One of
the requirements of "proving up" on a homestead was that
a notice had to be published in a local newspaper. `These notices
were paid for and encouraged small newspapers to startup around the
county.
Most of the newspapers carried
national news on page one (shipped in already printed), perhaps a sports
page, a continuing novel, legal notices, and local news notes.
Sometimes a community would have more than one newspaper at a time and a
"war" would break out between the two editors.
The Garfield County Museum has
the old newspapers that belonged to the newspaper publisher in
Jordan. The Garfield County Library has the old newspapers that
belonged to the Montana Historical Society. Neither set is a
complete set of Jordan papers, but between the two sets very few issues
are missing. The library has an index of births, deaths, and
marriages from the set of newspapers in their possession. Their
address is:
