An August 11, 1865 letter

From the Wyoming State Historical Society's Facebook page:

FORT LARAMIE, DAK. TER., August 11, 1865.

Maj. Gen. G. M. DODGE,
Omaha, Nebr. Ter. :
Have heard from Sixth West Virginia and Twenty-first New York. Former ordered here; latter ordered on mail road between Collins and Sulphur Springs. Also hear of three infantry regiments below Kearny. Men rapidly deserting; regiments will be mere skeletons upon arrival at Kearny. Men of Sixth U.S. Volunteers are also deserting. If troops sent out act this way with us will not have force enough on plains this fall unless additional and reliable regiments are forwarded. A half-way exhibition of power toward hostile Indians will only be productive of evil. Troops sent to Utah should have not less than two years to serve. Am sending Sixth United States and Eleventh Ohio there; both only number 1,400 men. There should be not less [than] 4,000 in Utah to protect the development of the silver mines, the surest and safest method of crushing polygamy and the one-man power now crushing that country. Will you please extend your visit to Laramie.

GEO. F. PRICE,
Captain and Acting Assistant-Adjutant-General.
(In absence of general commanding.)

August 12

1877  Public land offices in Evanston opened.

1878  Robert Davis Carey, 11th Governor of Wyoming and later U.S. Senator from Wyoming, born in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1890  The first day in which Wyomingites could register to vote in their state, which saw 500 registrations.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1912  August 12, 1919 Medicine Bow to Rawlins, Wyoming on the Motor Transport Convoy

Lincoln Highway marker at Ft. Fred Steele.

The Motor Transport Convoy traveled from Medicine Bow to Rawlins on this day in 1919.

The Strand Theatre in Rawlins, which was built in 1919.

The diarist wasn't impressed with the roads or the conditions in any fashion.  Indeed, he reported Ft. Steele as being the only pleasant spot on the journey.

A photograph taken from Ft. Steele.

Today the highway doesn't pass through Ft. Steele as it once did, but is located several miles to the south.  Interestingly, there is a campground near the current Interstate Highway.

Union Pacific depot in Rawlins.  This would have been a busy depot in 1919.

On the same day, men were busy at work elsewhere in the West.

Water troughs at Thompsons Cattle Camp. Wenaha N.F. 43264A. USDA, Forest Service, Umatilla National Forest, Oregon. August 12, 1919.

And overseas, a photographer took a reminder of the cost of the recent war.

1942  Internees began to arrive at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1945  The wreckage of a B-17 that crashed into bomber mountain on June 28, 1943 was discovered, along with the remains of the crew, by two cowboys.

1971  Fort Caspar added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution:  On This Day.

2005  A tornado devastated parts of Wright and killed two people.  Attribution:  On This Day.

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August 11

1806 Meriwether Lewis is accidentally shot in the hip by one of his own men.

1865  Gen. Patrick Connor established Camp Conner in the Powder River Basin.  It would later become Ft. Reno.

1865:  From the Wyoming State Historical Society's Facebook page:

FORT LARAMIE, DAK. TER., August 11, 1865.

Maj. Gen. G. M. DODGE,
Omaha, Nebr. Ter. :
Have heard from Sixth West Virginia and Twenty-first New York. Former ordered here; latter ordered on mail road between Collins and Sulphur Springs. Also hear of three infantry regiments below Kearny. Men rapidly deserting; regiments will be mere skeletons upon arrival at Kearny. Men of Sixth U.S. Volunteers are also deserting. If troops sent out act this way with us will not have force enough on plains this fall unless additional and reliable regiments are forwarded. A half-way exhibition of power toward hostile Indians will only be productive of evil. Troops sent to Utah should have not less than two years to serve. Am sending Sixth United States and Eleventh Ohio there; both only number 1,400 men. There should be not less [than] 4,000 in Utah to protect the development of the silver mines, the surest and safest method of crushing polygamy and the one-man power now crushing that country. Will you please extend your visit to Laramie.

GEO. F. PRICE,
Captain and Acting Assistant-Adjutant-General.
(In absence of general commanding.)

