This Date in History: July 3

Joseph “Uncle Joe” Brown, a member of the 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition, died at Livingston, Montana on July 3, 1913.  He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in that city.  The newspaper report of his death stated in conclusion:

“A gentleman of the old school; the blazer of trails, the hardy pioneer; the man inured to privation, hardship and suffering; the man without fear or favor, who tells you if he likes you or if he does not; the man who looks you squarely in the eye, tells the truth and demands the truth in return; the exemplification of honesty, sincerity and frankness – a race disappearing with the advance of civilization as rapidly as the buffalo, and destined in a few years more to live as a remembrance and not as a reality.”  (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek)

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Friedrich Ruge, Navy Vice Admiral, born December 24, 1894, commander Minesweepers West (Führer der Minensuchboote West ), commander Naval Security West (Befehlshaber der Sicherung West), commander German Naval Units Italy, naval advisor for Army Group B in Normandy, winner of the Knight’s Cross, author Der Seekrieg: The German Navy’s Story 1939 – 1945, died on July 3, 1985 in Tübingen, Landkreis Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, on Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz: “Admiral Dönitz was an uncompromising advocate of the destruction of shipping as being the only way of winning the war against England.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)  Served as a consultant on the 1962 motion picture The Longest Day.