Railroads played an important role in Jamestown's inception and growth. At one time there were prospects that two other railroads besides the N. P. would come into the city, and hope was high that the place would become an important railroad center. Although these plans did not fully materialize, one of the new roads, the Midland Continental, did make the city its home office. Financed by English capital, the Midland began to build in 1913, with plans for a line connecting Winnipeg, Man., with the Gulf of Mexico. The World War intervened, foreign support was withdrawn, and operations ceased after completion of only 70 m. of road, from Edgeley to Wimbledon. The first church services here were held in a schoolhouse, and a pioneer tells of how these meetings were faithfully attended by an old Indian "clad in great dignity and an old nightshirt." Jamestown's first church, the Presbyterian, was erected in 1881. The first resident Roman Catholic priest arrived the same year, and resided in a rectory that measured 14 x 22 ft. Although there were many places in the State where Catholic church services had long been held, Jamestown in September 1889 became the first seat of the diocese of North Dakota. In 1879 a group of local businessmen organized the James River Navigation Co. Of their first steamer, the _Belle of Richmond_, the St. Paul _Pioneer Press_ said, "The craft is composed of a steam-whistle, an engine the size of a teakettle and a little boat under it." Ice put a stop to river navigation that fall, and in May the following year the initial trip of a new boat that had been built during the winter proved unsuccessful. The fertile James River Valley land has produced such bountiful crops that between 1875 and 1900 farmers often paid for their lands in two years. A writer of that time says that "though North Dakota didn't have granite bluffs and waterfalls for its beauty, a land that would yield twice its cost in the first year would look rather beautiful to most men." Maxwell Anderson (1888-), Pulitzer Prize playwright (1933), and Curtis D. Wilbur (1867-), Secretary of War in President Coolidge's cabinet, once attended school in Jamestown. The two leading institutions of Jamestown overlook the city from the river bluffs on both sides of town. To the SE. is the STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, with its handsome buildings and beautifully landscaped grounds, a little city within its 2,000 acres of farm land. JAMESTOWN COLLEGE, on high bluffs (L) on the northeastern edge of the city, is the oldest, and only private, college in North Dakota. Founded by the Red River Presbytery in 1883, it was the first school in the State to offer normal school training for teachers. A plan for construction in semi-Gothic style has been followed, with the result that the buildings present a pleasing and uniform campus group.