January 13

1794     President George Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

1846  President Taylor dispatches U.S. troops to Texas in anticipation of trouble with Mexico.

1877   Corporal  Charles A. Bessey, Company A, 3d U.S. Cavalry wins the Congressional Medal of Honor for an action near Elkhorn Creek, Wyo., 13 January 1877. Citation. While scouting with 4 men and attacked in ambush by 14 hostile Indians, held his ground, 2 of his men being wounded, and kept up the fight until himself wounded in the side, and then went to the assistance of his wounded comrades.

"Elkhorn" is a common  name for creeks in Wyoming, so exactly where this occurred I do not know.

1885  Wyoming Territorial Governor William Hale died.

1888.  The post office at Ft. D. A. Russel re-established.

1890  Union Pacific carpenters went on strike in Cheyenne.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1899  US Senator F.E. Warren introduced a bill for the erection of an Army post near Sheridan, Wyoming.

1899  Wyoming Governor  Jack R. Gage born.

1918  Cold Snap
 

We haven't been putting up that many newspapers recently, but if we had, you'd have noticed this occurring.  The early winter of 1917-1918 was really cold.

Brutal Winter Weather Of December 1917 and January 1918

December 1917 through January 1918 still stands today as the coldest and snowiest December-January period ever recorded in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, and several other locations across southern Indiana and central Kentucky. The 49 inches of snow that buried Louisville during those two months beats the 2nd snowiest December-January by more than a foot and a half!

And I mean cold everywhere.  From the Mexico Es Cultura Site:

The hurricane season that hit the Gulf of Mexico usually starts between April and May and ends in November. Rarely there were extreme weather events of this magnitude outside of those months. However, according to the chronicles, in the coasts of Texas and Tamaulipas was recorded a strong hurricane at the beginning of January 1918.

The hurricane destroyed the poor houses of Tampico and flooded the city, as well as the towns of Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, Texas. The traditional neighborhood of Doña Cecilia was practically destroyed. On the other hand, a cold front from the glaciers of the North Pole caused severe snowfall in the cities of Monterrey, Saltillo, Ciudad Victoria, and San Luis Potosí, among other towns, mostly on the border side.

Local governments requested the help of President Venustiano Carranza to send medicine, food and blankets to help the most population in need.

Cold in Wyoming too.

The Wyoming newspapers, or at least one Cheyenne one, had been making fun of the cold in Nebraska earlier in the week, noting how much warmer it was in Wyoming, when of course the weather changed, as it will, and the mercury dropped. For the second half of the week of January 8, 1918, temperatures were down in the negative range.  Finally around this time of the week, after having been down that low the day prior, it looked like some relief was on the way.

The Cheyenne newspaper was noting temperatures were anticipated to go back up to above 35F, which shared placement with rifle practice being introduced to colleges.  Bad weather got more notice however.

This sort of temperature would be brutal at any point, but it's easy to forget looking back a century at 1918, which shares mental familiarity with us today, that houses were heated much differently.  We've dealt with this before, but today, most Wyoming houses are heated with natural gas, a clean burning efficient heating fuel.  Some houses (like mine) are heated with electrical heating elements.  In 1918, most houses in this area would have burned coal. Some houses would have been heated with wood fires, particularly rural ones.  Indeed, even houses heated by coal would have been partially heated by wood cook stoves for a lot of the day.

By this period, I should note, major buildings started having boilers.  And some, indeed a lot of, homes also had radiant steam heat as well.  I'm really far from an expert on these even though they exist everywhere to this day, but generally they require a boiler and that requires a fuel.  Around here, today,  the fuel is natural gas.  In other places it remains heating oil.  At that time it would have meant coal.  So when we speak of a house being heated by coal, we don't mean simply burning coal for heat, although I've been in modern houses where residents did just that, or in shops where the owners did just that.

A World War One vintage poster of the United States Fuel Administration.  This period poster nicely illustrates how coal fit in.  Homeowners were being urged to buy coal early in the year.  That coal wasn't delivered, in this poster, by a truck, but rather by a dump wagon drawn by heavy draft horses.  Given the light dress of the laborer and the depiction of foliage the poster must have been released during the summer.

 

Burning coal for heat entails some factors that we don't consider here in the West much, but those who still use heating oil in the East probably do.  For one thing, you have to order it and store it.  The poster above from World War One shows that this was a concern pretty far in advance of winter.  And at least according to my mother, who recalled their coal furnace in Montreal, fleas came with the coal for some reason.

 

 Coal furnace.  I've never seen one.

