USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 70
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4, 1882, and that of Rev. M. S. Kaufman began, continuing through a period of three years from October 4, 1882, to September 24, 1885. This period of church history is one of great importance. Fargo was at the height of business pros- perity and the center of activity for the surrounding country. Many operating large farms in the country, and carrying on other lines of industry, resided at Fargo and made this their church home. During Rev. Mr. Kaufman's ministry the Foreign Missionary and Ladies' Aid societies developed unusual activity and interest. Special revival services were held each year, those of one winter being protracted through eleven consecutive weeks, resulting in many conversions and valuable accessions to the church. Much of the prosperity and growth during this period was due to the earnest and faithful work of Brother Kaufman, with those who so nobly seconded his efforts. During this period the general con- ference, which met in Philadelphia May, 1884, divided the Minnesota conference and established the North Dakota Mission conference, also passing an enabling act for the Mission conference to become an annual conference when deemed advisable. The first session of the Mission conference was held at the Fargo church October 2, 1884. Bishop Fowler presided. At the second session of the North Dakota Mission conference, held at Wahpeton, September 24, 1885, the Rev. S. W. Ingham, of the Upper Iowa conference, was appointed to Fargo, serving three years. The Rev. H. B. Bilbie, of the Minnesota conference, was appointed presiding elder of the district at the same time, serving the same period.
At the third session of the North Dakota Mission conference held at Grand Forks October 14, 1886, Bishop Harris presiding, a motion was made by the Rev. D. C. Plannette that an organization of an independent conference be effected, to be called the North Dakota Conference. This motion was carried by a vote of 29 to 2, thus accomplishing the final work of Methodist conference building in North Dakota.
Fargo was again the seat of the conference which convened October 19, 1887, being the first session of the North Dakota annual conference. This gives the Fargo charge the honor of not only holding the first Methodist service in North Dakota, but the first Mission conference and the first annual conference as well.
During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Ingham the superintendency of the Sunday school was held by Wm. Mitchell, who succeeded Smith Stimmel on May 1, 1883, holding the office until May 1, 1888, when he was succeeded in office by W. P. Mckinstry.
On October 11, 1888, Rev. G. S. White of the Central New York conference was appointed to Fargo by Bishop Hurst, D. C. Plannette being returned as presiding elder. Rev. G. S. White's pastorate was characterized by renewed activity on the part of the church along various lines of work.
He formed among the younger membership the Young People's Christian League, having in view the maintenance of a Sunday evening devotional meeting conducted by young people. This later became the Epworth League of our church. A Friday evening class meeting was also organized for the older members. Through the energetic efforts of Brother White a directory was prepared with photographs of all the churches, their location, names of pastors, times of meet- ing, etc., and placed in the various hotels, the postoffice and other places for the benefit of strangers.
During this pastorate the missionary work was taken up with added zeal and
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renewed effort and the introduction of pyramid mite boxes materially increased the funds of the society. Amounts were raised by the Ladies' Aid Society and expended for parsonage furniture and plans were also begun for the erection of a parsonage, being carried into effect the following year. The pastorate of Rev. G. S. White was followed by that of Rev. D. W. Knight, a transfer from the East Ohio conference.
The history of the church under Rev. Mr. Knight's ministry, covering a period of two years, may best be told in his own words, as taken from the following letter :
."My pastorate of First M. E. Church, Fargo, began December 22, 1889, and closed November 1, 1891. Was transferred from the East Ohio to the North Dakota conference by Bishop Hurst and appointed to the First M. E. Church by Bishop Mallalieu about the 25th of November, 1889. Rev. D. C. Plannette was presiding elder; Rev. G. S. White was my predecessor. We arrived in Fargo, December 21, 1889, and Sabbath morning, the 22d, first met in worship that royal people. Our acquaintance grew rapidly, and I soon found I had a choice people in the city numbering about 125. An active Epworth League and a wide awake Sabbath school greeted the pastor.
"Christmas festivities and receptions opened the doors in many of the best homes of the city for new friends and friendships that warm our hearts whenever thoughts revert to Fargo and pastorate there.
