News

January 25, 1783: William Colgate (left), 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 collection.

January 24, 1811:  Sansom Street Baptist Church in Philadlephia was founded with William Staughton (left) as pastor.  ABHS has some of Sansom Street’s original church records and Staughton’s sermon notes (1807-1823) and correspondence (16 letters).

On January 22, 1862, Lulu (Louise) C. Fleming was born. She is the first female medical missionary was 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

January 7, 1821: The first Baptist church in Florida was organized.  It is the Pigeon Creek church in present-day Nassau County.  ABHS has original church records from many states.  The earliest is First Baptist, Philadelphia, dating to 1691. ABHS gives anniversary certificates to churches who request them for a significant anniversary.

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.

December 30, 1798: Isaac Backus, a pastor in Massachusetts, commented against the Federalist Party foreign policy in opposition to France.  ABHS has 28 items and 3 reels of microfilm in the Isaac Backus collection.  It includes correspondence, sermons, diaries and travel journals.

On December 24, 1915, William H. Doane, composer and hymnist, died in South Orange, NJ.  Doane composed “To God Be the Glory” and tunes to several Fanny Crosby hymns.  ABHS has over 11 linear feet of items pertaining to Doane’s business dealings, charitable endeavors, personal finances, and family photographs and memorabilia. Copyright registrations for Doane’s hymns and sheet music are also part of this collection. The photo accompanying this post is a picture of Doane at the organ from the William Howard Doane collection.

December 20, 1943: Eleven Baptist missionaries were captured and put to death by the Japanese in the Philippines.  ABHS has many folders of information about these martyred missionaries and their short time hiding in the jungle at Hopevale before they were captured. The accompanying drawing is of the Hopevale chapel.

December 16, 1769: Jesse Mercer, hymnist and co-founder of Mercer University was born in Halifax County, NC. ABHS is located on the Mercer University (Atlanta) campus.

December 15, 1836:  The first Baptist Church in Australia, Bathurst Church, was constituted by John Saunders.  ABHS has the original church records from many churches dating back to the 1691 records from First Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

On December 7, 1951, the first Baptist Women’s Day of Prayer was held.  It has become an annual event of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).  ABHS holds BWA archives including correspondence, World Baptist Journal, office files and program information.

December 7, 1951: The first Baptist Women’s Day of Prayer was held.  It became an annual event of the Baptist World Alliance.  ABHS holds many records from BWA including correspondence, financial records and conference programs.

On this day (Dec. 6) in 1776, the Virginia Assembly, led by Thomas Jefferson, passed a law denying funds for the Episcopal Church.  In most European countries, the state church gets government money.  This was also true in this country in colonial times. Now in this country no church gets government money to benefit the worship and religious program.

Nov. 1, 1812:  Luther Rice, the father of American Baptist of foreign missions, was baptized in Calcutta, India.  He returned to the USA to raise money for missionaries like Adonirum and Ann Judson.  ABHS has his journals and correspondence dating from 1803.

Nov. 3, 1635:  Roger Williams was banished from the colony of Massachusetts because he preached religious freedom, and the colonists had set up a Puritan theocracy.  No one who was not a member of that church had any rights in the colony.

Nov. 4, 1752.  Over 100 years after Williams’ banishment, Isaac Backus was still fighting the state church’s tyranny.  ABHS has published sermons, correspondence and a journal of family data in our collections.

Nov. 9, 1800.  Mary Webb organized the first missionary society called Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes.  Women’s Missionary organizations started schools, training centers, community centers and other mission programs.  They also recruited and trained women missionaries to staff  these programs.  Women’s Baptist Home Mission Society of the East, which was organized in Boston in 1877, was one of these.

Nov. 11:  Veteran’s Day. Baptists have been ministering to veterans from the time of the Revolutionary War, when David Jones was a military chaplain and the Civil War, when Joanna Moore taught veterans to read and write.  WW I and WWII, the Vietnam War and more recent conflicts have seen Baptist chaplains and Baptist soldiers.  ABHS has the personal correspondence and diaries of David Jones and a Letterbook with two sets of letters (1865) and goodbye notes from soldiers of the 56^th US Colored Infantry in Helena Arkansas (from the collection of Joanna P. Moore).

Nov. 15, 1961:  The Progressive National Baptist Convention was organized in Cincinnati.  ABHS has many books and newspaper articles about the history of the Progressive Baptists, as well as the Progressive News and the Convention minutes.

Nov. 18, 1961:  Isabel Crawford,died in Winona, NY.  She was a missionary to Native Americans.  ABHS has a collection of her papers and photographs, information about which can be found on our online archive, ArchivesSpace. The picture on this post is a Kiowa drawing from the Isabel Crawford collection.

Nov. 19, 1774:  Isaac Backus returned to Middleborough, MA, to find Baptists slandered as enemies of America (see November 4).

Nov. 24, 1910:  John E. Clough died in Rochester, NY.  Sent by the American Baptist foreign Mission Society to the Telegues of South India, he served for 46 years.  ABHS holds published and unpublished manuscripts of his, as well as correspondence, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks and biographical information.  His second wife was Emma Rauschenbusch.  ABHS has the missionary letters of John Clough from 1864-1918 and of Emma Rauschenbusch from 1920-1940.

Nov. 28, 1629:  John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, was born in Elstow, England.     ABHS has many copies of this work, the earliest dating from 1676.   The theme of the fall-Winter 2014 issue of the American Baptist Quarterly is “John Bunyan and the Baptist Academy.”

Nov. 29, 1908:  Adam Clayton Powell Jr.  was born in New Haven, CT.  A preacher and congressman, he is also known for his civil rights work.

October 4: Walter Rauschenbusch, Christian Social Gospel activist, was born in 1861, in Rochester, NY. ABHS holds the bulk of his papers, manuscripts and photographs. Rauschenbusch is pictured here.

October 5: William Carey, a leading Baptist missions proponent, was baptized in England in 1783.

October 8: John Clarke, an early advocate of religious liberty in New England, was born in England in 1609.

October 11: Four Baptists were brought before the Massachusetts court and told to cease ‘schismatical practices” in 1665.

October 14: The Warren Association in Massachusetts petitioned the Continental Congress for religious liberty in 1774. ABHS holds the Warren Association Minutes from 1767.

October 24: Ann Hasseltine Judson, one of the first American overseas missionaries, died in Burma at age 37 in 1826.

October 25: Ralph Elliott was fired by Midwestern Seminary (an SBC affiliated seminary) in the midst of the controversy over his Genesis interpretation in 1962. ABHS holds his personal papers.

October 31: John Mason Peck, pioneer missionary to the western frontier (Ohio and Illinois), was born in Litchfield, CT in 1789. ABHS holds his correspondence from 1833-1852 and a journal from 1854.