1887  Cheyenne Street Railway announced its horse drawn carriages would be built at Cheyenne Carriage Works.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1898  William O. Owen, Federal surveyor and outdoorsman, Franklin Spalding, Frank Petersen, and John Shive reached the summit of the "Mount Owen" of the the Grand Tetons, the first documented climb of that peak..  The climb was sponsored by a climbing association, the Rocky Mountain Club.  Publication of the news in the New York Herald met with an immediate spat between Owens and Nathaniel P. Landford.  Landford, together with James Stevenson claimed to have reached the summit on July 29, 1872.  However, their description and sketches seem to match the summit of The Enclosure (named after a man made rock palisade of unknown Indian construction) a side peak of Grand Teton.  The debate continues on, as it is not possible to discount, or prove, Landford's earlier claim, while Owen's later one is an established fact.

Somewhat missed in this debate is that another rival claim exists on the part of Captain Charles Kieffer, Private Logan Newell, and Private John Rhyan who may have climbed the peak on September 10, 1893, using the difficult Exum Ridge Route.  These soldiers were all stationed at Ft. Yellowstone and, according to a letter sent from Kieffer to Owen after Owen's assent, accompanied by his depiction.  Kieffer indicated that the three soldiers attempted the climb a second time later, but failed due to early snows.  It's interesting to note that Owen did not publish or reveal the letter, fwiw, and it only came to light when it was uncovered in the Owen papers at the Western History Research Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, by Leigh N. Ortenburger in the spring of 1959.

The dispute will never be settled, but I suspect that the Army party was the first one.

1911 Catholic Bishop  James John Keane of the Diocese of Cheyenne is appointed the Archbishop of Dubuque.

1919  August 11, 1919. Laramie to Medicine Bow on the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy. Andrew Carnegie passes away and the Weimar Republic born.

A Packard furnished by the Firestone company crosses what passed for a bridge west of Laramie on this day in 1919.

On this day in 1919, the Motor Transport Convoy resumed its travel along a road that today is a state highway.

The path on the state highway today would take you to all the same spots, in much of the same conditions.  You'd still pass through Rock River, although the tiny town today would be hard pressed to offer a Red Cross canteen service.

Motor Transport Convoy in Rock River.

Today Rock River is a very small town, although its fortunes appear to have somewhat revived recently.

Veterans' Memorial in Rock River.

The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow is still there and its still open, so perhaps similar festivities could be held today at that location.  The once busy train depot, however, doesn't serve passengers anymore.

Virginian Hotel in background, old Union Pacific depot to the right.  The hotel is named after the protagonist in Owen Wister's novel, which starts off in Medicine Bow.

The big news on this day is that Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist turned philanthropist, died at age 83.  His passing as headline news.

Carnegie in 1905.

In Germany, the Weimar Constitution was formally adopted.  With that, Germany had officially passed from having a caretaker government made up exclusively of Socialist to being a liberal parliamentary democracy. The shepherding of that effort by the heads of the SDP had been a difficult one, meeting opposition from the more radical left which wanted a government of soviets, and which was willing to rebel in support of that cause, and only barely supported by the right, which was already turning to militarism.

On the same day, the Reichstag passed the Reich Settlement Act, and agricultural act that provided for limited land redistribution.  The act did not result in a large scale change in German agricultural land owning patters but it did ultimately result in 57,000 German farmers coming into land ownership.  It's passage took a middle of the road approach to land questions signaling the moderate nature of the postwar German parliament.

1929 Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1942  The first internees arrived at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

1946 Wyoming Air National Guard organized.

1955 Arthur G. Crane, Governor in 1949 died at age 79, when Lester C. Hunt resigned.  He had been the Secretary of State at the time.  He was President of the University of Wyoming from 1922 to 1941.

1956  Cody born Jackson Pollock died in New York at age 44.

2011 Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning center opened.

August 10

1821  Missouri admitted to the Union.  As part of this event,  most of Wyoming becomes part of unorganized U.S. territory.

1867  Cheyenne's first municipal election.  On the same day, in the same town, the post office at the corner of Ferguson (Carey Avenue) and Seventeenth streets opened. Attribution:  On This Day.