"The winter of 1889 and 1890 was taken up with visitation and some revival efforts, which we have reason to believe were not wholly in vain.
"With the opening spring came the enterprise of building a parsonage, in which enterprise, I had been informed, I was expected to lead.
"The work was undertaken and, everything favoring, the Ist of November, 1890, we moved into our new home, a gem of modest beauty, one of the cosiest and most attractive for the cost in the city. It cost $2,000. Church repairs and improvements of property added made a total of nearly $2,500, which was all paid by the good people and no debt remained when Dr. May began his pastorate in November, 1891.
"Soliciting money for church enterprise is often accompanied by unpleasant greeting from the solicited, but I must say I had the fewest while soliciting. On the other hand, I had most pleasant experiences and especially from the non-mem- bers. When asked to help in the enterprise they would say, 'I will help you for you have a noble people, men and women, in your church who occupy the first place among us and are worthy.' My heart often warmed and glowed when I heard my own thus commended and honored.
"With this standing it is no marvel that First Church raised nearly $8,000 for all purposes in the two years. The membership varied with losses and gains; losses by death and removal.
"Mrs. Thomas Hanson and Mrs. Bamford and others died. Many came in by letter and without, yet the gain, above all losses, left some advance in the membership. Benevolences increased steadily, fellowship grew and the spiritual life magnified, until there was a most happy state of soul in the church. For all this I take no especial credit. The church was on the verge of growth and development. I entered at an opportune time and went with the tides that bore on to prosperity. To God be all the praise, for under my successor's pastorate
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for five years the tides widened and deepened, until the First Church has taken first rank in the great Northwest.
"Blessings divine on Fargo and the First M. E. Church."
This letter shows for itself the sweet and unselfish spirit of our brother Knight, who is deserving of much more credit for the favorable conditions he notes than he accords to himself.
NORTH DAKOTA METHODISM, BY REV. CHARLES A. MACNAMARA
What is now known as the North Dakota Conference of the Methodist Episco- pal Church was formerly incorporated in the Minnesota Conference, and the an- nual gathering of that body of ministers, assembled in the young and aspiring City of Fargo, Dakota Territory, in the fall of 1881, Bishop Cyrus D. Foss presid- ing. In 1884, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church granted the request of the Minnesota Conference that the Red River Valley District (which comprises all of what is now the State of North Dakota) be formed into a mission conference. There was appended to the order for the formation of the mission, "an enabling act." The North Dakota Mission, embracing all of what is now the State of North Dakota, met in Fargo, October 2, 1884. Bishop Chas. H. Fowler presided. There were fourteen ministers present. The statis- tical table shows that there were 2,016 members and probationers; that seven- teen churches had been erected at a cost of $56,200, and six parsonages, valued at $7,000, and there were thirty-seven Sunday schools, with an enrollment of teachers, officers and scholars numbering 2,125. Ministerial support amounted to $16,767.
The second session of the Mission Conference was held in Wahpeton, Sep- tember 24, 1885. At the next session of the Mission Conference, which assembled in Grand Forks, October 14, 1886, the authority given in the enabling act was made use of and the North Dakota Annual Conference was organized, having an enrollment of twenty ministers and six probationers. Bishop William L. Harris presided. The conference was divided into two districts, having Grand Forks as the head of the northern part of the conference and Fargo as the head of the southern part of the conference.
The first session of the conference after its organization was held in Fargo, October 19, 1887. Articles of incorporation presented by William H. White were signed and acknowledged.
Bishop Cyrus D. Foss presided at this conference. Seven trustees were appointed, of which Mr. William H. White was elected chairman. A half sec- tion of land had been deeded by Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Hovey of Freedom, Ill., for the benefit of the conference claimants, and on motion it was decided to improve the land. At this early stage this young conference was found taking steps to locate an institution of learning, which did not take material form for several years.
