Missing Wyoming WWII Vet’s B-17 Bomber Discovered In New Guinea Jungle

 

Missing Wyoming WWII Vet’s B-17 Bomber Discovered In New Guinea Jungle

Did any of your ancestors participate in Operation Overlord?

Did any of your ancestors participate in Operation Overlord?

If they did, let us know, and if you know anything about their stories, let us know that.

One of mine did.  My Uncle Terry, who was a Canadian soldier. That's about all of his story on this topic, I know.

Major Gale "Buck" Cleven

 

In the Apple TV series Masters of the Air, one of the characters is Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, who reports himself as being from Casper twice in the first episode.

Who was he, and was he really from Casper?

Clevens was born in Lemmon, South Dakota, on December 27, 1918, just after the end of World War One.  His family moved to Casper when he was still a child, although I'm not certain when, as they moved first to Lusk, in 1920.  He likely was a 1937 graduate from Natrona County High School, the only high school in Casper at the time (Natrona County had a second one in Midwest).  Following graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wyoming while also working on drilling crews as a roughneck.

He did, in fact, move at some point to Casper, where he was employed as a roughneck on drilling crews.  He used the money he earned to attend the University of Wyoming and was enrolled by the fall of 1937, presumably right after high school.  His name appears in the social pages of The Branding Iron as having had a date attend the men's residence hall October dance.  He was a guest of a different young lady at the 1939 Tri Delts Halloween sorority dance.  The same year he was apparently in a fraternity, as he's noted as having attended the Phi Delta Theta dance with, yes, another young lady.  In February 1939 he went to a fraternity dance with Nova Carter, whom I believe I'm related to by marriage.  A year later, February 1940, he took a different gal to the same dance.

He left UW in 1941 to join the Army, intent on being a pilot.  The October 21, 1943, edition of the UW Student Newspaper, The Branding Iron, notes him (inaccurately) as being stationed in North Africa and having received the Distinguished Service Cross, which he in fact did receive for piloting his badly stricken plane from Schweinfurt to North Africa, the flight path taken on that raid. This even is depicted in Masters of the Air.  The Branding Iron noted that he had attended UW for three years.  In June, 1944, the student newspaper reported him a POW.  He's noted again for a second decoration in the March 2, 1944, edition, which also notes that he was a Prisoner of War.

As depicted in Masters of the Air, his B-17 was in fact shot down over Germany.  He ended up becoming a POW, as reported in the UW paper, at Stalag Luft III for 18 months, after which he escaped and made it to Allied lines.  He was put back in the cockpit after the war flying troops back to the United States.

Following the war, he was back at the University of Wyoming.  He graduated from UW with a bachelor's in 1946.  He apparently reentered the Air Force after that, or was recalled into service, and served in the Korean War, leaving the Air Force around that time.

He was on the Winter Quarter 1954 UW Honor Roll and obtained a Masters Degree, probably in geology, from UW in 1956.  Somewhere in here, he obtained a MBA degree from Harvard and an interplanetary physics doctorate from George Washington University.  

He married immediately after the war in 1945 to Marjorie Ruth Spencer, who was originally from Lander Wyoming.  They had known each other since childhood.  She tragically passed away in 1953 while visiting her parents, while due to join Gale at Morton Air Force Base in California.  Polio was the cause of her death, and unusually her headstone, in Texas, bears her maiden name.  Reportedly, her death threw Cleven into a deep depression.  He married again in 1955, to Esther Lee Athey.

His post-war career is hard to follow.  He flew again during the Korean War, as noted, which would explain the gap between his bachelors and master’s degrees, and probably his doctorate.  He's noted as having served again during the Vietnam War, and also has having held a post at the Pentagon.  He was in charge of EDP information at Hughes Aircraft.  Given all of that, it's hard to know if an intended career in geology ever materialized, or if his World War Two service ended up essentially dominating the remainder of his career in the form of military service.  The interplanetary physics degree would and employment by Hughes would suggest the latter.  His highest held rank in the Air Force was Colonel.

Following retirement, he lived in Dickenson, North Dakota, and then later at the Sugarland Retirement Center in Sheridan.  He died at age 86 in 2006, and is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his marker noting service in three wars.

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: 'The Eagles of Heart Mountain' explores Japanese incarceration through a high school football team.

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: 'The Eagles of Heart Mountain' explo...:   

Blog Mirror: 'The Eagles of Heart Mountain' explores Japanese incarceration through a high school football team

 

'The Eagles of Heart Mountain' explores Japanese incarceration through a high school football team

Lex Anteinternet: A Memorial Day Reflection on the Second World War....

Lex Anteinternet: A Memorial Day Reflection on the Second World War....:

A Memorial Day Reflection on the Second World War. Changes: The impact of World War Two.

Rifleman in training, April 1942.

I'm a member of an email list serve that discusses the Second World War.  It's  populated by academics and writers.  Often the threads are pretty active around this time of year because of the holiday that, this year, falls on this date.

Normally I won't quote from there here, and I'm not going to do so directly now, as its a private list. But a member just posted the news that the new Tom Hanks movie Greyhound is going to be released on Apple TV, which I lack.

