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1/16/2007: The city of Fargo suffered a devastating fire on this day in 1907. The fire broke out in the basement of the Bristol-Sweet Harness Company at 117 Broadway and caused over $100,000 in damages.

1/22/2007: A kidnapping report that had put the city of Fargo into a frenzy was retracted on this day in 1928. On January 19, eighteen-year old Esther Monson was found lying unconscious on a sidewalk in downtown Fargo.

1/25/2007: A prisoner being held in Minot on charges of bank robbery died on this day in 1907.

1/29/2007: The last illegal execution in North Dakota happened in Schaefer on this date in 1931 when a mob seized a prisoner named Charles Bannon and lynched him a half mile from the jail.

1/31/2007: Back in 1877, there was a “creative” story in a Bismarck newspaper about an unnamed man in New York with a deep scar running from the hairline of his left temple, down through his nose and ending at the right-hand corner of his mouth. The story read, “The man with the scar sang two or three songs, and then passed his cap around for pennies.”

2/1/2007: The Fargo Forum reported the astonishing accomplishments of a recent immigrant to the state on this day in 1928. Ida Keber, originally from Possenheim, East Prussia, surprised her Kenmare schoolteachers by completing a full twelve-grade general education course only one year after her arrival to this country. This feat is even more impressive when one learns that Miss Keber had not known a single word of English before her arrival.

2/2/2007: An unusual property case was reported from Jamestown on this day in 1916. The issue at hand was the right to ownership of five white pigs, and was being battled out by two local farmers, both claiming to be the rightful owners of the animals, of course. Judge Bigelow presided over the court hearing, and was charged with the task of sorting out the pork problem at hand.

2/3/2007: I beg your pardon…isn’t that Lynn Anderson?

2/4/2007: When Independent Party candidate for governor of North Dakota, Eli Shortridge, was running for the office, one of his campaign promises was to build a state-owned elevator at the “head of the lakes”, the shipping ports of Duluth or Superior!

2/5/2007: History books chronicling the names of the Governors of Dakota Territory list ten governors from 1861, when Dakota Territory was created, up to 1889, when North and South Dakota went their separate ways as states, but on this date in 1887, none of those ten individuals on the list were sitting in the Governor's chair. Did Dakota Territory have an eleventh governor?