At this conference North Dakota elected its first representatives to the General Conference, twenty-five votes were cast, Rev. D. C. Planette received twenty-one and was declared elected. The laymen were called to order and welcomed by the Fargo delegate to the Lay Electoral Conference. William H. White nominated Dr. S. J. Hill, of Fargo, who was then elected lay delegate
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to the General Conference. Rev. Dr. Jackson, a chaplain in the United States army, addressed the joint conference on his early experiences as a pioneer preacher in North Dakota. It is notable that even in those days of our terri- torial organization, when we had a county local option law, granted by the Terri- torial Legislature, the lay conference was calling for the submission of the liquor question to a vote of the people, "independent of all political parties." A thing which was actualized two years later, when the State of North Dakota came into the Union with a prohibitory clause, adopted separately, by a majority of the voters.
Of those whose names appear in the conference roll, only three remain at this writing, namely, Chas. A. Macnamara, superintendent of the Fargo district, Henry P. Cooper and William R. Morrison, in the order of seniority given.
The next session of the conference was held in Jamestown, Bishop John F. Hurst presiding. Most of the time at this long-to-be-remembered conference was consumed in a church trial which, after all, failed to bring conviction of any serious wrong, and which might have been avoided by the exercise of a little brotherly kindness. A third district was formed at this conference. The appointments had grown so that sixty-eight ministers were stationed, with forty- four church buildings and seventeen parsonages. Members and probationers, 3,631.
Thirteen years prior to this, the first church organization in the state had been effected, in Fargo, of which Mr. William H. White was the only male member, and he was elected superintendent of the first Sunday school organiza- tion in the northern part of Dakota Territory.
A pebble in the streamlet, scant Has turned the course of many a river. A dew drop on the tiny plant Has warped the giant oak forever.
Bishop Hurst predicted that before many years North Dakota would be a field of activities supporting several conferences.
In the reports of the presiding elders made to the conference of 1889, at Drayton, we read of the failure of crops and of the requests from several places that no minister be sent for the next year. But the conference did not think that the Methodist preacher should shirk the hardships to which the people were subjected. The pastors were appointed, and without one exception, all went to their fields of labor. Presiding Elder Hovis, by vote of the conference, was given permission to go to some of the eastern conferences and make an appeal for help for some of the very needy fields in the Northwest District. From the report of the committee on education we find that the location of the college was still a problem, with eight of our young cities desiring it. At the Lisbon conference, October, 1890, action was taken which required the decision of this question of location, and on February 25, 1891, Wahpeton was selected and Dr. J. N. Fradenburgh was elected to the presidency at a salary of $2,000.
On June 4, 1891, Bishop Fitzgerald laid the corner-stone of a building which was to cost $40,000, and it was named "Red River Valley University." Wm. H. White was elected chairman of the board of trustees. During the year 1905 the seat of the school was changed and was located at Grand Forks. The building
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at Wahpeton was sold to the state and is being used as the State Science School. "Wesley College," the new name given to the old corporation, was affiliated with the Grand Forks University.
Rev. D. C. Planette, D. D., did much for the educational interests of the church in the state, as well as the religious. He published a church paper entitled The Dakota Methodist. An old style camp meeting was held at Carlisle, Pembina County, July, 1884, under his direction. This was the very earliest effort of this kind made in the northern part of the territory, and was continued with great profit to that part of the conference for several years. Others were held at Hamline, County of Richland, and Mayville, in Traill County, on the Goose River. Rev. Chas. A. Macnamara preached the first sermon at the Carlisle camp ground. There is at present a permanent camp ground of ten acres located at Jamestown, which is well sustained. It is worthy of note that the first efforts to locate a Chautauqua Assembly in the state were made by a company of the Methodist ministers. Devils Lake was the place chosen. Dr. Eugene May, the pastor of First Church of Fargo, with Rev. C. W. Collinge and Rev. Jacob A. Hovis were the promoters of this summer assembly.
In June, 1893, the City of Fargo was swept by fire and two-thirds of the business section was destroyed, and the newly erected Second Methodist Church, located on Robert Street, was totally burned. But the congregation immediately began arrangements under the leadership of Presiding Elder D. C. Planette to rebuild. At this time Dr. M. V. B. Knox was president of the Red River Valley University, with four additional members of the faculty.
