Jayme L. Job

11/27/2013: On July 4th, 1889, seventy-five delegates from northern Dakota Territory met in Bismarck for the North Dakota Constitutional Convention. The Enabling Act, passed in February of that year, allowed for the creation of a state constitution that would go into effect when North Dakota became a state in the coming months. Most of the seventy-five delegates were farmers or lawyers from the eastern part of the state, but their differing opinions created tension and disagreements.

11/20/2013: Harold Schafer, the president of the Gold Seal Company of Bismarck, received a national sales award on this date in 1957 for his ‘Glass Wax Stencils’ holiday promotion. Each year, the national journal Food Topics granted the awards based on the responses of thousands of American food retailers. Out of 16,000 national sales promotions that took place that year, Schafer’s Christmas stencil promotion was one of eight to win an award in the “New Product” category.

11/13/2013: After working in his father general’s store for several years, Fred Nash opened his own small candy and tobacco shop in Devils Lake in 1885. Business soon took off, and he enlisted the help of his brothers Edgar and Willis. He purchased a second store in Park River, and put his brother Edgar in charge there, while Willis took over a third store in Devils Lake. In 1887, a fire destroyed the original Devils Lake store. The brothers sold the remaining two stores and bought a larger store in Grand Forks, which had access to two railroad lines and thousands of additional customers. Within months, however, the new store also burned down.

11/1/2013: North Dakota is no stranger to adverse weather. Although the state tends to be best known across the country for its blizzards and snowstorms, the region is also a frequent victim of tornadoes and thunderstorms. However, it was a rare day indeed when, on this date thirteen years ago, the state witnessed not only rain, wind, and hail … but tornadoes and snowstorms!

10/28/2013: At the turn of the 19th century, Hans Aaker was Moorhead’s leading prohibitionist, although he is best remembered for founding Aaker’s Business College in Fargo. A man of many endeavors, Aaker also served nearly a decade as Concordia College president before running for mayor of Moorhead, hoping to clean up “the Wickedest City in the World.” Yesterday marked the 111th anniversary of his founding of the Aaker’s Business College, which continues to operate in Fargo and Bismarck as a merged entity with Rasmussen College of St. Paul.

10/23/2013: Beginning in the 1870s, a new group of immigrants began arriving in the United States. The newcomers were from Central Europe and Russia, but they spoke German. These ‘Germans from Russia’ were ethnically German, and had fled their villages on the Russian steppes to seek freedom overseas. Thanks in large part to the Homestead Act, Dakota Territory experienced the Great Dakota Boom during this time, as settlers flooded the territory seeking cheap land. The Germans from Russia found the area appealing, as it mirrored the harsh treeless plains of the Russian homeland to which they had grown accustomed.

10/14/2013: In President Abraham Lincoln’s third state of the union address, he emphasized the importance of America’s railroads in bringing the expansive country together, stating that the railroads “…when completed, will so largely multiply the facilities for reaching our distant possessions.” The year was 1863 and, at the time, Dakota Territory was considered by most Americans to be one of these “distant possessions.”

10/11/2013: In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased the vast Louisiana Territory from the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite domestic opposition, Jefferson believed the deal was too good to pass up; not only was the price ridiculously low, less than 3 cents an acre – 42¢ in today’s dollars. The deal also helped assure the removal of the French from much of North America, something Jefferson believed would protect his young country from future conflicts.

10/10/2013: Casselton was in the midst of its first state Corn Show on this day in 1913.

10/9/2013: Bismarck leaders and organizers of the 2nd Annual North Dakota Industrial Exposition celebrated Old Settlers Day on this date in 1912.