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View Larger Map Click points to see related historic photos from the collection of the State Historical Society of North Dakota and Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo.

  In 1871, Father James Gurley held the first formal Methodist service in Fargo in Pinkham Hall at the corner of Main Avenue and 5th Street.  However, it was the Rev. John Webb who organized the first Methodist Sunday school and helped to build the first Methodist Episcopal Church.  The land for the church was donated by the Northern Pacific Railway and was 30′ x 50′.  It was completed on July 1, 187

Click on the following link to open a powerpoint of the North Dakota Agriculture College

JamesHolesAudio A radio play-style reading of a first-person account of James Holes’ first impressions of Fargo, May 1871. The excerpt is from a speech given at the Washington Club in 1916. Music by Mike and Zach. Zach Jendro, Digital History 2012

Listen to Ms. Woodward, as narrated by Dr. Ineke Justitz, by clicking the play button below. Mary Dodge Woodward speaks Mary Dodge Woodward was well informed for someone living in the isolated Dakota territory. In the two excerpts read by Dr. Justitz, Mary discusses the weather in the Dakota territory and the surrounding environment as well as solicitations and politics. She mentions the grain elevators resembling Ba