The Church in Wisconsin has a history of struggles, splinters and solidarity.

Today, more than 150 years after the first branch was started, about 14,000 members worship in 45 congregations spread throughout the state. Most are concentrated in the more heavily populated Milwaukee area of southeastern Wisconsin and in the Madison area 90 miles to the west. Many of them were attracted by educational opportunities at the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University.Wisconsin also has 122 missionaries, a far cry from the early days.

Struggles faced the first members as they started a branch in the remote territory where Burlington is now established.

The branch's plea for missionaries in the late 1830s went out over some rather famous names - Moses and Aaron - but it went unanswered. As the pair, Moses and Aaron Smith, were to learn later, the Church was caught up in the troubles of Missouri and was unable to comply.

The Smith brothers persisted in a quest for help for the small group, which consisted mostly of their families. The brothers traveled the 450 miles from their frontier, east to Church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, in late 1837 or early 1838.

When they arrived in Kirtland, they found a church on the move. The Church was preparing for the exodus from Ohio to Missouri, according to David L. Clark in Wisconsin Mormons: 1835-1848, the first of his projected three-part history of the Church in Wisconsin.

However, said Clark, the Smith brothers did meet with Joseph Smith Sr., the presiding authority in Kirtland at the time. The Church Patriarch gave both Moses and Aaron authority to preside over all missionary work in what was then the Wisconsin area of the Michigan territory.

They became Wisconsin's first presiding elders.

The state has been the scene of strong early congregations as well as the birthplace for several splinter groups. The leader of one of those - James Strang, whose house still stands two miles outside of Burlington - eventually proclaimed himself a king after failing to secure the title he wanted most, that of prophet.

A couple of prominent figures in early Church history had connections to Wisconsin.

Oliver Cowdery, after he left the main body of the Church, practiced law in southern Wisconsin and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the first Wisconsin Legislature. He later returned to the Church and was rebaptized in 1848 in Kanesville, Iowa.

Albert Carrington was converted and baptized in La Fayette County, moved to Nauvoo and then followed Brigham Young to Utah, later becoming a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, one of President Young's counselors and editor of the Deseret News.

Wisconsin timber was used in the construction of Nauvoo. Pine for the Nauvoo House and Temple - as well as for many private homes, enough lumber to build 200 three-bedroom homes today - was floated down the Mississippi River from Black River Falls, Wis., where Church members operated a sawmill.

Why some of the early Wisconsin members later drifted away from the main body of the Church was explained by Clark:

"All of the 1830s [WisconsinT Mormons were individualists who had made the decision to live in Wisconsin rather than join the main body of the Church in Missouri, Ohio or Illinois.

"It may have been this same individualistic characteristic that generated a brief period of growth for the Church. Probably it was this same characteristic that eventually led to the splintering of the Wisconsin Mormon group by 1845."

When missionaries eventually did filter back into Wisconsin after the Church moved West, what few converts they gained generally went to Utah. Since then, growth has been slow but steady.

In recognition of that growth, which has resulted in solidarity for the Church, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson proclaimed 1992 as the Year of Celebration of the Wisconsin Mormon Sesquicentennial, and the Church named Paul Norton, executive director of Wisconsin Public Broadcasting Foundation, as sesquicentennial committee chairman.

This 150-year history was recognized the afternoon of July 25, when Church officials gathered 40 miles southwest of Milwaukee in Burlington, the community founded by Moses Smith, to dedicate a historical marker across the White River from the site of his first cabin and near a replica of that cabin.

In the dedicatory prayer, Elder H. Burke Peterson of the Seventy, who is North America Central Area president, prayed for unity between members and non-members, asking for a "spirit of charity and love and compassion" and a willingness for "more listening and less instructing."

He asked that all those who see the historical marker be "lifted and inspired by the heritage we all share."

Later that evening in Milwaukee, the Tabernacle Choir presented an outdoor concert with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

The concert came during Germanfest, one of Milwaukee's many summer ethnic celebrations. Germanfest organizers had asked the Milwaukee Wisconsin Stake to assemble a family history display for the event. The stake responded with a bank of computers.

"We were swamped," said Ralph Weidler, the high councilor in charge of family history.

One indication of the vitality of today's Church in Wisconsin is the ability and willingness to step outside more traditional approaches to help non-member neighbors.

For the last three years, under the direction of stake president R. Don Oscarson, the Milwaukee Stake youth conferences have been devoted to service.

The first endeavor was getting the youth involved in the Habitat for Humanity home building program in the central part of the poorest area of Milwaukee. Then last year, the youth converged on the little town of Mayville - where no Church members live - to restore cemeteries and historic buildings.

And this year, armed with paint and hammers, the teenagers worked side by side on repair projects with residents of St. Coletta's a boarding school in nearby Jefferson for mentally retarded young people.

Milwaukee Stake's Parkway Ward has donated time and infant care to La Causa Day Care Center. Before that, the ward assisted in a free-meal program at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in downtown Milwaukee.

The youth involvement has been "a very conscious move in the direction of service projects that had with them also a fun element," Pres. Oscarson said.

He said the projects were designed to give the youth "the experience of intense service to those they are not normally associated with. We've been very pleased with the response of the youth."

The celebration has been widespread: Youth conferences. A gubernatorial proclamation. An entire Church choir coming to Wisconsin. Top Church officials in Moses Smith's backyard. A monument commemorating his little log-and-dirt house. Over 100 missionaries. Computerized genealogical records.

One hundred and fifty years later, Moses Smith's plea has been amply answered.