I'm surprised to find that A. J. Mockler's History of Natrona County is on line.
Granted, it is one of the dullest books ever written. But what an amazing tribute to the internet in that what is truly a rare book is so easily available in this form.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Dual Careered lawyer
Here's an interesting item from today's CST history column. I'm afraid that I'm interested in it for the wrong reasons.
"Three Wounds in Head and Two in Body of S. S. Combs"
Recently retired Casper City Attorney Sewell Stanley Combs, 50, was found shot to death in his car June 10 at his ranch near Granite Canyon.
"The bullets that literally riddled his body were fired by a 'cowardly murderer' who shot the unsuspecting victim in the back of the head and body," a sheriff said.
Combs' widow, Hazel, "(h)er face ... drawn by grief, her eyes tortured by unshed tears and sleeplessness ... seemed overnight to have aged many years. She was haunted by the knowledge that while she lay asleep in their ranch home between Alcova and Leo, ... her husband was brutally murdered in his car--not a quarter of a mile away! ...
"The position of the body and other details indicated ... that Combs had been ... unaware of the menace hovering over his life when the assailant, in the back seat, shot him through the head, then emptying the gun as the man's body slumped over. ...
"Credence was ... given today to the theory that he was slain by an assailant harboring a bitter, personal grudge. ... This theory was a source of mystification, ... it being heard on every side: 'We didn't know Stan Combs had an enemy in the world.' ... Rumor was rife today that the trail of the murderer had led to Casper.
What's interesting here to me, I'm afraid, is that this lawyer apparently had a ranch way out of town. The location mentioned here is a pretty good trip out of Casper now, but in 1934, it was a very good trip indeed.
Lawyers coming from ranch families was common in Natrona County as recently as 20 or so years ago. In other counties, it remains common. But combining the professions is not common any longer. I wonder if it was at that time, and if so, how common.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Casper, Natrona County, 1909
Another interesting item about transportation a century ago. From a recent Casper Star Tribune article, quoting the Natrona County Tribune of 1909.
"A Dozen Will be in Service During This Summer.
"... J. P. Cantillon, superintendent of the Wyoming & Northwestern railroad company, ... was the first of Casper's citizens to start the fashion. Mr. Cantillon owns a Pope-Toledo, 20 horse power. ... (T)o its use is due the fact that very few of the ranchers about here now have any teams that are afraid to meet an auto in the road. ...
"C. M. Elgin ... has a Chalmers-Detroit 30-horse power," which he drove to Casper after purchase. "The time made on the trip ... (was) eighteen hours and forty-five minutes from Denver.
" ... M. N. Castle (Shorty) owns a 20-horse power Reo . ... (He) deserves credit for a new mixture ... for fuel for his machine, but he only used it once, and says that he will never do so again if he can help it. ... (H)e ran out of gasoline and could procure no more, but the ranch where he stopped had plenty of coal oil. Shorty tanked up with the coal oil and the mixture ... sufficed to run him into town, a distance of twelve miles."
The Reo in question appears here.
J. V. Puleo, on this topic on the Society of the Military Horse website, posted an interesting photograph of a little newer Reo here.
"A Dozen Will be in Service During This Summer.
"... J. P. Cantillon, superintendent of the Wyoming & Northwestern railroad company, ... was the first of Casper's citizens to start the fashion. Mr. Cantillon owns a Pope-Toledo, 20 horse power. ... (T)o its use is due the fact that very few of the ranchers about here now have any teams that are afraid to meet an auto in the road. ...
"C. M. Elgin ... has a Chalmers-Detroit 30-horse power," which he drove to Casper after purchase. "The time made on the trip ... (was) eighteen hours and forty-five minutes from Denver.
" ... M. N. Castle (Shorty) owns a 20-horse power Reo . ... (He) deserves credit for a new mixture ... for fuel for his machine, but he only used it once, and says that he will never do so again if he can help it. ... (H)e ran out of gasoline and could procure no more, but the ranch where he stopped had plenty of coal oil. Shorty tanked up with the coal oil and the mixture ... sufficed to run him into town, a distance of twelve miles."
The Reo in question appears here.
J. V. Puleo, on this topic on the Society of the Military Horse website, posted an interesting photograph of a little newer Reo here.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Transportation, Early 20th Century
Natrona County Tribune, 1909 A trip to write about -- "AN auto-stage line is to be established between Shoshoni and Thermopolis in the near future, and every editor in the state is hoping that the gasoline wagon will be in operation before the meeting of the Press association."
An item noted in today's Casper Star Tribune.
Tuesday, May 4, 1909. Acquitted over Pat Garrett.
Wayne Brazel was acquitted of the murder for the February 29, 1908, killing of Pat Garrett, the famous New Mexico lawman.
Brazel was the lessee of the ranch of Pat Garrett's son, Dudley. The killing seems to have involved the bringing on of a large herd of goats onto the ranch, but who the killer actually was, and exactly what happened, remains a mystery.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, May 2, 1909
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Niobrara County Courthouse
This is the Niobrara County Courthouse, one of the oldest courthouses still in use here. Perhaps its the oldest one still in use. Anyhow, this is an example of how they used to be.
