Title: Pilgrim Congregational Church (Madison, Wis.) Records
Inclusive Dates: 1885-1970

Creator:

• Pilgrim Congregational Church (Madison, Wis.)

Call Number: Mss 28; PH 3371

Quantity: 2.8 c.f. (6 archives boxes and 1 flat box) and 49 photographs (1 folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Correspondence, sacramental records, minutes, reports, clippings, and photographs of the Pilgrim Congregational Church which formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1901 and dissolved in 1970. The records document church history through the minutes of congregation meetings and trustees' meetings, and the records of the Deacons and Deaconesses Board, Women's Guild, the Pilgrim Missionary Society, the Men's Club, the Sunday School, and the Friendship Bible class.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00028

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After the Civil War, Mrs. Cordelia Harvey, widow of Governor Louis P. Harvey, established an orphans' home at Spaight and Brearly streets in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1885, the University Christian Association started a Sunday School at the orphans' home, as there was no Protestant place of worship east of the Chicago and North Western Railroad tracks. Two years later this Sunday school came under the direction of the Young Peoples' Society of the First Congregational Church.

In 1895, this Sunday School was housed in a remodeled primary school at the corner of Jenifer and Brearly Streets, and an interdenominational group of women formed the Ladies Aid Society to assist in taking care of the Pilgrim Chapel Sunday School and to work with the poor and needy in the neighborhood.

In January, 1901, a meeting was held at the parsonage of the First Congregational Church to discuss the need for an English-language church on Madison's east side. Two months later a committee of interested residents petitioned for a church, and on April 21, 1901, the Pilgrim Congregational Church was organized with a membership of forty and a Sunday School of one hundred. The congregation used the original meeting house until 1915, when it completed a new church structure with a seating capacity of five hundred. A Sunday School wing later replaced the one-story frame building that originally housed the Mission Sunday School.

The Pilgrim Woman's Guild (later referred to as Women's or Pilgrim Guild) was formed August 21, 1901, with a membership chiefly derived from the original Ladies Aid Society. (However, the two organizations existed separately for a time.)

The congregation dissolved as of February 15, 1970, conveying its physical plant to the First Congregational and Lake Edge United Church of Christ congregations, with the stipulation that the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center be allowed to continue to use the facilities.

Further information concerning the early history of the Pilgrim Congregational Church may be found in the collection in the History file and the Pilgrim Guild History file. Background information is also contained in A Hundred Years of Congregational History in Wisconsin, pages 66-68.

The collection contains a variety of notes, letters, reports, and documents with widely scattered dates. Together, they provide substantial historical information through newspaper clippings, annual reports, photographs, and unpublished historical notes and narratives.

Essentially, the records of the Pilgrim Congregational Church are composed of clerk's minutes and records, which are almost complete from 1901 to 1956, and the records of the Women's Guild, which cover the period 1895-1951. The records of the Women's Guild provide the only documentation in the collection that relate to the period when the congregation existed as the Sixth Ward Chapel. The clerk's records include some information on baptisms, deaths, marriages, and membership changes, along with minutes of annual meetings, trustees' meetings, and some financial reports. Separate records of baptisms and members dismissed and accepted are also present for some years. Except for material in the annual reports, the only financial records are the account book of individual pledge payments, 1924-1928. Very few records after 1956 are included.

Other church groups represented in the collection are the Sunday School, the Friendship Bible Class, the Men's Club, and the Missionary Society. The photographs, 1885-1956, include portraits of pastors, group activities, outings, the building, and other scenes.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Isabelle Elder and Jacqueline Utter, Madison, Wisconsin 1957, 1985. Accession Number: M85-504

Processing Information

Processed by archives students and Margaret Hafstad, 1968, and by Natalie Tinkham, 1994.

Mss 28 Box   1 Folder   1	Constitution, contracts, and miscellaneous legal documents
Box   1 Folder   2	History of the church: notes, histories, leaflets, 1911-1950
Box   1 Folder   3	Dissolution, 1970
Box   1 Folder   4	Correspondence, 1914-1952
Box   1 Folder   5	Newspaper clippings, 1934-1946
Box   1 Folder   6	Miscellany
Box   1 Folder   7	Pilgrim Visitor, February-July 1921
Box   1 Folder   8	Annual Reports, 1918, 1940-1955, 1961, 1963-1965
Box   1 Folder   9	Miscellaneous reports, 1896-1951
Box   1 Folder   10	Loose minutes of Board of Trustees, 1918-1919, 1944-1946; Church Cabinet, , 1918
Box   1 Folder   11	Baptisms, 1917-1918, 1931-1940; Dismissions and acceptances, , 1913-1970
	Church register and clerk's minutes
Box   2 Folder   1	1901-1915 (includes baptisms, new members)
Box   2 Folder   2	1916-1925
Box   2 Folder   3	1926-1934 January
Box   3 Folder   1-2	1934-1937
Box   3 Folder   3	1940 June-December
Box   3 Folder   4	1942 December-1944 August
Box   3 Folder   5	1945 July-1951 January
Box   3 Folder   6	1951 January-1956 January
Box   7	Account book, pledge payments, 1924-1928
Box   3 Folder   7	Deacons and deaconesses records, 1959-1969
	Pilgrim Women's Guild
Box   4 Folder   1	History: 1895-1951
Box   4 Folder   2	Annual reports, 1914-1934
	Secretary's records
Box   4 Folder   3	1895-1920
Box   5 Folder   1	1926-1930 (including reports, , 1917-1922)
Box   5 Folder   2	1930-1934
Box   5 Folder   3	1934-1950
Box   6 Folder   1	Miscellany, 1907-1969
Box   6 Folder   2	Pilgrim Missionary Society records, 1917-1924
	Men's Club record books
Box   6 Folder   3	1931-1937
Box   6 Folder   4	1946-1954
	Sunday School records
Box   6 Folder   5-6	Minutes, 1917-1918, 1925-1948
Box   6 Folder   7	Attendance, 1937-1949
Box   6 Folder   8	Friendship Bible Class records, 1931-1943
PH 3371	Photographs, 1885-1956