Monango, ND
Monango is a small town in Dickey County, not far from Merricourt.
Monango was founded in 1886 as a Milwaukee Road Railroad settlement, and the post office was established that same year. According to North Dakota Place Names by Douglas A. Wick, Monango peaked in population with 238 residents in 1910. According to the 2010 Census, Monango has 36 residents today.
Monango is situated right along Highway 281, the most prominent north-south highway between US 83 and I29, but this area of the state is very spartan and quiet. During our visit to Monango, we saw no fewer than six dogs and two goats, but not a single person.
Someone has turned this old building into a nice residence.
St. Pauls Lutheran Church.
Check out the tree. Monango survived a tornado in 2011.
That spot of dirt on the right is where a very large tree stood until the storm of 2011.
Photos by Troy and Rat, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Your coming up with names of towns I have never heard of before! What was the big white building?
it is the community Center….still used to this day….they just had their 125th and that building was hopping
It was the school gym for many years, I remember watching my cousins play ball in there before the school closed for good.
that was the gymnasium..ican’t believe they pulled down the high school. i left there in 1975 and it was still a thriving town.. wow.
Big white building:
Based on what I’ve seen in other abandoned towns, it was probably an all-purpose type of building that housed a basketball arena, an opera house, and a theater.
Don’t worry people live there I live about 7 miles away
The big white building housed auction sales periodically (at least up until a few years ago). It looks like it may have also been the school gym. There were school trophies and such on display here and there in the buidling.
My mom taught at the school there…the big white building was their gym where she taught the girls basketball team..saw many games played..:D There use to be an underground tunnel that went from the school to gym.
oh yeah~! the underground tunnelto the lunch room!
Darlene somebody was the cook..
my mom taught music briefly at the school..
the white buidling is the gymnasium. The high school was attached and has been torn down. I taught there until 1990. Many a basketball game was played in that gym.
Do you know anything about where the records of the church would be at? gloryb1958@yahoo.com Thanks.
No I do not. People u might contact would be Tom Norman who lives in Jamestown now and was a member of the church.
I forgot to mention that it was known as Dickey Central and was the combined towns of Fulllerton and Monango
I think the red building is, or was, a bar. There is a business on the other side of 281 (West) from the red building that’s a fertilizer business or something. Someone correct me if I’m wrong on the type of business. You might have found 2-4 people in there. I drove through town last year and didn’t see any people either. I think they had a big celebration last summer like a centenial celebration with a parade. Well… “big” might not have been the right word to describe it.
Went to HS in Montpelier (class of 68)… miss the small town atmosphere a lot…In the 50′s it seemed that all these small towns had a hussel and bussel to them… full of businesses…local schools and churches…
Wish that kind of life could come back to these towns.
The red brick used to be a business and now is a house building is an inspired use. Great idea. The goats are a hoot.
I’ve lived here for almost three years! It’s a great place to live. But nobody to good pictures so it makes it look like a dump..
I think is beautiful much history, I remember growing up in appam,ND and it was wonderful.
Took
I grew up 5 miles North East of Monango, and went to church in the church pictured. I remember going trick or treating and many church picnics. I went to grade school and it was called Monango publuic school and in 1978 the school so Monango and Fullerton combined into Dickey Central. the Last graduating class I believe was 1984 or 1985.
The big white building was part of the school. It has a gym in it that has been used for auctions and other social gatherings.
Doesn’t the Mayor now live in that red building? Or is he farming yet?
MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS WERE OUT THERE, SHE DIED OUT THERE , SHORTLY AFTER CHILDBIRTH, STORIES I WAS TOLD THE BABY DIED AND THE CHILDREN AND PARENTS HAD A FURNERAL FOR BABY AND BABY WAS BURIED AT THE END OF DRIVEWAY OR ON THE PLACE WERE THEY LIVED. THAN LATER G GRANDMOTHER DIED AND HER FATHER CAME OUT FROM WI. TO GET THE FAMILY, THE FATHER, 8 CHILDREN AND THE MOTHER WHO DIED ALL CAME BACK BY HORSE AND WAGON TO WISCONSIN. IF ANY BODY HAS INFOR WHERE I CAN FIND OUT MORE INFO, IT WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATED. SORRY FOR LARGE PRINT, LOSING EYESIGHT AND THIS MAKES IT EASIER. THIS IS A GREAT SITE AND THANK YOU TO WHO PUTS IT TOGETHER. FAMILY NAME IS SAM/SEVAL AND TINA/TEIGEN, SHE DIED 1913.
my email gloryb1958@yahoo.com if anybody knows of church records or any info if area
When I was young I was told a similar story about the fate of the first family who homesteaded on what is now our farm. In a rock pile in the field there are still some artifacts from the home/sod house that once stood near that rock pile. There is the wire frame and wheels of an old baby stroller/bassinet sticking out of the rock pile that you can see from the road. Our farm is approximately 15 miles northeast of Monango and about 10 miles northeast of Fullerton. Could our farm possibly be the place?
