Horace Hobart conducted the first public religious service held in the Beloit community, a prayer meeting in a shanty, with the singing led and first prayer offered by Ira Hersey.

The evidence

• “In a twelve by sixteen shanty, which had just been built by Crane about five rods east of the northeast corner of present State street and St. Paul avenue, on Sunday, August 13, 1837, Horace Hobart conducted the first public religious service held in this community, a prayer meeting, the singing being led and the first prayer offered by Ira Hersey. One week later there was another religious gathering in the same place, at which Mr.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/06-history-of-beloit.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 158 / book p. 142

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources