Montana :The Land and the People
Author: Raymer, Robert George Chicago, Publisheer: Lewis Pub. Co. 1930, issued in three volumes.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CHURCHES AND FRATERNAL ORDERS IN MONTANA

The churches have played a most important part in the civilizing of Montana and in making it a safe and pleasant place in which to live. From the earliest times, in the days of the fur trader, before the miner had come, when the Catholic fathers had found their way up the Missouri and were ministering to the Indians, to the present time, the various churches have been untiring in their efforts to relieve distress and to minister to the spiritual, mental, and physical needs of the people. Since Montana was first settled not by families of farmers seeking homes, as in most of the other parts of the country, hut by the lone fur-traders and trappers, next by the bachelor miners and later by the cattle men and cowboys, all of whom lived a free and easy life and none of whom had given hostages to fortune, a far different problem was presented in trying to Christianize this country.

The influence of the churches has been far-reaching, since they have taken a leading part in the educational activities in the state and have built practically all the hospitals in Montana, besides ministering to the spiritual needs of the individual citizens in the local parishes In the history of .each of the churches we find records of many good and courageous men and women who sacri­ficed themselves in order to further the work of their particular denomination in the state.

The Roman Catholic Church

In previous chapters the story of the early Jesuit missions to the Montana tribes has been told. It remains briefly to recount the story of how the work of the church was carried on after the settlement of the region by the whites.

At that time Western Montana was a part of the archdiocese of Oregon City, which had been at one time part of the See of Quebec and hence retained some of the French practices.

Eastern Montana was territorially a part of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, which had long abandoned the early French ways and had become thoroughly Anglicized. Upon the initiative of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, who was anxious to colonize Montana with Irish Cath­olics, the Second Plenary Council of American Bishops at Baltimore in 1866 recommended the erection of two Vicariates-Apostolic to be divided by the range of the Rocky Mountains and called Idaho and Montana. The authorities at Rome accepted this recommenda­tion and appointed a priest whose failing health prevented him from accepting the Vicariate of Montana, so the position was left vacant although considerable missionary work was in progress of a priest of the Church of England named John Wesley, hence the frequent use of the term Wesleyan in connection with Methodist institutions. Followers of the Reverend Mr Wesley came to America prior to the Revolution, the most notable among them being the eloquent preacher, George Whitefield, and the faithful itinerant missionary, Francis Asbury. After the Revolution, in December, 1784, an organization was founded in Baltimore which spread rapidly through the young nation and followed the pioneers into the West, across the plains, and was a great factor in estab­lishing the Oregon country.

The first Methodist preacher recorded in the history of Montana was a Reverend Mr. Craig who preached at Bannack 10 January, 1864, and who was followed by a Reverend Mr. Thompson, about whom little has been preserved.

 In 1864 the Missionary Society of the denomination sent a Rev. A. M.Hough, brother-in-law of Jay Gould,, to organize missions in Montana, who with the assistance of other pastors, established societies in log churches at Virginia City and Montana City, About the same time, in July, 1865, he built a log church in Helena* This building, veneered with brick and now used as a dwelling, still stands at 214 Joliet Street. Few who see it realize that encased within its walls are the original logs of what was the first church in Helena and probably the second or third Protestant church in Montana.

The governing body of Methodism is a General Conference meeting quadrennially composed of delegates from all parts of the world. The General Conference of 1872 gave permission for the organization of this society in the newly settled territories of the Northwest, and in accord with this permission seven missionaries, with Bishop Randolph S. Foster presiding, founded the Rocky Mountain Conference to include the work of the -Methodists in Montana, Idaho and Utah, the headquarters of the Montana mis­sions being at Helena. At the time of this organization there were less than a hundred Methodists in Montana and only one church, with three others in process of erection.

In June, 1872, W. W Van Orsdel, a local preacher, arrived at Fort Benton from the oil regions of Pennsylvania* He began to hold preaching services, made the acquaintance of the Indians whom he treated in a most brotherly fashion and won his way into the hearts of white men and red men alike. Perhaps it should be noted here that, according to the law of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Van Orsdel was then working as a lay preacher, and owing to this relationship was eligible for, and received the honor of representing Montana at the General Conferences of 1876 and 1880. The General Conference gave the Montana preachers the privilege of resolving themselves into a mission in order to receive the aid of the Missionary Society as they found that their action of 1876 of forming a conference was premature.