I was really looking forward to the film. 

Anyhow, that lead to a thread discussing things that are changing due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, and then I posted an item, after I commented on that, noting I should link it back to World War Two, as I was off topic.

An interesting thread developed, which I posing on here, editing some of it so as to keep folks anonymous.

Cornell freshmen, 1919.

It started with one noting the demise of the college beanie, attributing that to returning servicemen being older and not wanting to put up with that sort of foolishness.

I replied to that noting:

Indeed, I've looked through old university newspapers and the beanies were a big deal.  I've wondered what killed them off.

On university, I've heard it claimed and I think it correct that not only did the GI bill bring a lot of people into universities after the war that never would have gone to university otherwise, that had a major impact on the demographics of student bodies.  Demographics that were poorly represented in universities started to be fairly well represented in them for the first time.  For example, the number of Catholics attending university jumped quite a bit.

As that happened the diversity of student bodies in universities of all types increased and that changed their nature.  Some Ivy League universities, for example, still had chapel requirements as late as the 1960s, reflecting a fairly uniform Protestant student body. That started to go away by that time as a result of the change in the student makeup following WWII.

I have in fact posted on this odd, old, now gone custom a couple of times here.  Here's the threads for that:

Freshman Caps? The Wyoming Student, November 2, 1917.

Blog Mirror: Beanies, Brooms and Bother: UW Freshmen Get the Initiation Treatment (and Lex Anteinternet: Freshman Caps? The Wyoming Student, November 2, 1917.)

I'd forgotten that this odd custom lasted this long, and another participant noted that his university was still wearing them as late as 1970.  

Apparently beanies are still a thing at the South Dakota School of Mines, but they're optional.

This would suggest that this is another one of those odd things that we tend to associate with World War Two that isn't, although there are more significant ones to come. 

Soldier reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn of the Armed Services Edition.

One that I only recently learned of, from one of my children, is the spread of the popularity of paperback books due to the war, which was brought up by one of the replies which noted the Armed Forces Expeditions of various novels.  Another participant expanded on that and noted a scene of a soldier reading just such a book is included in Sam Fuller's movie, The Big Red One, with the thinly disguised Fuller character commenting on a new recruit reading his book.  Fuller actually had written some novels prior to the war.

That scene is one of the better ones from The Big Red One, in my opinion.  That movie turns out to be one of the several World War Two movies referenced here which I find that I haven't reviewed yet, and I need to.

One of the comments had to do with a variety of ways the US was in a different position coming out of the war compared to when it went in it, noting that we came out of the war having 16,000,000 veterans and a fairly unified, disciplined, society, which translated into their being able to go on to higher education and train for careers.  After thinking about this, I added:

Another thing that it seems to have done that's sort of related to this is that it relocated quite a few people permanently.

California seems to have received a big influx of workers due to the war and a lot of them stayed there after the war, as an example.  As another odd example, I've read that returning Navajo servicemen tended to return to communities near where they had entered the service, but off reservation rather than on, as the economic opportunities were better.

In local agriculture, a big change occurred in that the start of World War Two came in an era in which ranches here still employed a lot of cowboys with a lot of them being career, usually single, cowboys. They didn't return to those occupations after the war.  At the same time, the war normalized the production of the 4x4 truck and that meant that they weren't actually needed for a lot of the winter time jobs they'd formally been necessary for.

Like a lot of things here, I've touched on these topics before.  I think the comment about the 16,000,000 disciplined veterans, mostly men, going into civilian life is correct, but we shouldn't forget that some of those men had lives that were significantly negatively impacted by what they experienced.  People don't like to touch on it, but alcoholism was very common in the World War Two generation and at least part, but not all, of that was due to the war.

The impact of the 4x4 truck has been covered here before in this extensive thread, among others:

A Revolution In Rural Transportation

A somewhat related topic came up which addressed Residential Building Codes, something I'd frankly never thought of.  The commenter noted that the Farmers Home Administration's guides for housing contracts were issued as a result of the war in 1942.  I had no idea. They noted the guides are still with us.

Regarding this item, I noted:

Sort of along these lines, there was an expansion of employer provided employee benefits during World War Two in the U.S.

Wages were frozen at some point to keep labor shortages from spurring inflation, so companies took up competing with benefits, like health insurance.  It can be argued that the employer provided health insurance system in the US was a byproduct of World War Two.  I guess a person's view on that may depend on what they think of that system, but it did work for a fair amount of time following the war.

Other benefits along these lines, like retirement benefits, etc., also received a boost.

This doesn't mean that they didn't exist at all before the war, but they were greatly expanded during the war and became the norm for a long period of time, and are still with us in an evolved form today.  

Another was the expansion of the calculating machine, which no doubt did occur, but which is something I never would have thought of.  It's modern descendant, the electronic calculator, is everywhere. For that matter, the modern home computer in some ways is a descendant of the calculating machine.*

An addition to this from a university history resulted in this, regarding changes in higher education, which were massive.  I've noted some of those here before, particularly the expansion of the student body to include demographics, such as Catholics, which previously rarely went to university.  As noted here earlier, Catholic students were basically barred from Ivy League universities as they had protestant chapel requirements.  Indeed, that didn't change until the 1960s for some.