 

And of course, coal smells when it burns.  Almost any town would have been smoky in the winter.  Here in Wyoming people often lament the winds during winter, but I have to wonder if some wind (not enough to blow the furnace out, which can happen, weren't welcome as they'd blow the smoke out of town.

 

That would have meant, fwiw, that most towns would have had a smokey haze above them all winter.  Indeed, one thing I didn't like about Laramie when I lived there was all the wood smoke, as so many students burned wood at the time, and I still don't like that.  It's one of the reasons why I've resisted a wood burning insert in my own house for so many years, while my wife, who grew up with them in rural conditions, would like one.

 

"African American schoolgirls with teacher, learning to cook on a wood stove in classroom."  This is an odd photo put up here only to illustrate a wood burning cook stove.  Using these is much different than using a modern electric or gas oven, but I have to suspect that most of these girls learned as much about cooking at home as they did in the classroom.  Having said that, Home Economics remained a class a lot of girls took when I was in junior high in the 1970s.

For a lot of the day, in almost every home occupied by a family, or in every boarding house, the kitchen was putting out heat via a cook stove.  Cooking with a wood burning stove is generally fairly slow, so what this meant is that the stove generally burned for hours.  Chances are that in a lot of homes the fire was stoked right around 4:00 am or so, or certainly not later than 5:00, in contemplation of cooking a meal about an hour later.  The heavy cast iron stove would put out heat for at least 30 minutes if not an hour after it was last stoked, so kitchens started likely heating up around 4:15 and stayed that way until at least 7:00, if not until 9:00.  In many homes the heating process would start again around 11:00, if children were at home or if a male occupant returned to his house at noon. Most men likely didn't, so the stove may have remained cold or lukewarm during the mid day but get stoked back up around 3:00 in anticipation of serving around 6:00.  Cooking was slow.  Some such stoves on many days would have been fired back up much earlier, depending upon what was being cooked for that evening.  And the stove likely burned to a degree until 7:00 and started getting cold around 7:30.

A lot of business establishments of various types would have had a stove as well that they kept running basically all day long.

So, lots of wood smoke to add to the coal smoke.  Neat.

1929   Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles.

1943  It is reported that 2,600 school teachers are employed in Wyoming.  Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2015  Legislature commences general session.

Elsewhere:

1929   Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles.

1937   The United States bars US citizens from serving in the Spanish Civil War.   This occurred a the same time that left wing American volunteers were forming the Lincoln Battalion/Brigade, which would first see action in February, 1937.  Foreign volunteers, in addition to outright foreign military missions, saw some action on both sides of the war, with some countries actually seeing volunteers on both sides of the war.

1950  The Soviet Union boycotts the UN Security Council over the issue of which government is the legitimate Chinese government, a move that will ultimately allow the UN to intervene in the Korean War.

January 9

1867  Laramie County created by Dakota Territorial Legislature.

1875  The officer's quarters at Ft. D. A. Russell were destroyed by fire.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1879 Cheyenne prisoners revolt at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

1887  A blizzard hit Wyoming and Montana with record snowfall and record cold, making this one of the worst days of the worst winters on record.

1917  The Fourteenth Legislature convened.

1918 The Battle of Bear Valley, revolutionary Yaqui natives and the United States Army in southern Arizona; the last US v. Indian battle.

 Aftermath of the battle with Yaqui prisoners under guard.

The Army element was from the 10th Cavalry. The Yaqui's opened fire on the approaching 10th Cavalry troopers and the battle lasted approximately 30 minutes, with no US casualties. The Yaquis, however, who were hostile to Mexican forces at the time (which caused the battle to occur, as theYaqui's mistook the approaching 10th Cavalrymen for Mexicans, lost their commander and the capture of nine of their members.

This is an odd side story to the Mexican Revolution as the Yaqui's, by this point in that event, were hoping to establish an independent state in Sonora and were at war in Mexico towards that aim.  At the same time, Yaqui's had been crossing into the United States to work, and supplying their forces with arms from the funds raised towards that goal.  The Mexican government had in turn asked the United States for assistance in preventing this from occurring, while American ranchers in Arizona were finding themselves in conflict themselves with Yaqui parties.  This had resulted in increased American military patrol activity on the border.

