Christ Episcopal Church was organized on September 16, 1829 at the home of Louis Rouse, north of “Shantytown” (now part of Green Bay). The organizational meeting followed several years of Episcopal services in the vicinity of Green Bay which began in 1822 when Eleazer Williams, a lay reader and catechist, came to Duck Creek from New York with the Oneida Indians. In 1825 the Department of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church sent the Rev. Norman Nash to establish a boarding school for Indian children living in the vicinity of Green Bay. Albert G. Ellis, a lay reader, accompanied him. On April 10, 1826, Nash called a meeting of the inhabitants of Green Bay to organize a parish. Several meetings were held, but little was accomplished because Nash returned to the East and no other clergymen were available. In 1829 the Department of Missions sent the Rev. Richard Fish Cadle and his sister Sarah Cadle to Green Bay to revive the Indian school. While serving as superintendent of the school, Cadle began to conduct regular services in the village.
At the September 16, 1829 meeting, the parishioners adopted a constitution and chose Daniel Whitney and A.G. Ellis as wardens, and James D. Doty, Robert Irwin, Jr., Alexander Irwin, Henry S. Baird, John Arndt, William Dickinson, Samuel W. Beal, and John Lawe as vestrymen. Christ Church Parish was incorporated under the Michigan Territorial Laws on October 21, 1829 and Cadle was elected its first rector.
Daniel Whitney platted Navarino (now part of Green Bay) in 1830 and the inhabitants of Shantytown moved to the new town where Cadle held services in the yellow schoolhouse on Cherry Street. In 1831 the small group of Episcopalians began planning and raising money for construction of a church edifice. The Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, bishop of the Northwest, laid the cornerstone of the church on August 9, 1838. The church was enlarged to about twice its original size in 1860.
Christ Church lost some of its members in 1872 when residents of the southern section of Green Bay, who desired a separate parish, organized St. James Parish. This venture was unsuccessful and the parishioners returned to Christ Church about 10 years later. The church edifice was destroyed by fire on July 3, 1898. On September 12, 1898, Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton laid the cornerstone of the present building, which was completed in 1899.
The clergy of Christ Church served several nearby missions including the Kemper Mission at Fort Howard; St. Paul's Mission at Duck Creek; Lower Duck Creek Unorganized Mission; the Parish School, organized in 1856; Wisconsin University at Green Bay (commonly called Indian Mission School); Cadle Home and Hospital; and the Oneida Indian Mission School founded in 1823. (Some records of the Oneida School, the Wisconsin University at Green Bay, Kemper Mission, and the Cadle Home and Hospital are included in the collection.)
Wisconsin University at Green Bay, incorporated on December 13, 1837, was an Indian boarding school established by the Rev. Cadle and his sister in the unoccupied barracks at Camp Smith. The school was opposed by the French Roman Catholics who made up the majority of the population of Green Bay, and by the Indian pupils who reacted against the harsh discipline. The trustees intended to establish a college on the mission property, but the plans never materialized and only a few Menominee children remained at the mission. Aid was withdrawn and the school was closed in 1842.
The parishioners of Christ Church established the Cadle Home and Hospital on the school property in 1872 as a parochial venture for education and care of orphan children and for relief and care for sick, needy or homeless persons. The institution, which accommodated 20 to 30 persons supervised by a matron, carried out its work until the buildings fell into disrepair. The last building was torn down in 1917.
Kemper Mission was established in Fort Howard some time before 1870 and a church building was erected on leased land in honor of the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper. No services were held from 1873 to 1875 and when Kemper Mission came under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Fond du Lac in 1875, it was listed as a weak and doubtful station. Mrs. Emmeline Whitney, a parishioner of Christ Episcopal Church, donated land to the Diocese for the mission in 1876 and the original edifice was moved to the new site. The mission was served by the rector of Christ Church from 1877 until 1881 when services were discontinued because of lack of funds.
Two Kewaunee County missions, St. Mary's at Duvall and St. Anne's at Montpelier were part of the Diocese of Fond du Lac but were not served by the clergy of Christ Episcopal Church. The Rev. Rene Vilatte, a lapsed Roman Catholic ordained priest, organized St. Mary's Mission in 1885 among the Belgians in Kewaunee County. In 1906 St. Mary's Mission was admitted to the Diocese of Fond du Lac as an organized mission with services performed by the Vicar at Blessed Sacrament Mission, Green Bay. St. Anne's Mission joined the Angelican Communion in 1913 when the Bohemian congregation of St. Anna's Roman Catholic Congregation applied to the Bishop Reginald Weller, Bishop of Fond du Lac, for admission to the Diocese. Episcopal priests served the mission from 1913 until 1923 when it was closed and the property sold.
Because of changes in Episcopal diocesan boundaries, Christ Episcopal Church has been a member of several dioceses. Jurisdiction over Green Bay was not clearly established until 1832 when the Diocese of Michigan Territory was formed. From 1836 to 1847 the church was under the jurisdiction of Jackson Kemper, who had visited Green Bay in 1834 and in the following year, had been consecrated missionary bishop in the Northwest, an area covering Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota as well as Wisconsin. Under Kemper's guidance a separate Diocese of Wisconsin was created in 1847. Kemper remained as bishop, and in 1866 selected William Armitage to be his assistant bishop. Five years after Kemper's death in 1870, the Diocese of Wisconsin was subdivided and Christ Church became a part of the Diocese of Fond du Lac. Internal government of the church was carried out by a vestry, two wardens, and a treasurer elected by the congregation, with the rector as ex-officio president of the vestry.