1886  Cavalry arrived at Yellowstone to police the park.

1896  William H. Harrison born in Terra Haute, Indiana.  He was Wyoming's Congressman from 1951 to 1956, from 1961 to 1965 and 1967 to 1969.  The Indiana born lawyer had been in Indiana's legislature in the 1920s, before moving to Wyoming where he first entered politics by being a Representative to the state legislature from Sheridan County.  He came from a family with long political roots, with his great-great-great grandfather Benjamin Harrison V being a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence,  his great-great grandfather William Henry Harrison being the 9th U.S. President and his grandfather Benjamin Harrison being the 23rd U.S. President.  In his retirement he relocated to Florida.

1912  Congress appropriated $45,000 for the purchase of lands and maintenance of a winter elk refuge in Jackson Hole where ranchers, and then the State, had been undertaking feeding the elk during winter.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The Cheyenne State Leader for August 10, 1916. One battalion to be ordered to the border.
 

One battalion of the Wyoming National Guard looked to be deployed.  The Guard was nearly one soldier short, however, due to an elopement, one of quite a few that these papers reported on.

And, the World War One homesteading boom was really on.

1916   The local weather, August 10, 1916
 

Because its in keeping with the focus of this blog, and because I just realized another way to find it.

Lander, WY 

High of 69.1°F and low of 28.9°F.

Cheyenne, WY
High of 73°F and low of 51.1°F.

Sheridan, WY
High of 75°F and low of 48°F.

Nice temperatures during the day,and in Lander and Sheridan, cool temperatures at night. 

1917   The Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917 (Lever Act) becomes law
 

On this date in 1917 the controversial Food and Fuel Control Act became law.  Popularly known as the Lever Act, the law created two wartime agencies, the United States Food Administration and the United States Fuel Administration.

 

United States Fuel Administration poster.

Both agencies were provided with the ability to regulate prices and attempt to control supply in an effort to make sure that adequate stocks of these vital items were available to citizens and industry.

 Poster aimed at immigrants by the United States Food Administration.

The United States Food Administration was headed by Herbert Hoover who was appointed by Woodrow Wilson.  Remembered commonly now only for his unsuccessful Presidency, Hoover was a very capable businessman and civil servant.

Herbert Hoover in 1917.

Harry A. Garfield, the son of James Garfield, a lawyer and academic was appointed head of the Fuel Administration.  It's interesting to note that Hoover may have seemed the more logical candidate for this post, as he was a geologist.

Harry A. Garfield as Fuel Administration chief.

The Fuel Administration was organized on a state by state basis.  By January 1918, in spite of its efforts, fuel supplies were short enough that "Idle Mondays" were ordered for non essential industries.  The crisis in supply was not immediately alleviated by the wars end, and the agency continued to operate until 1922 when it was deemed no longer needed and passed out of existence.

 

Hoovers Food Administration performed a similar role in regards to the food supply.  A special grain purchasing agent, the United States Grain Corporation, was formed and operated under it specifically to purchase and regulate the supply of grain.  The agency largely passed into a new entity, the American Relief Administration, with the war's end, although the United States Grain Corporation continued on with some functions, including supplying relief wheat to Russia, until it was eliminated in 1927.

 

Like the Fuel Administration, the Food Administration took towards having "less" days, such as meathless, wheatless and porkless days.  As I've mentioned on prior posts, this must have seemed like an added burden for Catholic and Orthodox Americans, who already had fast days that included at least two out of the three of these.

 

People were also urged to garden at home (something already widely done), to eat fish instead of meat, and to use oats and corn where possible, rather than wheat.

 

The approach of both agencies was considerably different than that adopted by the later Democratic Administration of World War Two, which frankly might be telling in some ways.  Rationing was never enacted on a national level, although at least one state, Montana, did enact it on a state level, so perhaps that shows it proved its efficiency in another way.

Both agencies resulted in a large number of dramatic well done posters, from what must be regarded as the golden age of American posters, and to the extent they're remembered today, that tends to be why.  But both were major entities during the Great War and controversial ones at that.  Their existence shows the extent to which Americans of that era were willing to depart from normal concepts of business and economy during the war, and the extent to which resources were truly very tight at that time and people lived closer to the margins on a wider scale.

1918  Huns Retreat. Lonely Hearts at D. A. Russell. Doggerel in the Oil Patch. The news of August 10, 1918.

All the news fit to print, and then some.

