June 24

1864   Colorado Governor John Evans warns that all peaceful Indians in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked.  This set in motion that lead to the chain of events that caused the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, The Battle of Red Buttes, and the Battle of Platte Bridge Station.

1876  Crow and Arikara Scouts with Custer's command report the presence of a large village in the Little Big Horn Valley, Montanan, which they are able to see from the Wolf Mountains fifteen miles away.  They report the pony herd to be "like worms crawling on the grass,".  They asked for a soldier to confirm the sighting. Lt. Charles Varnum, Chief of Scouts, did this and subsequently escorted Custer to the same spot, who could not see the village.

Varnum survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn and commanded Co. B, 7th Cav, at Wounded Knee in 1890.  He retired under disability while stationed in the Philippines in 1907, where he remained a reserve office.  He ultimately retired from that position in 1918 and returned to the United States.  When he died in 1936 he was the last surviving officer of the Little Big Horn battle.

1876   Albert Curtis was killed by A.W. Chandler on the Little Laramie River for sheep trespass. This 1876 killing is a surprisingly early incident in what would come to be increasing violence between sheepmen and cattlemen.  Curtis' father was a judge in Ohio.

1891  For the first time, the Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court performed a wedding.

1898   "Battery A, Wyoming Light Artillery" left for San Francisco, for deployment to the Philippines..Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The Cheyenne Leader for June 24, 1916: News of Carrizal hits the press.
 

The U.S. Army set back at Carrizal hit the press in full force by June 24.  On the same day the press reported that the Germans had one another victory at Verdun, while stopping the "Slavs", when in fact the Russian offensive had terminated the German's hopes at Verdun.

1919  June 24, 1919. Marching towards Versailles, on the border, and home.

Wyomingites received the official news on this day that the Germans were going to sign the Versailles treaty.

Clearly, a lot of them were not happy about it and there was some resistance to it still in some quarters.

They also learned that things were still tense on the country's border with Mexico.

Fitting for the day, they also learned that the last of Wyoming's National Guardsmen, those in the 148th Field Artillery, would be arriving back in the state that night.

1921  Congressman Mondell visited President Harding.

June 24, 1921. 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Cigar Makers, and Mondell visiting Harding.

11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  June 24, 1921.

The text on the photo reads:

"Just before passing in review before the Department Commander in this closely massed formation on June 24, 1921. (About 400 vehicles). No motor failed and formation remained intact, a record that will rarely be equalled and never surpassed. Tiemann N. Horn, Colonel 13th Field Artillery commanding. To General John J. Pershing, with the compliments of the brigade. R. L. Dancy, Army & Navy Photographer.".

Employees of 7-20-4, R. G. Sullivan, Cigar Factory, Manchester, N.H., no. 192, 100 [percent] Members of Cigar Makers, International Union, June 24, '21

On the same day, the employees of a cigar factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, were photographed.

As was President Harding with Wyoming's Congressman, Frank Wheeler Mondell.  Apparently that inspired President Harding to don an exceedingly large cowboy hat.

Mondell was originally from St. Louis, Missouri and had become a rancher and farmer in Wyoming, as well as a businessman involved in railroad construction.  He'd was Newcastle's mayor from 1888 to 1895 and served in Congress from 1895 to 1896 and then again from 1899 to 1923.  He was the House majority leader in the 66th and 67th Congresses.

1939  The first performance of the Cody night rodeo occurred.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2016:  The British vote to leave the European Union
 

 From another era, but seemingly the way a little over half the population of the United Kingdom viewed events to some exent.

Fueled at least in part by a feeling that the membership in the EU had subjected the island nation to a level of immigration from the Middle East that it could not absorb, and further stoked by long discontent with statist European EU administration that clashed with the more democratic British tradition, the British voting population voted to get out of the EU.  This was only the fourth referendum in the UK's history, one of the other four, ironically, being one in the 1970s on whether or not the UK should join. 

Opposition to leaving the European Union was the stated policy of both the Labour and the Conservative parties and so the success of the Brexit position came against the influence of Britain's oldest most established parties, showing perhaps how deep the resentment against the EU had become.  Much of the opposition platform was focused on the unknown economic impact of leaving, showing what we stated in a post yesterday is in fact, a fact; people don't focus that much on economics on these sorts of decisions, which are more about a sense of nationhood and emotion than currency.  The British basically voted to try to make sure their island nation, or nations, remained theirs rather than moving into a less certain national future.  While this seems to have come to a surprise to many, and indeed I'm surprised that Brexit won, it may reflect a rising tide of such sentiment across Europe, which now has more countries, albeit within the EU, than it did in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell.

