A History of The Baptists Vol 2 JT Christian
A History of The Baptists Vol 2 JT Christian
A History of The Baptists Vol 2 JT Christian
Volume 2
BAPTISTS
OF
BY
It is due Dr. Christian that our readers be informed that the correcting of the
manuscript and the editing and proof-reading of the text of this volume have
been done without the assistance of the author. The manuscript had been
accepted for publication and was being held at his request for the author’s
perusal when death ended his earthly labors. In spite of every effort to
guarantee accuracy, we are conscious that Dr. Christian’s familiarity with his
sources, unavailable to us, would have detected inaccuracies which may have
escaped our notice. We ask, therefore, that Dr. Christian be absolved from any
responsibility for any errors that may appear and that the reading public place,
with charitable indulgence, all blame for such errors upon this office.
JOHN L. HILL
PREFACE
IN THE three periods of American history under survey in this treatise, there
were no worldly inducements for a person to unite with the Baptists. Slanders
of the most horrible character were circulated against them. It was alleged that
they held the tenets of the Mad Men of Munster; and that their doctrines of
liberty of conscience were abominable and would work the ruin of Christianity.
They were driven by persecution from province to province; they were
imprisoned, whipped and ostracized. All through the Colonial, Period they were
regarded as anarchists, and indignities were heaped upon them. They were
denied the common rights of citizenship. For years after the American
Revolution, on account of unjust state laws, they were compelled to pay taxes
and suffer imprisonments on account of their opposition to the union of Church
and State. The wonder is not that in numbers the Baptists increased slowly, but
that they survived the shock of this terrible opposition. Men of wealth and
position sought diligently to make them a stench in the nostrils of decent
people.
They increased, in spite of persecutions, and in time became influential. The
story of their accomplishments, under the conditions, is really marvelous. Roger
Williams and John Clarke preached human liberty, which was regarded as
fanaticism; but it became the great American principle of inalienable rights of
man. Cotton Mather and his contemporaries burned witches; but William
Milburne, a Baptist minister, opposed the measure by circulating petitions
against the delusion, and Robert Calif, a member of the First Baptist Church in
Boston, wrote the book which destroyed it. Obadiah Holmes was unmercifully
whipped because he was a Baptist, but this led Henry Dunster, President of
Harvard, to embrace Baptist principles. This was one of the most notable events
in all Colonial history.
By the time of the American Revolution the Baptists had grown sufficiently in
numbers and influence to command recognition. There were no Tories among
the Baptists. Their men entered the American army and none were more
patriotic. They gave of their money to the cause of the Colonists. Their
ministers preached the gospel to the soldiers. They supported the adoption of
the Constitution of the United States; and proposed the First Amendment to
that Constitution in support of the liberty and rights of man.
The War of the Revolution practically broke up all of the existing Baptist
centers. The Baptist church in New York City was reduced from a membership
of some two hundred and fifty to less than fifty members. The same conditions
prevailed in other churches. It had, however, the wholesome influence of
scattering Baptist principles throughout all the States and Territories. Great
numbers of Baptist ministers emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky, planted the
cause in that section, and in turn became the pioneers in frontier Indiana,
Illinois, Ohio and Missouri. The Baptists of North and South Carolina traveled
west and planted churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee.
Many of the Baptist preachers of those days were unlearned men; but they were
schooled in the hardy life of pioneers. They were unpaid for their services, often
crude, but they preached a mighty gospel that met with a hearty response. Often
missionaries were sent forth, who remained from home for months at a time.
John Gano preached an the way from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
Nearly seventy years passed from the founding of the first Baptist church in this
country to the organization of the Philadelphia Association, the first in the
United States. It was one hundred and seventy-five years before they organised
the first General Convention. This Triennial Convention, as it was generally
called, was brought into existence by the conversion of Adoniram Judson to
Baptist principles. This event was followed by the founding of missionary
societies, colleges, newspapers, and indeed practically all of the general Baptist
enterprises.
Unfortunately, no sooner was this movement inaugurated than opposition arose
from two extremes. There had been much preaching on election and
predestination. There had developed in some quarters a system of hyper-
Calvinism which paralyzed all effort. This led to the anti-mission, or anti-effort
secession. On the other hand there were many loose views of doctrine and
practice prevalent. This led to the secession of Alexander Campbell and his
followers. Not only was the denomination rent asunder by these factions; but
there remained behind a spirit of controversy which did not always add to the
spiritual life of the churches.
There were other factors at work which were equally serious. About the year
1835 began those political debates and animosities which were to occasion the
Civil War. These factional differences were manifested in religious affairs. They
ultimately led to the division of the Baptists of the North from those of the
South.
It may, therefore, conservatively be said that up to the Civil War, and for some
years following, the Baptists of the United States had no favorable opportunity
of expansion. The periods under observation, in this volume, are rather a history
of persecutions, hardships and trials. It is to the honor of the fathers that they
heroically met these conditions and laid the foundation of future success.
The references contained in the body of this book will sufficiently attest the
sources and authorities used. Every effort has been used for accuracy. It would
be too much, however, in a survey covering as much as does this volume, to
claim that no inaccuracies have crept in.
The origin of the Baptists in some States is not traced because they were just
beginning, or their affairs were not sufficiently advanced to admit of definite
treatment. The development of the history in such States necessarily falls under
a later period.
THE AUTHOR
THE CONTENTS.
STATISTICS
It is interesting to give the statistics of the denomination in the period under
consideration. The following is a list of the first fifty-eight Baptist churches in
this country, together with the dates of their organization according to
Benedict:
Providence, R. I — 1639
1st Newport, R. I — 1644
2d Newport, R. I — 1656
1st Swansea, Mass — 1663
1st Boston, Mass — 1665
North Kingston, R.I. — 1665
7th Day, Newport, R.I. — 1671
South Kingston, R.I. — 1680
Tiverton, R.I. — 1685
Smithfield, R.I. — 1706
Hopkinton, R.I. — 1708
Great Valley, Pa. — 1711
Cape May, N.J. — 1712
Hopewell, N.J. — 1715
Brandywine, Pa. — 1715
Montgomery, Pa. — 1719
New York City, N. Y. — 1724
Scituate, R.I. — 1725
Warwick, R.I. — 1725
Richmond, R.I. — 1725
French Creek, Pa. — 1726
New London, Conn. — 1726
Indian Town, Mass. — 1730
Cumberland, R.I. — 1732
Rehoboth, Mass. — 1732
Shiloh, N.J. — 1734
South Brimfield, Mass. — 1736
Welsh Neck, S.C, — 1738
Leicester, Mass. — 1738
Middletown, N.J. — 1688
Lower Dublin, Pa. — 1689
Piscataway, N.J. — 1689
Charleston, S.C, — 1690
Cohansey, N.J. — 1691
2d Swansea, Mass. — 1693
1st Philadelphia, Pa. — 1698
Welsh Tract, Del. — 1701
Groton, Conn. — 1705
7th Day, Piscataway, N.J. — 1707
Southinton, Conn. — 1738
West Springfield, Conn. — 1740
King Wood, N.J. — 1742
2d Boston, Mass. — 1743
North Stonington, Conn. — 1743
Colchester, Conn. — 1743
East Greenwich, R.I. — 1743
Euhaw, S.C, — 1745
Heights Town, N.J. — 1745
South Hampton, Pa. — 1746
Scotch Plains, N.J. — 1747
King Street, Conn. — 1747
Oyster Bay, N. Y. — 1748
Sturbridge, Mass. — 1749
Bellingham, Mass. — 1750
Killingby, Conn. — 1750
Westerly, R.I. — 1750
Exeter, R.I. — 1750
Thompson, Conn. — 1750
(Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, 364,
365. New York, 1848.)
“These are all the churches,” continues Benedict, “which acquired any durability
that arose in these United States in a little more than a century after the Baptists
began their operations.”
According to Morgan Edwards, in 1786, there were in the United States and
Nova Scotia 137 churches. These were distributed throughout the country as
follows:
Nova Scotia 2 New Jersey 15
New Hampshire 1 Pennsylvania 10
Massachusetts 30 Maryland 1
Connecticut 12 Virginia 10
Rhode Island 36 North Carolina 8
New York 4 South Carolina 8
Total 137
John Asplund, in his first Register, in 1790, makes the following exhibit
MINISTERS
States Churches Ord. Lic. Members
1 New Hampshire 32 23 17 1,732
2 Massachusetts 107 95 31 7,116
3 Rhode Island 38 37 36 3,502
4 Connecticut 55 44 21 3,214
5 Vermont 34 28 15 1,610
6 New York 57 53 30 3,987
7 New Jersey 26 20 9 2,279
8 Pennsylvania 28 26 26 1,231
9 Delaware 7 9 1 409
10 Maryland 12 8 3 776
11 Virginia 207 157 109 20,157
12 Kentucky 42 40 21 3,105
13 Western Territory 1 … … 30
14 North Carolina 94 86 76 7,742
15 Deceded Territory 18 15 6 889
16 South Carolina 68 48 28 4,012
17 Georgia 42 33 39 3,184
18 Nova Scotia 4 … … …
Total 872 722 449 64,975
The First Church in the State — Swansea — The Origin of the Church —
John Myles — Persecutions of the Church — A Grant of Land — The
Conditions of the Grant — The Church in Boston — Richard Mather — John
Clarke, Obadiah Holmes and Crandall — They are Arrested — The Whipping
of Holmes — Letter to Kiffin — The Conversion of Henry Dunster —
Character of Dunster — History of the Case — Removed as President of
Harvard — Thomas Gould — The Church Formed — The Action of the
Congregational Church — Persecutions — The Action of the Court — The
Place of Meeting — The General Spirit of the Puritans — House of Worship
— Some Changes in Sentiment — Their Punishment — The Witches Burned
— The Opinion of the Baptists — William Melbourne — Robert Calef — The
Power of the Theocracy Broken — The Later Laws.
FOR more than forty years after the landing of the Pilgrims there was no
Baptist church in Massachusetts. The first Baptist church constituted in that
State was at Swansea, on the south side, near the Rhode Island line.
The beginning of this movement, and of many other Baptist churches in this
country was in Wales. “But as God had preserved his scattered and hidden
people in Piedmont and Holland,” says Tustin, “and as thousands were found in
every age, who formed an uninterrupted succession of witnesses to the Truth,
so now in Wales, multitudes of these sequestered people, unbroken in spirit,
formed a regular chain of true and faithful witnesses to that gospel which they
had received from their Christian ancestors of former centuries, and which they
have preserved amid their quiet and fertile valleys, shut up by lofty mountains
from the rest of the world, as if God had designed these mountain fastnesses as
the barriers of protection for his chosen and faithful people, against the
corruptions and assaults of the papal hierarchy. And it seems to have been a
part of the wise arrangement of Providence for their preservation, that they
should be kept in obscurity, and that obscurity makes it now very difficult to
trace their history. What is chiefly found concerning these Welsh Christians in
the Ecclesiastical and Secular Histories of their later contemporaries, are but
scattered fragments, which their enemies in the Church and State of England,
would have gladly thrown into obscurity and contempt” (Tuskin, A Discourse
delivered at the Dedication of the New Church Edifice of the Baptist Church
and Society in Warren, R.I., May 8, 1845, 57, 58. Providence, 1845).
Tuskin further says: “It is a fact generally known, that many of the Baptist
churches in this country derived their origin from the Baptist churches in Wales,
a country which has always been a nursery for their peculiar principles. In the
earlier settlements of this country, multitudes of Welsh emigrants, who left their
fatherland, brought with them the seeds of Baptist principles, and their ministers
and members laid the foundation of many Baptist churches in New England,
and especially in the Middle States” (Tuskin, 31, 32).
This was certainly true of the first Baptist church in Massachusetts. The
beginning of this movement was in Wales at Ilston, Glamorganshire, where a
Baptist church was organized, October 1, 1649. The beginning is described in
their records as follows:
We cannot but admire at the unsearchable wisdom, power and love of God, in
bringing about his own designs, far above, and beyond the capacity and
understanding of the wisest of men. Thus, to the glory of his great name, hath
he dealt with us; for when there had been no company or society of people,
holding forth and professing the doctrine, worship, order and discipline of the
gospel, according to the primitive institution, that ever we heard of in Wales,
since the apostacy, it pleased the Lord to choose this dark corner to place his
name in, and honor us, undeserving creatures, with the happiness of being the
first in all these parts, among whom was practiced the glorious ordinance of
baptism, and here to gather the first church of baptized believers (Backus, I.).
The pastor of this church was John Myles. He was born at Newton, in
Herefordshire, about 1621, and was a student in Oxford in 1636. The next
spring John Myles and Thomas Proud visited the Baptist church at the Glass-
house, Broad street, under the care of William Cossett and Edward Draper.
They were joyously received by the brethren in London, and probably received
material assistance. By the year 1660 the church in Wales had prospered greatly
and had two hundred and sixtythree members.
Myles became one of the testers under Cromwell, but upon the restoration of
the monarchy under Charles II, Myles was ejected along with two thousand
ministers (Calamy, Abridgment, I., II.). Upon which he and some of his friends
came to this country, and brought their church records with them. At Rehoboth,
in 1663, John Myles, elder, James Brown, Nicholas Tanner, Joseph Carpenter,
John Butterworth, Eldad Kingsley and Benjamin Allby, joined in a solemn
covenant together.
The church was then located in Plymouth colony. Newman, the minister who
persecuted Holmes, died that year and for four years the church had peace. At
that time the following record of the Court explains itself:
At the Court holden at Plymouth the 2d of July, 1667, before Thomas Prince,
Governor, John Alden, Josiah Winslow, Thomas Southworth, William
Bradford, Thomas Hinckley, Nathaniel Bacon, and John Freeman, assistants.
… Mr. Miles, and Mr. Brown, for their breach in order, in setting up a public
meeting without the knowledge and approbation of the Court to the disturbance
of the peace of the place, are fined each of them five pounds, and Mr: Tanner
the sum of one pound, and we judge that their continuance at Rehoboth, being
very prejudicial to the peace of that church and that town, may not be allowed;
and do therefore order all persons concerned therein, wholly to desist from the
said meeting in that place or township, within this mouth. Yet in case they shall
remove their meeting unto some other place, where they may not prejudice any
other church, and shall give us any reasonable satisfaction respecting their
principles, we know not but they may be permitted by this government to do so.
Accordingly on October 30 following, a grant of land was given them at
Swansea where they made their settlement. The following proposals were made
in the grant:
1. That no erroneous persons be admitted into the township either as an
inhabitant or sojourner.
2. That no man of an evil behaviour or contentious person be admitted.
3. That none be admitted that may become a charge to the place.
This grant was accepted and became the location of the church with the
following explanations:
That the first proposal relating to the non-admission of erroneous persons be
only understood under the following explanations, viz.: of etch as hold
damnable heresies, inconsistent with the faith of the gospel; as, to deny the
Trinity, or any person therein; the deity or sinless humanity of Christ, or the
union of both natures in him, or his full satisfaction to the divine justice of all
his elect, by his active and passive obedience, or his resurrection, ascension
into heaven, intercession, or his second coming personally to judgment; or else
to deny the truth or divine authority of the Scriptures, or the resurrection of the
dead, or to maintain any merit of works, consubstantiation, transubstantiation,
giving divine adoration to any creature, or any other anti-christian doctrine
directly opposing the priestly prophetical or kingly offices of Christ, or any
part thereof; (2) or such as hold such opinions as are inconsistent with the well
being of the place, as to deny the magistrate’s power to punish evil-doers as
well as to encourage those that do well, or to deny the first day of the week to
be observed by divine institution as the Lord’s day or Christian Sabbath, or to
deny the giving of honor to whom honor is due, or to oppose those civil
respects that are usually performed according to the laudable customs of our
nation each to other, as bowing the knee or body, &c., or else to deny the
office, use or authority of the ministry or a comfortable maintenance to be due
them from such as partake of their teachings, or to speak reproachfully of any
of the churches of Christ in the country, or of any such other churches as are of
the common faith with us or them.
We desire that it be also understood and declared that this is not understood of
any holding any opinion different from others in any disputable point, yet in
controversy among the godly learned, the belief thereof not being essentially
necessary to salvation; such as paedobaptism, anti-paedobaptism, church
discipline or the like; but that the minister or ministers of the said town may
take their liberty to baptize infants or grown persons as the Lord may persuade
their consciences, and so also the inhabitants take their liberty to bring their
children to baptism or to forbear (Backus, I. 285, 286).
Often in the days of persecution he preached to the church in Boston. At length
he grew “very aged and feeble” but he continued the pastoral oversight of the
Swansea church till his death, which occurred February 3, 1683.
The First Church, Boston, Massachusetts, was organized under peculiar
conditions (A Short History of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, Boston,
1852; History of the Covenant and Catalogue First Baptist Church Charleston,
Boston, 1823). The activity of the Baptists in disseminating their belief that
none but adults should hold membership in the church, rendered the supporters
of the opposite opinion more aggressive in maintaining their own practice.
Richard Mather addressed a friend as follows:
My thoughts have been this long time, that our churches in general do fall short
in their practice of that, which the Rule requires in this particular, which I think
ought to be thus, viz.: that the children of church members, submitting
themselves to the discipline of Christ in the church, by an act of their own,
when they are grown to men’s and women’s estate, ought to be watched over as
other members, and have their infants baptized, but themselves not to be
received to the Lord’s Table, nor to voting in the church, till by the
manifestation of faith and repentance, they shall approve themselves to be fit
for the same. But we have not yet thus practiced, but are now considering of
the matter, and of sending to other churches for advice. Help us, I pray you,
with your prayers, that we may have grace to discern, and to do the Lord’s
mind and will herein (Mather, First Principles of New England).
Under these existing conditions John Clarke and two of his disciples had gone
to Lynn to hold a service with an aged Christian, William Witter, who has
already been mentioned in these pages. While he was expounding the Scriptures
in the house to a little company that had gathered, two constables came in and
arrested the three. They were watched “over that night as Theeves and
Robbers” by the officers, and shortly afterwards were lodged in jail. When they
were brought to trial Governor Endicott charged them with being Anabaptists,
to which Clarke made reply that he was “neither an Anabaptist, nor a
Pedobaptist, nor a Catabaptist.” “In the forenoon we were examined,” says he,
“in the afternoon, without producing either accuser, witness, or jury, law of
God or man, we were sentenced.” Clarke was fined twenty pounds, or to be
well whipped. Crandall was fined “five pounds or to be well whipped.” Holmes
was “fined thirty pounds or to be well whipped.” This trial excited much
attention (Felt, II.).
Clarke gives the following account of his arrest and detention:
While I was yet speaking, there come into the house where we were two
constables, who, with their clamorous tongues, made an interruption in my
discourse, and more uncivily disturbed us than the persuivants of the old
English bishops were wont to do, telling us that they were come with authority
from the magistrates to apprehend us. I then desired to see the authority by
which they thus proceeded, whereupon they plucked forth their warrant, and
one of them with a trembling hand (as conscious he might have been better
employed) read it to us; the substance whereof was as follows:
By virtue hereof, you are required to go to the house of William Witter, and so
to search from house to house, for certain erroneous persons, being strangers,
and then to apprehend, and in safe custody to keep, and tomorrow morning by
eight o’clock to bring before me — Robert Bridges.
When he read the warrant, I told them, Friends, there shall not be, I trust, the
least appearance of resisting of that authority by which you come unto us; yet I
tell you, that by virtue hereof you are not so strictly tied, but if you please you
may suffer us to make an end of what we have begun, so may you be witnesses
either to or against the faith and order which we hold. To which they answered
they could not; then said we, Notwithstanding the warrant, or anything therein
contained, you may. … They apprehended us, and carried us away to the ale-
house or ordinary, where (after) dinner, etc.
Clarke and Crandall were not long afterwards released “upon the payment of
their fines by some tender hearted friends without their consent and contrary to
their judgment.” But Obadiah Holmes could not be persuaded to accept such
deliverance. He would neither pay the fine nor allow it to be paid, and was kept
in prison till September. Then he was whipped unmercifully with a corded whip.
When he was released he said to the magistrate: “You have struck me as with
roses.” In a long letter to William Kiffin, in London, he gives an account of his
imprisonment and sufferings.
Of his imprisonment he said:
Not long after these troubles I came upon occasion of business into the colony
of Massachusetts, with two other brethren, as brother Clarke being one of the
two can inform you, where we three were apprehended, carried to (the prison
at) Boston, and so to the Court, and were all sentenced. What they laid to my
charge, you may here read in my sentence, upon the pronouncing of which I
went from the bar, I expressed myself in these words: I bless God, I am
accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Whereupon John Wilson
(their pastor, as they call him) struck me before the judgment seat, and cursed
me, saying, The curse of God or of Jesus go with you. So we were carried to
the prison, where not long after I was deprived of my two loving friends, at
whose departure the adversary stepped in, took hold of my spirit, and troubled
me for the space of an hour, and then the Lord came in, and sweetly relieved
me, causing to look to himself; so was I stayed, and refreshed in the thought of
my God.
The story of his whipping is pathetic:
And as the man began to lay the strokes upon my back, I said to the people,
Though my flesh should fail, and my spirit should fail, yet my God would not
fail. So it pleased the Lord to come in, and so to fill my heart and tongue as a
vessel full, and with an audible voice I broke forth praying unto the Lord not to
lay this sin to their charge; and telling the people, that now I found that he did
not fail me, and therefore now I should trust him forever who faileth me not;
for in truth, as the strokes fell upon me, I had such a spiritual manifestation of
God’s presence as the like thereof I never had nor felt, nor can with fleshy
tongue express; and the outward pain was so removed from me, that indeed I
am not able to declare it to you, it was so easy to me, that I could well bear it,
yea and in a manner felt it not although it was grievous as the spectators said,
the man striking with all his strength (yea spitting in his hand three times as
many affirmed) with a three-corded whip, giving me therewith thirty strokes.
