In 1836, within one year from the arrival of Dr. Williamson and his
missionary party at Lac-qui-Parle, a church was organized, with six
native members, which in 1837, consisted of seven Dakotas, besides
half-breeds and whites, and, within five years, had enrolled forty-nine
native communicants. Of this congregation Alexander G. Huggins and
Joseph Renville were the ruling elders.

An adobe church edifice was erected in 1841, which for eighteen years
met the wants of this people. In its belfry was hung the first church
bell that ever rang out over the prairies of Minnesota, the sweet call
to the worship of the Savior of the human race. The services of the
church were usually held in the native language. The hymns were sung to
French tunes, which were then the most popular. At the beginning,
translations from the French of a portion of Scripture were read and
some explanatory remarks were made by Joseph Renville.

The first school for teaching Indians to read and write in the Dakota
language, was opened in December, 1835, at Lac-qui-Parle, in a conical
Dakota tent, twenty feet in height and the same in diameter. At first
the men objected to being taught for various frivolous reasons, but
they were persuaded to make the effort. The school apparatus was
primitive and mainly extemporized on the spot. Progress was slow; the
attendance small and irregular, but in the course of three months, they
were able to write to each other on birch bark. Those who learned to
read and write the language properly, soon became interested in the
gospel. The first five men, who were gathered into the church, were
pupils of this first school. Of the next twenty, three were pupils and
fourteen were the kindred of its pupils. Among their descendants were
three Dakota pastors and many of the most faithful and fruitful
communicants.

[Illustration: MINNEAPOLIS IN 1857.]

One large log-house of five rooms, within the Renville stockade,
furnished a home for the three mission families of Dr. Williamson, Rev.
Stephen R. Riggs and Gideon H. Pond. One room was both church and
school room for years. Under this roof the missionaries met frequently
for conference, study and translation of the word of God. Here,
September 30, 1844, the original Dakota Presbytery was organized.

For several years most of the members of this congregation were women.
Once in the new and then unfinished church edifice, more than one
hundred Indian men were gathered. When