On this date in 1968, William Guy became the first governor in the state’s history to be elected to a fourth term. He was the third Democratic governor elected since statehood in 1889. It began when he was elected to his first term in November 1960.

“We watched the returns...in our farmhouse near Amenia…” he writes. “By 11 o’clock, the phone was ringing constantly... At 4 o’clock in the morning...[we] put a pillow over it to no avail. We finally stuffed it in a dresser drawer and packed it solidly with clothes and pillows... We would have pulled the jack out of the wall had there been a jack to pull out, but we were on a rural party line and to pull [the] cord...would have disrupted the phone service to four other farms... The next morning, Bell Telephone...voluntarily strung a separate line the two miles from Amenia to our farm, much to the relief of [our neighbors].”

Source:
Guy, William L. Where Seldom was Heard a Discouraging Word...Bill Guy Remembers. Fargo: North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies. 1992.

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