12/3/2005:
Burleigh F. Spaulding was born in Vermont on this date in 1853. He was a congressman from North Dakota from 1899 to 1905 and later served on the ND Supreme Court.
Spaulding was one of the commissioners appointed to select a new location for the capitol of Dakota Territory after it was spirited away from Yankton. In Dakota Territory History, Weston Goodspeed wrote: “Acting upon the hypothesis that rivalry among the different cities wanting the capitol would secure a liberal donation, the bill provided that the commission should receive a grant of not less than 160 acres of land for a site, and one hundred thousand dollars in cash for the erection of buildings, from the city where the capital was to be located...On the 2nd of June [1883] the commissioners decided in favor of Bismarck..., the 4,000 people of that city offering a cash donation of one hundred thousand dollars and a grant of 320 acres of land.”
Source: Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, LL. B., Editor in Chief. The Province and the States: Vol VI. 1904: pages 295-306.
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm