History and Heritage

In 1861 Dakota Territory was created by the Congress of the United States to include the present states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and the northern half of Wyoming. Homesteading began in 1868, and Texas cowmen moved longhorn cattle to great open-range spreads in that portion of the territory known as “Little Missouri Country.” By 1872 the Northern Pacific Railway had reached Jamestown.

In the part of the territory that is now western North Dakota, a French nobleman, the Marquis de Mores, ranched and built a meat packing plant; another Frenchman, Pierre Wibaux, started a ranching operation that was to become the largest in the United States; and a young man from New York, Theodore “Old Four Eyes” Roosevelt, began a career that was to take him to the White House.

Amid this excitement and growth, dedicated Presbyterian settlers met to discuss the founding of a college. The first liberal arts college in the area, University of Jamestown was incorporated in 1883 and chartered in 1884 under sponsorship of the Presbyterian Church, which recognized its responsibility to “promote the progress of our divine religion and to maintain and improve Christian citizenship, believing that these objects cannot be attained without the proper education of our youth under Christian influences.”

The first classes at University of Jamestown began in September of 1886, three years before North Dakota became a state. By the end of the University’s second year, eighty-two students were pursuing degrees under the tutelage of five professors.

Physical facilities were meager and circumstances difficult on the open prairie. The college hill had only one building and a barn for horses. Wood stoves furnished heat and oil lamps provided light.

The extremely cold winter of 1886 contributed to the onset of economic problems. After closing during the financial panic of 1893, the University was reopened in 1909 by the North Dakota Synod under the leadership of President Barend H. Kroeze. Dr. Kroeze was to set in motion forces that would allow the University to grow and prosper as it “encouraged the development of an educated Christian citizenship” and sought “to offer a liberal culture combined with moral training.” The current 110 acres of wooded land the campus now occupies bears little resemblance to the bleak site upon which the founders stood and pondered the future of their own lives and that of a fledgling college. Today, University of Jamestown overlooks a progressive city of sixteen thousand people which offers a variety of recreational facilities and warm hospitality. Modern facilities now grace “College Hill,” including the architectural prize-winning Raugust Library, which houses more than 150,000 items; Larson Center; Seibold and Prentice residence halls; Lyngstad Center, a modern classroom facility; the Reiland Fine Arts Center, with its exceptional concert/performance hall; the Unruh and Sheldon Center for Business and Computer Science; the Ed and Elaine Nafus Student Center; the Foss Fitness Center; the remodeled Liechty Center-Taber Hall; the McKenna Thielsch Center with its nursing and science labs; and the Harold Newman Arena. The University also completed a 13,350 square foot building in Fargo to house the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, which matriculated its first class in the fall of 2013.

In January 2021 the University divided into the Undergraduate College and the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. The Undergraduate College is the home to all the undergraduate programs of study housed on the Jamestown campus with the exception of the School of Nursing. The graduate programs are in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies along with the University’s online undergraduate programs and the School of Nursing.

Only the University’s objectives have remained unchanged. These are reaffirmed in our goal of academic excellence in a Christian environment and in our determination to equip our students to face new problems and challenges in a changing world. Those objectives are realized not only through a quality faculty and curriculum but also through outstanding facilities and co-curricular programs, such as athletics, choir, and drama. We believe a Christian environment is crucial to the educational process. It provides discipline to the development and freedom of the mind and imparts a spiritual dimension of hope and grace. University of Jamestown and the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) have an historical relationship, and they maintain their relationship by a covenant agreement to support one another in their respective missions.