The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-08-26
Private William Mccormick Of the
Second Nebraska Regiment-Greet-
ed Anna M. Alden of Dentonville,
KAN, a. .tzAe First Lady Of the
Rosebud"

o~t
the first name and it was found to be
that of William Mccormick, the crowd
cheered wildly for the man who had
been presented a fortune of $4,000.
Mccormick is a veteran of the Spanish
American war who served CALAMITY in
The famous Second Nebraska regiment.
By drawing the first number of the
100000 in the big lottery he earned
first choice of the $500 quarter section
farms to be given away.
The method Of drawing was simple
enough. One hundred and seven thou
sand envelopes, perfectly plain, were
received in their original boxes. The
name and address of one applicant for
lands written on a card were placed In
side of each envelope, which was then
sealed. The envelopes with these In
closures were then replaced in the
original boxes and these sealed and
numbered co%nsecutively.
The big ''churn'' in which the en-
velopes were to be mixed was simply a
solid wooden box ~ feet square and
10 feet long. 1t was not nearly large
enough to hold all the envelopes, SO
the numbers Of the sealed boxes were
placed in a hat and carefully mixed
In full view of the assembled multi
tude. Then numbers were drawn from
that representing enough boxes Of en-
velopes to fill the churn, and the boxes
with the corresponding numerals were
promptly dumped into the churn.
The churning process consisted in agi-
Eating the big box, which was hung on
a swivel. by turning a crank. This
"a kept up for five minutes, and then
the drawing began. The crowd was
full of advice and righteousness.
Commissioner Richards of the gen
eral land office, his assistants. Judge
Wakeley of Omaha and p. F. Sher-
man of Sioux Falls, and several 9TH
ers occupied places on the platform.
The crowd could see everything. Eight
boys, all living in Chamberlain, had
been selected to do the drawing for
the first day. They were Arthur Rog-
ers, James Stevens, Edgar Clute,
Lionel Grandpre, Clinton Laughlin,
Lucky Somers, Lucien Baker and Da-
vid Ganaway. When Ganaway's name
was announced the crowd thought it
was Gassaway.
"Well, make him vice president"
yelled somebody, and the crowd roared.
"Lucky's the boy for my money"
roared a man with a fog horn voice,
when Lucky Somers' name was called,
and he was, for he drew the privilege
Of taking the first name from the box.
When the box stopped revolving after
the churning process, Lucky stepped
forward, and there was silence at
once. The cover was removed from the
small opening through which the en-
velopes were to be taken out, and
Lucky. standing on a big box SO that
he would reach to the top Of the churn,
inserted his hand Che could not see in
side) and drew out an envelope. He
handed it to Judge Wakeley, who ex-
amined it and passed it to Mr.. Sher-
man, and he in turn to Commissioner
Richards. The crowd was holding it's
breath. There really didn't seem any
excuse for men movi:::e 80 deliberately.
Hurry up, please, l want to get a
turnip crop in," shouted a pale faced
man at the front Of the stand. His
voice was thin and piping, and In the
tense silence the entire crowd heard
him distinctly. The commissioner had
Just turned to the crowd to make his
announcement, but the crowd had a
new idea. The thin mans anxiety to
get to his farm and plant his turnips
before it should be too late carried the
throng off its feet, and in an instant it
was shouting with laughter. But the
interest was too earnest for this to last
long. Commissioner Richards held up
his hand for order, and he got it.
civilian Mccormick, whose last post
office address was Lancaster, Pa,
draws the first chance" he announced.
The crowd was not pleased at first.
Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa fur
nished three-fourths Of the applicants,
and here came a nan all the way from
Pennsylvania to draw the $4,000 first
prize, for the first quarter section, sure
to be used for a town site, was figured
easily worth this sum.
who is hep demanded somebody
after a spasmodic effort at cheers had
resulted unhappily. The commissioner
had turned to the record books and had
the information at hand in a moment.
Hes twenty-seven years old, five feet
six inches high, unmarried, was born
in Philadelphia and served in the Sec
ond Nebraska in the Philippines during
the Spanish war" called out the CON-
missioner.
That made 1t all right. The winner
was a Nebraskan and a soldier Of the
famous Second Nebraska that saw
more hard fighting and earned ore
glory than perhaps any other volunteer
regiment that was sent to the Philip
pines. The Nebraskans in the crowd
started the cheering and everybody
A<Ss~~N NHI.. "4It. 81 Il