Local History

Church Records: Part 1

This article originally appeared in Exchange, a newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Volume 28, Number 1, Winter 1986) It is the second in a series of articles titled Researching Community History. The series highlights the Society's resources available to local historians. It was written by Tim Ericson, assistant library director for archives and special collections at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Wisconsin church records, and vital records kept by early itinerant missionaries, are widely used by genealogists and by researchers tracing the history of their congregations for a centennial or another special event. However, records from churches or other religious organizations — regardless of their denomination — also have broader research value for all community historians.

Religion has been an important factor in Wisconsin history since the earliest days of settlement. Often a church was the first record-keeping organization in the community. In many cases, missionaries were among the first people to travel through a newly settled region and write what they saw of the land and the people. In addition to serving religious needs, churches often became the primary social and cultural centers in small frontier villages. They sponsored educational programs and functioned as centers of community life for ethnic immigrant groups. Churches actively promoted community improvements such as schools, and they served as the rallying points for social crusades of the day, from the abolitionists of the Civil War era to the longstanding prohibition campaign to the civil rights movements of the 1960s.

Because of the churches' close involvement in community affairs, and the average clergyman's overriding concerns for the well-being of Wisconsin's early inhabitants, religious records — aside from what they might tell us about an individual church — often contain unique, invaluable information about the early history of specific localities.

Many of the Wisconsin Historical Society's religious records — particularly individual church records — have been distributed throughout the Area Research Center network, where they are closer to their area of origin and more accessible to local researchers. Additionally, many ARCs also have collections from regional denominational organizations. For example, the Eau Claire ARC has records from the Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire (1877-1949: EC Mss V) which include registers and record books from several regional Episcopal congregations. The Oshkosh ARC has a similar collection from the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac (1860, 1862, 1873-1935: OSH Mss AV).

Denominational Organizational Records

Many church-related collections remain at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison. Among the most useful are several large collections of association or conference records which contain a great deal of information about local churches and communities throughout the state. Notable among these are the archives of the United Church of Christ-Wisconsin Conference (1839-1958: Mss 181). In addition to minutes and proceedings, a large portion of this collection is composed of files on individual Congregational (UCC) churches in more than 200 different Wisconsin communities. Typically these files contain photographs, correspondence, newsletters, reports and other records. Although the files pertain directly to the church, they often contain valuable information about the history of the community or the region in which the church is located. The following excerpt — from a letter written by a minister in the Trego, Wisconsin, area in 1930 — provides insight into conditions in that region at the time of the Great Depression.

"Northern Wisconsin has for some time been facing a very serious economic condition which has been aggravated this summer and fall by the drouth. For over two months our locality has not had a rain and all hay, potatoes, grain and other crops burned up. One grower with 80 acres of potatoes told me the other day his crop would not bring $10 per acre. Douglas County is offering its land at $2 per acre and has thousands of acres of abandoned farms to sell."

It is easy to see how such information would be an interesting addition to a community history. The UCC files date primarily from the 1920s to the 1950s, although some contain documentation as far back as the 1880s. To find out which communities are included in this collection, researchers should consult the nearest ARC or a reference archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Wisconsin Congregational Conference (1840-1949: Wis Mss GX) is a similar collection which includes records from Ripon College, Brockway College, and church records from 38 Wisconsin communities, as distant from one another as Cumberland, Platteville, Stoughton and Green Bay.

The American Home Missionary Society collection (1827-1848: Wis Mss GV) includes approximately 300 photostat copies of letters written by missionaries who worked in Wisconsin Territory prior to 1848. Many letters describe, in striking detail, the hardships endured by some of our pioneer ancestors. The following excerpt from one such letter, written by a missionary in the Burlington/Rochester region, illustrates that bilingualism was an issue in 1847 as it is today, and that the "American Dream" was not achieved quickly by everyone:

"The majority of the [Norwegian immigrants] know nothing of the English language & from so far as I learn, care nothing for it. An English school has been taught among one or two winters, by means of which a few children have acquired some knowledge of our language. Many of the parents, however, reject the opportunity with ignorant self conceit, and say they have no need of English ... few of them ... have neat and comfortable dwellings ... but a majority of them, especially those who emigrated from the barren regions of Norway, are poor & miserable and know little of the arts of husbandry whereby to gain a livelihood."

The same letter concludes with a moving description of the conditions endured by one immigrant family during the winter of 1846-1847:

"I visited one family in which I found every individual, eight in number, prostrated with disease. Two of them, the father and a daughter of some 16 years, were shaking violently with the ague. The daughter shoeless and nearly destitute of clothing stood hovering over a few live coals by the side of which stood an old filthy looking copper tea kettle, from the spout of which they would take their turns drinking. The others were huddled in bunks filled with prairie hay with nothing over them...save a few sheep skins sewed together. Aside from the tea kettle we saw but one article of furniture...a wooden bowl filled with what I took to be [bread] kneaded and prepared for baking. This, as near as I could learn, was all they had in the house with which to support life."

