Lewis Bodwell was a Congregational minister located in Topeka, Kansas Territory. He reported that his activities to organize a Congregational Church in Topeka had resulted in 24 members. Apparently, he was working under the auspices of the Home Missionary Church. He wrote that he only held one service a month in a "public hall," as it was also used by three or four other denominations. He indicated that he had preached "in the open air, in ball-rooms and bar-rooms and kitchens." He implied that there was a great need to form a permanent church to aid the congregation by having its own center of activitiy but also to take the financial burden off the Home Missionary Society. This item is undated and the years 1856 and 1860 are both written on it in pencil.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Lewis Bodwell, circular to the Home Missionary Church