He also noted the inclusion of refugee academics, which is something that would not have occured to me.

The massive expansion of education due to the GI Bill was a huge economic boon to the US in the late 40s, 50s, and the 60s, but like many things, there's a downside to it.  Breaking the doors to university wide open helped the first two or three generations of new university students, but they were also stepping into a university system that well predated World War Two in its focus.  As student bodies swelled, standards started to lower, something that was already notable by the 1970s  As that occured simply having an degree went from an advantage to a necessity for many occupations, reaching the nature of an absolute for some.  Entire occupations that never required a degree of any kind ultimately required a college degree and, quite frankly, for no real reason.  Universities themselves became addicted to public funding, something that they first started to really receive during World War Two, and it oddly has operated in recent years to drive up the cost of education.  And as universities offered more and more degree programs that conveyed upon their recipients no real advantage, a sort of radicalization of some elements of university faculty, which was something that had already started as far back as the 1920s, accelerated and became institutionalized.

One poster noted that much expanded airline travel resulted from the war, and that certainly is the case.

Just prior to the war airliners were beginning to take on a recognizable form, with the DC-3 being a recognizable commercial aircraft that went on to do yeoman's service during the war as the C-47.

C-47 that went on to post war commercial use being restored at the Pacific Aviation Museum.

After the war, however, things really changed. Four engined wartime aircraft made four engined commercial aircraft inevitable.  By the 60s they were yielding to jets and modern air travel was around the corner.  It really took airline deregulation, however, which came in during the 1980s, to make air travel cheap.

A  need for an Interstate Highway System, by which is meant a good one, was also noted.

This is one of those things where I'd disagree.  It's often stated that Eisenhower was really impressed with the German Autobahn, which was really a massive German public works project during the pre war Nazi years there, and he may have really been. But I think it was the ongoing evolution of the automobile that made the Interstate Highway System come in.  It was billed a defense program but that was, quite frankly, a funding charade.

What that does bring up, however, is the massive expansion of government that started with the Great Depression and which kept on keeping on during World War Two and which never went away thereafter.  It wasn't until the Reagan administration of the 1980s that contraction of any kind started, and its never contracted to its pre 1932 level.  Prior to the Great Depression the nation would never have undertaken a highway construction project on a national level, and not until World War Two would the country thought of trying to pass it off as a defense measure.

Rio Grande terminal in a less than nifty part of Salt Lake City.

That act, of course, lead to the demise of passenger rail in US, so its another thing that had a mixed result.

Women in industry came up, as it usually does.

I've become pretty convinced that the women in the workplace story is, frankly, heavily mythologized.  I've written on that here before in this thread:

Women in the Workplace: It was Maytag that took Rosie the Riveter out of the domestic arena, not World War Two

I replied here, with the following:

Women in the workplace is a really complicated and I think poorly understood topic however.

I've looked at it before for other reasons over the course of the 20th Century and the increase in women working overall as a rising percentage is almost imperceptible in terms of its post WWII make up. Rather, women in the workforce started to climb starting around 1900 and continually climbed almost year by year up into some point in, I think the 1980s or 1990s, when it actually slightly declined.   There were big jumps during World War One and World War Two, with the jump in WWI rivaling WWII, and then after both wars the wartime jump declined and the rise went back to the prewar curve.

Having said that, following World War Two the type of work women were doing changed a lot, but that's also true following World War One.  Prior to World War One a massive number of working women were employed as domestic servants. That was still true all the way through the mid-50s, but women started to enter offices prior to WWI and then they did in large numbers during WWII.  So the type, and pay, of women working really changed and part of that was due to WWII.  Women in middle class occupations were greatly impacted by that.

The other big change, and I'd argue it was more significant than the impact of either war, however, was the introduction of domestic machinery, and that correlates really well with the rise in employed women.  Domestic machinery, such as washing machines, vacuums, modern stoves, etc., are a 20th Century deal and they really started to start reaching their modern form in the 1920s.  Prior to that domestic labor was so overwhelming that people basically couldn't "live on their own".  How many of us, for example, have lived in a boarding house, like so many men did prior to World War Two?  Men had to do that as there was no instant anything, and they simply couldn't live on their own, work and still wash their clothes and cook their meals routinely.  A lot of men never left home until they married.

Indeed, that  explains why a common aspiration for women was to marry and have their own homes.  They were already engaged in heavy domestic labor as it was for the families they grew up in.  Daily shopping, long slow cooking, washing clothes more primitively, etc., etc., was a huge chore that a lot of them looked up as something they'd rather do for households of their own as opposed to their parents.

Anyhow, once good domestic machinery came in the hours and hours of work that women had to do at home greatly declined and their labor became surplus to the household.  A lot of that would have occurred in the 1930s as domestic machinery continued to develop in that period, but the Great Depression kept it from being spread more widely, much like a lot of farms kept using horse implements in the same period.  After the war, however, ramped up domestic production rapidly changed that.  You can see that in late WWII advertisements in which all sorts of companies engaged in war production are promising to make washing machines, stoves, etc.

