March 12 Today in OPC History

When the Rev. Curtiss Balcom was received into the Presbytery of the Dakotas in September 1936 and joined the newly formed Presbyterian Church of America, he was the oldest active pastor in the denomination at the age of 57. Born on December 27, 1881, in Chatfield, Minnesota, Balcom attended North Dakota State University and graduated with a pharmacy degree in 1901. Twenty-six years later in 1927 he was ordained in the PCUSA and installed the next year as pastor of Olivet PCUSA in Volga, South Dakota. In 1936, however, he joined the new church and became the pastor of three rural congregations north of Bismarck, North Dakota. The congregations were New Hope in Baldwin, Faith in Wilson, and Rock Hill in Rock Hill. He would travel over over twenty-five miles from one congregation to the other for the next decade, even though the congregations could not pay him a living wage. During this time, the denominational home missions committee supported Mr. Balcom with $100 per month. At the age of 66, Balcom retired, and the Presbytery of the Dakotas dissolved the congregations on this day in 1947.

Picture: The Presbytery of the Dakotas in the late 1940s.