North Dakota
Today in History, 1937: Charles F. Amidon, a pivotal figure in North Dakota’s legal history, dies at 81
On this day in 1937, former North Dakota federal judge Charles F. Amidon died in Tucson, Arizona, ending a distinguished career in public service
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
JUDGE AMIDON DIES IN ARIZONA AT 81
Rites Held In Tucson; Ashes To Be Brought To Fargo For Burial
Death Ends Career Of Public Service; Appointment To Federal Bench Was Made By Grover Cleveland In 1896
Judge Charles F. Amidon, appointed federal judge for the district of North Dakota by Grover Cleveland Sept. 3, 1896, intimate personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt and many men and women of outstanding rank in the nation, died at his winter home, Tucson, Ariz., at midnight Sunday. He was 81 on his last birthday, Aug. 17, and had retired from active service June 3, 1928.
He definitely retired at the age of 72 although he had been gradually withdrawing from participation in the duties of the local court following the appointment of Judge Andrew Miller some years previously. A federal judge who has served 10 years and reached the age of 70 may retire on full pay. Such retirement leaves him in possession of all his judicial powers and subject to assignment to do work in any part of the country, but he himself may determine the amount of work he shall do.
The last term he sat on the court of appeals was in 1925, afterward spending his winters in California and his summers in the east. Of late years his summer home has been at Westport, Conn., and his winter home at Tucson.
When he retired he received a tribute from the members of the legal profession in North Dakota and Judges of the United States court of appeals for the eighth circuit, “such as seldom, if ever, has been accorded a citizen of North Dakota,” according to the account in The Fargo Forum at the time.
At a banquet in his honor he was characterized as “the outstanding figure in the legal life of the state for the last quarter of a century, a man worthy to have sat on the supreme bench of the United States.”
The Amidon Legal club of Los Angeles was named for the jurist and he was a member of the “X” club of Los Angeles.
ASHES TO FARGO
Funeral services were to be conducted at Tucson today. Following cremation, his ashes will be brought to Fargo for burial.
Charles Fremont Amidon was born in Clymer, Chautauqua county, New York, Aug. 17, 1856, a son of John S. and Charlotte A. (Curtis) Amidon, natives of New York. The grandfather, Leonard Amidon, was one of the first settlers in Chautauqua county, having located there in 1820. He followed the occupation of farming all his life.
Judge Amidon’s father was a United Brethren minister. He was a strong antislavery man and before the Civil War played a part in the famous underground railroad, the means of escape of many Negroes on their way to Canada and freedom.
Judge Amidon received his common school education in New York. He prepared for college at the Cortland normal school from which he graduated in 1878. In the autumn of that year he entered Hamilton college, Clinton, New York, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1882.
Hearing of the opportunities that were to be had in the vast prairies of the west, Judge Amidon came to Fargo where he acted as one of the first principals of Fargo high school. At that time he conceived the idea that he would like to be an attorney so he entered the law office of Alfred Thomas as a law student in 1883 and was admitted to the bar in 1886.
In January 1887 he began his life’s work in the active practice of law as a member of the firm of Amidon and Bradley, which partnership existed until 1889 when John D. Benton was admitted to the firm. He was appointed city attorney in 1890 and held that office for two years.
When North Dakota was admitted as a state, the young attorney gave himself over to a study of federal court practice and he had a heavy practice in federal court up to the time of his appointment.
HELPED MAKE N.D. CODE
In 1893 the North Dakota legislature authorized revision of the statutes of North Dakota and Mr. Amidon was appointed by Governor Shortridge, with George W. Newton and Burke Corbett as the code commission.
The work of codifying the North Dakota statutes was divided among the three, Mr. Amidon having charge of the preparation of the civil code and code of civil procedure and two of the young Amidon did at that time what he considered the most important work of his career. He took charge of the political, probate and justice code, and Mr. Newton had charge of the penal code and code of criminal procedure.
Judge Amidon was then on the Republican bench but became a Democrat in 1896 when he adopted the Democratic view of the tariff.
BECAME JUDGE IN 1896
On Sept. 3, 1896 Grover Cleveland, president of the United States, named Mr. Amidon as judge for the district of North Dakota to succeed A. D. Thomas, under whom Mr. Amidon received his law training.
A reporter for The Fargo Forum, on receipt of a dispatch from Washington, called up Mr. Amidon and gave him his first information of his appointment. This news dispatch was taken from the files of The Forum for that time.
“President Cleveland this morning appointed Charles F. Amidon, Fargo, United States district court judge, North Dakota, to succeed Alfred D. Thomas, deceased.”
