language, Dr. Williamson was
completing his theological course on the banks of the beautiful river.
He was ordained to the office of the gospel ministry in 1834. And in
May, 1835, he landed at Fort Snelling with another band of
missionaries. He was accompanied by his quiet, lovely, faithful wife,
Margaret, and one child, his wife's sister, Sarah Poage, afterwards
Mrs. Gideon H. Pond, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander G. Huggins and two
children. Mr. Huggins came as a teacher and farmer. During a stay of a
few weeks here, Dr. Williamson presided at the organization of the
first Protestant congregation in Minnesota, which was called the
Presbyterian church of St. Peters. It consisted of officers, soldiers,
fur-traders, and members of the mission families--twenty-one in all;
seven of whom were received on confession of faith. It was organized at
Fort Snelling, June 11, 1835, and still exists as the First
Presbyterian church of Minneapolis, with more than five hundred members.

[Illustration: The Old Fort Snelling Church Developed.]

[Illustration: AT LAKE MINNETONKA.]

Early in July, Dr. Williamson pushed on in the face of grave
difficulties, two hundred miles to the west, to the shores of
Lac-qui-Parle, the Lake-that-speaks. Here they were cordially welcomed
by Joseph Renville, that famous Brois Brule trader, the half-breed
chief who ruled that region for many years, by force of his superior
education and native abilities, and who ever was a strong and faithful
friend of the missionaries. He gave them a temporary home and was
helpful in many ways. Well did the Lord repay him for his kindness to
His servants. His wife became the first full-blood Sioux convert to the
Christian faith, and his youngest son, John Baptiste Renville, then a
little lad, became the first native Presbyterian minister, one of the
acknowledged leaders of his people.

June, 1837, another pair of noble ones joined the ranks of the workers
by the Lakeside. These were the Rev. Stephen Return Riggs and his sweet
New England Mary, he was a native of the beautiful valley of the Ohio;
she was born amid the green hills of Massachusetts. His father was a
Presbyterian elder of Steubenville, Ohio; her mother was a daughter of
New England. She herself was a pupil of the cultured and sainted Mary
Lyon of Mount Holyoke.

They were indeed choice spirits, well-fitted by nature and by training
for a place in that heroic band, which God was then gathering together
on the sh