Notes Notes to Chapter 1 1. George Beto, Speech at ROTC Commissioning Ceremonies, Sam Houston State University, May 8, 1981, Beto Family Archives (Hereafter BFA). 2. BFA. Sidwell Map, Maine Township, Niles Historical Society. The word synod (pronounced SIN-ud) can be used to describe a gathering of clergymen or a group of congregations banded together by common beliefs. In the United States, Lutherans often used ethnic or geographical terms to identify these groups such as the Danish Synod or the Buffalo Synod. The synod to which George Beto belonged was formed in 1847 as Die Evangelische-lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio, and Andere Staaten. It is currently known as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and that is the name that will be used throughout this study. 3. Werner Krause, “Biographical Record for Louis Henry Beto,” Service Bulletin 3A (St. Louis: Concordia Historical Institute, 1990). 4. Howard Witsma to David M. Horton, June 9, 2002, in Horton’s possession. 5. The traditional procedure used by vacant parishes when obtaining a pastor was to either send a “call” to a pastor in another parish or to request the church officials for a newly graduated seminarian. A call for a Lutheran pastor or parish teacher was much more than a job offer. Although the voter’s assembly of a congregation issued a call, the decision to send it to a particular person was considered to be a “divine call” and the work of the Holy Spirit. The recipient of a call then compared all aspects of his current position with the conditions described in the call documents. After prayers for guidance, the pastor decided where his service was needed the most and either accepted or returned the call. Pastors already at work in a parish were not obligated to accept a call, but could return the call without giving any reason. Those parishes that could not entice a pastor to accept their call often were the ones who turned to the young graduates. The officials of the church then assigned the seminarians to the empty parishes and an official call and ordination followed. The practice still exists today in the Missouri Synod. 207 6. “Hysham Named for Texas Trail Herder,” Great Falls Tribune, October 26, 1958. The young couple leased a small, four-room wooden clapboard house with a single coal-burning cast iron stove that served the dual purpose of heating the house and cooking their food. Kerosene lanterns provided light and hot water for bathing and laundry was brought in from an outside kettle. A privy stood behind the house. From time to time Louis supplemented his meager allowance from the Lutheran Church by working as a field laborer and by waiting on customers in the Hysham general store. Margaret contributed to reducing their household expenses by baking bread and sewing their clothes. After the potato harvest, Margaret also gleaned potatoes from the fields in the vicinity. Margaret Beto, “Grandma Beto” oral history tape, 1958, BFA. 7. Margaret Beto. 8. George Beto to Dr. August Sueflow, November 21, 1985, Sam Houston State University, Newton Gresham Library, Beto Collection (Hereafter SHSU). Contrary to his later claim, Beto was not the first white child born in the Montana Territory. Interview with Louis Henry Beto, Jr., June 22–23, 1998, in possession of Horton; George Beto, “Mother’s Funeral Sermon,” September 29, 1985, BFA, SHSU. On January 19, 1970, Beto’s birthday, he and his mother toured Hysham. Beto had been invited to speak at Missoula and he asked his mother to meet him in Denver and travel along with him. When Beto saw the house where he was born, and the stark, wintry landscape (which reminded him of the movie, Dr. Zhivago) he remarked to his mother that if “I was dad I would have turned right around and gone back to Chicago.” 9. William Kupsky to Louis Beto, November 17, 1916, BFA. Katherina Maria Sophia Zersen, “A Pioneer Pastor’s Wife,” oral history tape, 1965, BFA. The transcript bears a cover page in George Beto’s handwriting that reads, “This woman’s husband was my father’s predecessor in North Dakota.” Martha Gross, “Emmanuel Lutheran Church,” A Century of Sowers, a Harvest of Heritage (New Rockford, ND: New Rockford Transcript, 1983),162; Ellwyn B. Robinson, History of North Dakota (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 286–88. The German Russian tradition included a strong support for the church, but not for schools and education. 10. Louis Seidel to Louis Beto, November...