About Congregationalism

Origins – the Church on a Hill

By JoAnne Potter
With thanks to Ida Ela, Wendy Ela, Ruth Frost, and Ray Moyer
 

The First Congregational Church of Rochester, Wisconsin grew from what began as America’s western wilderness when the accessibility offered by the Erie Canal encouraged settlers, spurred by a missionary movement called the Second Great Awakening, rapidly began to move West. Although before 1839, no person living in southeastern Wisconsin had a legal title to his claim, by 1835 pioneers had already moved in. They had no formal laws or surveys, so formed their own local laws that allowed certain improvements to constitute a legal, if temporary, claim.

 

This is when Rochester’s first settlers, Levi Godfrey and his brother-in-law John Wade walked here from Whitmanville (now LaGrange), Michigan, leaving behind their failed business enterprise, a failure caused by a local bout of malaria their father-in-law had instigated by damming up a river. When they arrived at what they called the Upper Forks where the Musquequack and Pishtaka (now the Fox) Rivers joined, they’d found their fresh source of water power for their next venture. It was there they built a 16-foot shanty, the first building in town. By 1837, they were joined by 20 more settlers and Rochester had been formed. After Richard Ela built the first fanning mill in the county to separate wheat from chaff in 1839, the village was officially platted in 1840 and was on its way to becoming a manufacturing and transportation hub, which lasted until the railroad bypassed the town in 1871.

 

The new community had at first no minister, but soon church services were held in the Godfrey tavern or in the home of Obed and Nancy Hulburd. Rochester’s first resident minister was Rev. CC Cadwell, who came from Kenosha, settling in 1839. By 1840, Rev. Cadwell had initiated enough interest to spur a revival and a Congregational Society was officially formed with 30 members, 13 men and 17 women. The first church building was begun in 1844 on land donated by Obed Hulburd on the hill near where the current library is located and finished in 1848.  It cost $1750 to build and was paid for according to what was called the New England Method of selling its pews, which raised the lion’s share of the cost: $1446.50.

 

This building, lit by oil lamps and heated by two wood stoves, the only structure in town suitable for worship or indeed any public meeting of any kind, served every Protestant denomination in town. It remained the only church building until 1868 and was shared, sometimes disagreeably, with Methodists, Free Will Baptists, Episcopalians, and Universalists. A local fable recounts that some of the groups using the building were dissatisfied with the way others failed to clean it and the resident “church ladies” asked their husbands to do something about it. In reply, they barred the door from the offending denomination, who then responded by arriving with a battering ram to force their way in. Whatever happened that day, however, between 1868 and 1870 the Universalist Society built another building for their services on State Street, calling it Grace Church.

 

In 1890, a new constitution adopted by the Congregationalist Society acknowledged no responsibility to any other ecclesiastical body other than itself. Because it did not need to maintain ties to an outside ruling body, it became the community church. During this period, Grace Church, the Congregational Church, and several others apparently served the community companionably until the late 19th century, when the Universalists, their membership dwindling, found the need to sell their building. After a local group sought to purchase it from them to use for a pool hall, they decided that it was to everyone’s advantage to sell it instead to the Congregationalist Society with the understanding that it was to remain a house of worship into perpetuity. In 1901, the Congregationalists bought our current building from them for a token $300 and the old church on the hill was eventually dismantled to provide building materials for the Albright Greenhouse in 1913. The balance of the land around the old Grace church, still privately owned, passed through several hands and was eventually donated to the Congregationalists by the Ray Moyer family in 1952.

 

Moving In

 

As new owners often do, we began with remodeling. The Universalist pews faced West at that time and they were turned around, oriented toward the Southeast corner facing a pump organ. A new east wing, now the parlor, was built to shelter the Sunday School and rolling doors opened between it and the old church to accommodate larger groups. A beautiful stained glass window was installed in memory of Lizzy Cady Titus.  Mrs. Titus was one of the “angels” of the church and much beloved. She died in childbirth in 1891 at 33 and is buried in the Rochester cemetery, off the east driveway, halfway up the hill on the right past the Levi Godfrey monuments. Her obituary is still posted on the wall next to the window. Sometime in the 1950’s, a former preacher, Rev. Glick, had a son who shot his BB gun at the window and the cracks from that mishap are still visible. 

