"THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE; BUT FOOLS DESPISE WISDOM AND INSTRUCTION." PROVERBS 1: 7.
The prairie settlers of the West District of Valley Grove Menighed (congregation) decided at a meeting Sunday May 31, 1885 to form for themselves a self standing congregation of their own closer to their home.
At a later meeting, held at the home of Torger O. Torgerson, in July of 1885, nine (9) families met and chose the name of West Prairie for their congregation. They transacted other necessary business and accepted five (5) members into their new church. At this meeting Ole Alfson donated two (2) acres of the land for the church and cemetery site, located on the NW quarter of Section 30-148-59, just 1/2 mile east of Cottonwood Post Office, or five (5) miles north and 1/2 mile east of Jessie, North Dakota.
Ole Alfson states in his memoirs of 1923 that nine families attended that July 1885 meeting and they were
Ole Olson Laatvedt med familie, Ole Alfson med familie, Herjus Osmundson med familie, Sigvart Tande, Johan Tande med familie, Torger Olsen Torgerson med familie, Ole Aslakson Hegstol med familie, Solfust A. Ness med familie.
The ninth one there must have been Pastor O. C. Gronvold, since he was serving as pastor of Valley Grove and Sheyenne Congregation.
West Prairie Congregation used the Thinglestad schoolhouse, just 1/2 mile east of the church site, for services until the present church was built in 1896.
Source Page: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 361