Bear Valley itself was a natural border crossing that had seen increased strife prior to this event.  On January 8 a local rancher reported a cow being butchered to an element of the 10th Cavalry, which then deployed to the area.  The following day they saw, from a distance, the Yaqui's crossing into the area mounted.  The unit deployed as dismounted skirmishers in anticipation of action but did not encounter the Yaqui's so they returned to their mounts and proceeded in that fashion, when they were fired upon by the Yaqui force which mistook them for Mexican troops.  The commander of the action later recounted it, in a book he later wrote, as follows:

The Cavalry line maintained its forward movement, checked at times by the hostile fire, but constantly keeping contact with the Indians. Within thirty minutes or so the return shooting lessened. Then the troop concentrated heavy fire on a confined area containing a small group, which had developed into a rear guard for the others. The fire effect soon stopped most of the enemy action. Suddenly a Yaqui stood up waving his arms in surrender. Captain Ryder immediately blew long blasts on his whistle for the order to 'cease fire,' and after some scattered shooting the fight was over. Then upon command the troopers moved forward cautiously and surrounded them. This was a bunch of ten Yaquis, who had slowed the Cavalry advance to enable most of their band to escape. It was a courageous stand by a brave group of Indians; and the Cavalrymen treated them with the respect due to fighting men. Especially astonishing was the discovery that one of the Yaquis was an eleven-year-old boy. The youngster had fought bravely alongside his elders, firing a rifle that was almost as long as he was tall. ...Though time has perhaps dimmed some details, the fact that this was my first experience under fire—and it was a hot one even though they were poor marksmen—most of the action was indelibly imprinted on my mind. After the Yaquis were captured we lined them up with their hands above their heads and searched them. One kept his hands around his middle. Fearing that he might have a knife to use on some trooper, I grabbed his hands and yanked them up. His stomach practically fell out. This was the man who had been hit by my corporal's shot. He was wearing two belts of ammunition around his waist and more over each shoulder. The bullet had hit one of the cartridges in his belt, causing it to be exploded, making the flash of fire I saw. Then the bullet entered one side and came out the other, laying his stomach open. He was the chief of the group. We patched him up with first aid kits, mounted him on a horse, and took him to camp. He was a tough Indian, made hardly a groan and hung onto the saddle. If there were more hit we could not find them. Indians do not leave any wounded behind if they can possibly carry them along. One of my men spoke a mixture of Spanish, and secured the information from a prisoner that about twenty others got away. I immediately sent Lieutenant Scott, who had joined the fight, to take a strong detail and search the country for a few miles. However they did not find anything of the remainder of the band. It was dark when we returned to camp. I sent some soldiers to try and get an automobile or any transportation at the mining camps for the wounded Yaqui, but none could be located until morning. He was sent to the Army hospital at Nogales and died that day. We collected all the packs and arms of the Indians. There were a dozen or more rifles, some .30-30 Winchester carbines and German Mausers, lots of ammunition, powder and lead, and bullet molds. The next day when you [Colonel Wharfield] and Capt. Pink Armstrong with Troop H came in from the squadron camp to relieve us, we pulled out for Nogales. The Yaquis were mounted on some extra animals, and not being horse-Indians were a sorry sight when we arrived in town. Some were actually stuck to the saddles from bloody chafing and raw blisters they had stoically endured during the trip. Those Yaquis were just as good fighting men as any Apache...."

The battle ended with a peculiar result in that the prisoners proved to readily adjust to Army life and confessed that they opened fire only because of the mistaken identify.  They then volunteered for service in the U.S. Army, which was declined. They were then sent to trail for illegally transporting arms and ammunition into the United States, a felony, to which they confessed and were sentenced to a token thirty days in jail.  The sentence was preferable to them to being deported to Mexico for obvious reasons.

And so ended the Indian Wars in the context of the armed forces of the United States engaging in combat with Native Americans.  Strife with Indians in Mexico, however, between Indian bands and Mexican civilians would continue for at least another decade or so.  It's interesting to note that the final battle between soldiers of the United States and Native Americans would involve the 10th Cavalry, whose enlisted men were black.  It's also interesting to note that this final battle in a series of battles and wars stretching back at least to 1675 is almost a forgotten footnote that came as the United States found itself fighting in Europe for the first time in history in a war that would usher in the new era of mechanized warfare.

January 1. New Years Day

Today is New Years Day.

45 BC  January 1 celebrated as the beginning of the year for the first time under the Julian Calendar.  Recognizing January 1 as the beginning of the year would later lapse, but would be reestablished under the Gregorian Calendar.

1622 Papal Chancery adopts January 1 as beginning of the year.  A fair number of nations already recognized January 1 as the start of the new year at that time, but it would take over a century for the change to be universal in the Western World.

