UCDSM Historical Timeline

The archives of the Des Moines Unitarian society say that six men met at Gorham’s Hotel in Burlington, IA (eastern Iowa) on June 1, 1877, and organized the Iowa Unitarian Association. They were: Rev. Oscar Clute and Dr. Freeman Knowles of Keokuk; the Rev. S.S. Hunting of Davenport; the Rev. W.R. Cole of Mount Pleasant; the Rev. John R. Effinger of Keokuk; and the Rev. T.B. Forbus, secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference.

From the report by Benjamin F. Gue, president of the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines on January 17, 1894, to members of the society. Mr. Gue was a charter member, lieutenant governor of Iowa from 1866-1868, and the author of a comprehensive history of the State of Iowa:

“Up to 1877 a Unitarian sermon had never been preached in Des Moines.

“During the first week of June that year the Rev. J.R. Effinger of Keokuk came to this city to confer with the liberal element for the purpose of effecting regular services. The encouragement he met was not very promising but acting upon the theory that those who have once revolted against the cruel and irrational of the so-called evangelical churches could never return to the delusion from which they had emancipated themselves, he determined to attempt the establishment of a Unitarian society.”

Former Lt. Gov. Benjamin Gue and Rev. John Effinger of the Keokuk church convened the first Sunday meeting in Des Moines on August 5 in Temperance Hall in downtown Des Moines. The church was organized that evening with nine charter members: Six men and three women.

The reason for organizing the state association was stated in the text of the constitution, reading in part:

“Whereas, entire freedom is necessary to the growth of religion in the souls of men; and, whereas, cred-bound organizations are an obstacle to human progress and happiness;

“Resolved, that we hereby unite ourselves into a permanent society for the purpose of building up free churches, based on practical righteousness, in the State of Iowa.”

The 1877 population of Des Moines was 16,000.  Services often were led by Rev. Effinger in the beginning.

In 1880, Sylvan S. Hunting, minister of the Davenport church, volunteered to preach two Sundays a month in Des Moines. Soon, he was hired as the first full-time minister with a starting salary of $400 paid by the church plus $400 from the Iowa Unitarian Association He served until 1886.

In 1882, a wooden building was built at 15th and Linden Streets on the edge of downtown. The cost was $9,000. Until then, services had been held at various sites downtown, principally in Temperance Hall and the Des Moines Academy of Music.

The church’s second minister was a woman, Rev. Ida C. Hultin of Algona, whose forceful sermons expressing her then-unorthodox view of the Bible drew new crowds, both in Des Moines and at convocations around the nation. She was a featured speaker at the World Convocation of Religions in Chicago in 1890. She served First Unitarian from 1886 until 1891, when illness caused her to resign. Rev. Hultin was the first of five women ministers to lead the church between 1886 and 1910.

In 1899, two women were hired to serve as the next ministers in Des Moines.  Mary Augusta Safford was to preach two sermons a month and spend the rest of her time tending to Unitarianism in the state of Iowa.  Mary H. Jenney was to devote all of her time to the Des Moines Society.

Mary Augusta Safford. Image courtesy of UUA archives

Mary Augusta Safford’s ministry played a major role in shaping the church’s success in its earlier years.  Safford was dedicated to Unitarianism and to women’s role in the church.  She founded our church’s Unity Circle.  It was during her ministry that Gertrude von Petzold, an English Unitarian minister, served in Mary Augusta Safford’s absence.  Gertrude von Petzold made herself known through her advocacy of Woman Suffrage.

Reverends Safford, Jenney, Gordon, Petzold, and a number of other women ministers in the Midwest became known as the Iowa Sisterhood for their success in organizing congregations in frontier towns, filling a role for the denomination that many male ministers in the comfortable East had little desire to serve. The Sisterhood’s influence is still evident today in many Midwestern congregations’ continued melding of intellectual and theological topics with a dedication to community-building and family interests.

Befriended by the Jewish Temple. When First Unitarian was planning to move to a new meeting-house at 7th and High streets, Temple B’Nai Jeshurun offered the use of their temple (at 9th and Pleasant Streets) during construction for Sunday services and other occasions.

The remainder of the debts for the new building, $5,680, and a new pipe organ were paid for by Mary Augusta Safford, as a memorial to her mother.

Women from First Unitarian helped organize and participated in a march advocating women’s right to vote. The march, held in Boone, was the first suffragette march in Iowa and may have been the first in the nation. The women, from many Iowa towns and from as far away as Chicago, drew a large crowd as they marched down Boone’s main street and ended their march at the Universalist Church. In 2008, 100 years later, the march was reenacted by women dressed in period costumes. Women from our church once again participated.