OH, THIS IS SO AWESOME TO HEAR, I SURE HOPE WE CAN PUT THIS TOGETHER SOMEHOW. IT IS SO COOL YOU WROTE TO ME ABOUT THIS. MY e-mail is gloryb1958@yahoo.com PLEASE CONTACT ME SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS. THANKS SO MUCH.
I would like you to contact me please.Thanks. gloryb1958@yahoo.com
Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I had a chance to ask my grandma about this and it sounds like the story of the homesteaders on our farm was much earlier than 1913. By that time it had been bought by another family and was part of one of the large bonanza farms of that era. Sorry to disappoint you. Unfortunately stories like your family’s were an all too common reality for homesteaders out here.
Thanks for letting me know this. If you come across anything about mine would you please let me know. I live in Mn . and it is just by using computer I am trying to find out things. Thanks again, and GOD BLESS. Gloria
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Does anyone know what their school mascot was?
Monago Bison and when they went DC the cougars
green and yellow Bison!!!
My Grandmother spent part of her youth in Monango. I think through her first year of high school. All my life I have heard stories of the town although I’ve never been there. Her Grandparents had a restaurant in town and also a hotel there for a short time. Her mother played the piano or organ for the movie theater in town. One of the most amazing stories that still floors me when I hear it is how the KKK burned a cross in front of their house because they were Catholic. She said there were men outside with white sheets over their heads. Luckily we have quite a bit of this information written down as sadly my Grandmother passed away in the fall of 2011 just 6 weeks shy of her 99th birthday. Would be pretty neat if anyone had any corresponding stories. some of the names she has written here are Thorn, McDonald and Magoffin. My family names there were Moe and Wyckoff.
My dad, his brothers and sisters all grew up on a farm 10 miles from Monango. The white building was the school gym built in the 1930′s. In 1986 we went back for the town’s centennial. The high school was still standing then, and I think that was the last graduating class. The school consisted of grade school on the lower floor, and high school on the upper floor. My dad and his sister rode to school in a horse drawn buggy or in the winter on a sleigh. When it was really bad, he would stay in town and board at a local family’s home. There were 9 in his graduating class, I believe the year was 1937.
So visiting today with my almost 94 year old dad, and asking him for memories. The white gym building was constructed after he graduated in 1937. The school gym was in the basement of the high school. There were girls and boys basketball teams. The high school had a library. In the 1930′s, there were 2 grocery stores, McLaughlin’s and O’Neills, and a pool hall in the town. Dad says you could purchase an ice cream cone in the pool hall. I will try to add more memories as he tells me. He is in a nursing home, but still quite sharp.
I was wrong on the name of the grocery calling it McLaughlin’s as it actually is Magoffin as Cari Guy inquired about. There is a good picture of the store on the NDSU Institute for Regional Studies.
My dad did his vicarage at St. Paul’s in ’72. Victor Meyr. I don’t know if the Missouri Synod office in St. Louis does anything with records when churches close or not but it might be worth checking. I remember it being a great place for a kid. I believe the white building was a small store when we were there. Might have had a soda fountain. Mrs. Buck was my teacher. In winter there was a big frozen puddle in the playground across from the school that we’d all slide on. I fell and split my lip but it was so cold I couldn’t feel it. It was a big deal to get to hold the big wooden school doors open when everyone else lined up to go in and I happened to be a door holder that day so I stood there with my bloody split lip while everyone filed past me and nobody said anything. Finally, Debby Feichner (spelling?), on whom I had a giant crush, looked up and me and said. “What happened to your lip?”. Not the best impression I could have made, I suppose.
