9/6/2008:
On this day in 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes and First Lady Lucy Hayes paid a visit to Dakota Territory.
Arriving in Fargo at 8:30am, the President, First Lady and an entourage of nearly one hundred took breakfast at the Railroad Hotel before addressing a large audience from the platform of the president’s railcar. President Hayes, who had traveled through the territory six years earlier, expressed to his listeners astonishment at the progress in settlement while Mrs. Hayes graciously waved her handkerchief in acknowledgement of the women who had gathered in hopes of catching a glimpse of the First Lady.
Following several more speeches by members of the presidential party encouraging the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, they toured Oliver Dalrymple’s bonanza farm near Casselton. By evening, the President and Mrs. Hayes returned to their train heading east to St. Paul.
Sources:
Kingbury, George W. History of Dakota Territory. Vol. 2. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915.
"President Hayes in Dakota." The New York Times, September 7, 1878, 1.