This photo shows the Stone Church at St. Andrew’s in McIntosh County, North Dakota, a small historic prairie church built by early settlers. The simple rectangular structure has thick whitewashed stone walls, a shingled gable roof, and modest wooden-framed windows. A single doorway opens at the front gable end, while a brick chimney rises from the roofline. Surrounded by open grassland and farmland, the church reflects the humble craftsmanship of German-Russian immigrant builders and stands today as a preserved symbol of pioneer faith and community on the Dakota prairie.

When the builders of this stone church arrived in Dakota Territory in 1884, leaving their beautiful, well established villages in South Russia, they were very young and unsure of their future. Most had never been more than 20 miles from their home in the Glüeckstal Colonies northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odessa. What they knew was that life as they knew it in South Russia was rapidly changing and the colonial status granted to their ancestors decades before had been repealed by the Czar, and they were ordered to become Russian citizens. Instead, many families traveled to the Plains regions of America in search of a better life.

By the Spring of 1885, most of the founding families had claimed land in McIntosh County, near Beaver Creek, filing their Declaration of Intent to become American Citizens and their initial homestead documents in the land office at Hoskins, Dakota Territory.

Needing a spiritual and emotional connection, the families began to meet for worship in one another’s homes. US Homestead Law required homesteaders to live on their acreage - unlike their life in South Russia where they lived tightly knit villages. In March 1893, they dedicated this building to the glory of God and named it Sankt Andreas Gemeinde. St Andrews Community. It is still in use today. If walls could talk, imagine what these very thick walls would say.

To build this 29x22 foot stone church, the 15 founding families used materials from the land and an architectural style they had known in Russia. They transported sandstone by ox and stone boat from a bluff 12 miles northwest of the donated site. $385 dollars purchased lumber and windows, and 15 hours of labor donated by each male member created this stone church. Initially there was a 5-sided wood entry on the south side. It was removed in the 1940’s. Inside the building, one can find a framed plexiglass covered section illustrating the construction material used. It is one of only two original church structures of similar architecture still standing on the Dakota prairie today.

This entire property, stone church, cemetery, and tall white Carpenter Gothic wooden church were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.