Early History of the Congregational Church This history appears in Chapter XCVIII of "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 568-579 and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm CHAPTER XCVIII CONGREGATIONALISM IN SOUTH DAKOTA. Congregationalism presents the apostolic idea of churches established by the voluntary union of Christian believers, each church governing its own affairs, yet united with others in the bonds of fellowship, according to the New Testament suggestions. There is evidence that this apostolic form of church government was resuscitated in England as early as the days of Wycliffe, in the fourteenth century, though church history speaks of its having become a definite movement in the sixteenth century. These Separatists were an offense to the Church of England, and their acts were considered revolutionary. Persecutions, tortures, imprisonments, exiles and hangings followed. But the religious liberty for which these earnest souls contended was not to be destroyed by persecutions. They sought safety in Holland, worshipping at both Amsterdam and Scrooby. In an old manor-house there, says a gifted writer, was the beginning of New England. This historic church seems to have had, in a peculiarly providential way, those elements that Rev. R. J. Campbell recently stated that the American churches now lack, viz: a happy blending of the intensely religious, or pious elements with those of the strongly intellectual. At length the "Mayflower" set sail. "The seed of a free government was in the 'Mayflower' and in the compact made in it. The fruit of it is the American republic." New England, with its meeting house, and town house, and school house, and college, followed the experiences of Plymouth Rock and 1620. But could Congregationalism thrive west of the Hudson river? Doubted. Therefore a plan of union was adopted about the year 18oo by Presbyterians and Congregationalists, which continued for about fifty years, and was then dissolved. Congregationalists had discovered that their polity was adapted to the West as well as the East, though New York state and the Western Reserve had by this time become dominantly Presbyterian. Dr. Alexander H. Ross stated that "The Plan of Union has transformed over two thousand churches, which were in origin and usages Congregational, into Presbyterian churches." Modern Congregationalism from its beginning had been imbued with the missionary spirit, and the dissolution referred to served the more emphatically to impress the need of active work. Congregationalists already felt that they had a divinely appointed mission westward. The states bordering the great lakes, and the rapidly opening newer West and Northwest, with its in-homogeneous multitudes of pioneers, gave to this church polity a hearty welcome. Congregationalism responded with home missionaries and home missionary churches with academies and small colleges and great colleges; while by the New England churches great national societies were organized for the development and assistance of these missionary activities. If any should ever ask, "What brought Congregationalism to South Dakota?" the answer may be found in what is stated above, coupled with its desire to fulfil our Lord's injunction recorded in the sixteenth chapter of St. Mark. It is this spirit that sent Congregationalism around the world, that gives to this polity, through the various denominations embracing it, doubtless, the largest aggregate membership of any church polity in the United States. The following sketch of Congregationalism in South Dakota is but an account of a similar history of its life and work from New England all across this great continent to the Pacific coast. The history of Congregationalism in this state is, in every important particular, the history of the commonwealth itself. From early territorial days until now, no great progress in physical, intellectual or spiritual interests has been made in which Congregationalism has not been a potent factor. It was a pioneer, and as such endured the hardships and vicissitudes of pioneer life. Congregationalists in South Dakota count among their leaders and builders the Riggs family, whose father, Stephen R. Riggs, D. D., LL. D., visited the territory of Dakota as early as September, 1840, holding religious services with the Indians and traders at old Fort Pierre, on the Missouri river. Dr. Riggs, himself a Presbyterian, was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which society was then operating under the Plan of Union referred to above, and was supported by both Presbyterian and Congregational churches. These services seem, from the best records available at the present time, to have been the introductory ones in evangelical missionary work in the territory. This trip was made by Dr. Riggs and his associate from their mission station at Lac-qui-parle, Minnesota, for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of the Teton Indians west of the Missouri river and their attitude toward missionary work. We shall speak later of this signally important and effective work, which has been continued with unabated energy by his two sons and a grandson, members of our state association. Congregationalists' first work among white settlers was done at Yankton, then the territorial capital, though a rough frontier and river town of about four hundred