When he loosed me from the post, having joyfulness in my heart, and
cheerfulness in my countenance, as the spectators observed, I told the
magistrates, You have struck me with roses; and said moreover, Although the
Lord hath made it easy to me, yet I pray God it may not be laid to your charge.
On account of this terrific whipping Holmes was not able to lie in bed on his
back. This experience immediately bore fruit in the conversion of President
Dunster of Harvard College to Baptist views. He had witnessed the heroic
conduct of Holmes in his punishment and his testimony convinced Dunster that
infant baptism was wrong. “The most significant event in early Baptist history,”
says Platner, “next to the work of Roger Williams, was the conversion of
President Dunster, of Harvard College, about the year 1650. Dunster’s
withdrawal from Congregational fellowship, and his acceptance of Baptist
principles, startled the adherents of the standing order, and greatly encouraged
the few struggling representatives of the Baptist cause. To allay public alarm,
and refute the threatening ‘errors,’Jonathan Mitchell, pastor of the church in
Cambridge, ‘preached more than half a score of ungainsayable sermons’in
defense of the ‘comfortable truth’of infant baptism. But not even these ten
discourses, or the open opposition of the authorities, sufficed to prevent the
gathering of the first Baptist church in Boston a few years later” (Platner,
Religious History of New England).
Dunster brought to the college a high character and great ability. He was a
profound scholar, especially in the Oriental languages, and an attractive
preacher and seemed to happily combine decision of character with suavity of
disposition. Johnson gave the opinion generally held of him when he said: “Mr.
Henry Dunster is now President of the Colledge, fitted from the Lord for the
work, and by those who have skill that way reported to be an able Proficient in
both Hebrew, Greek and Latine languages, an Orthodox Preacher of the truths
of Christ, very powerful through his blessing to move the affections” (Johnson,
Wonder Working Providence).
Thomas Shepard, pastor at Cambridge during the first nine years of Dunster’s
administration, speaks of him as a “man pious, painful, and fit to teach, and very
fit to lay the foundations of the domesticall affairs of the College; whom God
hath much honored and blessed” (Young, Chronicles of Massachusetts, 552.
1841). In a letter to John Winthrop the high esteem in which Shepard held
Dunster is manifested: “Your apprehensions agaynst reading and learning
heathen authors, I perswade myselfe were suddenly suggested, and will easily
be answered by H. Dunster, if you should impart them to him” (Massachusetts
Historical Collection, Fourth Series, VII.).
The conversion of Dunster to Baptist views was sensational. Alexander
McKenzie, the historian of the church at Cambridge, gives the following
account of the defection of Dunster: “Henry Dunster, President of the College,
and a member of this church, was, to use the language of Cotton Mather,
‘unaccountably fallen into the briars of antipaedobaptism; and being briar’d in
the scruples of that persuasion, he not only forebore to present an infant of his
own unto the Baptism of our Lord, but also thought himself under some
obligation to bear his testimony in some sermons against the administration of
baptism to any infant whatsoever.’This seems to have been in the year 1653; of
course this made a great excitement in the church and community. The brethren
of the church were somewhat vehement and violent in the expression of their
dissatisfaction with the position by one so eminent. They thought that for the
good of the congregation, and to preserve abroad the good name of the church,
he should cease preaching until ‘he had better satisfied himself in the point
doubted by him.’The divine ordinance which he opposed was held in the
highest veneration by our fathers. It had come to them from the earliest days of
the church, and was sanctified before them by all the early associations of life. It
connected them with God by his ancient covenant. It was a heavenly boon to
the child upon whom parental faith and fidelity bestowed it. Its meaning, value
and authority, had been carefully taught by their first ministers, of blessed
memory. With the boldness and decision with which they set themselves against
all wrong, all encroachment on religious ordinances, they lifted up their voice
against one who presumed to contradict what the church had always held, and
to deny where Shepard affirmed; and not even his sacred calling, nor his lofty
official position could shield him from censure” (McKenzie, Lectures on the
History of the First Church in Cambridge, 102, 103. Boston, 1873).
Neale, one of the early historians of New England, gives the following account
of his removal as President:
The overseers were uneasy because he had declared himself an Anabaptist,
fearing lest he should instill those Principles into the Youth that were under his
Care; but the President no sooner understood their Minds, but he feely resigned
his Charge, and retired to Scituate, where he spent the Rest of his Days in
Peace (Neale, The History of New England, I.).
And Cotton Mather makes the following comment:
Among those of our fathers, who differed somewhat from his brethren, was
that learned and worthy man, Mr. Henry Dunster. … Wonderfully falling into
the errors of Antipaedobaptism, the overseers of the College became solicitous
that the students there might not be unawares ensnared in the errors of the
President. Wherefore they labored with an extreme agony either to rescue the
good man from his own mistake, or to restrain him from imposing them upon
the hope of the flock, of both which, finding themselves to despair, they did as
quietly as they could, procure his removal, and provide him a successor in Mr.
Charles Chauncy (Mather, Magnalia, Bk. III).
After a conference of the ministers in which nothing was accomplished the
General Court, May 3, 1654, passed the following order:
Forasmuch as it greatly concerns the welfare of this country that the youth
thereof be educated, not only in good literature, but sound doctrine, this Court
doth therefore commend it to the serious consideration and special care of the
Overseers of the College and the selectmen in the several towns, not to admit or
suffer any such to be continued in the office or place of teaching, educating, or
instructing the youth or child, in the college or school, that have manifested
themselves unsound in the faith, or scandalous in their lives, and not giving due
satisfaction according to the rules of Christ (The Records of the Colony of
Massachusetts Bay, III. 397).
Dunster accepted this statement and sent in his resignation as President of the
College, June 10, 1654. He graciously says:
I here resign up the place wherein hitherto I have labored with all my heart
(Blessed be the Lord who gave it) serving you and yours. And henceforth (that
you in the interim may be provided) I will be willing to do the best I can for
some weeks or months to continue the work, acting according to the orders
prescribed to us; if the Society in the interim fall not to pieces in our hands;
and what advice for the present or for the future I can give for the public good,
in this behalf, with all readiness of mind I shall do it, and daily by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, pray the Lord to help and counsel us all.
From the Court, on the 25th of the same month, he received only this curt
answer:
In answer to the writing presented to this Court by Mr. Henry Dunster, wherein
amongst other things he is pleased to make a resignation of his place as
President, this Court doth order that it shall be left to the care and discression
of the Overseers of the College to make provision, in case he persist in his
resolution more than one month (and inform the Overseers) for some meet
person to carry on and end that work for the present (The Records of the
Colony of Massachusetts Bay, III. 353).
It was in this manner that Henry Dunster, the President of Harvard College,
became a Baptist.
The hero of the Baptist Church in Boston was Thomas Gould. He refused in
1665 to bring his child to baptism. The Elder then remarked: “Brother Gould,
you are to take notice, that you are admonished of these things, withholding the
child from baptism, irreverent carriage in time of administering baptism, and not
complying with your word” (Willard’s Answer to Russell, Backus, I.). He was
frequently admonished. “Hence, after much time spent, the brethren consenting,
he was admonished for making way from the church in the way of schism.”
Such discipline was continued several years, until he was finally
excommunicated (Felt, II.).
The result was that a church was organized in Charleston, May 28, 1665,
Thomas Gould, Thomas Osborne, Edward Drinker and John George were
baptized, and these joined with Richard Goodall, William Turner, Robert
Lambert, Mary Goodall, and Mary Newel “in a solemn covenant, in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to walk in fellowship and communion together, in the
practice of all the holy appointments of Christ, which he had, or should further
make known to them.” Goodall came from Kiffin’s church in London; Turner
and Lambert from Dartmouth; Gould and Osborne separated from the church in
Charleston; and Drinker and George had long lived in the country, but had been
unaffiliated.
The church in Cambridge demanded of Gould and the others why they had
“embodyed themselves in a pretended church way”; and in July 9, 1665, Could
stated to the church that he “has nothing more to do with them” (Felt, II.). So it
followed upon the 30th day of the same month he was excluded “for their
impenitency in their schismatical withdrawing from this church and neglecting
to hear the church.”
This was by no means the first action of the church against him. The following
record is under date of June 6, 1858:
Upon the 6th of 4th, 1658.
Brother Thomas Gould, according to the agreement of the church the Lord’s
day before, was called forth to give an account of his long withdrawing from
the public ordinances amongst us, on the Lord’s day. It was asked brother
Gould, whither he had any rule from God’s word so to do? or whither, it were
not a manifest breach of rule and order of the gospel? His answer several times
was to the effect that he had not turned from any ordinance of God, but did
attend the word in other places.
It was then asked him, whither he did not own church? covenant, as an
ordinance of God, and himself in covenant with the church?
He answered be did, but we had cut him off, or put him away by denying to
him the Lord’s Supper, when only he had been admonished, so now had no
more privilege than an Indian, and therefore he looked now not at himself as a
member of our church, but was free to go any whither?
He was likewise blamed, that having so often expressed his desire to attend any
light that might help him in his judgment and practice, about children’s
baptism; that yet he should forbear, and stay away, when he could not but
know, that his pastor was speaking largely on the subject. He confessed that his
wife told him of it, and being asked how he could in faith partake of the Lord’s
Supper, whilst he judges his own baptism void and null? He owned that it was
so, as administered to him as a child; but since God had given him grace, he
now came to make use of it, and get good by it. It being replied that a person
owned by all, as gracious, and (fit) for the Supper, is not yet to be admitted to
it, till baptized; he said little or nothing to it, but spoke divers things generally
offensive to the brethren, and would own no failing. Hence after much time
spent, the brethren consenting, he was admonished for breaking away from the
church, in way of schism, never having used any means to convince the church
of any irregular proceeding, but continuing peremptorily and contumaciously to
justifie his schism.
This transaction was speedily after the acting thereof truly recorded by the then
only elder of this church; Zech. Symmes, Mr. Green, the ruling elder, dying a
little before (Buddington, The History of the First Church, Charleston, 56, 57.
Boston, 1845).
Of the formation of the Baptist church and the reasons for it Gould himself
gives an account. A small section of his narrative is here transcribed as follows:
“Now after this, considering with myself what the Lord would have me to do;
not likely to join with any of the churches of New England, and so to be
without the ordinance of Christ; in the meantime God sent out of Old England
some who were Baptists; we, consulting together what to do, sought the Lord
to direct us, and taking counsel of other friends who dwelt among us, who were
able and godly, they gave us counsel to congregate ourselves together; and so
we did, being nine of us, to walk in the order of the gospel according to the rule
of Christ, yet knowing that it was a breach of the law of this country; that we
had not the approbation of magistrates and ministers, for that we suffered the
penalty of that law, when we were called before them. After we had been called
into two courts, the church understanding that we were gathered into church
order, they sent three messengers of the church to me, telling me that the
church required me to come before them the next Lord’s day” (Callender
Papers, Backus, I.).
The organization of this Baptist church caused a great noise throughout New
England. Mather says:
Our Anabaptists formed a church … not only with a manifest violation of the
laws of the Commonwealth, relating to the orderly manner of gathering a
church, but also with a manifold provocation unto the rest of our churches, by
admitting into their own society such as our churches had excommunicated for
moral scandals, yea, and employing such persons to be administrators of the
two sacraments among them (Mather, Magnalia, Bk. VII. Vol. II.).
The organization of this church was the occasion of much persecution. The rise
of the Baptists and the demands of the English government “made this a
strenuous time for the officers” (Publications of the Colonial Society of.
Massachusetts, VII. 285). The English commissioners were in New England at
the time and on this account the authorities for a time were compelled to go
slow in persecutions. But as soon as this danger was past “the church tried
persecution,” says Nathan N. Wood, “the court tried coercion; but both alike
vain. The church proposed argument and excommunication; the Court
proposed fines and imprisonment; but no proposal proved persuasive with the
indomitable spirit of Thomas Gould, the Baptist pastor.”
The following September they were called before the Court of Assistants; and
they were commanded to desist from their schismatical practice. Not obeying
the orders of this court October 11, 1665, they appeared in the General Court,
when the following action was taken:
WHEREAS, at the late Court of Assistants, Thomas Gould and his company,
sundry of them were openly convicted of a schismatical rending from the
communion of the churches here and setting up a public meeting in opposition
to the ordinances of Christ, here publicly exercised, and were solemnly charged
not to persist in such pernicious practices. Yet, this notwithstanding (as this
Court is informed), they do still persist in condemning the authority here
established. It is therefore ordered, that the aforesaid Gould and company be
summoned before this Court, to give an account of such, their irregular
practices with their celebrating the Lord’s Supper by an excommunicated
person.
A warrant being sent for the accused, they appeared. As they professed “their
resolution yet further to proceed in such their irregular practices, thereby as
well contemning the authority and laws here established for the maintenance of
godliness and honesty, as continuing in the profanation of God’s holy
ordinances. This Court do judge meet to declare, that the said Gould and
company are no orderly church assembly, and that they stand jointly convicted
of high presumption against the Lord and his holy appointments, as also the
peace of this Government, against which this Court do account themselves
bound to God, his Truth, and his Churches here planted, to bear their
testimony; and do therefore sentence the said Gould. Osborne, Drinker, Turner
and George, such as are Freemen, to be disfranchised, and all of them upon
conviction before any one magistrate or Court, of their further proceeding
herein, to be committed to prison until the General Court shall take further
order with them (Felt, II.).
The next year, for not complying with these requirements, they were again fined
and committed to prison and finally sentenced to banishment. They refused to
depart and held their meetings on Noodle’s Island. It is related that the town
and country were much troubled by these meetings of the Baptists. Many
desired that they should be dismissed but the Governor thought otherwise. By
the summer of 1674 they met in Boston, in a hired house; because “some of the
magistrates will not permit any punishment to be inflicted on heretics, as such”
(Felt. II.).
“In circumstances like these,” says Neale, in an address on the two hundredth
anniversary, “for over a half a century they stood alone, and bore the
responsibilities and the whole weight of theological odium which rested upon
the Baptist name and cause in the Colony of Massachusetts. They must have
had, and did have, during the first seventy years of their experience, a painful
sense of isolation. They were separated from their brethren in England. No
sister churches were in the neighborhood. No Baptist associations, as now, with
letters and delegates, pleasant countenances, and kindly words to cheer and
sustain them. Rev. John Myles, who had recently emigrated with a remnant of
his flock, from Wales, was at Swansea, and occasionally made a visit to Boston;
and sometimes a good brother or two would come up from Rhode Island and
the Providence Plantations; but in general, our brethren were shut out from
public sympathy, and lived in constant dread of the emissaries of the
government. They met in houses of the different members of the church at
Charleston, Noodle’s Island, and Back street, now Salem street, until the
erection of their first sanctuary in 1679” (Robert Heber Neale, An Address
delivered at the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Baptist Church,
Boston, June 7, 1865, 17, 18. Boston, 1865).
The occasional ministry of Myles in Boston was accompanied with much
persecution. Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, wrote, to Dr. Increase
Mather, November 29, 1677:
I hear Mr. Miles still preaches in Boston, I fear it will be a means to fill that
town, which is already full of unstable persons, with error; I look upon it as a
great judgment … let all due means be used to prevention (Massachusetts
Historical Collection, VIII. Mather Papers).
The general spirit of the severer class of the Puritans, of this period, may be
better understood in the light of some of their utterances: “Anabaptism is an
engine framed to cut the throat of the Infantry of the Church.” … ‘“Tis Satan’s
policy to plead for an indefinite and boundless toleration.” “Anabaptism we
shall find hath ever been looked at by the Godly Leaders of this people as a
Scab” (Thomas Shepard, Election Sermon (1672), 24, 25). “Protestants ought
not to persecute any, yet the Protestants may punish Protestants; and as the
case may be circumscribed, a Congregation of such as may call themselves
Protestants cannot be rationally denied” (Increase Mather, Introduction, Ne
Sutor Ultra Crepidam). “Experience tells us that such a rough thing as a New
England Anabaptist is not to be handled over tenderly. It was toleration that
made a world Antichristian” (Samuel Willard, Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam). “The
Lord keep us from being bewitched with the whore’s cup, lest while we seem to
detest & reject her with open face of profession, we do not bring her in by any
back door of Toleration” (John Cotton, Bloody Tenet Washed). “Separation
and Anabaptism are wonted intruders, and seeming friends, but secret fatall
Enemies to Reformation” (Jonathan Mitchell, Election Sermon, A.D. 1667).
The Baptist schism was the most dreaded of all with which the colony was
threatened, and no epithets were too opprobrious to be hurled at its adherents.
The ministers were insistently urging the civil magistrates to use coercive
measures and to punish heretics. “To purge New England of heresie,” was the
favorite appeal, and was the open door through which the civil courts let loose
the fierce hordes of fines, imprisonments, and banishments (Wood, History of
the First Baptist Church of Boston).
The most terrible fake accounts were published against the Baptists. A
pamphlet was published in London entitled:
Mr. Baxter Baptiz’d in Bloud, or a Sad History of the unparalleled Cruelty of
the Anabaptists in New England. Faithfully relating the Cruel, Barbarous and
Bloudy Murther of Mr. Baxter an Orthodox minister who was killed by the
Anabaptists and his skin most cruelly flead off from his body, with an Exact
Account of all the Circumstances and Particularities of this barbarous
Murther. Published by his Mournful Brother, Benjamin Baxter, living in Fen
church street, London (Felt, II.).
The pamphlet was sold on the streets and created much excitement. The author
asks: “Dares any man affirm that Anabaptists to be Christians! For how can
they be Christians who deny Christianity, deride Christ’s Institution of Baptism,
and scoffingly call it, Baby sprinkling, and in place thereof Booby dipping” (p.
1). “These wicked Sectarians deny this Sacrament and compel their adherents
to renounce their Baptism, and to be dipt again in their prophane waters” (p. 3).
The author represents his brother as having removed to New England and
circumstantially describes how the Baptist flayed the man before his wife and
children. It was proved that there had been no such minister in Boston, and no
such a man as Baxter lived in Fen Church Street. It is alleged that Dr. Parker,
the Chaplain to the Bishop of London, was the author, and published it because
of his hatred to the Baptists.
But their troubles were not over. The Baptists of Boston erected a house of
worship, and on February 15, 1679, it was opened for services. In the meantime
Governor Severet died and persecutions were renewed. There was no law to
prevent their using the house, and so the Court the following May enacted a
law to the effect:
That no person should erect or make use of a house for public worship, without
license from the authorities, under the penalty, that the house and land on
which it stood should be forfeited to the use of the county, to be disposed of by
the county treasurer, by sale, or demolished, as the court that gave judgment in
the case should order.
The matter passed through various proceedings until the king interfered and
decreed:
Requiring that liberty of conscience should be allowed to all protestants, so that
they might not be discountenanced from sharing in the government, much less,
that no good subject of his, for not agreeing in the Congregational way, should
by law be subjected to fines and forfeitures, or other incapacities for the same,
which, said his majesty, is a severity more to be wondered at, whereas liberty
of conscience was made a principal motive for your transportation into these
parts.
They were permitted to assemble three or four times when they were again
called before the Court to answer for their offense. They found that the doors
of their house had been nailed up, and a paper attached to the effect:
All persons are to take notice, that by order of the court, the doors of this house
are shut up, and they are inhibited to hold any meetings, or to open the doors
thereof without license from the authority, till the General Court take further
order, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
Dated at Boston, 8th March, 1680.
EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary.
Five days later Increase Mather recorded in his diary:
The Council ordered the Doors of the meeting house which the Anabaptists
have built in Boston, to be shut up. They took away their doors (blank) boards
were nailed. So perverse were they that they would not meet in a private house,
but met this Sabbath out of doors (blank) their meeting house (Proceedings of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1899-1900, 408).
The congregation erected a cover and met in the church yard. The Court, June
11, 1680, upon a petition from the church, admonished them “for their offense,
and so granted them their petition so farr as to forgive their offense past, but
still prohibited them as a society of themselves, to meet in that publick place
they have built, or any other publick house, except such as are allowed by
publick authoritie” (The Records of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, V.
272).
It is comforting to know that at a later date these acts were recognized as
vicious, and some apology extended. Certain it is that the majority of the people
of Massachusetts were opposed to the rigorous measures against the Baptists
and the Quakers (Daniel Waite Howe, The Puritan Republic of the
Massachusetts Bay, 252. Indianapolis, 1899). It is said that Winthrop upon his
death bed, when pressed by some to sign an order for the banishment of some
hetorodox person, refused, saying that he “had done too much of that work
already” (Hutchinson, I. 142. Boston, 1764).
Cotton Mather, in 1717, preached the ordination sermon of a Baptist minister in
Boston upon “Good Men United.” It contained a frank confession of
repentance for the persecutions of which the Boston churches had been guilty.
He said:
Good men, alas I have done such ill things as these. New England also has in
former times done some of this aspect which would not now be so well
approved; in which, if the brethren in whose house we are now convened met
with anything too unbrotherly, they now with satisfaction hear us expressing
our dislike of everything which looked like persecution in the days that have
passed over us (Vose, Congregationalism in Rhode Island).
There was a constant correspondence kept up for years between the ministers
of New and Old England, much of which bore upon the subject of the Baptists.
Often it was suggested that the Baptists should receive more lenient treatment.
In a letter which Thomas Cobbet wrote to Increase Mather, 1681, he said:
“And as you will say concerning toleration of Antipedobaptists in general, here
in New England, as they are in Old, they might soon flock over hither
thereupon so many as would sink our small vessel; whereas in that greater ship
of England, there is no such danger of those multitudes to founder the same”
(The Mather Papers. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
Fourth Series, VIII. 291, 292).