On this Saturday morning in sunny Wyoming, 1918, readers around the state were reading of the huge change in fortunes for the Allies, who were now advancing rapidly towards the German frontier.  But other news crowded and shoved onto the front pages of the state's various newspapers as well.

In Casper, Casperites were greeted with the news that the local Home Guard was going to complete the issuance of rifles.

At Cheyenne's Ft. D. A. Russell readers learned that a lonely soldier was seeking a girl measuring 5 to 5.5 feet who was not a drunkard.  The publishing suitor noted that he measured 5 feet 4.5 inches high and had well to do parents, and was seeking a Cheyenne girl to marry.

A less chivalrous character in Virginia testified at trial that he wouldn't serve in the war even if the Turks landed on our shores and carried our women off to bondage.  My goodness.

In grimmer news, a medical officer who was formerly stationed at Ft. D. A. Russell was found dead in San Antonio, shot in the head.

Wyoming Oil World, a newspaper rather obviously dedicated to the petroleum industry, found itself moved to verse on this day in 1918, although not very good verse.  The subject was the dread Powder River, Let'r Buck war cry of Wyomingites.

1919  August 10, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy rests in Laramie.

The Motor Transport Convoy spent their Sunday in Laramie on this day in 1919.

The weather was "fair and cool", which would be a good description of most summer days in high altitude Laramie, which has some of the nicest summer weather in Wyoming.  Wind and rain in the late afternoon is a typical feature of the summer weather there.

1950   The Plymouth Oiler baseball team from Sinton, Texas played the Worland, Wyoming, Indians in the first no-hit, no-run game in National Baseball Congress history.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1954  The Can-A-Pop beverage company of Sheridan announced it was moving to Denver.

1956  A contract was signed for the construction of the first uranium processing mill in Wyoming.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1988    President Ronald Reagan signed a bill providing reparations Japanese-Americans interred by the U.S. government during World War II.  One of the interment camps was at Hart Mountain, Wyoming, which is near Cody.

August 9

1832  Stockade at Ft. Bonneville completed.

1854    Henry David Thoreau published "Walden," which described his experiences living near Walden Pond in Massachusetts.

1867  Cheyenne's residents form ad hoc city government.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1877   Nez Perce clash with the U.S. Army near the Big Hole River in Montana.

1887  The Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne formally established.

1887  Henry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid) convicted of larceny in Sundance.

1894  The State's Populist Party held its convention:  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1895  According to my Wyoming History Calendar, "New Woman" appeared on the streets of Thermopolis wearing "bifurcated skirts".  Bifurcated skirts were suitable for riding, and  seem to have made their appearance about this time.  I'm not really sure from this entry, however, if a Thermopolis newspaper was noting the arrival of the "New Woman" as a type in Thermopolis, or if they were actually noting a singular new woman.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916  The Cheyenne State Leader for August 9, 1916. The Inglorious Reappearance of Pvt Dilley?
 

It seems that Pvt. Dilley's circumstances were not quite as tragic as reported yesterday, maybe.

A person has to wonder a bit about his fate, assuming he was tracked down and arrested.  His desertion came at that point in time at which the Army was evolving from the Frontier Army practice, in which 1/3d of the enlisted men went AWOL or deserted annually, and which the offense was not too seriously worried about unless the departing troops took equipment with them, to one which would regard this as a much more serious matter.  And, to add to it, when conscription came for World War One public sentiments were so strong that in some areas a man of military age could not walk for more than a couple of blocks without being accosted by citizens wondering if they were shirking their duty.  Young women, in fact, were particularly zealous in offering offense to men who appeared to be less than enthusiastic about military service.  Pvt. Dilley's actions may have had implications he didn't consider at the time.

Assuming, of course, that he had deserted.  Which perhaps, he had not.  He never reappeared, in spite of having family and friends in the state.  His father was certain that he'd been murdered, which he may very well have been.

If he left service without discharge, he certainly wasn't the only one to attempt it.  Disciplinary problems were a huge factor with the Wyoming Guard, including desertions, which were not all that uncommon.  As we've seen, going AWOL was fairly common as well, at least in the context of briefly leaving to marry.

On other matters, 2ar was in the air, with the Guard being inspected and the paper contemplating what war with Mexico might mean, which apparently meant war with Japan.  Odd to see that speculated on in this context.

