DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Dunseith Vigilantes
June 16, 2026 – Located near the present-day International Peace Garden, the North Dakota town of Dunseith is named for a Gaelic word meaning “city of peace” – although there have certainly been times in the city’s history when peace was in short supply. June of 1893 was just such a time, when a mysterious cowboy appeared in the small town and caused quite a bit of trouble.
Despite its modest size, Dunseith had a bustling downtown in 1893, with a grocery, a new bank, and even a modern jewelry store. Farmers and ranchers from the surrounding area often came into town to make purchases and conduct business, even from the Canadian side of the border. So, when the stranger wearing dungarees was seen around town, no one took notice. Although he was around for a few days, no one learned anything about him, not even his name.
On the evening of June 16, the stranger rode his horse up to the Turtle Mountain Bank around 8 p.m. Cashier J. C. Tucker was just closing up when the cowboy entered the bank and drew his pistol. Threatening Tucker with the revolver, the bandit managed to persuade the cashier to open the bank’s safe, which he quickly emptied. He then marched Tucker out to his horse at gun-point. Although early in the evening, few people were out and about, and no one noticed as the cowboy mounted the horse and rode off into the mountains. Tucker quickly sent up the alarm, however, alerting the townspeople of the robbery. The bandit, meanwhile, decided that the $1,000 he had stolen was not enough, and turned his horse around. He decided he would also rob Kotchevar’s jewelry store.
Returning to town, he went into the store and ordered the clerk, James McRae, to hand over cash and jewelry. McRae attempted to overpower the stranger, but was shot in the struggle. By this time, the townspeople had begun to organize themselves to discuss the robbery and put together a posse to follow the bank robber. When they heard the shot from the jewelry store, they rushed to the scene with guns drawn. The citizen posse chased after the cowboy, and soon caught up with the nameless bandit, shooting both him and his horse.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Dr. Webster Merrifield
June 17, 2026 – Dr. Webster Merrifield became UND’s third president on this date in 1891. He refused for a number of years before finally accepting the position.
Merrifield grew up in Vermont and graduated from Yale in 1877. For the next two years, he taught in a private school at Newburg, NY, and then spent the next four as a Greek and Latin tutor at Yale. He moved to Dakota Territory in 1883 to fill the chair of Latin and Greek at the newly established University of North Dakota, where he also taught Literature and Political Science. He was Secretary of the Faculty, the University’s first Librarian, and a driving force behind adopting a liberal arts curriculum rather than offering a more practical education.
UND’s early years were particularly difficult, as they were for all the state’s schools. The state had taken on too many costly institutions without enough people to support the tax base needed to fund them. In 1885, President Blackburn was dismissed, and Merrifield was asked to take over. Instead, Merrifield found UND’s second president, Homer Sprague, to take over. By 1891, Merrifield couldn’t hold off the offer any longer and took over the position of president, which he held for the next 15 years.
Merrifield faced the same challenges as his peers and predecessors – lack of money and resources. The territory was struggling toward statehood, there were political problems, and the economy was on the downturn. In 1894, an outbreak of typhoid fever paralyzed both the university and the city of Grand Forks. The following year, the governor refused to appropriate any money for UND, and it looked like it would have to close its doors.
The University of Montana saw an opportunity and tempted Merrifield to become its president and to bring his entire faculty along with him. The city of Grand Forks rallied, however, raising $26,000, and the teaching staff voted to accept a 25% pay cut.
During Merrifield’s presidency, UND’s system was reorganized and actually expanded. The School of Mines opened in 1897, and two years later the Law School opened. 1901 saw the creation of the College of Mining Engineering, and of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and also the College of Liberal Arts and the Normal College took shape. In 1905, a two-year School of Medicine was established, and in 1906, Merrifield and the president of Wesley College agreed to essentially share their resources with each other.
Freshmen dubbed the first campus telephone the “class tree” and “got back and forth to Grand Forks on daily afternoon trains or a horse and carriage bus called the “Black Maria.” The few students who lived on campus during those earliest years occupied two large barracks called the Bull Pen and the Ram Pasture. One story tells of a pious classman who loudly delivered bedtime prayers that included the names and misdeeds of everyone in the whole Bull Pen – loudly enough for professors to hear. It was reported that students “took matters into their own hands with a forced dip in a cold bathtub, which soon solved the problem.”