All of this is stuff we don't think of much on Memorial Day, nor perhaps should we that much.  Memorial Day is a day to remember war dead.  But sometimes we should remember the lives of the living as well, and, in terms of demise, the demise of things, practices and norms that came before a war.

_________________________________________________________________________________

*May 25, 1970, mark the first orders, fwiw, of the stand alone desk top computer.  Primitive by today's standards, as anemic, they were also extremely expensive.

Natrona County International Air Port, formerlly the Casper Air Base, to receive environmental review

Twelve locations on the ground of the Natrona County International Airport, which started out as a United States Army Air Force base during World War Two, are being investigated by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for possible environmental contamination.  Sewage and waste disposal locations are the primary concerns.

Granted, such investigations may be warranted, but its odd to think that an investigation of these locations now, so long after they ceased being used, would be done.  More than anything, it might demonstrate our very much heightened modern sensitivity to environmental concerns.

December 29

1845 Texas admitted into the Union. While its borders would soon shrink, at first a small portion of Wyoming, previously claimed by Spain, and then Mexico, and then Texas, was within the boundaries of the new state.  None of these political entities had actually ever controlled the region, so to some degree the claim was more theoretical than real.

1879  Wyoming's Territorial Governor John Hoyt plans Wyoming's first official New Year's party by a governor at Interocean Hotel, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

1879  J. S. Nason takes office as Territorial Auditor.

1890.  The Battle Wounded Knee occurs in South Dakota.

The battle followed a period of rising tensions on Western reservations during which various tribes began to become adherents of a spiritual movement which held that participation in a Ghost Dance would cause departed ancestors to return along with the buffalo, and the European Americans to depart.  Ghost Dance movements created great nervousness amongst the American administration of the Reservations upon which they were occurring, including the Pine Ridge Reservation, where Wounded Knee took place.  Tensions increased when Sitting Bull was killed in a gun fight with Indian Police on December 15 and troops were sent to the reservation thereafter after tensions increased amongst Sitting Bull's tribe, the Hunkpapa Sioux.  When troops arrived,  200 Hunkpapa-Miniconjou Sioux fled the reservation towards the  Cheyenne River.  They were joined by a further 400 Sioux, who then reconsidered and turned themselves in at Ft. Bennett South Dakota.

The remaining 400 or so Sioux were set to surrender themselves at Wounded Knee but were delayed in doing so as their leader, Big Foot, was sick with pneumonia. When the Army arrived at Wounded Knee, it commenced to disarm the tribesmen on December 28, which was an unwelcome action on their part, and greatly increased tensions in the camp, which were made further tense by the upsetting of the camp by the soldiers, which included women and children. A militant medicine man further agitated the matter by reminding the tribesmen that their Ghost shirts were regarded as making them invulnerable to bullets.  During this event, the rifle of Black Coyote, regarded by some of his tribesmen as crazy, went off accidentally while he was struggling to retain it.  The medicine man gave the sign for retaliation and some Sioux leveled their rifles at the soldiers, and some may have fired them.  In any event, the soldiers were soon firing at the Sioux, and Hotckiss cannons fired into the village.  Of  230 Indian women and children and 120 men at the camp, 153 were known to be killed and 44 known to be wounded with many probable wounded likely escaping and relatives quickly removing many of the dead. Army casualties were 25 dead and 39 wounded  Six Congressional Medals of Honor were issued for the action, which was a two day action by military calculations, which is typically a surprise to those not familiar with the battle.  An inaccurate myth holds that the Army retracted the Medals of Honor in recent years, but this is not true.   The battle aroused the ardor of the Brules and Oglalas on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations with some leaving those reservations as a result, but by January 16, 1891, the Army had rounded up the last of them who had come to acknowledge the hopelessness of the situation.

The tragic event is often noted as the closing battle of the Indian Wars, which it really is not.  Various other actions would continue on throughout the 1890s, although they were always minor.  At least one military pursuit occurred in the first decade of the 20th Century.  Actions by Bronco Apaches, essentially renegades, would occur in northern Mexico, and spill over the border, as late as 1936.  Perhaps it has this status, however as the presence of the 7th Cavalry at the action, and the location, make it a bit of a bookend to the Indian Wars in the popular imagination, contrasting with Little Big Horn, which is generally regarded as the largest Army defeat of the post Civil War, Indian Wars, period.  Even that, of course, came well into the period of the Plains Indian Wars, so just as Wounded Knee was not the end of the actual conflict, Little Big Horn was not that near to the beginning.

Nonetheless, being such a singular defeat, it has come to stand for the end of the era for Native Americans, which probably is a generally correct view in some ways.  After Wounded Knee, no Indian action would ever be regarded as seriously challenging US authority.

 Big Foot's Camp three weeks after the battle.

1916   The Casper Weekly Tribune for December 29, 1916: Carranza official arrives in Washington, land for St. Anthony's purchased, and the Ohio Oil Co. increases its capital.
 