The bitterness against the Baptists had no appreciable diminution.. The General
Court assembled in Boston, May 27, 1674. Samuel Torrey of Weymouth
preached the sermon from Rev. 2: 5. The Introduction was by Increase Mather,
who says:
We may conclude that the Lord meant some great thing, when he planted these
heavens and laid the foundations of this earth, and said unto New England (as
sometimes to Zion), Thou art my people. And what should that be, if not that
so a Scripture pattern of the Reformation as to civil, but especially in
ecclesiastical respects, might be here erected, as a first fruits of that which
shall in due time be accomplished the whole world throughout, in that day there
shall be one Lord, and his name one over all of the earth. The first design of
New England was purely religious, but now we begin to espouse and are
eagerly pursuing another, even a worldly interest.
Torrey, in his sermon, gives his views of the Baptists as follows:
Such I take to be the transgression of those who do grossly and scandalously
profane any of the holy ordinances of Christ, in the administration; but much
more of those who do both professedly and practically deny most, if not all
fundamentals, both of faith and order, and are known and acknowledged so to
do by all the reformed churches in the world (Felt, II.).
With such impressions he supposed the Baptists ought not to be tolerated by
law in their deviations from the Congregational order. He urges as a means of
reformation, “the full and faithful discharge of duty to the children of the
Covenant.”
Cotton Mather, in the year 1689, published a book “Memorable Providences
Relating to Witchcraft, with an Introduction by Richard Baxter.” He afterwards
expressed his opinion on the subject as follows:
The houses of good people are filled with shrieks of children and servants who
have been torn by invisible hands with tortures altogether preturnatural. The
recent extreme measures for witchcraft are justified. The devil exhibits himself
ordinarily as a small black man. He has his sacraments; he scratches, bites and
sticks pins in the flesh; he drops money before sufficient spectators out of the
air; he carries witches over trees and hills. Twenty persons have confessed that
they signed a book which the devil showed them.
The influence of this book was very great. Sibley says:
The tendency of his books was to extend and increase the excitement. He was
credulous, superstitious, and fond of the marvelous. Previous to the witchcraft
trials he possessed more power and wielded greater influence than any other
individual ever did in Massachusetts. After this his influence declined until at
length he became the object of public ridicule and open insult (J. L. Sibley,
Sketches of Harvard Graduates, III.).
At that time the jails of Salem and the adjoining towns were filled with
prisoners who accused lying children of bewitching them. The question was,
what should be done with these prisoners, many of them already condemned or
awaiting trial, and this is the answer written by Cotton Mather and signed by
twelve pastors: “We cannot but recommend unto the government the speedy
and vigorous punishment of such as have rendered themselves obnoxious
according to the directions given under the laws of God and the wholesome
statutes of the English nation for the destruction of witchcraft. We hope that
some of the accused are yet clear from the great transgression laid to their
charge.” “The people stood poised upon the panic’s brink,” says Adams, “and
their pastors lashed them in. The Salem trials left a stain upon the judiciary of
Massachusetts that can never be effaced” (Brooks Adams, Emancipation of
Massachusetts).
Drake says: “Some say it was worse in other countries and long after. Yes,
ignorance and superstition prevailed to a great, if not a greater, degree in
Europe than in New England. Mental darkness was as dense in Old England as
in New” (Drake, History of Witchcraft, Preface XXX.). A later writer has
shown that Drake was wrong so far as Old England was concerned, for the last
execution of a witch in that land occurred ten years before the tragedy took
place in Salem (Moore, Notes on Witchcraft). It was Montague, the skeptic,
whose voice was raised almost alone among the writers of Europe against the
nefarious inquisition. “It is rating our opinions high to roast other people alive
for them,” he said. But Mather rode horseback to the execution, exhorting the
people to their duty.
It is everlastingly to the credit of the Baptists that they opposed this procedure.
On June 25, 1692, William Milburne, a Baptist preacher, was summoned before
the Court for reflecting upon the administration of public justice. His crime was
the circulation of a petition for signatures of persons who opposed the further
prosecution of suspected witches or specter testimony.” “The innocent will be
condemned,” he said, “a woeful chain of consequences will follow, inextricable
damage will be done this province. Give no more credence to specter testimony
than the Word of God alloweth.”
George H. Moore says:
William Milburne, upon examination having owned that he wrote the papers
and subscribed his name to them, was ordered to be committed to prison or
give bond of $200 with two securities to answer at the next session of the
Superior Court for framing, contriving, writing and publishing the said
seditious and scandalous papers or writings. William Milburne was a brother
of Jacob Milburne and the prosecuting attorney was Thomas Newton, who had
secured the execution of Jacob the year before in New York. The magistrates
and ministers of 1692 who engineered the witchcraft business were trusted
leaders of the people (George H. Moore, Notes on Witches; Final Notes on
Witchcraft).
The effective book was that of Robert Calef, a member of the Baptist church in
Boston. It was entitled: “More Wonders from the Invisible World”; was
finished in 1697, but there was no publisher in Boston who dared to issue it. It
finally appeared in England in 1700. It created a sensation in Boston. Among
many other things he says:
I hope I understand my duty better than to imitate Mr. Mather in retorting his
hard language. If his report stands in competition with the glory of God, His
truth, and His people’s welfare, I suppose these to be too valuable to be
trampled on for Mr. Mather’s mistake. This country will be likely to be
afflicted again if the same notions are still entertained. “God has implanted in
our consciousness to judge a miracle,” Cotton Mather says: It seems the light
within is here our guide and not the Scripture. Such ridiculous and brutish stuff
as “turning men to cats and dogs,” “riding on a pole through the air,” Mather
calls Baxter’s book, “The World of Spirits,” “an ungainsayable book but the
Bible.” What mean these specters that none can see but those that have not the
use of their reason and senses? Plastic spirit? What’s that? Some ink-horn
term. So hardy and daring are some men, though without one word of Scripture
proof of it. Sound reason is what I have long been seeking for in this country in
vain.
You forbade my making a copy of the four pages that you let me read. I am not
surprised at your caution in keeping from the light the crude matters and
imperfect absurdities that are found there. My task is offensive, but necessary.
I would rather expose myself to censure than that it should be omitted. I took it
to be a call from God to vindicate his truth. The principal actors in these
tragedies are far from defending their action now, but they do not take due
shame to themselves. It was bigoted zeal stirring up blind and bloody rage
against virtuous and religious persons. No one of them has testified as the case
required against the doctrine and practice though they have brought a stain and
lasting infamy upon the whole country, if not entailing upon themselves all the
blood of the righteous.
I cannot believe that there are several Almighties. My letter to Mr. Mather
remains unanswered, so that I suppose he regards it as either orthodox or
unanswerable. What he says about a thunder storm breaking into his house
savors too much of enthusiasm. He magnifies the devil’s power beyond and
against the Scripture. Not bringing Scripture to prove his positions shows that
there are none. If I err I hope you will let me see it by Scripture. What do you
find in Scripture for your structure? If you are deficient in that warrant, the
more eminent the architect the more dangerous he is. I pray that you may be an
useful instrument in the removal of this popish and heathen superstition. It may
be asked what need is there of raking up coals that lie buried in oblivion, but
Satan would like to drag us through the pond again by the same cat. This is an
affliction far exceeding all that this country has ever labored under. Those who
oppose such a torrent know that they will meet with opposition from
magistrates, ministers and people, and the name of Sadducee, atheist, witch,
will be cast against them. God is able to protect those who do their duty herein
against all opposers.
Mr. Mather’s language sounds more like that of a Manichee or a heathen than
like that of an orthodox believer.
The witchcraft delusion and this book probably broke the power of the
Theocracy. When the book reached Boston, November 5, 1700, Cotton Mather
spent the day in fasting. For the fifth month, the second day, 1701, he writes:
“The enemies of the churches are set with implacable enmity against myself, and
one vile fool, Robert Calef, is employed by them to go on with more of his
filthy scribling.”
Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College, took what he called “the
wicked book” and had it burned in front of Stoughton Hall. Calef was driven
out of Boston, and settled at Roxbury, where he was more highly esteemed than
in the vicinity of the Mathers. Samuel, the son of Cotton Mather, wrote in
1728: “There was a certain disbeliever in witchcraft that wrote against my
father’s book, but the man is dead, and his book died long before him.” This
was not a fact for four editions of the book were printed.
Whether the book of Calef produced a reaction, or simply brought to a head the
opposition to Increase Mather, the fact remains that in a few weeks he was
dismissed as President of Harvard. An author makes the assertion that the
“descendants of Calef rank as high as those of the Mathers, since Warren, the
hero of Bunker Hill, was a descendant of Calef (W. W. Everts, Robert Calef
and Cotton Mather, The Review and Expositor, April, 1916. XIII. 232).
The government of Massachusetts was slow in recognizing the claims of the
Baptists. Between the years 1727 and 1733 there were 28 Baptists, two
Quakers and two Episcopalians imprisoned in Bristol, Massachusetts (now
Rhode Island) for the ministerial tax (Benedict, 443). The first act 1728-1729
was passed recognizing the religious scruples of the Baptists. This was limited
to five years, exempted the poll only of Baptists and Quakers, from being taxed
for the support of the ministers and their bodies from being taken in execution
for collecting such taxes. The next year (1729) an act, in addition to the act of
previous year, was passed extending the exemption to the real and personal
estates of the Anabaptists, as they were called.
In 1751, Mr. Moulton was arrested for preaching Baptist sentiments at
Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and, by public authority, shut up in prison, and
finally banished as a vagrant and vagabond, and his deacon, Fisk, and his
brethren, John Corey, Jeremiah Barstow, John Perry, and John Draper, were
imprisoned in the Worcester jail. The following property belonging to that
Baptist church was taken and sold by authority to pay the salary of Caleb Rice,
a Congregational preacher: Cash, $36; 7 cows, 1 heifer, 2 steers, 2 oxen, a
flock of geese, 20 pewter plates, 1 tankard, 1 saddle, a trammel and books,
shovels, tongs and andirons, 1 pot, 1 kettle, 1 warming pan and 1 broad axe
(Benedict).
The laws were reenacted for limited periods until 1752, when an act was passed
“to relieve the Anabaptists by establishing rules for identifying their members
and ministers. In 1770 the objectionable name of Anabaptist was replaced by
Antipedobaptist (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, I. 142-
144. Boston, 1895). But in this same year about 400 acres of land, belonging to
members of the Baptist Church in Ashfield, were sold at auction to pay the
ministerial tax (Benedict).
At the beginning of the Revolution the status of the Baptists was regulated by
the provincial law of 1770. This act exempted them from the payment of
religious taxes upon giving certificates to the town assessors, signed by their
minister and three other Baptists, that they regularly and conscientiously
attended Baptist worship (Hovey, A Memoir of the Life and Times of Isaac
Backus, 180. Boston, 1858). Though more tolerant than earlier legislation, this
act did nothing to relieve isolated Baptists who could attend no meeting of their
denomination, nor did it fully protect against local tyranny and intolerance those
who fully complied with the law. Three such were arrested in Clemford,
although one was infirm, another the sole support of his family and the third
over eighty years of age, and lodged in jail at Concord, January, 1773 (Hovey).
Some of the more conscientious refused to fill out the exemption certificates
required by law, deeming such an act “an implicit acknowledgment of a power
assumed by man, which in reality belongs to God” (Proceedings of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1916-1917, 1. 373, 374)
The constitution of 1780 did not improve the position of the Baptists. In reality
the article on religion was reactionary. It not only continued the religious
system of the province but exalted it to a fundamental law out of reach of
ordinary legislative enactment. The provincial system, which was sill in force in
1780, may be described as compulsory support of at least one Congregational
church in every town, by public taxation on all polls and estates, with official
exemptions for Baptists, Quakers and members of the Church of England,
under certain conditions. This new article on religion was even less liberal than
the old system, for instead of exempting members of dissenting sects from
religious taxation, it merely gave them the privilege of paying their taxes to their
pastors. Unbelievers, non-churchgoers and dissenting minorities too small to
obtain ministers, had to contribute to the Congregational worship. The whole
article was so loosely worded that it resulted in innumerable lawsuits. One may
say that the ecclesiastical history of the Commonwealth during the next fifty
years was one of vexations and lawsuits (Ibid, L. 371).
The Baptists in New York — Dutch Settlers — The Reformed Church — The
Baptists — Conventicles Suppressed — Lady Moody — Baptists in Flushing
— Francis Doughty — Laws — Fines — Valentine Wightman — The Various
Sects — Governor Andros — Governor Hunter — First Baptist Church, New
York — Nicholas Eyers — Fines — The Baptists in Central New York —
Delaware — The Settlement of the State — The Welsh Tract Church — Elijah
Baker and Philip Hughes — The Sounds Baptist Church — Connecticut —
The Severity of the Laws — Early Baptists — The Slow Progress — Vermont
— The Rise of the Baptists.
THE Dutch, who first settled New York, set up the Reformed Religion,
according to the Acts of the Synod of Dort, and the colonial clergy were
commissioned by the Classis of Amsterdam. No formal constitutional restriction
was enacted until 1640, when the East India Company, which then controlled
the colony, decreed that “no other religion shall be publicly admitted,” “except
the Reformed Church” (Documents of Colonial History of New York, I. 123).
In a description of the New Netherlands, in 1644, by Father Isaac Jogues, a
Jesuit missionary, is found the following statement:
No religion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, and orders are to admit none
but Calvinists, but this is not observed, besides Calvinists in the Colony are
Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, here called Menestes, &c.
(Documentary History of New York, IV. 22. Albany, 1851).
There were, therefore, Baptists in New York preceding 1644; but their location
is not indicated. A grant of worship had been given the town of Flushing for
sectaries. It was soon discovered that the Lutherans and other dissenters were
using these privileges, and the authorities became alarmed. “In the meantime we
already have the snake in our bosom.” These persons were required to abstain
from all “church services or holding any meetings.” On February 1, 1656, the
authorities decreed that all “conventicles and meetings” held in the province.
“whether public or private,” should be “absolutely and expressly forbidden”;
and that “only the Reformed Divine service, as this is observed and enforced
according to the Synod of Dortrecht,” should be held,
Under the penalty of one hundred pounds Flemish, to be forfeited by all those
who, being unqualified, take upon themselves, either on Sundays or other days,
any office, whether of preacher, reader or singer, in such meetings differing
from the customary and legal assemblies, and twenty five like pounds to be
forfeited by every one, whether man or woman, married or unmarried, who is
found at such meetings.
A noted woman called Lady Moody bought a plantation near Lynn,
Massachusetts. “She soon embraced Baptist principles, and suffered therefor.
And divers of those at Aquidneck turned professed Anabaptists” (Backus, I.).
She was on this account compelled to leave Lynn. For a period she was in New
Haven where she is reported to have brought over to her views Mrs. Eaton, the
wife of the governor of the province and the daughter of an English bishop.
This brought much distress to the Congregational pastor. She finally settled at
Gravesend, near New Amsterdam. She took out, December 19, 1645, a patent
of land, which, among other things, guaranteed “the free libertie of conscience
according to the custom of Holland, without molestation or disturbance from
any magistrate or magistrates, or any other ecclesiastical minister that may
pretend jurisdiction over them.” Without regard to her patent the authorities
were not always amicable. Many others of like sentiments gathered around her,
“with liberty to constitute themselves a body politic as freedmen of the Province
and town of Gravesend.” James W. Gerard says: “The settlers at Gravesend
seem to have been generally affected with Anabaptist views, and to have had no
settled church” (Gerard, Discourse Before the New York Historical Society,
May, 1880, 28).
There were likewise Baptists in Flushing where some toleration had been
granted. George Gardyner, in his description of America, remarks that the
Northeast part of Long Island is inhabited by “some English, who have been
thrust from New England for their judgment. The most of them holding the
Christian Tenet of confession before baptism” (Felt, II.). The following is the
old record:
The four villages on Long Island viz.: Gravesend, Middleburg, Vlissingen
Meemstede were established by the English. Those of Gravesend are reported
Menonists; yea, they, for the most part, reject Infant Baptism, the Sabbath, the
office of Preacher, and the Teachers of God’s word, saying that through these
have come all sorts of contention into the world. Whenever they meet together
the one or the other reads something for them. At Flushing they heretofore had
a Presbyterian Preacher who conformed to our church, but many of them
became endowed with divers opinions and it was with them quot homines tot
sententia. They absented themselves from preaching, nor would they pay the
Preacher his promised stipend. The said preacher was obliged to leave the
place to repair to the English Virginias” (Documentary History of New York,
III.).
Clearly the preacher referred to above was Francis Doughty, who “had fled
from troubles in England, and found that he got out of the frying pan into the
fire.” In Massachusetts he denied “baptism to infants.” He was the first pastor in
Flushing, but in 1656 he went to Virginia. “He was unquestionably the first
religious teacher in Flushing, and had adopted Baptist views on baptism”
(Prime, History of Long Island; Mandeville, Flushing Past and Present).
The documentary narrative continues:
Last year a fomenter of error came here. He was a cobbler from Rhode Island
in New England & stated that he was commissioned by Christ. He began to
preach at Flushing and then went with the people into the river and dipped
them. This becoming known here, the Fiscaal proceeded thither and brought
him along. He was banished from the province.
This cobbler was none other than William Wickenden, the pastor of the church
in Providence. He was one of the foremost men in Rhode Island, and had
served the State in various important positions. In 1656 he visited Flushing,
dipped his converts in the river and administered the Lord’s Supper.
O’Callagan, under date of November 9, 1656, gives an account of these
occurrences. “The Baptists at Flushing,” says he, “were the next to feel the
wrath of the law. William Hallett, sheriff of the place, ‘had dared to collect
conventicles in his house, and to permit one William Wickendam (Wickenden)
to explain and comment on God’s Holy Word, and to administer sacraments,
though not calling thereto by any civil or clerical authority.’He had, moreover,
assisted at such meetings and afterward, ‘accepted from said Wickendam’s
hands the bread in the form and manner of the Lord’s Supper as usually
celebrated.’For this violation of the statute Hallett was removed from office
and fined fifty pounds, and failing to pay he was to be banished” (O’Callagan,
Laws and Ordinances of the New Netherlands, 1634-1678; Broadhead, History
of the State of New York).
When the Council was informed that he was a very poor man, “with a wife and
many children, by profession a cobbler, which trade he neglects, so that it will
be impossible to collect anything from him,” the costs of the fines were
remitted. He was condemned November 11, “to immediate banishment, under
condition if ever he be seen again in the province of New Netherland he shall be
arrested and kept in confinement till the fine and costs are paid in full” (Albany
Records, VIII.).
These Baptists, in 1653, elected officers. The record is: “The English do not
only enjoy the right of nominating their own magistrates, but some of them
usurp the election and appointments of such magistrates, as they please, without
regard to their religion. Some, especially the people of Gravesend, elect
libertines and Anabaptists, which is decidedly against the laws of the
Netherlands” (Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York, I. 318. Albany,
1901).
The laws were more severe as time went on. The authorities September 21,
1662, say that because they
Find by experience that their hitherto issued proclamations and edicts against
conventicles and prohibited assemblies are not observed and obeyed as they
ought, therefore, by these presents, they are not only renewed but enlarged in
manner following. Like as they have done heretofore, so they prohibit and
interdict as yet, that besides the Reformed worship and service no conventicles
and meetings shall be kept in this province, whether it be in homes, barns,
ships, barks, nor in the woods nor fields, upon forfeiture of fifty guldens for the
first time, for every person, whether man or woman or child that shall have
been present at such prohibited meetings, and twice as much for every person,
whether it be man or woman or child, that has exhorted or talked in such
prohibited meetings, or shall have lent his house, barn, or any place to that
purpose; for ye second time twice as much, for the third time four times as
much, and arbitrary punishment besides (O’Callagan, Laws and Ordinances of
the New Netherlands, 1638-1674).
From time to time in the records there were various notices of the Baptists and
others. Governor Dongan reported, in 1684, as follows:
Here be not many of the Church of England; few Roman Catholicks;
abundance of Quakers preachers men and women especially; singing Quakers;
Ranting Quakers; Sabbatarians; Some Anabaptists; some Independents; some
Jews; in short all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most part, of none at
all (Ecclesiastical Records, II. 880).
Governor Andros had made inquiries, in 1678, in regard to New York. The
following answer was given in regard to the Baptists:
There are religions of all sorts, one Church of England, several Presbyterians
and Independents, Quakers and Anabaptists, of severall sects, some Jews, but
Presbyterians and Independents most numerous and substantial (Ecclesiastical
Records of New York, I. 709).
The friends of Governor Hunter, in 1717, addressed the Bishop of London, as
follows:
My Lord, we believe it is not unknown to your Lordship, in what manner this
Province is on all sides surrounded by New England, Connecticut, Road Island,
and other places, all which are chiefly inhabited by professed Dissenters from
the Church of England; a set of men whose forefathers had a high hand in that
wicked rebellion which at the same time destroyed the Church and Monarchy
of England; and that they still retain the very same principles, and profess the
many various religions, of their Ancestors; the Presbyterian, the Anabaptist,
the Independent and the Quaker have each a large lot in this Continent, and
such seems to be the combination among them, (however they may differ in
other matters), that they doe not willingly suffer any other plants to take root
here. My Lord, these Sectarys have spread themselves so widely, and grown so
numerous in North America, and are so firmly seated, that wee of the
Communion of the established church seem strangers in the land, and as if our
worship were of such a foreign growth that it alone wanted the support of the
royal hand. Neither my Lord is this Province begirt only with Colonies and
Commonwealths of those men, but they grow up and thrive in the very midst of
Her (Colonial Records of New York, III. 2015).
The Dutch ministers of New York, August 15, 1728, wrote to the Classis of
Amsterdam, as follows:
Your Rev. Body must not conceive of us in any other light, as living among all
sorts of errorists, as Independents, Puritans, Anabaptists, the New-born,
Saturday folks, yea, as living among some of the most dreadful heretics, etc.
(Ecclesiastical Records, IV. 2429).
Valentine Wightman, of Groton, Connecticut, began to hold meetings in Broad
Street, New York, in 1711. He preached in the house of Nicholas Eyers. Under
his ministry many became serious and, in 1714, twelve persons were baptized.
