June 19

Today is Juneteenth in some US localities, a day commemorating the arrival of the news of emancipation.  The original day was principally associated with Texas. There are observances in some Wyoming communities.

1858  John E. Osborne born in Westport, New York.

1868  Belgian Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean DeSmet met with Sitting Bull in Montana.  He was acting on the request of the U.S. government, acknowledging the level of trust that the Indians had in him, in an effort to secure peace with the Sioux but the visit was partially a failure in spite of Sitting Bull receiving him openly.  Sitting Bull did agree, however, to send one of his lesser chiefs to Ft. Laramie to sign a treaty in which the Sioux agreed to allow white travel and settlement in specified areas, which did make the peace treaty a triumph for Father DeSmet. Father DeSmet died in 1873 and pent the remaining five years of his life continuing to work for peace with the Plains Indians with whom he was very sympathetic.  Lake DeSmet in northern Wyoming is named after him.

1886   Cornerstone laid at the Union Pacific Depot in Cheyenne. 

1890  Downtown Carbon destroyed in a fire.

1910    Father's Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash.

1916   Orders were received in Wyoming from the War Department to mobilize two battalions of the Wyoming National Guard for border service. On September 28th, the troops departed for the Mexican border.

Wyoming Tribune for June 19, 1916. The Guard Mobilized
 

Cheyenne residents were waking up this morning with news of the Punitive Expedition back on the front page.

We haven't run the 1916 local newspapers for awhile, but it's pretty clear that things were really heating up in regards to Mexico.  World War One had tended to push our expedition south off the front page for awhile, but it was back on in strength today.

While the Punitive Expedition was back on in strength, the huge battles occurring in the East were also making front page news.

1917    The Solar Eclipse of June 19, 1917
 

This isn't, as we have noted, the "one hundred years ago today blog" or the "This Day In 1917 Blog".  Those blogs may of course exist (I don't know) but this isn't it.

Still, I note quite a few things that are exactly a century past in the context of this blog, some in the context of things that have changed and some in the context of things that have stayed the same.  In that context, I was surprised by this partial solar eclipse that occurred on date in 1917.

I was mostly surprised, fwiw, as we're having a total eclipse on August 21 here, and this town is in the dead center of its path.

That's neat enough, I guess, but we've been hearing for months that thousands of people are expected to be here for it.  Some people I know are expecting guests.  A lawyer I spoke to last week, who lives in Denver, told me that he had rented a pontoon boat and plans to be on Glendo for the event.

I don't get it.

I either have too little imagination, or perhaps too much, but it gets dark every night.  I don't see why people would travel thousands of miles to experience something for a couple of minutes that the experience for hours every night.

1917  The Casper Record for June 19, 1917. Changing standards. . . an advertisement you are unlikely to see today
 

How about a suit for the 4th?

Hmmm. . . . I'll bet you aren't planning on wearing a suit for the 4th, nor are you planning on buying one, are you?

1919The 148th Field Artillery musters out of service at Camp Mills, New York.

On this date the 148th Field Artillery mustered out of service at Camp Mills, New York.

That brought to an end the Great War service of the 148th, but it did not mean that the Guardsmen who were in the unit were now civilians. Rather, they were released from service with the unit and sent on to their home states for discharge or to military establishments near their home states.  In the case of Wyoming National Guardsmen, that meant a trip to Ft. D. A. Russell at Cheyenne.  Colorado Guardsmen in the unit likewise were discharged at Ft. D. A. Russell.

Their service was nearly over, however, as that wouldn't take long.  With that discharge they came to the end of three years of service, with a brief interruption, at least in the case of men who had first been activated for border service in the Punitive Expedition.

The 148th Field Artillery would come back into existence on  September 16, 1940 as part of the build up prior to World War Two.  It would serve in the Pacific during World War Two and would go on to serve, as part of the Oregon National Guard, in the Korean War.  It was one of the National Guard units that saw service during the Vietnam War.  It's currently party of the Idaho National Guard.

Camp Mills no longer exists.  It was located in what is now Garden City, New York, a community on Long Island.

1948  The US reinstitues conscription.

1953   Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are put to death in the electric chair.

1954  Senator Lester C. Hunt committed suicide.  The tragedy came about after his 20 year old son was arrested for soliciting services from a male prostitute.  Hunt's son was not prosecuted and the matter was quietly dropped, but the news was broken by the Washington Times-Herald, and he was threatened early on with political opposition based on the event.  He was an opponent of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and there was some suspicion that a comment from McCarthy also vaguely referred to his son's conduct.

1996  Obsidian Cliff was designated a National Historic Landmark.