At Valley City Rev. Mr. Woodford, pastor of the Episcopal church, stopped short his sermon and dismissed the congregation with the announcement that he would not hold further services while the Bonder-Root family attended the church.

The Bad Lands Cow Boy, 10/23/1884

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Valley City Churches.

The factions at Valley City even extend to the churches. In consequence Rev. Mr. Peahe recently left the Pepiscopal church there, and the Jamestown Alert notes this: The Episcopal church at Valley City does not seem to be in the most pleasant condition. It seems from the Barnes county Record that the pastor, Rev. S. H. Woodferd {sp}, has an aversion to Mr. Root of his conversation, the Record says: On last Sunday when this nervous condition of the preacher was augmented by "physical illness" to an unusual degree, Miss Clara Root was seized with a fit of coughing during the sermon, which, being unable to suppress, she procured the keys of the house from Mr. Root and went home. This action of Miss Root the nervous preacher at once construed into a "studied annoyance," and subsequently when Mr. Root opened his prayer book, which rested upon his knees, the excited preacher stopped short in his sermon, dismissed the congregation abruptly, stating that he could no longer endure the presence of the Root family in church, and until they ceased their attendance there would be no more services in that church. Comment is unneccesary, but from what we know of Mr. Root we venture to predict that it will be a long time before the church is opened if Mr. Woodford's threat is carried out.

The Saint Paul (MN) Globe, 10/10/1884