Radersburg was a thriving mining community in the 1860s, and grew by leaps and bounds.  Services were first held at the court house which was Jefferson County at the time.  Rev. E.L. Stanley was the first Pastor here in 1871.  He died in Whitehall where his family decedents still reside.  Rev. L.B. Statler was a Pastor a time.  He came to the Montana Territory as a member of a wagon train of 300, under the management of Jim Bridger.  In 1873, W.W. Van Orsdel became a circuit rider which included Radersburg.  In 1911, a basement was excavated with a roof built that served for the first Church.  Six years later, a first floor was added in 1917. 

No history would be complete without the mention of a circuit rider with a passion for reaching souls in the Montana Territory.  W.W. Van Orsdel, or “Brother Van” as we know him, was born in Pennsylvania and started preaching services at the age of 16.  He stated he “had a nightly vision, not only of Gods power, but for the frontier of the Rockies with the miners, cowboys, stage drivers and copper colored natives holding up their hands beckoning to him.  He had an impelling fire in his bones to teach them and go there.” He came to Ft. Benton in 1872.  His zeal mixed with preaching and lusty gospel singing and commitment to his Church were instrumental in starting many Churches, Hospitals and homes.  Many parishes can still remember him as he traveled throughout the state.  He was a Pastor at the Radersburg Methodist Church in 1873.

[From the book Ghost Towns of Montana (information suppplied by Mrs. William Schniedskamp Guntermann:]

“The Methodist circuit rider, Brother Van (W.W. Van Orsdel), frequently held services in Radersburg.   One local businessman had no love for the popular preacher One hot summer day when Brother Van was preaching, he left his horse tied up for several hours.   The merchant had Brother Van arrested on a charge of cruelty to animals.  Brother Van acted in his own defense and won the ensuing trial.  The presiding judge requested that the preacher suggest an appropriate sentence.  Although the prosecutor isn’t usually ‘sentenced’  when the defendant is acquitted, so went Montana justice.  The penalty was leveled: attend church once a month for the rest of your life.  And so it was, even after Brother Van’s death, the merchant dutifully donned his ‘Sunday-go-to-meeting’ clothes whenever services were held, which was about once a month.”