11/13/2012:
Modern and classic films hail the train station as a place of romance and as an important meeting ground. The railway was the primary method of transportation for goods and passengers across states in the early 20th century. Train stations saw many passengers each year.
The Fargo Forum ran a column in those days called In And Out of Fargo, which announced the departures and returns of Fargo residents. Travelers to destinations like Minneapolis and Williston on account of family deaths and visits to friends, were compiled in this newspaper feature.
On this date in 1936, the paper also ran a story reporting that more than fifteen women had come forward to claim a diamond ring discovered in the Northern Pacific depot restroom ten years prior. The Forum took over the care of the ring in an attempt to return it to its original owner, but each woman who came forward was unable to successfully claim the ring. Some had lost rings with a similar look, but ultimately, their missing ring descriptions were not a match.
One lead came from O.B. Comm, who served as a relief matron. She remembered a lady who reported a missing ring at the station ten years earlier. Though the woman and Comm searched for the ring, they were unable to locate it. Comm believed the woman’s ring had been bought by her husband in the country of her Nordic origin, but the mystery of the lost ring remained.
Perhaps in this day and age of the Internet, computer records, and instant communication, finding the rightful owner would be an easy matter, but not so in 1936.
Dakota Datebook written by Hayley Burdett
Source: 13 November 1936 “More than 15 Lay Claim to Diamond Lost 10 Years Ago.” The Fargo Forum.