On this date in 1954, the Bismarck Tribune announced that abbots and bishops from across the United States and Canada were arriving in Richardton to attend the blessing and installation of Father Ignatius Hunkler as abbot of Assumption Abbey. Catholic dignitaries arrived from as far away as Pennsylvania, Saskatchewan, Washington, and Alabama. Father Hunkler was not only the first North Dakota native to become the abbot of Assumption Abbey, but the youngest abbot in the United States, at the age