New Church Building One

of Glenfield's Improvements

Glenfield, Foster County, 27 miles directly east of Carrington, has no barber shops, no clothing or hardware stores, nor a lumber yard.

But it has 150 persons who live in a neat and clean community. Like all towns this size Glenfield has its one block which has all its business places, two groceries, a restaurant, a tavern, a service station, and an insurance agency. There is also a service station on Highway 7, north of town.

It has been in the past five years that Glenfield's residents have made significant improvements in the town, largely because of its being incorporated as a village in December 1953. After incorporation, taxes from liquor and cigarettes remained in the town. Also a village tax was assessed of the residents.

Mercury vapor street lights, improved street graveling and a new city well are direct results of funds gotten from these taxes, according to Jack Dorrance, clerk for the town council.

Homes look newly painted; lawns are neatly cut; there is a park on the north side of town. This is not the result of mere chance. As Mrs. Vern Overbeck, wife of the councilman said, "We tike to make our town look nice."

Glenfield has one church, an Evangelical Lutheran congregation. At one time there also was a Congregational church. That building has since been moved to McHenry. Most of Glenfield's Roman Catholics worship at McHenry's Catholic church. Protestants either attend the Lutheran Church or go to the Methodist church in Juanita or the Evangelical Free church in McHenry,

After a number of years of tentative planning, Glenfield's Lutheran congregation has taken a definite step toward construction of a new house of worship, the Rev. Harry G. Tuff said. Wednesday, July 15, members voted to build.

The structure will seat 175 plus room for some overflow, the Rev. Mr. Tuff said. Cost will be $40,000 and will be financed by a loan of $20,000 from an insurance company and by a building fund of $18,000 he added.

The present church seats from 75 to 100 persons, the Rev. Mr. Tuff said, and was built in 1917. There is a baptized membership of 230 and 125 of these are confirmed, he said.

No other buildings are now being built or planned in Glenfield. However, some repair work has been in progress at the Peavey Elevator. Manager Harland Erickson said that his elevator set a record this past year among Peavey elevators for bushels of grain handled. Between July 1958 and July 1959, one million bushels passed through the 165,000-bushel capacity elevator.

Glenfield's most valuable asset, the reason for its existence outside of the farms in the area, is the railroad.

In 1912, tracks for the Fargo-Surrey branch of the Great Northern Railway were laid. In that year Glenfield was also founded. Early in the summer of 1912, the first general store was started by Dave Syverson. Syverson, who soon will be 90, lives in Courtenay.

A bank, a church, an implement building, another general store, a grain elevator and a confectionery all opened in 1912.

The railroad today provides Glenfield residents with some of the fastest mail service in the county. For example, the evening Fargo Forum leaves Fargo about 3 p.m., on a GN rail train and by 4:45 p.m., the papers are in Glenfield. Depot agent Jack Dorrance said that about six passenger trains and 10 freights pass through every day. The long distance passenger and fast mail trains reach speeds of 80 miles an hour as they roar past going east and west.

Glenfield is not the independent town today that is was 25 years ago. Transportation improvements and the disappearing of small farms have resulted in a need for fewer business places in Glenfield.

"With Highway 7 paved all the way to either Cooperstown or Carrington, it is easy to get where you want within half an hour," said one resident. "Of course when it is just a little errand you want to make, it is good to have a grocery in the same town."

Until February 1956, Glenfield had a hardware store, owned by James Bronaugh. The building was destroyed by fire and was not rebuilt.

"We really miss that store," one farmer near Glenfield said. "Now we have to travel to Sutton or Carrington to get a bolt or a nut to repair some machinery."

Opinion is divided regarding whether Glenfield and other small towns can continue to exist.

"All these towns are dying a slow death," said 76-year-old Jim McDaniel, who has watched Glenfield grow since 1912. "There just aren't enough farms in the area. Besides with good roads it's easier to go to the larger towns."

Another resident believes a resurgence of diversified farming will aid Glenfield. When farmers get hit by two consecutive years of drought, for example, they will have to start cattle raising again. Diversified farming will bring more farmers into the area, he said.

The Rev. Mr. Tuff, who has lived two years in Glenfield, has no thoughts about the disappearance of his town. Although he has not witnessed the Glenfield of the threshing-crew days (one had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were so crowded) the Lutheran pastor said he liked Glenfield as it is today.

The Glenfield school, with 134 pupils last year, is not getting any smaller. This next term, in fact, an additional faculty member will be added. He is Victor Herman, who will teach science. Herman was Bordulac superintendent of schools this year. There will be one other new teacher, Mrs. Mabel Pedersen of Juanita; she will have the first and second grades.

Other instructors are Ray Starks, superintendent; Alton Hegvik, principal; .Clifford Johnson, junior high school; Mrs. Leslie Ferguson, fifth and sixth grades, Mrs. H. G. Hendrickson, third and fourth grades.

Source:  Glenfield History 1886 €“ 1987 Page 92