Voices From The Past

November 14, 1924

Coal Miner near Miles City Crushed by Cave-In

George Thompson, age 46, was fatally injured by a cave-in at his mine two miles south of Miles City Saturday morning and died a few minutes after being found by his little son when the boy went to the mine to call him to his noonday meal. Only the left arm of the man was protruding from the huge pile of earth and stone when the boy went into the mine. Surviving are six children, all under 17 years of age. – Miles City Daily Star.

Pension Roll Is Greatly Reduced

Washington D.C. – More than 14,000 names were dropped from the government pension roll during the past year, reducing the total to 525,539. Pensions for 1924 totaled $229,994,777 or $33,017,723 less than for the previous year.

Interior Department statistics made public showed Civil War pensions decreased 21,808 last year and now number 146,815, while widows and dependents of veterans declined from 264,580 in 1923 to 253,136 in 1924.

Spanish-American War pensions however, increased 16,645 to 85,038 and the number of widows and dependent pensions advanced from 13,137 to 16,104.

Beware the Jackrabbit

O’Neil (Neb.) Frontier: Miss Teressa Hayden, in company with her mother and brother, were returning from Stuart in their touring car and were traveling at a reasonable high speed last Sunday evening. They were thrown into a panic when a jackrabbit jumped through the windshield and landed in Miss Hayden’s face, breaking off four teeth, and fell between the seats, dead.

Jim Storm Killed In Stabbing Affair

Several inaccuracies crept into the report of the stabbing affair as published last week, for the incident happened in Crook County, just over the line in Wyoming, and the victim was Jim Storm, prominent stockman of the Little Missouri country, instead of Mr. Bush of South Dakota as reported. “Scootem” Bill Osgood, is charged with perpetration of the crime for murder in the first degree and is a prisoner in the Crook County jail Sundance, Wyo. Upon his arrival there, his face was badly bruised and lacerated, showing mute evidence of the terrible grueling he had undergone. The blunt instrument, if such was used by Storm in his attack on Osgood, had not been found, it is said, but no doubt exists that something was used in the fight, for such injury to the face could not be accomplished with one’s bare fists.

There has been friction between Osgood and Storm for some time. Only last summer the two men met and had an argument over a reservoir, with Osgood beating Storm in the fight that resulted. It developed that there were two reservoirs in the vicinity and each man thought the other was speaking of a different reservoir. It was on Election Day that the two men met for the first time since the encounter and Storm who was with his wife, invited Osgood behind a store and promptly knocked him down twice, according to reports. Osgood was being badly wounded in the fight, it is said, when he resorted to the use of a pocket knife with fatal results for Storm. A nephew of Storm who had followed the two men to the rear of the store, is said to have fled for help when he beheld Osgood with the open knife and was not an eye witness to the fatal stabbing. No others were actual eye witnesses, it is said.

The Belle Fourche Bee has the following account of the stabbing:

“Jim Storm, one of the prominent cattlemen of northeastern Wyoming, was instantly killed by Bill Osgood about noon Tuesday of this week at the voting place at New Haven, Wyo. This is reported to be the second fight these two men have had in the past two months. In the former encounter Osgood was bested, and Tuesday was the first time they had met since.

According to the report received in Belle Fourche, the men have had trouble over possession of certain rangelands. Storm is a cattleman and Osgood a sheepman. On this particular piece of land there is a spring that is valuable to the man using that range. Storm lives at the mouth of the north fork of the Little Missouri River, and Osgood lives on the Dink Cooper ranch, about four miles distant. The men met at the voting place at New Haven Tuesday and one word brought on another. They decided to go behind the store and settle their differences. The crowd started to follow, a nephew of Storm being the first to see the men fighting. He attempted to part them but was unable to do so, and by the time other men were able to lend assistance it was too late. Osgood had stabbed Storm over the heart, the knife not penetrating to a vital spot. The next blow of the knife cut Storm across the arm, and the next slash struck him in the throat, severing the jugular vein, and resulted in almost instant death.

After the fight, Osgood returned to his home, straightened up his affairs as much as he could while he waited for the sheriff to arrive and place him under arrest. He was taken to Sundance where on Tuesday evening a coroner’s inquest was held, the verdict of the coroner’s jury being murder in the first degree. Osgood is now in the Sundance jail.

Jim Storm was one of the old-time residents of that part of Wyoming, being a brother of C.C. Storm, formerly of the Hulett State Bank and lately in charge of the suspended bank at Newcastle. He was a man of about 50 years of age.

Bill Osgood, or “Scootem Bill”, as he is known by his friends all over this section of the country, has lived in the vicinity of Alzada, Mont., for the past fifteen or eighteen years, being engaged in the sheep business. He is a brother of Jim, Frank, Lat and Bert Osgood, all well-known sheepmen in southeastern Montana. Bill was in Belle Fourche last week, and to the casual observer, was one of the happiest men in the world without a trouble of any kind.”

November 11, 1949

Car Sales Increased As Winter Draws Near

Mrs. Helen Y. Irion, County Treasurer, said this week that autumn weather has had no ill effect on the sales of cars or trucks in Powder River County. In the first eight days of the month there were licenses issued on eight new cars to local owners. In the same time there were licenses issued to six new pickups. Sale of alfalfa seed at this time of year is the cause of the late business rush. Many ranchers sell their seed at this time of the year and take the proceeds of the Cinderella crop to pay for the new car or pickup.