Monday, March 30, 1874. Louis Riel becomes a member of the Canadian Parliament.

Louis Riel, a fugitive under Canadian law, nonetheless was sworn in as a Member of Parliament for Provencher and signed the rolls, after which he slipped out of the city.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, March 29, 1874. Birth of a Great American, Lou Hoover.

1870s, 1874, Dyersville Iowa, Geology, Herbert Hoover, Iowa

Sunday, March 29, 1874. Birth of a Great American, Lou Hoover.

 

Lou Hoover, Herbert Hoover's wife, and a great American in her own right, was born on this day in 1874.

Born in Waterloo, Iowa, just down the highway from Dyersville, where my paternal ancestors were then living, she became fascinated with geology (as I did at a similar age) and attended Standford, where she met geology student Herbert Hoover.  After she graduated, they married in 1899 and then departed for China, after having honeymooned at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which I first saw as a child, as I had relatives native to that state.

She refused to leave her husband, and hence China, during the Boxer Rebellion.  She acted as a nurse, on the front lines, during the incident, surviving direct fire incidents.

She was a substantial human being, the equal of her husband, who was also.

She died, as we've already noted, of a heart attack on January 7, 1944, while staying at the Waldorf Astoria New York.

Related threads:

Friday, January 7, 1944. Lou Henry Hoover passes away.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 24, 1874. Houdini born.

Tuesday, March 24, 1874. Houdini born.

Erik Weisz (Erich Weiss), better known by his stage name of Harry Houdini, was born in Budapest.

His father was a Rabbi. The family immigrated to the United States in 1878 and located themselves in Wisconsin.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, March 21, 1874. Home on the Range.

Saturday, March 21, 1874. Home on the Range.

Dr. Higley.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 21: 

March 21

1874  My Western Home, better known as Home On The Range, was published by Dr. Brewster Higley, a Kansas homesteader, in the The Kirwin Chief.  It was shortly set to music by a friend of his.

My Western Home

by Dr. Brewster Higley

Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam

Where the Deer and the Antelope play;

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

A home! A home!

Where the Deer and the Antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the sky is not clouded all day.

Oh! give me a land where the bright diamond sand

Throws its light from the glittering streams,

Where glideth along the graceful white swan,

Like the maid in her heavenly dreams.

Chorus

Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale,

Where the life streams with buoyancy flow;

On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,

Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

Chorus

How often at night, when the heavens were bright,

With the light of the twinkling stars

Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,

If their glory exceed that of ours.

Chorus

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,

I love the wild curlew’s shrill scream;

The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks

That graze on the mountains so green.

Chorus

The air is so pure and the breezes so fine,

The zephyrs so balmy and light,

That I would not exchange my home here to range

Forever in azures so bright.

Chorus

1904 Version of the text

by William and Mary Goodwin:

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and the antelope play;

There seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

A home, a home

Where the deer and the antelope play,

There seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Yes, give me the gleam of the swift mountain stream

And the place where no hurricane blows;

Oh, give me the park where the prairie dogs bark

And the mountain all covered with snow.

Chorus

Oh, give me the hills and the ring of the drills

And the rich silver ore in the ground;

Yes, give me the gulch where the miner can sluice

And the bright, yellow gold can be found.

Chorus

Oh, give me the mine where the prospectors find

The gold in its own native land;

And the hot springs below where the sick people go

And camp on the banks of the Grande.

Chorus

Oh, give me the steed and the gun that I need

To shoot game for my own cabin home;

Then give me the camp where the fire is the lamp

And the wild Rocky Mountains to roam.

Chorus

Yes, give me the home where the prospectors roam

Their business is always alive

In these wild western hills midst the ring of the drills

Oh, there let me live till I die.

Chorus

1910 Version of the Text

by John A. Lomax

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

Home, home on the range,

Where the deer and the antelope play;

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,

The breezes so balmy and light,

That I would not exchange my home on the range

For all of the cities so bright.

Chorus

The red man was pressed from this part of the West

He’s likely no more to return,

To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever

Their flickering camp-fires burn.

Chorus

How often at night when the heavens are bright

With the light from the glittering stars

Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed

If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Chorus

Oh, I love these wild prairies where I roam

The curlew I love to hear scream,

And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks

That graze on the mountain-tops green.

