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[transcribed by Debbie Gibson]
SEVEN MILLION ACRES
Free Homestead Land In Wyoming Make Application Now!
CHARACTER OF LAND: Grass-covered grazing lands in Wyoming north of the PlatteRiver and east of the BigHornMountain. HOW REACHED: Over the Burlington's Central Wyoming main line via Douglas and Casper, or by the Burlington's Alliance-Sheridan main line for northeastern Wyoming.
HOW TO GET TITLE: Three years' residence required, five months vacation each year. Permanent improvements to the value of $1.25 per acre required. Final proof within five years. Residence must be taken up within six months of the date of filing. WHEN TO GO: Go early this Spring if possible ; yet the area is large and will offer an excellent choice as late as the Summer. INFORMATION: will be readily furnished applicants either by the United StatesLand offices at Douglas, Sundance or Buffalo, Wyo., or by me. Send at once for our circular of information and guidance. It tells you exactly what to do.
Burlington Route S. B. HOWARD, Immigration Agent Room 11, Q Building, Omaha,Neb
Transcribed byBarbara & Bill Ziegenmeyer
Date: 1921-08-23; Paper: Wyoming State Tribune- Cheyenne State Leader (News Article)
EX-CHEYENNEITE IS PERHAPS OLDEST OF NATIVES OF WYOMING
MRS. MATTIE STINGER, NOW OF LARAMIE, BORN AT OLD FORT LARAMlE, SIXTY 0NE YEARS AGO
LARAMIE, Wyo. AUG. 23,1921
Laramie has undisputable claim to having been the birthplace of woman suffrage, and now, by an interesting
coincidence, it is a woman who can claim the distinction of being the first white child born in Wyoming. This
interesting development has grown out of an item printed in a local paper a few days ago, in which Ed, Finfrock,
a real estate man, .and the son of Dr. Finfrock, now dead, claimed that he was proud of the distinction, of besting,
by a year a visitor from the east who had aspirations to recognition as the first white person born in Wyoming.
Finfrock was bom in 1865, whereas the visitor claimed the honor by reason of having been born in 1866, in this
city. The lady mentioned has them both beaten for the distinction by five and six years, respectively.
Mrs. Mattie Stinger of Laramie was born at old Fort Laramie, December 15, 1860, and the doctors at Fort
Laramie, the oldest military post in Wyoming, told her mother that her birth was the first to go on record at the
military hospital, and that she was unquestionably the first white child born in Fort Laramie. There may have been
earlier births to people in the caravans passing through to Utah or the Pacific coast, but there are no available
records regarding them, and none, so far as known, is living in Wyoming now.
Mrs. Stinger's maiden name was Mattie Tomamichel. Her story is a most interesting one, bound up as it is, with
the exception of a few years residence in the east, with Wyoming, and particularly with the life of the fort. Her
father was born in Switzerland, of German descent, on May 25, 1831. When 17 years old he emigrated to this
country. It was in Kentucky that he met Mrs. Stinger's mother, and married her, and there was one child born, a
daughter. Enlisting in the army of his adopted country, Tomamichel was sent to Wyoming, to old Fort Laramie,
the oldest fort in the state. He was connected with a military band stationed at the fort playing the bass horn.
Growing restless, he took his wife and baby, then 3 years old, and set out behind an ox team for Salt Lake City.
Finding conditions there not to his liking, he returned to Fort Laramie, and there the second daughter, Mattie,
was born.
When she was a little over a year old Mattie was taken to St. Louis, and then on to Irving, Ill., where she lived a
number of years. In 1875 her father re-enlisted In the army as a hospital steward, and In that capacity he was
returned to Fort Laramie his daughter joining him there in 1879, and since that time Wyoming has been
continuously her home. The daughter of an army man, she was, of course attracted to army men, and it was at
Fort Laramie that she met her husband, J. N. Stinger.
Stinger himself had enjoyed an enviable career. He was a member of the party sent out to join Custer and his
troops, to stem the rising tide of Indian warfare. The guide sent with them, became lost and the troops did not
reach Custer's side on schedule time. Three days later it was their gruesome experience to come upon the scene
of the Custer massacre; Mrs. Stinger says that her husband, Stinger, often recounted his experiences, telling of
seeing bodies with dozens of empty shells before them, where the soldiers had shot until their ammunition was
exhausted. Some of the soldiers had put their hats on stocks, and, poking them up, had drawn the Indian fire until
the caps were riddled so as to he nothing more than rags.
Mr. and Mrs.. Stinger were married at Cheyenne September 15, 1881, as soon as Stinger's term of enlistment in
the army, expired. They resided there for some time, and then Stinger became desirous of again entering government
service. Buying a team, they drove overland, stopping to visit with Mrs. Stinger's parents at Fort Laramie and then
driving on to Fort McKinney, near Buffalo. There Stinger was employed as a blacksmith by the government, a
trade at which he worked until a mule kicked him against an anvil, inflicting injuries which obliged him to give up
the work. The family returned to Cheyenne and then came to Laramie, where they lived for over twenty years
rearing an interesting family. Stinger was employed as a blacksmith shop located at Third and Grand Avenue,
later going to the Union Pacific and continued with that road until his death.
It is an interesting coincident that Mrs. Stringer, who was one of a family of nine children, five brothers and four
sisters, had, herself, nine children, seven girls and two boys.
Her father, sent from Fort Laramie to Texas, continued in army service until he was, pensioned, dying about a
dozen years ago, and Mrs. Stinger even yet receives an Indian war pension.
Mrs. Tommamichel remembered distinctly, and told her daughter, that, during the first years of her residence at
Fort Laramie they were still rationing the Indians, and the redmen were expected to call at the fort to secure their
week's supply of food. It was necessary to keep all the windows and doors barred to prevent thievery. There
would come a knock at the.door, and when Mrs. Tommichel would respond, it would be to see the disquieting
spectacle of an Indian gradually rising from a squat posture until his head was on the level with the householder.
Besides the first white child born in Wyoming, Laramie claims the distinction of being the home of N. K. Boswell,
the oldest United States Marshal; Edward Ivinson, one, of the oldest bride-grooms, who married a widow at
the age of nearly 91; the state university president, among the longest In service, Dr. Aven Nelson, who came to
the institution at its opening In September, 1887, and has been continuously with the institution since; the first
woman doctor of philosophy. Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard; the first woman voter, Mrs. Swain, who voted in 1870;
and of having been the scene of the first grand and petit juries containing women, soon after the territory was created