Knowing the power of the press these pioneer preachers at their meeting at Bozeman in July, 1882, resolved to establish a paper to be known as the Montana Christian Advocate. J. J. Garvin was named editor of this journal, and successfully established it. The Advocate became the predecessor of the Montana Methodist Mes­senger, founded about 1905.

MONTANA page 2

east of the range both among whites and Indians, principally, if not wholly, in charge of the Jesuit fathers.

Father Urban Giorda, S J., had founded the Church of AH Saints at Virginia City as early as 1863; a little church at Helena, dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, had been built by Father Kuppens, S. J, in 1866, and a better edifice was com­pleted ten years later under the ministry of Father Palladino. In 1869 Father De Smet, whose love for Montana made him ever watchful of her spiritual interests, induced a group of nuns from the convent of the Sisters of Charity at Leavenworth, Kansas, to begin work in the territory These godly women established Saint Vincent's Academy for girls. Saint John's Hospital, and Saint Joseph's Orphanage at Helena and Saint Mary's Hospital at Vir­ginia City, all before the secular clergy began work in Montana.

The work of the secular clergy in the territory was inaugurated by the appointment of Bishop John Baptist Brondel as Vicar Apostolic for Montana, the two former vicariates now being merged, on 5 March, 1888, A year later Pope Leo XIII made Montana a diocese, with the Episcopal residence fixed at Helena, and the Jesuit fathers turned over to him the various real estate holdings in Helena- When the Bishop was welcomed in Helena his clergy indulged themselves in the pleasantry of expressing their greetings to him in twelve languages, namely: Greek, Latin, English, Flem­ish (for Bishop Brondel was a Belgian), Italian (the native tongue of some of the Jesuits present), German, French, Blackfoot, Crow, Salish, and Nez Perce. To these words of greeting the Bishop replied in Chinook, an Indian language of the Pacific Coast which he had learned while working: among them. Father Palladino, who himself was present, gave to Montana history this interesting sidelight.

For twenty years Bishop Brondel labored for the conversion and faith of Montana* At the time of his death, 3- November, 1908, aged sixty-one years, there were under his charge thirty-two churches with resident priests and thirty-three mission churches, In addition there were eighty-four stations and twenty-three chap­els, all served by fifty-three priests. The Roman Catholic population was then said to be about 50,000, including whites and Indians.

Bishop Brooders successor, the Rt. Rev. John Patrick Carroll, was installed on 31 January, 1905- In the interval between the death of the first bishop and the installation of the second the diocese had been subdivided so that Bishop Carroll did not assume control of all that Bishop Brondel had laid down,

The growth of the church in Montana by the end of the century rendered advisable the division of the state for administrative pur­poses and the creation of the Diocese of Great Falls, which occu­pied the eastern half of the state. This diocese was erected 18 May, 1904, and the Rev. Mathias C- Lenihan was consecrated its bishop. By the time a quarter of a century had passed, the diocese claimed a Catholic population of 32,425 in addition to 4,621 Catholic Indians, with forty churches having resident priests, fourteen Indian churches and eighty-eight missions. Eleven of these par­ishes had parochial schools

Among the institutions of the Diocese of Great Falls were: the Mount Saint Angela Academy at Great Falls; the Columbus Hospital (Great Falls), with a training school for nurses and Saint Elizabeth's Maternity Home in connection therewith; Saint Mary's Institute, a parochial school operated by Sisters of the Humility of Mary from the Sacred Heart Convent and Motherhouse, all at Great Falls; Saint Thomas' Orphan Home under the care of the Sisters of Charity of Providence.There were large Catholic hos­pitals also at Billings, Fort Benton, Havre, Lewistown and Miles City.Bishop Carroll laid great stress on education, both elementary and superior. He urged the establishment of parochial schools and persuaded the faithful to see that their children were given the benefit of them. He founded Saint Abysms' Boarding School for boys and with that as a basis created, a few years later, Mount Saint Charles College, with both secondary and collegiate depart­ments.