There were nearly a dozen applications for the position and the contest was hot one, and the candidates had strong indorsement for the position. Judge McConnell, also of Fargo, and Burke Corbett of Grand Forks were considered the two strongest candidates other than Mr. Amidon.
FAR REACHING WORK
Judge Amidon early interested himself in the matter of simplified legal procedure. An address which he made before the Minnesota bar association, in 1906, criticizing technicalities in federal court practice, resulted in an eventual change in the federal law dealing with technicalities in federal court practice.
This address was published in The Outlook, and later came to the attention of Theodore Roosevelt, who was president. He wrote Judge Amidon, commending his address and declaring it was one of his own hobbies.
There followed a series of exchanges by mail, which resulted in intimate acquaintanceship between the two men and one who wrote of Judge Amidon’s judgment was held in high esteem by Roosevelt, and had a profound influence on many of his subsequent actions.
In one of his messages to congress Roosevelt devoted a section to the evil of reversal of cases for technicalities, referred to Judge Amidon’s address and cited a proposed statute which Judge Amidon had prepared as part of his address. He urged congress to enact this proposed statute into law.
The American Bar association took up the proposed reform at its next meeting and appointed a committee to propose the passage of the act. It was finally enacted into law in 1919.
Judge Amidon, in an address before the American Bar association upon the subject The Nation and the Constitution, urged that the nation must take some steps to control interstate commerce. He declared that interstate commerce had become so dominant that the railroads had become mere instruments of that commerce and that it was impossible for them to be subject to the dual regulation of the nation and the state.
This doctrine was thought to be extremely radical at that time, but later it became the established law of the land.
RETAINED ENTHUSIASM
On his 70th birthday, Aug. 17, 1926, Judge Amidon was interviewed by a Forum representative and declared that one of the greatest satisfactions of his life was that he came to the age of 70, still retaining the interest and enthusiasm in life which alone makes life worth living.
Some of the things he said at that time are intimate glimpses into the character and personality of the man.
“It is a great satisfaction,” he said, “that it didn’t permit my life to be bound in law books. The tremendous Carlyle declaration that there are two types of people, those who get knowledge of life from books—those who draw it from their experiences and struggles of life.”
“I started life as a youth, after graduation from law college, with a great enthusiasm for the study of Emerson, Carlyle and the poets,” he said. “Amidon at that time belonged to the literary society at Hamilton college which is still a prosperous organization and exerts a potent influence on the college life.”
“I graduated at 25. This was a good time to begin the serious study of Emerson and the poets. That enthusiasm possessed me like a religious conversion. That side of my life has ever been dominant. Now that my judicial career is soon to end, I find that I can turn to those other fields of thought with an abiding enthusiasm.”
“A friend of mine once said that Jesus in the carpenter has windows on all sides of his soul. We all see men who have only one window, sometimes a very narrow window. It often allowed his life to narrow to a single field, when he saw the view of that field close, he is like one who has lost his soul.”
“Some of my judicial friends have told me that if they were to retire they would die within a few months. If that be true it is because they have allowed their lives to be bound in law only.”
RETAINED INTERESTS
Judge Amidon retained active interests throughout his later years and became a student of some modern sciences, being particularly interested in recent discoveries in the splitting of the atom. On one of his late visits to Fargo he remarked that he was getting much enthusiasm and fun out of following these new discoveries as if he were a freshman student.
Living members of his immediate family are Mrs. Amidon, who was Beulah Ann Tuscon, two daughters, Bethlah Amidon Ratliff and Mrs. Rodney E. Clark, the former living at Los Angeles and the latter at Minneapolis; and two grandchildren. Beulah and Phillip Ratliff, who have spent their summers in recent years with Judge and Mrs. Amidon at the family summer home, Westport, Conn.
SISTER IN VALLEY CITY
His sister, Fanny C. Amidon, formerly a member of the faculty of Valley City Teachers college, is now retired and living at Valley City.
A daughter-in-law, Elsie Amidon, widow of his son the late Charles L. Amidon, a teacher in Los Angeles, was present here Christmas vacation with Judge and Mrs. Amidon at Tucson.
Beulah Amidon Ratliff is on the editorial staff of Survey Graphic, national magazine.
2 killed in Brooklyn Park plane crash
Two people were killed, including one North Dakota State Representative, in a plane crash in Brooklyn Park Saturday. FOX 9’s Leon Purvis has more.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) – A small plane crashed near Crystal Airport, killing both people on board and drawing a swift response from emergency crews and neighbors.
