FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

First Congregational once featured a tall tower.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST. Dubuque's oldest Protestant church in continuous service. Located at 10th and Locust STREETS, First Congregational Church began on May 12, 1839, when Reverend James A. Clark, hired by the Congregational Home Mission Society, organized fourteen women and five men. The group adopted the Congregational form of governance on December 12, 1844, and held their first service in the Old Stone Church, built with the help of John KING east of WASHINGTON PARK.

The congregation's growth was slow with as few as six coming to weekly church services. Of the nineteen members of the church in 1843, seven were on the board of directors.

Lack of funds led the congregation to lose the use of Old Stone Church in 1844, and services had to be held in the courthouse. Church members turned to the American Mission Society for help and, given the state of finances, the church resorted to conventional and unconventional methods of raising money. Reverend Holbrook, minister to the congregation, toured New England and collected over six hundred dollars. In Dubuque, the church sold or rented pews to the members. Annual rentals varied from twenty-five cents to over five dollars. Pews could be purchased for $37.50, and owners made annual payments or risked swift repossession. Rentals, assessments, and sales provided sufficient money to pay ordinary expenses allowing offerings to go to church causes. It was not until 1849 that the church became self-supporting.

The church soon purchased two lots, the site of the present church, for $1,250. Rev. Holbrook bought the easterly thirty feet of the two lots for the parsonage. Before work on the church was begun, some members expressed their feeling that the church was located too far north in the city. The trustees kept the two lots they had purchased, but also bought Lot 619 for $850. The church members finally decided not to move. The single lot, across the street from Washington Park and next to the bluff, was sold and eventually became the location of the mansion built for Jesse P. FARLEY.

The cornerstone-of the present church was laid in July of 1856. The financial panic of 1857 left work on the church incomplete. By 1858 worship was possible only in the basement. A five thousand dollar loan was required to complete the sanctuary by April 1, 1860, when the church was dedicated. The rose window in the southern wall of the church is thirteen feet in diameter, making it the largest window of its kind in the city.

Changes in the church continued. Celebrating the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, the church bell cracked as it rang through the night on April 9, 1865. In 1869 the congregation purchased, at a cost of four thousand dollars, a Johnson's Opus 277 organ from the Westfield, Massachusetts, company of W. A. Johnson. Because there was no bridge available, the organ (said to be the best in the West) had to be transported across the ICE on the frozen MISSISSIPPI RIVER using bobsleds. The prominent tower of the church was completed in 1875. Memorial windows were installed during remodeling in 1895. On the church's 134th anniversary, a three-story educational and administration building was completed on the site of Rev. Holbrook's parsonage.

In 1986 First Congregational's Sunday morning attendance rated it among the top 4 percent of the United Church of Christ congregations. The church ordained its first woman pastor, Elizabeth Pigg, on December 14, 1986, and the church was the first in Dubuque and of United Church of Christ churches in Iowa to offer the STEPHEN MINISTRY to members.