in the United States District Court. On January 13, Matthew J. Van Dusen, individual bookkeeper of the Consolidation national Bank was placed under arrest, charged with aiding Theodore F. Baker in embezzling its funds. Baker pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to seven years and six months in the Eastern Penitentiary on March 3. Van Dusen, on February 24, was acquitted.
• February 3. George W. Childs, editor and philanthropist, died, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
• February 13. Robert Ellis Thompson, D., elected President of the Central High School.
• March 14. Fire destroyed the building of Haney, White & Co., 2730-32-34 North Broad Street, and caused an estimated loss of nearly $100,000. Four horses belonging to the firm were burned to death.
• March 19. Mill buildings on Huntingdon Street, extending from Palethrop to Hancock Street, were by destroyed by fire; total loss on the buildings estimated at $138,000 total insurance at $250,000.
• May 20. The millinery establishment of the Julius Sichel Company was totally destroyed and the wholesale millinery stores of L. Dannenbaum & Co., were partially destroyed by fire. Loss estimated at about $350,000.
• June 5. The new cruiser Minneapolis left Cramps' shipyard on her builders' trial trip, in which she showed a speed of 21.75 knots per hour.
• June 13. John Kauffman, fifty-five years old, of Cramer hill, near Camden, driven to desperation through poverty, murdered his wife and three children by cutting their throats, and then ended his own life by hanging.
• June 14. The terra-cotta coping of an ornamental balcony on the third-story front of the Tenth National Bank, Broad Street and Columbia Avenue, fell. One person was killed and others injured, one dangerously.
• August 1. The Secretary of the Navy accepted as a site for the new Mint the property bounded by Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Spring Garden and Buttonwood Streets.
• August 2. A fire in a mill building at Jefferson and Randolph Streets resulted in the suffocation of two firemen and the loss of $70,000.
• August 6. Fire destroyed the pavilion and field seats of the Philadelphia Ball Park, and burned the buildings of the Omnibus Company General, a car barn of the Philadelphia Traction Co., and damaged several dwellings. Loss about $100,000.
• August 7. The boiler of the American Dredging Company's steam dredging machine, Philadelphia, exploded, killing two men and injuring five others. Eleven horses were burned to death at a fire which also destroyed the stable of Stead & Murphy, 2107 East Somerset Street.
• August 12. Trolley cars of the People's Traction Company began running to Mt. Airy.
• September 18. Charles F. Phillips, ex-President of the Colombian, Bank, which failed in 1887, held in $10,000 bail on the charge of embezzlement.
• October 4. The new annex to the Penn Asylum for indigent Widows and Single Women dedicated.
• October 12. The will of Richard Smith, type-founder, authorizing the erection of a monumental arch in West Fairmount Park, at a cost not exceeding $500,000 admitted to probate.
• October 16. At the first annual meeting of the Electric Traction Company, it was reported that during the year the Company had carried 41,046,346 passengers; the receipts were $1,823,562.82.
• October 18. The Home for Wives and Widows of Odd Fellows, at 3519 North Seventeenth Street, was opened and dedicated.
• October 20. The cornerstone of the new Central High School for boys, at Broad and Green Streets, was laid by President Sheppard.
• October 24. The Bronze equestrian statue of General George B. McClellan was unveiled inn the presence of a distinguished gathering.
• October 28. The shoe factory of John Mundell & Co., Thirteenth and Cherry Streets, was damaged by fire to the extent of $30,000.
• October 29. Exercises commemorating the landing of William Penn were held in the public schools.
• November 9. The People's Passenger Railway Co. reduced the fare to Germantown from ten to five cents.
• December 8. The five-story brick building at the northwest corner of Front and Walnut Streets, damaged by fire to the extent of $35,000. The fire was of incendiary origin, and started in the factory of the Quaker City Paper Box Company, on the second floor. The Washington Hotel, on Chestnut Street above Seventh, closed its doors, being unable to meet expenses.
• December 9. The agreement between the People's and Electric Traction Companies, under which free transfers are made at nearly every point where lines intersect, went into effect.
• December 19. The new police and patrol station on Fairmount Avenue above Third Street, opened; the Mayor and other city officials being present.