READ MORE: Fiery plane crash near Crystal Airport leaves 2 dead
Emergency response and community reaction after crash
What we know:
Investigators say the crash happened shortly after takeoff, with the plane identified as a Beech F33A. The Brooklyn Park Fire Department arrived within minutes and put out the fire. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed there were two people on the plane and local authorities said there were no survivors.
Neighbors living near the crash site described hearing a loud boom and seeing flames.
“I was in the house, in my bedroom, and my daughter was eating cereal at the kitchen table, and there was a really loud boom,” said Ashley Capp, who lives across the street.
Kim Clark, another neighbor, said, “It was scary because it was like, it’s really close to my home, and my family stays here.”
Clark captured video of the plane engulfed in flames just after the crash.
“We look across the street, and it was a huge flame, huge fire. And then everybody started calling 911, and some people were getting close to see if there were anybody alive. But then it kind of started to spark, and the flames started to get bigger,” said Clark.
Police arrived quickly, but neighbors said the fire made it impossible to help those inside the plane.
“The police got here in a few minutes, but it was kind of sad to watch them. You could almost tell on their faces that there was a person in there, and they were kind of circling the plane; they couldn’t do anything without fire,” said Capp.
The crash marks the second deadly plane crash in Brooklyn Park in more than a year.
“It’s getting more and more worrisome because we’re kind of in the line of the airport there,” said Clark.
North Dakota Rep. among those killed
Dig deeper:
North Dakota State Rep. Liz Conmy was confirmed as one of the two people killed. North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong released a statement saying, “Kjersti and I are saddened by this tragic loss and offer our deepest condolences to her family, friends and fellow legislators. We ask North Dakotans to join us in keeping them in our prayers.”
North Dakota State Senator Tim Mathern also released a statement saying, “Rep. Liz Conmy was my running mate and friend. She had a zest for life and a strong work ethic. Our democracy needs more like her. She will be missed by Democrats and Republicans alike. Her family has our love and support.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is expected to arrive on scene either Monday night or early Tuesday morning to begin a closer investigation of the wreckage. More details could become available once investigators have examined the site.
What we don’t know:
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. Investigators have not released the identity of the second person on board or additional details about what led to the crash.
North Dakota
North Dakota highlights nearly 10 Years of victims’ constitutional rights during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – This week, communities across the country are recognizing National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, an annual observance that has challenged the nation to confront and remove barriers to justice for crime victims since 1981.
This year’s observance runs April 19–25, led by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime.
For North Dakota, the week carries special significance. In November 2016, North Dakota voters approved Marsy’s Law, known as Measure 3, with roughly 62% voter approval. The constitutional amendment took effect Dec. 8, 2016, guaranteeing crime victims the right to be notified, to be heard, and to be treated with dignity throughout the legal process.
“National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is a time to call attention to just how far our state has come in providing victims of crime with constitutional rights,” said a spokesperson for Marsy’s Law for North Dakota. “North Dakotan crime victims have now had a voice in the justice process for the last 10 years, which is a milestone we’re proud to celebrate this year with survivors and advocates from across the country.”
A Voice for Victims
Holly Wethor knows firsthand what it means to finally feel supported by the justice system. As a victim advocate, she has seen Marsy’s Law change lives — including her own.
“You gain so much of your self-worth back, and you just see a clearer and brighter picture,” Wethor said. “I wish more people would learn about Marsy’s Law and learning through the courts that they can go through this and that they’re not alone and they can have that advocacy.”
Wethor’s message reflects what advocates across North Dakota say is the law’s most powerful impact, reminding victims they do not have to navigate the justice system alone.
Decades of Advocacy in North Dakota
The push for victims’ rights in North Dakota did not begin with Marsy’s Law. Advocates have been fighting for survivors for nearly five decades.
In 1978, the North Dakota Council on Abused Women’s Services, known as NDCAWS, began as an informal gathering of advocates from five crisis intervention centers across the state.
Around the same time, the Coalition Against Sexual Assault in North Dakota, or CASAND, was formed to address the statewide need for education, networking, and legislative change surrounding sexual assault.
Resources for Victims
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic or sexual violence, the following resources are available:
- North Dakota Domestic & Sexual Violence Coalition: (701) 255-6240
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1 (800)799-7233
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
Hawks Split Friday Doubleheader against NDSU and Omaha – University of North Dakota Athletics
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The North Dakota softball team went 1-1 on Friday, falling to Omaha 9-0 in the first game and defeating North Dakota State 2-0 in the nightcap from Albrecht Field. The Hawks now sit at 26-21 overall and 3-9 in Summit League play on the season.
