Jayme L. Job

6/7/2013: A progressive public health initiative taken by North Dakota’s prison system garnered national attention on this date in 2007. Although relatively small, with fewer than 1,500 inmates, the state’s prisons were attempting to tackle what the World Health Organization has called the new “silent killer” – Hepatitis C. After a National Public Radio program highlighted the initiative on June 6th, several national newspapers carried the story, shedding light on an oft-hidden problem.

6/1/2013: Charles Whitteron, a farmer near Bottineau, North Dakota, was recuperating after an animal attack on this date in 1922.

5/26/2013: With an unusually long winter and an even colder spring, 2013 had many North Dakotans wondering if warmer weather would ever arrive. As tough as the weather has been so far, however, the spring of 1970 might have been worse.

5/25/2013: On this date in 1916, an infection had James Hill bedridden. From his window, the man known as the Empire Builder looked onto the bustling city of St. Paul.

5/20/2013: What’s in a name? As Shakespeare asked, “Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?” Certainly a name can alter one’s expectations of a thing, or even a person. Good Roads Woman, an early 20th century Siouan woman living in western North Dakota, proved in 1904 that you can’t judge a book by its cover, or more accurately, its name. With the mysterious death of her fourth husband in 1904, Good Roads Woman may have actually been a black widow of sorts.

5/19/2013: A raving man was arrested late on the night of May 19, 1922, by a Bismarck patrolman. The officer believed him drunk, and jailed him for the night, hoping he’d sober up by morning.

5/18/2013: News reports today abound with stories of inclement weather, unusual births, and even drivers struck by car trouble, but rarely do we hear stories that include all three.

5/17/2013: In 1922, two young Logan County farmers learned the hard way that a life of crime doesn’t pay. The 21-year-old men, Myron Haines and Irwin Sparks, decided to try their hand at armed robbery, but after both a car and foot chase, they ended up nursing their wounds behind bars.

5/15/2013: Two alleged ‘chicken rustlers’ were arrested in Valley City on this date in 1922 by Sheriff Larson on charges of repeated chicken theft. The two men hailed from Pine City, Minnesota, and appeared to be operating a wide-scale chicken rustling scheme in which they would drive into rural areas of North Dakota, steal live chickens from area farms, and then transport the chickens back to Fargo to sell.

5/12/2013: A terrible thunderstorm featuring winds of “cyclonic proportions” and widespread lightning struck southern North Dakota on the early morning of May 9th, 1922.