Butte, North Dakota, almost smack in the center of the state, hasn’t grown much since James Galt Overholser founded it in 1906.

As Butte prepares to celebrate its Centennial in 2006, its population is only about 70, something close to what it was when James Overholser and five others built houses there and called the place Dogden. Named for the Dog Den Butte (earlier called Maison de Chien), the name reflects both the wolves and prairie dogs who lived there in one of the highest spots in the state.

James Overholser was born on a farm on the southwest edge of Terre Hill, Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County, in 1869. The big old stone house, on the road to Martinsville, is still in use today.

James was curious, rather quiet and religious, born into a family who were members of the Evangelical Association that sprang up from Jacob Albright’s teaching, and he had a bent toward education. In 1885 he enrolled in the Latin Scientific course at Schuylkill Seminary in Fredericksburg, Pa.

James was one of 56 students, according to the catalogue, and he studied astronomy and learned to read Greek. He was a debater, member and then president of the Philalethean Society, and participated in debates on topics such as: “Resolved that
wealth does more to produce crime than poverty” on December 4, 1885. James argued for the affirmative. His photo shows a bright eyed, slender young man with a bushy moustache and a pompadour.

After three years at school, James dropped out. His mother suffered from consumption (tuberculosis) and money was tight, so he deferred his last year and taught school in Lancaster County for a year before returning to complete his studies and graduate in 1890 with the degree of bachelor of elements.

In 1890, the family made a momentous decision to move west, where the air was better for his mother’s health. From Terre Hill,
they moved to Sterling, Illinois, where there was a Mennonite community.

Why the family then moved on to Mountain Lake, Minnesota, is a question Spencer Overholser can’t answer, but we have a chronicle of James’ life there – and a view of his nature – from the diary he kept in 1895.

Each small page of “The Standard Diary” is covered from top to bottom in James’ fine, copperplate handwriting. Along with the temperature, he meticulously records his hours of rising and retiring. He spent his weekdays teaching some 20 students and his Sundays as a Sunday School teacher, a role he would play the rest of his life.

He also sponsored “Literary Evenings,” a carryover from his Philalethean Society days, with a discussion on Friday, January 4 on the topic: “That Franklin was as great a man as Washington.” (The conclusion was that he was not.) The high temperature that day was two degrees with high winds, and James walked to town and back.

Eventually, James married Clara Groff, another teacher. His parents, brothers and sisters returned to Pennsylvania. Lured by the prospect of land in North Dakota, James began to spend his summers there. In 1898, he filed for a homestead, a grant signed by Teddy Roosevelt which gave him 160 acres near Anamoose if he lived on the place and built a dwelling, which was at first a 16 by 16 foot shack.

By 1900, James was in North Dakota for good, working in a farm implements business. By 1906, he and five friends officially established the town of Dogden.

That year James also established the Sunday School at the Congregational Church, where he served as superintendent for the next 40 years, and began his own farm implements business. James had a lifelong interest in nature – birds, plants, flowers, stars. Always somewhat formal in both manner and dress, he was never seen without his vest, and he never came to Sunday School without a flower in his lapel for the children to identify.

Over time, James Galt Overholser became a pillar of the community in the most literal sense – justice of the peace, founder of
the first teacher’s association and the first Red Cross chapter in McLean County, North Dakota. He was a monitor in the Congregational Church for the State of North Dakota, and a member of the Masonic Lodge.

Dogden grew, and changed its name to Butte. At its peak in 1930, the town had 340 residents.

James had four children who all graduated high school as either valedictorians or salutatorians, and earned scholarships to Jamestown College, a small liberal arts college in North Dakota.

Spencer Overholser and his wife Ruth moved to Pennsylvania years ago, and endowed two scholarships at Albright College. The first, established with Spencer’s brother Lyle, was the James Galt Overholser Memorial Scholarship, for a sophomore or junior student interested in Christian education and committed to volunteer service for church and community, the qualities that
James embodied.

And, in Butte, N.D., 100 years later they are celebrating the town’s founding. According to local sources, James Galt Overholser is still well remembered.