North Dakota’s first million-dollar donation was made by a man who left the state at age 18

FARGO — The American Endowment Basis

ranks North Dakota among the many high 10 states

by way of charitable giving. That rating is predicated on charitable statistics for present residents of the state.

Nevertheless, former residents are additionally identified for giving giant quantities of cash or endowments in direction of causes or establishments throughout the state. The primary million-dollar donor within the state’s historical past was by an individual who left North Dakota in 1910, on the age of 18, and didn’t return to the state till 50 years later. Between 1950 and 1969, Chester Fritz donated greater than $2.25 million to the College of North Dakota.

Fritz, who was certainly one of America’s most profitable sellers of treasured metals in Asia, was born and raised in North Dakota’s Purple River Valley. His mom deserted him when he was 12 years outdated and he was raised by his aunt and uncle, who have been educators in Richland County. After attending the College of North Dakota for 2 years, Fritz moved to Seattle, on his personal, to finish his school schooling and turn out to be engaged in commodities buying and selling in China. Within the 35 years Fritz spent in China, he made, misplaced and remade fortunes, primarily buying and selling in treasured metals like gold, silver and tungsten. Through the later years of his life, Fritz donated a lot of the cash he made to UND, the College of Washington, the Lidgerwood (N.D.) College District, and the Adirondack Museum in upstate New York.

Chester William Fritz was born on March 25, 1892, in Buxton, to Charles and Anna (Belanger) Fritz. Charles farmed a plot of land close to Buxton however had a troublesome time making a cushty residing off the farm. Anna’s dad and mom, Ferdinand and Marjory Belanger, additionally owned a farm close to Hatton and Chester spent a lot of his time residing with the Belangers and their youngest daughter, Kathrine “Kittie” Belanger, who was Chester’s aunt. As a result of he was intellectually gifted, Chester started his schooling in a rustic faculty on the age of 4.

Unable to make a residing by farming his personal land, Charles moved together with his household to Fargo in 1898, the place he bought insurance coverage, drove a supply truck for a produce retailer and helped space farmers in the course of the harvest season. Chester continued his elementary schooling in a public faculty in Fargo and spent a lot of his time away from faculty on the Fargo Carnegie Public Library studying novels. In 1902, Chester’s father misplaced his foot after falling into the cylinder of a threshing machine.

The Fritz household was residing in poverty previous to the accident, however with Charles unable to work, life grew to become an excellent larger battle. Anna took a job as a clerk and bookkeeper at a dentist’s workplace, however the strain she felt grew to become too nice. In 1905, she abandoned her husband and son. When Charles filed for divorce in 1908, Anna was found to be residing in Los Angeles. There isn’t any proof that Anna ever contacted Chester after she left in 1905. One fascinating merchandise confirmed up within the 1920 census, which listed an “Anna Belanger” as being an “inmate” on the “Establishment for the Feeble Minded” in Grafton. The census listed each of Anna’s dad and mom as being born in Canada. Chester’s maternal grandparents have been born in Canada. Was this the identical individual? I have no idea.

Unable to take care of Chester, Charles despatched his son to reside with Kathrine (Belanger) Macdonald in 1905. Kathrine married Neil Macdonald a yr earlier and each have been residing in Lidgerwood when Chester got here to reside with them. Neil was the superintendent of colleges in Lidgerwood and Kathrine was the principal of the highschool. Chester paid $8 a month for room and board, working odd jobs and attending faculty. Due to the Macdonalds, Lidgerwood was listed as among the best faculty methods in North Dakota. In June of 1908, Chester graduated from highschool as valedictorian of his class and enrolled at UND within the fall. Each of the Macdonalds have been graduates of UND.

Throughout his freshman yr at school, Fritz labored many hours every week to place himself by way of faculty and he was additionally lively on campus. He excelled in debate and declamation (oration) and joined the Advert Altiora (increased issues) Literary Society beneath the course of sociology professor Dr. John M. Gillette. Fritz additionally joined the varsity Bachelor’s Membership, fashioned by William Lemke in 1902, which later grew to become Phi Delta Theta, the primary school fraternity in North Dakota.

After his first yr at UND, Fritz hopped on a freight practice heading west and acquired off the practice in Billings, Montana. Whereas there, he labored doing odd jobs for room and meals on the Grand Resort and, to earn cash, he obtained a fee for promoting vacationer tickets to Wyoming. Within the fall, Fritz returned to UND and certainly one of his classmates was Maxwell Anderson who was lively within the faculty’s theater division. Anderson and Frederick Koch, the pinnacle of the division, organized a bunch of scholars thinking about placing on performs and known as their group the Sock and Buskin Society, later renamed the Dakota Playmakers, and Fritz grew to become an lively member of the society.

After finishing his sophomore yr at UND, Fritz returned to Seattle with the intent of enrolling on the College of Washington. Having not saved sufficient cash to enroll, Fritz took a yr off and labored for a wholesale plumbing firm in Vancouver, British Columbia. Within the fall of 1911, Fritz returned to school on the labored six days per week promoting cigars at a Seattle drug retailer. He graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in economics in June of 1914.

After commencement, Fritz started working for the Fisher Flouring Mills Firm, a newly established flour milling firm with a global market. He started working on the testing laboratory in Seattle the place he discovered the ropes of the milling enterprise. Then, within the spring of 1915, Fritz was despatched to Hong Kong to work with Charles E. Richardson, the corporate’s chief exporting authority in Asia. Fritz was a fast learner and accounts of his buying and selling success have been reported in a number of American periodicals. He was given enterprise assignments that took him throughout southeast Asia, however that got here to a halt with the U.S. entry into World Conflict I in 1917.

In response to Chinese language historian Yanran Xu, “World Conflict One modified all the things all over the world. It led China into an period the place completely different worldwide powers grew to become entangled with it and compelled China to embrace internationalization.” Fritz used this downtime in gross sales to embark on a six-month tour of China. When the struggle was over in 1918, Fritz rejoined Richardson in Hong Kong as a enterprise associate. Though their operations in tungsten mining and exportation to the U.S. was a failure, Fritz’s publicity to Chinese language enterprise practices and Chinese language contacts put him in place for the longer term.

Curt Eriksmoen will proceed the story of Chester Fritz subsequent week.