inhabitants. The American (Congregational) Home Missionary Society came to know of the desire in Yankton for a Congregational church through the correspondence of an estimable lady, wife of the Rev. C. H. Wheeler, then a missionary in Harpoot, Turkey, whose brother was none other than Judge W. W. Brookings, of the territorial capital. As the result of an application for a missionary sent to the society by Judge Brookings, Rev. E. W. Cook, of Ripon, Wisconsin, was commissioned for six months for that work. He reached Yankton in March, 1868. Services were begun at once, and the First Congregational church of Yankton was organized April 6, 1868, with ten charter members. One month later the Congregational Sabbath school was organized with six members, but at the end of the first year reported an average attendance of fifty-two. Services were held in the "little Episcopal church on the corner" for a few weeks, when the lower room of the capitol building was secured and used until the territorial legislature met that winter. The first pulpit and benches were made by the pastor, Mr. Cook, a man who could do many things. The first organ was partly the gift of the Tabernacle church, Chicago. The first bell came from the river steamer "Imperial," which was burned, the bell falling into the hands of Judge Brookings, who presented it to the church. This bell soon adorned the capitol building, and later became the property of Yankton Academy, and is now on the high school building of that city. Though serving without a commission, Rev. J. D. Bell served the church for a few weeks, or until the coming of Joseph Ward, who, with his estimable wife, reached Yankton by stage from Sioux City on the night of November 16, 1868. He had recently graduated from Andover Theological Seminary, and more recently married at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Deacon Miner's impression of him as he saw him that night on reaching the end of his long and tiresome journey is well worth noting here: "He was something over six feet in height, broad-shouldered, well proportioned, plainly, but well dressed, and looking as if he might be a traveling man or a young lawyer or doctor, or possibly a young preacher. At all events, he looked like a man who could do things." Later he adds, "from this point (his coming) the early history of the church and of the college is essentially the history of the life work of Joseph Ward; and if there is any good thing in Yankton, or South Dakota, connected with the history of those formative years that has not on it the finger marks of Joseph Ward, I do not know what that thing is." Joseph Ward became pastor of the Yankton church. He had a prophet's faith. He believed the acorn planted there had in it the possibilities of an oak, and he gave it the care that an acorn demands. From the capitol building the church services were taken to a small room with low ceilings, known as Fuller's hall. Here were held "some blessed revival meetings." Here one good sister got the "power," to the consternation of some of the brethren and sisters reared in the Congregational and Presbyterian way. Here the first Christmas was celebrated with a "tree," to which was tied a card with this inscription, "Good for two lots on which to build a church. Signed, J. B. S. Todd." These lots were selected the following day, the General (Todd) taking the committee out in his sleigh to select them. Upon these lots, with a third one purchased, the Congregational church huilding was begun in 1869, and completed in 1870, and stands, with the parsonage beside it, today. This church was dedicated July 17, 1870, Dr. J. E. Roy, the first visitor from outside the territory, preaching the sermon. Early in his ministry Joseph Ward began training his church in Christian giving, both for home and foreign fields. The first Sabbath evening of every month was set apart to a missionary concert, and contributions were received for missionary work. Thus a missionary spirit was cultivated which resulted in much good. Before Joseph Ward started for Dakota he was admonished by Dr. Badger, secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, to "see to it that the cause of Christian education be carried on vigorously in the great northwest." "Here in this commission lies the first foundation stone of Yankton College, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Even before his church was completed he began planning in that direction. He hoped to make Yankton an educational center. A small stock company was organized in the interest of Yankton Academy, which was not only the forerunner of every Christian school in the territory, but of the high school system as well. Yankton Academy continued until "the present high school system was made possible by the passage of a bill through the legislature, which bill was framed by Rev. Joseph Ward." After that bill became a law the academy and everything connected with it was turned over to the city of Yankton, and the question of the establishment of Yankton College was agitated, which was settled by representatives of the churches a few years later. Church societies that put their strongest and wisest men in newly opened fields make no mistake. Though not the very earliest missionary comer, Joseph Ward secured a grasp on the situation at Yankton and throughout the territory such as no man in those early days had. As