Methodist
Church
– later known
as First Methodist Church
1853 Samuel
Dodge was a visiting circuit preacher.
1859 officially
organized and meetings were held in the Red Brick Schoolhouse.
The site on
Water Street was purchased from Luke Stoughton in 1867.
1867 church
erected and cornerstone was laid June 30th. Initially the Water Street church contained about forty
pews. In the 1882 Stoughton City Directory, their original 1867 building was described as a plain unpretentious building of wood, painted white and crowned by a steeple about thirty feet in height. The interior of the church as very neat and tasty, the walls being of a neutral tint and bordered by a fringe of paper which looks like fresco.
In 1904, the
old church was sold and the present site at the SW corner of Main and Prairie
Streets was purchased.
Dedication services were conducted in the new church on Easter Sunday, April 9th,
1905.