Wightman baptized, for fear of the mob, five women at night, and seven men
stood ready to be baptized. The following text dropped into Mr. Eyers’mind:
“No man doeth anything in secret, when he himself seeketh to be known
openly.” Accordingly he and his brethren put off their design till morning, when
Eyers waited on the governor (Burnet) — told the case, and solicited
protection, which the governor promised, and was as good as his word, for he
and many of the gentry came to the water side, and the rite was performed in
peace. The governor, as he stood by, was heard to say, “This was the ancient
way of baptizing, and in my opinion much preferable to the practice of modern
times” (Benedict, 541; John Dowling, Sketches of New York Baptists, The
Baptist Memorial, 112, 113. 1849).
This church was said to have been Arminian in sentiment. Some of its members
embraced Calvinistic doctrines, but the church continued only about eight years.
The remnant became a part or arm of the Scotch Plains, New Jersey, church. In
1762 it became independent and settled John Gano as pastor.
The severity of the laws against the Baptists; the difficulties in which their
houses of worship were licensed; the annoyances incident to their meetings; and
the general difficulties attending their surroundings are all well illustrated by the
documents here presented. These documents show the red tape and almost
impossible legal barriers thrown around them. The following papers are taken
from the Documentary History of New York:
BAPTISTS
To His Excellency William Burnet Esquire, Capt General & Governor in chief
of the province of New York & New Jersey and the Territories depending on
them in America and Vice-Admiral of the same.
The humble petition of Nicholas Eyers brewer a baptist teacher in the City of
New York.
Sheweth unto Yor Excellency that on the teusday of ffebry 1715 At a General
quarter sessions at the peace held at the city of New York the hired house of
Yor peticioner scituate in the broad street of this City between the house of
John Michel Eyers and Mr. John Spratt was registred for an anabaptist meeting
house with this City. That the peticioner has it certifyed under the hands of
sixteen inhabitants of good faith and credit that he has been a public preacher
to a baptist congregacon within this City for four years and some of them for
less. That (he) has it certified by the Honble Rip Van Dam, Esqr., one of his
Majestyes Council for the province of New York to have hired a house in this
City from him January first 1720 only to be a public meeting house for the
Baptists, which he still keeps and as he has obtained from the Mayor and
Recorder of this City an ample Certificate of his good behaviour and innocent
conversacon. He therefore publicly prays
May it please yor Excellency
To grant and permitt this peticoner to Execute ministeriall function of a
minister within this City to a baptist congregacon and to give him proteccon
therein according to His Majesty’s gracious indulgence extended towards the
protestants dissenting from the established church he being willing to comply
with all what is required by the Act of toleracon from dissenters of that
perswasion in great Britain & being owned for a reverend brother by other
baptist teachers And as in duty bound the peticoner shall ever pray, &c.
Nicholas Eyers.
Those may Certify all whom it may Concern that Nicholas Eyers of this City
of New York Brewer hired a House of me January ye 1st 1720 only to be a
publick Meeting Place of the Baptists therein to Worship Almighty God and
the sd Nicholas Eyres was their Preacher. In testimony whereof I have hereunto
my Hand January 19, 1721 In the Eighth Year of his Majesties Reign King
George, &c.
Rip Van Dam.
City of New York.
These are to certify unto all whom it shall come or may concern that Nicholas
Eyers brewer an inhabitant of the City of New York during all of the time of
his residence in said City hath behaved himself well as becometh a good
subject And that to the best of our Knowledge and understanding he is
blameless and free from any notorious and publick slander and vice has gained
himself the good name and reputation of his neighbors of being a sober just and
honest man And is said to be an anabaptist as to his profession in religion In
testimony whereof We the Mayor, Recorder & Aldermen of the City of New
York whose names are hereunto subscribed have signed to these presents this
thirteenth day of January in the eighth year of the reign of Our Sovereign Lord
George by the grace of God of Great Britain ffrance and Ireland Defender of
the faith &c annoq Domini 1721-2.
R. Walter.
Davis Jamison.
Wm Burnet &c.
To all whom these presents shall come or may concern
WHEREAS Mr. Nich. Eyres Brewer and Inhabitant of ye City of New York
pretending to be at present a Teacher or preacher of a Congregation of
Anabaptists wch has had its beginning about five Years ago within this City
and has so continued hitherto, and yt at quarter sessions of the Peace their
House or Place of Meeting within this City has been Registered having a
Certificate of his past good behaviour I have thought fit to grant unto said
Nicholas Eyres that he may enjoy the Privilege, benefits and advantages which
dissenting Ministers may enjoy in great Britain by virtue of a Statute made and
Enacted at Westminster Ent an Act for Exempting their maties Protestant
Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penaltys of Certain
Laws in the first Year of King Wm and Queen Mary Provided always that he
shall comply with all the Rules and orders or directions mentioned &
Expressed in the same statute with Regard to Anabaptists or such Dissenting
Protestants who scruples the Baptizing Infants as far as can be and so long as
he shall continue of the good behaviour towards (our) Lord the King and his
Lege People in Witness &c dat ye 23d of January 1721-2.
W. Burnet.
By his Excellencys Command
Is: Bodin D: Sec’ry.
(Ecclesiastical Records of New York, III. 2187-2189).
The First Baptist Church of New York was organized June 10, 1762. The year
previous sixteen Baptists emigrated from England and, not securing religious
liberty in Massachusetts, purchased Block Island and settled there. Through
John Clarke and Roger Williams, Block Island enjoyed liberty through the
charter of Rhode Island. The king granted “that no person within the said
colony at any time hereafter shall be in any way molested, punished, disquieted,
or called in question for any difference in opinion in matters of religion, and do
not actually disturb the civil peace of the said colony.”
A Baptist church was formed in Warwick, in 1776, on the west side of the
Hudson, fifty-four miles north of New York City, by the labors of James
Benedict, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, who continued pastor till his death. From
this church soon after several others were formed. Still further north on the east
side of the river, in Dutchess county, there were Baptist churches at an earlier
date than this. In Fishkill there was a church previous to 1745, which had a
pastor by the name of Holstead. William Marsh, of New Jersey, in 1755,
gathered a church in the township of Dover. He was succeeded by Samuel
Waldo, who served the churches as pastor for thirty-five years. Simon Dakin,
who had been a Newlight preacher, gathered a church in the northeast. On the
eastern borders of the State still further north many churches were organized
(The Christian Review, June, 1839. IV. 217).
The Baptists in Central New York did not begin until 1773. The first church
organized was Butternuts, out of which finally grew the Ostego Association.
The old historian gives the following interesting story of the beginning of this
church:
In the month of June, A.D. 1773, Ebenezer Knop and Increase Thurstin,
removed with their families and settled on the Butternut Creek about fourteen
miles from its mouth where it empties into the Undella river, about thirty miles
southeast from the head of Susquehannah river. At the time there was no
English settlement to the westward of them nearer than Niagara in the province
of Upper Canada, which is upwards of two hundred miles distance, the
immediate space was filled with several tribes of the aborigines nor any
inhabitant with sixteen miles. A few more persons came on the same summer,
and made some improvements, but in the winter they returned (except
Benjamin Lull, jun., who had married Elizabeth the daughter of Ebenezer Knop
and lived in the family with him) and these two families lived alone through the
winter. Ebenezer Knop and his wife were members of the Baptist church in
Warwick under the care of Rev. James Benedict. These persons
notwithstanding their local situation, and their distance from civilized people,
were not unmindful of the duties of religion; but upon their arrival in this
inhospitable wild they set up a religious meeting, which was held in the house
of Ebenezer Knop, in which they attended to singing and praying (A. Hosmer
and J. Lawton, A View of the Rise and Increase of the Churches Composing
the Ostego Association, Whitestown, 1800, The Historical Magazine, June,
1871. Second Series, IX, 391),
In 1773 there were in New York twelve Baptist ministers who had
congregations, some of them pretty large, and some but small. There were four
vacant congregations, but no one of them very large (A Brief View of the State
of Religious Liberty in the Colony of New York. Collections of the
Massachusetts Historical Society. Second Series, V. 141. Boston, 1814). In
1790 there were thirty-four Baptist churches in the State.
It was early in the eighteenth century that William Penn granted to David Evans
and William Davis thirty thousand acres of land, to be divided and deeded to
settlers from South Wales, some of whom had,at that time settled in Radnor
township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. This grant ever afterwards was known
as “The Welsh Tract.” It is located partly in Pecadur Hundred, New Castle
county, Delaware, and partly in Cecil county, Maryland. Prominent among the
original settlers upon the Welsh Tract were the founders of the Baptist meeting,
who, with Thomas Griffith as their first minister, came from Pembroke and
Carmarthenshire, South Wales, in 1701, and soon after erected a log meeting
house in which they worshiped until the present structure was built in 1746.
This was the third Baptist meeting house founded in America. The first house
occupied the same location as the present one. The house constructed in 1746
is built of brick, and is said to contain some of the material used in the first
building. The bricks were brought from England, and transported from New
Castle, where they were landed in panniers upon mules. It is reported as still in
a good state of preservation, regular services are held there, with a stated
minister.
The following, “Our Beginnings as a Church,” is taken from the old church
records:
In the year 1701 some of us (who were members of the church of Jesus Christ
in the countys of Pembroke and Carmathen, South Wales, in Great Britain,
professing believers baptism; laying-on-of-hands; elections; and final
perseverance in grace) were moved and encouraged in our own minds to come
to these parts, viz.: Pennsylvania and after obtaining leave of the churches it
seemed good to the Lord and to us, That we should be formed into a church
order, as we were a sufficient number; and as one of us was a minister: that
was accomplished and, withal letters commendatory were given us, that if we
should meet with any congregations of christian people, who held the same
faith with us, we might be received by them as brethren in Christ.
Our number was sixteen; and, after bidding farewell to our brethren in Wales,
we sailed from Milford-haven in the month of June, the year above mentioned,
in a ship named James and Mary; and landed in Philadelphia the eighth of
September following.
After landing, we were received in a loving manner (on account of the gospel)
by the congregations meeting in Philadelphia and Pennepek who held the same
faith with us (excepting the ordinance of laying on of hands on every particular
member) with whom we wished much to hold communion at the Lord’s Table;
but we could not be in fellowship with them in the Lord’s Supper; because they
bore not testimony to God touching the fore mentioned ordinance.
There were some among them who believed in the ordinance; but it was neither
preached up, nor practiced in that church, for which cause we kept separate
from them for some years.
We had several meetings on this account, but could not come to any agreement;
yet were in union with them (except only in the Lord’s Supper, and some
particulars relative to a church).
After our arrival we lived much scattered for about a year and a half, yet kept
up weekly and monthly meetings among our selves; during which time it
pleased God to add to our number about twenty members, in which time we
and many other Welsh people purchased a tract of land in New Castle county,
on Delaware, which was called Welshtract; in the year 1703 we began to get
our living out of it, and to set our meeting in order, and build a place of
worship which was commonly known by the name of the Baptist meeting house
by the Ironhill.
In the year 1706 we, and the congregation (meeting in Philadelphia and
Pennepek) appointed a meeting to come together once more, in order to try at
union in the good ways of the Lord setting up our prayers and supplications on
this great occasion and purposing to do as the Lord would give us light.
The following considerations induced us to come to the above appointment:
(1) Because they and we were so desirous of union in the privileges of the
gospel.
(2) Because we were not like to gain them by keeping asunder from them.
(3) Because they without were taking occasion to mock because of so much
variance among Baptists.
(4) Because some of our members were far from us, and near them; and some
of theirs near us and far from them; and that these members might sit down in
the meetings next to them.
(5) Because, as we all came to the yearly meetings, we might have a general
union at the Lord’s table.
In the said meeting (after seeking God by prayers and supplication) we came to
the following conclusion, viz.: That they with us and we with them might hold
transient or occasional communion; but that we might not be obliged to receive
into membership any that were not under laying on of hands.
This agreement was set down in writing as follows:
At the house of Richard Miles in Radnor, Chester County, and province of
Pennsylvania July 22, 1706.
The agreement of many persons met together from the congregation under the
care of brother Thomas Griffith, and others, from the congregation (late under
the care of our brother John Watts meeting at Pennepek, both congregations
holding believer’s baptism) to converse together on the subject of union and
brotherly love, and occasional communion.
After making our supplication to God for a blessing, we came to the following
resolutions, viz.: For as much as we are of the same faith and judgment in all
things (as far as we understand one another, except in relation to the ordinance
of laying on of hands), we have agreed in the following particulars:
(1) With regard to them who believe in the ordinance of laying on of hands on
every believer. That they are to enjoy all liberty, within the bounds of brotherly
love, to preach on the subject, and to practice according to their belief.
(2) And in regard to them who do not think it duty to practice the ordinance,
that they be left to their liberty.
(3) And further it was agreed, That neither of the parties were to make
opposition in any mixed assembly, but that the members of either church might
enjoy occasional communion one with the other (Records of the Welsh Tract
Meeting Pencadur Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, 1701-1828, 3-10.
Historical and Biographical Papers, IV. Wilmington, 1904).
The gospel was preached in this meeting in Welsh until 1800; and for several
years the records were kept in the Welsh language.
There came from Virginia into Delaware, at the close of 1778, Elijah Baker,
and in the spring of 1779 he was followed by Philip Hughes of the same State.
They labored together as evangelists for about twelve months, preaching at
Broad Creek, Gravelly Branch, and other places. Many converts “were baptized
on profession of faith and repentance.” They prepared material and resolved to
build churches. At first they were known as Separate Baptists, but shortly
afterwards the distinction was dropped. They were not only well received but
were assisted in their efforts, by ministers and laymen, in organizing churches
and ordaining ministers.
These men were instrumental in founding twenty-two churches in Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware, and spent much time in “visiting them, as fathers do
their children.” The Salisbury Association was organized by them. It takes its
name from a town in Maryland near the Delaware line, where this association
was formed.
Baker died at the home of Dr. Robert Lemon, who was for years the moderator
of this association. He testified to his exalted character, the faithfulness and
power of his preaching, and his triumph in the hour of his death, which seemed
to be a translation rather than a painful dissolution. Morgan Edwards gave an
interesting account of how Baker came to leave Virginia, where he was born in
1742, and was baptized by Samuel Harris, in 1769. He suffered much for the
cause of the truth. He came into Delaware upon “an invitation from Thomas
Batston, Esq., who had heard him preach through the grates in Accomack jail
about the year 1777. The rude Virginians, in order to get rid of him, put him on
board a privateer, where he suffered much abuse, but he continued to sing, and
pray, and exhort notwith-standing, till the crew was tired, and then let him
alone, saying, ‘He is not worth a curse’; but the privateer being detained in the
harbor by contrary wind, the crew suspected the cause was that preaching
fellow, and therefore put him on board another vessel; but the wind continued
contrary, that vessel began to be of the same mind with the privateer, and
therefore shifted him to a third, and the third put him ashore. When Jonah found
himself on dry land he complied with Squire Batston’s invitation.” And be it
said to the credit of Delaware that she had no prison, like Virginia, or whipping
post, like Massachusetts, for Baptists, who were left undisturbed in their views
and practices.
The account which Edwards gives of his co-laborer is not without interest:
Rev. Philip Hughes shares in the praise of Mr. Baker, as they were fellow
laborers in most of the good that was done in this and other States. He was
born in Colver county, November 28, 1750, bred a Churchman, avowed his
present sentiments, August 10, 1773, when he was baptized by Rev. David
Thompson, called to the ministry in Rowanty church, was ordained at an
Association held in Virginia, August 13, 1776. He published a volume of
hymns in 1782, many of which are of his own composing; also an answer to a
Virginia clergyman on the subject of baptism in 1784. He was also obliged
twice to appear on the stage to dispute on the subject — once in Fouling Creek
in Maryland in 1782. His antagonist was a Methodist preacher of the name of
Willis. Victory was announced by both parties, but facts varied much, for after
the dispute three class leaders and many others were baptized by Mr. Hughes.
The other dispute was held near the mouth of the Potomac, in Virginia, in the
year 1785. Mr. Hughes’challenger was one Coles, another Methodist
preacher. Here the victory was decisive, for twenty-two of the audience were
baptized the next day, and soon after as many more by Rev. Lewis Lunsford
(Morgan Edwards, Materials for a Baptist History of Delaware, 247, 248.
Cook, The Early and Later Delaware Baptists, 22-24. Philadelphia, 1880).
The Sounds Baptist Church was the second church organized in Delaware, and
was one of the constituent churches of the Salisbury Association. It was formed
August 12, 1779, with twenty-one members. During the first thirteen years six
preachers came from this body (Scharf, History of Delaware, II. 1342.
Philadelphia, 1888).
The laws of Connecticut were rigid against all sectaries. The following law was
enacted by the General Court, in October, 1656:
That no town within this jurisdiction shall entertain any Quakers, Ranters,
Adamites, or such like notorious heretics, nor suffer them to continue in them
above the space of 14 days, upon the penalty of five pounds.
In 1658, the Court of New Haven made a similar law increasing the penalties
and prohibiting all conversation of the common people with any heretics
(Quakers, Baptists, etc.) and of all persons giving them any entertainment upon
penalty of five pounds (Trumbull, History of Connecticut, I. 299, 300).
The following is the enactment of May, 1723:
And it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that whatsoever person not
being a lawfully allowed (Congregational) minister of the gospel shall presume
to profane the holy sacraments by administering them to any person or persons
whatsoever, and being thereof convicted before the County Court, in such
County where such an offence shall be committed, shall incur the penalty of ten
pounds for every such an offence, and suffer corporeal punishment by
whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes for each offence (Records of the State of
Connecticut, V. May, 1723. Trumbull, II. 38).
In December, 1740, John Merriman, pastor of the Baptist church at
Wallingford, invited Rev. Philemon Robbins, pastor of the Congregational
Church in Bradford, to preach for him. Mr. Robbins accepted the invitation and
preached to the Baptist Church in Willingford, January 6, 1741; for this offense,
the New Haven Congregational Association laid Mr. Robbins under censure,
and finally deposed him from the ministry. A majority of the church in Bradford
decided with the pastor rather than with the New Haven Association,
renounced the Saybrook and adopted the Cambridge platform; for this act the
New Haven Association held the Bradford church under censure till 1748
(Trumbull, II.). In 1741, Rev. Mr. Humphreys, of Derby, a Congregational
minister, preached to a Baptist church, and on that account was soon after
deprived of a seat in the New Haven Association (Trumbull, II.).
In February, 1744, fourteen persons were arrested in Sayville for holding a
Baptist meeting; the charge brought against them was, “for holding meeting
contrary to law, on God’s holy Sabbath day.” They were arraigned, tried, fined,
and driven on foot, through a deep mud, to New London jail, a distance of
twenty-five miles, where they were thrust into prison, without food, fire, or
beds, and kept in dreadful sufferings for several weeks, and probably would
have perished had not some Baptist brethren, residing in New London, Great
Neck, carried them provisions. One of the imprisoned was an infant, who
afterwards became the wife of Mr. Stephen Webb, of Chester. Another was an
unconverted man by the name of Job Buckley; the prayers and Christian
patience with which these Christians bore their sufferings in jail were blessed to
his conversion; when they were released they formed a church in Sayville,
placed his name first on the list of constituent members (Trumbull, II.).
The earliest operations of the Baptists in Connecticut were commenced by a
small colony from Rhode Island, in the year 1705. It was in New London
county, in the southeast part of the State. This part of the State was a
distinguished resort for the advocates of the standing order. A great excitement
was raised on account of the baptisms, and the Legislature was asked to
suppress the innovations. At this time no Baptist church was formed, and the
believers under this strong opposition united with a church in Rhode Island.
Here, however, at a later date, Baptist churches multiplied and sent out
branches in various directions; and here were revivals great and powerful.
The first church organized in the colony was planted at Groton in 1705, by
Valentine Wightman. The second was organized at Waterford, then a part of
New London, about the year 1710. The third was gathered at Wallingford, in
1735, with Timothy Waters as pastor, who was succeeded by John Merriman.
Three were established in 1743: one in Stonington, one in Lyne, and one in
Clochester. A seventh was gathered at Saybrook in 1744.
Their progress at first was extremely slow, and much embarrassed; they had to
work their way against the deep-rooted prejudices of a people who had always
been taught that the Baptists were the descendants of the mad men of Munster;
that they propagated errors of a pestilential and dangerous kind; that they were
aiming to subvert all the established forms of religion in the land, and by their
disorganizing and heretical principles to ruin all the Pedobaptist churches in the
land; and for the people to hear them preach, or for the magistrates to permit
them to meet, was an enormous crime.
These were only shadowy obstacles compared with the severity of the laws with
which the Connecticut rulers had fenced their ecclesiastical establishment. In the
New Light stir, the foundations of this establishment were sensibly shaken;
many ministers opposed this extraordinary revival as the fruit of fanaticism and
the devil; divisions ensued; Baptist principles almost everywhere prevailed;
separate meetings were set up in towns and parishes; and many of the New
Lights became Baptists.
By 1789, there were in the State about thirty Baptist churches, and twenty
ministers. From that date the denomination increased much more rapidly than it
had formerly; so that in 1795 the number of churches amounted to sixty, the
ministers about forty, and the communicants a little over three thousand five
hundred. Baptist churches were found in almost every township in the State. In
1842 there were over one hundred churches and sixteen thousand members.
“The first Baptist church in Vermont was organized at Shaftsbury in the latter
part of August, 1768, at a time when the inhabitants were greatly excited over
the contentions between New Hampshire and New York, both claiming
jurisdiction over the New Hampshire Grants. These grants had suddenly risen in
importance, and a very strong current of immigration had set toward them for
eight years previous.
“The earliest records of this pioneer church have been carefully preserved, and,
in quaint language, tell the story of its origin, and incidentally of the other
Shaftsbury churches. They reveal, too, somewhat clearly the character of the
founders of this early church, and the course of their church life. The first entry
in the old church records is as follows:
Shaftsbury in the year, 1768.