a strategic missionary point Yankton became the center of a group of twelve Congregational churches within six years. This is a remarkable record when we consider the sparse settlements, the poverty of the people and the rough border elements that had to be contended with in that day. Mrs. Joseph Ward speaks of nearly the whole town's partaking in the hanging of a desperado who was hidden in the brush on the opposite side of the river and how the crowd came back again to attend service at the Congregational church, where they listened to a vigorous sermon against the practice of lynch law. One whole year Joseph Ward labored alone in Yankton, and tile fields about, at the same time urging the American Home Missionary Society at New York to send him men to occupy the numerous openings, and meet the earnest appeals made. In the fall of 1869 Rev. Stewart Sheldon, who was then pastor of the First Congregational church of Lansing, Michigan, was much broken in health by malaria, and left his charge there to seek restoration to health in the clear, dry air of Dakota. He took a claim just outside of Yankton, and also bought a piece of timbered land on the "Jim." Here he worked day after day, hewing logs for the cabin he meant to build on his claim, and making cordwood, which he sold in the Yankton market. He built a two-story log cabin on his claim, where he lived many years. His son, now the Dr. Charles M. Sheldon, in his book, "The Twentieth Door," describes the life of the family on this claim. Mr. Sheldon recovered his health, and at the earnest solicitation of Joseph Ward took up work in the early spring of 1870, and four years later was placed in general charge of the work throughout the territory, which position he occupied until the summer of 1885. He was a kind Father who sent this energetic and consecrated man to Dakota at such a time. Vermillion, Elk Point, Richland and Bon Homme were the first points supplied by Mr. Sheldon, who traveled far and wide with his faithful ponies. He began work in these points in the early spring of 1870 and reported the organization of three Congregational churches on one day, the 17th day of July, of that year: Richmond in the morning, Elk Point in the afternoon, and Vermillion in the evening. There were no ready places for services then. At Vermillion a little store building, a rickety, tumbled-down schoolhouse, a weather-beaten, deserted house on the outskirts of the town, small halls, and the depot, all served as meeting places for those early Christians. The first church was built on the river bottom where tile town then stood, and was washed away in the great spring flood of 1881. The second church was soon built in the new town on the hill. This was moved and remodeled, and added to, and added to again, and now a large and commodious church and pleasant parsonage speak of the permanence and growth of the work. Seventy-five times the original number (seven) have found here a church home, while about three hundred members remain to enjoy its privileges. At Elk Point the surroundings were, perhaps, less favorable. The first and only available hall soon burned to the ground. A little unfinished church building that might have been rented if it could have been completed, was wrecked by the wind and scattered over the prairies. The work was abandoned for a time and then resuscitated, and afterward a lapse of six years occurred between pastors. But by the perseverance of the saints an active and spiritual church may be found there today, with a good church home and a parsonage beside it. On the 20th of October, 1870, our missionary set out for Canton, not knowing where the town was located, but was told "somewhere on the Big Sioux river, about seventy miles away." He readied there the second day at ten o'clock in the evening, stopping with a family of fifteen. The next morning, the Sabbath, he preached in a log house with thatched roof and a ground floor, and received ten new members into the church. He drove that afternoon to Sioux Falls, twenty-five miles, and held an evening meeting in the old barracks building formerly used by the soldiers as a defense against the Indians. He found only two professing Christians in the place, but the people wanted a missionary and a church. A Congregational organization was soon effected and a house of worship built. At Springfield, four years later, when it was proposed to build a church, the governor, who happened to be present, offered a lot and two hundred dollars in money. A thousand dollars was pledged and the site was chosen, when all of a sudden millions upon millions of grasshoppers came pouring through the land and the building project for that year was abandoned. It was a time that tried men's souls. One wrote, "We seemed like pigmies, utterly helpless and unutterably confounded before them." Of this group of twelve churches planted in those early years, seven remain Congregational three have united with other denominations; one was washed away-church, parsonage and Green Island itself-in the great flood of 1881. The pastor and his wife and family, after long hours of suffermg, as they clung to the outside of the roof while the huge ice piles were crtishing everything about them, were rescued. One church died. We doubt not that this little band of churches could enter into hearty sympathy with the great Apostle to the Gentiles who