This has caused some speculation that Scotch seperatists might now succeed in taking Scotland out of the UK so it can get back into the EU, and even if Northern Ireland might now reunite with Ireland.  I doubt that very much and think the speculation about nationalistic Ulster particularly misplaced.  Indeed, by far the more likely, if still not likely, national implications is that forces wanting to take Germany, France or Ireland out of the EU will now have some success with their movements.  Again, I don't think that likely to occur, but then I didn't think this was likely either.

You really can't fault an independent nation for wanting to go on its own. So wise or not, a raise of the beer glass to the UK and best wishes to it.

On the implication, nobody knows what they will be other than some short term financial ups and downs which may come to nothing.  More likely is that the UK will simply quietly exist over the next several years and resume independent relations with a somewhat spiteful European Union thereafter. That will likely cause a downturn in the European economy in the short term but a rise in it in the long term as it will free the UK from some of the EU's less rational economic policies. And this might cause the EU to reconsider some of its approach to how it does things which have been heavily bureaucratic and not very democratic.

One immediate impact has been political fallout, and as part of  that Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, who successfully shepherded the nation through the recent referendum in Scotland about whether that nation would stay or leave the United Kingdom, resigned, or rather indicated that he will be stepping down.  Cameron has been quite unpopular recently and not all of his "conservative" position have really been that and to some extent his unpopularity may have been a partial source of the Brexit vote.  He'll be leaving in October, and indicated in his departing speech:  "A negotiation with the European Union will need to begin under a new prime minister and I think it's right that this new prime minister takes the decision about when to trigger Article 50 and start the formal and legal process of leaving the EU".  He was gracious in his departure and understandably is leaving this for the next administration to handle.  It'll be interesting to see how in fact it is handled, as the Brexit vote did not succeed by a huge margin and Parliament is not technically bound to follow it, although it seems like it will.

In regard to politicians, perhaps the oddest commentary came from Donald Trump, who is oddly enough in Scotland right now.  Most American politicians would be wise enough to shut up on events of this type, but some have seen the hard right political movements in  Europe, and this is sort of (and sort of not) in that category, as part of the same general societal movement that brought Trump into the position of GOP nominee. Trump congratulated the  Brexit vote and then noted that if the pound fell it would be good for one of his golf courses in Scotland.

June 23

1810   John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company.

1845  Texas voted to accept annexation by the United States.

1916   The Casper Weekly Press for June 23, 1916
 

Some of the news of June 23, 1916, is freakishly familiar a century later.

1917   June 23, 1917. War news of all types
 

I haven't been covering it much, although I've been meaning to post a separate thread on it, but the arrival of the Great War in Wyoming, and the expectation that thousands of troops would be flooding into the state's two military posts, produced a flurry of all sorts of activity. 

One of the collateral impacts of the war was Cheyenne going dry due to Congressional action (arguably unconstitutional) and, soon thereafter, the town fathers. . . and mothers, moving to shut down the "resorts".

Resorts, at the time, was the euphemistic term for houses of prostitution, of which Cheyenne apparently had some prominent ones.  The town reacted, and the town's women in particular reacted to have them shut down, with the war as the ostensible reason.  The war may have been the reason, but it isn't as if Ft. D. A. Russell was brand new. . . but then thousands of conscripted soldiers going through there was a new thing.  Cheyenne was apparently more worried about vice and regular boys who ended up in the service, and recalled National Guardsmen, than it was about regular soldiers.

Anyhow, some of the soiled doves flew to Laramie and right away Laramie followed Cheyenne's lead.  In today's headlines, we see a specific example of a "colored" house being closed.  The move was on against all of them, but for some reason that one got the axe first, with the others ordered to  quit serving alcohol.

Cheyenne's papers, in contrast, were reporting that Russia would stay in the war. . . which of course it wouldn't.  It would stay in a war, of course, one of its own horrific internal making.

And another headline gave a glimpse into the past, although it was a fairly recent past in 1917.

