The First Presbyterian Church / The First Presbyterian Church

Settlers from Hudson, Ohio, came to the Richland area (then known as Gull Prairie) in 1830. A year later a Presbyterian congregation was organized. Established under the 1801 Plan of Union adopted by the Presbyterians and Congregationalists for churches west of New York, the church originally served both denominations. The early “Presbygationalists” worshipped in log homes of the settlers until they built their first house of worship, a wood frame structure completed in 1837, on this site. Dedicated on February 27, 1861, during the pastorate of Milton Bradley, this is the First Presbyterian congregation’s second church. William Doolittle and Stephen Patrick built the Greek Revival frame edifice with its round-headed Italianate doors and windows at a cost of seven thousand dollars. The original bell cracked and was replaced by the present one in 1881. Until 1886 a slender ornate steeple stood thirty feet higher than today’s tower. The interior was altered in 1952, but the original pews remain.