Our congregation was one of the earliest churches in Racine, founded in 1842 as “The Universalist Society of Racine.” Universalism was the belief that God would save everyone eventually, and Universalists therefore rejected belief in an eternal hell. Ours was the third church founded in the small community of Port Gilbert, at the mouth of the Root River on the shore of Lake Michigan. Gilbert Knapp, the first settler in the region, established Port Gilbert in 1834; the community was later renamed Racine.

By 1846, when the congregation hired its first minister, membership had grown to forty-five men and twenty women. Before they had a building of their own, members met for services in people’s homes, in the schoolhouse, and in the courthouse.

In 1849, the congregation purchased a lot of land on Main Street at Monument Square; their first building was erected there in 1851 and dedicated on October 9, 1852. The purchase was made possible in part by a $500 loan from P.T. Barnum, the famous American showman, who was a loyal Universalist all his life — though also a thrifty one: he charged 10 percent interest on the loan. The church became a hub of the city’s liberal community, attracting many of Racine’s industrial and financial leaders. Early members included J.I. Case and his wife, Gilbert Knapp and his wife, Nicholas D. Fratt and his wife, and Stephen Bull — all of whom, like Rev. Olympia Brown after them, have Racine schools named in their honor.

At the church’s annual meeting on May 25, 1856, the building was referred to for the first time as the “Church of the Good Shepherd,” even as the congregation continued to be known as the “First Universalist Society of Racine.”

In 1878, the Rev. Olympia Brown came to our church and served as its minister until 1887. Ordained in 1863, Olympia Brown is recognized as the first woman minister in the United States whose ordination was recognized by a denomination. Under her ministry, the church became a forum for the discussion of the social issues of the day: she invited Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony to speak from the pulpit, and women in the congregation began voting and holding office in the church.

In 1891, financial difficulties forced the congregation to sell the Main Street building to a hotel company for $9,000. That same year, the congregation purchased land for a new, more centrally located site at the corner of College Avenue and Seventh Street. The new Church of the Good Shepherd, at 625 College Avenue, was completed and dedicated in 1895.

In 1961, the church merged with the Unitarian Society of Kenosha. In 1985, the congregation encouraged the Kenosha members to restart their own church, now known as Bradford Community Church. In 1989, in honor of Rev. Brown’s ministry among us, our congregation here in Racine was renamed Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church.

We continue to carry on the tradition of working for social justice and affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person.