Lise Erdrich

Some of us are old enough to remember making little paper baskets, filling them with candy, placing them on doorsteps, ringing the doorbell, and running away to avoid being kissed on May 1. Another local tradition was the annual May Day festival at Wahpeton Indian School.

On this date in 1952, the public was invited to a tree planting ceremony on the state capitol grounds at Bismarck. The Washington, DC Evening Star reported that North Dakotans were dedicating a tree by the Senate entrance to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Reclamation Law sponsored by Senator Henry Hansbrough. Members of the North Dakota congressional delegation and their staff participated in the ceremony.

On this date in 1908, newspapers published a proclamation by North Dakota Governor John Burk, establishing an annual Arbor Day celebration.

In February of 1898, Mrs. Ina Cooks of Detroit, Michigan, came to Wahpeton. Her purpose was to establish the 90-day residency required for divorce in North Dakota. She rented rooms and lived quietly until the court proceedings in June.

On this date in 1966, the Wahpeton newspaper editor got a lesson in local history. Pioneer resident Mrs. Kachelhoffer paid a visit and politely provided information for his next "Sky Ride" column.

Dr. Crucial came to Fargo, Dakota Territory, in 1877 to begin his medical practice. The remote frontier and booming town suited his energetic mind. He saved lives, delivered thousands of babies, and invented an artesian well device to provide clean drinking water.

Mabel Schuler was born in Wisconsin in 1886. She came to Wahpeton in 1895 to join her father, Gustav, a widower who was getting established in Dakota Territory. Gustav and his brother Eugene operated a farm-implement business and became prominent pioneer architects, attorneys, and construction entrepreneurs. Their homes still stand side-by-side on Sixth Street in what was once Wahpeton’s silk-stocking district, and the Schuler Brothers Building remains a fixture on Main Street downtown.

The colorful days of newspaper reportage often featured unfettered character descriptions, opinion, and editorial acrobatics. On this date in 1904, the Emmons County Record reported in amusing prose that “the law mill was a-grinding” on four men recently arrested in different cases. Lawmen were also connecting the dots between three or four stooges.

In today's Dakota Datebook, Lise Erdrich writes about a shocking crime, a high-profile trial, and the tensions of a fast-growing Wahpeton in 1883.

An old postcard of the Wahpeton Indian School shows a line of buildings and a cow minding her own business. She was Beauty Colantha Fresian Tidy No. 1083302, a retired dairy champion whose celebrity status entitled her to graze along Seventh Street in view of the public.