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The Holt Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1892 in California with Charles H. Holt, Benjamin Holt, Frank A. Holt, G. H. Cowie, and G. L. Dickenson as directors. Based in Stockton, California, the company manufactured agricultural machinery, beginning with horse-drawn equipment such as tractors, combines and harvesters, and over the years developed steam-powered and gasoline-powered models. The steam-powered vehicles were heavy and were prone to sinking into soft earth and in response the company began to investigate the use of multiple wheels and then to the use of tracks. Holt Manufacturing was in a bitter rivalry with Best Manufacturing, this led in 1905 to Daniel Best filing a lawsuit against Holt for patent infringement of the power take-off design of Best's engines. Best and Holt reached an out-of-court settlement in 1908 that led to Best's retirement, the sale of his business to Holt with the conditions that Best's son Clarence Leo Best would receive an ownership stake and would serve as president of Holt's San Leandro facilities in California. Best's son left Holt in 1910 and formed a new rival company C.L. Best Gas Traction Company. In 1909 the company purchased the facility of the defunct farm implement maker Colean Manufacturing Company in East Peoria, Illinois, and changed changed the name of the company to Holt Caterpillar Company, incorporating in Illinois and California on January 12, 1010. The East Peoria became the eastern operations of the Holt Manufacturing Company, and it began exporting tractors to Argentina, Canada, and Mexico. In 1913, Holt merged its various companies into the Holt Manufacturing Company with subsidiaries the Stockton Wheel Co.; the Houser and Haines Manufacturing Company of Stockton; the Aurora Engine Company of Stockton; the Canadian Holt Company, Limited of Calgary; the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton; and the Holt Caterpillar Company of Peoria, Illinois. Although during World War One Holt developed heavy artillery tractors and a steam-powered tank, in response to a limited market for many of their products after the war led the company shifting focus to smaller-modelled agricultural machinery to road-building equipment.

In 1925, Holt Manufacturing and C.L. Best Gas Traction Company merged to form Caterpillar Tractor Co., with Clarence Leo Best as Chief Executive Officer.

The California State Legislature enabled the establishment of a southern branch of California State Normal School in 1881, and it opened August 1882. In 1887, the branch became independent and changed its name to the Los Angeles State Normal School. School administrators began in 1917 to lobby the state to become a campus of the University of California, but encountered resistant from University of California alumni in the legislature and the president of the University (Benjamin Ida Wheeler.). Upon a new president of the university being hired in 1919 (David Prescott Barrows), the efforts became successful and in May 1919 a bill was signed into law that permitted the acquisition of land and buildings, and changed the LA Normal School to a southern branch of the University of California and started operating in September 1919. In February 1927 it changed its official name to University of California at Los Angeles and in 1958 to University of California, Los Angeles. From 1919 to 1951 the institution operated as an off-ste department of the University of California, with a presiding officer holding the title provost that reported to the main campus in Berkeley. After 1951, UCLA was given equal status with University of California, Berkeley and established a presiding officer that was designated chancellor.

During a meeting of telegraphers representing the major American railroads on June 9, 1886, the Order of Railway Telegraphers of North America (ORT) was founded with the aim of primarily functioning as a fraternal organization and not necessarily as a union, including in its founding document restrictions on members to strike. However, its membership soon became more desirous that the Order take a more assertive actions to achieve better wages and working conditions, such that by 1891 the ORT's constitution was changed to explicitly make it a "protective" organization and included a provision to allow strikes if negotiations with the railroads were deemed unsuccessful. This change in focus coincided with a simplification of its name to Order of Railroad Telegraphers.

A decline of the railroad industry and the perceived obsolescence of the telegraph during the 1950s and 1960s led to a reduced workforce from which the Order could draw members, this in turn led to a reduction of its influence on the industry. To broaden its appeal and its membership base, the Order changed its name in 1965 to the Transportation Communications Employees Union, which in turn in 1969 merged into the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees.

