Biography
Martin Wehinger was an Austrian-born freighter and rancher near Miles City. He was convicted under Montana’s sedition law for criticizing American participation in World War I and questioning the preparation of American troops. He served a prison term at Deer Lodge and was released on December 14, 1919. He died the following April.
Clemens Work’s frontispiece caption states that Wehinger spent eighteen months behind bars and died in 1920, four months after leaving prison. This is an actual-service statement in months; it does not establish new exact endpoints. Clemens P. Work, Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West, title page and chapter10 pp133–147, original PDF page 1. Source: https://mhs.mt.gov/education/WWI/WorkChap10.pdf#page=1
The original Montana State Prison descriptive intake form records actual receipt at Deer Lodge on 1918-06-14 and sentencing on 1918-06-12 in the Custer County state sedition case, with an imposed term of three to six years. The report date is distinct from prison admission; receipt is not necessarily initial arrest, and the term is not completed time served. No new physical discharge is inferred. The named form includes frontal and profile photographs. Source: https://clcowgill.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/intakeform-m-w.pdf#page=26
The original Montana State Prison descriptive intake form records the sentence date as 1918-06-12 and records the plea/trial response as: Did not plead guilty; stood trial. This sentencing entry is separate from receipt at the penitentiary.
