History of Albion Seventh Day Baptist Church
Interior view: Albion Seventh Day Baptist Church.
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According to early records, the town of Albion received its name at the suggestion of Isaac Brown in honor of his former home in the state of New York. In August 1841, Freeborn Sweet, from Oneida County, New York, became the first settler. In September, Bjorn and Arnund Anderson arrived from Norway and settled in Section 2. In September 1842, Jesse Saunders and Duty J. Green, from Alleghany County, New York, settled in Section 22, on what later was called Saunders Creek, where the village of Albion, Wisconsin, in Dane County, now stands. As pointed out in an early history of Albion Academy, these hardy New York settlers walked the 100 miles from Alfred, New York, to the Erie Canal, took a canal boat to Lake Erie, took a lake boat from there to the marshy village of Chicago, and from there, walked the 135 miles to Albion. In June 1843, Solomon Head, Adin Burdick, James Weed, and Hiram Bentley settled in the same area, increasing the population to 30. On June 22, 1843, the Dane County Seventh Day Baptist Church (the name originally given to the Albion SDB Church) was organized. On August 6, 1843, the church voted to ask for admittance into the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference. Public services were held the first few years in the homes of Jesse Saunders and Duty J. Green. There was no regular pastor until 1845 when Rev. O.P. Hull was ordained to the ministry. During his six-year term, 140 members were added to the church. Because education was held in such high regard, in 1853 the congregation—even before erecting a church—established the first coeducational academy in the state under the patronage and guidance of the Northwestern Association of Seventh Day Baptists. Its doors opened in Albion the next fall. Church services were thereafter held in the Albion Academy chapel until 1861, when additional land facing the academy was purchased and the present church built. The existing church building was formally dedicated on August 16, 1863. By 1865, membership in the Albion Church totaled 288. Two years later, church membership reached its peak of 383. A basement was added to the church in 1907. A parsonage was purchased in 1910. In 1956, a two-story addition was built on the south side of the church to house a pastor’s study, a second set of stairs from the basement to the church auditorium, and two bathrooms. |
