Carole Butcher

Invented in the 1870s, the power binder cut grain and tied the stalks into bundles using twine. One person and a team of horses could accomplish work that had formerly taken six workers to do.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Dr. William Jayne as territorial governor. Jayne recognized that the territory needed some form of defense. The legislature passed "An Act to Organize and Discipline the Militia of the Territory of Dakota."

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was intended to prevent foreign espionage and sabotage during wartime. It allows the president to detain or deport natives and citizens of an enemy nation. The act has been invoked three times: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.

The rosy, "Leave It to Beaver" portrayal of the American economy in the 1950s and ’60s was not reality for many Americans. By the 1960s, fully 20 percent of the population was living in poverty. President Kennedy’s advisor, Walter Heller, prepared a report warning that some Americans would remain trapped in poverty even with full employment.

North Dakota’s old Capitol building in Bismarck, built in 1884, was home to state officials, including the governor, the secretary of state, and the attorney general. It was also where the two houses of the state legislature met. By the early 1900s, the building was showing its age.

John James Audubon is famed as an ornithologist, largely because of his detailed illustrations of North American birds. He became famous after the publication of his meticulous and accurate paintings.

Dakota Territory had to begin the process of statehood by applying to Congress. Many people thought it would be admitted as the state of Dakota instead of being split into North and South. Many factors led to the division including an increase in population of both sections of the territory and political disputes about the location of a capital.

The Civil War was not going well for the Union in 1862. A victory at Shiloh in April was followed by defeat in the Seven Days Battles, an inconclusive result at Antietam, and a disastrous loss at Fredericksburg.

While Ben Eielson is North Dakota’s most famous aviator, others came before him, though their names are less well known. On June 9, 1911, Fargo banks and stores closed as more than 12,000 people flocked to the fairgrounds to watch Robert St. Henry take to the air in his Glenn Curtiss biplane. St. Henry was working for Curtiss, the New York airplane designer based in Hammondsport.

It’s a tale as old as time: two young men in love with the same girl. Tom Allen lived on the farm next to the Lockhart place and spent much of his spare time courting Laura Lockhart, even though he was quite a bit older. But Allen had two obstacles. He often got drunk, which did not appeal to Laura. And he had a rival: Brownie Emery. Emery was closer to Laura’s age, she seemed more attracted to him, and, unlike Allen, he never arrived at the Lockhart home drunk.