Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/140

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NORTH DAKOTA


114


NORTH DAKOTA


Gradiiato Dopartnieiits) :it (Irimd I"(irks; numbor of professors, instructors, and assistants, (iS; leoturprs, 13; students, loot). ClKuital)le institutions are the Deaf and Dumb School at IJevil's Lake, tlie Hospital for Feeble Minded at (irafton. the Insani- .\sylum at Jamestown, the .Sehool for the Blind at liathgate, the Soldiers' Home at Lisbon, the Heforni School at Man- dan. The permanent school and institutional fund amounted to about .SIS.OOO.DOO in 1!K)S; the appor- tionment from that fund in 1903 was $274, 348. .SO; in 1908, $54.5,814.66. Ample provisions are made for State and county institutes, and teachers are required to attend. Third Grade Certificates are abolished. The minimum salary for teachers is $45 a month. Provisions are made for the extension of the High School system, and also for consolidated schools and transportation of children to the same. The legis- lative appropriation in 1909 for the university was $181,000.

Prisons and Reformatories. — The keeper of each prison is required to provide at the expense of the county for each prisoner who may be able and desires to read, a copy of the Bible or New Testament to be used by the prisoner at seasonable and proper times during his confinement, and any minister of the Gospel is permitted access to such prisoners at seasonable and proper times to perform and instruct prisoners in their moral and religious duties. Suitable provisions are made for reduction of time for good behaviour, for indeterminate sentences, and paroling prisoners.

Sale of Liquor. — The manufacture, importation, sale, gift, barter, or trade of intoxicating liquors by any person, association, or corporation as a beverage, is prohibited by Article 20 of the State constitution and by statute. Exceptions are made in favour of sale in limited quantities on affidavit of applicant by druggists for medicinal, mechanical, scientific, and sacramental purposes, under permit granted at the discretion of the district court. Not more than one- half pint may be sold to any one in one day and the purchaser must sign affidavit stating the particular disease for which the same is required. Sales to minors, habitual drunkards, and persons whose rela- tives forbid, are prohibited. Places where intoxicat- ing liquors are sold or kept for sale or where persons are permitted to resort for purpose of drinking intox- icating liquors are declared to be common nuisances. The keeper is liable criminally and in an action the nuisance may be abated and the premises closed for one year. The statute also provides for civil liability against persons violating the law, in favour of those taking charge of and providing for intoxicated per- sons, and in favour of every wife, child, parent, guardian, employer, or other person injured in person or property or means of support by any intoxicated person.

Staiislics of the Protestant Churches. — The Epis- copalian Church has 4664 members; 1224 families; 97 Sunday School teachers; 741 pupils; 42 churches and chapels; 5410 sittings; 16 rectories; 795 mem- bers in guilds. The value of the churches, chapels, and grounds is $158,055; rectories $49,000; other property $42,850. There are 6 parishes; 36 organized missions; and 44 unorganized missions. Total offer- ings for all purposes for the y*ar ending 1 June, 1910, were $.32,496.28. The Methodist Episcopal Church had in the State in 1908, 223 church buildings valued at $600,000, and 101 parsonages valued at $150,000, with a membership of about 11,000. The most im- portant fact in connexion with this organization is the affiliation of Wesley College with the State university, where the Methodists aim to give religious and other instruction in their own buildings and arrange for their pupils to get the benefit of secular instruction at the State university. The plan suggests a possible solution of the much vexed question of division of the school fund. The Presbyterian Church has 7 presby-


teries; 175 ministers; 7185 members, 9411 Sunday School members. They contributed for all purposes in the past year $150,1)35. There arc 1.S5 church organizations; 50 preaching stations; 132 church buildings, and 62 manses. Value of church manses and educational property was estimated at $.800,000 in 1908. This denomination has recently located at Jamestown, the Presbvtiiian unixcrsii v, said to have .an endowment fund of alicmt 8200, ()()(). ' T\u- Liilhiran Church is composed chieily of Norwegians and other Scandinavians. According to the "Norwegian Amer- ican ", published in Norwegian at Minneapolis in 1907, there were in the State in 1905, of Norwegian birth and descent. 140.000. The Lutheran church had 3S0 congregations, and about 240 churches. The Baptist Church in 1908 had a membership of 4161, a Sunday School enrollment of 3164; 53 churches, valued at $191,430; and 28 parsonages valued at $35,772.

Ecclesiastical History. — The establishment of Catho- lic missions in North Dakota cannot bo reliably traced to an earlier date than 1818. In that year Rt. Rev. J. Octave Plessis of Quebec sent Rev. Joseph Provencher and Rev. Josef Severe Dumoulin to Fort Douglas, as St. Boniface was then called, and after the grasshoppers had destroyed the crops, the Selkirk colonists went in large numbers to Pembina. Father Provencher sent Father Dumoulin in September, 1818, to minister to the spiritual w-ants of the colonists, with instructions to spend the winter at Pembina. When that i)lacewas foimd to be within the United States, Father Dumoulin was recalled. Rev. George Anthony Beleourt became the second resident priest of North Dakota. A gifted linguist, well versed in the Algonquin languages which included the Chip- pewa, he taught the latter to the young missionaries and composed an Indian grammar and dictionary, still standard works. He w.as resident priest from 1831-8 and often said Mass in every camping place from Lake Traverse to Pembina and in the in- terior of North Dakota. It was customary in the sunnner for the settlers to go to the south-western part of the State to hunt bison on the prairies, and to take their families with them. The priest always accom- panied them and in those camps for the first time the children were given an opportimity of religious in- struction. Father lielcourt is said to have evangel- ized the whole of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, a circumstance which kept that tribe at peace with the government during the Sioux troubles following the Minnesota massacre in 1862. Father De Smet spent a few weeks with the Mandans on the Missouri in 1840 and baptized a number of their children. Father Jean Baptiste Marie Genin is credited with establish- ing a mission at St. Michael's, Fort Totten, in 1865. His name is honourably and extensively associated with much of the missionary history of the State. The first real missionary work anjoiig the Sioux of North Dakota dates from 1874 when Alajor Forbes (a Cath- olic), Indian Agent at Fort Totten, with the help of the Catholic Indian Bureau, induced the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) of Montreal under Sr. Mary Clapin to establish themselves in his agency. Father Bonnin came as their chaplain. Rev. Claude Ebner, O.S.B., was stationed at Fort Totten, 1877-86. Rev. Jerome Hunt, O.S.B., has devoted his talent and zeal to the welfare of the Indians at Fort Totten Reservation since 18.82, and has written and published in the Sioux language, a Bible history, prayerbook with instruction and hymns, and a smaller book of prayer, and for eighteen years has published an Indian paper in Sioux. The Grey Nuns at Fort Totten have conducted a sehool since 1874.

Rt. Rev. Martin Marty, O.S.B., was Vicar Apos- tolic of Dakota until 27 December, 1889, when Rt. Rev. John Shanley became Bishop of Jamestown; the see was later changed to Fargo. The number of churches increased from 40 in 1890 to 210 in 1908.