While a protocol had been signed, a Carranza delegate was still arriving to review it.  Keep in mind, Carranza had not signed it himself.

Also in the news, and no doubt of interest to Wyomingites whose relatives were serving in the National Guard on the border, Kentucky Guardsmen exchanged shots with Mexicans, but the circumstances were not clearly reported on.

In very local news two locals bought the real property on North Center Street where St. Anthony's Catholic Church is located today.  The boom that the oil industry, and World War One, was causing in Casper was expressing itself in all sorts of substantial building. As we've discussed here before, part of that saw the construction of three very substantial churches all in this time frame, within one block of each other.

St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Casper Wyoming.

The news about the Ohio Oil Company, at one time part of the Standard family but a stand alone entity after Standard was busted up in 1911, was not small news.  Ohio Oil was a major player in the Natrona County oilfields at the time and would be for decades.  It would contribute a major office building to Casper in later years which is still in use. At one time it was the largest oil company in the United States.  In the 1960s it changed its name to Marathon and in the 1980s moved its headquarters from Casper to Cody Wyoming.  At some point it began to have a major presence in the Houston area and in recent years it sold its Wyoming assets, including the Cody headquarters, and it now no longer has a presence of the same type in the state.

1916:

 

Abandoned post Wold War One Stock Raising Homestead Act homestead.

1916  The Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 becomes law.  It  allowed for 640 acres for ranching purposes, but severed the surface ownership from the mineral ownership, which remained in the hands of the United States.

The Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 recognized the reality of  Western homesteading which was that smaller parcels of property were not sufficient for Western agricultural conditions.  It was not the only  such homestead act, however, and other acts likewise provided larger  parcels than the original act, whose anniversary is rapidly coming up.   The act also recognized that homesteading not only remained popular, but the 1916 act came in the decade that would see the greatest number of  homesteads filed nationally.

Perhaps most significant, in some ways, was that the 1916 act also  recognized the split estate, which showed that the United States was  interested in being the mineral interest owner henceforth, a change from prior policies.  1916 was also a boom year in oil and gas production,  due to World War One, and the US was effectively keeping an interest in  that production.  The split estate remains a major feature of western  mineral law today.

1921  Thursday December 29, 1921. The Raid hits the news.

 

We reported on this item yesterday.  It hit the news across the state today, receiving front page treatment in both Casper and Cheyenne.

Cheyenne's paper also noted that Governor Short of Illinois was going to appear in front of a grand jury, but the way the headline was written must have caused Gov. Carey in Wyoming to gasp.  Early example of "click bait"?

Mackenzie King became the Prime Minister of Canada.  He'd serve in that role off and on, mostly on, until 1948.  An intellectual with good writing but poor oral skills, he'd become a dominant Canadian political figure for a generation.

1931   Sheep Creek stages rabbit hunt to reduce rabbit numbers and feed the hungry.

1941  All German, Italian and Japanese aliens in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington and are ordered to surrender contraband. (WWII List).

1941  Sunge Yoshimoto, age nineteen, killed in the Lincoln-Star Coal Company tipple south of Kemmerer.  He was a Japanese American war worker.

1943  Wartime quotas of new adult bicycles for January cut in half with 40 being allotted to Wyoming.Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1944 USS Lincoln County, a landing ship tank, commissioned.

2008  Third day of Yellowstone earthquake swarm.

2014  The Special Master issues his report on Tongue River allocations in Montana v. Wyoming. Wyoming newspapers report this as a victory for Wyoming, but Montana papers report that both states won some points in the decision, which now goes to the Supreme Court for approval or rejection.

December 26. Boxing Day

Today is Boxing Day (except when falling on a Sunday, when by Royal Proclamation, it is transferred to Monday).

Boxing Day has its origin as a religious Holiday in association with Christmas, and some traditions associate it with St. Stephen's Day, which is celebrated on this day.  The exact origin of it is unclear, but the name may be associated with poor boxes placed outside of church's on St. Stephen's Day which were used to collect funds for the poor, or for boxed gifts serving a similar purpose.

The day is associated with sports in some localities, including the equine sports.  It is the biggest single day for fox hunting in the United Kingdom, even after the ban of live hunts in 2004.  It is a major fox hunting day in the United States.  The King George VI Chase at Kempton Park Racecourse in Surrey is held on Boxing Day.  

1813   The Spain granted Moses Austin permission to establish a colony of Americans expatriates in Texas.

1866   Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte received word of the Dec 21 Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.

1871   The newspaper the "Laramie Daily Independent".  Attribution.  On This Day .com.

1917     The U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads during World War One.

1917     The U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads during World War One.

 U.S. Capitol as viewed from a Washington D. C. rail yard, 1917.

This was a big deal.

The extent to which labor strife was a factor in the early US history of World War One is a story that tends to be drowned out by the opposite story during World War Two.  With the lesson of the first war behind it, labor was highly cooperative during the Second World War and, for that matter, the war brought massive employment relief from the ongoing Great Depression.