We kids would go out to their farm to play now and again. Her brother’s name was Jerome. I’ll never forget the time they were butchering chickens. It was a whole assembly line with various friends and family chopping and defeathering and gutting and so on. One of the younger girls was just reaching in and pulling out the innards. Quite a sight. When we got home, my mom had made Chicken Pot Pie which nobody could stomach. Took a while before we could eat chicken again.
we grew up on a farm west and south of MOnango. my brothers graduated from there in 71 and 73. there was a reunion a couple of years ago for my class of 78 but i wasn’t able to get intouch of anyone.
the 2 story building at the end was the bar.. i remember the mend playing pinochle inthe back and us school kids in the front waiting…
it still had life in 1975 when i left.i am totally grateful for these pictures!
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My grandparents, Hugh Helferty and Margaret Coulter, began their married life in Monango in 1905. My dad, John Kenneth Helferty, was born August 11, 1906 in the hospital in Aberdeen, and spent his early growing years in Monango. Hugh, his father, died in 1911, and Margaret soonafter sold her husband’s livery stable business and enrolled as a student at Valley City State Teachers College – now VCSU. Hugh Helferty’s sister was Fannie, who married Ebenezer Magoffin – co-owner of a general store with Hugh. Fannie died giving birth to her and Eb’s daughter, Fannie, in 1898. Eb remarried, a woman named Amy, and they had a daughter, Lois, born in 1904. I attended Eb and Amy’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1954 – which was held in the old school gym – now the community center. I have several good photos of the Helferty house, but am not sure on which corner it was located. If anyone reading this knows the location, please let me know. Thanks, Scott Helferty – Salt Lake City, UT
My great-grandfather was Dr. Herman Gundermann who was hired as a doctor for the City of Monango in 1915. He served the area until his death in 1933. He set up his practice on the second floor of the Magoffin store. When the store burned down in 1916 he lost most of his possessions and had to supplement his income with farming. Dr. G. was born in Germany and spoke fluent German He is buried in the Monango Cemetery and I am trying to locate that on the map.
Doing a google search I come up with no results. Does anyone know about the cemetery and if there is a different name other than Monango Cemetery?
Thanks Carol Costello – Hermosa Beach CA
I just did a search for a cemetery in/near Monango, and found an answer on a site called Podunk – which listed three apparently outside of town: one called the Finnish Cemetery, another is St. Paul’s Cemetery, and the third is called Peace Cemetery. The symbols indicating the locations were on a pretty general and empty map – but the basic coordinates are shown – so perhaps on a Dickey County map these would be easily identified. Perhaps someone at the courthouse in Ellendale could assist in acquiring a map of the county. Hope this helps. Scott
Thank you. I will try contacting the courthouse as suggested.
As I recall, St Paul’s Cemetery is 1 mile south and 2 miles west of Monango. I haven’t been there for 9 years, but (after reportedly falling into disrepair for awhile) it was nicely kept at that time. My maternal grandparents homesteaded 3 miles NW of Monango in 1903, and were among the co-founders of St Paul’s Lutheran church. Mom and her 5 siblings all went through school in Monango; most are gone now, but what’s left of the old homestead remains in our extended family. Although we don’t reside in Dickey County anymore, our ties to the area run deep.
I am planning to drive through Monango sometime around the second week of October, 2013, driving to/from Salt Lake City and the Twin Cities for an annual meeting. I plan to stop at the Dickey County Courthouse and whatever historical museum that might be there, to enquire about the location of the Helferty house in Monango. My grandfather, Hugh Helferty, died in 1911, and his widow, Margaret Coulter Helferty, sold Hugh’s livery stable business, and part ownership of the Magoffin General Store, and left for Valley City with her young son, John Kenneth, my dad, age 5, to attend the Teacher’s College. Eb and Amy Magoffin’s daughters, Louis Mount and Fan Magoffin, were just about my closest relatives, along with some second cousins. Lois went to Chicago in the 1930′s, and Fan taught in several towns in ND, and Tracy, MN, moving to Fargo in 1939. Fan and Lois lived their last years in care facility in Fargo, Lois dying in the mid 1980′s, and Fan in the summer of 1990. One of their cloest friends was Bud Raveling, who lived for many years in Minneapolis; and Fan and Lois visited the Ravelings many times over the years. Mrs. Raveling (Bud) had a “Monango museum”, with a number of family artifacts and photographs, including one large “almost” aerial view that must have been taken from a water tower, showing much of the town. I have a similar photo, perhaps the same one, but not as large – but very clear in detail. Regarding the query about St. Paul’s Church records, perhaps the Missouri Synod district office, wherever that is, would have those materials. And, it is possible that a neighboring Lutheran Church of the same synod would have some of the liturgical items from the Monango congregation.
