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Marshall A. Hudson Papers, (RG1442), founder of Baraca Philathea movement, an ecumenical movement designed to facilitate adult evangelism through Bible study. A million strong during the early twentieth century, it tried to bridge the gap that young people, aged sixteen to twenty-five, felt between their churches and their own experiences.   Hudson was a successful business owner in Syracuse, New York, who made a name for himself selling crockery.

 

 

January 25, 1783: William Colgate, founder of American Bible Union, was born in England. He is noted for being a philanthropist and founder of the Colgate Company (1806). ABHS has his papers dating from 1820 to 1850. Samuel Colgate, William’s son, started a library that became the heart  of the ABHS book collection.

 

On January 22, 1862, Lulu (Louise) C. Fleming was born. She is the first female medical missionary appointed by Baptists. She served in the Congo from 1886-1899.  ABHS has her correspondence while she was in the Congo and a bio file which includes photographs. One of the ABHS membership circles is named for her.

On January 21, 1525, Anabaptists (Baptists) organized for the first time under the leadership of Conrad Grebel near Zurich, Switzerland. ABHS has a biography of Grebel, and many books and articles about the Anabaptists in Europe.

January 21:  Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is celebrated today.  His birth home is in Atlanta, GA.   ABHS has digitized several of his speeches at various American Baptist events.  This digitization is possible because of the At Your Fingertips campaign.  More information about At Your Fingertips is available on “support ABHS page.”

Mary Joslin Discher Papers, (RG 1629) document Baptist Young People’s Union activities in the 1940’s.  This collection contains photographs (Brooks, Thomas, Judd) and booklet on French mission-Breton Evangelical Mission at Tremel; New York State council of American Baptist Women book of plays; Scrapbook photo album on 1949 World Baptist Youth tour, Green Lake events, trip to Stockholm; 1933 certificate of promotion in Sunday School; 1937-1946 Keuka College WWG house parties panoramic photographs; two unidentified panoramic photographs of groups of men (unnamed)

 

January 16, 1821: Prominent black missionaries Lott Cary and Collin Teague sailed to Liberia from Norfolk, VA.  ABHS has a folder of Lott Cary’s correspondence as a missionary.  His information is in our on-line collection called ArchivesSpace.

 

Anna Barbara Grey (RG 1414) was a physician in Burma and India.  Her collection is now available to researchers, and is listed in our on-line catalog ArchivesSpace.

 

After a period of training in the U.S. and in London, Dr. Grey was appointed a missionary of the WABFMS in 1922.  She was instrumental in the development of the Ellen Mitchell Memorial Hospital in Burma.  When the war came to Burma in 1941, Gray and the staff evacuated the patients before she went to India in January 1942.  She worked as a member of the medical staff of the Victoria Memorial Mission Hospital in Hanamkonda and the American Baptist Mission Hospital in Nellore. In 1945, she returned briefly to Moulmein under the sponsorship of the Red Cross to investigate damages.   She returned to the U.S. in 1957 and retired.

January 12, 1724:  Samuel Harris, the persecuted defender of religious liberty, was born in Hanover County, VA.  ABHS has booklets, tracts and sermons about the importance of religious liberty (especially in the matter of baptism) in colonial America, some dating to 1700.

 

The papers of Loren and Ruth Noren  (MP143), have been added to the archives, and information about this collection is in our on-line inventory, ArchivesSpace.  This couple were American Baptist missionaries in China circa 1945-1986.  Rev. Noren was educated at Ottawa University (Kansas), 1940, A.A.; Andover Newton, 1944, B.D.; Yale University; Union Theology Seminary, 1960. Ordained: 1943. Spouse: Muriel Ruth Wedepohl (1918-), married in 1941. Home State: Nebraska.

 

January 8, 1841.  Judson College was chartered in Marion, AL, as Judson Female Institute.  It was founded by members of Siloam Baptist Church; the three individuals  who were most instrumental in the founding were Julia Tarrant Barron, General Edwin D. King, and Milo P. Jewett.  ABHS has information from and about many of the Baptist related colleges.

 

January 5, 1527:  Felix Manz, Swiss Anabaptist, was sentenced to death by the Zurich Council for his beliefs.  Freedom of religion was not a common concept prior to the Constitution of the United States.

The collection of Edith Tarver (RG 1078) is now available to researchers, and is listed in our on-line catalog, ArchivesSpace.  She was an American Baptist missionary in South China circa 1906-1939. She was educated at the University of Idaho and the Baptist Missionary Training School (Chicago).  Her collection contains several textiles from China.

Dec. 30, 1798.  Isaac Backus commented against Federalist Party foreign policy in opposition to France.  Backus was a leading Baptist preacher during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England.   Isaac Backus joined John Brown, Nicholas Brown, William Ellery, Stephen Hopkins, James Manning, Ezra Stiles, Samuel Stillman, Morgan Edwards and several others as an original fellow or trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the original name for Brown University), the first Baptist school of higher learning.  Backus served as a delegate from Middleborough to the Massachusetts ratifying convention, which ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. He voted in favor of ratification.  ABHS has a collection of Isaac Backus’ papers and many volumes by and about him.