The Pond brothers, both Congregationalists who became Presbyterians, arrived in Minnesota in 1834 from Connecticut. They made an effort to teach the Dakota how to farm more intensively and urged them to consider conversion to Christianity. Opposed to the reservation system and frustrated with the 1851 treaties, they left their work with the Dakota mission and founded new Presbyterian churches in white communities. In 1862, Gideon was ministering at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church and Samuel was the minister at First Presbyterian Church of Shakopee. Both congregations counted Christian Dakota among their members.