The story wasn't at all same in regards to World War One.  Going into the war the nation was faced with labor strife in the critical coal and railroad industries.  On this day the Federal Government, giving a late unwelcome present to the railroads, nationalized rail and put the lines under the United States Railroad Administration.  The USRA would continue to administer rail until March 1, 1920.

The action wasn't solely designed to address the threat of rail stoppages by any means.  Rail was critical to the nation and formed the only means of interstate national transportation.  This would largely remain the case in World War Two as well, of course, but by then there were beginning to be some changes to that. For that matter, its frankly the case far more today than people imagine.  But in the teens, rail was absolutely predominant.

In spite of that, and in spite of their best efforts, the railroads simply found themselves unable to address the massively increased burden on the various national private companies, the accompanying inflation in rail prices, and addressing the needs of labor.  The Interstate Commerce Commission did what it could, but it finally recommended nationalization in December, 1917.  The President took action on the recommendation on this day.

The USRA's sweep was surprisingly broad, and it even included the standardization of locomotives and rail cars.  Over 100,000 railroad cars and 1,930 locomotives were ordered for the war effort, which the USRA then leased.

USRA Light Mikado pattern locomotive.

Showing, perhaps, the radical spirit of the time, the railroad employees unions not only supported the nationalization, but hoped and urged it to continue following the war.  This of course had no support outside unions and more radical quarters.  Nonetheless, because the formal legislative act that approved the nationalization, which came in March, had provided that the rail lines had to be returned to private ownership within 21 months following the conclusion of the war the failure of the United States to sign the Versailles Treaty necessitated a separate act to do the same, with that act strengthening the powers of the ICC.

1918  Boxing Day, 1918

The December 26, 1918 edition of Life Magazine, which at that time was a magazine that featured humor, although this image, if it's supposed to be humorous, isn't.

December 26 is Boxing Day, a holiday in almost all of the English speaking world except, for some odd reason, the United States. Given that much of the United States's holiday traditions that are older stem from the United Kingdom,  including some aspects of the Christmas holidays, it's surprising that Boxing Day isn't observed in the U.S. while it is in nearby Canada.*

Australian convalescence soldiers and volunteers out on Boxing Day, 1918.  Photo courtesy of the University of Wollongong, Australia.

In most of the English speaking world, the day is a day off.  It's also a day that has traditionally been devoted to sports and the like.  In British Army units, including units from the Dominions, it's likely that there were games of various types.  Horse racing and equestrian sports, which are a traditional Boxing Day activity, likely was likely part of that.  FWIW, it was in Austria that year (maybe it is every year), as soccer matches were held.

Whatever else was going on in the UK, dignitaries were meeting Woodrow Wilson who was visiting the country.  Elsewhere, British troops were engaged in active combat service, as for example off the coast of Estonia where the HMS Calypso and the HMS Caradoc ran the Red Russian Navy destroyer Spartak aground.

In New York, the U.S. Navy, or rather some elements of it, were committed to a big victory parade.

The Laramie Boomerang reported on the celebrations in New York City.

*Examples of British holidays incorporated into American tradition are Thanksgiving, which isn't really a thing though up by the Mayflower Pilgrims (it was a commonly observed English harvest religious holiday) and the observation of Halloween, which originally was an Irish observation of All Hallowed Even in which the poor went door to door in search of the gift of food in exchange for a promise to pray for that family's dead.

1920  Pancho Villa escapes from prison in Mexico and crosses into the US.

1922  A holdup of a Casper army store results in $112.00 being stolen.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1929  This Christmas Tree was photographed somewhere in Wyoming:

1941   President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1941  Rawlins Wyoming employment office received an urgent call for skilled workmen and laborers to work at Peal Harbor.  No doubt the same request was made in many localities across the country.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1944  Kentucky beat Wyoming in football, 50 to 46, in Buffalo New York.

2006     Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 93.  Ford was born in Omaha Nebraska to parents  Dorthy and Leslie Lynch King and was originally named Leslie L. King Jr.  His parents separated a mere sixteen days after his birth, and he saw his father only once during his lifetime.  His father, not an admirable person, provides a connection with Wyoming, however, as the senior king lived in Riverton for many years and his paternal grandfather was a successful businessman in Casper, Douglas, Lander and Omaha.  Ford later worked as a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park in 1936.

2008  A swarm of over 900 earthquakes occurred in Yellowstone over a wide area.  The earthquakes measured up to 3.9 on the Richter Scale.

December 24

 Today is the day of the Christmas Vigil (Christmas Eve) in the Christian world.
 Aðfangadagskvöld, the day when the 13th and the last Yule Lad arrives to towns, in Iceland.
 Feast of the Seven Fishes in Italy.
 Jul in Denmark and Norway.
 Nochebuena in Spanish-speaking countries.

1809.  Christopher "Kit" Caron born in Kentucky.  Raised in Missouri, he would have an amazing career as a frontiersmen in the West, including Wyoming.  He is one of those fellows who seems to have been everywhere, and at the right time.

1814     The War of 1812 officially ended as the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent.  Fighting continued, as news in the 19th Century traveled slowly.

