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History of the Eldorado Freewill Baptist Church

The 1880 History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin reports that the Eldorado Freewill Baptist church was established in 1848, one of the earliest of nearly 300 Freewill churches in the state: "The first sermon was preached by Elder E. N. Wright, a Free-Will Baptist, in the fall of 1848, at Cyrus Pasco's house." Other area Freewill churches were located in Rosendale, Ripon, Fond du Lac and Fairwater.

Records of the Wisconsin Freewill Baptist Historical Society indicate that a Freewill congregation was serving Eldorado in 1850 and was active through 1864. Membership ranged from a low of 9 in 1850 to a high of 42 in 1851. The Eldorado church was a member of the Fond du Lac Quarterly Meeting, and pastors over the church's 15 years included Rev. L. W. Lee, Rev. Edward I. Keevill, Cyrus Pasco (lay minister), Rev. A. P. Jackson, Moses S. Barnett (lay minister), Rev. J. Palmer and Rev. L. M. Lee:

YEAR	PASTOR	MEMBERSHIP
1850	L. W. Lee	9
1851	Edward I. Keevill	42
1851	L. W. Lee	42
1852	Edward I. Keevill	38
1852	Cyrus Pasco	38
1853	A. P. Jackson	29
1853	Moses S. Barnett	29
1854	Unk	Unk
1855	Moses S. Barnett	18
1856	Moses S. Barnett	20
1857	Moses S. Barnett	31
1858	Unk	38
1859	J. Palmer	45
1860	J. Palmer	28
1861	Unk	28
1862	L. M. Lee	16
1863	L. M. Lee	16
1864	Unk	16

The records of the church and the church's burial ground are unknown. Also unknown is the location the church used for its immersion baptisms.

 

This site is maintained by the Eldorado Community Historical Organization as an ongoing effort to collect information related to the history of the community and town of Eldorado. If you have information to share, please contact Nancy Westphal by email at njwest@dotnet.com.