January 26

Jan. 26 – On this day in Montana history in 1991 the Montana Senate with descendants of Judge Charles Crum in the galleries unanimously passed a resolution exonerating Crum of his impeachment and removal from office during World War One. Before the war Crum was a popular Forsyth and Rosebud County politician who became district judge. In all of Montana history the state Senate has impeached and banished a state official only twice. Crum was accused of being a German sympathizer as anti-German feelings reached near hysteria in the state. In a 1919 interview with the Forsyth Democrat Crum said: “I feel sure that, at some future time, the right-thinking people of the State of Montana will undo the wrong that has been inflicted upon me.”