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The First Congregational Church of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota was organized in 1872 by the Reverend Hiram N. Gates. Gates was the minister of the Congregational Church in Connecticut when he received a commission from the American Home Missionary Society to establish Congregational churches in settlements along the newly constructed line of the Northern Pacific Railroad in northwestern Minnesota. Before leaving the East, Gates met Colonel George H. Johnston, who, as president of the New England Military and Naval Bureau of Migration, was in the process of establishing a colony at Detroit on lands purchased from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company (the name of the town that was to Detroit Lakes in 1926). Many of the original settlers of the “New England Colony” were Congregationalists, and Johnston convinced Gates to settle there.

Materials collected by Dr. Margaret Reed of the Moorhead State University Department of Social Work, between 1965 and 1982, for a planned history of social service agencies (never written). Dr. Reed served on the boards of many such agencies in Fargo-Moorhead [North Dakota-Minnesota] during this period.

The Vietnam protest movements in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota began slowly in 1966 and 1967, and grew to be among the most active anti-war movements in the rural upper Midwest. The movement peaked in 1970 with protests against the Kent State incident. Much of the anti-war activities in these two communities originated at the Moorhead State College campus.

The First Congregational United Church of Christ, Glyndon, Clay County, Minnesota was formally organized in 1872 as the Church of Glyndon, apparently by Congregationalists. In 1921, the name was changed to the First Congregational Churches until 1963, when it joined the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ and adopted its present name, the First Congregational United Church of Christ.

In 1976, representatives of Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, discussed a proposed museum for preserving and displaying the history and culture of the two cities and their surrounding counties. The proposed museum was to be built in the form of a structure that bridged the Red River, was to be jointly funded by the two cities, and was to be administered by a group representing both communities.

The objectives of the Fargo-Moorhead Horticultural Society are to unite area horticulturists for furthering their knowledge, encourage horticulture interest within the community, and to increase awareness and enjoyment of horticulture. Membership is open to all, meetings are held monthly, and officers are elected yearly.

The Family Service Association was organized for the purposes of providing mental health service in the Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota area. The organization’s main consideration was the assistance of families in their everyday struggle to combat the problems of modern society. This included alcoholism, broken homes, marital problems, religious differences, etc.

An Exhibit Prepared by Students at Minnesota State University Moorhead, with the Assistance of the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, the Lake Agassiz Regional Library System and the Minnesota Humanities Commission.

A guide to records concerning recovery from the flood Housed at the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, Livingston Lord Library, Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Douglas H. Sillers was born in Clavin, North Dakota on February 9, 1915. He was the second son of Archie and Mabel Tuthill Sillers. His two brothers were Kipling, born in 1913, and Colin, who was born in 1917. Douglas Sillers completed high school at Calvin, where his father farmed, and left home in 1933 to travel through the western states.