experienced many "perils." The first Congregational idea, that of individual liberty, had opportunity to express itself during those six eventful years very fully; the second must be given that opportunity. Therefore this organization for fellowship. The mother church felt the need of fellowship, while she also felt sympathy for the feebler churches. She issued letters missive to the four other churches organized, asking that they be represented at a fellowship meeting to be held at Yankton January 20, 1871. But two of the churches could send delegates, viz: Elk Point and Richland, while the Canton church sent regrets and a report of its work. Three ministers were in attendance upon this meeting, viz: Rev. Joseph Ward, pastor of the church at Yankton, Rev. Stewart Sheldon, missionary pastor of the Vermillion church as well as of the two churches represented by delegates, and Rev. A. L. Riggs, superintendent of the Indian work under direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Santee, Nebraska. At this meeting the Congregational General Association of Dakota was organized, the constitution adopted and signed by the three ministers and five delegates present. The war cry of this first six-year period was evangelism and education. At every annual and semi-annual gathering these important themes were emphasized again and again. At the second meeting, held in Yankton May 26, 1871, Rev. L. Bridgman, recently from Wisconsin, was present and gave an account of a trip up the valley of the Vermillion, where he had been prospecting, preaching the first sermon in Turner county. At the next meeting a committee on home evangelization was chosen and instructed to issue a circular giving information concerning the religious needs of the territory, so imbued were the churches with this missionary spirit. At this meeting, also, held in Yankton, April 19. 1872, the Woman's Missionary Society of the Yankton church provided the program for the evening, being addressed by Nathan Ford, of Lena, Illinois, without doubt the first public woman's missionary meeting held in the territory. Special mention is made of the attendance of three ministerial brethren from other denominations at the Canton meeting which convened Friday evening, October 11, 1872: Rev. A. Potter, United Brethren, Rev. J. Cole, of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Rev. J. Runyan, Wesleyan Methodist church. This Association meeting was continued over the Sabbath, the 13th, the Canton church being dedicated on that date. Five hundred dollars was raised at dedication to pay last bills. The fifth meeting, both historic and unique, was held outside the territory, at Santee, Nebraska, October 10, 1873, at the Indian mission station of Rev. A. L. Riggs. Without doubt at that meeting was begun that interest on the part of our churches in Indian missionary work which has strengthened through the years. The following resolution was passed giving expression to the interest so early felt: "Resolved, That we use every opportunity to promote fellowship between the Indian churches and our own in order to unite as closely as possible all the Christian influences of the territory, and for the mutual benefit of their people and ours." The following meeting was made memorable by the presence for the first time of a representative of the American Home Missionary Society, in the person of Rev. J. E. Roy. The seventh meeting was held at Sioux Falls and records the presence of W. S. Bell, who was associated in every helpful way with the development of Congregationalism in the state until the year i89o, when he was called to the superintendency of the work in Montana. At the annual meeting at Canton in May, 1875, the first college resolution was passed instructing a committee to consider "whether the time has come to make any movement toward a Christian college for Dakota, and if so, what movement?" The acorn of that early planting has grown until the Congregational organization of South Dakota now consists of seven local associations, viz: Black Hills, Central, Dakota (Indian), German, Northern, Plankington and Yankton, which, uniting, form the General Association of Congregational Churches of South Dakota. The work of the years following was something like the putting into operation of plans already suggested, although the days of hardship and pioneering had, by no means, passed. Thrilling incidents of heroic missionary effort during the succeeding twelve years could be narrated that might be both interesting and profitable, if space would allow. Greater scope characterized the movement during the second six-year period. The settlements seem to have followed the water courses, the valleys of the Sioux, Missouri and J allies rivers, as suggested by the following organizations which previous to 1881 were effected, viz: Medary, Aurora, Watertown; Fort Pierre, Pierre, Fort Sully, Mandan; Rockport, Redfield and others. Associated with this period is the coming of Rev. D. B. Nichols, now our revered "Father" Nichols, who, with his Bon Homme, and later, Mission Hill, present to us never-to-be-forgotten examples of faith and answers to prayer. His life illustrates what some Congregationalists have done for community life in our national history. Contemporaneous with this period, Congregation work was opened in the Black Hills by Rev. Lanson P. Norcross, whom the American Home