NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG3236.AM: First Congregational United Church of Christ (Fremont, Neb.)
Records: 1880-1945
Fremont, Dodge County, Neb.: United Church of Christ
Size: 26 items on 1 reel of microfilm
BACKGROUND NOTE
Reverend Isaac Heaton, a Congregational minister, arrived in Fremont, Nebraska, in October of 1856, two months after the town had been platted. On November 2, 1856, he conducted the first formal religious service in Dodge County in the home of Seth P. Marvin, about a mile west of Fremont. Services were held through that winter, spring and summer and the First Congregational Church of Fremont was formally organized on August 2, 1857. Meetings were held in private homes until a church building was erected in 1868. That building was replaced by another in 1883.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection consists of records of the First Congregational United Church of Christ of Fremont, Nebraska, arranged in four series: 1) Congregational manuals, roster of members, officers and pastors, budgets and reports, 1880-1916 and 1939-1945; 2) Printed circulars; 3) Anniversary records; and 4) Ruth Mulliken memoir and printed matter.
Series 1 consists of a broken run of official church records. Among this material are congregational manuals, which may include the constitution of the congregation, rosters of members, officers and clergy and a brief history of the local church. Other items in this series include printed budgets and annual reports and the records of the Women’s Missionary Society, in manuscript form. Series 2 contains printed announcements of church programs and meetings.
Series 3 contains memorial programs printed on the anniversaries of the congregation, the script of a pageant produced in observance of the seventy-fifth birthday of the church and two letters written by a former member in which the early history of the congregations and construction of its building are discussed. Also included is a “Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Check,” which apparently was a form on which members could indicate the amount of a special donation they wished to make in observance of the congregation’s anniversary. Series 4 consists of printed and manuscript material relating to Miss Ruth Mulliken, a member of the congregation, who served as a missionary to China from 1910-1942. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she and other Americans were interned in a Japanese camp for foreign nationals. This series includes her memoir of this experience.
This material was loaned for microfilming by the United Church of Christ historical office, Lincoln, Nebraska, in February of 1976.
DESCRIPTION
Series 1 – Congregational Manuals, Rosters, Budgets and Reports, 1880-1916 and 1939-1945
Reel 1
Item
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- Manual, 1886
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- Manual, 1898
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- Roll of church officers and members, 1906
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- Budget, 1910
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- Budget, 1914
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- Budget, 1915
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- Budget, 1916
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- Annual Report, 1939
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- Annual Report, 1940
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- Constitution and directory, 1942
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- Annual report, 1945
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- Women’s Missionary Society records, 1880, Mar. – 1902, Oct.
Series 2 – Printed Circulars
Item
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- Benefit Entertainment for Relief Fund, February 9, 1888
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- Rally Days, September 20-27, 1905
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- Program, General Association of Congregation Churches of Nebraska, October 21-24, 1907
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- Sunday School Rally Day Program, October 15, 1911
Series 3 – Anniversary Records
Item
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- Fortieth Anniversary Program, 1897
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- “An Evening of Retrospection,” November 19, 1924
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- Seventy-fifth Anniversary Program, 1931
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- Anniversary Pageant Script, 1931
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- Reminiscence of Henry Goff, September 1931 and May 1934
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- Certificate, Seventy-fifth Anniversary Check
Series 4 – Ruth Mulliken Memoir and Printed Matter
Item
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- Biographical sketch, typewritten manuscript
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- Bulletin, Service of Commission as a Missionary, August 28, 1910
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- Bulletin, Memorial Service for Ruth Mulliken, May 7, 1950
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- Memoirs, autograph manuscript
ADDED ENTRIES:
Congregational Church in Nebraska
Dodge County (Neb.) — Churches
First Congregational United Church of Christ (Fremont, Neb.)
Fremont (Neb.) — Churches
Missionaries — China
Mulliken, Ruth, -1950
United Church of Christ in Nebraska
Revised 09-16-2008 TMM