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Postscript.
Perhaps simply because this is one of the first posts that I did on this blog it has remained, for some reason, one of the consistently most viewed. Anyhow, in checking back on it, I realized that I didn't post a link to the photo of this courthouse up on Courthouses of the West, our companion blog, in the main thread, although I did add it in a comment.
Also, since posting this, I've learned that at the time I posted this photo there were at least two, and probably three, courthouses then in use that are older than this one. One of those, the Johnson County Courthouse, just went out of use, as a new courthouse has been built. Another one, however, in Uinta County is much older than this one, having been actually built in the 1870s.
Transportation, late 19th Century
A modern highway map shows as distance of 211 miles from Worland, in the southern half of the basin, to Rawlins, and 293 miles from Cody to Green River, but modern transportation systems are not remotely like those of 1879. In practical terms, Green River and Rawlins were further from the Big Horn Basin in 1879 than they are now from Outer Mongolia, and criminal prosecution was nearly impossible.
There were no roads leading south from the basin, only trails. At least one yearly trip to the Union Pacific had to be made, though, because in the early 1880s this was the nearest railhead, the only real opening to a market to sell cattle and get supplies. E. W. Copps declared that the cattle drive from Buffalo to Rawlins, a trip that did not require a traverse of mountains, took eighteen days. Coming from the basin, however, a cattle owner first had to get out, and any exit required going over an 8,000-foot pass, such as Birdseye Pass or Cottonwood Pass; thus, David John Wasden's estimate of six weeks for a round trip seems about right. Of course, the return trip, when cattle were not being driven, did not take as long but was still arduous. Owen Wister describes a 263 mile excursion from Medicine Bow "deep into cattle land," a trip taking several days by wagon, while "swallowed in a vast solitude." His description sounds like a journey north into the Big Horn Basin.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Saturday, May 1, 1909. May Day.
A major parade protesting child labor, and generally celebrating the cause of labor, was held in New York City.
The parade had a heavily ethnic character to it, and the day was regarded as "Labor Day", before that holiday was officially created as an American one in contrast to May Day.
Walter Reed Medical Center opened as Walter Reed General Hospital.
San Franciscans turned out in huge numbers to visit the Aso and Soya which had been captured by Japan in the Russo Japanese War.
The Aso, which had been the Bayan was sunk as a target ship in 1932. The Soya, which had been the Varyag, was given back to the Imperial Russian Navy in 1916 during the Great War, was seized by the British in 1918, sold to the Germans for scrap in 1920, but ran aground whiel being towed, and was scrapped in place, the process being completed in 1925.
Last prior edition:
Friday, .April 30, 1909.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 29, 1909. Tornado devestation.
Tornadoes killed 125 in the South East.
April 29, 1909 Tornado Outbreak
Russia invaded Persia and occupied Tabriz. The incursion was in aid of hte Shah against constitutionalist rebels.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, April 28, 1909. Liberating the Harem.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Wednesday, April 28, 1909. Liberating the Harem.
Deposed Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II was packed up and sent to Salonika. Francis McCullagh, the adventuresome Irish journalist, reported, further:
The instant Yildiz surrendered... All who were not women were immediately summoned to leave the Harem, and nearly all obeyed the summons voluntarily. The eunuchs hesitated but were bodily cast forth by the more energetic of the young ladies inside. On being helped to their feet by the soldiers, these unhappy Nubians manifested as much fear as if they were about to be hanged on the spot. But they were not treated harshly on the whole. A military commission, after having controlled their identity and their number according to list which they possessed, sent some of them to the above-mentioned camp and others to the Old Seraglio in Stamboul.
The harem itself was also broken up, and from the sounds of it, some of its members were happy with that result.
Executions commenced of the mutineers who had supported him. The former Sultan would live until 1918.
River front, Parkersburg, W. Va.
Lynchburg, W. Va.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, April 27, 1909. Fall of the Sultan.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 27, 1909. Fall of the Sultan.
Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II was deposed by unanimous vote of the Turkish parliament, after a fatwa was approved by Sheik ul Islam. A fatwa was necessary as he was the Caliph and, therefore, both a civil and a religious figure.
Rechad Effendi, the Sultan's brother, a prisoner of the deposed monarch since 1876, was invited to be the new Sultan, which he became as Sultan Mehmed V.
It was quite a promotion, at least for the time being.
And folks were photographing Arizona.
University of Arizona, April 27, 1909.
Tuscon, Arizona.
Tombstone Arizona.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Monday, April 26, 1909. The barbarity of the day.
Natural Bridge, Virginia, April 26, 1909.
California joined Indiana and Washington in providing a law to force the sterilization of mentally retarded persons.
A growing movement at the time, this is universally regarded as a horror now, but largely because the Nazis would adopt a policy to murder people in the same category, revealing such actions for what they are.
Stockton, California, April 26, 1909.
Transgender surgeries, particularly of minors, has been rightly compared to it, and will be regarded in the same fashion in the future.
Nogales, Arizona, April 26, 1909.
