March 1, 2020. Railroads Revert To Civilian Control, Caroline Lockhart hits the Screen.

On this day in 1920, the railroads, which had been taken over by the U.S. Government during World War One reverted to civilian control.

The country's rail had been nationalized during the war and then run by the United States Railroad Administration as the system was proving to not be up to the tasks that were imposed upon it due to the crisis of World War One.  Additionally, concerns over pricing and labor unrest called for the action.  Following the war there was some serious consideration given to retaining national control over the lines, which labor favored, but in the end the government returned the system to its owners.

While U.S. administration of the railroad infrastructure was a success, it was not repeated during the Second World War when the rail system was just as heavily taxed by an even heavier wartime demand.  There proved to be no need to do it during World War Two.

Not too surprisingly, the news featured prominently on the cover of Laramie's newspapers, as the Laramie was, and is, a major Union Pacific Railroad town.

Union Pacific Depot in Laramie, Wyoming.

On the same day a movie featuring Wyoming as the location (which doesn't mean it was filmed here), was released.

The 1916 vintage Burlington Northern depot in Casper, Wyoming.

Likewise, the reversion was big news to the double railhead town of Casper.

Former Great Northwestern Depot in Casper.

The Fighting Sheperdess was the story of just that, a fighting female sheep rancher was was struggling to keep her sheep ranch against raiding cattlemen.

In reality, the sheep wars in Wyoming had largely come to an end by this time, although it was definitely within living memory.  The Spring Creek Raid of 1909 had only been a decade prior, and there had been two more raids in 1911 and 1912, although nobody had been killed in those two latter events.  The peace was, however, still an uneasy one, perhaps oddly aided by a massive decline in sheep, which still were vast in number, caused by economic conditions during the 1910s.  By 1914, the number of sheep on Wyoming's ranges had been cut 40% from recent numbers. World War One reversed the decline, and then dumped the industry flat, as the war increased the demand for wool uniforms and then the demand suddenly ended with the end of Germany's fortunes.  Colorado, however, would see a sheep raid as late as this year, 1920.

The novel the movie was based on was by author, Caroline Lockhart, a figure who is still recalled and celebrated in Cody, Wyoming.

Illinois born Lockhart had been raised on a ranch in Kansas and was college educated.  She had aspired to be an actress but turned to writing and became a newspaper reporter in Boston and Philadelphia before moving to Cody, Wyoming in 1904 at age 33, where she soon became a novelist.  During the war years she relocated to Denver, but was back in Cody shortly thereafter, until she purchased a ranch in Montana, showing how successful her writing had become.  She ranched and wrote from there, spending winters in Cody until she retired there in 1950.  She passed away in 1962.

The Fighting Shepherdess was her fifth of seven published novels, the last being published in 1933.

Friday, November 19, 1909 Sabin sentenced and Belgian abuse.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 19: 1909  George Sabin sentenced for Second Degree Murder for his part in the Spring Creek Raid.  He escaped on December 25,1913, while on a work gang in  Basin, and was never recaptured.

The sentencing is remarkable and significance as it effectively meant an end to private warfare over sheep in Wyoming, and it also meant that conventional justice had come to the Big Horn Basin, where previously juries would not convict in these circumstances.  This reflected in part the horror of the  Spring Creek assault, but also the fact that the Basin was now closer to the rest of the state, having been connected some time prior by rail.

Members of the leadership of the Church of England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, and fifty members of parliament assembled at Albert Hall to protest Belgium abuses in the Congo.

Last edition:

Saturday, November 13, 1909. Cherry Mine Disaster.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Coal, Disaster, football, Illinois, Mining

Monday, December 31, 1900. The end of the 19th Century.

Secular and religious observers marked the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th, under the technical calculation of such matters in which the "01" date marks the beginning of the century.

In spite of the way we tend to think of it, based on our own lifespans, 100 years is really not a long time.  Considering that, the 19th Century was a really remarkable century, particularly in North America. The US had been a faction of the size it was in 1900, compared to 1800.  It's the same size now as it was in 1900.  The Indian Wars, which ran nearly the entire span of the 1800s, had come to an end.  The US had fought its first major overseas war.  Weaponry began to enter its current form.

The Frontier had been declared closed in 1890, bringing about a shock to American life and culture, although in 1900 the Homestead Act was still up and running and had another three decades to go.  That symbolized, however, that the United States itself was entering its modern form.  It wasn't the US of today. . . but you could see it from there, and vice versa.

On events of the day, other than as noted, Su-Hai, identified as the man who had killed Clemens von Ketteler, Germany's minister to China, on June 20, became the last prominent person to die in the 19th century, dying by execution.

William McKinley, a late 19th Century figure, was President.  Republican DeForest Richards, who had what could almost be regarded as Wyoming Freedom Caucus views, was Governor of Wyoming.  The Johnson County War was, of course, a memory, albeit a tense one, but the Sheep War in Wyoming was ongoing.  Overseas, the Philippine Insurrection was also ongoing.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 27, 1900. Carrie Nation in Wichita.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Alcohol, Dreyfus Affair, France, Kansas, Kansas (Wichita), Prohibition