Lawless General Custer

What if General George Armstrong Custer had defeated the Sioux at the Little Bighorn? He would have had to make another last stand--against the Northwest Telegraph Co. Just two months before the historic battle, Ma Morse was dunning Custer for an overdue bill that amounted to more than a hundred dollars. "His case is peculiarly aggravating from the fact that he is utterly lawless in all of his transactions with us," complained C.H. Haskins, general superintendent of the company, in a furious letter to General A.H. Terry in St. Paul, Minn. "We hoped that he would do better by and by."

This 102-year-old embarrassment to Custer's reputation was discovered by Jim Masters, an employee of the Wisconsin Telephone Co.'s legal department, while researching the early formation of the company in its pioneer museum. Was there a follow-up letter? Says Masters: "Two months later there was no reason for further correspondence."

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