In 1858 a mission was formed known as the Little Sioux
mission, extending from Spirit Lake to Cherokee, with Rev.
O. S. Wright as pastor and Rev. George Clifford as presiding
elder. During that year Mr. Wright received forty dollars from the missionary fund and twenty-seven dollars from the
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brethren on the circuit. In 1860 there was not even a school
house on the entire charge and services were necessarily held
in private houses. In 1859-62 Cherokee and Peterson were
left without a supply, but in 1863 were included in the Smithland charge. Rev. Seymour Snyder was the regular minister
at Old O'Brien in 1863-64. His work extended into Minnesota and southward to Peterson. He carried his rifle, Bible
and hymn book as companions and was ready to expound the
gospel from each. In 1869-70 Rev. C. W. Cliffton was the
pastor and lived with his family in a loft. The effort to build
a parsonage at Old O'Brien failed. It was in the record for
the year 1870 that Rev. Mr. Cliffton makes this entry : "I
traveled three thousand miles and preached one hundred sermons,"
and of one of his protracted meetings, or revivals, he
says that there was a "general awakening, but few conversions.”
Schoolhouses were now being built in various places and
it was the practice of Mr. Cliffton and other pioneer preachers
to organize small classes in them, but in the spring of
1871, the settlers in the central part of the county, who had
commenced to rebel at the assumption of the citizens in and
a round the southeastern village of Old O'Brien, decided to
have a house of worship set apart solely for religious services.
Section 33 of Center Township was selected for the
honor. It was right in the midst of the prairie country, and
when the exact site had been selected the homesteaders
turned out in a body with their breaking plows and turned up
a lot of tough, thick sod for building material. Soon, by
united effort, there arose a sod church of good size quite comparable
with the homes of those constructing it, and almost
without cost in money expenditure except for a few windows.
This sod church was built in a manner like the old-fashioned
raising bee in a timbered country substituting sod for logs.
Mr. Cliffton preached in it during 1871, its interior showing
bare rafters and window sashes without glass. The old settlers
used to say that Rev. Mr. Cliffton had nearly as many
holes in his clothes and shoes as there were in the roof and
windows of that first sod church in O'Brien County. In 1872
the county seat was moved from Old O'Brien, tucked away in
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the southeast corner of the county, to the new railroad town
of Primghar, in its geographical center. This brought many
new settlers to that locality. In 1878, under the pastorate of
Rev. W. H. Drake, the first edifice of the Trinity Methodist
Episcopal Church of Primghar was erected. It was destroyed
by a cyclone in 1882, and two other houses of worship have
since been built, the last one in 1900.
OTHER METHODIST CHURCHES.
At Sheldon, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in the pioneer days of the town. it is said that the first
sermon preached in the town by a Methodist minister was by
Rev. Ira Brashears in 1872, and that the meeting house was
the depot of the Chicago, St. Paul & Omaha Railroad. The
first church building was erected in 1881, and the present
house of worship was dedicated in March, 1900.
The Methodist Church at Paullina was organized in 1883,
and there are other societies of this denomination at Archer,
Calumet and Moneta and in Waterman Township.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS AND FRIENDS IN O'BRIEN COUNTY.
The first organized body of Congregationalists was
formed in October, 1871, in Grant Township, at the initiative
of a council of ministers and lay delegates from Congregational churches in the "Sioux Country." It was designated as
the First Congregational Church of O'Brien County. A
building for worship was erected in 1876. Other Congregational churches were organized at Sheldon, Primghar and
Gaza, each in the order named. The First Congregational
Church of Primghar was organized in March, 1888.
The Society of Friends has many yearly meetings scattered over the country, which may be called the parent bodies.
The conservative branch conducts one of these yearly meetings in the State known as the Iowa Yearly Meeting of
Friends, of which the assembly known as the Paullina
Monthly Meeting of Friends is a subordinate branch. This
was organized in 1885 and in the following year a meeting
house was erected in Highland Township. Several schoolhouses have since been erected and conducted by the Friends.
[Read more from "The Pilgrims of Iowa"]
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THE LUTHERANS AND ALLIED SECTARIANS.
The Evangelical churches are quite strong in O'Brien
County. One of the pioneer organizations is the Evangelical
Lutheran St. John's Church, organized in 1883 at the quiet
little hamlet of Germantown, Caledonia Township. It is in
the southwestern part of the county and even set apart from
railroad connection and bustle. A substantial church building, a neat parsonage, a well conducted school, a cemetery - what more could be needed for a quiet life and a peaceful
death?
The St. John's Evangelical Church at Sanborn was formed
in 1886; the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church at
Paullina in 1888; the German Evangelical Lutheran Zion
Church, at the same place, in the following year, as well as a
society of the Evangelical Association at Hartley. Within
the last twenty-five years, two Lutheran churches have also
been formed at the latter place, so that the northern part of
O'Brien County is particularly strong as a home of Lutheranism.
The Reformed Church of North America and the Christian Reformed Church have substantial organizations at both Sanborn and Sheldon.
HOW PRESBYTERIANISM IS REPRESENTED IN O'BRIEN COUNTY,
The First Presbyterian Church at Paullina was organized
in the fall of 1881, and a house of worship completed in 1883.
Societies were also formed at Sanborn in 1881 and at Hartley
in 1889.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE COUNTY.
Catholicism in O'Brien County had its origin in St. Patrick's parish, Sheldon. Rt. Rev. T. M. Lenehan, who was
pastor of old St. Mary's Church, Sioux City, had charge at an
early day over the few scattered families in six or seven
counties in Northern Iowa, and was the first priest who came
to Sheldon and vicinity. He celebrated mass for the first
time in Sheldon parish at the home of Michael Burns, who
then (about 1873) lived in Floyd Township, Rev. Father
Lenehan attended the Catholics of the parish in 1873-76, and
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in 1879 Rev. Patrick Lynch was appointed its first resident
pastor by Rt. Rev. John Hennessy, Bishop of the diocese of
Iowa. In 1880, the Catholics at Sheldon erected their first
house of worship, and for more than thirty years it fulfilled
its mission. In 1912, the edifice was completed which still
stands for the growth and devotion of St. Patrick's parish.
Very Rev. J. J. Smith, pastor of the Catholic Church of
Emmetsburg, was the first priest to say mass in the Sanborn
parish. In 1879, soon after the coming of Father Smith, Rev.
Patrick Lynch was stationed at Sheldon as pastor, with Sanborn, Primghar, Ashton, Sibley, Rock Valley, Rock Rapids,
Hull and Hospers as outside stations. In 1882, the first
Catholic house of worship was built in Sanborn, and in 1893
the first resident pastor was assigned,
The first regular service received by the Catholics of
Primghar was from Rev. Timothy Sullivan; the time, the fall
of 1887; the place, the courthouse. The Catholics of Primghar bought their present church from the Methodists, moved
it to the site owned by them, and afterward improved it without and within.
Sutherland was first attended from Sheldon by Rev. Father Sullivan, in 1885-88, but in the latter year the Catholics
of that place built a little church which, in 1891, was destroyed by a cyclone. Rev. Father Sullivan was also the first
priest to hold services at Paullina, about 1885.
OTHER CHURCHES IN O'BRIEN COUNTY,
Besides the religious organization already mentioned
there are Evangelical churches at Hartley and Sheldon, Reformed churches at Sheldon and Archer and Christian Science churches at Primghar, Archer, Sheldon and Sutherland.
O'Brien County Iowa Genealogy - The IAGenWeb Project