(See chapter on Education in Montana.) Another favorite scheme of the good Bishop's was the colonization of Belgians, na­tives of the most crowded state of all Europe and very largely good Catholics, in Montana. To this end he sent Monsignor Day to Europe and thereby secured two groups of Belgian and Dutch farmers to take the uplands on the Valier Irrigation Project in the Blackfoot country,

But the Saint Helena Cathedral is the work by which Bishop Carroll will probably be longest remembered. This beautiful struc­ture, the gift of the people of Montana both within and without the fold of the Bishop, was modeled after the Votive Church of the Sacred Heart in Vienna. It cannot be adequately described in words and for those Montanans who have not examined it per­sonally, it is worth a trip to the capital to see. The cost is said to have been upwards of $400,000.

The service of Bishop Carroll in the diocese lasted a trifle short of twenty years. When he started to Europe on his official visit to the Pope in the autumn of 1925 few of his intimate friends knew he was suffering from the ailment which proved fatal a few weeks later. He died in Fribourg, Switzerland, on 4 November, aged sixty-one years. His predecessor, by a strange coincidence, had like him served Montana twenty years and had died in Novem­ber at the age of sixty-one.

"He was more than a distinguished high-placed churchman and leader of his people in religious thought/' said the Anaconda Standard. "He was an educator of national repute, a scholar of highest attainments, a lover of all mankind, a considerate Mend and a kindly adviser to all who knew him or sought his friendly counsel The Catholic Church in Montana suffers a heavy loss in his death, but the state loses a fine and loyal citizen, a man to whom no effort for the common good was too great and for whom no sacrifice in behalf of the public welfare was too burdensome.A memorial solemn high mass was sung by Cardinal Hayes on 28 November in Saint Patrick's Cathedral and the funeral was held Three days later in the Cathedral of Saint Helena, the Archbishop of Saint Paul presiding*

Upon the death of Bishop Carroll, the charge of the diocese fell upon Monsignor Victor Day, who administered ecclesiastical affairs for the Roman Catholics of Montana until the installation of the third bishop of Helena, the Rt. Rev. George Joseph Finnigan.

Bishop Finnigan was a man young in years but ripe in experience. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1915 he was for three years a member of the Holy Cross Seminary until 1925. During the European Campaign he served as chaplain of the One Hundred Thirty-seventh and Eightieth Field Artillery, At the time of his elevation to the See of Helena he was provincial superior of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in America. His consecration as bishop took place 1 August, 1927.

The leading institutions under the care of Bishop Finnigan at the time of his consecration were: Mount Saint Charles College, Saint Vincents Academy, Saint Joseph's Orphanage, and the House of the Good Shepherd, all at Helena; high schools at Anaconda and Butte; hospitals at Helena, Anaconda, Butte, Deer Lodge, Kalispell, Missoula, Polson and Saint Ignatius; and two large Indian missions. The educational interests of the diocese were centralized by the Catholic Educational Association.

One of the valuable adjuncts of the Catholic Church in Montana has been and is the fraternal order of the Knights of Columbus. It is open only to male communicants in good standing with their confessors, and offers insurance benefits to its members. The four degrees of the order teach charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism. The order is strongly opposed to socialism which it has combatted vigorously but, on the other hand, it has also fought bigotry and has labored to promote fraternity among all classes and creeds. Its laws forbid the organization to take any part in politics and it early made known its attitude on the alcohol question by excluding from membership those engaged in the liquor business.

The first Episcopal Church in Montana was built at Virginia City, then a thriving town of 2,000 people, and Rev. E. N. Stod­dard who had accompanied Bishop Tattle to Montana became its resident pastor. Bishop Tuttle then started out on Ms first Episco­pal visitation of his diocese, holding services at Helena, Deer Lodge, Bozeman, Gallatin, Blackfoot and Bannack, traveling more than 1,200 miles by stage and horseback or on foot.

Slowly the organization of the work progressed until by 1875 there were four other clergymen to share the Bishop's labors, the Reverends E. G. Front, E. L Toy, M. H, Gilbert and L E Dickey. The record of this year's work gives thirty-four baptisms, thirty-one confirmations, and 116 communicants, and services were held at twenty-eight different places. Not until the following year was the second church edifice erected in the diocese, this one being at Bozeman. A year later, the third Episcopal Church in Montana was built at Deer Lodge.

