The Territory of Kansas was opened to settlement by the Kansas–Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854. Reverend Samuel Y. Lum of Middletown, New York was sent by the American Home Missionary Society to create a church in the Kansas Territory. This would become the first church in the entire territory. Before he came, sermons were given by laymen. The first service of Plymouth Congregational Church was held by Lum on October 1, 1854 in a mudbrick boarding house. Settlers who had come from New England came to the service.