Editing Adams, Green County, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
The earliest settlers were [[Cornish American|Cornish]] lead miners; they were followed by settlers from New England, Ireland, Switzerland and Norway. The town has been the home of a Lutheran and a Catholic parish. Saint Francis Catholic Church was formed and built by Catholic immigrants from Ireland, but later merged with Saint Joseph Catholic Church in [[Argyle, Wisconsin]], and the church was eventually torn down; only the cemetery remains.

Adams Lutheran Church, [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] (ELCA), was formed by Norwegian immigrants from the [[Valdres]] and [[Hadeland]] areas of Norway and was originally served by clergy of the [[Church of Norway]]. It later became a member of the [[Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America]]. Under the increasing influence of the [[Haugean]] [[Pietism|pietist movement]] among [[Norwegian American]] clergy and parishes, it joined a group originally called the Friends of [[Augsburg University|Augsburg]], which subsequently became the [[Lutheran Free Church]]. Later, when it began to call its pastors from clergy of [[The American Lutheran Church]], it became a member of that body. It became a member of the ELCA when the American Lutheran Church merged with two other Lutheran synods.

The original church was built by the first parishioners during the [[American Civil War]] from [[limestone]] quarried from a site below the ridge on which the church stood. Later, the inside walls of the sanctuary were covered with a darkly varnished wooden [[Panelling|wainscoting)]] of a very distinctive [[herringbone pattern]]. After serving the parish for almost a century and a half, the church burned and a new one was built on a site immediately adjacent to the original within a year.<ref>[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=6576&keyword=Adams ''Dictionary of Wisconsin History'']. Wisconsin Historical Society {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204141816/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=6576&keyword=Adams |date=December 4, 2014 }}</ref>