Ramsey County History – Spring/Summer 1977: “The Not-So-Peaceable Kingdom: Religion in Early St Paul”

The Not-So-Peaceable Kingdom: Religion in Early St Paul
Author: Dennis Hoffa

St. Paul began as a mostly Catholic village, to the extent that religion was practiced. “The beginnings of Protestantism as a force within the community centered around the establishment of Harriet Bishop’s Sunday School [in 1847].” Many Yankee settlers arrived in the 1840s, bringing with them some anti-Catholic feeling. As the city grew, newly arrived Yankees, northern Germans, and Swedes added to the Protestants; Irish and south Germans increased the ranks of Catholics. By 1850, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians had all organized churches in the city. Lutherans soon followed, with their churches divided ethnically, Swedish and German. Catholics developed “national” churches too. The Jewish religious society was founded in 1856. “From St. Paul’s earliest days, the presence of organized religion in the community has been strong and its influence has to be taken into consideration in the history of the city.”
PDF of Hoffa article