Fond du Lac District Continued.--Green Bay.--First Settlement.--Rev. John Clark.--First Sermon.--First Class.--Col. Ryan.--First Methodist.--First Church Enterprise.--Good Society.--Heretical Bonnet.--Various Changes.--Rev. R.P. Lawton--Church Disaster--Purifying the Temple--Rev. S.W. Ford.--Oneida Indian Mission.--Oneidas.--Missionaries.--Quarterly Meeting.--Council.--"Chief Jake."--Interpreter.--Rev. Henry Requa.--His Dying Message. Green Bay, the next point visited, is the oldest town within the bounds of the Wisconsin Conference. Its site was explored by Jean Nicollet in 1639, but its settlement did not begin for more than a century thereafter. In 1785 it contained seven families, and in 1816 there were one hundred and fifty inhabitants located in the village and its vicinity. The population now began to increase more rapidly, and in 1819 there were sixty dwellings and five hundred inhabitants. Green Bay was made a United States trading port in 1815, with Col. John Bowyer as Indian Agent. And on the 16th of July of the following year, Col. John Miller commenced the erection of Fort Howard. The first frame house built, and perhaps the first in the State, was erected in 1825, by Col. E. Childs. Col. Samuel Ryan came to Green Bay in 1826 and was the first Methodist, as far as I have been able to ascertain, who settled within the bounds of the Wisconsin Conference, and was probably the first in the State. From the time of his arrival until 1833, the religious Meetings were held in the Garrison school house and in an old Commissary store. Thereafter, and until a Church was erected, the services were held in a new yellow school house, or in the Garrison building at Fort Howard. At the General Conference, which was held in Philadelphia in 1832, action was taken looking to the extension of the Missionary work of the Church in the Northwest. In furtherance of this object, Rev. John Clark, then of the New York Conference, was sent out as Superintendent of the work. This eminent Minister and able administrator, whose special record I need not enter in these pages, as his Life has been published, arrived at Green Bay July 21st, 1832. Immediately after his arrival he began his labors, preaching the first Methodist sermon within the limits of the present boundaries of the Wisconsin Conference. The sermon was delivered in the Fort, to both soldiers and citizens. The first class was formed by Brother Clark immediately after, the services being held also in the Fort. This class consisted of four members, as follows: Col. Samuel Ryan, Sen., Mrs. Sherman, Mrs. Gen. Brooke, and a young man whose name cannot be given. Mrs. Brooke was the wife of the Commandant of the Fort, and Col. Ryan was the Leader.