Chorus

Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand

Flows leisurely down the stream;

Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along

Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

Chorus

Last Prior Edition:

Tuesday, March 17, 1874. John Younger shot and killed

1870s, 1874, Crime, Missouri, Personalities

Tuesday, March 17, 1874. John Younger shot and killed

 

John Younger of the James Gang was paid with the wages of sin when he went down in  a gun battle when he and Jim Younger ambushed Pinkerton detectives who had asked them for directions.  After detaining them, detective Louis Lull drew a hidden pistol and shot John in the neck, Jim killed Deputy Sheriff Edward Daniels, John pursued Lull into the woods and shot him.  John Younger then died of his wounds, Lull died three days later.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, March 15, 1874. The Second Treaty of Saigon.

Sunday, March 15, 1874. The Second Treaty of Saigon.

Contemporary seal of Vietnam.

The Third French Republic and the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam executed the Treaty of Saigon.  The treaty granted economic and territorial concessions to France. France waived a previous war indemnity award from Vietnam in the treaty from 1862 and promised military protection against China.  Vietnam was reduced to a French protectorate.

France already occupied three provinces south and east of the Mekong and had since 1867.  They became the French colony of Cochinchina.  The  Red River, Hanoi, Haiphong and Qui Nhơn were opened to international trade.  France recognized "the sovereignty of the king of Annam and his complete independence from any foreign power" (la souveraineté du roi d'Annam et son entière independence vis-à-vis de toute puissance étrangère). France understood this to mean independence from Chinese influence, although neither Vietnam nor China understood the terms in that fashion.

Last prior:

Tuesday, March 10, 1874. Clemson hand saw.

Tuesday, March 10, 1874. Clemson hand saw.

I have one.  You probably do too.

On March 10, 1874 William Clemson was granted a patent for a new handsaw handle that could be used with one hand or two.

Last Prior:

Sunday, March 8, 1874. The Death of Millard Fillmore.

Sunday, March 8, 1874. The Death of Millard Fillmore.

Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, and the last Whig President, died at age 74.

Formally cited frequently, and perhaps unfairly, as the worst President in U.S. history, his position in that contra honorific has been firmly supplanted by Donald Trump, who stands to very likely be the last Republican President in U.S. history.  Unlike his blowhard, crude fellow New Yorker, Fillmore was a personally honorable man who suffered much personal tragedy in his life.  He was a lawyer by trade, and not a wealthy man.

Last prior:

February 24, 1874. Honus Wagner born.

February 24, 1874. Honus Wagner born.

 

Baseball great Honus Wagner was born in Pennsylvania.  

A shortstop, he played professional baseball from 1897 to 1917.  Following retirement as a player, he managed the team he had played for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, for 39 years.  He passed away in 1955 at age 81.

Two of his brothers were also professional baseball players.

Last prior:

February 22, 1874. Birth of Bill Klem.

February 22, 1874. Birth of Bill Klem.

"The Old Arbitrator", Klem was a Major League (National League) umpire from 1905 to 1941, and served in eighteen World Series (1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1934 and 1940), more than any other umpire.

He lived until 1951 and passed away at age 77, writing his attorney just before his death that "This is my last game, and I'm going to strike out this time."  He and his wife Marie had no children.

Last prior:

February 18, 1874. Disputed crown.

February 18, 1874. Disputed crown.

On this day in 1874 supporters of Queen Emma attacked supporters of King Kalākaua in Honolulu over who would be the reigning monarch following the election for the same, which the king had won. 

Marines and blue jackets from US and British warship intervened, and King Kalākaua was able to take the oath of office the following day.

Last prior:

Tuesday, February 3, 1874. King Lunalilo dies.

Tuesday, February 3, 1874. King Lunalilo dies.

 

The sixth king of Hawaii reigned for only one year.  The popular monarch was only 39 years old when he died of tuberculosis.

Last prior:

Thursday, March 23, 1922. The loss of the H2, the nomination of Holley

Thursday, March 23, 1922. The loss of the H2, the nomination of Holley

Babe Ruth, March 23, 1922.

The HMS H42, a British submarine, was lost near Gibraltar when she surfaced in the path of a destroyer by accident during torpedo run drills.  In spite of its best efforts, the destroyer sliced her in half, and she went down with all hands.

Emile Treville Holley was nominated to the United States Naval Academy, making him the first black nominee to the academy since 1871.  He did not attend, however, as it became clear the all white student body would not accept him, something that would repeat the experience of nominees from 1873 through 1875.

Holley went on to enroll at Middlebury College in Vermont and went on to become a college professor.

WEY went on the air in Wichita, making it the first station in Kansas to do so.