Missionary Society had sent to Deadwood from Colorado, in November, 1876. Congregational services were held the next Sabbath in the dining room of the old Centennial Hotel, but on account of interference with the dinner hour a room was secured in the Inter-Ocean Hotel. In this place, on December 3, 1876, the Congregational Sunday school was organized, with a membership of more than forty. The church organization was completed January 15, 1877, four women and seven men uniting by letter from home churches. This is the oldest church organization in the Black Hills, writes one of the pioneers of Deadwood. This organization took place in a carpenter shop with no floor save "mother earth." The first church building was twenty-five by thirty-five feet in size and was occupied first in June, 1877. Capt. W. A. Beard, formerly of New Bedford, Massachusetts, at that time conducting a grocery store in Deadwood, presented the church with a bell which Fred T. Evans transported free from Sioux City to Deadwood. This bell was the first one brought to the Hills, without doubt. Eighteen months later Rev. J. W. Pickett made his first visit to the Hills as general missionary. He visited and preached in all the towns and mining camps of the Hills and organized Congregational churches at Lead City. Spearfish and Rapid City, and aided in organizing Sunday schools at Rockerville and other points in the southern Hills. He was the projector of the Spearfish Academy, and had it not been for his untimely death that institution would probably have continued under Congregational direction. Mr. Pickett also organized the Black Hills Bible Society and the Black Hills Association of Congregational Churches. What we would designate as the third period of Congregational history in South Dakota began with the year 1881. This year ushered in the most remarkable settlement on new lands the nation had, to that date, perhaps, ever known. Over three million six hundred thousand acres of land had been entered in all and about two-thir4s of it, or two million four hundred thousand acres, according to the best authorities was in South Dakota east of the Missouri river. Sixteen thousand acres for two days in succession were entered at a single land office. During a portion of the season the average was a thousand homestead entries a day, from two to four thousand newcomers every twenty-four hours. Scores, if not hundreds, of towns were builded in a year. A nation was born in a day! Life then was as strenuous as even a Roosevelt could wish. These were crucial years. The missionary problem was not so much where to plant, as where not to plant. That no mistake would be made at such a time would be unreasonable to suppose. At a time of great anxiety concerning the manning of the fields the heart of the superintendent was made glad by the coming of the Yale Dakota Band. This band consisted of nine young men from Yale Theological Seminary who had offered themselves for work in the home land. They were Messrs. Case, Fisk, Holp, Hubbard, Lindsay, Reitzel, Shelton, Thrall and Trimble. Their coming marked an epoch in Dakota Congregationalism of that period. One of the number writes, "We have furnished by virtue of their coming among us, one foreign missionary, one field secretary, and later out of the band have evolved a home missionary superintendent whose efficiency and worth we are glad to acknowledge." This period marked the inauguration of the woman's work, both home and foreign branches. The Dakota Branch of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior was organized at the General Association meeting at Watertown in 1883, with Mrs. M. B. Norton as president, and Mrs. Joseph Ward, secretary. The Woman's Home Missionary Union was organized at the General Association meeting held at Yankton, one year later. In April, 1886, denominational Sunday school work was begun by the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, Boston, Massachusetts, with Rev. W. B. D. Gray as territorial superintendent, who held this office until October, 1893. At once this society became a discoverer of fields and an organizer of society. It has during these eighteen years organized hundreds of schools in places where no other gospel services were held. Some of these, from various causes, are dead. The Home Missionary Society, co-operating, continued the work thus opened with the organization of many churches, while some of the schools planted developed into churches of other faiths. The society also called to its assistance the following men, each of whom labored a considerable length of time: Rev. Messrs. W. S. Bell, William McCready, Albert T. Lyman and John Sattler, who labored jointly for the Congregational Home Missionary Society and the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, in the German work, beside others who labored for short periods. Rev. C. M. Daley, the present superintendent, began work for the society July 1, 1888, taking the superintendency October 1, 1893. When this society opened work on this field there were seventy-nine Congregational Sunday schools, with a membership of 5,335 now there are, including our branch, independent and mission schools, 221, with a total membership of 12,138. This period also witnessed the organization of the Dakota Home Missionary Society, at the General Association meeting at Huron September 17-20, 1885 with