The earliest services at Helena had been held in the courthouse but in 1879 a sufficient following was there developed to erect a house of worship. The first child baptized in Helena was Norman Bernard Hotter, who later became a vestryman of Saint Peter's Parish

In 1880 the diocese was divided at Bishop Tattle's importunity. He went to the western part of Idaho and Utah, remaining until 1886, when he became bishop of Missouri and later, by virtue of seniority, presiding bishop of the General Convention* "His work, his personality, his warm emotional fervor, his extraordinary mem­ory for faces and names, his vitality and energy, his  voice, all went to root him in the affections of Montana people, 

Bishop Leigh Richmond Brewer, who succeeded Bishop Tuttle as bishop of Montana, arrived early in 1881 and spent the first six months in visiting the fifty-two places where Episcopal services had been held, traveling 4,000 miles, only thirty of which were by rail For thirty-four years this servant of God labored among the hills and plains of the Treasure State developing his charge, adding clergy here and there in spite of the incredible difficulties of the frontier. His ministry was truly worthy of the Apostolic Succession.

After the organization of the Diocese of Montana in 1904 the work of the church grew more rapidly. A hospital was established and well supported at Helena, known as Saint Peter's Hospital, and an Episcopal endowment fund was started which would eventu­ally relieve the parishes from the expense of maintaining the supervision.

On the second day of January, 1915, failing physical powers forced Bishop Brewer to transfer the administration of the Diocese of Montana to a coadjutor, the Rev. William Frederic Faber, D. D. Bishop Faber was then in the prime of life, being fifty-five years of age, and well suited by experience for the arduous task before him. He was a graduate of Auburn Theological Seminary, and of the University of Rochester, which had given him his Bacca­laureate degree and, in 1905, his Doctorate of Divinity. He en­tered the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1892, having formerly been a Presbyterian minister, and was rapidly advanced to

The Protestant Episcopal Church.

The Protestant Episcopal Church in United States is the Ameri­can equivalent of the Church of England in the Old World, whose foundation dates from missionaries prior to Augustine, wbo came to England from the famous monastery of lona. The churches are uniform in government except that the American Church has no equivalent of the English Archbishop of Canterbury and,, since it is not the state church, has no part in the secular government In that regard it has had to be satisfied with furnishing from its communion the first President of the United States, George Wash­ington, a communicant at Alexandria, Virginia, and several of his successors.

The history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Montana begins with the consecration of its first bishop the Rt. Rev. Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, in 1887. His Episcopal charge was Montana, Idaho and Utah, a territory embracing 316,546 square miles, equal to five and one-half times that of England-Wales and nearly equal to the total area of France and Spain.

Important parishes in Lockport, New York, and Detroit, MichiganFollowing his Detroit rectorship, he was consecrated coadjutor-bishop of Montana 10 November, 1914. He was a scholarly man, as well as a pious and kindly one, havingwritten several volumes, among them an important work entitled Henry VIII and the Reformation in Relation to the Church of England (1897).

When Bishop Faber undertook the administration of Montana that diocese had thirty-seven clergymen, sixty-eight parishes and missions, and 4,838 communicants. Its only diocesan institution was Saint Peter's Hospital at Helena, which has been mentioned previously. The Montana Churchman, established in 1909, conveyed news of the church to the communicants, and in 1917 was made the organ of the Diocesan Board of Missions. This little journal enjoyed during 1918 the temporary editorship of Bishop Faber.

On 28 August, 1916, the diocese was saddened by the death of its beloved bishop, the Rev, Leigh Richmond Brewer, who had lived seventy-seven years to the glory of God. As a memorial to him the diocese erected a new building for Saint Peter's Hospital, worth $125,000. Upon the decease of Bishop Brewer, Bishop Faber became the third bishop of Montana.

The Question of the appointment of a suffragan bishop for Eastern Montana concerned several diocesan conventions. It was entirely too much to expect one bishop to supervise the work over so wide an area as the entire State of Montana, but the parishes of Eastern Montana, spread over 78,000 square miles, were not sufficiently strong financially to support a diocesan bishop of their own. To meet this situation the Rev. Herbert Henry Heywood Fox, who had succeeded Bishop Faber in his Detroit parish, was appointed suffragan bishop of Montana, with the understanding that he would have the sole administration of Eastern Montana, His residence was fixed at Billings.

One of the outstanding features of Bishop Fabers administra­tion was the creation of the Bishop Brewer Memorial Missionary Endowment for the support of missions within the diocese. During his lifetime Bishop Brewer had secured from eastern friends about $3,000 a year by personal solicitation and after his death it became necessary to find the sum in some other way, hence the establish­ment of the endowment* In 1924 the fund reached the $40,000 mark and in 1929 effort was made to increase it to $100,000.

 as late as 1929 and which contained a mine of information concern­ing the work of the denomination.