Rev. Curtis Reese preached from the famous sermon titled A Democratic View of Religion, from our pulpit, in which he introduced the concept of Religious Humanism. He proposed a religion that would be valid whether or not there is a God, and he asserted that humans themselves are responsible for human welfare. The sermon and its aftermath changed the course of Unitarianism.  Rev. Reese is a key developer in the religious Humanist movement in the United States,  and he went on to the executive position of the Western Unitarian Conference in Chicago.

Our minister, Henry Adlard, a respected musician from England, composed the Hymn of Valor, which he presented to our congregation as a gift. Since then it has been our traditional closing hymn for Sunday services.

A delegation from Plymouth Congregational Church proposed that our churches unite, but the proposal died a quiet death despite some interest at both churches.

Kindness reciprocated. When Temple B’Nai Jeshurun constructed its new temple at 51st and Grand, our congregation hosted the Jewish services during the construction period, as they had done for us in 1904.

Rev. Aaron Gilmartin is a co-organizer of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union. He also is an officer of the Iowa NAACP, dedicated to improving housing conditions in the city’s black neighborhoods.

The women of our church won national recognition for their indefatigable work to collect food and 8,000 overcoats (needing 30,000 new buttons sewed on) for the relief efforts through the Unitarian Service Committee.

On a hot July day in 1948, First Unitarian member Edna Griffin, with her 1-year-old daughter and two others, went into the Katz Drugstore in downtown Des Moines and ordered an ice cream soda. They were refused service because the store employees said they were “not equipped to serve colored people.” Griffin led the boycotts and protests that followed, and took the case to court. An all-white jury sided with Griffin, integrating soda foundations and restaurants in Des Moines.

Until 1949 our ministers had found their own housing. But in 1949 a parsonage was purchased at 2600 35th Street. However, in 1966, that parsonage was sold and another was purchased at 4909 SW 50th Street. That parsonage was sold in 1974, and the old system was revived.

The congregation accepted a favorable offer for the High Street church from a downtown developer and used the proceeds to build the present building on land donated by architect Amos Emery, who also designed the building, which was finished the summer of 1957 and the first service held that fall.

The Des Moines Tribune commissioned the department of architecture at Iowa State University to select the 10 best buildings in Des Moines. Our church was one of the 10 selected.

A brick was thrown through the big, glass windows of the auditorium, with a note saying something like, “Back off.” The note was found after members returned from picketing singer Anita Bryant’s anti-gay speech at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.

Far from backing off, our congregation responded by inviting the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) – a congregation of gay Christians – to use our auditorium for their Sunday afternoon services until they could find a permanent meeting place. The MCC had been denied permission to meet in any of the local Christian churches once it was learned that MCC was a gay organization.

First Unitarian achieves the UUA’s “Welcoming Congregation” status.

The church began its first major building renovation since it was built in 1957.

The first legally recognized same-sex wedding ceremony in Iowa is performed by First Unitarian’s 26th minister, Mark Stringer.

First Unitarian of Des Moines is recognized as a Breakthrough Congregation at the UUA General Assembly for growing membership from its stagnant 250 members to 400 members in just eight years.

In 2014, Reverend Erin Gingrich was hired as the Associate Minister of Social Justice. Her hiring reflected both the growth in membership and the congregation’s involvement in social justice in the larger community. She served the congregation until 2019.

The congregation received its first “Green Sanctuary” certification from the UUA.

Mark Stringer leaves the ministry and becomes our longest-serving minister, at 16 years of service.

First Unitarian hosted its first Trans Lives Festival at the end of March. Artists and performers who identify as trans or nonbinary were invited to share their talents with the community, and their talents and contributions to society were celebrated.

Along with much of the rest of the world, in-person activities came to a stop during the COVID pandemic. Services pivoted to being offered online during the worst of the pandemic. After in-person services resumed, a hybrid model was used to continue making services available online as well as in person.

An appointed lay committee successfully planned and implemented a fully funded campaign that raised several hundred thousand dollars for a total rehab of our 1950s vintage kitchen.

Rev. Meredith Garmon began in 2023 as our interim minister. The congregation has been working on updating accessibility for all to participate more fully at church, plans for future building updates through a capital campaign, and reinvigorating the religious education program.

First Unitarian Church of Des Moines will celebrate its sesquicentennial – 150 years of ministry, community, and service in Des Moines.