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Editor's Note: This column is a continuation of Berg’s Wednesday, Sept. 9, column.
By 1890, another Lutheran pastor was serving Mouse River Country communities.
This was John Pedersen. He was born in Norway and moved to the United States in 1870. He was ordained in the Norwegian and Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hawk Creek, Minnesota, on Sunday, June 12, 1887. In December, 1887, he was sent out by the Home Mission Society. From 1887 until 1891, he visited many Lutheran settlers in their homes in many locations. He was regarded as the first pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church. The first Bethany Church building was not built until several years after Rev. Pedersen had left Minot. In the issue for Friday, September 24, 1894, the Ward County Reporter and Minot Journal mentioned that an Evangelical Lutheran Church building was going up north of the Soo Depot. Its dimensions were 24' by 38'. By then, Pastor Amund Brunsvold had replaced Pastor John Pedersen.
Rev. Pedersen supported James Johnson for the senate seat in the North Dakota State Legislature. Copeland interviewed Rev. Pedersen towards the end of October, 1890, and reported, "(Rev. Pedersen) calls the mugwump campaign a mere 'side show' and does not hesitate to denounce the unprincipled methods adopted by the champions of Rev. Reishus." (See the front page of the Villard Leader for Saturday, November 1, 1890.)
The final vote tally showed James Johnson easily prevailing over Rev. Reishus by a difference of 137 votes, after the votes of Ward County and McLean County were added together. In Ward County alone, Johnson had garnered 237 votes and Rev. Reishus 159. (See the front page of the Villard Leader for Saturday, November 8, 1890.)
Just two years later, the tide had turned in favor of the reverend. He was elected Register of Deeds for Ward County in November, 1892, succeeding Anders Nedrud, who was a prominent member of the Mouse River Church. The salary for the position must have been a welcome supplement to the reverend's income at a time when his agricultural operation was suffering under prevailing drought conditions. He remained in that position for just one term. He lost his bid for reelection as Register of Deeds to Robert Johnson, who would go on to fill that post for many years beginning in 1894. (In 1900, Robert Johnson took the second federal census of the population of Minot.)
Whatever the reasons were, Rev. Reishus made the decision to accept a call as minister from a church in McIntosh, Minnesota. During his ministry in the Mouse River Country, he had served a region from Towner in the east to Des Lacs in the west, according to the testimony of Brynhild Haugland, who was born to Norwegian immigrants in Ward County north of Minot; Brynhild and her parents, Nels and Sigurda Haugland, are all three buried in the First Lutheran Cemetery adjacent to Minot State University.
(Brynhild's observation was made on page fourteen of her paper titled "A History of Ward County: Term Report" [Minot, 1927]. A typescript copy of her 49-page report is on file at the Minot State University Gordon B. Olson Library.)
George Reishus, a son of Gunder Reishus, observed that "For Pastor (Torjus) Reishus, having to divide his time between his farm and his pastoral duties, the operation must have been particularly unrewarding. He had by now (1894), it can be assumed, made final proof of his homestead and there was no longer the obligation to continue to reside there." (See page 9 of All His Blessings.) Rev. Reishus had indeed made final proof of his homestead. He was awarded Patent No. 49 on June 20, 1894, to four quarters of land in Nedrose Township. In Section 28, he obtained the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter. In Section 33, he was given the east half of the northeast quarter and the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter. The Reishus parsonage was located in Section 33.
Rev. Reishus preached his farewell sermon to over two hundred people gathered in the brick church in Minot on Sunday, November 25, 1894. (See page four of the Ward County Reporter and Minot Journal for Friday, November 30, 1894.)
When the Reishus family moved to Minnesota, they had four children, not two.
Son Knut was born in the parsonage on Tuesday, August 10, 1886. The proud father wrote in his diary, "He made his advent into our home at half after three this morning. He looks as if he might be of the direct lineage of Harald Haarfager ("King Harald the Fair"), with blue eyes and 'flax haar.'" (See page 52 of The Builders.)
Their daughter Helga was born in 1893.
All in all, Rev. Torjus Reishus carried out his pastoral duties conscientiously over a wide area for fully eight years. In his last two years, 1892 to 1894, he would have had to juggle many responsibilities at the same time: caring for his expanding family, tending to his far-flung ministry, engaging in farming, and fulfilling his duties as the Ward County Register of Deeds.
His diary shows him to have been an industrious person, quite capable of addressing all of these matters, as well as being a person good at making plans and carrying them out expeditiously.
M.L. Berg of Minot enjoys researching local history.