In 1842, Rev. John P. Gallup was appointed to the Winnebago Lake Mission. His plan of labor gave to Oshkosh every fourth Sabbath, and the intervening time was filled by Rev. Clark Dickinson, a highly esteemed Local Preacher, and others. A revival occurred this year that brought into the Church the larger portion of the people living in Oshkosh and vicinity.
Rev. Harvey S. Bronson was the Pastor in 1843, and was succeeded the following year by Rev. Joseph H. Hurlbut. The first Church edifice was erected under the Pastorate of Rev. Robert Everdell in 1851. Being the Presiding Elder of the District at that time, the writer performed the dedicatory service. The building was enlarged in 1856 and again in 1861. Under the Pastorate of Rev. Wm. P. Stowe there were large accessions, and he found it necessary to enlarge again, when in 1870 the writer was called to preach the re-opening sermon.
The mother charge at this writing ranks among the leading stations of the Conference, and rejoices in the companionship of two promising daughters. The first is located on the South Side, where a lot was purchased and the contract for a building let, under the Pastorate of Rev. J.M. Walker, in 1868. The charge was organized the following year, and under the successive Pastorates of Revs. C.W. Brewer and Joseph Anderson, the Church was completed and the station assigned an honorable place in the Conference. The other, located in the Western part of the city, was erected into a separate charge at the last Conference session, a Chapel having been previously built.
CHAPTER XIII.
Fond du Lac District Continued.--Green Bay.--First Settlement.--Rev. John Clark.--First Sermon.--First Class.--Col. Ryan.--First Methodist.--First Church Enterprise.--Good Society.--Heretical Bonnet.--Various Changes.--Rev. R.P. Lawton--Church Disaster--Purifying the Temple--Rev. S.W. Ford.--Oneida Indian Mission.--Oneidas.--Missionaries.--Quarterly Meeting.--Council.--"Chief Jake."--Interpreter.--Rev. Henry Requa.--His Dying Message.
Green Bay, the next point visited, is the oldest town within the bounds of the Wisconsin Conference. Its site was explored by Jean Nicollet in 1639, but its settlement did not begin for more than a century thereafter. In 1785 it contained seven families, and in 1816 there were one hundred and fifty inhabitants located in the village and its vicinity. The population now began to increase more rapidly, and in 1819 there were sixty dwellings and five hundred inhabitants.
Green Bay was made a United States trading port in 1815, with Col. John Bowyer as Indian Agent. And on the 16th of July of the following year, Col. John Miller commenced the erection of Fort Howard. The first frame house built, and perhaps the first in the State, was erected in 1825, by Col. E. Childs.
Col. Samuel Ryan came to Green Bay in 1826 and was the first Methodist, as far as I have been able to ascertain, who settled within the bounds of the Wisconsin Conference, and was probably the first in the State. From the time of his arrival until 1833, the religious Meetings were held in the Garrison school house and in an old Commissary store. Thereafter, and until a Church was erected, the services were held in a new yellow school house, or in the Garrison building at Fort Howard.
At the General Conference, which was held in Philadelphia in 1832, action was taken looking to the extension of the Missionary work of the Church in the Northwest. In furtherance of this object, Rev. John Clark, then of the New York Conference, was sent out as Superintendent of the work. This eminent Minister and able administrator, whose special record I need not enter in these pages, as his Life has been published, arrived at Green Bay July 21st, 1832. Immediately after his arrival he began his labors, preaching the first Methodist sermon within the limits of the present boundaries of the Wisconsin Conference. The sermon was delivered in the Fort, to both soldiers and citizens.