Montana Farmers Union

The Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union, later to become the National Farmers Union, was founded in 1902, in Rains County, Texas, by Isaac Newton ("Newt") Gresham. It spread rapidly around the South during the next few years, but then started to decline. As it declined in the South, however, membership in the Upper Midwest and especially North Dakota began to increase.

The first Montana local was formed at Ronan in 1912, with a Polson local established shortly thereafter. Under the leadership of Ronan local president J.F. Olsen, the union expanded into other Montana counties, with locals established at Power, Dutton, and Limington in Teton County; at Lake Basin in Stillwater County; and at Lake View in Yellowstone County. The national Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union sent in Warren McCurtain, who organized over 100 new Montana locals during 1914-1916.

...