 5th & Christina Streets Kief, North Dakota Adapted from MCHENRY COUNTY: Its History and Its People, 1885-1985, Page 35: submitted by Cleo Cantlan  The immigration to America of people persecuted for their religion and their success in their adopted land, is a history the Ukrainian community at Kief shares with many other groups.
Converted by German Baptists, seven Urkainian families sold prosperous farms in the Ukraine in 1898 and made a 17-day ocean crossing to Philadelphia, seeking freedom of worship. They found shelter for the winter with German Baptists at Tripps, South Dakota.
On April 26, 1899 they started out on another 17-day journey, this one by covered wagon to Harvey. Aided by Rev. Alexander Nikolaus, who became their first pastor, they moved farther west, took homesteads and suffered the famine and other difficulties of pioneers.
They organized the Liberty Baptist Church on April 4, 1901 at a meeting in the sod house of John Wash,  several miles from Kief. In 1902 they constructed a church building, which was renamed in the late 1930's when it was moved two miles east into Kief for the comfort of the older parishioners in town. In early times Rev. John Buckmelder came from Max once or twice a month to preach.
The 16 by 32 foot structure was the first Russian Baptist Church in the United States! It is still in use [1985].
When the church celebrated its Jubilee in 1972, the sixth generation of settlers participated in hymns, prayers and Bible reading in Russian, German and English. Rev. A. W. Bibelheimer, former pastor, took part in the program along with Rev. Ernest Lautt, the current [1985] pastor.
In the services the families recalled the early church: overflow crowds at early services; meals of oatmeal or thin soup; families walking three miles to church carrying their children in order to spare the horses during heavy work periods. The horses after all, had worked all week!
The early settlers included Alexandra Galamaga and her son-in-law and daughter Nick and Carrie Spichke. William and Ellen Sukumlyn who homesteaded two miles west of Kief in 1901, also were early settlers. In 1898 Anton Bokovoy homesteaded the land on which Kief began in 1906"
1967 Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery Transcriptions Kief Town Page The Old Church Project - 1 - Another Kief Church The Old Church Project - 2 - Another Kief Church |