Montana, one hundred years ago: "decisions which are honest and right"

     I've been busy researching a family that lived in Central Montana at the turn of the (last) century. 

     Above is a great ad I found in the Fergus County Democrat (July 4, 1911).*

     Here are excerpts from the Fergus County Argus** (October 5 & 10, 1904):

The "reasons why [the farmer] believes in and trusts Republicans."

"The best talkers in the country to speak in Lewistown."

     The Jennis are the family I'm researching. One of them mentioned here, Fred, is my friend Kathie Jenni's great-grandfather. As we can see, Fred served as an "elections judge" in the "Brass" precinct (of Fergus County), along with Mike Brass and John Jenni, Fred's cousin(?). Interesting people.

     The Argus was, of course, the Republican newspaper of the area. The attractions of the GOP cited here are interesting (i.e., quaint, ironic, curious, etc.).

     Here's what Lewistown, MT, Kathie's home town, looked like back then (the photos & captions are from an old timer who has a Central Montana historical blog):

*From Library of Congress:

   Fergus County Democrat

    In 1904, Tom Stout and Harry J. Kelly established one of the state's most progressive weeklies, the Fergus County Democrat, in Lewistown, Montana. Stout's political activism found an avenue for expression in his 1910 election to the state legislature and his 1912 election to the U.S. Congress. The six-column, eight-page weekly covered both state and national politics thoroughly. … The newspaper paid close attention to the presidential bid of Populist William Jennings Bryan. The editors did not miss an opportunity to berate the competition, the Fergus County Argus.

**From Library of Congress:

   The Mineral Argus [Fergus County Argus]

    On August 9, 1883, John Morton Vrooman and Charles S. Fell launched the Mineral Argus in the bustling gold camp of Maiden, Montana, where it remained until August 1886 when they moved their presses to nearby Lewistown, the new seat of Fergus County, and changed its name to the Fergus County Argus. Fell sold his interest in the newspaper to Vrooman in 1889 when he moved to Bozeman. … Vrooman remained an agricultural booster and active Republican throughout his lengthy publishing career. In 1912, he sold his interest in the Fergus County Argus to Arthur T. Packard and established the Grass Range Review thirty miles east of Lewistown.
     …[I]n 1899 the Fergus County Argus became the first institution in the county to use electricity. With the move to Lewistown, the publishers adopted the following motto, to which they remained true: “Devoted to the Mineral, Agricultural, Stock and Wool Interests of the Great Judith Country.” … The newspaper faithfully documented the closing of the “open range” after the severe winter of 1886-87 when over 60 percent of Montana’s cattle herds succumbed to deep snow and subzero temperatures….