The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cross (Notre Dame de la Croix) is a Roman Catholic congregation of religious women founded in Murinais, France in 1832 to educate young girls and provide care to the sick and elderly. In 1905, Sisters M. Alype, M. Ludovic and five others left France and came to Forget, Saskatchewan, where they established St. Joseph Academy, a bilingual school for boys and girls. The sisters also taught at other schools as follows: St. Hubert via Whitewood (1907-1968); St. Anne Convent, Wauchope (1917-1964); Sacred Heart Convent, Montmartre (1920-1970); and the School for Mentally Challenged Children and Adults, Redvers (1964-1980). The congregation also founded and owned Joan of Arc Home, St. Hubert Mission via Whitewood (1920-1970); St. Joseph Home, Marcelin; Mount St. Mary Home, Weyburn (1953-1977); and Mount St. Joseph, Prince Albert (1952-1992). The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cross continue (2019) to work in Saskatoon and Prince Albert, where they assist in teaching, nursing, social services and parish work.

The origins of the Claybank Brick Plant go back to 1886 when Tom McWilliams, a local homesteader, began mining "refractory" or heat resistant clay. This type of clay is well suited for manufacturing firebricks, which in turn are used in fireplaces, and to insulate boilers, furnaces and any area where extensive heat is generated. In 1904 Mr. McWilliams entered into a formal agreement with the Moose Jaw Fire Brick and Pottery Company. This company acquired Mr. McWilliam's original homestead plus other nearby clay deposits. However, the lack of access to primary markets hindered any serious development of the property.

With construction of a Canadian Northern Railway line through the district in 1910, this problem was eliminated and plans were put in place for the construction of a new plant. In 1912, the Moose Jaw Fire Brick and Pottery Company reorganized, bought out Tom McWilliams' shares and became Saskatchewan Clay Products. The brick plant was completed in 1914 but due to World War I, and an economic recession, was forced to close until 1916. Once the plant was reactivated the company underwent reorganization and became Dominion Fire Brick and Clay Products Ltd. The new company expanded its product line adding facebrick and specialized firebrick. These innovations helped the company survive the immediate post-war years. During the 1920's the company began producing high grade refractory tiles. These specialized tiles could be used for flue and furnace linings, steam engine linings and locomotive arch blocks. The development of the specialized product line helped the company survive the Depression. By 1938 the Claybank brick plant was the busiest in the province. During World War II the brick plant at Claybank continued to produce standard and specialized refractory products. Facebrick production also continued. In the years immediately following World War II the Claybank brick plant continued to prosper.By 1950 it was the largest clay products plant in the province.

In 1954 the Claybank brick plant was purchased by Redcliffe Pressed Brick. The new company, Dominion Fire Brick and Clay Products (1954) Limited, was Alberta based and, for the rest of its operating history, ownership of the Claybank plant would continue to be from outside the province. In 1955 a share transfer gave controlling interest in the plant to A.P. Green Fire Brick Company of Mexico, Missouri. The company, one of North America's leading producers of refractory products, modernized the plant's operations. Among the many changes was the conversion of six of the ten kilns to natural gas. However, despite these and other improvments the plant began experiencing economic hardships in the mid-1950's. One of the primary causes of this was the decline in the market for locomotive brick which, as the railroads converted to diesel locomotives, became obsolete. Although the company tried to compensate for this lost market by agressively selling other forms of firebrick they were only partially successful. In addition, the plant discontinued its production of facebrick. Although the conversion of the kilns to natural gas offered several advantages, it proved a liability to the production of facebrick since the coal fired kilns had given the brick its colour.

In 1962 A.P. Green secured complete control of the Claybank brick plant but the company continued to operate under the name Dominion Fire Brick and Clay Products (1954) Limited until December 31, 1970. After 1971 the plant continued to operate but as a subsidiary of A.P. Green Refractories (Canada) Ltd. This full integration into an international corporation limited the plant's prospects and appears to have accelerated the plant's final economic decline. Dwindling markets for refractory products, changing technologies, the plant's outmoded equipment and corporate downsizing all contributed to the closure of the 75 year old plant in 1989. Following the closure of the plant in June 1989 the Province of Saskatchewan indicated its intention to designate the plant as a provincial heritage site. In 1992 A.P. Green donated the site, including the brick plant, machinery and equipment to the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation. In 1996 the plant was declared a national historic site. In 1998 the Claybank Brick Plant was officially designated as Provincial Heritage Property.