When it comes to history, the community of Folsom has a whole lot of it. While most of us know how the community and city came about, from Theodore Judah’s vision that rose the community out of the ground during the booming Gold Rush, to the arrival of the railroad, Johnny Cash’s famous visit and more. While the history books and local periodical have documented all of those significant moments in time, there is a there is a hoopla of unique “happenings” that took place throughout the decades as well.
If you look back through the years, you may be amazed of what was considered “headline news” back in the day. Folsom Times has partnered with the staff of Folsom History to bring our community a backwards glance of yesteryear here in the community thanks to the work of Shelby Sorensen and Jovia Low. These two local history buffs have spent time digging into the past to bring you This Time in History, an ongoing collection of some of the memorable moments that were the “talk of the town,” back in the day. Here’s a look back at final weeks of August through the years.
August 16, 1912: Folsom Prison’s general overseer changes hands from J. A. Aguirre to J. J. Smith who was previously a guard at the prison and considered by others to be a “very capable officer”
August 16, 1912: The supervisors pass a new motorcycle law requiring vehicle lights when traveling at night, stopping for animals on the road, and a 15 MPH speed limit in towns and villages
August 19, 1893: In a bulletin of the Astronomical society of the Pacific Professor Weinek, director of the observatory of Prague, who is a specialist in the study of the moon and to whom have been sent copies of the Lick negatives of the moon, has discovered in one of the Lick photographs a crater which is not to be found on Schmidt’s map.
August 20, 1915: Grand Open-Air Ball. Boswell’s New Platform: Allen’s – Saturday, August 21. Music by Glausen’s Orchestra. Good management and good time assured. Refreshments will be served on the Grounds. Admission, $1; laides, free.
August 20, 1943: A central instructors’ school where rated aerial navigators will learn the technique of teaching navigation cadets has been established and is now in operation at Mather Field.
August 24 1889: Much work on the dam has been done this past week, and considerable auxiliary labor expended on the construction of apparatus and adjuncts necessary to the work.
August 23, 1918: Under date of July 8th, Sergeant Victory Wyatt has written from somewhere in France to Miss Irene White of Folsom.
August 24, 1907: The Negro Hill telephone line has been completed and put in operation.
August 25, 1866: The Dam in the American River near this place, now being constructed, it is estimated will require over six hundred barrels of cement.
August 25, 1960: Folsom housewives may soon be making their husbands’ coffee with gas piped from 400 miles north of the Canadian border and transmitted through a $340,000 pipeline from Alberta to Sacramento county.
August 27, 1904: The Southern Pacific Company has issued a neat little booklet entitled “Eat California Fruit,” an edition of 100,000 of which will be distributed at the St. Louis Exposition.
August 27, 1957: Veterans planning to start school this fall under the Korean GI Bill were urged today by the Veterans Administration to follow an eight-point check list to avoid unnecessary delays and to guarantee “clear sailing.”
August 29, 1957: W.M. Rumsey entry took third place in the Stockton to Redding marathon for pleasure boats only held last weekend on the Sacramento RiverPhoto: Keystone Bombers at Mather Field, late 1920s to early 30s. Photo: Folsom History Archives
Photo: Prune drying photo towards August 27, 1904 headline. Pike & Kendell Prune Drying Yard in 1908. Courtesy of Folsom History Archives
