| The idea for
doing a history of the Roy-Fergus-Valentine area had been tossed around
for several years; it took the deaths of a couple of "Old Timers" to get
the ball rolling. From the time we seriously began work, till the time
we finish will be about three years.
We were lucky to have Mary Pollard who had access to newspapers and data at the library and copied mirads of material for us. Marie Zahn, who was born and raised in this country, knew many people and had kept track of many and had clipped articles from magazines and papers of anything about anyone from this area. She had four boxes full of items, including old letters, post cards and clippings. This has been invaluable. To begin with three families met and talked about doing a history. They started a list of names of anyone they could think of that had lived here. Then everyone in the community was invited to a meeting. About 20 showed up the first time. More names were added to the list, also addresses were added where possible. By then we had 2500 names. Other communities who had put out history books were great at giving us all kinds of advice and ideas. We organized a history group with officers and a set of by laws. It does help to have people support such a project. Most of the work has fallen on about four of the group. Some people didn't feel able to do the actual research and writing but were invaluable in identifying photos, remembering people, places and events, in contacting other people for information and in helping to sponsor raffles, pre book sales, donations, a dance, the sale of special pens, paper and envelopes and in memorials. Ideally on a project such as this there should be one group of people doing the research and writing and another group dealing with finances. However we didn't have that many people, so a few did both. We sent form letters to all the people we had addresses for along with a geneology form and a request for addresses of anyone else. Response was better from those who lived away from the area than from the locals. Then began the hours of interviewing people, verifying facts and correcting dates, names and events. Some people sent complete stories while others sent facts and someone had to rewrite them in story form. Marie Zahn did hours of research at the library and courthouse; Frank Cbnrhakl also did much research at the courthouse. In order to create interest we tried to involve as many people, of all ages, as possible in working on the book. There was a book naming contest and a book cover designing contest. We gave a talk at the high school. Illa put little items of history in her newspaper column. We talked to many printers around Montana, and in other states, in an effort to put out a quality book at a price we thought we could afford. There are many decisions to make before printing can begin, such as: type and color of cover, kind of paper, size and style of type, overall design, number of copies to order and much more. Many people have helped in many ways and they are mentioned elsewhere in this book. There were hours of typing and reams of paper used, as well as file folders and lots of postage. There is a great deal of work in putting together a book of this type to be able to do it in three years shows the dedication of the workers and members of the committee. |
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