The First Church of Fargo had undertaken a new brick building to cost $25,000. On the last night of the old year, 1896, at the watch night service started in the old building, the entire congregation passed into the new church building with singing, and this, the third church building erected by this congre- gation, was occupied and pronounced the "finest church in the state," at that time. There was present at this service Dr. J. B. Starkey, the first pastor of the church, and later a presiding elder in this state, who headed the procession, bearing on his shoulders the pulpit, which he had made years before, for use in the first church building. This was the only piece of church furniture which was carried from the old church to the new one. Rev. W. H. Vance was pastor.
About this time the Grand Forks congregation had built their second struc- ture, a fine red brick, at a cost of $25,000.
The Epworth League was in the height of its usefulness, and great and inspiring meetings were planned for in the state conventions, for the hosts of enthusiastic young people. At the conference of 1900, at Grand Forks, Bishop C. C. McCabe consecrated Mrs. K. M. Cooper a deaconess in the church and playfully called her "The Daughter of the Regiment." At this conference, Bishop McCabe delivered his famous lecture on "The Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison." At the 1900 General Conference, United States Senator Martin N. Johnson was one of the lay delegates. Rev. J. G. Moore was appointed to have charge of the Minot District. It was at a period when the influx of settlers to our western prairies was greater than it had been for years. He was the man for the occasion, and in five years brought about wonderful results for God and Methodism.
At the same time Rev. S. A. Danford was placed in charge of the Fargo
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District, which reached from the east to the west line of the state, and about one-third of the distance from north to south. Five years of consecrated effort made a most remarkable change in the religious and material interest of that portion of the state.
In October, 1906, Bishop C. C. McCabe made his last visit to our state and conference. The date of the opening of the conference was the anniversary of his seventieth birthday, and amid great rejoicing his brethren tendered him a reception and most hearty congratulations. Mrs. McCabe was with him, and they responded with a song, while the large audience passed in front of the rostrum and shook hands with the happy couple.
In 1908, Bismarck started the erection of their $20,000 church building, and named it the McCabe Memorial Church. The corner-stone was laid by Bishop D. H. Moore. The membership of the conference had so increased that the delegation to the General Conference was now six, three laymen and three min- isters. Judge Chas. A. Pollock headed the lay delegates at the conference of 1908. A solicitor was appointed to create an endowment fund for the confer- ence claimants and in four years there was raised, in cash and pledges, $138,000.
At the same time Mr. William H. White was given entire control of the funds accruing for the crop raised on the conference land, which he had invested and reinvested until it had increased to $16,000, and it was named "The William H. White Fund."
At the present time there are 175 regular appointments made to the churches of the conference in the state, with five appointments of pastors to special work and college duties.
The church membership has increased to almost thirteen thousand, and invest- ment in church and parsonage property has reached $1,018,795, and pastoral support has attained the sum of $160,566, while the annual contributions to the benevolent causes has grown to $29,645. Wesley College has two fine buildings, the gift of Mr. Sayre and N. G. Larimore, valued at $50,000. Dr. E. P. Robert- son is president.
CHAPTER XXXVI
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
The State University was organized under the provisions of a bill passed by the Territorial Legislature February 16, 1883. By this law it was to be a coeducational institution styled the State University of North Dakota, made up of a combined college of arts and letters and a normal college. It is of some interest to note in this name the first official use of the words North Dakota, the sister institution in what was later South Dakota being called the University of Dakota. On the same date an act was approved providing for the issuance of territorial bonds to the amount of $30,000 to provide for the construction of the present main building of the university. By the same act the bond issue was made contingent on the gift to the territory of a site of not less than ten acres and a well equipped observatory costing not less than ten thousand dollars.
