For nine months, Seth Bullock attempted to keep the peace in the newly formed Lawrence County, after having been appointed as the sheriff. It was a position he took quite seriously. Deadwood was his new home, and he was going to help civilize it. He would do such without ever having to take a life. So when it came to the first election of a county sheriff in 1877, Bullock was a prime candidate.
He wouldn’t be the only candidate though. Running against him was John Manning. Manning had also been an early settler of Deadwood, having been one of the earliest arrivals. It was Manning who would open one of the first saloons in Deadwood, and it was Manning who would eventually win that 1877 election for Sheriff.
The term was just one year though, and Bullock wasn’t ready to give up. In 1878, he’d once again run for Sheriff of Lawrence County, and once again he’d lose to Manning. But this time, it was a bit different. According to Bullock and his supporters, the election was stolen.
Sturgis City
At the time of the 1878 election, the city of Sturgis was still in its infancy. It had only been less than a month prior that it was laid out. Yet, the citizens of the newly formed town had large aspirations, and they were going to waste no time.
Sturgis would immediately back Manning for the position of Sheriff. And it would appear that they would do whatever they could to make sure he succeeded. It wouldn’t be without a fight though, and a fight that wasn’t finished on election night.
While Manning would continue his role as Sheriff, those backing Bullock would claim that he was the rightfully elected Sheriff. For them, Bullock had clearly been elected by the legal and qualified voters of Lawrence County, and the Republican Party should not allow him to be defrauded out of office by illegal votes.
So who was behind these illegal votes? Well, according to the Deadwood Pioneer, it was the people out at Sturgis City. They had the evidence to prove that the election in Sturgis was a “swindle and farce.” According to the Pioneer, the entire precinct should be thrown out as it was all tainted.
It wouldn’t take long for the Sturgis Herald to respond to the accusations. Their response; yeah, we did it. There would be no attempt at denying the claims against them. For them, it was all fair as one shouldn’t “forget the Bullock frauds at Crook.” The Herald would go on to claim that repeat voting for Bullocks had occurred in Pennington, Lead, and Spearfish.
The Pioneer and Bullock would continue to claim that the election was stolen, but they would be unable to garner enough support to have anything done. By the end of the year, the tide would also begin to turn as rumors started circulating that the reason Bullocks actually lost was because of the Pioneer.
Instead of Sturgis stuffing the ballot boxes, the new claim was that the Pioneer had entered into a conspiracy with the secretary of the Democratic Territorial Committee, Charles H. McKinnis, for the express purpose of defeating the Republican Party in the Black Hills. What was even worse was that the Pioneer had been claiming to be a Republican newspaper, so the treachery was seen as even more grave.