Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-11-20

Tor q HuDeu ana OLner
firms had established a temporary vot-
ing place at this ranch which was nea
their rendezvous on election day.
Gathering Returns Big Task
In the days when counties were as
big as states and railroads were scarce,
the gathering of election returns was
quite a task and in close elections, re-
suits might be days in being de-
termined.
In the late eighties and for a num-
Der of succeeding elections, one of the
polling places in Yellowstone county,
as it then was bounded, was the ranch
Of Harry B. Drum, now registrar of
the Billings land Office. His place was
on Painted Robe creek, near Belmont,
now in Golden Valley county.
The vote in the precinct was CON-
paratively small but in times of close
elections, it often had an important
bearing on who was finally elected.
Most of the voters were cowboys from
the neighboring Seventy-Nine ranch,
and other cattle ranches Of that Sec
ton. AS the results had to be brought
in over wagon road a distance of about
so miles the returns from Drums ranch
were frequently the last ones in and
were often awaited with interest.
Mr.. Drum was usually the republic
can committeeman from the precinct
and it devolved upon him to see that
the stalwart republicans remained loyal
and win over democratic votes if pos
sible. The voting was usually quite a
family affair according to Mr.. Drum,
with the voters spreading out the bal
lots and discussing among themselves
whom they were going to vote for.
Sheriff Most Important
On n Office, the cowboys had al
ways very decided ideas, their choice
for sheriff. They were pretty sure to
be strongly in favor of one candidate
or the other. But as to most of the
other offices, they cared very little and
were likely to vote much as the whim
struck them. This was a golden OPP
%portunity for a party worker, especially
if he was not adverse to a little trad
ing on the different Offices.
In those days, under the convention
system, party favors in the shape Of
nominations to county Offices were dis
tributed to different localities and
among the various factions to as large
an extent as possible. Often q certain
candidate was nominated with the un-
derstanding that the next time, IN
other political set-up would be made.
At n election in the nineties,
Christian Yegen, Billings pioneer mer-
chant, was the candidate of Charles
Blair and other leading republicans
for state senator, while Mr.. Drum and
others were supporting another candi-
date whom they considered the party
leaders had previously obligated them
selves to nominate. The Yegen support
proved the more powerful and before
the convention came to order, it was
certain that he would be nominated.
Mr.. Drum, who was a delegate from
his precinct, saw the handwriting on
the wall and stayed away from the
convention hall until after his nomina-
ton. Then, through the campaign that
followed, he threw his influence to the
democratic candidate, Oscar Gruwell.
Yegen Is Elected
For representative, the republican
candidate was Chauncey Bever while
the democrats had nominated Sidney
Morse, long a local leader of their
party. When the vote was taken at
Drums ranch, the vote was 81 to !
in favor Of Bever for representative,
but for senator, the vote was exactly
reversed and Yegen had the little end
of the same alignment Of votes. In
spite of Mr.. Drums efforts, Yegen was
elected, however, while with the repre-
sentative, the switch to the republi-
can candidate in his precinct resulted
in a tie vote. A new election was held
to decide the tie for representative,
Some of the democratic leaders APP
pealed to John T. Murphy, the owner
of the Seventy-Nine ranch, who was
a prominent democrat, to see that his
ance of voting for the republican can
didate. Murphy called in his son, Will
Murphy, who was in charge Of the
ranch, to give an account of himself
According to MI. Drum, Will Murphy
had gone to the White Beaver ranch
of the Seventy-Nine outfit just before
the election and did not get back and
the switch in votes had been concocted
during his absence.
At the second election, he came to
Mr.. Drum and he explained that he had
to make good with his father and Mr.
Drum agreed to keep hands off. This
time the vote in Drums precinct was
exactly reversed from the first election
and Bever got only one vote and Morse
the 81. But there had been sufficient
changes in other precincts that when
the vote was tabulated, the result was
again a tie. But then q vote in Gus
ter was thrown out on a recount as
illegal and Bever was declared elected
Betting Often Heavy
Betting was often stiff at the elec-
tons. Once on one of the close votes
Drums ranch had not been heard from
and the results would be determined
by the way the vote went there. AT
the time Of the Bever and Morse con-
test, Kid Parkerson and Jimmy Gal