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| President Rutherford B. Hayes and First Lady Lucy Hayes and their presidential entourage in Dakota Territory, 1878 Guest Post by Vince Godon |
Several years ago, I came across a
story about President Rutherford B. Hayes visiting the Oliver Dalrymple bonanza
farm near Casselton, Dakota Territory (now North Dakota) in 1878. At the time,
I was writing a book (Reshaping the
Tornado Belt: The June 16, 1887, Grand Forks/East Grand Forks Tornado)
about a tornado that struck the city where I live and work. A president
visiting a small territory back in 1878 was a big thing, so I thought there may
be some photographs taken of the trip. Needless to say, when I found that the
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums had a photograph of the occasion, I was
thrilled. I received permission from the Hayes Presidential Libary and Museums to use the
photograph in my book, which included a generic section on bonanza farms. Since
I was not looking into why President Hayes was visiting Dakota Territory, it
ended my research into that topic.
I love history, architecture, historical brickmaking, and
live in the Upper Midwest. For those reasons, I also maintain a website called
Minnesota Bricks (www.mnbricks.com). On
this website, I have compiled information on Minnesota brickyards, brick
manufacturers, and historical buildings. When conducting research into these
topics, I constantly come across other interesting information. For those of
you who love history, you know how easy it is to get off track. Rather than
discard these other interesting stories, I decided to combine my love of
history with my expertise in making videos. I have made nearly a dozen
historical YouTube videos to date, mainly about Minnesota history.
Recently, I came across a story that mentioned President
Rutherford B. Hayes had visited the Minnesota State Fair. Again, I knew that a
state fair getting a presidential visit would have been a big thing. Then I
noticed that the year of the visit was 1878. I remembered my earlier story
about Hayes visiting the bonanza farm in 1878, and was hooked. Coming across the
same story twice makes you feel like you were meant to research a topic. The
result was learning many interesting things about 1878, President Hayes,
Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the Minnesota State Fair. Rather than trying to
explain them all here, check out my historical video at:
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