Merrifield also worked to develop and greatly improve curricular standards and graduation requirements for the state’s many fledgling high schools. In fact, at his retirement in 1912, he was honored as the “father of secondary schools” in North Dakota.
Dr. Webster Merrifield died in his Pasadena home in January 1916.
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Andy Jones
June 18, 2026 – Pierce County was created by an act of the legislature of the Territory of Dakota in 1887. By 1891, the present shape of the county was finalized, with a total of 30 townships. Rugby Junction, a railroad station, was chosen as the county seat, over rival Barton. Even then, it was known mainly as just Rugby.
In 1897, Rugby was incorporated as a village. It became a city in 1905, and was dubbed the geographical center of North America in 1931. The city has had a rich history, and fifty years after it was first platted, much of the early history of Rugby and Pierce County was published in a special Jubilee edition of the Pierce County Press on this date in 1936.
History is enriched by the individuals, and for Rugby, political and business boss Andy Jones was one of those important figures. In fact, it was said for some time that Rugby was “the town that Andy Jones made.” He was responsible for determining the site of the early school building. He was also responsible for one of the best race tracks in the state being erected there, which was supposed to have come about from his penchant for gambling.
Stories made him out as ruthless and domineering in business and political transactions, but generous in other spheres of life. But he was perhaps less of a Robin Hood than this might seem, as illustrated in this story.
Andy Jones ran into the sheriff of the town and asked him for a ride, which the sheriff gave willingly. But Jones had one stop to make on the way. He had the sheriff pull in at a farm and he ran in.
Out of earshot of the sheriff, he told the master of the farmhouse, “Your note is past due. Make out another one right away. Do you see the sheriff waiting out in front? If you don’t write that note, he’s coming in here after you.” The man hesitated, as the note was out of date, but intimidated by the sheriff, he signed a new one.
Years later, Jones left town after a stint in jail, the result of a shortage in bank funds where he was cashier. But in the meantime, he had touched the history of Rugby.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Lemke Enters Presidential Race
June 19, 2026 – William Lemke, Fargo attorney and North Dakota congressman, announced that he would be entering the race for the United States presidency on this date in 1936.
The news was announced in an evening radio address, and shocked even Lemke’s wife. “The news that she might someday be First Lady came as a complete surprise to Mrs. Lemke” on that evening. She had been told in a recent letter from her son, Robert, to listen to the radio program for a ‘surprise’. She had no idea that the surprise would include the newly formed Union Party’s endorsement of her husband as a presidential candidate. Mrs. Lemke remained unexpectedly grounded after the announcement, and an interviewer from the Fargo Forum found “life in the home [of the Lemke’s] … untouched by political fervor.”
The fledgling third party under which Lemke ran was the creation of the popular Louisiana Senator Huey Long. Long’s “Share our Wealth” platform urged for the creation of several well-liked programs aimed at ending the Depression. Long was assassinated in September of 1935, and the party recruited Lemke to run as their candidate for the 1936 election against Democrat Franklin Roosevelt and Republican Alf Landon. Regarding his nomination, Lemke agreed to run “…in accordance with the thousands of messages and requests [he had] received from all over the nation.” He declared that the issue at hand was “economic slavery” and that his 15-point platform was “intended to ‘save democracy and put a permanent end to the so-called depression.”
Several regarded Lemke’s experience as an Attorney General of North Dakota and Representative in the U.S. Congress as excellent credentials for his nomination. Upon hearing of the nomination, North Dakota Secretary of State J. D. Gronna said “Lemke … will be the first candidate for president North Dakota ever had and we should certainly wish him well.” Railroad Commissioner S. S. McDonald replied “I hope he gets it. We’d have a whole lot better country if Bill Lemke were president.”
Several members of Congress believed that Lemke’s decision to run was affected in part by the decision of President Roosevelt to kill the Fraizer-Lemke Bill that Lemke had introduced into Congress. The bill would have provided government refinancing of farm mortgages.