Love was also in the air, and yet another Guardsman went AWOL to elope, something that seems to have been a regular occurrence.

1918  The U. S. government ordered automobile production to halt by January 1, 1919, and convert to military production.

1918  The news of Amiens hits home and brewers lose a fight. The Laramie Boomerang, August 9, 1918.

The Germans were losing the war, and brewers were losing the fight for coal, as German reversals began to set in, and prohibition started to come in through the side door.

The intervention in Russia began to build steam. . . even at the point where its relation to the war in Europe started to become questionable.

And nice weather was predicted.

All on a Friday in early August, 1918.

1919 August 9, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy reaches the Gem City of the Plains.

On this day in 1919, the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy went over Sherman Hill and on down into Laramie.

Sherman Hill is a legendary grade, so making the 57 miles in 11.5 hours is all the more impressive.

The entries noted that on this day, and the prior one, the weather was cool.

The prior day in Cheyenne the convoy had been feted with a rodeo and celebration.  To my surprise, this story does not seem to have regarded as anywhere near as important as I would have thought.  The arrival of the convoy was on the front page of both Cheyenne papers the day it occurred, but it didn't make the front page of the Laramie or Casper paper, both of which had wire service. The arrival of the convoy in Laramie didn't seem big news anywhere else and only made the cover of one of the two Laramie papers.

The convoy was headed to the Pacific coast, of course, and if things in the interior seemed a bit primitive. . . or not, things on the coast were definitely not.

1920 

1937  The Casper Alcova Project renamed the Kendrick Project in honor of John B. Kendrick.

1944   The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.  It's interesting to note that at least some WWII era anti forest fire campaigns were very war themed.

Smokey's first appearance.

1974    Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States following the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.  Ford has a connection with Wyoming in that his father was part of a family that had shipping and commercial interest in Wyoming and Nebraska.  Ford was born on Omaha Nebraska as Leslie Lynch King, and his parents divorced almost immediately after his birth.

Nixon departing the White House on August 9, 1974.

August 8

International Cat Day

Lex Anteinternet:  Eee gads, I almost missed it.

It's International Cat Day.  August 8.

1854   Smith and Wesson patented a pattern of metallic cartridge.

1902  The first Weston County "Old Timers' Day" held. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   The Cheyenne State Leader for August 8, 1916. The mysterious disappearance of Private Dilley 

Guardsman Pvt. Dilley mysteriously disappeared.

1919  August 8, 1919. Making Cheyenne.

The 1919 transcontinental Motor Transport Convoy entered Wyoming on this day in 1919.

The convoy east of Cheyenne.

Governor Carey was on the road as well, meeting the convoy at Hillsdale, a small Wyoming town that is now a shadow of its former self.  From there they proceeded on to Cheyenne, where Ft. D. A. Russell somewhat ironically provided a cavalry escort through Cheyenne and onto the post.

They were treated to a rodeo at Frontier Park and the town's businesses closed at 4:00 p.m. for the festivities.

Elsewhere, the Third Afghan War came to an end when the warring parties signed the Ango-Afghan Treaty of 1919. The war had been short and fought for limited purposes. The result was the establishment of the current Afghan border and the end of British subsidies to Afghanistan.

In the wreck of the Austrian Empire, the First Hungarian Republic dissolved.  As confusing as the names may be, it was replaced by the Hungarian Republic, a more conservative government.

1929  Major Doyen P. Wardwell of Casper, a World War One veteran of the Lafayette Escadrille and a pioneer Wyoming aviator, dies in an airplane crash.  The Wardwell Addition to the City of Casper would be named after him, and the Casper Municipal Airport was renamed for him. That airport later formed some of the city streets for Bar Nunn Wyoming.

1936  Ernest Hemingway visited Laramie.  Hemingway visited Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain fairly frequently. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1944 Wyoming has its smallest lamb crop in eight year.  This was likely due to sheep requirements during World War Two, which would have reduced the number of ewes.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1989  Robert Arthur Harris, the first Wyomingite to become a Major League baseball player, died in North Platte Nebraska.  He was born in Gillette in 1915.

1991  The keel was laid down for SSBN 742, the USS Wyoming.