Rev. Joseph Ward, D. D., president, and Rev. W. B. Hubbard, who continued in this office so many years as its faithful secretary. Rev. Stewart Sheldon, whose appointment as territorial superintendent came direct from the American Home Missionary Society, served from June 20, 1874, to June 20, 1886. Mr. Sheldon also served as missionary pastor for four years previous to his commission as general worker. In his sixteen years of pioneer service he saw the Congregational churches of Dakota territory increase from one church, with a membership of ten, at the beginning, to one hundred and one churches with a membership of 3,571, and a Sunday school membership of 5,641. Having succeeded Mr. Sheldon, Rev. H. D. Wiard continued his superintendency five years, resigning his position in this state to accept a similar one in northern California. Later he became field secretary of the Congregational Home Missionary Society. Under his superintendency the churches were increased to 132 and the membership to 4,892, while many church buildings and parsonages were built. Rev. W. G. Dickinson was called to the superintendency January 1, 1892. Failing strength and a fatal disease caused him to relinquish his work before the close of the year. He was greatly beloved by the churches. He was buried from his home at Webster, South Dakota, in January, 1894. During Superintendent Dickinson's illness the board of directors chose one of its number, Rev. W. H. Thrall, pastor at Redfield, to carry the work for a time. May 1, 1893, he was chosen state superintendent of the church work, which office he still holds. During the period of his superintendency, which includes the years of drought and depression, there has been a net gain of thirteen churches, and 1,996 members, while the church, especially the parsonage building, has been large. The aggregate value of Congregational church buildings in South Dakota is $306,500, and of parsonages, $107,000. The value of its college and academy property, exclusive of Indian school property, is $225,000, and of endowments, $160,000. Total Congregational church membership in the state is 7,310, and Sunday school membership, including its branch and. mission schools, is 12,138. Its young people's societies number 68, with a membership of 2,098. The first general missionary was Rev. D. R. Tomlin, employed in September, 1887. For nine years he did a most valuable service in special evangelistic work, and as a wise counsellor on the field. Others serving in this capacity were Rev. W. G. Dickinson, Rev. Philo Hitchcock, Rev. E. W. Jenney and Miss Emma K. Henry, all doing a worthy and acceptable work among the churches. In June, 1895. Rev. A. E. Thompson, pastor of the Yankton church, resigned his work to engage in union evangelistic work in the state and elsewhere. Thus, and for these many years, Congregationalism has sought by every possible means to advance deep spiritual life in this commonwealth. One of the most important features of Congregational work in this state, and one of growing importance, is that among the German people. This work was begun in the year 1884, with the organization of eleven German churches, which were formed into a German Congregational Association, auxiliary to the present South Dakota Congregational General Association. Rev. George E. Albrecht, D. D., who was then superintendent of the German Congregational work in the United States, fostered this movement and rendered timely help in the prosecution of it. An early German missionary was Rev. J. Jose, who remarked : "Nearly all the members of these churches are decided Christians, who leave the German Lutheran churches because the form and style of their old organizations fail to satisfy them. May our Heavenly Father give us ministers for Dakota to his liking, and our work here will soon be a light which will cast its rays afar." His humble prophecy has already become an axiom in and through the thirty churches constituting the German Association. Our German brethren are, with fidelity, teaching the Bible to their children and are educating the churches in Christian giving. They give to church, Sunday school and educational work in this country, but perhaps take greatest pride in giving to our American Board of Foreign Missions. They have many good houses of worship and comfortable parsonages. They are an industrious and frugal people, conservative in their religious thinking, and have already become an important element, and withal dependable, in our young state. This German Association sustains an academy of merit where both the English and German departments are ably conducted. Space would fail me in speaking at length of those who have gone on before. "Not here-their footprints are here, their work is still on exhibition here, but the living self is with God." J. U. McLoney Joseph Ward, Charles Seccombe and wife, Lewis Bridgman and wife, Edward Brown and wife, Andrew J. Drake, W. G. Dickinson, James H. Kyle, Artemas Ehuamani, William A. Lyman, and others, both noble men and women, some in the full strength of their years, others fathers and mothers in Israel, who were called home at the end of many years of honest, earnest toil for Him. These are the losses that have come through the years. Yet why should we call that loss which to them has been such gain? Congregationalists have done a large and important work among the Indians of