Dakota Datebook

When the Great Depression hit in 1929, 15 million Americans were thrown out of work. They lost their jobs, their savings, and their homes. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, he believed it was the federal government’s responsibility to pull the country out of the financial disaster. He established government programs to accomplish that task.

Today, we share a few nuggets of early November history in North Dakota.

The first wagon train of pioneers arrived in California after a 1,730-mile journey that took five months. The Bartleson-Bidwell Party was the first organized wagon train to successfully cross the Rocky Mountains and reach California, arriving on this date in 1841. The group’s success demonstrated that the journey was feasible and marked a pivotal moment in westward expansion. More settlers were encouraged to make the attempt.

On this date in 1917, the Bismarck Tribune proudly announced that 18,312 North Dakota families had signed the Food Pledge.

On this date in 1911, an article in the Bismarck Tribune informed readers that Representative Champ Clark, the Speaker of the House, strongly favored annexing our northern neighbor.

On this date in 1971, a mysterious, hopping, hairless creature was loose on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. Armed with a rake and a burlap sack, Morris Baker spotted and captured the creature on Halloween at his farm near Belcourt. Dubbed “Whatsit,” the unknown animal was taken to the jail in Belcourt in poor health, where he was vaccinated against rabies and nursed back to health.

There was a ghost haunting the streets of Bismarck in 1892. At least, that's what the Bismarck Tribune reported as Halloween neared, stating: "Bismarck does not claim for itself anything out of the ordinary, but it does, just at present, rejoice at the possession of something which does not fall to the lot of every city; it owns a real, live ghost, with the white robe and all other appendages of dress, the possession of which is absolutely indispensable to the fashionable personal appearance of a well-dressed ghost."

For Vincent Baltulis of Fargo, the hiccups started on a December day in 1936, and they wouldn’t go away. Vincent tried every home remedy he knew. First, he tried holding his breath. Then he tried taking “nine swallows of water in rapid succession.” Nothing worked for the 74-year-old, who had worked as a highly skilled tailor for many years.

The mail-order business began when Montgomery Ward launched the first mail-order company in 1872.

In December 1930, when the original Capitol building burned, many people turned out to watch. Some, however, came to save what they could. Secretary of State Robert Byrne was one of those who joined in the heroics. He broke a window into his office, cutting his hand on the glass and singeing his hat. Inside, he opened the storage vault and rescued the original state constitution, which luckily suffered no damage. Without his efforts, the constitution might have been lost or damaged, as happened to records from some other state agencies. His quick thinking saved this founding document.