Contributor: Cirena and Winton Lenz, Frances Stelter, Florian Laper Source: Personal Collections

Fairwater Free-Will Baptist Church, Old and New, ca. 1900-1924

Pictured above in a photograph from Winton and Cirena Lenz dating the decade between 1910 and 1920 is Fairwater's second Free-Will Baptist Church building, constructed in 1903-04. It was located on Main Street adjacent to the village's cemetery as a replacement for the original 1856 building, pictured below in a turn of the century photograph from Fances Stelter. The new building was demolished in the early 1940's, when the church could no longer sustain a congregation, while the original building reportedly was removed a lot to the west from its original location and went on serve the village as a recreation center, fire house, library, and Lutheran parish hall and was in continuous use until destroyed in 1957 to make way for the new Lutheran Church building

(Photo, date uncertain, courtesy Frances Stelter)

The original Free-Will church, pictured in the background above, was erected in 1856, as described in the History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Western Historical Company, Chicago: 1880:

For several years all religious services were held in the settlers cabins or in the schoolhouses, but, in the summer of 1856, the Free-Will Baptists of Fairwater erected the first church edifice in Metomen.... Their church edifice was dedicated on the 10th of July, 1856, by Rev. Ransom Dunn. The cost was $1,600.

The original property was at the NW corner of Church and Main streets, as recorded on the property deed of 1855:

Augustus C. Bisbee of California, 1^st Party
to
Rufus M. Harwood, Chas. D. Ramsey and John M. Milligan, Trustees of the 1^st Freewill Baptist Church of Fairwater, 2^nd Party

Consideration $15. Description: E ½ of the SE ¼ of Section 30, Town 15, N of Range 14 East bounded as follows: Commencing with the West side of the Highway on the East line of said East half at a point 20 rods North of the North side of the highway running East and West through said East ½, thence West parallel with said highway 7 rods, thence South parallel with with East section line 4 rods, thence East parallel with South line 7 rods, thence South along the West side of the highway 4 rods to place of beginning. The said land to be used for purpose of building a meeting house on the same for the use of the mentioned church and to revert to the party of the 1^st Part when no longer used for that purpose. (County of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Land Records Book 6, pg. 458)

The photograph below, taken in 1924 and provided by Florian Laper, shows the new Baptist Church parsonage on the left and, on the right, the carriage shed located behind the new church. The shed was used originally as a shelter for the carriages and horses of the church-goers. In later years it continued to provide shelter for automobiles. Prominent in the foreground is Pat Laper, daughter of Jesse and Nellie Laper.