In 1861, Rev. S.W. Ingham, a travelling missionary, baptized Minnesota Watson, daughter of Thomas and Adeline Watson, and she, along with A.J. Bell and his wife, became the earliest members of the Methodist Episcopal congregation in the Brule Creek community. The Indian War of the Outbreak in August 1862 drove the settlers away, but they returned that fall, and Rev. Ingham reorganized the church with Jason Payne as pastor and about twenty-five members. The church prospered under various pastors until 1885, when W.H.H. Fate, J.L. Jordin, Albert Shurtliff, John R. Kerr, and Frank Wade obtained a church charter from Dakota Territory, and on May 12, 1885, the trustees procured lots and Gordon and Dean Blanchard built the church, which was dedicated as the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Richland on December 20, 1885. The present structure, with later modifications, still houses the congregation. W.H.H. Fate played an important role in the church's continued history and was known as "Father in Israel." By 1967, located one-fourth mile south of S.D. Highway 50, it had over thirty active members and stood as a reminder of the religious faith of the pioneer days, maintaining its role after more than one hundred years as a shrine of early Methodism, early frontier Christianity, and rugged Christians.