 

At about the same time, colored glass windows made by Linden Glass Co. in Chicago replaced the clear ones in the sanctuary and if you look carefully, you can see where the old square windows were extended to accommodate the peaks on the new ones. They were a donation from Delia Hulburd Gallup and cost $192.50 (we still have the receipt) and feature the flower motifs Mrs. Gallup loved so much. Much of the grain has been painted into the woodwork through the artistry of a local painter, John Yonk.  The ceiling of the church was originally curved plaster but it distorted sound, so it was covered with the wooden planks you see today in the arched shape symbolically echoing that of a boat and Jesus’ promise that his disciples would become fishers of men.

 

An upper story served as a meeting room and quilting room for the Ladies Aid and Berean Society. On the South lawn, a three-sided building sheltered horses during Sunday services, who in turn provided fresh manure to feed the garden of our parsonages, the first of which was built at 207 S. State St. in the 1840’s and purchased by the church in 1891. The second was built right next door at 209 S. State in 1895 for $550. The newly remodeled church was rededicated in 1903.

  

Our present parsonage, our third, was built between 1930 and 1932 after the house at 209 S. State was sold to our minister’s wife, Mrs. J. W. Jordan, by then a widow, in 1929. Roomy and comfortable, it is paired with a garage that is tiny by all modern standards, so small that at least one pastor couldn’t fit their old Chrysler into it. This parsonage, still in use, cost a total of $7850, of which a mortgage was taken for $2500. Beyond the bank loan, the balance of the funds for the building of the parsonage came from basket socials, a street festival, spaghetti dinners, and chicken barbeques. It took the church until 1940 to pay off the mortgage and they were evidently wildly glad to have done so in view of the depression – so glad that they planned to ceremonially burn it. The church still has a letter from the Congregational Society advising them not to do so and to burn something else if they must because they might need the satisfied mortgage documents someday. Evidently, they followed their advice. We still have them.

 

Renovations – A New Look for a Modern World

 

After WWII, the church made some substantial changes so that it looked much more like it does today. Rolling doors in the east wall of the sanctuary were replaced with a center altar and pews were shifted East to face it. A new Hammond organ remained at its left and choir stairs were built at is right. Although the new sanctuary was dedicated in 1947, the most ambitious project was the expanded basement.

 

Because we wanted to install a new oil-burning furnace, the basement had to somehow be dug out. After the war, the church was urged forward by a general optimism and vigor that led it to expand the project further and in 1948, under the management of silo builder H.J. Howe, it was begun. Essentially, the building had to be raised enough for the workmen to wriggle in under it so that they could shovel out the dirt underneath by hand and transfer it onto a conveyor that then moved it out from underneath so that it could be transported away from the site. The people who did this were all volunteers – farmers who came after their morning chores were done and stayed during the day followed by ‘townies’ who came after work and stayed until dark. In this way, they dug out the entire basement, and when the posts were installed downstairs, they were used to raise the church high enough for concrete pouring and leveling. Eventually, the building was lowered onto its new foundation inch by inch over a period of weeks to make sure nothing in it cracked. It worked. The resulting multi-purpose room still houses our full-size kitchen relocated from a much smaller one in the upper story and provides a place for church suppers and informal gatherings. The old Sunday school room became the parlor and office.

 

A few further changes came after that. In 1956, the single concrete step across the front of the building was replaced by separate stairs for each entry door, a new wing provided a sheltered path to church school and rest rooms and an entrance that does not go through the sanctuary. We also added a new rear entrance and fire escape from second floor. Since 2000, new front doors have been installed and marked with red crosses to honor Michael Krall, chair elevators were built to ease access to the basement, a wheelchair ramp to the parlor door is a memorial to Jim and Thelma Bonner, trees were planted in the yard in remembrance of Jim Joseph, Ray Moyer, and Werner Hillner, and Robert Bowers designed and built an outdoor chapel on the East lawn. Most recently, when we learned that both steeples were in serious disrepair, we did not have the second steeple, which never had a peak or cross on it, rebuilt.