Although the election proved a landslide for President Roosevelt, Lemke managed to secure 892,378 votes, or two percent of the vote nationwide. Lemke continued to serve as North Dakota Representative until his death in 1950.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme Job
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Dewey Dorman
June 29, 2026 – On this date in 1911, Minot was planning for a spectacular Fourth of July, with fireworks, free vaudeville acts, a baseball game, a grand mask carnival on Main Street, a “sham battle” between Company D of Minot and Company E of Williston, and more.
One of the most talked-about attractions was an exhibition by local aviator Dewitt “Dewey” Dorman, who would make a flight in his home-built 50 horsepower Bleriot monoplane. He had made his first flight on June 9, and he told reporters, “Yes, I am learning to fly and believe me, it is no easy task.”
He cited issues with weather, as well as simply learning how to deal with the ins and outs of a new machine, though he added, “I might say that I have mastered the details of the machine and I am positively going to fly at the races July 3, 4, and 5. I realize that I am taking chances every time that I fly, but I am willing to take them in order to satisfy the public. I have no doubt that I will be able to make some very satisfactory flights.”
However, a slight scandal rocked the event. It was reported that the Wright brothers might attempt to prevent Dewey from flying, claiming a patent on several of the devices used in his plane.
Dewey responded, “I do not believe that anyone can stop me from using this machine. Wright brothers claim a patent on practically everything that has been manufactured along the flying machine line, but I do not believe that they can make their claim hold in court.” He said his monoplane was different from their machines, and was one of the few such planes in the United States.
Dewey did fly for part of the celebration, but it was not for long. Though the windy weather had not improved, he didn’t want to disappoint the crowds of people there to see him. On his takeoff on July 4, the wind caught the machine and turned it over, breaking the propeller. He turned off the engine and escaped without injury, though the plane was no longer flight worthy.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Cat Stories
June 30, 2026 – In honor of June being National Adopt-a-Cat Month, we’re sharing a few stories today of our furry friends from years past.
In 1908, a “man of domestic habits” wondered if all cats liked flowers. His wife’s cat curled his tail each time he sniffed their scent. Even more curious, the cat’s taste in blooms matched his mistress’s, a fact she often used to convince her husband to buy the more expensive flowers.
In the early 1920s, Nancy Hendrickson took up photography while caring for her ailing mother.
Showing patience and skill, she mostly photographed her pet cats dressed and posed as humans. One cat flew in a rocket, another scrubbed clothes on a washboard. Others typed on a typewriter, won boxing matches, or played the piano. Nancy turned this quirky hobby into a successful career winning awards, getting published in national newspapers, and selling postcards. As one writer put it, “During the hard times, her cats were her breadwinners.”
In 1924, Sam Brand wanted 20 to 30 cats for rat catching. His newspaper ad read, “This is a chance for boys to get a little spending money. Bring me your spare cats.”
By the late 1950s, Bismarck Airport had its own feline welcoming committee. When planes landed, the cats would scamper up the ramp to greet passengers, then head straight to the galley for cream from the stewardesses. Amiable Old Tom got scolded for heading to the cream too quickly. Coy Singapore Susie was pampered in a first-class seat, complete with an airline bib. Energetic Dynamite once hitched a ride all the way to Jamestown. Travelers loved them, and the airport got letters to prove it.
In the 1970s, Carolyn Johnson of Burlington ran her own cattery, breeding and showing Himalayan cats, including Sam Sin, a four-time national champion.
In the 1980s, the Dawsons went even further raising bobcats and bobkittens. The feisty kittens had to be fed five to six times a day, but they were seen as an alluring business prospect.
In the 1990s, Leo liked working in flower beds, Kat spent hours watching butterflies, Orson B. Wells took naps, and Nookums liked lounging on top of the fridge.
Whether for companionship, business, shows, rat catching, or laughs, North Dakota cats have always held their own. So why not adopt, and continue the tradition?
Dakota Datebook by Cody Goehring
“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from The Study ND. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org, subscribe to the “Dakota Datebook” podcast, or buy the Dakota Datebook book at shopprairiepublic.org.