The Methodist membership having increased, the twenty-five preachers organized a second Montana Conference at Butte on 17 August, 1887.

The work was extremely difficult in the new country and the preachers were ill supported but these stalwart men were determined that they would establish Methodism by founding a college, and in 1888, through the efforts of the Rev. Mr. R* EL Smith, secured 205 acres of land and pledges amounting to $25,000 for this purpose.

This history has already mentioned the pioneer efforts of Rev­erend Van Orsdel, who had been ordained at Helena by Bishop Fowler in September, 1884, but other men here deserve mention There was the man for whom the seminary at Denver was named, T, C. Lliff;  Jacob Mills, who has been mentioned as a friend of Montana Wesleyan University, and who gave more than any other individual toward its building and maintenance; F. A. Riggin, of blessed memory in Montana Methodism, and Joel Vigus, a co­partner in their evengelistic enterprises.

When the General Conference of the Church in 1912 decided to adopt the plan of assigning the bishops to definite areas for a quadrennial residence therein, Montana Methodism was fortunate in securing as its overseer the Rev. Naphthali Luccock. Bishop Luccockock gave the Montana area (his See extended over Montana, the Dakotas and Idaho) an able and kindly administration. In the two Montana Conferences the membership had increased from 8,036 in 1912 to 10,824 in 1916, the missionary contributions and the support of the Montana charities having increased as well.

At the beginning of Bishop Luccockk's administration the Meth­odists of Montana, in addition to their university and Deaconess School at Helena were supporting hospitals at Great Falls, Kalispell, Glasgow and Bozeman. In addition to these which were ex­clusively under Methodist control, some financial aid was extended to the State Sunday School Association, the Montana Anti-Saloon League, the Montana Children's Home Finding Society, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Florence Crittenton Home, all of which were officered partly by Methodists and were regarded as ancillary organizations of the several Christian bodies

While contributing heavily to all of these enterprises the Methodist Church in Montana considered one of its most essential duties the promotion of the legal prohibition of the liquor traffic. No Methodist would have dared to attack this policy, regardless of what his attitude toward alcoholics might have been.

 A characteristic utterance was the following wherein the Montana Confe­ences apparently turned unanimously Democratic:"Whereas, the electorate of this great nation In their wisdom, have called to the highest office of our country a Christian gentleman of abstemious habits, who by his example and teaching is and has been a valuable advocate of temperance, and Whereas, the President In the selection of a secretary of state chose William J. Bryan, one of the greatest temperance.

Methodism in Montana:

Methodism in Montana has been represented by four branches, namely:

Methodist Episcopal
;
Methodist Episcopal South;

Free Methodists of North Americ

 African Methodist Episcopal.

Since the Southern branch maintained only a few missions in the larger towns it has not been an important factor in the spiritual life of Montana owing to its few members. The Northern branch, however, has enjoyed the fellowship of a larger membership and has supported several institutions.The Methodist Episcopal Church derives its second name from its form of government by bishops.
 Now therefore, we, the clergymen and laymen * * * in conference assembled express our confidence and apprecia­tion and give our unqualified endorsement to President Wil­son and Secretary William J. Bryan for their unswerving loyalty and support to the temperance cause."

The Methodist Church was not only concerned with the sup­port of the temperance movement by means of legal prohibition, but also saw fit to scold the legislature for permitting prize fight­ing, and expressed its hearty disapproval of horse racing "and its attendant evils," and of Sabbath "desecration.”

 One cannot truly understand Montana Methodism without taking cognizance of its Puritan views regarding amusements; as previous experience had shown in the failure of the American colonies to follow the social and legal changes in England, so Montana Methodism continued to reflect the views of a by-gone era and went on record as opposing the change in the Methodist Discipline which struck out the pro­hibition against social dancing.

Bishop Richard J. Cooke was assigned to the Helena area for the quadrennium ending in 1920 and during this period came the great Centenary Celebration of the entire church to commemorate the establishment of the Missionary Society. Authorized by the General Conference at Saratoga Springs in 1916, a purposeful cele­bration of one hundred years of missionary effort was proposed. Pursuant to this action, a World Program Committee of one hun­dred was constituted and met at Niagara Falls in September, 1917* It was proposed to celebrate this event by a general forward move­ment of missions, both home and foreign, and the inclusion of other benevolent causes raised the total asking to $119,000,000 to be given and expended over a five-year period. In a campaign for funds which culminated in May, 1919, Montana Methodism was asked to pledge $885,000. This, of course, was a small portion of what the church throughout the United States had given to be used in Montana.