1861  Stephen W. Downey, later State Auditor of Wyoming, promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant in the Potomac Home Brigade, Maryland Infantry.  He would be a colonel in 1863, at the time he mustered out of the service.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

1863  Daniel Freeman files the first homestead under the newly passed Homestead Act.  The homestead was filed in Nebraska.

While the original Homestead Act provided an unsuitably small portion of land for those wishing to homestead in Wyoming, it was used here, and homesteading can be argued to be responsible for defining the modern character of the State.

1868  Susan B. Anthony, leader of the women's suffrage movement, first publishes a weekly journal titled The Revolution.

1870  Carbon County came into existence.

1879  The Laramie Daily Times starts publication in Laramie.  Attribution:  On This Day .com.

 Calendar for 1888.

1888 John C. Garand born in Quebec.  Garand was a Federal employee who designed the legendary M1 Garand rifle used by the U.S. Army during World War Two and the Korean War, and which went on to be used by the Wyoming Army National Guard until it was replaced with the M16A1 in the 1970s.

 Calendar for 1888.

1892 The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York opened.

 Calendar for 1896.

 Calendar for 1897.

 

Calendar for 1898.

 Calendar for 1899.

Calendar for 1899.

 Calendar for 1905.

Calendar for 1906.

Calendar for 1906.

 Calendar for 1918

1918  Oil and gas pipeline commences operation from the Salt Creek field to Casper.  The first such pipeline in the Casper region.  Attribution:  On This Day .com

I've been told, and indeed I've seen the photos, that my father in law's great grandfather worked on hauling material to the Salt Creek fields during their construction. And this by mule team.  Photographs of locals hauling equipment from Casper to Salt Creek by mule are really impressive.  It's interesting to note that early on, it was mule power, not heavy truck power, that supported the petroleum industry.

The Salt Creek field remains in production today.

1918

1918 newspapers posted on  Attrition and Saving the Bacon. The United States and World War One

1919   New Years Day, 1919

The Wyoming State Tribune offered a helpful tip for writing the date of the new year correctly.

1920 1,000 "radicals" arrested in 33 US cities in the Great Raid of the Red Scare.

January 1, 1920. New Year's Day. Revelry and Raids.

And so the violent 1910s had end and 1920, not yet roaring, was ushered in. . .ostensibly dry although efforts were already being made to evade Prohibition, both great and small, as the Chicago Tribune's Gasoline Alley made fun of.

January 1, 1920.  Gasoline Alley:  Happy New Years On Avery

On this day in Chicago undoubtedly sober agents conducted raids on suspected Reds in various gathering places they were known to frequent, arresting 200 people.  The same was conducted across the country under J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, with about 6,000 people being arrested as a result.

U.S. Attorney General Alexander Palmer.

1923  William B. Ross took office as Governor.

1930  Ft. D. A. Russel becomes Ft. Francis E. Warren.

1934  Joseph C. O'Mahoney takes office as a Democratic Senator from Wyoming.  O'Mahoney was born in Chelsea Massachusetts in 1884 and entered the newspaper business as a reporter as a young man.  He relocated to Boulder, Colorado, in 1908, and then to Cheyenne in 1916, where he became the editor of the Cheyenne State Leader.  He apparently tired of that and entered Georgetown Law School from which he graduated in 1920, which would indicate that he only served as an editor in Cheyenne for a year at most.  This would make sense, as he was also employed as John B. Kendrick's secretary during this time frame, and he was not doubt working on his law degree concurrently.  He replaced Kendrick upon his death.  With a brief break, he would be a U.S. Senator until leaving office in 1960.  

1935 $6,329,995.57 paid out in benefits to World War One veterans in Wyoming.

1941  Cody business men sent a telegram to President Roosevelt urging him to aid the United Kingdom in its war effort.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1942 The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibited sales of new cars and trucks to civilians.

1944  The 115th Cavalry broken into three separate units.   After having been Federalized in 1940 the unit had been used early in the war to patrol the Pacific Coast.  It was then heavily cadred out as experienced men were sent to other units.  Ultimately, the late war unit, of which a majority were no longer Wyoming National Guardsmen, saw only the Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 115th Cavalry Group sent overseas into action.

1948  The hospital in Rock Springs is transferred from  state ownership to Sweetwater County's ownership.

1951  Frank A. Barret took office as Governor.

1959  Wyoming Township Michigan became a city.

1965  The Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge comes into existance.  Attribution:  On This Day .com.

1968  The University of Wyoming loses to LSU, 13 to 20, in the Sugar Bowl.

1984   The first memorial plaques installed at Grand Encampment Museum.  Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.