The Congregational Home Mission Society was the successor of an inter-denominational Protestant church-building organization initiated in 1826 as the American Home Missionary Society.
(The Congregational Churches assumed leadership of the organization in 1893, and the name was changed at that time.)
Immediately after the Revolutionary War, new communities and towns began to grow beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
In the early years of the 19th century, the great westward movement accelerated.
New communities in the west appealed to the eastern churches for support in establishing congregations.
The Home Mission Societies sent printed materials, monetary gifts, and (most importantly) trained ministers.
The first churches in the “Northwest Territories” (now, the Midwest) were established by AHMS pastors.
The first church in Chicago, First Presbyterian of 1833, was founded by the AHMS.
Likewise, the first congregations in Nebraska, the Oregon Territory, and the first non-LDS congregation in Utah.
In many cases, the AHMS church was also the first public school – as was true in Chicago.
Readers of the “Little House” books of Laura Ingalls Wilder May recall the two pastors who were sent by “Churches back East” to support the first congregations on the Dakota Prairie.
(The children of the new Congregational Church in De Smet received Christmas gifts from the Home Mission Society.)
In 1901, Mr. C. W. Greene made a contribution to the Jubilee Fund of the Congregational Home Mission Society.
Mr. Greene lived in Robbins, a small, unincorporated community in northeast Tennessee.
For his contribution, Mr. Greene received a postcard confirmation from the Society.
The postcard acknowledgement was mailed from the Madison Square station in Manhattan.
For the Ingalls family and thousands of other settler families, the charitable work of the Home Mission was deeply appreciated.
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