This Date in History: September 24

Taylor Blevin, a member of the 1874 Yellowstone  Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition, was born in New York in about 1848, possibly the son of Ashbel Andrew Blevin and Adelia V. Brisbain.  His father, who was a butcher, died in 1855, when the family lived in Sarasota Springs.  A year after her husband’s death, Adelia married Ransom Varney.  In 1860, the census showed that Taylor Blevin was working as a laborer on the farm of Ransom Varney in the town of Wilton, Saratoga County, New York.  Taylor later went west and was hired in the Wyoming Territory to work for the Office of Indian Affairs.  Blevin worked as a laborer at the Crow Agency from September 24, 1873 to February 12, 1874.  His compensation as a laborer at the Crow Indian Agency in 1873 was listed as $1,800 per year.  Also at the Crow Agency was Mitch Bouyer (of later Little Bighorn fame) who served as interpreter from April to June 1873 and possibly later; he worked as a laborer there from November 1873 to February 1874; Bouyer, who did not go on the expedition, was employed as messenger at the Crow Agency from March 1874 to August 1874.  (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek)

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Friedrich von Broich, Army Major General, born January 1, 1896 in Strasbourg, commander of the 10th Panzer Division in North Africa, wounded in World War I, winner of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, taken prisoner of war in Tunisia, died in Leoni bei Starnberg on September 24, 1974, said of Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg: “After a short while [in the same unit] we became real friends…Whatever the situation, he was calm, balanced, and personally courageous.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)

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Hasso von Manteuffel, Army General of Panzer Troops, born January 14, 1897 in Potsdam, commander of the 7th Panzer Division and the Grossdeutschland Division, commander of the 5th Panzer Army and the 3rd Panzer Army, winner of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, co-author Alternative to Armageddon: The Peace Potential of Lightning War, died on September 24, 1978 in Reith, Austria, wrote on honor: “Our honor lies in doing our duty toward our people and our fatherland, as well as the consciousness of our mutual obligations to keep faith with one another, so we can depend on each other.  We must remember that, even in our technological age, it is man’s fighting spirit that ultimately decides between victory and defeat.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)