 

A Look Inside

 

One of the most interesting and unique artifacts in the church’s interior are the two lighted leaded glass windows on the South wall. The 111 pieces of glass in them, many of which were collected from bombing debris and some of which was purchased by parishioner Don Albright during WWII, were rescued from various churches in Europe. Some date back to the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1100 AD and some are identified as dating from 1400AD Germany to 1600 AD France. Many are painted with images from the churches where they were originally installed. Don’s brother Bud had these cabinets made to house the relics.

 

A glass cabinet built by Bill Scott in the back of the church houses a few interesting objects related to our community history. A pewter set - plates and tankards -  dating back to the early 1800’s and predating even our first church on the hill, were found in the town dump by a parishioner and are preserved here.

 

In that same cabinet is a portable communion set gifted to the church by our Rev. Goldsmith. He had been given them as a gift while in seminary and they are said to be salvaged from a wagon train.

 

Our current communion set, which includes beautiful silver cups and ewers, was donated to us by Delia Hulburt Gallup in 1903 in honor of her parents.

 

The large cross above today’s altar was the handiwork of George Hardie and Don Oldenberg sometime in the mid 60’s. It began as a larger project, with this cross constructed as a mockup for a more ornate one to follow, but when this was finished and hung, they decided they liked it just the way it was and so it has remained ever since. The wooden crosses inside the sanctuary and above the doors in the church’s interior were made by parishioner Bill Gerard from 2015-2017. Peter Loomans conceived and painted the images of Christ inside the arches above the doors to the right and left of the altar.

 

Denominational Growth

 

Our identification with Congregationalism began in 1840, When Rev. C.C. Cadwell formed Rochester’s Congregational Society and was affirmed in 1890, with the adoption of a new constitution. It remained so until the 1960’s when many were disposed to rethink the church’s position in society. So, with a desire to unite the people of God, this church became a United Church of Christ.

 

The union lasted for nearly 30 years, but in the 1990s, this church was divided regarding respective roles of the pastor and congregation, and the degree to which the church should become involved in secular politics. In the end, in 1992, the church severed all ties with the United Church of Christ and in 1994 formalized an affiliation with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. We remain Congregationalist in both government and temperament, responsible not to any outside governing body, but only to Jesus Christ and one another in our desire to serve Him.

 

The Church and the Community

 

The church from its inception has been a vital part of the community of Rochester. For many years, when townspeople came to town only on horse or on foot, the church hosted Election Day suppers during which folks could refresh themselves before making the long trip home. On Armistice Day, 1918, the town celebrated with a processional through the town that ended in the church for prayer and thanksgiving. Rochester’s Memorial Day Parade still centers around our building and grounds.

 

Music also brought people together. The church always had a piano and often an organ. In the early 1900s, church musicians joined with musicians from the village and by 1920, the Harold Albright Orchestra, played for both community events and for church. Our church choir expanded to become the Fox River Chorus and sang all kinds of music from religious to popular. The church still keeps an extensive library of choral music.

 

Today, we continue to live and worship together, aware that this building bears a heritage and memories shared not only by its parishioners, but by the entire town of Rochester. We come together as a congregation for Sunday services, for weddings, for funerals, and for baptisms, but we also join in with the larger community on Memorial Day, for Day in the Country, for Music in the Park, Ice Cream Socials, and for Madrigal nights and for tree lightings at Christmas. We also reach beyond Rochester in support of outreach efforts that extend a hand to surrounding communities and around the world.

 

This church is a place filled with many memories. For nearly 200 years, members and neighbors have shared the seasons of their lives in the faithful repetition of worship, praise, and tradition. The First Congregational Church of Rochester is, in the end, the summary of all the shared faith that brings us together in the service of God and love for one another.