Ernie Shore's Relief No Hitter. June 23, 1917.

 

In a pitching event against the odds, Ernie Shore came in to relieve Babe Ruth, then the Boston Red Sox's starting pitcher, and turns in a no hitter.

Ernie Shore on the left, Grover Cleveland Alexander on the right, 1915 World Series.  Shore was a remarkably tall pitcher, particularly for his era, as he was 6'4" tall.

What's amazing about it is that Shore had virtually no time to warm up and nearly pitched the entire game.  Indeed, at one time, this was regarded as a perfect game.

The reason for that is Babe Ruth.

Ruth pitched to just a single batter, the Washington Senator's Ray Morgan.  Morgan was walked, but not before Ruth hotly disputed three out of the four pitches that were called as balls, letting home plate umpire Clarence "Brick" Owens know it in no uncertain terms.  After the fourth ball, he yelled out at Owens again.  Owens calmly replied and warned Ruth to calm down, or he would be ejected, to which Ruth may have replied “Throw me out and I’ll punch ya right in the jaw!”, or might not have. At any rate, Owens ejected Ruth at that point and Ruth took a swing at him, hitting him in the ear but knocking him down. The Boston police then escorted Ruth off the field.

Babe Ruth as a Red Sox pitcher, 1917.  {{PD-US}} – published in the U.S. before 1923 and public domain in the U.S.

Shore, a very good pitcher in his own right, then came in and pitched a nearly perfect game.  Indeed, at one time this was regarded as a perfect game, although now it's only regarded as a no hitter.

That woman on a car photo?
 

Nephele A. Bunnell at the automobile fashion show held at Sheepshead Bay Race Track, New York City, June 23, 1917.

 Nephele A. Bunnell

 Ruth McDonald

Mrs. James H. Kidder.

Actress Gertrude McCoy

Gertrude McCoy

Beatrice Allen, Hazel Dawn, Consuelo Bailey, Eleanor Dawn, Ann Pennington, Gertrude McCoy, and Vera Maxwell

 The cars

 

1922.  A tragedy.

Friday, June 23, 1922. Confederate Veterans visit the White House, Chinese Prime Minister Wu Tingfang dies, A forgotten tragedy.

On this day in 1922, a group of Confederate veterans visited the White House.

 An annual reunion was ongoing in Richmond, and this event was likely associated with it.

I suppose it demonstrated a spirit of reconciliation that had developed, with the old rebels now celebrated as old soldiers.  At the time, the ongoing repression of blacks, often violent, and the failure of Reconstruction, seemingly didn't figure into the equation.

Chinese Prime Minister Wu Tingfang, in office for mere days, and part of an effort to consolidate the reunification of China, died of pneumonia.

A forgotten tragedy was reported on in Casper.

He was apparently keeping time with other women, maybe.  She was upset, but wanted to reconcile, and then, the note stated, didn't want to live alone.

1923  Saturday, June 21, 1923. Somewhere West of Laramie 

Earlier this week, we noted this:

Thursday, June 21, 1923. Dawn of the advertising age. Somewhere West Of Laramie.

The modern advertising age dawned on this day in 1921 with an ad for the Jordan Playboy automobile:

Today In Wyoming's History: June 21: 1923   This advertisement first ran in the Saturday Evening Post:

The advertisement is the most famous car ad of all time, and the ad itself revolutionized advertising.  Based on the recollection of the Jordan Motor Car Company's founder in seeing a striking mounted girl outside of Laramie, while he was traveling by train, the advertisement is all image, revealing next to nothing about the actual product.  While the Jordan Motor Car Company did not survive the Great Depression, the revolution in advertising was permanent.

Anyway you look at it, it's still a great ad.

This, by the way, is the print date.  The actual issue of the magazine would be a few days later.

On this date, the advertisement actually ran.  I've always thought that it ran in the form set out above, but there were multiple versions, and it would appear that in actuality, the version below is the one that ran.

It's similiar.

But I like the one set out at the very top better.

Sculptor Guzon Borglum began carving the Stone Mountain Memorial bas-relief.  He'd work on the Confederate memorial until 1925, and then abandon the project, blasting his carving of Robert E. Lee off the mountain.  None of his work at Stone Mountain remains.

