My uncle Ernest Julius Alfred Erickson's Confirmation document dated November 29th, 1903 from "The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Sunne Church" in Slaughter, North Dakota. Ernest Julius was fourteen years old at the time of his confirmation.

I asked my cousin Michael Boutrous about the name Slaughter, written on the document: "Yes, that's Slaughter, ND and named after one of the original founders of Burleigh County and more specifically Bismarck in the early Dakota Territory days. The name Slaughter comes from Linda Warfel Slaughter, a very popular and well-known woman throughout the county. From a tale of the west the local Indians quite fancied her and once tried to kidnap her back in the day. After hearing that I had to do a little research on this Miss Slaughter, a name that just speaks poetically to me.

Linda Warfel Slaughter was an educator, writer and an early founder and citizen of Bismarck. She wrote books and articles detailing life in North Dakota and inaugurated the city's first public school system from scratch. Slaughter was one of the most influential woman of her time and in North Dakota's history.

Mrs. Slaughter's maiden name was Linda Warfel, the daughter of General Charles Warfel, of the Mexican war fame, commanding a company of Ohio volunteers. She married Major Benjamin F. Slaughter of the Fifty-fifth Kentucky mounted infantry in 1870, and came as a bride to the Dakota Territory. In 1871, the Slaughters lived for two years at the frontier post of Fort Rice. They moved later to Edwinton, now Bismarck, living there for over thirty years until the death of Mr. Slaughter in 1906.

Linda Slaughter organized the first Sunday School in Bismarck. This was just the beginning - she went on later to open the Bismarck Academy, which soon became the beginning of the public school system.

Soon enough she was appointed the Burleigh County Superintendent of Schools. Linda was also was a prolific writer, so her stories brought a lot of attention to North Dakota as her writings spread beyond state borders. That particular history of Bismarck, Burleigh County and North Dakota exists for us to know and enjoy because she wrote it.

Slaughter was also Bismarck's first postmistress and founded the Ladies Historical Society in Bismarck, which would go on to merge with the State Historical Society. She was quite the feminist of her time and Linda Warfel Slaughter was the first woman to vote for a presidential candidate at a national convention.

The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Sunne Church and Cemetery in Slaughter was established in the mid 1880s and began as a burial place for early Swedish settlers, who had originally immigrated to Burleigh County from Sunne, Sweden. The cemetery is still referred to by some as the "Still Cemetery at Slaughter" or the "Slaughter Cemetery." The church and cemetery sit adjacent to each other on the Southwest corner of Highway 36 and 80th Street Northeast on the outskirts of Wilton, North Dakota.