Photo from the collection of the Divide County Historical Society

Postcard  from the collection of Keith Torgeson

The Presbyterian congregation was formed back in the very early days of Ambrose, but the exact date cannot be given, as the congregation has disbanded and most of the early founders are no longer among us.  Most likely, services were conducted in the homes of members, as was so often true of young and small congregations.  After A. Miller & Sons built their new store in 1907 the congregation met in the smaller hall on the second floor.  It was about 1910 that a church building was started.

One of the first ministers was a Reverend Hodson.  Another of the early ones was Reverend J. P. Schell, known as “Grampa Schell” by most of the children in the community.  He gave a red letter New Testament to nearly every child in the Sunday School.  Other ministers were Rev. Williams, Rev. Babylon, and Rev. Payton.  In later years we shared a minister with Crosby, and Rev. Heberlein and Rev. Adams were two of them.  This did not seem to work too well, and the number of Presbyterians in the area was failing off, so services were discontinued.

The Sunday School was one of the best things about this church.  In the early years the Lutheran Church did not have a Sunday School so all the children in the community attended the Presbyterian Sunday School.  But not only the children, as there were adult classes, too.

Will S. A. Miller, a retired minister, became the Superintendent as soon as he moved to Ambrose, and continued in the job until he died in 1929.  His daughter Dorothy was the superintendent of the primary Sunday School.  For several years this Sunday School held a record for the largest regular attendance for a church in a city the size of Ambrose. Often there were over 200 in attendance.  As there were no regular classrooms, classes were held all over the church - in the choir loft, the minister's study, the kitchen, in all corners of the main auditorium, and in the dining room downstairs.  There were several long-term and dedicated teachers who should be mentioned: May D. Bruchman; Emma Turbett, Velma Gehrke, Minnie Miller, and Addie Tompte.  Of course, all the school teachers were pressed into service while they were there.

Photo from the collection of Helen Almos Biorn

Ambrose Presbyterian Church Sunday School Class - early 1920s

Top Row: Addie Tompte, Dorothy Miller, Unknown, Florence Olson
Standing: Helen Anderson, Elene Grina, Evelyn and Jean Shaw, Toodie Hand, Theoline Bjerke,
Jim Shaw and Unknown, Vincent Cowley, Helen Almos, Irene Bjerke, Carrie & Glenn Anderson,
Lillian Anderson, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Inez Shultz, Margaret Cahill, Everett Hanson
Seated: Unknown, Joanne Grina, Shaw, Hand, Violet Anderson, Roger Shultz, Kermit Anderson,
Hanson, Bud Almos, Burton Turbett, Lucille Hanson, Unknown, Opal Severson, Helen Restvedt, Betty Baker

There were two outstanding events of the Sunday School year.  One was the march by the youngsters from the flag pole to the cemetery on Memorial Day to decorate the graves.  Each one carried a little bouquet of wild flowers that he had gathered the day before.  Then back to the church for the Memorial Day service. The other, and far more exciting event, was the Christmas program.  There were songs and recitations which had been practiced for weeks.  But more important there was the tree, sacks of nuts and candy for all, and Santa Claus, in the person of Gillis Bailard, shaking his harness bells all the way from the North Pole!  It was quite an evening, and was eagerly anticipated by all, not just the Presbyterians.

Christian Endeavor, the young peoples' organization, held meetings on Sunday evenings - both a senior and junior section.

By the mid-40's so many of the Presbyterian crowd had disappeared - died, moved away, young people to college who did not return - that all services were discontinued.  In 1951 the few remaining members formally disbanded and turned the church building over to the Presbytery.  It was later sold to a Lutheran parish in Fortuna and was moved to that city.

I think everyone in Ambrose who is old enough to remember still misses seeing “the little brown church in the vale” where it used to stand on the corner, northeast of the flag pole.

Church history taken from page 335 of the
Divide County History 1974, Crosby, North Dakota
(Edited for content)

Your comments:  I found [my Aunt Betty Baker in the Sunday School class photo], though I wouldn't have recognized her without help.  I'm sorry to say Betty is now in a nursing home in Virginia and has pretty much lost her memory after a stroke.  [Her] long term memory is much better than short term -- she will probably remember Ambrose.  She did have a wonderful career as an opera singer before settling down on Long Island to raise her family.  She later became an award-winning elementary school teacher.  She and her husband, Fred Griffith, settled in a small town in tidewater Virginia after they retired.
-- Judy Frost - New York City, NY

My aunt Ruth tells me Addie Tompte was related to the Almos family and worked at a store in Ambrose. She is not related to the Thomte family.
-- Diane Thomte Clinton - Bismarck, ND

The Divide County History 1974 ends with the sale of the building to Fortuna.  However, Fortuna later sold it to Blooming Valley Township as a replacement for their church that burned down in 1965.  It became the Glenwood Lutheran Church. The building still stands in that location, although it is now unused and stripped of its furnishings.
-- Ed Bakke - Crosby, ND