A miller by trade, Norcross also started the city's first electric light plant in 1885. Three thousand people attend chautauqua in Janesville. Chautauquas combined popular education with entertainment through lectures, plays and concerts. They often included sermons. Seventh Day Baptist Convention draws several thousand people to Milton.
Heavy rains cause extensive damage, and the Rock River bursts the dam at Fulton.
The floods drive families from their homes in Edgerton, wash out bridges and stall trains. The classic but highly controversial silent film directed by D.W. Griffith glorified the Ku Klux Klan in its depiction of the Civil War and Southern Reconstruction. Fifteen hundred cases reported. For the first time in at least 15 years, Janesville goes six months without a fatal train accident. Safety undoubtedly has become a big issue because the Gazette's column of railroad news, formerly called Link and Pin, now carries the standing headline Safety First.