1st. A number of Christians, that had before Covenanted to watch over one
another for Good, had much labour about the Doctrins of Christ and the form
of his house. Some of them hold that the Doctrin of laying on of hands is to be
Imposed on Common believers, others hold not. Finally a Number held That
laying on of hands Should not hinder Our building together in Church State,
Not holding it as a Term of Communion.
2ndy. we had a dispute about Telling Experiences. Finally we agreed that
Telling of Experiences of a work of Grace upon the heart of those who offer
themselves to the Church, is in the general, Essential Steps toward admitting
members Into the Church.
August ye latter End a number of Christians being met Together after labor
upon points forementioned we proceeded into the Following order:
Cyprian Downer, John Millington, Samuel Waters, Icabod West, Reuben Ellis,
Thomas Matteson, Lydia Barr, Join together in a most Solemn Covenant as a
Church of Christ to watch over one another in the fear of and to walk in all the
Laws and ordinances of the Lord as members of Christ’s church, depending
upon God for Grace.
“That the church prospered in its earlier years is evident from the fact that, in
August, 1774, they wrote that they had thirty-nine members, twenty of whom
were men. Thomas Mattison, one of the original members, was one of the first
settlers in the town, and its first town clerk, a position which he held for more
than forty years.
“For twelve years the first church in Vermont was without a pastor. There were
two members, with recognized ministerial gifts, whose record was interwoven
with that of the church, and illustrative of its life (Crocker, History of the
Baptists of Vermont, 15, 16. Bellows Falls, Vt., 1913).
Barnas Sears, The New York Baptist Missionary Convention, The Christian
Review, IV. 217-243. Boston, 1839.
CHAPTER 8 — THE BAPTISTS IN MARYLAND AND
NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Ohio Valley — Kentucky — John Finlay — Hunters from North Carolina
— Daniel Boone — Lexington — The Customs of the People — The County
of Fincastle — Baptists the Pioneers — John Lythe Holds “Divine Service” at
Harrodsburg — Bishop Smith on the Baptists — Thomas Tinsley and William
Hickman — John Taylor — William Marshall — Severn’s Valley Church —
Cedar Creek Church — The Traveling Church — Lewis Craig — Other
Famous Preachers — The Negro Servant PeterThe Land and Water Routes to
Kentucky — Calvinistic and Separate Churches — Religious Conditions —
The Revival — John Gano — The Elkhorn Association — Foot Washing —
United Baptists — Augustine Eastin and James Garrard — Cooper Run
Church — A Horrible Murder — The Unitarian Movement-The Universalists.
THE discovery and occupation of the Ohio Valley was a matter of the greatest
political and religious importance. The issue was, should it be French and
Roman Catholic, or English and Protestant? The settlement of Kentucky was
the key to this vexed problem. So the occupation of Kentucky became a
question of international moment.
The delightful country of Kentucky, with its majestic rivers, from time
immemorial had been the resort of wild beasts and of men no less savage, when
in the year 1767 it was visited by John Finlay, and a few wandering white men,
from the British colony of North Carolina, lured to the wilderness by a love for
hunting, and the desire of trading with the Indians, who were then understood
to be at peace. “The country once seen,” says Marshall, one of the earliest
Kentucky historians, “held out abundant inducements to be revisited, and better
known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the attention, and
impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North Carolina, may be
selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the great abundance of wild
game, so conspicuous at this time. And we are assured that the effect lost
nothing of the cause. Forests those hunters had seen — mountains they had
ascended — valleys they had traversed — deer they had killed — and bears
they had successfully hunted. They had heard the howl of the wolf, the whine of
the panther, and the heartrending yell of the savage man with corresponding
sensations of delight, or horror. But these were all lost to memory, in the
contemplation of Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting variety, and
adorned with all the magnificent grace and boldness of nature’s creative energy.
To nature’s children, she herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the
feelings of those rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the sublime,
the marvelous” (Marshall, The History of Kentucky, I. 4. Frankfort, 1824).
Finlay was the pilot of Daniel Boone, and 1769 is the memorable date of the
latter’s arrival in Kentucky. He was not encumbered with worldly goods; had
no local attachments: he possessed only high health and vigorous constitution,
supported by great muscular strength and nervous activity. With the exception
of a few traders who had passed the Cumberland Gap “and viewed with delight
the landscape that stretched away toward the setting sun like an undulating sea
of verdure” (Finlay, Topographical Description of the Western Territory), this
whole sweep of country bordering on the Ohio, was entirely unknown. There
were no permanent settlers in this region and in it no particular interest.
This was a momentous period in American history. These early emigrants came
during the struggle and triumphs of civil and religious liberty in America. On
April 17, 1775, occurred the famous battle of Lexington, near Boston,
Massachusetts. About two months afterwards “a party of hunters had kindled
their evening fire and were seated on their buffalo robes around a cheerful
blaze, deliberating, as may be supposed, about the name by which they should
designate the newly settled site, when the news arrived of the momentous battle
fought in Massachusetts on the 17th of April, 1775. In the enthusiasm of the
moment the spot was called Lexington, to commemorate the event” (Flint,
History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I. 356. Cincinnati, 1833).
Such was the land of Kentucky. The customs of the people who settled this
country were not less noteworthy. An intelligent observer who was reared
under the conditions then existing has described them as follows:
It is no reproach to the first settlers of the country, to say, that they were
enured to danger, to labor, and to rough living — they were chiefly from the
frontier settlements, or had recently been such, in Virginia, or the neighboring
States — and had served an apprenticeship, to their condition in Kentucky,
before they came here. Indeed, it is of such, that new countries are made. For
who else has that sort of Spartan virtue, necessary to conquer nature, in her
most obdurate forms? But Kentucky was destined to ameliorate their condition.
And this history, faithful to the transitory pictures of real life, will exhibit the
contrast, of what they were and what they are, after the lapse of forty years.
Then, the women did the offices of the household-milked the cows — cooked
the mess — prepared the flax — spun, wove, and made the garment, of linen,
or linsey; the men hunted, and brought in the meat — they planted, ploughed,
and gathered in the corn — grinding it into meal, at the hand mill, or pounded it
into hominy, in the mortar, was occasionally the work of either; or the joint
labor of both. The men exposed themselves alone to danger; they fought with
the Indians; they cleared the land; they reared the hut, or built the fort — in
which the women were placed for safety. Much use was made of the skin of
deer, for dress, while the buffalo, the bear skins, were consigned to the floor,
for beds, and covering. There might accidentally be a few articles, brought to
the country for sale, in a private way; but there was no store for supply.
Wooden vessels, either turned or coopered were in common use, as table
furniture. A tin cup was an article of delicate luxury; almost as rare as an iron
fork. Every hunter carried his knife; it was no less the implement of a warrior.
Not unfrequently the rest of the family was left with but one, or two, for the
use of all. A like workmanship, composed the table, and the stool, a slab,
hewed with the axe — and sticks of a similar manufacture, set in, for legs,
supported both. When the bed was by chance, or refinement, elevated above the
floor, and given a fixed place, it was often laid on slabs, placed across poles,
supported on forks, set in the earthen floor; or where the floor was puncheons
— the bedstead, was hewed pieces, pinned on upright posts, or let into them by
auger holes. Other utensils and furniture, were of corresponding description —
applicable to the time. These facts depict the condition, and circumstances of
the country; therefore they merit notice (Marshall, I.).
Virginia under favorable royal patents had vast possessions. The territory of
Kentucky was included in the county of Fincastle, and shortly afterwards it was
constituted into the county of Kentucky. Virginia had furnished many soldiers in
the French and English wars on the Continent, and at the close of the
Revolution the soldiers were paid in Landscript and were permitted to settle
four hundred acres of land in Kentucky. These grants, along with favorable
reports of the country, brought immense numbers of people to the territory,
especially at the close of the Revolutionary War. Says Lewis Collins: “No
country was settled by men of more distinct character from the great mass, and
the infusion of those traits was so common to the population of the early
emigrants, that it will take centuries to eradicate it from their descendants.
More of the gallant officers of the American Revolution, and no less gallant
soldiers, found a retreat in Kentucky than in any other part of America, and they
brought with them to the West the young men of enterprise, talent and courage,
who like Sidney, were to find how to make a way to distinction” (Collins,
History of Kentucky, 308. First edition).
The Baptists were the pioneers of religion in Kentucky. They came with the
earliest permanent settlers. Such is the statement of Collins (p. 108). The Rev.
John Lythe, an Episcopal clergyman, was a member of the legislative assembly,
in Transylvania, May 23, 1775 (Perrin, History of Kentucky), and on Sunday,
May 27, he held “divine service the first time” (Judge Richard Henderson,
Journal of a Trip to Kentucky and of events at Boonesborough). He is not
elsewhere mentioned and there is no evidence that he preached in Kentucky.
The old antagonisms were transferred from Virginia to Kentucky, and the
Episcopal Church found no encouragement in the new settlements. It was
known only as “an organized body of Arminians enlisted in the service of
despotism” (Perrin). Humphrey Marshall, himself an Episcopalian and
thoroughly conversant with the facts, says:
There were in the country, and chiefly from Virginia, many Episcopalians; but
who had formed no church — there being no parson, or minister, of that
denomination to take charge of it. Persons of that description seem not to like
new countries; or to be deficient in zeal, were it not cherished, by parish or
tithe — as was the case in Kentucky (Marshall, I.).
Of Methodists and Presbyterians at this period there is no mention.
Previous to the year 1781 there was not a Baptist church in the State. There
were, however, many Baptists in Kentucky. There were several Baptist
preachers who had emigrated to the State, and the story of the eight years of
beginnings is intensely interesting. After mentioning that the Baptists were the
first settlers, Bishop B. B. Smith, the celebrated Episcopal Bishop of Kentucky,
in an annual address in 1863, says of these early Kentucky Baptists:
Many of these Baptist dogmas rung like a tocsin in the ears of the poor white
people. An unlettered clergy, nor haughtily superior to the poor; a laborious
unpaid clergy, shared in the daily toils, and thankful for the rough hospitality of
the poorest farmer; forms of religion, which made the wild wood and the
mountain stream, ever dear to the heart of the backwoodsman the most fit and
welcome temple of Jehovah, and in their estimation, the only consecrated font
of baptism. No stately altars, no dignified vestments, no costly sacramental
vases, no pompous dignitaries, no far fetched ministerial commission, no sober
forms of prayer for them. Their sons and brothers, in everyday attire, often in
their shirt sleeves, and with their own home-spun modes of speech, rich in the
embroidering of inspired sentences, and eloquent with all the ardor of
impassioned earnestness, preached to them the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and labored for them freely as their servants in the gospel for Jesus’sake. Add
to this, the stern enthusiasm of the Calvinistic creed, the fond allurements of a
republican form of government, and the prestige of an imposing primitive rite,
administered in a mode plainly consonant with the Scripture, and who can
wonder that they carried all before them.
It was a bright Sunday in April, 1776, that the sound of a horn called the little
settlement of Harrodsburg to worship. The whole population of Kentucky at
the time numbered less than one hundred. The meeting was held near the spring
under an expanding elm tree. The preacher was Thomas Tinsley, assisted by
William Hickman, who was not yet ordained as a minister. Not much is known
of Tinsley, but he was described as a “son of thunder.” Hickman filled a large
place in Kentucky Baptist history. John Taylor says “this man had a great range
in Kentucky for nearly forty years.” “Though now about seventy-six years old,”
continues Taylor, “he walks and stands as erect as a palm tree, being at least six
feet high, rather of lean texture, his whole deportment solemn and grave, and
like Caleb, the servant of the Lord of old, at four score years of age, was as
capable of going to war as when he was young” (Taylor, A History of the Ten
Churches).
John Taylor was himself a man of great power. He labored hard on his farm.
After mentioning a certain day’s work which he had accomplished that seemed
to be impossible, he remarked: “I name this day’s work that it may be
accounted for how I cleared nearly four hundred acres of land in the heavy
forests of Kentucky, besides making other improvements.” He then remarks:
We had to pack corn forty miles, and then send a mile to grind it at a handmill,
before we could get bread; as to meat, it must come from the woods, and
myself no hunter; I would at times go out with hunters and they with the
common generosity of hunters would admit me a share in the profits so far as
meat went. Soon after I settled in my little cabin (sixteen feet square, with no
floor except the natural earth, without table, bedstead or stool) I found that an
old buck had his lodge a few hundred steps from my cabin among the nettles,
high as a man’s shoulders, and interlocked with pea vines; those nettles, the
next winter we found to be very useful, in getting the lint and with the help of
buffalo wool, made good clothing for our black people — however, I went
every morning to visit the old buck lodge, hoping to get a shot at him, I could
sometimes see him — but I at length got a fire at him and accidentally shot him
through the heart, this was a greater treat for my family than the largest
bullock I have ever killed since, for he was large and fat (Taylor).
He was equally laborious as a minister. George Stokes Smith was a “man of
great responsibility, a doctrinal preacher of simplicity and plainness.” William
Marshall was the first permanent preacher in the State. “His tall, graceful form,
dark piercing eye and engaging manners made him the pride of the circle in
which he moved.” There were six Baptist preachers in Kentucky as early as
1780, but there were no churches.
The Severn’s Valley Church, the first in Kentucky, was organized, June 18,
1781. It is now known as Elizabethtown. The ministers present were Joseph
Barnett, John Whitaker and John Gerrard. Gerrard was called as pastor and
ordained to the ministry. He was the first pastor of a church in Kentucky. His
was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The church was organized under
a green sugar tree. There were eighteen members, three of whom were colored,
in the constitution of the church.
The Cedar Creek Church, five miles from Bardstown, was organized July 4,
1781. This was the second church in Kentucky. It was probably from patriotic
motives that the church was constituted on Independence Day. This was while
the Revolutionary War was still in progress. The church was gathered by
Joseph Barnett and he was assisted by John Gerrard. Barnett was pastor for
some years. Two of the members, Judge James Slaughter and James Rogers,
were members of the Danville Convention.
The famous Traveling Church worshiped for the first time at Gilbert’s Creek,
Lincoln county, the second Lord’s day in December, 1781 (Ford, History of
Kentucky Baptists, The Christian Repository, March, 1856). This story dates
far back in Virgins history, as has already been seen, when Craig had fallen
under the heavy hand of the Established Church. Craig was far from possessing
a cultivated mind, but being a sensible man, and having a very musical voice,
with agreeable manners, and, especially going forth under the constraining
influence of the love of Christ, he excited much interest among the people
whom he addressed. He traveled continually, and under his pungent preaching,
and impassioned earnestness he won multitudes of converts. The Baptist church
organized, between the James and the Rappahannock rivers, called Lower
Spotsylvania, afterwards Craig’s, was the fruit of his labor. He became pastor
and the church greatly prospered.
He was continually annoyed by members of the Establishment and more than
once imprisoned. The time had come for Craig and his church to emigrate to
Kentucky. It was perhaps on the church meeting day, September 2, 1781, that
he announced his purpose. An appointed day was set when all who would go to
“a foreign land” would meet at the church house. Many were the ministers who
assembled on the set day. Among them were Elijah Craig, who had eaten rye
bread in prison; Ambrose Dudley, who had often labored with him; William E.
Waller and the aged shepherd William Ellis; and John Waller, the most
picturesque of the early Baptist ministers of Virginia, was also there. These men
of God embraced and parted, some of them, forever. The feelings of Waller
were expressed in rude poetry. About two hundred of the members agreed to
go into the wilderness land. This left but few behind. Preachers were not lacking
in the expedition itself. Joseph Bledsoe of the Wilderness Church and father of
the afterwards noted Senator James Bledsoe of Kentucky; Joseph Craig “the
man who laid down in the road”; William Cave and Simeon Watson were four
of a number of preachers who accompanied it. So the church, the pastor and the
clerk with the old church book started upon the journey. It was in the month of
October. The church had been constituted in 1767 by Read Harris and Dutton
Lane.
This was the most considerable company that had yet gone to Kentucky. The
old historian calls Kentucky “the vortex of Baptist preachers.” Semple adds: “It
is questionable with some whether half of the Baptist preachers raised in
Virginia have not emigrated to the Western country.” This exodus was no small
affair for its day and generation. The moving train included church members,
their children, negro slaves, and other emigrants, who, for better protection, had
attached themselves to an organized expedition, between five and six hundred
souls (Ranck, The Traveling Church, 13. Louisville, 1891). The women rode
on horseback carrying the children; the men walked probably the entire distance
of more than six hundred miles. On arriving at Gilbert’s Creek, William
Marshall preached on Sunday.
Craig had anticipated the needs of his church. Early the year before his removal
he had sent his old Negro servant, Peter, to go to the new place and make a
crop of corn. Peter was a member of the Spotsylvania Church and a very
effective preacher. With a two-horse wagon, and farming implements, he had
gone through the wilderness. In the spring he planted a crop of corn, but about
the time the corn tasseled an excursion of Indians laid all to waste.
Discouraged, the Negro returned and arrived in Virginia about the time the
church began to move. Peter became the guide of the church to its new home.
He was long a faithful preacher among his people. The fort was built and the
people became settled in their new home. Finally the church removed north of
the river and organized South Elkhorn Church.
One can hardly appreciate the sufferings and sacrifices of these early Baptists.
There were two routes open to Kentucky, one by land, the other by water. It is
difficult to say which was the more dangerous and toilsome. Lewis Craig
traveled by land, John Taylor by water. He landed on his way to Craig’s station
in December, 1783, at Bear Grass, near Louisville. Taylor says of his journey:
It was a gloomy thing at that time of day, to move to Kentucky — but I had
seen the place, and when I found a growing family to provide for, this
overweighed all, and without a single friend or acquaintance to accompany me,
with my young helpless family, to feel all the horrors that then lay in the way to
Kentucky — we took water at Redstone, and for want of a better opening, I
paid for a passage, in a lonely ill-fixed boat of strangers — the River being
low, this lonesome boat, was about seven weeks before she landed at
Beargrass; not a soul was then settled on the Ohio between Wheeling and
Louisville, a space of five or six hundred miles, and not one hour, day or night,
in safety. Though it was not winter, not a soul in all Beargrass settlement was
in safety but by being in a fort — I then meditated about traveling about eighty
miles, to Craig’s station on Gilbert’s Creek, in Lincoln county; we set out in a
few days — nearly all I owned was then at stake, I had three horses, two of
them were packed, the other my wife rode, with as much lumber besides as the
beast could bear; I had four black people, one man and three smaller ones. The
pack horses were led, one by myself, the other by my man — the trace, what
there was, being so narrow and bad, we had no chance but to wade through all
the mud, rivers and creeks we came to. Salt River, with a number of its large
branches we had to deal with often; those waters being flush, we often must
wade to our middle, and though the weather was very cold, the ice was not very
troublesome, those struggles often made us forget the danger we were in from
the Indians — we only encamped in the woods one night, where we could only
look for protection from the Lord, one Indian might have defeated us, for
though I had a rifle, I had very little use of it; after six days painful travel of
this kind, we arrived at Craig’s Station, a little before Christmas and about
three months after our start from Virginia. Through all of this rugged travel my
wife was in a very helpless state, for about one month after our arrival my son
Ben was born (Taylor).
The three churches organized in Kentucky in 1781 were all Calvinistic or the
Regular Baptists. The Regular Baptist preachers were Barnett, Whitaker,
Marshall, Lewis Craig, and probably Richard Cave and George Stokes Smith.
All of these except the first two were Separate Baptists in Virginia. The
Separate Baptists as yet had organized no churches. In the whole country there
were but three churches and nine preachers. There were probably two churches
organized the next year and both were of the Separate order. At the close of the
year 1784 there were eight small churches in the State, and not one house of
worship. The winter of this year was unprecedented for coldness and many of
the inhabitants were forced to eat dead carcasses.
The religious condition of the people was even worse than their temporal
affairs. John Taylor says of this period:
Embarrassed as my worldly circumstances were, the face of things, as to
religion, gave me more pain of mind; there were a number of Baptists scattered
about, but we all seemed cold as death. Everybody had so much to do that
religion was scarcely talked of, even on Sundays. All our meetings seemed only
the name of things, with but little of the spirit of devotion (Taylor).
There is likewise the testimony of David Rice, a Presbyterian minister. He had
previously visited the State, and he moved there in October, 1783. The
Presbyterians had become numerous and he says of them:
After I bad been here some weeks, and had preached at several places. I found
scarcely one man, and but few women, who supported a credible profession of
religion. Some were grossly ignorant of the first principles of religion. Some
were given to quarreling and fighting, some to profane swearing, some to
intemperance, and perhaps the most of them totally negligent of the forms of
religion in their own houses. I could not think that a church formed of such
materials as these could properly be called a church of Christ. With this I was
considerably distressed, and made to cry, Where am I? What situation am I in?
Many of these produced certificates of their having been regular members in
full communion and good standing in the churches from whence they had
emigrated, and this they thought entitled them to what they called Christian
privileges here. Others would be angry and raise a quarrel with their neighbors
if they did not certify, contrary to their knowledge and belief, that the bearer
was a good moral character. I found indeed very few on whose information I
could rely respecting the moral character of those who wished to be church
members (Rice, Memoirs).
The year 1785 brought a fruitful revival among the churches of Kentucky. The
good work spread into many communities and churches. The revival drew the
churches and pastors closer together. At the close of this year there had been
constituted in Kentucky, eighteen churches, eleven of Regular Baptists, and
seven of Separate Baptists. There were in Kentucky at the same time nineteen
Baptist preachers (Spencer, History of Kentucky Baptists, I.) Of the first
twenty-five Baptist preachers who settled in Kentucky, twenty are known to
have been Separate Baptists in Virginia and North Carolina; of the other five,
only Joseph Barnett is known to have been a Regular Baptist. Yet, after they
settled, eighteen of the twenty-five subscribed to the Philadelphia Confession of
Faith and identified themselves with the Regular Baptists. The Separate Baptists
organized most of the churches on the south side of the Kentucky river,
constituted previous to the year 1786, and two on the north side of that stream.
