Petaluma reacts to ‘The Trial of the Century’

The year was 1925 and plenty of events that would change the world and Petaluma would soon unfold.

The Roaring Twenties were indeed roaring. Prohibition was affecting the country in unanticipated ways, and the winds of war were blowing over the world, as Benito Mussolini had just taken over Italy and Adolph Hitler, was gaining power in Germany. At the same time, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky were fighting it out for Russia, and Shah Pahlavi took over Iran, as did Ibn Saud in Saudi Arabia. Those names were to affect the entire world for generations to come.

Meanwhile, in the small town of Dayton, Tenn., the name of a young school teacher, John Scopes, was also to affect American culture for many decades to come as “The Trial of the Century” got under way that July. The world and Petaluma watched intently as two of the most famous attorneys in the land butted heads over the argument of Darwin’s theory of evolution vs. fundamental Christianity’s creationism.

The protagonists couldn’t have been better type-cast. For the teaching of evolution in American classrooms was famed Attorney Clarence Darrow, a declared agnostic. Against those teachings was former Secretary of State and Democratic Presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan, who labeled the trial: “a dual to the death.” John Scopes, a local science and gym teacher, was accused of unlawfully teaching a class in “civic biology” claiming that man is descended from “a hairy, tailed, quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits.”

This was a fight of faith vs. new reason. It was war, without weaponry. And, it began, as thousands of onlookers and over 100 reporters and movie makers swarmed to little Dayton for the 12 days of the trial. It was a sweltering 97 degrees in that packed southern court room, with no air conditioning.

On July 10, headlines in The Petaluma Courier read, “Evolution to Start Test Today in Court.” It was “the legal battle of the century, with its effect on Christianity, science and public education.” And, on July 11, the Courier announced: “Scopes case absorbing talk of Nation.”

As the trial was held over for the weekend and armed guards were called in to quell violent reactions, the Petaluma Courier editor, Homer Wood, wrote: “Prayer ban is sought by Darrow.” The headlines were: “Scientist is witness in Scopes trial.” Then, the next day’s headlines read, “Judge rules out science!”

Petaluma in 1925 was about eight times the size of tiny Dayton, Tenn. As signs of the times, which were changing over here from horse to automobile, the Fuller Garage at Main and Bridge, was selling gas at 16.5 cents a gallon and Chas Offut at 343 Main St., was advertising the Essex Coach auto with “no vibration, classy and economical, $1,010.”

But, A.F. Tomasini Hdw. Co., betting that the big change was slow to happen upon the farm, was selling: “The John Deere Low-down horse drawn manure spreader.”

That July, one could purchase here a 7.5-acre chicken ranch, fully improved for $7,500. And Petaluma dairymen were up in arms about the advent of Oleo margarine and the attempt to actually color it yellow to resemble real butter.

On July 23, the Courier ran the headline, “Scopes Found Guilty.” The story said that Scopes was found “guilty of having taught that man descended from a lower form of life. Bryan’s kingdom remains intact. Science had been aligned with agnosticism, an attack on the Bible.”

The editorial that day, stated: “If the trial at Dayton, Tennessee inspires a closer study of the bible and, of the developments in scientific research, and thought, it’s effects will be wholesome.” Once again, a careful approach to a red-hot subject.

William Jennings Bryan died just five days after the Scopes trial ended, and was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1960, the popular play “Inherit The Wind,” based on the famous trial, opened in Dayton, Tenn., and John Scopes attended that premiere.

He was given a key to the city. In 1973, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to pass a law mandating that schools should continue to teach the Bible’s Genesis, but with equal emphasis upon “other theories of the origin of man.” However, they stressed once again that evolution must only be taught as theory, not fact. The subject today, 91 years later, is still controversial.

(Historian Skip Sommer is an Honorary Life Member of Heritage Homes and the Petaluma Historical Museum. Contact him at skipsommer@hotmail.com.)