Headlines from past reveal scandals of the day

History is more than dates and events, governments and structures. History is people and their vicissitudes, perhaps romance or even scandal.

Along those latter lines, here are some of the items that made front-page news locally 100 to 150 years ago.

One sensation was at Weaver's Old Stand, later known as Armbrust, as recorded on page one of the Mt. Pleasant newspaper in 1891. The story reported that a man and a woman were said to have eloped the week before. It added that the man left a wife behind, and the woman a husband and two children but took her 1-year-old boy along. Both were said to be "well connected" or among the more respected families of the community, which added to the sensation of the affair.

The newspaper in Indiana was rather thorough in its reports of community activity in 1864. "We are informed," the paper noted, "that several young women (who they are or where they live we do not know) nightly stroll about our town indulging in the use of obscene language, and inveighing the inexperienced and unsuspecting youth into participation in their vices."

Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a story at the top of page one of the Greensburg Daily Tribune stated, "Bolivar is at present enjoying a first-class sensation which has sidetracked all other topics for the time being."

It happened on a Sunday evening at the Methodist Episcopal Church just after the choir had finished a familiar hymn. "Quick as a flash, to the utter amazement of the astonished worshipers, female headgear, combs, hairpins, hair by the handful and curlers were flying over the heads of the gathered."

Two women in the choir were fighting, biting, and gouging as the "two misses impersonated Jeffries and Fitzsimmons," two heavyweight boxers of that era. Other choir members intervened and the service was completed. Shortly afterward, the two were at it again. Screams punctuated the fray, which had been caused by one of the young ladies stepping on the other's toes.

Elopements, both successful and unsuccessful, often made interesting newspaper reading. An 1859 account in an Indiana newspaper reported that a couple from the northern part of the county arrived at the county seat community, then missed the train to Blairsville by 10 minutes. While waiting for the next train, the girl's father arrived, "carrying a suspicious-looking shooting iron." Finding the couple, he "took his daughter under his protection and conveyed her home, leaving the luckless swain all alone."

A predicted "second coming" resulted in chaos for Madison College at Uniontown in 1843. This came about through the actions of the college president, the Rev. J.P. Weethee, who became a dedicated follower of a Massachusetts minister who forecast the second coming of Jesus Christ.

In anticipation, Weethee ignored many of the practical aspects of the college's operation as the predicted date of April 14, 1843, approached. Instead, he provided himself with a robe to "ascend with his Lord into Paradise," and remained awake all night awaiting the event.

The forecast time passed, other times were set and the ritual repeated but nothing unusual happened. Those who placed their faith in the event became widespread subjects of ridicule. With the college in chaos because of the president's tangent, the trustees took matters in hand and Weethee resigned.