South Dakota. The first distinctively Congregational movement for the education of the Dakota Indians of the Northwest was begun by Rev. A. L. Riggs, in the establishment of the Santee Normal Training School, which, though built on the Nebraska side of the Missouri river, is for and with the Indians of South Dakota. This school was established in 1869 and has been enlarged from time to time and, being directed with definiteness and intelligence, is recognized as the most successful school for Indian youth in the United States. Dr. Riggs is assisted by his son, Prof. F. B. Riggs. In February, 1872, Rev. T. L. Riggs began missionary work among the wild Indians of the upper Missouri, locating near Ft. Sully. This was the first Congregational Indian mission established within the bounds of South Dakota. This mission was extended by Mr. Riggs to Standing Rock, in 1880, and in 1885 Miss Mary C. Collins was secured as a helper. She continues in the work as an ordained minister and has supervision of the Grand River district in South Dakota. Rev. George W. Reed, who joined the Dakota mission in 1887, now has charge of the work in the North Dakota portion of the Standing Rock reservation. In 1885 native workers were sent to the southward to occupy the newly opened outstation on the White river. In 1887 Rev. James F. Cross came into this work and a year later was given supervision on the Rosebud reservation, which place he still occupies. The Dakota Mission of the American Board was, in its Congregational make- up and membership, transferred, January 1, 1883, to the American (Congregational) Missionary Association. The work begun near Fort Sully in 1872 has developed. In addition to the extensions referred to, fifteen out-stations have been established on the Cheyenne river, eight of which are now active. A school preparatory to Santee was established at Oahe in 1884, and conducted by Rev. T. L. Riggs, and has attached to it a primary school on Plum creek under the care of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Griffiths. This field has seven organized churches; Grand River has two churches and six mission stations ; and Rosebud reservation, two organized churches and five out-stations. The rapid growth of this work is due in large measure to the constant use of the training agencies and the trained workers. Wonderful have been the results: About two thousand of the present generation of Indians have been taught at the Santee Normal Training School; over five hundred have had an elementary training at Oahe and Plum Creek and the out-station day schools; the active membership of the nine Indian churches in South Dakota is seven hundred and five. These churches pay largely toward supporting their own religious services, carry on and entirely support a missionary society of their own which now sends out three native missionaries, and also supports one missionary to the Crow Indians, their former bitter foe. Not the least of the results of Congregational effort and prayer for and by the Indians themselves, is the great change that has been wrought in these wild Indians of the plains within a short quarter of a century. This has been going on quietly and surely and with increasing momentum. Other forces have contributed to this end, but not one has been more persistent and effective. True to the spirit of the New England fathers, Dakota Congregationalists have conducted an earnest educational campaign, successful and far-reaching in its results. Beside the Indian schools referred to above, six other institutions of learning have been established by Congregationalists within the bounds of this state. All have stood for Christian education. Yankton Academy, established in the early 'seventies by Rev. Joseph Ward, was the first Christian school in the territory of Dakota, and the first school with a curriculum in any way approaching an academic or high school course. Securing the passage by the territorial legislature of a more liberal educational bill, he closed his academy and threw his help for the time being to the city schools of Yankton. Spearfish Academy, or, officially, "The Preparatory Department of Dakota College," was founded in 1878 by Rev. J. W. Pickett, superintendent of Congregational work in Colorado and the Black Hills, and was incorporated in 1880. Pickett Memorial Hall was built and dedicated in December of that year. Rev. B. Fay Mills was chairman of the executive committee. The school closed its doors in 1882 for lack of funds. Prof. H. H. Gay, Boston, Massachusetts, was principal. It was the first school in all that section of country higher than a district school. Its students, many of whom live in Spearfish, speak highly of its literary and musical departments. It served to point out Spearfish as a favorable point for a school, and likewise developed among Spearfish people a desire for educational opportunities. Further than this it had no tangible connection with the establishment of the state normal school there. Yankton College was the third school to be established by Congregationalists, Yankton having outbid other towns in its desire to secure this first college in the Dakotas. May, 1881, was the date. Rev. Joseph Ward, D. D., was its first president. The college grounds were consecrated October 30, i88i, the Yale Dakota Band and others taking part. Yankton College has stood pre-eminently for