The Hungarian cabinet resigned in protest of the Austro-Hungarian Viennese government's lack of support for universal suffrage for Hungarians, use of Magyar in Army regiments, and Hungarian bank independence.
Harrison County, Texas, Deputy Sheriff Lewis Markham Huffman, age 27, was shot and killed investigating a railroad camp disturbance. His partner was shot but survived.The offender was lynched.
Last prior edition:
Saturday, April 24, 1909. Driving.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Friday, April 23, 1909. Lethal politics in Kentucky.
William S. Taylor
Governor of Kentucky, Augustus E. Willson, pardoned former Governor of Kentucky, William S. Taylor for assessor to the murder, which he denied, of William Goebel, who had been declared to be the lawful winner of the 1899 gubernatorial election.
Augustus E. Willson.
Very MAGAesque.
Taylor had taken up residence in another state, where he practiced law, and he rarely returned to Kentucky.
The horrors taking place in Turkey were noted.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.
Department of State,
Washington, April 23, 1909.
Referring to department’s telegram of the 18th, Mr. Wilson asks if a fleet adequate for the protection of foreign life has been sent to the disturbed regions in Turkey, and if American citizens are in jeopardy whether we can rely upon the doing of all that is feasible for their protection. Says, in view of the humanitarian concern felt by the President and because of the distressed interest of naturalized Armenians in the United States, the department would be glad to learn if possible what is being done under the Berlin act to check the massacre of Armenians in Turkey. Quotes telegram of this date from Turkey.
Gimbels signed a 105-year lease for property at New York Herald Square. This provided for $60,000,000 in rent until 2014.
The 1909 Benavente earthquake in the Santarém District of the Central Region, Portugal. Sixty people were killed in the incident.
Child labor was photographed in Lewiston, Maine.
It shows, I guess, why quite a few World War One veterans, in reality, didn't think the war was all that bad. Daily life was already really rough.
Sunday, April 18, 1909. St. Joan d'Arc beatified.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sunday, April 18, 1909. St. Joan d'Arc beatified.
St. Joan d'Arc was beatified by Pope Pius X before a crowed of 30,000 in St. Peter's Square.
Drawing of St. Joan d'Arc made during her lifetime.
A patron saint of France who lived from 1412 to 1431 before being executed, her canonization would follow in May, 1920.
Remarkably, an example of her signature exists.
The 1909 St. Louis Cardinals were photographed.
Last prior edition:
Saturday, April 17, 1909. Soccer riots.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Saturday, April 17, 1909. Soccer riots.
Thousands of angry soccer fans attacked the stadium at Hampden Park after a replay of the Scottish Cup between the Rangers and Celtics ended in a draw.
Soccer riots aren't a new thing.
The Scottish Football Association did not award the prize cup to any team.
Helen and William Howard Taft opened West Potomac Park to the public.
Child laborers were photographed in Rhode Island on this day in 1909.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, April 14, 1909. The Adana Massacre continues.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wednesday, April 14, 1909. The Adana Massacre continues.
The slaughter of Armenian Christians by Ottoman soldier began in earnest in Adana, Ottoman Empire.
Tuesday, April 13, 1909. The Aadna Massacre.
The Adna Massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which would kill over 20,000 people, commenced. Ottoman troops would participate in it.
Armenian orphans from the massacre.
The Armenians had the first Christian kingdom in the world, and have had a state of one kind or another since 860 BC. Since the conquest of Anatolia by the Turks, they've been subject to repeated atrocities.
The Anglo Persian Oil Company was incorporated. The company became a power in its own right, and extensively exploited what became Iran, setting the stage for what we have today, unfortunately.
Minnesota passed a law banning cigarettes, effective August 1. Too bad that didn't stick.
Punch, April 14, 1909.
Sheep yards, Kirkland, Ill, April 14, 1909.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, April 13, 1909. The Aadna Massacre.
1900s, 1909, Adana Massacre, Armenian Genocide, Education, North Carolina, Ottoman Empire, panoramic, The Big Picture
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tuesday, April 13, 1909. The Aadna Massacre.
The Adna Massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which would kill over 20,000 people, commenced. Ottoman troops would participate in it.
Armenian orphans from the massacre.
The revolution was backed by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who sought to regain the absolute power. It wouldn't go well for him.
What would become the University of North Carolina was photographed.
State Normal School, #1, Greensboro, N.C., April 13, 1909.
State Normal School, #2, Greensboro, N.C., April 13, 1909.
Last prior edition:
Monday, April 12, 1909. Doc Powers falls ill.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Monday, April 12, 1909. Doc Powers falls ill.
Michael Riley "Doc" Powers, catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and a physician, became seriously ill during a game. He'd ultimately die of peritonitis a few days later, after three intestinal operation. He blamed his condition on earthing a cheese sandwich during the game, while some though he'd been injured straining to catch a foul ball, or by crashing into a wall during the game.
He was 38 years old at the time of his death.
I’m guessing the cheese sandwich was right. Having been a victim of the dreaded gasoline station sandwich, and having witnesses my son virtually rendered comatose due to one, I think Doc was right.
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