Bishop Charles Wesley Burns was assigned to the Helena area upon the completion of the Centenary Campaign. He faced as discouraging a task as ever man faced for Montana, particularly Northern Montana, had suffered from a long drought. But the Methodist preachers did not surrender. To quote the words of their bishop, *ln North Montana through the drought of seven years no man has abandoned his task, while some of our preachers have lived on potatoes and stewed hearts of the Canadian thistle and have kept the fidelity of the faith in the missionary gifts. Out of their poverty and need, the Glacier Park district, covering the whole of North Montana, has presented the remarkable achieve­ment of 112 per cent in missionary giving. With seven to fourteen-point circuits, these hardy, heroic men travel whole counties in their unwashed Fords, building a Christian empire in the North­west'

While no one would wish to doubt the good bishop's accuracy of statement in portrayal of the dire conditions, one is at a loss to explain why the statistics furnished by the minutes of the North Montana Conference do not reflect a more serious decrease in ministerial support.

The following table showing the number of Meth­odist preachers in North Montana and the total salaries paid leaves one in some doubt as to whether or not the tales of hardship were not somewhat overdrawn. Perhaps the bishop was describing some isolated eases which when concealed in the mass of his brethren's experience as shown by the statistics disappeared completely.

Minsterial  Support for North Montana

Number of Men Amount Paid

1916 -_________69   $51,107

1917______.____73  $ 56,038

1918 ____„___.„__71  $60,976

1919___________66   $67,402

1920 ___________67  $64,S14

1921___________ 58  $75,982

(These figures include the estimated rental value of parson­ages, amounting in 1921 to $11,172 and it should be noted that from 1916 to 1920 the purchase value of money shrank rapidly,)

About this time (1920) under the presidency of Mr. Vernon R Lewis of Fort Benton, the young people's society of Montana Meth­odism, the Epworth League, began to hold very interesting and successful summer institutes which were greatly enjoyed by those who attended them.

The General Conference of 1924 adopted the policy of ordain­ing women In the ministry of the Methodist Church. Several years before this Mrs. Belle Harmon had begun her study of the Traveling Preachers Course and had served the churches at Le­high, Buffalo and Grass Range as pastor. She was well prepared for this work, having been a school teacher and also having served as a deaconess. On 12 September, 1926, at Billings, Montana, she was regularly ordained an elder in the church, being the first woman to be so honored, not only first in Montana but first in the world. Her outstanding success in her chosen profession Is, we trust, an augury of the good services which devoted women will be able to render the church they are anxious to serve*

Under Bishop BL Lester Smith (1924-1928) the church greatly prospered. In 1924 a reorganization of the Conferences was ef­fected whereby the two were merged into the Montana State Con­ference. This body divided its members for immediate supervision into four districts: Butte District, with headquarters at Helena, under the superintendency of H. K. Holtinger; Glacier Park Dis­trict, Charles G. Cole, superintendent at Havre; Great Falls Dis­trict, Jesse W, Bunch, superintendent at Great Falls; and Yellow­stone District, Robert C. Edginton, superintendent, at Billings. To the Methodist hospitals were added institutions at Butte, Havre, Billings, Sidney, and Lewistown, so that in 1927 the Methodists raised and expended on their hospital system the sum of $31,708.

 Congregational Churches

The Congregational churches differ from the denominations which follow the Episcopal type of government in making the local church the unit of control and granting to each member, regardless of age, sex, or position, an equal voice in the government of the body. This principle of local autonomy permits each local organ­ization to frame its own body of doctrine, so that there is no Con­gregational creed or discipline, the Westminster Confession which formed the doctrinal basis of Congregationalism in England hav­ing been largely repudiated as being obsolete. The Congregational connection carries on much missionary work, both home and foreign, and supports several colleges in the United States.