Christian education. Through its uniformally strong faculty, and its high standard of scholarship, it has won and held its place among the strongest colleges of the land. Rev. Henry K. Warren, M. A., LL. D., stands at the head of its faculty of twenty. The following departments are maintained: College, academy, conservatory of music, art, elocution, physical training, shorthand and typewriting, domestic economy. Enrollment of students current year, two hundred and seventy-five. It has seven buildings on a beautiful campus of twenty-five acres, including the Athletic Park. A fine fifteen- thousand-dollar library building has just been promised by Andrew Carnegie. Its library already consists of eight thousand volumes. Yankton College has one hundred and forty thousand dollars of an endowment fund, and one hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars in buildings, library and apparatus. Plankington Academy was established in 1885. Rev. R. H. Battey was president of the board, and Rev. L. E. Camfield, principal. This school was continued but for two years. Redfield College opened for work in Septemher, 1887. It was the child of the Northern (then Midland) Association of Congregational churches and was later endorsed by the General Association. Rev. David Beaton was its first president. Its first sessions were held in the audience room of the Congregational church at Redfield. The citizens of Redfield and other friends of the college erected the first building, which was occupied January 26, i888. Exactly eight years from that date this building was totally destroyed by fire, but was at once replaced by a more substantial and commodious one. A small ladies' hall has since been added, and the foundation of a large and substantial science hall is already laid. The college library consists of five thousand volumes. The valuation of buildings, campus, library and apparatus aggregates forty thousand dollars. The departments consist of college, academy, conservatory of music, and business. The enrollment for the current year is one hundred and sixty-six students. Rev. I. P. Patch is president, and eleven others associated with him constitute the faculty. Rev. L. Reynolds has recently accepted the office of field agent of the college and already has twenty thousand dollars pledged toward a fifty thousand dollar endowment fund. Redfield College is pervaded with a strong and healthful Christian atmosphere, and few who have entered there as students have returned to their homes unconverted. Her missionary training department, added a few years since, gives a course covering the first year in our theological seminaries, and has induced several young men enter the ministry. These are doing valuable service in the home field, and one, as a missionary of the American Board, represents Congregational interests in the Philippine islands. Ward Academy was established in September, 1893, by Rev. L. F. Camfield, its first and present principal. It was the child of necessity: "Fifteen thousand school children in Charles Mix and adjoining counties, from twelve to forty miles from the railroad, without opportunity of education beyond the district school." This was the announcement of its founder to the people of that county issued in an invitation to meet for an academy mass meeting, September 23, 1892. A year later the academy building was dedicated, and named, in honor of Joseph Ward, Ward Academy. Twenty-five students began the first year's work. Some boarded in the new building, others drove from their homes through the cold and heat to continue their studies. With remarkable interest and success, the work grew. Few have toiled mentally and physically as have the devoted principal and his wife these years. The present enrollment of the school is one hundred and ten. Six earnest, self-sacrificing men and women constitute the faculty. A very large church building has recently been finished, the lower portion of which is used for class rooms, and a hall over a store building is divided into rooms for boys. Thirty-five girls occupy thirteen rooms at the Hall. A fourth building must speedily be erected. The valuation of buildings, lands, stock, apparatus, etc., is thirty thousand dollars. The course of study comprises the classical, Latin-philosophical, English-normal, and musical. The school is very earnestly Christian. Congregationalism has been constantly interested and ably represented in the civic affairs of the territory and the state from its earliest beginnings. In the territorial legislatures, in the constitutional conventions, in the state legislature, in the halls of the national congress (by two United States senators and one congressman, not to speak of several others, members of our Congregational constituency), its voice has been heard with impressiveness and distinction. Its thumb-prints are on many of our best laws, also. The cause of temperance and purity, and of the oppressed and of the homeless, has been, and is, its cause. Congregationalism also responded to the "call to arms," issued in behalf of an oppressed people, and sent officers, and men in the ranks, and the chaplain of the regiment. Who are Congregationalists? They are but men and women, with a high and mighty calling. And as they become humble before Him, so shall they become strong. The future demands deeper consecration, and points to greater achievement.