President Harding crossed Wyoming by train.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1925  Lower Slide Lake forms near Kelly as a result of a massive landslide.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1943  A clothing drive for Russians began in Cheyenne. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

June 22

1876  General Alfred Terry sent Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer to the Rosebud and Little Bighorn Rivers, in Montana, to search for Indian villages.

1898   The 2nd U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, "Torrey's Rough Riders" left Cheyenne by rail for Camp Cuba Libre,in  Jacksonville, FL.Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The Douglas Budget for June 22, 1916. Company F Ready for War
 

1947  Heavy snowfall threatened to cancel a Gillette to Douglas horse race.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2007  Casper physician John Barasso chosen by Governor Dave Freudenthal to replace the late Senator Craig Thomas as a Senator from Wyoming.  Barasso grew up in Reading Pennsylvania and was an Orthopedic Surgeon prior to becoming U.S. Senator.

June 21

Today is the Summer Solstice and the first day of Summer, except in leap years, when it occurs the day prior.

1788     The U.S. Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

1834     Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine.

1880  Harry Yount receives word of his appointment as a wildlife officer for Yellowstone National Park, the first person to occupy such a position.  He occupied it for only about a year, but is regarded as a pioneer in the field.

1890  564 coal miners form Almy went to Evanston to be naturalized as citizens at the expense of the Democratic Committee of Uinta County.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916  Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing's force at Carrizal, Mexico.

Following the Battle of Parral, American forces did not advance further into Mexico but scouted out from locations that they were encamped in.  On June 20 the 10th Cavalry went out on such an expedition from Colonia Dublan and received reports of a Mexican Constitutionalist force in the vicinity.  They proceeded to encounter the force at Carrizal. The Mexican forces was deployed to block their further advance to the west and informed the American unit of the same, which in turn informed the Mexican force that it was to proceed through the town.  The Mexican force agreed to let a portion of the American one advance, ultimately, but fired upon it once it entered the town.

A battle ultimately ensued which resulted in the loss of ten enlisted men and two officers.  Unit cohesion was lost in the battle on both sides and the cavalry did not advance past the town. Several enlisted men were taken prisoner by Mexican forces but were repatriated at El Paso Texas ten days later.  Mexican losses were heavier, including the loss of their commanding officer in the unit.  Nonetheless, the battle may be taken as an indicator as to how the US expedition had bogged down into a type of stalemate whose character was changing.

 US troops being repatriated at El Paso.

The engagement was the costliest action that the US engaged in during the Punitive Expedition and it was correctly judged to be a defeat at the time.  The battle came at a point in time in which the US and Mexico were teetering on the brink of war and Pershing was sufficiently angered by it so that he sought permission to advance on Chihuahua City.  President Wilson denied him that permission which likely adverted full scale war breaking out.

 On the ame day, the local news read as follows:  The Gathering Storm: The Wyoming Tribune for June 21, 1916
 

The almost certain war with Mexico loomed large.  Locally, the problem was that the Wyoming National Guard was under strength and couldn't be mobilized until recruiting solved the problem.  Interestingly, this edition reported that the European Allies were seeking to keep a war from breaking out, which certainly would have been in their interest, and that they suspected Germany wanted war to erupt, which was in fact true.

The Judge Mentzer mentioned in this article was either the Cheyenne lawyer or his father who was a National Gaurdsmen and who died of a stroke or severe heart attack some years later during a long ride during a Guard Annual Training.

1923   This advertisement first ran in the Saturday Evening Post:

The advertisement is the most famous car ad of all time and the ad itself revolutionized advertising.  Based on the recollection of the Jordan Motor Car Company's founder in seeing a striking mounted girl outside of Laramie, while he was traveling by train, the advertisement is all image, revealing next to nothing about the actual product.  While the Jordan Motor Car Company did not survive the Great Depression, the revolution in advertising was permanent.

1942  It is reported that eleven Wyomingites who were working in Shanghai are being held by the Japanese.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1963  The Wyoming Air National Guard's 187th Aeromedical Transport Squadron received C-121 "Super Constellation," aircraft.

June 20

Today is the First Day of Summer for Leap Years.

1782         Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.

1837         Accession of Queen Victoria, age 18, to the British throne.  English interest in Wyoming would name a ranch for her, the Victoria Regina.  While no longer owned by those interest, the ranch name lives on as the VR.

