February 2

As Americans and Canadians are no doubt well aware of, this is Groundhog day. A day in the US in which it is maintained that a big squirrel (Marmota monax) while predict the remaining length of winter. Winter this year has been extraordinary mild, so perhaps the groundhog got around to things early, but anyhow. . .

Today is also Candlemas, a Christian Holiday. And for Candlemas, coincidentally, we have this proverb that is also weather related:

If Candlemas be mild and gay,

Go saddle your horses and buy them hay;

But if Candlemas be stormy and black,

It carries the winter away on its back.

1827  The US Supreme Court rules that the President alone has the final power to determine whether the state militia should be mobilized in the national interest in Mott v. Mott. 

Every state had a militia, as had every colony before that.  Membership in the militia was mandatory and a serious matter prior to the Civil War.  State Governors could muster the militia for a state purpose, and militias generally mustered annually.  Their successor today is the National Guard for the most part, although some states also keep separate State Guard units.  Wyoming does not, and has not since World War Two, during which most, or maybe all, state's had a State Guard for state functions in the absence of the Federalized National Guard.  The conversion of the militias into the National Guard began following the Civil War, but it was not completed until the Dick Act made the conversion into a reserve of the Army fully official.

1848     The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican War.  The treaty transferred certain territories to the United States from Mexico, including some of southern Wyoming.

1860  Seth Ward married Mary Francis McCarty.

Ward was an official suttler for Ft. Laramie, having commenced in that role with a partner, William Guerrier.  Guerrier had died two years earlier when an explosion of gun powder was set off by a pipe he was smoking.  Ward carried on and, at this time, had stores at Ft. Laramie and at Register Cliff.  The keeping of livestock for the business results in the claim that Ward and Guerrier were Wyoming's first ranchers.

This marriage was a bit unusual as both parties had prior marriages, something that was unusual for the day, except when the parties were widows.  Ward had been married in 1853 to Wasna, a Teton Sioux.  The union resulted in four children.  I frankly don't know what became of the marriage or of Wasna, but in this year Ward married McCarty, who was a divorcee.  His new wife did not like Ft. Laramie, and in 1863 the couple moved to Nebraska City, Nebraska.  He ultimately moved to Westport Kansas where he bought trader William Bent's substantial house.

1910  The Wyoming Company, a holding company for mining and rail interests, incorporated.

1918    "Giving Up" Heatless Days. February 2, 1918.
 

Showing just how extreme, or maybe desperate, things had become during World War One, the US was debating "giving up" "heatless days".

Heatless days?

Yes.  

As the war effort that had brought in Porkless Days (which, the paper reported, caused the Groundhog to stay in on this Groundhog Day), Meatless Days, and Wheatless Days, every Monday was a Heatless Day.

Brutal.

In spite of what people may think, the teens were colder than things are today, and today February can be pretty cold.  No heat in that era would have been truly brutal, and frankly I'd think a rather poor idea.  Granted, it no doubt saved on coal, but at a certain human expense, I'd think.

John L. Sullivan

Irish American Southie Boxing legend John L. Sullivan died on this day, at age 59, in 1918.

Sullivan was one of the greatest boxers of all time. Born to devout Catholic Irish immigrant parents he did well in Boston's public schools and entered college after graduating from them.  His parents hoped for him to become a Priest.  However, early in his academic career the athletic Sullivan dropped out of school to play professional baseball.  Already familiar with boxing, he soon switched to that and went on to fight around 450 fights in his career, something that would be unheard of now.

Boxing was a hugely popular sport at that time, but it had not reached the zenith of its professional organization that it would reach in the mid 20th Century.  Sullivan was clearly a "titlist" in the true sense, but not in the fully recognized sense that Muhammad Ali would be later.  Boxing was also much less regimented as to fight length or rules at the time.  Sullivan fought, for instance, the last title London Prize Rules fight, i.e. bare knuckle, and therefore can claim to have been the last bare knuckle champion.  That fight was emblematic of boxing at the time in that it was not only bare knuckle, it went 75 rounds.

The Sullivan-Kilrain fight, the last bare knuckle championship fight.  Kilrain threw in the towel, or rather his manager, in the 75th round of the July 1889 bout.

Sullivan lost his title status in 1892 to "Gentleman" Jim Corbett in a gloved boxing match under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules and he never regained it.  He retired as a professional boxer after that match, and he was in fact already old for a boxer at that time, but he did continue to fight exhibition fights for the remainder of his life.  He also undertook being a stage actor, speaker, celebrity baseball umpire, sports reporter, and bar owner.  Late in life, but probably too late, he broke a life long addiction to alcohol and became a speaker in favor of prohibition.  He died on this day in 1918.

Sullivan in later years.

1924 Saturday, February 2, 1924. Wilson lingers, gun battle at Lysite.

Wilson's lingering passing was the major headline, but the gun battle at Lysite caught my eye.

Gun battle at Lysite?

Lysite and Lost Cabin

Lysite and Lost Cabin, in the distance.

Well, why not?

Locals schools were about to be named for Presidents, including one that I went to.

Wilson did fall into a coma that evening.

Albert B. Fall, 2/2/24.

Fall refused to testify.

1943  The Wyoming Supreme Court determines that it is not possible to contract common law marriages in Wyoming.

1958  Warren Air Force Base becomes part of the Strategic Air Command, in keeping with its role as a missile base.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1970  The Grand Targhee Resort, located in Wyoming but accessible only from Idaho, was dedicated by Idaho Governor Don Samuelson.

1991  USNS Big Horn, a fleet replenishment oiler named after the Big Horn River, launched.