In 1986 a book was put together on the town of Monango, to celebrate the centennial.(440 pags bound) The front page inside has a picture of the townspeople in 1908 included in the photo are Amy Magoffin, Fannie Magoffin and Eb Magoffin . There is also stories of families, of churches and life in general of the “Banner City” throughout the book. There are listed specifically 5 separate cemeteries, 1) Monango Cemetery with a list of about 150 names and the year they were buried there. my g-grandfather H Gunderman was 1933, and of your related names, Emma E Magoffin 1892, Beriah Magoffin was 1924, Manluis Magoffin was 1925, Ebenezer Magoffin was 1953, and Amy Magoffin was 1957. There is also 2) St. Pauls Cemetery including all names and dates of which no names are familiar, 3) Peace Lutheran Cemetery with 28 names, 4) First Congregational Church Cemetery with 37 names and 5) Finnish Lutheran Cemetery with another 20 names. In 1916 when the Magoffin store burned down records of prior year transactions and burials were lost,( the same time my g-grandfather lost all his possessions in that fire, as he rented upstairs of the store.) If you do not have a copy of the book – it is very interesting, Fannie Magoffin has a bio and pic in the book as well. My Mother went to Teacher’s College at Valley City as well in 1929-31, Louise Kenyon, and would visit Dr. Gunderman in Monango on special occasions, and he in turn would visit her when he could.
My brother and I plan to visit in late September on a drive back from New York to California. We are hoping to find where granddad is buried.
We took my dad back for the centennial in 1986. There was a big parade, dinner in the school gym, and a crafts fair. I wonder if I can find the book we received, as I do remember that now that you mention it. I’m going to ask my dad more about his life there. He is currently age 94, class of 1937, as the town celebration was also his 49th high school graduation reunion, all graduates were invited since it was such a tiny school. He got out of PE due to some condition, and walked each school day to the post office to collect the school mail. I remember some stories about the dr. as well, visiting on their farm, delivering his little sister, and treating the family.
I do not know whether Fan Magoffin had or saw the centennial book of Monango, publishedin 1986, as she was in a care facility with her sister, Lois Magoffin Mount in Fargo that year. The mention of the death of their father, Eb, dying in 1953 makes me rethink the year of Eb and Amy’s 50th wedding anniversary. I had typed on this site that I thought it was 1954, but we also visited the Midwest in 1952, driving from Boise, Idaho to Fargo and Minneapolis, and stopping in Valley City and Monango on that trip. We had just moved to Boise in February, 1951, and my dad, Joihn Kenneth, was on his way to New York City to become a member of the American College of Surgeons. Mom and Dad took the train to NYC from Minneapolis. My memory of Eb and Amy’s anniversary was that it was held at the school gym and then back at their house, which, to a five-year-old, seemed very old. Eb’s first wife, Fannie Helferty Magoffin, Hugh Helferty’s sister, died in childbirth, or soonafter, when daughter Fannie (Fan) was born in 1898. She is buried next to Hugh Helferty in Picton, Ontario. Lois Magoffin Mount was born in 1904, and so Fan and Lois were half sisters. My grandmother, Margaret Coulter Helferty, married to Hugh from 1905-11, spoke often and fondly of Monango. Several times, I heard her mention to Fan how wonderful it would be if they could move back to Monango. This comment would have been made in the 1960′s, and Fan just howled with laughter – and Fan’s laugh would bring conversations in restaurants to a halt. She always addressed my grandmother as Auint Margaret. Fan attended Jamestown College (I am not sure exactly what it was called when she attended) and taught school in ND for several years before moving to Tracy, MN for a teaching position. It was there my parents, John Kenneth and Iryne Hanson met. Fan suggested my dad’s name to Dr. Walter Valentine in Tracy and Dad was hired as his assistant. So, I credit Fan with my existence. Fan moved to Fargo in 1939 and worked for the IRS until her retirement in the 1970′s. I can tell you that IRS staff had a lot of fun with Fan there, as I would drop in for their coffee breaks when visiting on vacation. The office was in the Pioneer Building in Fargo, and the coffee shop on the first floor had some of the best cinnamon rolls in ND.
My husband lived there his till her graduated high school and his mom lived there up until 3 years ago.. She lived right across from the church! And we know Tom Norman! Email us at chernfamily5@centurylink.net.. My husband grew up in that church!