Negro and Indian Work
Racial Cordiality
In this Range country, there are not many negroes in proportion to the
white settlers, and the relations between the races are cordial.
Beaverhead County has twenty-eight negroes in Dillon and Lima communities.
Sheridan County has a total of about 295. A small neighborhood, Cat Creek,
six miles west of the city of Sheridan has about 250 negroes. There are
six negro farm owners at Cat Creek with farms of 320 acres each.
Considerable community spirit has been developed, which is manifested by
increased friendliness and by pride in the farms. The Plum Grove Club has
sixteen members, and meets twice a month for discussions on crop welfare
and for social times. There is a Sunday school, with an enrollment of
fifteen and an average attendance of ten, which is kept going for eight
months of the year. Preaching services are held occasionally.
The negroes in the city of Sheridan are hard-working and industrious. They
are mainly laborers, but some have small businesses. Organizations include
a Mutual Aid Society with fifty members and three lodges which are all
inactive at present. The National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People has a local branch with 100 members. A recently organized
Athletic Club of fifteen members hopes to branch out into a regular
athletic association.
Colored Churches
There are two colored churches--a Methodist Episcopal and a Baptist North.
The Methodist Episcopal was organized in 1908; the Baptist in the
following year. Both churches have resident pastors, serving but one point
each. Each denomination has a church building and a parsonage. The
combined value of the church buildings is $3,500, of the parsonages $500.
The Baptist church has recently been rebuilt. Both churches use weekly
envelopes for raising their money which amounted to $2,887.14 last year,
$1,164.25 of which was by subscription, and $680 by collection. There was
no surplus or deficit. From this fund $938.79 was spent for salaries,
$142.17 for missions and benevolences, and $1,500.04 for rebuilding and
repairs. The Baptist church receives home mission aid of $600.
The Methodist church has thirty-six members, having made a net gain of
seven in the year preceding the survey. The Baptist church has twenty-six
members whose membership has remained constant. The total net active
membership of the two churches is fifty-one.
Each church holds eight Sunday preaching services a month. Both have
Sunday schools. The Methodist Sunday school, with an enrollment of
sixteen, is kept going the year round; the Baptist Sunday school, with an
enrollment of twelve, meets for only seven months. The Methodist church
has three other organizations--a Woman's Missionary Society, a Willing
Workers and Ladies' Aid, and a Literary Society for both sexes with a
membership of fifty. The Baptists have one organization, a Christian Aid,
with a membership of twelve, to which both men and women belong.
One church has had six, the other five, pastors in the last ten years. The
present pastors are graduates of both college and seminary.
A friendly feeling exists between the white and colored people in
Sheridan, which is manifested by a willingness on the part of the white
churches to help the colored. The colored ministers are included in the
Sheridan Ministerial Union.
Indian Missions
Part of the Crow Creek Indian Reservation extends into the southeastern
part of Hughes County, and about 70 per cent. of the people living in this
section of Hughes are Indians. All are farmers owning their own land.
An Episcopal Indian Mission was established here in 1892. The pastor, who
lives in Fort Thompson, conducts one morning service a month. There are
twenty-six members, of whom twenty-one are active. There is no Sunday
school, but a Ladies' Aid with five members meets every week and has twice
as large an attendance as it has enrollment.
There is also a Catholic Mission located near the Episcopal Mission, which
was started about 1911. The priest comes from outside the county and holds
one mass each month. There are about fifteen families in the membership.