1826   The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.

1851     Fire devastated the Library of Congress destroying about 35,000 volumes.

1859  First known lighting of a Christmas Tree in Wyoming occurs, near Glenrock. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1868  A. J. Faulk, Territorial Governor of Dakota Territory, approved of act incorporating Cheyenne.

1922  Sunday, December 24, 1922. Christmas Eve, 1922.

Normally I post these matters in chronological order, oldest to newest, but I missed something here of interest, that being the death of Sgt. John Martin.

Sgt. Martin, circa 1904.

Martin was a career soldier in the U.S. Army who is remembered today as the 7th Cavalry trumpeter who was assigned by George A. Custer to deliver a message to Frederic Benteen, to the effect of:

Benteen.

Come On. Big Village. Be quick. Bring Packs.

P.S. Bring packs. W.W. Cooke

The message delivered to Benteen, from Custer, had been reduced to writing by Custer's adjacent, W. W. Cooke probably because Benteen didn't trust Martin to be able to accurately convey the message, given his heavy Italian accent.  Martin had been born Giovanni Martino.

Martino had started off in life roughly, being born in 1852 in Salerno and being delivered to an orphanage just days after his birth.  He served as a teenage drummer under Garibaldi, joining that revolutionary force at age 14.  He immigrated to the United States at age 21 and joined the U.S. Army, serving as a trumpeter.  He was temporarily detailed to Custer's command on the date of the fateful Little Big Horn battle, and therefore received the assignment that would take him away from disaster somewhat randomly.

He married an Irish immigrant in 1879, and together they had five children.  He served in the Spanish American War, and retired from the Army in 1904, having served the required number of years in order to qualify for a retirement at that time.  Note that this meant he'd served, at that time, thirty years.  Following that, his family operated a candy store in Baltimore.  In 1906, for reasons that are unclear, he relocated to Brooklyn, seemingly to be near one of his daughters, working as a ticket agent for the New York subway.  The relocation meant a separation from his wife, which has caused speculation as to the reasons for it, but he traveled back to Baltimore frequently.  That job wore him down, and he took a job as a watchman for the Navy Yard in 1915.  His sons followed his footsteps and entered the Army.

In December 1922 he was hit by a truck after work and died from his injuries on this day.

All in all, this presents an interesting look into the day.  Martin was an adult when he immigrated in 1873, and found work in an occupation that readily took in immigrants, the military, and doing what he had done in Garibaldi's forces before, acting as a musician.  His marriage was "mixed", of a sort, with the common denominator being that he and his wife were both Catholics.  In spite of retiring from the Military after long service, he continued to need to be employed, at jobs that at the time were physically demanding.

And of interest, when his life, long under the circumstances, was cut short, he was a veteran of Little Big Horn living during the jazz age.

1944   All beef products are again being rationed. New quotas are introduced for most other commodities as well.

1983  Recluse Wyoming sees -51F.  Echeta, -54F.

December 23

1620   One week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbor in present-day Massachusetts, construction of the first permanent European settlement in New England begins.

Comment:   I remain really curious about the timing of this. Why December? Was the thought that they could get a crop in that Spring,if they hit ground mid winter?

1776  Thomas Paine wrote The Crisis:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he.

'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.

As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one-fourth so great as Howe could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in which case Fort Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object which such forts are raised to defend. Such was our situation and condition at Fort Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven miles above; Major General [Nathaniel] Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry = six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three-quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as much baggage as the wagons could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison, and march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand. We staid four days at Newark, collected our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy, on being informed that they were advancing, though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs. Howe, in my little opinion, committed a great error in generalship in not throwing a body of forces off from Staten Island through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all our stores at Brunswick, and intercepted our march into Pennsylvania; but if we believe the power of hell to be limited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under some providential control.

I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit. All their wishes centred in one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire has remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.
I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! What is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia. A summer's experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy, and, thank God! they are again assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for a long campaign. Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt on this city [Philadelphia]; should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is ruined. If he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes all on his side against a part on ours; admitting he succeeds, the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the middle states; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the Tories have; he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of. Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of Whig and Tory may never more be mentioned; but should the Tories give him encouragement to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely wish that our next year's arms may expel them from the continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions to the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing. A single successful battle next year will settle the whole. America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.

Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.

I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting; our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.

1820  Moses Austin arrived in the Mexican territory of Texas seeking to secure permission for 300 families to immigrate there.

1823 The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore was first published, in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.

A Visit from St. Nicholas

By Clement Clarke Moore

’T WAS the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

1869     Louis Riel replaces John Bruce as President of the National Committee of Metis.

1889  A monument was erected in Natrona County Wyoming to S. Morris Waln and C.H. Strong, who had been murdered by their guide while hunting and prospecting in the Spring of 1888.  Waln was from Philadelphia, and Strong from New York City, and they hired a guide/cook from Denver. The guide was later tried and convicted in Colorado of horse theft, but was never tried for the Wyoming murders.

1916   The Cheyenne State Leader for December 23, 1916: Stock Raising Homestead Act passed
 

While it only merited a single paragraph, it did make the front page.  The Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 had passed.