1844 Francis E. Warren born in Hinsdale, Massachusetts.

1865  Arapahos attack the eight men of Company G, 11th Ohio Cavalry, and the civilian telegraph operator, ten miles east of Sweetwater Station, Wyoming while they were repairing the telegraph line.  The cavalrymen were grossly outnumbered in the assault.  Three Arapahos and the telepgraph operator were killed in the engagement.

1868  Ft. Fred Steele established.

1881  Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army.

1908   Thomas A. Cosgriff and associates granted a franchise for an electric railway in Cheyenne which would commence operations on August 20.

1912  The State Training School opens in Lander.   Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1912  An explosion at the No. 4 Mine near Kemmerer killed six miners.

1916  The Casper Record for June 20, 1916. War with Mexico inevitable
 

Compared to many other newspapers, the Casper Record always had a calm appearance. Nonetheless, on this day, Casper Record readers learned that we were almost certainly on the brink of war with Mexico.

1948  The US reinstitues conscription.

1954  Drew Pearson published an account of Sen. Lester Hunt's suicide in which he noted that the Democratic Senator had related to Pearson how Republican Senators had threatened to seek the prosecution of his son if he did not resign from the Senate, but otherwise describe the motivations for his suicide as complex. See yesterday's entry for more on this story.

June 19

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

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

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

1886   Cornerstone laid at the Union Pacific Depot in Cheyenne. 

1890  Downtown Carbon destroyed in a fire.

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

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

Wyoming Tribune for June 19, 1916. The Guard Mobilized
 

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

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

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

1917    The Solar Eclipse of June 19, 1917
 

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

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

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

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

I don't get it.

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

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

How about a suit for the 4th?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1948  The US reinstitues conscription.

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

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

1996  Obsidian Cliff was designated a National Historic Landmark.

June 18

1859  Captain W. F. Raynolds' expedition set out from Fort Pierre, SD, to explore the upper Yellowstone, Gallatin, and Madison Rivers. Attribution:  On This Day.

1893  Sheridan Inn opened.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1907  The first train arrives in Centennial, where today there is a train museum.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   The Crisis on the Border in 1916: The National Guard Mobilized

 New York National Guardsmen in Texas, 1916.

The National Guard is mobilized due to the ongoing crisis on the Mexican border caused by the Villista raid of Columbus New Mexico.  This included, of course, the somewhat short handed Wyoming National  Guard.

Mobilized New York National Guardsman.

Not all of the National Guard was Federalized at one time.  The entire National Guard had been Federalized prior to the entry of the United States in World War One, but the mobilization came in stages, with various units taking tours of duty along the Mexican border while the crisis with Mexico endured. The mobilization came to be a critical aspect of the United State's preparations for World War One, although accidentally, as it effectively meant that a huge proportion of the American defense establishment was mobilized and effectively training prior to the American entry into the war.

National Guard Camp, Camp Ordway Virginia, 1916.

1918  Huge evening thunderstorms washed out railroad bridges in Central Wyoming on June 17.  Hardest hit was the area between Powder River and Waltman.  The news hit today.

A rail line still runs between the towns today, but there are no bridges.  At the time, there were numerous ones, which shows how different rail bed construction was at the time.

Interestingly, at the time of 2018, this same day was also pretty rainy in Central Wyoming.

The Casper Daily Press for June 18, 1918. Big storms cause big damage.

And not just the storm of war.

We posted about the big storm that wiped out bridges in Central Wyoming yesterday.  Today it hit the press.

And flood waters were becoming a concern on the Sandbar.  This, of course, at a time when only one dam, Pathfinder, was upstream on the Platte.

1976   The J.C. Penney Home in Kemmerer was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1990  The Gap Puche Cabin near Jackson, WY, added to the National Register of Historic Places.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2017   American Father's Day
 

Today is Father's Day in the United States for 2017.

 Almost like a scene out of the Andy Griffith Show, father and son fishing, Jackson County West Virginia.

It's set on the Third Sunday of June, meaning you father's don't get the day off.

I'd have guessed this was some sort of uniquely American holiday, but it isn't.  The US actually came to it late in comparison to Catholic Europe and Latin America, where it was established on conjunction with the Feast of St. Joseph, which is celebrated on March 19.  The separated Coptic Church, interestingly, also makes this connection but celebrates the feast day on July 20. 

