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It initiated a ministry among American Indians in the 1870s by an act of providence. Professor H. Kurtz, overtaken by a snowstorm, succumbed to fatigue on a 12-mile return walk from a Sunday preaching mission. Some Winnebagos, finding him asleep in the snow, took him back to Mission House. Kurtz promoted help for Indians of the area, and in 1876, the Classis declared, "As soon as we have the money to find a missionary, we will send him to the Indians who live nearest us." The Classis sent Jacob Hauser to the Winnebagos in 1878. He was warily received, but interest in their children's education and belief that all people shared one God, the Earthmaker, helped smooth relations between the missionary and the community. Twenty years later a church was started. The Winnebago Indian School at Neillsville, Wisconsin was founded in 1917. It trained Christian ministers, teachers, nurses and leaders for the Winnebago people, among them Mitchell Whiterabbit, a pastor who later became a national leader in the United Church of Christ.