Identifier: contributionstohvol6hist1907rich (find matches)
Title: Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Historical Society of Montana
Subjects: Montana -- History Periodicals
Publisher: Helena, Mont. : Rocky Mountain Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: Montana State Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Montana State Library

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ftermuch research among my diaries and all accessible meansfor reliable information possessing sufficient definitenessand accuracy to deserve the name of history, I find myselfincapable of doing the subject justice, and had I realizedmy ignorance sooner, should have declined the task. I amnot an original Presbyterian. I was reared a Congregation-alist, and my first church connection was with the collegeat New Haven, and next in my native town of Westfield,Massachusetts, where all my ancestors and relatives wereCongregationalists. For a time in Iowa, before coming toMontana, I was connected with a Presbyterian cuurch atIndependence, but later resumed connection with the Con-gregational Church in Southington, Connecticut, my wifesnative town, and it continued until 1873, after the organiza- P 3 T a— < ST £.5 • aH oo C3 CI 4-- M ^ 3 3- 1^ ?3 ::;-a!- •il K > 5- S o 0 ttiHi I—^ CO c>c ^ I—; chOm ^ o o S^ 1^ g-S^ C Cfl — — o ffiS ^ C O ri L-j fD 01 opa 3*
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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HISTORY. 351 tion of the Helena elinrcli. So I am not one of tLe firstmembers of this church, and others still living- and presentwith us can tell you more of its beginning. I have livedin Helena about from its first settlement, arriving here hiJanuary, 1865, with Brother Wilcox, when Helena was onlya mining camp, with out a school or church of any kind, andwhen Sunday was distinguished from other days chiefly bygreater activity in business and amusements of decidedly un-orthodox kinds. The first attempt at anything like religious observance ofthe Sabbath was on Sunday, March 26th, 1865, when a fewwere assembled on a vacant lot on the corner of Bridge andWest Main streets, where there was a large pile of logsintended for the erection of another gambling house. Rev.E. T. McLaughlin preached a short sermon and brotherWilcox and Justice Miles led the singing. Brother Mc-Laughlin was a Methodist, but church connections went forlittle then and all contributed to build h

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