The work of the United Brethren in Christ in Iowa began, as far as known, with the labors of Rev. Christian Troup, a member of the Wabash Conference, who came to Iowa as a missionary in 1836,[N] and settled upon what is now a part of the site of Mount Vernon. He afterwards traded his 160 acre claim for a yoke of oxen, and settled near the Cedar river, on what is now known as the Horn farm. Here he passed through all the privations of a frontier life. His daughter, Mrs. Pate, states that for a considerable time he and his family ground the corn for their bread on an old-fashioned coffee mill nailed to the side of a tree.
Rev. Troup's field as a missionary extended from the city of Dubuque to Henry county. His preaching places were wherever he could find an opportunity to speak to the people. Thus he sowed the seed that afterward ripened into many an active Christian life.
One of his appointments was near Ivanhoe, in a log house of only two rooms. Here standing in the low doorway he would speak first to those gathered in one room, then stooping, for he was a tall man, he would pass his head into the other room and speak to those there.
He died in 1850 and was buried in the cemetery that then occupied the lot where the house of Mrs. Mary Hoover now stands in Lisbon. When the cemetery was changed his remains were removed to the present Lisbon cemetery.
In 1838 Rev. John Burns, a local preacher, settled in Lee county, and began preaching at various points. Rev. Christian Troup and he seem to have been the pioneers of the United Brethren in Christ in Iowa.
The first society was organized at the home of "Father" Edington, probably somewhere in Henry county, in October, 1841. This, however, was several years after Christian Troup began his work in the community in which Lisbon now stands.
The first United Brethren quarterly conference west of the Mississippi was held at the home of Mr. Gibson near the present site of Lisbon, May 10, 1842. It was attended by Christian Troup, F. R. S. Byrd, Ira B. Ryan, Lewis Hoffman, "Father" Edington, and others. Ira B. Ryan was licensed to preach, and Christian Troup was chosen presiding elder.
Another similar meeting was held in Henry county on September 10th of the same year. Considerable annual conference business was transacted at this meeting.
A third meeting of the same character was held, probably in the southern part of the state in March, 1843, there being present a presiding elder of the Wabash Conference, of the territory of which Iowa at that time was a part. At this meeting there were reported thirteen organized societies, with one hundred and ninety-four members in Iowa.
The first annual conference of the United Brethren in Iowa, and the first west of the Mississippi, convened at Columbus City, May 19, 1844, Bishop Henry Kumler, Jr., presiding. It was called the Iowa Branch of the Wabash Conference.