FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

First Congregational once featured a tall tower.

Old Stone Church (a sketch by Alexander Simplot)

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.

Main Street Church.

Lack of funds led the congregation to lose the use of Old Stone Church in 1844. The congregation moved to the Main Street Church in 1846. This was located at the present site of AMERICAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK 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.

Collections during the service were made as the ushers passed velvet bags on long poles down the pews.

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.

Eveline Deming Stout is remembered through one of the stained glass windows.

On June 25, 1957 the merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Church was celebrated in Cleveland, Ohio. Each Congregational church, however, had to vote to join the new church. The issue was divisive with ten percent of the Congregational churches in the United States choosing not to join. On December 2, 1960, the members of First Congregational, however, voted 103 to 44 to become members of the United Church of Christ.

Pews were rented and carried the names of many prominent Dubuque residents.

In 1972 First Congregational United Church of Christ began construction of an educational building on the site of the former home of Martha BAKER. At a cost of $375,000, the new building provided over 11,000 square feet of space for Christian education, church meetings and administration. The building was dedicated on May 11, 1973. The congregation endured displacement for three months in 1989 as the sanctuary was renovated at a cost of $250,000. A celebration of 150 years of Christian service was held in the newly renovated sanctuary on May 7, 1989. At the time, the search for a new senior minister led to the hiring of Rev. Ken Bickel as Senior Minister and Nancy Bickel to be the Director of Church Life. Ken completed his Doctor of Ministry degree at Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1993. Nancy moved from Director of Church Life to Minister of Church Life in 1995 after completing the Master of Divinity Degree at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary and was ordained in the sanctuary of First Congregational.

First Congregational has earned widespread respect for its commitment to service and furthering the faith. Records indicate the the Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM) contributions of the First Congregational placed it in the top ten in mission giving as well as first in per capita contributions and percentage of budget to mission in all UCC Churches in the United States. In June 2001 Reverend Nancy Bickel received the Belva Duncan Award for excellence in ministry.

In December 2002 First Congregational was selected as one of one-hundred "churches of distinction" for the vitality of the church. 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. The congregation became a partnership church with Habitat for Humanity in 1990, began collecting food for the Dubuque Food Pantry on the first Sunday for every month in 1990, and on November 13, 1994, began a feeding ministry called CAFe for those needing a meal. A meal is served every Thursday evening by the members of the congregation with help from other churches and organization in the community.