Manville, Jireh & Keeline, A Day in the Life - Jireh, WY with Dan Gaukel

A Day in the Life, Manville, Jireh & Keeline was held on Saturday, July 4 as part of the America 250/Explore Niobrara celebration of America's 250th birthday.

Click here for Dan Gaukel's Jireh presentation.

Jireh

Jireh took its name from the place Abraham was about to offer up his son as a sacrifice to Jehovah.

(Genesis 22) Jehovah will provide.

Jireh was a small Christian College town

born on the prairie in 1908 between Manville and Keeline, WY. When the Reverend George Dalzell of the Congregational Church in Lusk saw a need for more higher education in this community.

He gained the support of the Christian College organization in Ohio and work began.

As the college grew so did the town, at one time having a lumber yard, 2 banks, a Modern Marvel Store, express office, Post Office, mail route serving 80 people, a depot, doctors, jewelry store, 3 general stores, the college known as Wilkinson Hall, 2 hotels, telephone office, grist mill, hardware store, real estate building, garage, a newspaper known as the Jireh Record, print shop, notary public, insurance agent, auctioneer, blacksmith, a building contractor and a barber shop.

Jireh was an alcohol free and gambling free community. Dancing was not allowed but roller skating was allowed as an alternative.

The college was a 3-story building with a basement, a bell tower in which a bell too heavy for the building was installed to later be taken down, donated to the WWII scrap iron drive and purchased by the St. James Church in Holland, Michigan for $200, money donated to the Red Cross.

College tuition was $65 per year. This covered room and board and books. It offered 4 years of high school and 2 years of college.

One of the first founders and teachers at Jireh was C.W. Pfifer whose ranch and house remain on the west side of the townsite. This house is the former Dalzell home.

In 1911 an experimental farm was established through the state legislature in connection with the college located on the south side of the highway, the outline of which can still be seen today. Men form the University of Wyoming conducted experiments on how to best cultivate the soil and grow the best varieties of grain.

Classes at the college began in 1910 and ended in 1920 when funding from the Ohio Church dried up.

1913 to 1917 were the towns best years. With WWI and funds drying up, economic conditions, drought all took their toll on the town.

Soon after families began to move away. Buildings were sold or torn down, the college lumber going to Laramie to build 2 new homes.

The home of W.S. Alexander, one of the college administrators was purchased by my grandfather in 1926.

One account was that Mr. Alexander had raised the money to build the house while still in Illinois in the amount of $2200. Don’t know what my grandad paid for it.

It was moved 1/2 way to the ranch with 75 head of horses. 1926 unlike this year was wet enough that the dollies used to move the house sank in the sod where it remained until fall when the ground was dry and hard. The house made the rest of the trip by steam engine and a block and tackle to get it started.

I can only imagine what the house moving foreman’s job would have been like, trying to get 75 head of horses to pull together. It would be like the speaker of the house trying to get Republicans and Democrats to pull together. This all happened 100 years ago this year.

The grade school building ran until 1947 with my sister and brother and I being the last students to go there.

It was later moved to Keeline and used for a lunch room. It was also used for public gatherings and dances. Many a good time was had there.

The Jireh Cemetery site was donated by the Reverend George Dalzell in 1909 and remains a functioning and incorporated cemetery to this day.

Reverend Dalzell’s dream of a college came to an end, but his efforts were not in vain. I’m sure the seeds of faith and hope that he planted and replanted in his students for those 10 years lived on and bore fruit, hopefully for 5 or 6 generations.

The population of Jireh is a conflicted subject. It varies from 50 to 500 people. One explanation was that Jireh was an unincorporated settlement so the census bureau never officially tracked it. 1918 there was about 100 people.

The lowest enrollment in the college was 4 in 1910-11, the highest was 31 in 1915-16. Averaged about 20 per year. The total number of students from 1910 to 1920 was 135.

Today, the site is recognized as a Wyoming Historical matter located west of Manville along US Highway 20.

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