This was a major change in the homesteading laws in that it was the first of two homestead acts that recognized the stock raising and arid nature of the West. Rather than grant 40 acres, as the original Homestead Act had, it allowed for 640, an entire section.  It would be signed into law by President Wilson on December 29.

While we do not associate this period with homesteading it was actually the height, and close to the finish, of it.  A large number of entries were being taken out, and soon a large number would fail in the post World War One agricultural crash and drought.

The Wyoming Tribune for December 23, 1916: Carranza loses cities.

The Wyoming Tribune reported that Carranza was losing cities, suggesting he was losing the civil war in Mexico.  At the same time, the paper reported that people were being generous to Pershing's command in Mexico.

1913 The Federal Reserve Act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson.

1918  December 23, 1918. Wyoming Guardsmen of the 148th Field Artillery at the Château-Thierry and beyond.

The DI of the 148th Field Artillery.  Many of the Wyoming Guardsmen who served as infantry on the border were reassigned to this Field Artillery unit made up of Rocky Mountain Region and Northwestern Guardsmen during World War One.

If you'd been wondering what became of the men of the Wyoming National Guard, whom we started following with their first muster into service with the Punitive Expedition, the Wyoming State Tribune gave us a clue.

As readers will recall, quite a few of those men were put in to the 148th Field Artillery.  None of them deployed as infantry, which is what they had been when first mustered for border service with Mexico and then again when first recalled for the Great War.  Not all of them ended up in the 148th, but quite a few did, which was a heavy artillery unit of the field artillery.  Indeed, a quite modern one as it used truck, rather than equine, transport.  

Here we learned that the 148th was at Château-Thierry.

Another version of the distinctive insignia for the unit with additional elements for the western nature of the composite elements.

To flesh it out just a bit, the 148th at that time was made up of elements of the 3d Rgt of the Wyoming National Guard, the 1st Separate Battalion Colorado Field Artillery, and the 1st Separate Troop (Cavalry) Oregon National Guard. They were part of the 66th FA Bde.  They'd arrived in France on February 10, 1918, just prior to the German's massive Spring 1918 Offensive.  They were equipped in France with 155 GPF Guns and Renault Artillery tractors.

155 GPF in use by American artillerymen.

They went to the front on July 4, 1918 and were emplaced directly sought of Château-Thierry and began firing missions on July 9.  After that engagement, they'd continue on to participate in the St. Mihiel Offensive and the Meuse Argonne Offensive.  By the wars end, they'd fired 67,590 shells.

American Army Renault EG Artillery tractor with a GPF in tow.  Note the wood blocks for chalks.

The unit went on to be part of the Army of Occupation in Germany following the war, a mission with which it was occupied until June 3, 1919, when it boarded the USS Peerless for New York.  It was mustered out of service at Camp Mills, New York, on June 19, 1919, with Wyoming's members sent on to Ft. D. A. Russell for discharge from their World War One service.

We'll pick this story up again as we reach those dates, but as we made a dedicated effort to follow these men early on, we didn't want to omit their story later.  Wyomingites reading the papers in 1918 learned of their service, accepting censored soldier mail, for the first time on this day in 1918.  While news reporting done by the U.S. and foreign press during World War One was often remarkably accurate, one set of details that was kept generally well hidden was the service, and even the fate, of individual American servicemen and units.  Wyomingites now learned what role many of their Guardsmen had played in the war for the first time.

And it was a significant one.

1925 Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejed captures Jiddah.  Connection with Wyoming?  Ibn Saud founded Saudi Arabia through such conquests, a rare example of a state based so strongly on a ruling family, and a state that has worked, in part, because it possesses a valuable natural resource, petroleum oil.  Wyoming had been an oil province since the 1890s, and the Arabian Peninsula was just becoming one.  The economic fortunes of Wyoming have been tied to activities in the Middle East ever since that region became a significant oil producer.

1926  1,000 rabbits show near Medicine Bow and sent to Rawlins, Wyoming, to feed the hungry.

1935  5,600 jackrabbits killed in Natrona County in one of the periodic Depression Era rabbit drives that were designed to help feed hungry families.  Amongst the numerous natural disasters inflicted on the nation during the Dust Bowl years were plagues of rabbits.  Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1941 American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese. British troops capture Benghazi, Libya. Gen. Douglas MacArthur decides to withdraw to Bataan. Japanese begin offensive against Rangoon, Burma. The 440-foot tanker Montebello was sunk off the California coast near Cambria by a Japanese submarine. The crew of 38 survived and in 1996 it was found that the 4.1 million gallon cargo of crude oil appeared intact. A conference of industry and labor officials agrees that there would be no strikes or lockouts in war industries while World War II continued.

1944  All horse racing in the US is banned in an effort to save labor.

1973  Larry Larom, founding president of the Dude Ranchers Association, died in Cody.

1991  A magnitude 3.6 earthquake occurred about 70 miles from Sheridan, WY.

Elsewhere:  1888 Vincent Van Gogh cuts off his ear.