Churches and Saloons

 The first services were held by the Catholics in the Jenksville settlement by Father Stephan. In 1878 and 1879 his journeys from Moorhead were generally made on foot, and services held in the cabins of the early settlers, many of them driving twenty miles to attend, and rarely with sufficient room indoors to permit them all to enter.

     Jenksville was also the first place of the Presbyterian Society, organized in the early spring of 1882, and supplied at first by the Rev. Mr. Pollock, a missionary, holding services in the school house at Jenksville, and later in the Sheldon school house. No regular ordained minister was assigned until 1884, when the society was placed in charge of the Rev. Edgar W. Day, who served them for many years. Their church building was erected in 1885, largely through the efforts of Dr. Henning.

     A. H Laughlin, writing this summary of churches in Sheldon, stated there seems to be no very accurate date of the early history of the Methodist church at Sheldon, although the society was large and active from the beginning of the settlement. The church building was not completed until 1892.

     The strong church presence might have existed to counter the abundance of liquor sales. Prior to 1890 the village averaged four open saloons with sales totaling about $3,600 per month. The cost of regulating them amounted to $60/month for marshal’s salary; $30/month deputy salary; and $70/month for the village justice’s salary.