Johnsons Receive 2007 Historic Preservation Award

By The New Salem Journal staff

The New Salem Journal/STPNS

November 08, 2007

NEW SALEM, North Dakota (STPNS) -- Joel and Donna Johnson, Almont, were recently presented with Preservation North Dakota's Bentley Award, for "Volunteer of the Year" at Preservation North Dakota's 2007 awards ceremony held Nov. 2 in conjunction with the 19th Annual Governor's Conference on North Dakota History at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck.

The Bentley Award is presented for extraordinary dedication to volunteer service in the field of historic preservation in North Dakota. Originally created to recognize the efforts of Dale R. Bentley, Executive Director of Preservation North Dakota, the award continues to recognize the volunteer efforts of others who have demonstrated a passion and dedication to historic preservation in North Dakota.

The Johnson's dedication and innumerable hours spent working on the project to restore and preserve the Sims Scandinavian Lutheran Church parsonage made them an obvious choice for this year's award.

Danielle Stuckle, master of ceremonies at the awards ceremony, began her announcement of the Bentley Award by informing the audience that, "the awards committee didn't have to debate the worthiness of this nomination, it was basically impossible to select anyone else."

Sims, ND was once a bustling community of more than 1,000 people during its heyday back in 1884, and was once the largest town in Morton County. A coal mining boom and the addition of a brickyard brought people to the town in droves, but just six years later only about 400 inhabitants remained. The post office closed in the little town in October of 1947 and Sims eventually became a ghost town, save for the Sims Scandinavian Lutheran Church and its parsonage, which remained nestled in the rolling grasslands of Morton County. The church is the state's oldest Lutheran church west of the Missouri River, the parsonage being built as the first church in 1884.

The second floor of the parsonage served as a worship area for that first congregation, the first floor as living quarters for the resident pastor. A lean-to addition at the back of the building afforded room for a Norwegian school.

A new church was constructed in the early 1900s. Sometime in the 1940s the parsonage served its last resident pastor, and in 1984, the last occupant closed the doors for good. Seeing that the historic parsonage was falling into disrepair, members of the Sims Church congregation decided to save it.

Preservation North Dakota was pleased to use the Sims parsonage restoration as a demonstration project and after three years of restoration work, the project is now complete and the parsonage has been turned into a museum of local and congregational history.

Thousands of volunteer hours were poured into the restoration of this bit of North Dakota history.

Joel and Donna Johnson not only spent many hours working on the project, but helped organize other volunteers, meals for the volunteers and paid for supplies out of their own pockets. Their hard work and dedication is evident in everything you will see when you visit Morton County's newest museum.



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