Eben Ezer Saunders was born at Maidstone, Kent, England. In 1851 the family immigrated to the United States, settling at Brandon, Michigan. In 1883 Mr. Saunders became a missionary of the American Sunday School Union in Michigan.  In North Dakota Mr. Saunders was the synodical Sunday School missionary of the Presbyterian Board of Education, a position he held until 1891 when he was ordained a Congregational minister at Wahpeton, North Dakota. There upon he represented the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society and Congregational Home Missionary Society. Rev. Saunders during this period became very active in historical research and writing which resulted in numerous published articles in the local newspapers concerning North Dakota and especially the Red River Valley.

The Rev. Eben E. Saunders collection was assembled by an Institute staff member, David Palomaki, in 1982. The various newspaper series were accidently discovered on the microfilm copies of the Fargo Forum and Courier-News newspapers. A collection of his papers was found to have been deposited at the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Although totally unorganized, the collection was loaned to the Institute where copies were made of all his writings, correspondence and autobiographical material.  Thus over ninety per cent of this collection has been copied from that collection. Addition material came from other Institute collections.  Very likely our collection is not complete for all of Rev. Saunders' writings.  The Saunders Collection is a rich historical collection of material relating to the early settlement period of North Dakota, particularly the Red River Valley. 
 

Local and Ethnic History