It was a tale of two games for UND, from getting shutout in game one to doing the shutting out in game two. Chloe Bethune was 3-for-4 on the day with a walk, reaching base four times.
Game 1 – Omaha 9, UND 0
UND was outhit 8-2, with the Hawks hits coming from Tyler Price and Bethune. NoDak had three total base runners in the contest.
Unity Nelson took the loss in the circle, falling to 9-8 on the season. The sophomore went 1.2 innings and gave up seven earned runs on just three hits, with five walks. Camryn Lasota came in for relief, throwing a season-high 3.1 innings, giving up two earned runs, five hits, one walk with one strikeout.
How It Happened
Both teams went down in order in the first inning, but Omaha struck with seven runs in the second on just four hits. Following a double and two walks, Sammy Schmidt hit a no-out double to right field, bringing home Katherine Johnson and Marra Cramer to take a 2-0 lead.
Nelson recorded the first out of the inning on an Ava Rongisch pop up, before throwing a wild pitch which allowed Alyson Edwards to score to make it 3-0. Following two more walks and a Taylor Sedlacek sac fly, UND was down 4-0. The Mavs scored three more in the inning, headlined by a Bailey Sample two-out double. NoDak trailed 7-0 after three.
The Mavericks scored two more in the top of the third to open up a 9-0 lead. UND got its first hit in the bottom of the fourth on a Price infield single, but the Hawks could not get anything going offensively, falling 9-0 in the first game.
Game 2 – UND 2, NDSU 0
Game two was the Tegan Livesay show, as the junior tossed her 13th complete game and fifth complete game shutout of the season, improving to 12-8 in 2026. She went 7.0 innings, surrendering just six hits and three walks with five huge punchouts. She recorded nine groundouts and threw 131 pitches. Livesay left 10 Bison stranded on base.
The Hawks scored two runs through the first two innings, first on a Bethune RBI single to center field in the bottom of the first, which was followed by an RBI double down the left field line from Makenna Alexander in the bottom of the second.
The hit battle was even at 6-6 in the contest, led by Bethune who went 2-for-2 at the plate. Alexander, Taya Hopfauf, Katelyn Neumayer and Aleksia Severson each poured in a hit as well.
How It Happened
Livesay was weaving in and out of traffic all night, battling out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the first. Amai Hanta from NDSU walked to start the game and stole both second and third base to give the Bison a runner on third with no outs. Livesay recorded a massive strikeout on Star Cortez, which was followed by a walk to Bella Dean, setting up runners on the corners with one out.
Jessica Delatorre lined out to Severson for the second out, before Lileigh Nieto walked to load up the bases. Mya Boos grounded out into a 6-4 fielders choice to end the frame on some nifty glove work from Severson to keep it at 0-0.
Alexander and Price both struck out to start the second inning, before Hopfauf and Neumayer both singled. Jaedyn Valdez followed that up with a hit-by-pitch, loading up the bases for Bethune. The sophomore came through with a massive single up the middle, giving UND a 1-0 lead.
Livesay left two stranded in the second inning, surrendering a leadoff infield single to Taylinn Warren. Warren then advanced to second base on a passed ball, but Livesay got Zoe King to strikeout swinging next.
The next batter grounded out to Livesay, before another infield single, this one by Hanta to put runners on the corners. Livesay got Cortez to groundout to first base, where Neumayer took it to the bag for the 3U inning ending putout.
In the bottom of the second, Brooklyn Morris reached on a one-out walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Alexander then belted a ball down the third base line to bring home Morris, giving NoDak a 2-0 lead after two.
Livesay sat down the Bison 1-2-3 in the third and fourth innings before leaving two stranded in the top of the fifth. Hanta and Cortez both logged one-out singles and executed double steals, to give the Bison second and third with one out. Livesay got Dean to line out to short, before punching out Delatorre to get out of the jam.
NoDak stranded a runner on second base in the top of the sixth, with a chance to close it out in the top of the seventh. Livesay sat down Ella Claus, before allowing an infield single to Hanta, sending the tying run to the plate for the Bison.
Cortez was able to reach safely on a fielding error by Livesay, giving NDSU runners on first and second with one out. The junior pitcher did not flinch, striking out Dean on a 3-2 count to make it two outs. Livesay completed the complete game shutout, getting Delatorre to pop out to second base, as UND secured its third-straight win over NDSU.
Game two of the series will take place tomorrow at 1 p.m. on Midco Sports.
For more information on North Dakota Softball, follow on social media @UNDsoftball or visit FightingHawks.com.
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