During the mid-1880s, as the Sheyenne River Valley filled with settlers, many Scandinavian Lutherans sought religious instruction for their children, and Lutheran missionaries, many of them recent immigrants, responded to that need. The Waldheim congregation was first organized in 1886 by an immigrant Norwegian pastor, Nils Forde, and in its early years held services in a local schoolhouse. In 1892, local landowner Carl Jensen Bjerke donated the land for the church and cemetery, and the church was completed in 1900. Services at Waldheim Church were held in Norwegian until 1917, when a bi-weekly English service was added. Central to many local Lutheran churches were Ladies Aid Societies, organizations of church women who met in one another’s homes for meetings that included lunch and the exchange of news but also raised money to build and improve churches, support missions, and provide charity in the community through monthly dues, auctions of homemade goods and food, and church socials.