The Brady Whetstone

I stopped by my parents today, and was shown this picture of the The Brady Whetstone, my grandfather's newspaper in Brady, Montana. I had never seen anything like it before, and borrowed the picture for copying. My grandfather, Joe Whetstone, is surely the gentleman second from the left. (Click on image for larger version.)

A story that I have been told many times, was that when the town applied for a post office, they were told that the existing name duplicated another post office already registered in Montana. So the leading businessmen of the town -- the storekeeper, the newspaper owner, and the saloonkeeper -- flipped coins, and the town was named for the winner, whose name was Brady (or O'Brady?).

If my grandfather had won the toss, the town would have been named Whetstone, and my middle name would surely not be Brady.

I have always taken some pride in being named after a one-eyed saloonkeeper of early Montana.

Interesting Brady links: schools, high school, blurb