The Regular Baptists had two churches on the south side of that river (Spencer
I.).
The revival having drawn the Baptists of Kentucky together, and the need of
organization being acknowledged by all, it was hoped that all could unite in one
body. But though the doctrinal differences were not great, and the methods not
radically different, harmony was not at this time attained. The Separates were
not willing to form an association; but the Regular Baptists, in 1785,
constituted two associations, the Elkhorn and the Salem. The Elkhorn
Association had thirteen churches and five hundred and fifty-nine members. A
writer in Rippon’s Register for 1790 reports the meeting of the Association at
Lexington as follows
The increase since the last meeting amounted to 222, and their whole number
was 1,383. There has been a considerable addition to some of our churches
since the association. The Calvinistic system prevails much; we have a number
of General Baptists in Kentucky, some Presbyterians, a few of the Church of
England, with a variety of other sects. Liberty of conscience is unlimited
among us. I never remember the ministers of Christ more strengthened to
preach the truth, than they are of late. … The Rev. John Gano was surely sent
hither by Providence; he is a blessing to our new country; he and his family are
in health. He is a valuable preacher.
The coming of John Gano was indeed a blessing. It was very fitting upon the
sitting of the first Legislature of Kentucky, in Lexington, Monday, June 4,
1792, he was chosen chaplain of both houses.
The history of the organization of the South Association of Separate Baptists is
involved in obscurity. It would appear that a preliminary meeting was held in
October, 1787, and in May, 1788, the organization was completed. Asplund in
his Register for 1790 says of them:
Adopted no articles of faith, only the Bible; they hold to general provision.
Correspond only with the General Committee, by letter, and sometimes
delegates. Their annual meeting is held on the second Thursday in October, and
besides this, they have two occasional associations in May and August, hold
three days.
In 1792 they reaffirmed their principles as follows:
1. What was the Separate Baptists first constituted upon, in Kentucky? Ans.
The Bible.
2. How did we become united with the Baptists of Virginia, called United
Baptists? Ans. On a letter the Committee of Baptists in Virginia, in Richmond,
directed to be written to us, in Kentucky, bearing date, October 2, 1788, from
under the signature of Reuben Ford and William Webber.
3. Did those terms oblige us to receive any part of the Philadelphia Confession
of Faith? Ans. No.
4. Do we agree to abide by the constitution and terms of union with the United
Baptists of Virginia? Ans. We do.
The South Kentucky Association decided against all creeds and accepted the
Bible alone as their confession of faith. They decided in favor of foot washing.
At their preliminary meeting the following decisions were published:
1. Declared that they thought that all ministerial difficulties should be settled
by a company of ministers, and that, if any minister was supposed to preach
any unsound doctrine, two ministers might suspend or stop him from
preaching, until he could be tried by a sufficient number of ministers; and it
was provided also, that the churches should have power to cite anyone,
suspected of preaching unsound doctrine, before the ministers, in order for
trial.
2. They also defined what power there was in a gospel church, viz.: To receive
into her communion, and expel from it, such members as she may choose,
according to the gospel discipline; also to choose their own pastor, to refuse
him, when it shall appear that he is no longer their pastor; also to
excommunicate him for immoral conduct, as any other member.
The union between these two parties was not effected till the year 1801. By this
time those little party asperities, which had unhappily prevailed, were much
mollified and diminished; their cold and indifferent charity for each other was
inflamed; and with the most of them their notion of doctrine was found to be
not so different as they had supposed. A union was now proposed in earnest,
and soon effected with ease. Both associations had become large, containing
together some seven or eight thousand members. Committees were appointed
by both sides to confer on the subject of union, and after mature deliberation
agreed upon the following terms:
1. That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the infallible Word
of God and the only rule of faith and practice.
2. That there is only one true God, and in the Godhead or Divine Essence there
are Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
3. That by nature we are fallen and depraved creatures:
4. That salvation, regeneration, sanctification and justification are by the life,
death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
5. That saints will persevere through grace to glory.
6. That believers’baptism, by immersion, is necessary to receive the Lord’s
Supper.
7. That the salvation of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked will be
eternal.
8. That it is a duty to be tender and affectionate to one another, and to study
the happiness of the children of God in general; to be engaged singly to
promote the honor of God.
9. That preaching Christ tasted death for every man shall be no bar to
communion.
10. And that each church may keep up their association and church government
as to them may seem best.
11. That a free correspondence and communion be kept up between the
churches thus united.
Unanimously agreed to by the joint committee.
Ambrose Dudley
David Ramsey
John Price
Thomas J. Chilton
Joseph Redding
Moses Bledsoe
Robert Elkin
Samuel Johnson.
Thus were the names Regular and Separate no longer used and the name
assumed was that of United Baptists.
A harsh note of discord was heard just as the sweet melody of the revival and
brotherly love began to subside, and before they had ceased. It originated in the
Cooper Run Church, Bourbon county, near the present site of Paris. This was
an old and honored church, having been constituted in 1787, and was probably
gathered by Augustine Eastin and James Garrard. The church had been
organized in the midst of privations and dangers, the contemplation of which
still chills the blood. The following incident is recorded of the church:
On the night of the 11th of April, nine months after the establishment of the
church, a widow, named Shanks, a member of Cooper Run church, lived in a
lonely cabin in a lonely part of the country. Two sons, a widowed daughter,
with an infant at her breast, and three unmarried daughters, composed the
pious, but bereaved family. At midnight, hurried steps were heard, succeeded
by sudden knocks at the door, and accompanied by the usual exclamation,
“Who keeps house here?” The lady at once recognized the Indian accent, and
springing from her bed, waked her sons. Efforts were made to force the door;
but the discharge of the young men’s rifles obliged the Indians to shift the
attack to a less exposed point. The three girls were in another part of the
humble cabin. The door was discovered and soon forced from its hinges, the
oldest daughter tomahawked, the second made a prisoner, whilst the youngest
fled in confusion, and ran around the cabin, wringing her hands with imploring
cries. The mother and brothers within heard her cries, and would have
attempted to save her; but a scream, a moan, and all was silent. They knew she
had fallen under the hatchet of the merciless foe. Soon the other end of the
cabin was in flames. Rapidly they spread, revealing to the helpless inmates the
smile of triumph on the dark countenances of their murderers. All was lost. A
brief prayer went up from the aged widow, expressing her trust in him to whom
her spirit would soon return. They unbarred the door; and as she reached the
style, amid the bright blaze of the burning cabin, she fell dead. The youngest
son defended his endeared sister and babe, and they escaped, while his corpse
lay beside that of his mother; and the older brother, wounded, and bleeding,
after displaying the most intrepid valor, also escaped. These three survivors,
and the five who fell, were members of the Cooper Run church (Ford, History
of Kentucky Baptists, The Christian Repository, 362. July, 1856).
It was in such a church as this honored by martyrs, and having a highly
intellectual membership, that the trouble began. James Garrard was elected
Governor of Kentucky. Marshall says of this event:
General B. Logan, and James Garrard, Esq., perhaps, he should be styled,
“Reverend — ” as he had recently been, or was then a preacher in the Baptist
society; were the candidates, for the office of governor. Both were thought to
be sufficiently democratic; and the votes were nearly equal; Garrard was
certified to be governor. The first of June, he entered into the office, and chose
for his secretary, Harry Toulmin, who had been a follower of Dr. Priestly in
England, and recently a preacher, of the Unitarian sort. Hence they preached no
more — and applied themselves to the more immediate duties of their
respective offices; which they discharged to general satisfaction (Marshall, II.).
Toulmin, who was a polished Unitarian preacher, was appointed Secretary of
State by Governor Garrard for both terms in which he served as governor. He
had come to the State with complimentary letters from Thomas Jefferson. He
was received as a Baptist preacher, but he was in reality a Unitarian in his
beliefs. He had an elevated character, and was highly regarded for his learning
and piety. Toward the close of his second term Toulmin converted Garrard to
his opinions.
At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Transylvania University, February 5,
1794, Toulmin was elected by a majority vote President of that institution. This
election was the signal for open warfare upon the University by the
Presbyterians and others. Dr. Davidson says:
The Presbyterian members of the Board strongly remonstrated against this
procedure, and exerted all their influence to prevent its mischievous
consequences; but they were overruled by a mad and misguided majority, and a
fatal blow was thus given to the prosperity of the school (Robert Peter, The
History of Transylvania University, Filson Club Publications).
He was also opposed by Ambrose Dudley. There was constant trouble in the
University till he resigned in April, 1796.
About the year 1802 Governor Garrard and Augustine Eastin began to
promulgate Arian, or rather Socinian sentiments. The majority of the church,
and several neighboring churches to which Eastin preached, espoused the
doctrines of Garrard and their minister. The introduction of Arian doctrines in
this manner was no small affair among the Baptists of Kentucky.
James Garrard was one of the most intellectual, influential and popular men in
Kentucky (Butler, History of Kentucky). He was born January 14, 1749, in
Virginia, and served as an officer in the militia in the War of the Revolution, and
later he was elected to the Virginia legislature. Semple says of him:
While in Virginia he was distinguished by his fellow citizens, and elected to the
Assembly and military appointments. After he moved to Kentucky he began to
preach, and was thought to possess talents for the pulpit. He continued to
preach until he was made governor. For the honors of men he resigned the
office of God. He relinquished the clerical robe for the more splendid mantle of
human power. The prophet says to Asa: “If ye forsake God, he will forsake
you.” It is not strange that Colonel Garrard, after such a course, should fall
into many foolish and hurtful snares.
Let it be tried a thousand times, and in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases it
will be found that preachers who aim at worldly honors will be completely
ruined or greatly depreciated as preachers.
It is due to Governor Garrard to say that his conduct has been orderly and,
indeed, gentlemanly, and that he has honored every other character which he
has ever assumed, except the one which, of all others, he ought to have valued
(Semple, 407).
To him, however, belongs much of the honor of securing religious freedom in
the Virginia Legislature. Collins says: “He contributed by his zeal and prudence,
as much, or perhaps more than any other individual, to the passage of the
famous act securing religious freedom” (Collins, Historical Sketches of
Kentucky) Collins continues:
He was an early emigrant to Kentucky, and was exposed to all the perils and
dangers incident to the settlement and occupation of the country. He was
repeatedly called by the voice of his fellow citizens to represent their interests
of the State; and finally, by two successive elections, was elected to the chief
magistracy of the commonwealth, a trust which, for eight years, he discharged
with wisdom, prudence and vigor.
As a man, Governor Garrard had few equals; and, in the various scenes and
different stations of life, he acted with firmness, prudence and decision. At an
early age, he embraced and professed the religion of Christ, giving it, through
life, the preference over all sublunary things. In the private circle ‘he was a
man of great practical usefulness, and discharged with fidelity and tenderness
the social and relative duties of husband, parent, neighbor, master. He died on
the 19th of January, at his residence, Mount Lebanon, in Bourbon county, in
the seventy-fourth year of his age.
For ten years he served the Elkhorn Association as moderator. He was not a
ready public speaker but he never declined to address his fellow men on the
subject, of religion. The defection of such a man was of no small moment.
Augustine Eastin was likewise a man of note. He was the only pastor Cooper
Run Church had ever had. He came from Goochland county, Virginia, and for a
time he was in Chesterfield jail for his religious convictions. But he was
unstable in his ways. Semple says of him:
Augustine Eastin, who removed to Kentucky, and who, though a man of some
talent, was never any credit to the cause of truth. He appears always to have
been carried away with the opinions of others whom he wished to imitate.
Sometimes he was a professed and positive Calvinist; and then shifting about
he becomes warm as an Arminian. And then to the right about again he is
reconvinced that Calvinism is the only true way. Having removed to Kentucky
he finds some professors of high standing in civil life who lean to the Arian
scheme. Mr. Eastin soon became their champion, and even writes a pamphlet in
defense of Arianism. This last change has made much noise among the Baptists
of Kentucky. … Mr. Eastin’s moral character has not been impeached. On this
head he and his coadjutors are men of high respectability (Semple).
Every effort was made to reclaim these individuals and churches. A committee
consisting of David’Barrow, John Price, Ambrose Dudley, Joseph Redding and
Carter Tarrant was appointed by the Elkhorn Association to visit Cooper Run
Church, Flat Lick, Indian Creek and Union Churches and try to convince them
of their error on the subject of the Trinity. The Association in the meantime
reaffirmed the old articles of faith on the subject. The attempt at reclamation
was unsuccessful and the Association reluctantly dropped them from
connection and correspondence. For some time, the minds of many were much
agitated by these new subjects of speculation; and the, eminence and ability of
the men by whom they were propagated excited fearful apprehensions of their
extensive prevalence. It may be recorded to the credit of the Baptists, that
although Garrard and Eastin were much beloved, and of powerful influence, yet
they could but take a very inconsiderable faction with them, which declined
gradually and noiselessly away. Unitarianism never obtained favor with the
Baptists of Kentucky (Benedict, II. 231).
From this date on the Baptists consistently opposed Unitarianism. When Dr.
Holley, a Unitarian minister, from Boston, was elected President of
Transylvania University he was “deserted by the three leading denominations of
Christians, the Baptists, the Methodists and the Presbyterians, and the (school)
was sinking and must perish without a change” (The Western Luminary, a
weekly Presbyterian paper, published from June 14, 1824, to July 6, 1825, p.
403. April). He was opposed among the Baptists by Dr. James Fishback, and
whatever may have been his vagaries, which subjected him to much adverse
criticism, he was an avowed opponent of Unitarianism. He said that Dr. Holly
was “a natural religionist” and claimed that “whatever Christianity contained in
distinction to natural religion was useless and false” (Davidson, History of the
Presbyterian Church in Kentucky). This incident will suggest the attitude of the
Baptists toward the Unitarians.
About this time, in the South Kentucky Association of Separate Baptists, a
popular minister, John Bailey, embraced the sentiments of the Restorationists or
universalists. He was generally believed to be a pious man, and a majority of the
association was devotedly attached to him; and insisted, although he had
preached this doctrine, that he did it in a manner not to offend the most delicate
ear (Collins). On this account the association was miserably rent asunder.
“Hell Redemption,” as it was called, first came up in the association in 1791.
Bailey had been preaching the doctrine and William Bledsoe also embraced it.
The association took action as follows:
Query. Whether the Association will hold a member in society, that propagates
the doctrine of Restoration from hell? Agreed, they would not.
Bailey voted in the affirmative and two others were neutral. A presbytery was
appointed to examine Bailey and demand of him his credentials if it was thought
fit. James Smith, one of the Committee, was accused of saying that he believed
that all men, for whom Christ died, would be saved. This accusation was
proved. But upon his examination the association agreed that he did not teach
Redemption from Hell. At this juncture, the body saw fit to agree “to abide by
the plan upon which the churches of our union were constituted in October,
1787, and May, 1788.”
The way was opened in 1799 for the return of Bailey without enquiring into his
private sentiments, provided he lived an orderly life. He was a brilliant orator
and a popular man. There were many divisions and much strife. The
associations of the State ceased correspondence with them. The association
entertained many loose opinions and finally went off with the antimissionary
movement.
History of Kentucky, by the late Lewis Collins, revised, enlarged fourfold, and
brought down to the year 1874 by his son, Richard H. Collins. Covington,
1878. 2 volumes.
Robert McNutt McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation’s History. New York, 1909.
J. H. Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists from 1769 to 1885, including
more than 800 Biographical Sketches. Printed for the Author, 1886. 2
volumes.
William Dudley Nowlin, Kentucky Baptist History 1770-1922. Louisville, 1922.
CHAPTER 2 — THE BAPTISTS OF THE
OHIO VALLEY
The Ohio Valley — The Conditions — George Rogers Clark — The American
Settlers — The French Settlers — The First Churches in Ohio — John Smith
and James Lee — The Indians — The Miami Association — Illinois — J.M.
Peck — Indiana — Isaac McCoy and George Waller — Judge Holman —
Missouri — Iowa Hardships — Bethel Church — Fee Fee Church —
Tennessee Middle Tennessee — Alabama — Revivals in Alabama.
THE settlement of Kentucky brought vast changes in other sections of the Ohio
Valley. The movements here involve almost the entire early history of this
country. At first the territory was largely under the influence of the French
Roman Catholics. The Jesuit missionary was often in advance of even the
explorer and the fur trader, and while he was eagerly seeking to make converts
of the Indian tribes, the missions planted by him became centers of Roman
Catholic colonization. While such adventurers as La Salle, Joliet, and Nicolet,
were extending westward and southward the limits of discovery, Marquette and
his associates were no less active, and with no less of daring and selfsacrifice, in
preparing the way for what was meant should be a definite and permanent
settlement in the country.
“Soldiers and fur traders,” says Parkman, “followed where these pioneers of the
church led the way. Forts were built here and there throughout the country, and
the cabins of the settlers clustered about the mission houses.” The “new
colonists, emigrants from Canada or disbanded soldiers of French regiments,”
however wild in their habits of life, were devout Catholics, and wherever a little
community of them gathered there was a center of the Roman faith. The
missionaries were animated, no doubt, in the main by intense desire for the
conversion of the native tribes. “While the colder apostles of Protestantism
labored on the outskirts of heathendom, these champions of the cross, the
forlorn hope of the army of Rome, pierced to the heart of its dark and dreary
domain, confronted death at every step and were well repaid for all, could they
but sprinkle a few drops of water on the forehead of a child, or hang a golden
crucifix round the neck of some warrior, pleased with the glittering trinket”
(Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, II.). None the less they were the
instruments of designs far more secular in character.
As intimated in the first words of the above extract, Protestantism found no
such fervid championship. The day was to come when a different form of effort
for conversion of the natives should be made by ministers of a truer faith and
with better results than those just described. At this time, Protestantism was
represented simply in the person of the American pioneer, seeking a home
farther and farther in the depths of the western wilderness, perhaps with his
religious instructor and guide sharing with him the rude conditions of the
wilderness life, perhaps not, yet in either case representative of ideas which
must mean in western development something far different from all that
appeared in the Jesuit missionary of the Canadian settler (Smith, A History of
the Baptists in the Western States East of the Mississippi).
Under such conditions collisions were inevitable. As French adventurers and
colonization moved westward by way of the great lakes, and southward and
westward to the Ohio and the Mississippi, they found after a time their right of
occupancy disputed. Meantime, while French and English were contending on
battlefields in Europe, it could not fail to happen that wherever representatives
of those two nationalities should meet in the new world, it must be as enemies,
not as friends.
The conquest of the country by General George Rogers Clark, in 1778, and the
organization of a civil government by Virginia, opened the way for an American
emigration. “All that rich domain northwest of the Ohio was secured to the
public at the peace of 1783, in consequence of the prowess of Clark”
(Appleton, Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Article, George Rogers
Clark).
These early American settlers have been thus described by Hon. John Moses:
The larger proportion of these first American settlers came from Virginia and
Maryland. While a few had received a rudimentary education, and had lived
among communities which may be said to have been comparatively cultured,
the most of them were hardy, rough, uncultivated backwoodsmen. They had
been accustomed only to the ways of the frontier and camp. Many of them had
served in the war of the Revolution, and all of them in the border wars with the
Indians. While they were brave, hospitable, and generous, they were more at
ease beneath the forest bivouac than in the “living room” of the log cabin, and
to swing a woodsman’s axe among the lofty trees of the primeval forest was a
pursuit far more congenial to their rough nature and active temperament than
to mingle with society in settled communities. Their habits and manners were
plain, simple, and unostentatious. Their clothing was generally made of the
dressed skins of the deer, wolf, or fox, while those of the buffalo and elk
supplied them with covering for their feet and hands. Their log cabins were
destitute of glass, nails, hinges, or locks. Their furniture and utensils were in
harmony with the primitive appearance and rude character of their dwellings,
being all home made, and here and there a few pewter spoons, dishes and iron
knives and forks. With muscles of iron and hearts of oak, they united a
tenderness for the weak and a capability for self-sacrifice worthy of an ideal
knight of chivalry, and their indomitable will, which recognized no obstacle as
insuperable, was equaled only by integrity which regarded dishonesty. as an
offense as contemptible as cowardice (Moses, Illinois, Historical and
Statistical).
Over and against these were the French settlers. Parkman thus describes the
colony at Kaskaskia, Illinois:
The Creole of the Illinois, contented, light-hearted, and thriftless, by no means
fulfilled the injunction to increase and multiply, and the colony languished in
spite of the fertile soil. The people labored long enough to gain a bare
subsistence for each passing day, and spent the rest of their time in dancing and
merry making, smoking, gossiping, and hunting. Their native gayety was
irrepressible, and they found means to stimulate it with wine made from the
fruit of the wild grapevines. Thus they passed their days, at peace with
themselves, hand and glove with their Indian neighbors, and ignorant of all the
world besides. Money was scarcely known among them. Skins and furs were
the prevailing currency, and in every village a great portion of the land was
held in common (Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, II.).
The religious conditions of this section of the country have been well described
by Thomas Flint. He says of the religious character of the Western people:
An experiment is making in this vast country, which must ultimately contain so
many millions of people, on the broadest scale on which it has ever been made,
whether religion, as a national distinction of character, can be maintained
without any legislative aid, or even recognition by the government. If there be
any reference to religion, in any of the constitutions and enactments in the
western country, beyond the simple, occasional granting of a distinct
incorporation, it manifests itself in a guarded jealousy of the interference of
religious feeling, or influence with the tenor of legislation. In most of the
constitutions, ministers of the Gospel are expressly interdicted from any office
of profit or trust, in the gift of the people. In none of the enactments are there
any provisions for the support of any form of worship whatever. But if it be
inferred from this, that religion occupies little or no place in the thoughts of the
people, that there are no forms of worship, and few ministers of the Gospel, no
inference can be wider from the fact. It is the settled political maxim of the
west, that religion is a concern entirely between the conscience and God, and
ought to be left solely to his guardianship and care.