In pursuance of the act of organization, Governor Ordway apppointed the first board of trustees as follows: Dr. W. T. Collins, Grand Forks; Dr. R. M. Evans, Minto; E. A. Healy, Drayton ; Dr. C. E. Teel and James Twamley, Grand Forks. At a meeting held on May 16, 1883, the board formally accepted as a site for the new institution a tract of land twenty acres in extent situated about a mile west of Grand Forks. This offer was made by William Budge, Michael Ohmer and John McKelvey, who also gave bonds for the payment of $10,000 to erect and equip an observatory, thus fulfilling the legal requirement for the issue of the bonds. Three other very excellent sites were offered by citizens of Grand Forks, one located on the present site of Riverside Park, the others in the same vicinity but farther to the north, all on the Red River. These offers, how- ever, do not seem to have been accompanied by any provision for the $10,000 to build and equip an observatory as required by law. The corner-stone of the first structure on the present university grounds, Main Building, was laid Octo- ber 2, 1883. Grand Master O. S. Gifford, of the Dakota Grand Lodge of Free Masons, presided at the ceremonies; Governor Ordway made a brief address in which he warmly congratulated the citizens of the territory that thus early in their history they were preparing to educate their sons and daughters on their own soil; while the principal address was given by Dr. D. L. Kiehle, superin- tendent of public instruction of Minnesota.
Equipment and maintenance for the first two years of the new institution were provided by an act approved March 7, 1883. By this act $1,000 was appro- priated for apparatus; $600 for fuel, light, and janitor service; $1,000 for inci- dental expenses, and $400 for improvement of grounds. An annual appropria- tion not to exceed $5,000 was also made for the salaries of the president and
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other members of the instructional force. This may serve in some sort as a measure of the progress of the institution during later years.
In the Federal enabling act of February 22, 1889, admitting North Dakota as a state, section 14 sets aside 72 sections, or 46,080 acres, in the new state for university purposes. The fund created by the sale of these lands was to con- stitute a permanent university fund, the interest alone being available for use. In section 17 of the same act an additional grant of 40,000 acres was granted to the School of Mines. By a provision in the state constitution, section 215, article 19, the location of the School of Mines was fixed at Grand Forks, and since its establishment, in 1880, it has been an inseparable part of the State University.
On September 3, 1884, the trustees met to make arrangements for the open- ing of the university the following week. There was only one building on the campus and that not fully completed. Living rooms for the faculty, dormitories for the students, a boarding department, class room, a library and museum must all be found in the single building. It was close quarters for so large a family, and not a little friction developed in the course of adjustment to the new condi- tions. The faculty that met the students on the opening day of the first year, September 8, 1884, consisted of Dr. Wm. M. Blackburn, president and professor of metaphysics; Henry Montgomery, vice president and professor of natural sciences ; Webster Merrifield, assistant professor of Greek and Latin, and Mrs. E. H. Scott, preceptress and instructor in mathematics and English. After Presi- dent Blackburn's single year of service, Professor Montgomery was chosen as acting president, which place he filled for two years. In 1887 Dr. Homer B. Sprague was chosen president, his term extending to March 31, 1891, when he resigned. Webster Merrifield, now professor of Greek and Latin, was chosen acting president for the remainder of the year.
During the first seven years the student attendance had grown from 79 to 151. Three graduating classes, the first in 1889, numbering a total of twenty, had received degrees. The catalogue announcement of 1891 shows that the faculty had been increased by the addition of five professors, H. B. Woodworth, John Macnie, Ludovic Estes, E. J. Babcock and Leon S. Roudiez. William Patten was also a new man, taking the place of Henry Montgomery, resigned. Five additional instructors and a laboratory assistant brought the instructional force to the number of thirteen, a very considerable increase since 1884, both in num- bers and in departments represented. By legislative act, approved March 31, 1890, there was formally added to the State University the School of Mines and a military department. Provision for instruction in the latter had been made by the trustees after the first year, but in 1891 Lieut. Leon S. Roudiez, Fifteenth United States Infantry, was regularly detailed for the service. The total appro- priation provided for by the act of February 27, 1891, for the biennial period, was $60,700, of which $41,800 was devoted to the payment of salaries. Scandi- navian was required to be taught by an act approved March 6, 1891, and G. T. Rygh was appointed by the board of trustees as instructor in these languages.
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