 St. Joseph depicted with Jesus as a young boy.  This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less.

The connection comes due to the obvious role of St. Joseph.  In this connection its also interesting to note that the focus on St. Joseph has increased in recent years in association with his role as the patron saint of workers.  Indeed, he's sometimes called St. Joseph the Worker.

Another depiction of St. Joseph, who made his living as a carpenter and passed that trade on to Jesus.  This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less.

Those two roles, it occurs to me, are probably more connected than it might at first seem. . . . 

Father's Day as an American holiday was first proposed in the early 20th Century and Woodrow Wilson wanted to make it such. Wilson seems to have experienced his first early troubles with Congress, which would become enormous later on, with holidays as Congress would have none of it.  Note that we just passed Flag Day which didn't become official until after World War One, but which was subject to a Presidential proclamation in 1916.   In regards to Father's Day, Congress feared it would become commercial so they wouldn't go for it. Finally President Johnson made it subject to a proclamation in 1966 and it became an official holiday in 1972.

Based on the advertising found this time of year, Congress may have had a reason to worry about the day's commercialization. . . . 

 It's been a really long time since you could get a plate of anything for .30.

On this day I always see, now that we have so much cyber stuff going on all the time, posted dedications by some to their fathers.  And that's great.  What strikes me, however, is the interesting connection between the example of St. Joseph and the day, and in a way that occurred to me about this day before but not quite in the same context.  If we look at St. Joseph's veneration's, that of father and of a worker, what we're left with is the example of a really dedicated individual who carried his family through some really horrible times, to say the least, and who passed his trade on to his son through direct example.  

We don't know a lot, indeed, about St. Joseph.  We know that he was older than Mary but much is debated beyond that.  Quite a bit of early church attention suggests that he may have been a widower at the time that he became betrothed to Mary and indeed that explains a lot about their relationship that seems to completely baffle modern Americans in particular, given that they think relationships between men and women as portrayed by Friends or The Big Bang Theory are normal, rather than pathologically abnormal in the real and natural sense.  What that means is that a lot of St. Joseph's life was about duty and example.  Indeed, his life, to the extent we know about it, was pretty much about dedication.  He may very well have suffered the tragedy of the loss of his first wife, and may have had children from that union (again, this is maintained by quite a few students of the Gospels and it seems to be a fairly valid argument).  His betrothal to Mary seems likely to have been under circumstances in which he was marrying a young woman (Mary was likely quite young, perhaps about sixteen) who was perhaps a consecrated virgin (again, something argued by some students of the Bible and which seems to be a pretty valid argument) which meant that the marriage was going to be a Josephite Marriage from the onset.  He wasn't making his life easier in any sense by the marriage and right from the very onset it took a turn that made it marketedly worse for him on a real physical level.  And yet, he just kept on keeping on.

Immigrant farm laborer with his sons, the older two of which were already working with their father at the time this photo was taken in the late Great Depression.  Note the depiction in the background which sort of ties into this dicussion.

Which is part of my point.

A lot of fathers today just don't stick around.

Indeed we've grown accustomed to a situation in which they're not even expected to quite often, even by the women they get pregnant.  This has made, to a degree, us accustomed to the concept that fatherhood is somehow optional.  It isn't.  It is, rather, an obligation, and being there is a big part of that obligation.  And, by being there I mean in the sense that St. Joseph was.  

Now most of us won't endure trials such as his.  Most of us won't have to flea for Egypt.  But then most of us wouldn't pass that test and men who just ignore the situation in general have already flunked it.  Women who allow them to are flunking it as well.

But being there means more than being physically present.  It also means being some sort of example.  We all fall short on that, particularly in comparison to a Saint, but a lot of us fall very far short of it. Being an example only in the acquisition of wealth doesn't mean very much at all.  Conveying a value to things that are done means a great deal more, but that's not always easy in a society which measures everything simply by monetary gain.  Very few young men today grow up in a situation in which they see their father's work, and a lot of that work has a value that's somewhat mysterious at best.

Idaho father and son, late l930s, in a cleared field.  Agricultural families today remain really rare examples of families in which children actually see what their parents do and what the value of it is.

And of course there's a lot more of value to life than work, although we seem to have forgotten much of that.