Voices from the Past

August 15, 1924

Attempt to Kidnap Sheriff’s Wife at Ashland Roundup

It was just before daybreak at Ashland Saturday morning of the Roundup there that Sheriff Warren thwarted a bold attempt of two men to kidnap his wife and this is how it happened. Mr. and Mrs. Warren and their young son had retired in their car, parked about a block from the dance pavilion. They had drawn the curtains and were sleeping peacefully in a bed arranged over the seats. Mrs. Warren awoke with a start when she felt a hand groping its way over the covers. The scream that she uttered simultaneously roused her husband and drove the man to quick retreat. The sheriff was hot in pursuit in his underclothes and barely caught a glimpse of two men as they disappeared from view amongst several other cars parked in the immediate vicinity.

Close Race between Two Girls for County Princess

There is a close race between Miss Vesper Kelsey of Moorhead and Miss Helen Rue of Biddle in the contest to pick the “princess” from this county to compete in the Queen of Montana contest during the State Fair. The contest is being conducted by this paper through ballots printed in each issue. Each ballot counts 200 votes. The contest ends at 6 o’clock Saturday afternoon, August 23, and all ballots should be in this office by that time, for the final count will commence immediately afterward with two judges presiding. At the count today, Miss Kelsey had 24 ballots, Miss Rue 21 ballots. Miss Stella Amundson had 5 ballots. The total votes for the respective candidates follows: Miss Vesper Kelsey 4,800; Miss Helen Rue 4,200; Miss Stella Amundson 1,000.

July 11, 1924

Body Found In River Is Buried As Unidentified

(Ed: A follow-up to the article printed July 4th)

In Valley View Cemetery at Broadus Thursday night of last week there was buried a human body as unidentified. It had been recovered from Powder River, about 10 miles below Broadus, and was in an advanced stage of decomposition. The torso was about all that remained for the head and forearms had become detached, and the bones of the legs were in evidence. While people have no doubt the body is that of young George Rousek, who was drowned in the river near W Bar ranch on May 27, there is no positive identification for official records, and in the books of Coroner James, no name is given to the corpse.

August 12, 1949

Conoco Station Opens in Broadus This Friday

The new Conoco service station will be opened for business in Broadus on Friday, August 12, according to Bob McCurdy, proprietor of the new McCurdy Motor Co., where the new service station is to be located. The gasoline storage tanks were received and installed several weeks ago and the opening of the station has been delayed by the failure of the gas pumps to arrive on schedule. The pumps were received Wednesday and were installed that day. McCurdy has announced that in order to acquaint the general public with Conoco service, he will give away free of charge a wash job for one month only to cars that are completely serviced in his station. This included filling the tank with gas, changing the oil in the crank case and a complete lubrication and service.

County Crew Relocates Little Powder Channel

The relocation of the Little Powder River channel at the Bridgeview School was accomplished by a Powder River county crew last week under the direction of Foreman Otto Smith. The river has been cutting a new channel to the west of the old channel for the past several years and the county commissioners felt that if the channel was not changed this summer, the bridge would be high and dry over Little Powder at this point in case of another flood. Using tractors and bulldozers the county crew located the river channel and dammed the channel that was in question.

August 15, 1974

Has Close Call

Monday, Quirt Phillips, son of Pistol Phillips, had a close call. He was loading an old cartridge into a .306 rifle when it exploded. Fortunately the bullet went out the barrel but the back blast caught Quirt and he received superficial wounds of the chest consisting mostly of powder burns and scrapes. His brother, Lou, rushed him to the Forsyth hospital where he was treated and released.