Ministers are not settled.
Except among the Catholics, there are few settled pastors, in the sense in which
that phrase is understood in New England and the Atlantic cities. Most of the
ministers, that are in some sense permanent, discharge pastoral duties, not only
in their individual societies, but in a wide district about them. The range of
duties, the emolument, the estimation, the fact, the whole condition of a western
pastor, are widely different from an Atlantic minister.
There are prejudices against contracts between pastors and people.
The people are generally averse to binding themselves by any previous legal
obligations to a pastor for services stipulated to be performed. It is the general
impression, that he ought to derive his support from voluntary contribution
after services performed, and uninfluenced by any antecedent contract or
understanding. There are many towns and villages, where other modes prevail;
but such is the general standing feeling of the west.
The west is not destitute of religious instruction.
It has been a hundred times represented, and in every form of intelligence, in
the eastern religious publications, that there were but few preachers in the
country, and that whole wide districts had no religious instruction, or forms of
worship whatever. We believe from a survey, certainly very general, and we
trust, faithful, that there are as many preachers, in proportion to the people, as
there are in the Atlantic country. A circulating phalanx of Methodists, Baptists,
and Cumberland Presbyterians, of Atlantic missionaries, and of young elders of
the Catholic theological seminaries pervades this great valley with its numerous
detachments, from Pittsburg, the mountains, the lakes, the Missouri, to the gulf
of Mexico.
The ministers are generally itinerants.
There are stationary preachers in towns, particularly in Ohio. But in the rural
congregations through the western country beyond Ohio, it is seldom a minister
is stationary for more than two months. Nine-tenths of the Religious instruction
of the country is given by the people, who itinerate, and who are, with very few
exceptions, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, men of great
zeal and sanctity.
A description of Camp Meetings.
Suppose the scene to be, where the most frequent camp meetings have been,
during the past two years, in one of the beautiful and fertile valleys among the
mountains of Tennessee. On the appointed day, coaches, chaises, wagons,
carts, people on horseback, and multitudes traveling from a distance on foot,
wagons with provisions, matresses, — tents, and arrangements for the stay of a
week, are seen hurrying from every point toward the central spot. It is in the
midst of a grove of those beautiful and lofty trees natural to the valleys of
Tennessee, in its deepest verdure, and beside a spring branch, for the requisite
supply of water.
The line of tents is pitched; and the religious city grows up in a few hours
under the trees, beside the stream. Lamps are hung in lines among the
branches; and the effect of their glare upon the surrounding forest, is as of
magic. By this time the moon, for they take thought to appoint the meeting at
the proper time of the moon, begins to show its disk above the dark summits of
the mountains, and a few stars are seen glimmering through the intervals of the
branches. The whole constitutes a temple worthy of the grandeur of God. An
old man, in a dress of the quaintest simplicity ascends a platform, wipes the
dust from his spectacles, and in a voice of suppressed emotion, gives out the
hymn of which the whole assembled multitude can recite the words, — and an
air in which every voice can join. We should deem poorly of the heart that
would not thrill, as the song is heard like the “sound of many waters,” echoing
from among the hills and mountains. The hoary orator tells of God, of eternity,
a judgment to come, and all that is impressive beyond. He speaks of his
experiences; his toils and travels, his persecutions and welcomes, and how
many he has seen in hope, in peace and triumph, gathered to their fathers; and
when he speaks of the short space which remains to him, his only regret is, that
he can no more proclaim, in the silence of death, the mercies of his crucified
Redeemer.
The effects of Camp Meetings.
Notwithstanding all that has been said in derision of these spectacles, so
common in these regions, it cannot be denied, that the influence, on the whole,
is salutary, and the general bearing upon the great interests of community,
good. The gambling and drinking shops are deserted; and the people that used
to congregate there, now go to the religious meetings.
The usefulness of Methodist and Baptist ministers, missionaries from the East.
The Methodists, too, have done great and incalculable good. They are generally
of a character, education, and training, that prepare them for the element upon
which they are destined to operate. They speak the dialect, understand the
interests, and enter into the feelings of their audience. They exert a prodigious
and incalculable bearing upon the rough backwoodsmen, and do good, where
more polished and trained ministers would preach without effect. No mind but
his for whom they labor can know how many profane they have reclaimed,
drunkards they have reformed, and wanderers they have brought home to God.
The Baptists, too, and the missionaries from the Atlantic country, seeing such a
wide and open field before them, labor with great diligence and earnestness,
operating generally upon another class of community (Thomas Flint, The
History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley. Second Edition. Cincinnati,
1832).
The Baptists were the first to enter this territory and to organize a church. The
first church was planted in Ohio, called Columbia, now Cincinnati, in 1790. This
company has been thus described: It was on the 18th of November, 1788, that a
company of twenty-three men, some of them hardly grown, three women and
two children, (the oldest only five years of age) landed from the flat boat on
which they had floated from Pittsburgh and began to erect the cabins in which
they proposed to spend the winter, awaiting the arrival of other relatives —
fathers and mothers, and wives and children — in the spring. Most of these
people had come from Essex county, New Jersey, and several of them had been
members of the old Scotch Plains Baptist Church, from which the First Baptist
Church of New York City had been organized, and of which Rev. John Gano,
noted for having been among the most efficient and influential chaplains in the
army of the Revolution had been pastor. The leader of that company of
Pioneers was Major Benjamin Stites, who later became very prominent in this
church. There was also General John Gano and wife (The Journal and
Messenger, July, 1889). Rev. Stephen Gano, of Providence, Rhode Island,
visited this little band, in 1790, baptized three persons and organized the
church.
The next May the church chose John Smith to be their pastor. He was a
Virginian, a very able, talented man, an excellent orator, whose voice could be
heard at a great distance in the open air, and thus admirably adapted to a new
country. He was everywhere heard gladly. For several years he was very useful,
till he became involved in politics, the great mistake of his life, as he himself
admitted. He was a member of the Convention for the adoption of a State
Constitution for Ohio, and one of the first senators in Congress. He became
intimately acquainted with Aaron Burr, and entertained him for a week or more
at his home in Cincinnati. When Burr was suspected of treason, suspicion also
fell on Smith. He was tried in the Senate, and although not proved guilty, there
were so many against him, that he resigned. In 1808 he left Cincinnati for
Louisiana, where he lived in obscurity for fifteen or sixteen years till his death.
Some of his enemies were bitter persecutors, but those who knew him best had
great confidence in him.
Associated with John Smith was James Lee of Virginia. He was a man of
marked personality. He has been thus described:
He could not read even when of age, but seemed evidently called of God to
preach the gospel. He had hardly heard a sermon till his majority but was soon
after licensed to preach by some church in Kentucky. In an excursion through
the Miami country he called upon Elder Smith on Saturday, and on his way to
church Sunday morning, Elder Smith learned that he was a preacher, and urged
him to preach, though having been traveling for several weeks he was in no
condition to appear in the pulpit. But he yielded to entreaty and ventured to
speak to the people both morning and evening. This was God’s introduction for
his servant to some twenty-five years of usefulness in the Miami Association.
These and other ministers were assisted by distinguished lay men. Two of these
were Judge Francis Dunlevy and Judge Matthias Corwin. Judge Dunlevy “was
one of the early Baptists of the Northwestern Territory, and in the pioneer
history of the territory actively shared. He became a member of the Columbia
Church in 1792; was one of the conference which took the first steps toward
organizing the Miami Association and, it was said long after, drew up the
articles of faith agreed upon by the Association. He continued an active member
of the church in Miami Valley until his death, November 6, 1839, a period of
forty-seven years, and had been a member of the Baptist church some five or six
years previous to his uniting with the Columbia Church” (A. H. Dunlevy,
History of the Miami Association). Judge Matthias Corwin had likewise held
important political positions. “When at home he was always at his post; and so
constant was his attendance upon the meetings of the church that if he was
missed at any time, when at home, it was known that something unusual had
detained him. He was frequently one of the messengers of the church in the
association, often a messenger of the association to some corresponding body,
and on several occasions was appointed to prepare circular and corresponding
letters of the association as well as the letters of his own church” (Dunlevy).
“This settlement was made in perilous times,” says Benedict. “The Indians made
every exertion to cut them off and prevent their settlement. They tried many
stratagems to decoy them ashore on their passage down the river; and after they
settled they were continually lurking to destroy them. They were obliged, for a
number of years, to live mostly in forts and blockhouses; but, notwithstanding
all of their precautions a number of the first settlers fell victims to the rage of
their savage neighbors” (Benedict).
The Miami Association was founded in 1797, of four churches, with about one
hundred members in all. In 1805 the Scioto Association was formed from this
one, with four churches, and three years afterwards six other churches were
dismissed from the Red Stone Association and formed into a new organization.
The emigration to Ohio, being principally from those parts of New England
where Baptists were few, did not increase in proportion to the population.
About 1825 a great revival was experienced in all the Baptist churches of the
State. The beginnings followed the powerful preaching of Jeremiah Vardeman,
then of Kentucky, who held a series of meetings in Cincinnati with great
success, several hundred being converted under his ministry in the course of a
few weeks. The revival spread through the churches adjacent, and the
organization of the Ninth Street Church, Cincinnati, was one of the results
(S.H. Ford, Planting and Progress of Baptist Churches in the Valley, The
Christian Repository, October, 1875. XVII. 241).
The Baptists were the first, after the Roman Catholics, to enter the territory of
Illinois. The following narrative of their introduction into this State is largely
taken from the account of J. M. Peck, who was more conversant with the facts
than any other man: About the year 1786 a number of families had settled in the
American Bottom, and in the hill country of what is now called Monroe county.
They came chiefly from western Virginia and Kentucky. In 1787, James Smith,
a Baptist minister, whose name is found in the first table of Kentucky, made
them a visit, and preached the gospel with good effect. A few families from
their first settlement had been in the habit of keeping the Sabbath, governing
their children, and holding meetings for religious purposes. At that period there
were none who had been members of churches. Their method of observing the
Sabbath was to meet, sing hymns, and one would read a chapter of the
Scriptures, or a sermon from some author. No public prayer was made until
after the visit of Smith, and some had professed to be converted. It deserves to
be noted that the descendants of these families are now exceedingly numerous,
that a very large proportion are professors of religion, that are marked for
industry, sobriety and good order in their families, and in one of the familes
there are five ministers of the gospel.
James Smith visited the settlements in Illinois three times. The Indians made
frequent depredations, and on one occasion, they captured Smith, and conveyed
him prisoner to their town on the Wabash. The people of Illinois, though
extremely poor, raised the ransom of one hundred and seventy dollars.
In January, 1794, Josiah Dodge, originally from Connecticut, but one of the
pioneers of Kentucky, visited Illinois and in February baptized four converts.
One of those baptized was James Lemen, Sr., who became a preacher, and left
four sons who were preachers. No church was organized on this occasion. In
the spring of 1796 David Badgley removed his family from Virginia to this
territory, preached among the people for several weeks, baptized fifteen
persons, and with the aid of Joseph Chance, organized the New Design Baptist
Church of twentyeight members. The work prospered and shortly afterwards, in
1798, the two men organized another church of fifteen members in the
American Bottom. The churches in Illinois soon became sadly divided on the
subject of slavery and other causes.
These Baptists of Illinois lived a genuinely pioneer life. “Many a family,” says
one who was associated with these heroes of the faith, “long after the New
Design was settled, was exterminated, tomahawked, and scalped by the Indians.
The cougar, the coyote, the bear, the Indian, had to be met in those days, by
one class of men, while another class turned the sod, tilled the soil, reaped the
grain, and still another had to plant, build and sustain the churches. All of these
onerous duties were often performed by one and the same class. The man went
to the place of worship clad in a suit of dressed buckskin, with moccasins on his
feet, shot pouch swung to his side, and the ever present rifle on his shoulder,
and preached the gospel to the few neighbors gathered inside the log cabin
while others were stationed as pickets.”
In this company of pioneers J. M. Peck was a mighty man. Born in Litchfield,
Connecticut, in 1789, a descendant of one of those by whom the New England
colonies were planted, with imperfect advantages of early education, reared as a
Congregationalist, but becoming a Baptist through independent study of the
New Testament, ordained at Catskill, New York, in 1813, after a brief pastorate
in Amenia, in that State, he removed in 1816 to Philadelphia, where he studied
theology under Dr. Stoughton, and having later caught the missionary spirit
from Luther Rice, devoted his life thenceforth to missionary services in the
West. His home was at first in St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri, but after
some years he fixed it finally at Rock Spring, Illinois. From this time on he
became a principal figure in Illinois Baptist history, until his death in 1858. “He
was,” says Sprague, “undoubtedly one of the most remarkable self-made men of
his day.”
He was among Baptists in Home Mission work in the West what Judson was to
then in Foreign Work. After a long and tiresome trip he reached St. Louis,
which for a time was the base of his operations.
In this new country he had assumed a most discouraging task, and his Journal
sets forth the extreme difficulties which he encountered. “The people,” said he
“throughout these extreme frontier settlements were quite ignorant; few could
read, and fewer families had Bibles. They knew not the name of a single
missionary on earth, and could not comprehend the reasons why money should
be raised for the expenses, or why ministers should leave their own
neighborhoods to preach the gospel to the destitute. They manifested the same
apathy in their worldly business. A small corn field and a truck patch were the
height of their ambition. Venison, bear meat, and hog meat dressed and cooked
in the most slovenly and filthy manner, with cornbread baked in form of a pone,
and when cold as hard as a bricket, constituted their provisions. Coffee and tea
were prohibited articles amongst this class; for had they possessed these
articles, not one woman in ten knew how to cook them. Not a school had
existed. A kind of half-savage life appeared to be their choice. Doubtless in a
few years, when the land came into market, this class of ‘squatters’cleared out
for the frontier range in Arkansas.”
His directions for spending a comfortable night in the open are interesting. He
says:
The first thing is to select the right place in some hollow or ravine protected
from the wind, and if possible behind some old forest giant which the storms of
winter have prostrated. And then, reader, don’t build your fire against the tree,
for this is the place for your head and shoulders to lie, and around which the
smoke and heated air may curl. Then don’t be so childish as to lie on the wet or
cold frozen earth, without a bed. Gather a quantity of grass, leaves, and small
brush, and after you have cleared away the snow, and provided for protection
from the wet or cold earth, you may sleep comfortably. If you have a piece of
jerked venison, and a bit of pone with a cup of water, you may make out a
splendid supper, provided you think so, “for as a man thinketh so he is.”
He was never a great speaker but he was a great organizer. He saw in the new
country the need of schools. On a visit to the Bethel Association in Missouri he
put in operation a plan of a society which worked wonders. When he was called
on by the association “to speak upon the subject of missions he presented a
copy of the annual report of the Board, and then enlarged at length upon the
value of missionary work, and the opportunities which were opening for large
and successful undertakings by the denomination. He also suggested that the
association through its corresponding secretary enter into a correspondence
with the Board of Foreign Missions. Then he outlined the plan of a proposed
society to embrace all Baptist churches in Missouri and Illinois which should
desire to affiliate with it. He submitted for discussion a carefully prepared
Constitution. According to its provisions the objects of the new society were to
be two-fold, — to aid the Western Mission in spreading the gospel and in
providing common schools in the western part of America, both among the
whites and the Indians. A person of good moral character could become a
member on payment of an annual fee of five dollars. Each Baptist association
contributing to the work could send two missionaries to the annual meeting.
“One of the matters particularly emphasized was the consideration of means
whereby prospective school teachers and ministers could be aided in obtaining
an education. It was not the purpose of the founders to use any of the funds of
the society to pay the salaries of teachers amongst the white settlers. This
would be done by the local communities. But the society was to aid worthy
young people to prepare for the ministry or for a profession; and it was also to
be on the lookout constantly for good teachers, to import them from the East, if
deemed advisable, and to introduce them to the schools. In other words, it was
to combine, in this department of activity, the functions of a Teachers’
Recruiting Station, a Board of Education and a Teachers’Agency.
“In spite of the opposition of two visiting preachers from the Boone’s Lick
Country, who were anti-mission and antieverything, the Bethel Association
voted heartily to endorse the plan embodied in the Constitution which had been
submitted. It was formally adopted by the Illinois Association on October 10th,
and by the Missouri Association October 24th. Following its adoption by the
latter body the organization of the society was completed; and, under the
vigorous leadership of Mr. Peck, it began operation almost immediately. It was
the first society of any denomination to be organized west of the Mississippi for
philanthropic purposes.
“It is natural for ardent natures to dream dreams. It is easy and fascinating to
form plans and to translate them into constitutions and by-laws. The new
society was a vision and an ambition. Was it anything more? The provisions
already outlined, for instance, with regard to the oversight of teachers and the
improvement of educational facilities sound impressive, and rather
statesmanlike, but were they workable? Distances were great; facilities for
travel were at a minimum; the churches were poor and widely scattered; the
preachers were ignorant; the sentiment against schools and education was
strong; the people were occupied with the immediate tasks of clearing the land
and making a livelihood; all the conditions of life were primitive; immorality
was prevalent and religious indifference was almost universal. How was the
strong and positive influence of a new educational system to be made effective?
It is difficult to say just how it was done; but that it was really accomplished is
shown by the facts. Within three years after the formation of the new society
more than fifty schools were established in Missouri and Illinois, where
common nuisances, with drunken, with illiterate Irish Catholics at their head,
had before existed. This seems startling, almost inconceivable, yet the fact
stands” (Austen Kennedy de Blois, John Mason Peck, 34, 35. New York,
1917). Out of this movement came Shurtleff College.
About the year 1800 the immense stretch of country from the Ohio to the
Lakes, and thence to the Mississippi, was known as the Northwest Territory. It
was divided into seven counties. Wayne county included the whole of Michigan,
and Knox county the most of Indiana and a part of Illinois.
When the settlers in this wilderness began to clear small patches of ground,
William McCoy, of Shelby county, Kentucky, made frequent visits to Indiana,
and preached the gospel with good results. He was the father of Isaac McCoy,
who became the apostle to the Indians in this section. As a result of these visits
he organized a church about the year 1798 called Silver Creek. There has been
some dispute in regard to this church for it appears to have been at times
likewise called “Owen’s Creek, Knox county.”
He had a son, Isaac McCoy, who was associated with George Waller of
Kentucky. Together they explored the wilderness of the Indian Territory as far
as Vincennes, preaching wherever they could gather a few persons in cabins and
in the woods. Through their instrumentality a church was organized eight miles
north of Vincennes, in 1806, and the same year a church called Bethel, further
down the Wabash. These were followed by the organization of Patoka, Salem,
Moriah and Pigeon Creek churches. These six churches with six ministers,
Alexander Devens, James Martin, Isaac McCoy, and Stephen Strickland, were
formed into an association called Wabash. It met in the Bethel meeting house,
Knox county, and the sermon was preached by George Waller. The churches
numbered one hundred and thirty-three communicants. This was three years
before the organization of the Silver Creek Association, whose churches were
planted earlier. The remoteness of the Wabash from other associations
doubtless hastened the organization. The Silver Creek Association was formed
in 1812 from churches mostly dismissed from the Long Run Association, in
Kentucky. These associations were followed by others in this section (J. M.
Peck, Historical Sketches, The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Chronicle, 197,
198. July, 1842).
In the southwestern portion of the State a few Baptists settled in 1809. George
Hume, from Campbellsburg, Kentucky, made repeated visits to the Laughrey, a
stream which empties into the great Miami a few miles below Cincinnati. His
labors were blessed, and in 1811, a revival followed, in which a great number
were baptized. Thus the Laughrey Church was formed, and built the first house
of worship, costing three hundred dollars. This was the first church house in
this district. An association was soon formed. The two foremost men were John
Watts and Jesse Holman. Watts was a man of great gifts, but gave up the
ministry to become a United States Senator. Holman was born near Danville,
Kentucky. He became the Supreme Judge of the State and afterwards a Federal
Judge. He did not give up the ministry and was a tower of strength for the
Baptist cause.
The following story of the removal of Judge Holman to Indiana was published
after his death and will give some idea of the sacrifices and hardships of these
early settlers. He says:
I sent my household furniture, a very small stock, by water, in time to reach
Verdestan before my arrival. The weather had been remarkably fine for several
days, and on Monday evening, when we crossed the river into Indiana, there
seemed to be a fair prospect of its continuance, but about the time we started
on Tuesday morning it commenced snowing, and the snow continued to fall all
day. My wife’s health was still delicate, and her babe but two months old, yet
we persevered in our journey. In fact, there was but little prospect of doing
better, as there were very few families living on the road, and not much
promise of accommodation, in any of them. When we reached our cabin, we
were cold, hungry, and fatigued — and what a prospect was presented! The
eye of civilized woman scarcely ever looked upon a more lonely, dreary,
desolate habitation. The men who had charge of my furniture had not arrived;
no mark of human feet — no, nor the feet of any animal — had disturbed the
smooth surface of the snow. All was still — as uniform — as unbroken, as if
no living thing had ever been there, or had long since departed. The inside of
the hut was as chilling and cheerless as the prospect without. The snow had
drifted through the crevices in the roof, and down the open chimney, and
covered the floor, and in some places was as deep as it was without. There was
no fire, and it was more than a mile down the long river hill to the nearest
dwelling, and night was setting in. And there we were — myself weary — my
wife sinking with exhaustion, chilled and shivering with cold — our sweet,
tender infant — it was no time for thought, but for action. Not that we don’t
think in such emergencies; but thoughts rush in such rapid succession that
scarcely a moment is employed in thinking. I had a small feather bed and some
blankets which I had used while preparing my habitation. I scraped the snow
from a part of the floor, and there laid the bed, and folded my wife and baby in
the blankets, then laid them on the bed, and wrapped it over them — cheered
and encouraged the dear woman with the assurance that she should have all the
comforts it was in my power to give — gave her lips and heart all the warmth
my kisses could impartand then secured my horses and sought the nearest
habitation. There are very few who can outrun me when I put forth my utmost
speed, and never had I such a motive for such speed before. I had run when I
thought the Indian’s tomahawk just behind me — I had run from the fangs of
the surly bear and the ferocious wolf — but I never before ran to prevent my
wife and child from perishing with cold. Seldom, if ever, was such a distance
traversed by man in so short a time. The strides I made in descending the hill
could afterwards be seen in the snow, and they were prodigious; but I could
have run no further. I instantly dispatched two men, inspired with something of
the energy with which I was nerved. I had to pause and breathe a few minutes
myself, but my wife and child were too dear to me to let me linger while I was
able to move. I returned, however, much slower than I came. My two
neighbors, with a zeal and diligence for which I shall always feel grateful, had
built up a large blazing fire, and swept the snow from the floor, and my wife
with a bright countenance was soon seated before the fire, on one of the few
stools which were my only seats. Our neighbors having rendered all the
assistance we needed, returned home. I had a coffee pot and some tin cups, in
which we made and drank our tea, not the most palatable to refined tea
drinkers; but we were thankful for it — after which I read a chapter in the
Bible, and we for the first time in our lives, knelt down together and gave
thanks to God for the mercies we had enjoyed, and committed ourselves to his
paternal care. There is not much of this world’s goods that are absolutely
necessary to happiness, and we laid down that night on our very humble couch
with feelings as cheerful as we had ever enjoyed when surrounded with all the
comforts, the luxuries, and the splendors of life. So it was with me, and so I
believe it was with my wife. She was far less accustomed to privations than I
was; but she always said, and I believe she said truly, that she could be happy
with me in any situation. But she was now and for a long time put severely to
the test.
