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Surnames: Carnahan, Garner
Classification: Obituary
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Obit - The Daily Missoulian - Missoula, Montana - Thursday, 25 Oct. 1938
Custer Massacre Telegrapher Has Last Call Here
John M. Carnahan, who gave the world the news of disaster, passes at hospital. Sender of
one of the world's greatest news flashes - The Custer Massacre - John M. Carnahan, 89,
passed away at a hospital here early Monday morning after a short illness. Although
hearty and active despite his advanced age, a cold which developed in his throat last week
brought about his death.
Carnahan's feat of sending several thousand dollars worth of telegraph messages on the
tragedy which occurred on the Little Big Horn in June 1876, never has been duplicated and
according to Harry Peterson, a local Western Union manager, will never be approached.
The Bismark garrison, which included many friends of Carnahan, was in the Custer
expedition which rode out to the plains in June to punish the Sioux. On the night of July
5th the steamer, "Far West", came down the river and tied up at Bismark when
most people were in bed. The boat brought the wounded of Reno's command and the
official dispatches which told of the complete annihilation of Custer's outfit.
Called from his bed, Carnahan went to the telegraph office to find a carpetbag full of
official reports of the fight and the results. After sizing up the job, his first step
was to flash the word east that the massacre had occurred.
Then he settled down to transmit the official story to the Department of War at
Washington. For some 21 hours he did not leave his key. Coffee and sandwiches were
handed him now and then during the long shift and he kept a wet towel on his forehead.
When the reports were gone, he fell into bed to sleep for three hours. Then he got up and
returned to the key. Eastern newspapers for two days had clamored for detailed news of
the massacre, but Carnahan could not leave his official work. Still weary to exhaustion,
he returned to his office as there was no one else to send news of the disaster. Carnahan
had sent 80,000 words in two shifts and the receipts to his office in those two days was
$3,000.
A telegraph operator for 53 years before he retired, he had sent many thrilling stories to
the newspapers. During his early days of his career, he sent much news when he was on the
border between the North and the South during the Civil War.
His only known surviving relative is a niece, Mrs. Moses Garner of Los Angeles,
California.
Carnahan gave his birth date as October 1, 1849 at Blanchester, Clinton Co., Ohio. His
mother died two months after he was born and soon after his father was left penniless by
the collapse of a Cincinnati bank. At 12 he was a newsboy and soon after he learned the
telegraphic work. He spent his time in the Cincinnati teleraph office during the Civil
War. From there he was sent to Nashville, then back again. Later he went to Chicago, and
in a few months to LaCross, Wisconsin. In April 1873, he was sent to Bismark, North
Dakota as manager of the Northwestern Telegraph Company. For 17 years Carnahan was at the
frontier station in Bismark and when he left, it was to come here in 1890. He remained in
the Western Union office in Missoula until 1916 when he retired. Mr. Carnahan's body
is at the Stuck Chapel. Funeral services are pending word from Mrs. Garner.