At first glance, it sounds like a wildlife story: Elks in Bemidji! But it is really the result of my spending way too much time lost in research on Sunday and not enough time writing.

During a lengthy “fishing expedition” on the site Newspapers.com (to keep the wildlife theme going), I discovered that my great-grandfather’s Crookston, Minn., band was hired in the summer of 1908 to provide entertainment for the state Elks convention. The three-day gathering of Elks (the men, not the animal) was held in Bemidji.

The band is prominently displayed on the front page of the Jun. 17, 1908, edition of the Bemidji Daily Pioneer.

It’s hard to see the musicians’ faces clearly, but I recognized the photo, anyway.

At the close of a day filled with last-minute holiday preparations, I would like to take a moment to wish a happy birthday to my great-grandmother Islea Graham Riggs, who was born 140 years ago today in the town of Aledo, Illinois.

Who else, I wondered, was born in 1874? I looked it up and discovered that my great-grandmother’s contemporaries included British archaeologist Howard Carter, who excavated the tomb of King Tut; British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; U.S. poet Robert Frost; U.S.
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