Our furniture did not arrive; we looked for it day after day, but it came not; we
were suffering for the want of it; and our neighbors were too few, too far
distant, and too destitute themselves to lend us any, and there was none to be
purchased. I borrowed a single chair, and one or two trifling articles, and with
these we lived for about a week. I was compelled to go out several times among
the neighbors, in order to procure the means of subsistence, and we had few
nearer than three or four miles. On these occasions Betsey was left alone with
the infant in a solitary wild, where no human beings were to be seen, and she
knew not where to be found in case she needed assistance or protection.
Transported at once from a populous region, swarming with inhabitants; from
the border of a highway, along which a stream of passengers was incessantly
flowing, to an unpeopled wilderness, which the retiring savages had recently
given up to the wild beasts and a few backwoods Americans, her imagination
had full room for dreary pictures and dark apprehensions. Everything tended to
invite gloom and foreboding. My presence insured protection; my smile
lightened the solitary scenery; but in my absence, all was startling loneliness
(The Banner and Western Pioneer, 1842).
From 1731 to 1803, the condition of the governmental affairs of the province of
Louisiana, which then included what is now the State of Missouri, was far from
being settled. The question of Spanish or French rule was not arranged to the
satisfaction of the people. Yet for years the “Upper Territory” was under the
control of a Spanish governor whose headquarters were at Cape Girardeau.
Here he ruled with the pomp and severity of an oriental prince. He was never
without a retinue of priestly advisers. Influenced by these vassals of the pope,
he at one time issued an order that all the people who resided within a distance
of fifteen miles from his mansion, should, on a certain day, attend “mass” at
Cape Girardeau. The few Baptists then in the province, and residing in the
district named in the order, dared to disobey the command. And it was only by
what the priests termed “the neglect of the governor,” that they narrowly
escaped the penalties of their heretical insubordination (Duncan, A History of
the Baptists of Missouri).
During the Franco-Spanish period some Baptists ventured to leave their homes
under the protection of the Stars and Stripes and take up residence in the wilds
of Missouri. It appears that the Baptists were the first non-Roman Catholics
among the whites who settled in this territory. These were found in 1796 a few
miles south of where the town of Jackson, in Cape Girardeau county, is now
located. These adventurous Christians made their homes in the forests. Besides
these few settlers there were in that immediate section no other human beings
except the savage red man. The institutions of Christianity had not found a
home in the forest, and the few Baptists assembled only occasionally to read the
Scriptures, and have song and prayer in their lonely cabins. But in 1799 an aged
Baptist preacher named Thomas Johnson came among them. He was from the
State of Georgia where he had been a missionary among the Cherokee Indians.
He was on a voluntary missionary tour at his own charges and at the risk of his
life. His preaching was in violation of the established government of the
country, but his preaching was a great comfort to these poor people. He was
the first to administer baptism in the State of Missouri. The subject was Mrs.
Ballow who was baptized in Randall’s Creek (Pope Yeaman, A History of the
Missouri Baptist General Association).
The first church organized in the State was in the Tywappity Bottom under the
preaching of David Green, a native of Virginia, who had spent much time in
preaching in North Carolina and had early gone to Kentucky. After preaching
here for a period he returned and fixed his home in Cape Girardeau county. This
Tywappity church was a feeble body from the beginning and became extinct
after a few years.
These settlers suffered most distressing hardships for many years. As late as
November 15, 1817, an eye-witness describes the conditions existing among
them as follows:
When we left Shawneetown, there was not half a barrel of flour in the place,
and it was by special favor that we got two loaves of bread. We had laid in a
supply of fresh beef, and the captain had a small stock of hard sea biscuit. A
supply of eatables of some sort must be had at the first settlement, and this
proved to be Tywappity Bottom, on Sunday at 12 o’clock. Here I found two
Baptist families, learned some important facts about the state of religion and
schools in this part of the territory, but no milk and no meal could be had. We
obtained a few ears of damp corn from the field, and a bushel of potatoes. The
mills, such as then existed, were out of repair, and no family enjoyed the
benefit of corn dodgers. Hominy was the substitute for bread.
Bethel church, the second in the territory, was organized July 19, 1806, in the
same county. David Green, the minister, and deacons George Lawrence and
Henry Cockerham officiated in the constitution. The first house of worship
erected in Missouri, save by the Roman Catholics, was erected not long after its
organization by the Bethel church. It was constructed mainly of very large
yellow poplar logs well hewn. The building was about twenty by thirty feet.
Several churches were organized out of this one, notably the one in Jackson.
J. M. Peck, who visited the church in 1818, gives the following description:
“On the 7th of November — Saturday — I met the church in Bethel meeting
house. Eld. William Street, who had come from a settlement down the St.
Francois, had preached before my arrival. The church sat in order and
transacted business. I then preached from <235301>Isaiah 53:1, and Eld. James P.
Edwards followed me from <431406>John 14:6. The people tarried through all of
these exercises with apparent satisfaction. Custom and common sense are the
best guides in such matters. Dinner was never thought of on meeting days. The
Cape Girardeau Society, auxiliary to the United Society, had already been
formed in this vicinity, and there were more real friends and liberal contributors
to missions in this church than in any other in the territory. Yet in a few years,
from the formation of Jackson and a few other churches from this, the death of
some valuable members, and the removal of others of a different spirit, Bethel
church had ‘Ichabod’written on her doors. It became a selfish, lifeless, and
anti-mission body.”
The first Baptists of St. Louis county formed three settlements, the Spanish
Pond, Bridgeton and Fee Fee’s Creek. For several years these emigrants were
destitute of preaching. Finally, in 1798, came John Clark, the first “preacher,
other than Roman Catholic, that ever set foot on the western shore of the
Mississippi River.” He was born in Scotland, November, 29, 1758. His family
connections for many generations had been strict Presbyterians. He had
received a liberal education in the common branches. In 1787 he removed to
Georgia and settled on the banks of the Savannah River, where he was ordained
a Methodist deacon by Bishop Asbury. Having become dissatisfied with the
episcopal form of government of that church, he severed his connection with it.
About the year 1803 he became a Baptist in the following singular manner: He
was intimate with an independent Methodist minister by the name of Talbot.
Both were dissatisfied with their baptism. A meeting was appointed. Talbot
baptized Clark, who in turn baptized Talbot and several others. “At the next
meeting a month later, Mr. Clark baptized two or three others of his society. …
It was ten or twelve years after this before he became regularly connected with
the Baptist denomination.”
Clark was the pioneer preacher of Missouri. His mode of travel was on foot, for
there were no railroads or steamboats in those days. At length some friends
furnished him with a pony, saddle, bridle and saddle bags and induced him to
ride. He was much troubled lest the pony would either hurt him or itself.
Whenever he came to a creek or a muddy slough, he would dismount, throw his
saddle bags over his shoulder, take off his nether garments, and carefully lead
his horse through mud and water, often to the depths of three feet. His thoughts
were so distracted by the pony that on his return home, he entreated his friends
to take back the horse which interfered with his religious duties. He would
travel through heat and cold, wet and dry, rather than miss an appointment. On
one occasion he traveled all night to reach his destination.
He was soon afterwards followed by Thomas R. Musick who was the first
permanent Baptist preacher in Missouri.
The first sermon preached in Iowa was by a Baptist, John Logan, of
McDonough county, Illinois, in a rude cabin, the home of Noble Housley, Des
Moines county, October 19, 1834.
Among the first settlers in this part of the Territory were a few Baptists from
Illinois and Kentucky, who desired to be organized into a church, and so they
invited two ministers, Logan and Bartlett, to visit them. After a sermon on the
next day by Logan, eleven persons were enrolled as a church. The articles of
faith adopted had been copied by William Manly, one of the members, from the
Brush Creek Baptist Church, Green county, Kentucky. The church was named
the Regular Baptist Church of Long Creek, and is now known as the Danville
Baptist Church.
At the time of the organization Iowa was a vast wilderness, and what is now
known as the city of Burlington was a village of a half-dozen rude log huts.
There was no minister of any denomination in all this country, and no religious
service of any kind. Logan continued his visits to this little flock for about
eighteen months. The records of the church show that there were baptisms in
1838, but no mention is made of the administrator. The first mention of a pastor
is in June, 1840. The minutes of the meeting read:
Called Eld. A. Evans for one year, for which the church agreed to contribute
for the support $75.00. Eld. Evans labored as pastor about four years, and was
succeeded by Eld. H. Burnett. Of the success attending the early labors of these
brethren, Eld. R. King, the present pastor writes: One peculiar feature of the
early history of the church, is the gradual and constant increase. Conversions
seem to take place through the entire year, and baptisms are reported at twenty-
three regular meetings, during a period of four years and ten months.
Two other churches, Rock Spring and Pisgah, were formed in 1838, and the
three numbered at this time ninety members. In August, 1839, in a grove near
Danville, the Iowa Baptist Association was formed. There were ten messengers
present from the three little churches, and the ministers were J. Todd, A. Evans
and H. Johnson. Todd was chosen moderator, and the other nine sat on a log
while he stood before them resting on the back of a chair; and thus they
transacted business.
In 1842 the Davenport Association was organized, and the name of the body
was changed to Des Moines, to denote better its location. Later it was divided
into other associations. In June, 1842, twenty-six brethren met in Iowa City and
organized the Iowa General Association. Some of these persons walked
seventy-five miles to attend this meeting. The object of the organization was
stated to be: “To Promote the Preaching of the Gospel, Ministerial Education,
and all the General Objects of Benevolence throughout the Territory (George
W. Robey, Planting and Progress of the Baptist Cause in Iowa; The Christian
Repository, December, 1876. XXII. 410).
After the Revolutionary War Tennessee was called The Deceded Territory of
North Carolina. There was an attempt made in 1754 by North Carolinians to
settle in Tennessee, but they were driven off by the Indians. Following the
waters of the Holston and Clinch rivers, they located near Knoxville as early as
1756, and were soon followed by a few others. The Baptists were the first to
plant churches in the State. Baptist churches were organized as early as 1765 in
East Tennessee on the above rivers. They were broken up by the Indian War of
1774, but they were soon reinforced by new settlers. One on Clinch river, by
the name of Glad Hollow, was reorganized the next year. “Amidst these scenes
of disorder and violence,” says Ramsey, “the Christian ministry began to shed
its benign influence. Tidence Lane, a Baptist preacher, organized a
congregation this year, 1779. A house of public worship was erected on Buffalo
Ridge” (Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee).
The historian Benedict gives the following account: “But the beginning of the
first churches, which have had a permanent standing, was in the following
manner: about the year 1780, William Murphy, James Keel, Thomas Murrell,
Tidence Lane, Isaac Barton, Matthew Talbot, Joshua Kelby, and John Chastain,
moved into what is called the Holston country, when it was a wilderness state,
and much exposed to the ravages and depredations of the Indians. These
ministers were all Virginians, except Mr. Lane, who was from North Carolina.
They were accompanied by a considerable number of their brethren from the
churches which they left, and were followed shortly after by Jonathan Mulky,
William Reno, and some other ministers and brethren, and among other
emigrants there was a small body, which went out in something like a church
capacity. They removed from the old church at Sandy creek in North Carolina,
which was planted by Shubeal Stearns; and as a branch of the mother church,
they emigrated to the wilderness and settled on Boon’s creek” (Benedict).
Next year six churches had been organized, which held semiannual conferences,
until 1786, when the Holston Association was organized, with seven churches
and six ministers. Revivals of religion were enjoyed, converts were multiplied,
and in 1793 the Holston Association included sixteen churches, twelve ordained
ministers, and 1,033 communicants. The Baptists of East Tennessee were a
mixture of Regulars and Separates, though the Calvinistic principles prevailed in
the Association.
The settlements in Middle Tennessee were not commenced till a number of
years after those in East Tennessee had become large and flourishing. In the
year 1780, a party of about forty families, invited by the richness of the
Cumberland country, under the guidance and direction of Gen. James
Robertson, passed through a wilderness of at least three hundred miles to the
French Lick, and there founded the city of Nashville, on the Cumberland, and
commenced settlements in that vicinity. There were some few Baptists in this
company of emigrants.
Several churches were gathered and an association organized, called Mero
District, in 1796. By 1801 the association had increased to 18 churches, 16
ordained ministers, and about 1,200 members (J. M. Peck, Baptists in the
Mississippi Valley, The Christian Review, October, 1852. XVII. 489). In 1810
there was one church belonging to the South Kentucky Association. It was
located at “the forks of Sulphur and Red rivers; John Grammar, pastor; number
of members 30, constituted in 1786.” This church became extinct, and “they
must have been an adventurous set of people to settle in such a remote region,
where they were continually exposed to distractive depredations of the
Indians.” This church was constituted by preachers from the Elkhorn
Association in Kentucky. This is now Robertson county.
Another church was soon after located at the head of Sulphur Fork. It was
constituted in North Carolina as a traveling church, and settled near Fort
Station. Other churches followed — Mill Creek and Richland Creek, near
Nashville. An association was formed of fifteen churches in 1803, and in three
years increased to thirty-nine churches, with 1,900 members. Soon after the
Red River Association was formed, embracing the churches south of the
Cumberland and along the Kentucky line. Concord Association was organized
in 1810, and included the churches in and around Nashville. Three associations
were organized early in the nineteenth century between the Tennessee and
Mississippi rivers — Forked Deer, Central and the Big Hatchie.
The settlement of Alabama was of comparative late date. Perhaps Hosea
Holcombe gives the best account of the rise of the Baptists in this State. He
says: “The northern part of the State, i.e., north of the Tennessee river,
particularly Madison county, which is a beautiful and fertile county, was settled
many years before any other part of the state, except a small section on the
Tombigbee River, about St. Stephens. In the first settling of Madison county
there were some Baptists. Elder John Nicholson, who became pastor of the first
church constituted in Madison county, John Canterbury and Zadock Baker,
were, as we learn, among the first Baptist ministers, who labored in this
wilderness. The beauty of the country — fertility of the soil — the excellent
springs of water, combined with many other advantages, soon drew a dense
population into this region, and in the course of a few years, a number of
Baptist churches were formed. Worldly inducements brought a number of
ministers into this region; some of whom died in a short time; and others
removed; and although there were those who stood high in the estimation of the
people, yet, as we have mentioned in the history of the Flint River Association,
it appears that they labored in vain. The hearts of preachers and people were
fixed too much on the fleeting things of time and sense. It was easy to
accumulate wealth, and professors of religion as well as others, gave themselves
up to the flattering prospects of gain. Elders R. Shackleford, W. Eddins, and
Bennet Wood, were among the early ministers in this country; men, whose
names will live long in the recollections of many; others settled about the same
time, among whom were Jeremiah Tucker, George Tucker, John Smith, J. C.
Latta, and J. Thompson, all of whom have since died, or left the country.
“About the year 1808, or earlier, some Baptists were found in the southern part,
near the Tombigbee river, in Clarke and Washington counties. Wm. Cochran, a
licensed preacher from Georgia, is said to have been the first in Clarke county,
and a Mr. Gorham, who died in a short time, the first in Washington county.
The last named county lies on the west side of the river, and Clarke on the east.
In the latter, a church was organized in 1810, by Eld. J. Courtney, Elder Joseph
McGee, who was highly esteemed as a minister of Christ, settled here shortly
after. There was no great increase of Baptists in this country until after
Jackson’s purchase was made. In 1815 and 1816 the tide of emigration began
to flow into this Indian country, and on until 1820; and after that there was a
continual flood, pouring in from almost every State in the Union. From the
Tennessee river to Florida; and from the Coosa to the Tombigbee, there was
scarcely a spot but what was visited by emigrants, or those who wished to be
such. Churches were formed in almost every part of the State, and a number of
laborious, and indefatigable ministers of the gospel, came in and settled this
country.
“Houses for the worship of God were scarce for several years after the writer
came to this country in 1818; and many of those which were erected, were
more like Indian wigwams than anything else; only they were more open and
uncomfortable. It was common in those days when the weather was favorable,
for the minister to take his stand under some convenient shady bower, while the
people would seat themselves around him on the ground. In many instances,
large congregations would assemble; and they were far more attentive to the
Word than they are at this time in many comfortable places, as in some
instances a hard shower of rain would disperse them” (Holcombe, A History of
the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Alabama).
Holcombe gives an account of the revival services held, which soon became
common in the South. “The first camp meeting,” says he, “perhaps, ever known
in Alabama, was held with the church, where the writer has his membership.
This meeting took place about the first of October, 1831a it continued for five
or six days, and twelve or fifteen families tented on the ground. Here the Lord
made bare his arm, and displayed his power in the salvation of many precious
souls. The groans and cries of repenting sinners, the songs and prayers, the
shouts and praises of Christians, formed an awful, and yet delightful harmony.
At this meeting there commenced the greatest general revival ever known at
that time, in middle Alabama; it continued over twelve months; during which
period there were near 500 baptized in three or four churches. One of the
happiest seasons of the life of the author was the cold winter of 1831, and ‘32;
during which he baptized over 150. From that time camp meetings became
common among the Baptists in different parts of the State; yet some churches
disapproved of the course. That there were extravagances at some of those
meetings, we think few will deny; yet there was much good done. ‘It was not
unusual to have a large portion of the congregation prostrated on the ground;
and in some instances they appeared to have lost the use of their limbs. No
distinct articulation could be heard; screams, cries, shouts, notes of grief, and
notes of joy, all heard at the same time, made much confusion, — a sort of
indescribable concert. At associations, and other great meetings, where there
were several ministers present, many of them would exercise their gifts at the
same time, in different parts of the congregation; some in exhortation, others in
prayer for the distressed; and others again, in argument with opposers. A
number of the preachers did not approve of this kind of work; they thought it
extravagant. Others fanned it as a fire from heaven.’When the winnowing time
came on, it was clearly demonstrated that there was much good wheat;
notwithstanding, there was a considerable quantity of chaff” (Holcombe, 45,
46).
Justin A. Smith, A History of the Baptists in the Western States East of the
Mississippi. Philadelphia, 1896.
R. S. Duncan, A History of the Baptists in Missouri, embracing an Account of
the Organization and Growth of Baptist Churches and Associations;
Biographical sketches of Ministers of the Gospel and other Prominent
Members of the Denomination; the founding of Baptist Institutions,
Periodicals, &c. Saint Louis, 1882.
W. Pope Yeaman, A History of the Missouri Baptist General Association.
Columbia, Mo., 1899.
Hosea Holcombe, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in
Alabama. Philadelphia, 1840.
B. F. Riley, A Memorial History of the Baptists of Alabama, being an Account
of the Struggles and Achievements of the Denomination from 1808 to 1923.
Philadelphia, 1923.
J. M. Peck, Baptists in the Mississippi Valley, The Christian Review, XVII.
481-514. New York, 1852.
J. M. Peck, Religious Progress of the Mississippi Valley, The Christian Review,
XIX. 570-590.
B. B. Edwards, Obligations of the Eastern Churches to the Home Missionary
Enterprise, The Bibliotheca Sacra and Theological Review, II. 621-636.
New York, 1845.
CHAPTER 3 — THE BAPTISTS IN MISSISSIPPI,
LOUISIANA, FLORIDA AND ARKANSAS
Henry M. King, Education among the Baptists of this Country during the last
One Hundred Years, The Baptist Quarterly, X. 445-466. Philadelphia,
1876.
Alvah Hovey, Progress of a Century, The Baptist Quarterly, X. 467-489.
E. Thresher, An Address prepared for the Semi-Centennial of Denison
University, The Baptist Review, III. 572-592. Cincinnati, 1881.
James D. Knowles, History of the Columbian College, District of Columbia,
The Christian Review, II. 115-136. Boston, 1837.
Ministerial Education in Georgia, The Christian Review, II. 579-584.
Philip Schaff, Progress of Christianity in the United States, The Princeton
Review, LX. 209-252. New York, 1879.
James David Butler, American Pre-Revolutionary Bibliography, Bibliotheca
Sacra, XXXVI. 72-104. Andover, 1879.
Daniel C. Stevens, The American Baptist Publication Society. One Hundred
years of Service and Growth, The Review and Expositor, XXI. 397-407.
Louisville, 1924.