District Lodge No. 5 was chartered October 4, 1990. The District Lodges were created from the 7 territories to help better serve its members.
The charter included 3 local lodges:
1.) Local lodge 862 in aberdeen, sD (hub city inc), chartered september 12, 1951.
2.) local lodge 2357 in watertown, SD (minnesota rubber), chartered october 1, 1968.
3.) local lodge 2525 in fargo, nd (steiger tractor), chartered october 1973. the lodge later added ruan trucking, concord inc. and national feeding systems. also steiger tractor changed its name to cNH 4-wheel drive products plant around 1986.
national feeding systems dissolved in 1998.
the concord plant was closed in 2000. most of the members from concord moved to the cNH 4-wheel drive products plant.
Jim Anderson was appointed the first Directing Business Representative for District 5 in 1990. He held the position for 9 months until the first election for DBR was held in 1991.
The first executive board included: President – dennis stucker, vice president – maynard magnuseon, and secretary/treasurer – charlotte ries.
The District was based out of Fargo ND until 1991 when Dennis Walworth was the first elected DBR. The office was then moved to Westport SD to Dennis’s home.
In 1999 the District rented an office in Aberdeen SD. In 2000 the District hired Dawn Theunissen as a part time Secretary for the office. In November 2002 the District again moved its office. This time to the Aberdeen Central Labor Union’s new building.
In 2003 the District had about 961 members and Dennis was on his 4th term as DBR for the District. As DBR Dennis helped the local lodges negotiate contracts, helped members with problems and settled grievances. When grievances could not be settled Dennis represented the members through the lodge before an Arbitrator.
In 2003 Secretary Treasure Arlo Remmers turned over his calculator to Chris Skeldum. President John Graham turned over his gavel to Brad Schiernbeck and Vice President Landis Larson turned over his position to Herb Forkel. In the second quarter of the year Chris turned over the books to Barb May.
The District has seen several Grand Lodge Representatives retire through the years–Jerome Burnett, Barney Grosso, John Davis, Rod Hoffman. We thank them all for their help with arbitration cases and negotiating contracts and for just being there when we needed a friend. Barney departed from this life in 2002. He will be missed.
In 2018 there were many new changes; Jeremy Pearson Became the Districts new DBR, Joseph Schwartz became the new ADBR, and angela lass replaced dawn as the new office manager.
in 2020 Jessica Anderson replaced dawn as the new office manager for the district.
in june of 2024 joseph schwartz retired but remained the secretary treasurer for the district. jeffery hoopman became the new bR for the district, still working out of the international falls, mN office where joseph schwartz was also based out of.