The earliest establishment of a Congregational society in Mon­tana to remain a permanent organization was estabMshed at Liv­ingston in 1882 in the early days of that town, and two years later the Montana Congregational Conference was organized, a church having been founded in Helena that same year. The second decade of the twentieth century saw a rapid expansion of Congre­gationalism so that by 1916 there were ninety organizations, a number which grew to 110 by 1926, served in the latter year by fortnight ministers. The Billings Polytechnic Institute looks largely to the Congregationals of Montana for its backing, al­though the Institute is not owned by the denomination.

Lutherans in Montana

The Lutheran bodies go back historically to the reforms insti­tuted by the Rev, Martin Luther, of Saxony, in 1521. A few years later his followers drew up a statement of their beliefs in what has been called "The Augsburg Confession" and this has continued to be the tie which bound the various synods.

Unity of government in the Lutheran Church, or in the Chris­tian Church as a whole on earth, has been held by the Lutherans to be a secondary consideration, their chief concern being the preaching of the Gospel of Christ for fallen man. Sacramentally the Lutheran Church stands between the Roman doctrine of trans-substantiation and the position of low-churchmen who hold that the Lord's Supper Is nothing more than a memorial. "Lutherans believe in the Real Presence of the Lord's body in the sacrament, but they reject both transubstantliation, as held by the Roman Catholic.Church, and consubstantiation, as attributed to them by some writers* They believe that the real body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ are present in, with, and under the earthly elements in the Lord's Supper, and these are received sacra­ments and supernaturally." The Lutheran worship is liturgical and the general festivals of the Christian Church are kept.

The earliest Lutherans to settle in America came from Holland to Manhattan Island with the first Dutch colony in 1623, In 1710 a large number of Germans began to come to Pennsylvania, bring­ing with them the Lutheran faith, and in the next century the influx of Scandinavians to the Northwest brought many more Lutherans.

The first Protestant missionaries to the Montana Indians were two Lutheran ministers who came up the Yellowstone river.

 Congregational Churches 

The Congregational churches differ from the denominations which follow the episcopal type of government In making the local church the unit of control and granting to each member, regardless of age, sex, or position, an equal voice in the government of the body. This principle of local autonomy permits each local organ­ization to frame its own body of doctrine, so that there is no Con­gregational creed or discipline, the Westminster Confession which formed the doctrinal basis of Congregationalism in England hav­ing been largely repudiated as being obsolete. The Congregational connection carries on much missionary work, both home and for­eign, and supports several colleges in the United States.

The earliest establishment of a Congregational society in Mon­tana to remain a permanent organization was established at Liv­ingston in 1882 in the early days of that town, and two years later the Montana Congregational Conference was organized, a church having been founded in Helena that same year. The second decade of the twentieth century saw a rapid expansion of Congre­gationalism so that by 1916 there were ninety organizations, a number which grew to 110 by 1926, served in the latter year by forty-eight ministers. The Billings Polytechnic Institute looks largely to the Congregationalists of Montana for its backing, al­though the Institute is not owned by the denomination.

Lutherans in Montana

The Lutheran bodies go back historically to the reforms insti­tuted by the Rev. Martin Luther, of Saxony, in 1521. A few years later his followers drew up a statement of their beliefs in what has been called "The Augsburg Confession" and this has continued to be the tie which bound the various synods.

Unity of government in the Lutheran Church, or in the Chris­tian Church as a whole on earth, has been held by the Lutherans to be a secondary consideration, their chief concern being the preaching of the Gospel of Christ for fallen man. Sacramentally the Lutheran Church stands between the Roman doctrine of trans-substantiation and the position of low-churchmen who hold that the Lord's Supper Is nothing more than a memorial. "Lutherans believe in the Real Presence of the Lord's body in the sacrament, but they reject both transubstantlation, as held by the Roman Catholic Church, and consubstantiation, as attributed to them by some writers. They believe that the real body and Mood of the Lord Jesus Christ are present in, with, and under the earthly elements in the Lord's Supper, and that these are received sacra­mentally and supernaturally." The Lutheran worship is liturgical and the general festivals of the Christian Church are kept

The earliest Lutherans to settle in America came from Holland to Manhattan Island with the first Dutch colony in 1623, In 1710 a large number of Germans began to come to Pennsylvania, bring­ing with them the Lutheran faith, and in the next century the influx of Scandinavians to the Northwest brought many more Lutherans,

The first Protestant missionaries to the Montana Indians were two Lutheran ministers who came up the Yellowstone rive

 

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