Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-03-11
PENSION FOR
OLD OPERATOR

John M. Carnahan Who Sent Out
10000 Words on Custer Mas.
sacre From Bismarck.
Is Retired.
La Crosse, Wis, March l0.-John M.
Carnahan, vino sent ,ut from Bis
marck, N. D., one of the biggest stor-
les the world eve knew-the story OF
the Custer massacre on the Little Big
Horn in July, 1S76-has just been re.
tired on pension. For seventeen years
Carnahan was at the frontier station
OF Bismarck. When he left it was for
Missoula, Mont, where he remained
for tw~enty-four years. At the begin.
ming OF the new year Carnahan, after
completing mole than fifty year: work
as an operator, retired, and will here.
after draw a pension from the corpora
ton. He is now planning to return to
La Crosse after waiting half a cen.
fury.
In the spring of 1873 Carnahan was
manager of the Western Union Tele.
graph company in La Crosse. One day
a letter came from the Office of the
company in Chicago. The Western
Union had opened up an Office at lbs.
marck, the Northern Pacific Railroad
having been completed as far as that
point. The western terminal of the
overland road was known as the tough.
est town in the world at that time.
Its telegraph Office had a good repu.'
tation and the company was seeking
vainly for a man who would take
charge Ct it and straighten it out.
Every man who had been tried out had
yielded to the environment of the
place or had been driven out, and the
Bismarck Office had become a night
mare. So Carnahan was asked to try
it. ~, "a ;-.. w. 10,
The La Crosse manager demurred.
He told the company. plainly he didn't
care for the excitement of the frontier.
He had broken into the game in 1861
and throughout the civil war had been
close to the border. He finished in
Tennessee. After tho war he removed
to Chicago and later came to La
Crosse. He was so we'll satisfied that
he told the company he would resign
if it insisted on his going west.
Went to the Bismarck Office.
The telegraph management laid the
situation before the operator. 1t ap-
pealed to his loyalty: All it asked was
that he put the ismarBck Office to
rights. If Carnahan would do that 1t
would send him relief in a few weeks
and he might return here. Carnahan
yielded. He went to Bismarck in 1873.
It did send him relief, but not until
1890. V
{ The Bismarck garrison. including
many friends of. Carnahan, was in the
Custer expedition. The operator and
the post surgeon rode out from the
post with the expedition and when it
started in June, 1876, to punish the
Sioux. They went twelve miles with
the Seventh cavalry. Then they turn
ed back with the last dispatch Custer
ever sent.
On the night of July S the steamer
Far West came down the river and
tied up at Bismarck, when most people
were in bed. The Far West brought
the wounded of Reao's command and
the official dispatches which told of
the complete humiliation of Clusters
command.
On the morning of July 6 Carnahan
found on his desk in the telegraph Of.
flee a carpet bag filled with official dis.
patches. HE sized up his Job, Flashed"
the news to the east and theE settled
down to the transmission Of the official
story to the department Of war at
washington. #
1t was 8 o'clock in the morning of
July 6 that Carnahan started on hts
tremendous task. Until 5 o'clock the
following neutrality-suspicious. hours
he did not leave the key. Coffee and
a: sandwich, we're handed him now and
then during the long shift and a towel
was wet and placed on his head at in,
tervals.
He rolled upon a bed when S O'Clock
registered on July Z. For three hours
he slept the sleep of utter exhaustion,
Then he was aroused and returned to
the key. For twenty hours he sat al
his desk, and it was 4 o'clock the next
morning when he checked off the sig
nature of the last dispatch in the old
carpet bag.
"Sent" for ~ Hours on One Story.
Carnahan had sent $4,000 words In
the two shifts and the recent Of his
office in those two days were $4,000
But before he turned in Carnahan sent
a news story to the New York Herald,
the Chicago Inter Ocean and the St
Paul Pioneer Press. For two days the
eastern papers had been clamoring fol-
a story, but there was no one to. send
it. Carnahan could not leave his ON
cial WORK and there was no other tele
graph operator within 200 miles. He
sent as much story as he had strength
to prepare. And that was the way the
news of the Gutter battle was sent out
AS fast as they could arrive special
correspondents hurried to Bismarck tc
get the intimate details of the great
story. Carnahan "sen." for twelve
hours on one story. When he had fin
ished, the correspondent, O'Kelley'
handed him "a $50 bill. That was his
personal perquisite, the tolls on the
Especial dispatch amounted to 1890;
there were $4,000 words. This was the
the longest of the news stories which
Carnahan sent.
Carnahan is the man who handled
the official correspondence between
EPresident Grant and General Custer
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