The archives of the Methodist Episcopal Church-West Wisconsin Conference (1848-1951: Wis Mss UT), encompasses a territory roughly west of a line from Ashland to Beloit. Many of the records in this collection were compiled by a conference historical society, which was organized to encourage the writing and preservation of church histories. There is historical information on churches from more than 100 different Wisconsin communities. Files include newspaper clippings, unpublished historical manuscripts and correspondence. Church historians will be interested in conference and circuit histories, biographies of ministers who served in the region, local association newsletters, membership and baptismal records, and other statistical information relating to churches in western Wisconsin. Detailed lists of the contents of this rich collection also are available at each of the ARCs or from a reference archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Wisconsin Baptist State Convention (1842-1955: Mss 274) has a similar collection, although it is less extensive than either the UCC or the Methodist archives. The Baptist materials include short church histories from approximately 30 communities around Wisconsin. There is, in addition, a large number of typed transcripts of letters from Baptist ministers who were in Wisconsin during the 1840s, '50s and '60s. The letters generally are short, but they were written by missionaries working from Racine to Superior, and many contain valuable information about the respective regions. The account below, written March 12, 1857, by a missionary in the Green Bay region, shows that at least some of Wisconsin's early settlers took their religion very seriously:

"Last Sabbath I baptized the first person into the fellowship of the church. The candidate was a young lady 18 years of age. We repaired to the Fox River [which] was covered with ice three feet thick, [and] in which a beautiful baptistry had been cut for the occasion. A flight of steps cut in the ice descended to the bottom of the river. It was the first baptism [by] immersion in Green Bay [and] it made an impression on persons of other denominations."

The Wisconsin Historical Society has recently purchased a large collection of Wisconsin American Lutheran Church records (1844-1978), originally microfilmed for the ALC archives at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. This collection includes records from more than 300 Wisconsin communities. The Platteville ARC also has an extensive collection of microfilmed ALC church records from the southwestern part of the state (Platteville Micro 16).

Works Progress Administration Survey Records

Certainly one of the most fascinating collections of church-related material can be found in the records of the Works Progress Administration (1936-1942: Series 1953). During the Great Depression the WPA undertook many projects, among which was a survey of Wisconsin church records. During this search, workers also compiled brief histories of all the churches they could find — even some which had ceased to exist years prior to the survey. The result is a gold mine for community historians.

Individual histories are generally quite brief, noting facts such as the date of founding, names of ministers and other church officers, highlights in the church's history, and information on the church building(s). Occasionally photographs, news clippings, annual reports, brochures and other historical material accompany the written reports. Even these brief summaries often contain valuable information, as illustrated by the selection from a now defunct Baptist church located in Pierce County:

"[The church was] organized in 1889. People in this community donated logs for lumber and their services. Soon a frame church building was erected and dedicated in 1889. ...Slowly the membership dwindled and by 1925 there were not enough members left to hold services, and so from 1925 to 1930 the Baptist Conference held quarterly meetings. [In] 1930 [the] Conference sold the building to the Ku Klux Klan, and in 1939 the building was torn down."

Community historians will find the WPA collection useful for many reasons. Most important is the sheer number of histories included — close to five thousand! The survey covered all parts of the state — both rural and urban — and includes information about churches that have long since ceased to exist. The collection would be indispensable, for example, to a researcher looking at the history of churches on a county-wide basis. The survey encompasses all denominations, including Catholic churches that are not represented in most other Society collections. It also includes denominations which are extremely small, or which no longer exist, such as the Church of God in Christ, the Christadelphians, and the Foursquare Baptists founded by the famous woman evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Finally, the collection also contains information about religious organizations such as the Salvation Army, YMCA and non-denominational groups.

Church Records, Histories and Missionary Correspondence

The archives section also has a large number of individual church histories and original church records, as well as letters, recollections and records of itinerant missionaries who traveled around the state during the early years of settlement. Like the examples cited above, these resources frequently contain unique information about the early history of Wisconsin communities. The following excerpt, written in 1833 by a missionary in the Prairie du Chien area, gives advice to prospective emigrants:

"The soil is certainly superior to any I ever saw in any country, producing small grain such as wheat, oats &c., from 30 to 45 bushels per acre. Corn does not grow so well here as in Missouri and Illinois, but I am told that 40 bushels per acre may be expected. [Concerning] the price of staple products...corn and wheat $1 per bushel, oats 50 cents, pork and beef from $5 to $6 per hundred. I gave since I came $45 for two cows and calves, and was glad to get them.

Prospects for common laborers [are as follows:] $15 and boarding are given per month for laborers on a farm, fifty cents per cord for chopping wood, and $18 to $25 for digging minerals. I know of no place in the United States, where laborers can do better than in this country."

For additional information about any archival records related to churches, missionaries and religious organizations, contact Reference Archivist, Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1482, or the nearest Area Research Center.