In 1837 there were only a very few settlers, scatterd and hardy, Green Bay Road was an ungraded wagon track with a few bridges over rivers. Kenosha Road hadn't even been surveyed yet, and wolves were still a problem. The Rev. Salmon Stebbins, a newly arrived missionary sent out from New York to the Illinois frontier, was assigned to be pastor to the scattered settlers between Chicago and Green Bay. On his first passing into the territory, he stopped at the home of Jeremiah Porter on Green Bay Road. As was his custom, he invited the settlers to a worship service and organized them into a society that could continue to meet and nourish one another as he traveled his "circuit" up into Wisconsin. Stebbins also bought land and built a cabin near the present corner of Green Bay Road and 21st Street, Zion. His cabin was a busy place. It served as the church when the weather outside was poor. And once he had brought his family from the east, his daughter taught school there. By 1843, the group had outgrown that space, with 100 members, so they voted to divide into three groups, which became three present United Methodist churches: North Prairie, Memorial Church, and York House.
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