Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, March 27, 1909, Page 41

W SRR M@,% T ———— LN 3 o A T i L SR B | | l BEMIDJI, BELTRAMI COUNTY AND NORTHERN MINNESOTA. REV. S. E. P, WHITE, Pastor Presbyterian Church. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF BEMIDJI. The Baptist Church wasg organized here in 1898 with just a few members. At present there are about 100 members and one of the best all-round Sunday schools in the state. Bemidji can claim the banner Sunday school of the state of Minnesota, having won the ‘State Banner” for three successive years. It now has it to keep. Every department of the work is well organized and making steady progress. H. Robinson McKee, the pastor, came upon the field in September 1907. Mr. McKee was born and educated in the FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. North of Ireland, where he had a few successful years in evangelistic work. As a young man he came to the United States in 1902. After working in con- nection with Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman in the eastern states, he came out to Min- nesota to accept a call to the First Bap- tist church of Parkeri Prairie, where he labored for almost four and one-half years, from whence he came to Bemidji. Mr. McKee is a gentleman who im- presses one with his presence. He is accomplishing excellent results in this comparatively new field, and he is to be congratulated for the persevering tenden- cies he has manifested in the work he has in hand. THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Rev. Ernest M. Davies, the clergyman in charge of this work at Bemidji, is a graduate of St. John’s Seminary, Win- nipeg, Manitoba. He came to Bemidji under direction of the Rt. Rev. J. D. Morrison, D. D., L. L. D., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Duluth, who in re- sponse to an appeal for a missionary in this city, assigned Mr. Davies to this post to organize a church, he having -been iordained to the deaconate at Du- luth before his advent here. The services of the church are at present held in the 0Odd Fellows hall, and Episcopalians ev- erywhere are to be congratulated upon the attendance of both the regular serv-- ices and the Sunday school, and a grati- fying amount of enthusiasm 1is being manifested in the furthering of the work here. The Venerable Archdeacon Parshall of Cass Lake is in charge of this diocese, and some time since he inaugurated a move which had for its purport the building of a church in Bemidji—a move which will be hrought to fruition within a short time, winter having hampered the consummation of the plans of those who had the matter in hand. The con- gregation owns two nice lots on Beltrami avenue, specifications for a church to e S T o SoRd evogt $6,000 have been drawn and sub- mitted, and a portion of this sum-:has already been raised, thus showing the fervidness and Zeal of the members in this ecivinity. Although handicapped by the absence of a church, Rev. Davies has demon- strated beyond cavil that he is a faithful and painstaking clergyman as well as a gentleman of impressive personality and original ideas, and when the church shall have been built, as it will, all those who participated in erecting it will have every reason for self congratulation. REV. PARSHALL. Rev. H. F. Parshall is at present serv- ing in the capacity of one of the arch- deacons of the Duluth diocese. At pres- ent he officlates at Cass Lake, both as rector and general director of the church affairs of this immediate territory. Rev. Parshall, prior to his selection as executive church head of this section, was for twelve years pastor of the St. Cloud Episcopal church, one of the most powerful religious denominations of the northwest. Rev. Parshall worked the be- ginning of his career as a missionary in the State of Colorado, where he covered and conquered to a gratifying extent, an . enormous territory in the face of the most discouraging vicissitudes. His pa- tience, indomitable will and penchant for organization and his natural inclination for meeting his fellow men soon won recognition at the hands of the executive powers, and he was henceforth promoted to the exalted position he now occupies. = ft 2 [ # é f E