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Beginnings and Endings

2/7/2006:

On this day in 1804, John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont. “He spent his boyhood and young adulthood in Middlebury, Vermont, where he received a common school education and served a four-year apprenticeship learning the blacksmith's trade.”

200 years ago today, the Corps of Discovery was wintering at Fort Clatsop on the Northwest coast. Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal for February 7th, “This evening we had what I call an excellent supper it consisted of a marrowbone a piece and a brisket of boiled Elk that had the appearance of a little fat on it. this for Fort Clatsop is living in high stile.”

“The small pox has distroyed a great number of the natives in this quarter. it prevailed about 4 years since among the Clatsops and destroy[ed] several hundred of them, four of their chiefs fell victyms to it's ravages.”

“On this day in 1867, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, the author of the beloved semi-autobiographical Little House series, was born in Wisconsin, the second daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The basic facts of her life correspond to those related in her books about her family's experiences on the American frontier during the 1870's and 1880's.”

…in 1873, a post office was established at Edwinton, Dakota Territory—at the place where the Northern Pacific Railroad would eventually cross over the Missouri River. The name would be changed to Bismarck in June of the same year. But even then, people had a tendency to call the town what they had called it from the beginning, “The Crossing.”

…in 1940, the Golden Maid Café, located at 68 Broadway in Fargo, suffered a major fire, and never re-opened for business.

… in 1957, the 32nd Fighter Group of the Air Defense Command was the first to be activated at the new Minot Air Force Base. The Air Force moved in eight days later.

And, on this day in 1995, Robert Krebs announced that Santa Fe Railroad stockholders overwhelmingly approved the merger of the Santa Fe with the Burlington Northern Railroad.

Sources:

http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/history/

http://www.lewisclark.net/journals/index8.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb07.html

Federal Writers Project (WPA)/State Historical Society of North Dakota North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950) p. 123

http://www.fargo-history.com/broadway/golden-maid-cafe.htm

http://ufocasebook.com/minotafb.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_in_rail_transport