The Beginnings
Wisconsin had just become a state and Madison was not yet a city when a few Presbyterians decided they would like to have their own congregation.
Seventeen people signed a document on May 30, 1851, promising “to pay the sums opposite our respective names for the purpose of fitting up Mr. Lewis’ Hall (pictured above) for public worship.” The pledges ranged from 50 cents to $5. On June 2, there were another 17 names added to the list. In total, they pledged $49 (and managed to eventually collect $41.50).
One of the people on the list – Rev. Hugh B. Gardiner – would become the first pastor of the church. He came here from South Presbyterian Church in Galena, Ill. He explored the idea of creating a new congregation with residents of the area.
One of those original organizers – Daniel S. Durrie – later wrote in his recounting of the first 25 years of the congregation that Gardiner “found the sentiment of the people favorable to such action,” although he also noted that there were doubters “who regarded it as unnecessary and in their opinion it would result disastrously.” Still, the group decided to move forward.
In that group was J.W. Sterling – also an ordained clergyman but more focused on education. He was a founder of Carroll College in Waukesha in 1846 and then in 1849, one of two professors at the new University of Wisconsin. He became acting chancellor for six years, then a vice president and was known as the “father of the university.”
Sterling along with Durrie, the first librarian of the new State Historical Society, and John Yost Smith, who supervised the construction of the first Capitol building, were key figures in launching this new congregation.
It took a few months to get things organized, but on Friday, Oct. 3, 1951, a petition was sent to the Presbytery of Dane that was meeting in what is now Portage asking for a committee to be sent to Madison to start a Presbyterian congregation. The next evening, a small group met on the second floor Mr. Lewis’ Hall to formalize the new congregation with six members (plus Sterling, who as a minister could not be a member). Sterling and Smith were the first ruling elders and Durrie was the first deacon. Rev. John A. Savage, president of Carroll College in Waukesha, preached the sermon that evening.
The next day they met for worship and added four more members.
So Madison now had its fifth church, called First Presbyterian Church. (We would change our name to Christ Presbyterian in 1891.)
A few additional notes.
There are references to Mr. Lewis’ Hall. This was a two-story building on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East Johnson Street where the sanctuary of First Methodist Church now stands. The hall was a building owned Jehu H. Lewis, one of the civic leaders in early Madison, who would turn it into a dry goods store – Lewis and Holden – later in 1851.
After starting out in Mr. Lewis’ Hall, the congregation started meeting in a frame building owned by Chauncey Abbott – Huchting Brothers Grocery — at the corner of West Mifflin and North Carrol Streets where 30-on-the Square now stands. Then work began on an actual church building that was completed by the end of 1853.