News

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.

 

The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch” will take place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information is available. Download a registration form.

This campus is home to the American Baptist Historical Society, which holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers.  ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration fees increase after “early bird” registration ends on Jan 1, 2018.  Registration closes March 25.

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. 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. ABHS has minutes of the Home Mission Societies and their publications like Tidings.

 

The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch” will take place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information is available. Download a registration form.

This campus is home to the American Baptist Historical Society, which holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers.  ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration fees increase after “early bird” registration ends on Jan 1, 2018.  Registration closes March 25.

 

Nov. 4, 1752.  Over 100 years after Williams’ banishment, Isaac Backus was still fighting the state church’s tyranny. His mother told of her persecution at the hands of the Puritans and it persuaded her son to fight for religious freedom. ABHS has Backus’ published sermons, correspondence and a journal of family data in our collections.

Nov. 3, 1635:  Roger Williams, was banished from the colony of Massachusetts because he preached ‘new and dangerous ideas’ to his congregants. The colonists had set up a Puritan theocracy and allowed no deviances.  Williams went to Rhode Island and began the settlement of Providence Plantations.  ABHS has many volumes by and about Roger Williams.

Nov. 1, 1812:  Luther Rice, the father of American Baptist of foreign missions, was baptized in Calcutta, India.  He was ordained and sailed with Adoniram Judson; like Judson he became convinced of the rightness of adult baptism on the voyage.  After his baptism, he returned to the USA to raise money for missionaries like Adonirum and Ann Judson.  ABHS has his journals and correspondence dating from 1803.

October 31, 1789:  John Mason Peck, pioneer missionary to the western frontier (Ohio and Illinois), was born in Litchfield.  Having secured funding as “missionaries to the Missouri Territory,” the Peck and his missionary partner Welch and their families traveled westward, arriving in St. Louis in December, 1817. Peck and Welch organized the First Baptist Church of St. Louis, the first Protestant church in the city, and baptized two converts in the Mississippi River in February, 1818. By year’s end, they also soon founded the first missionary society in the West: The United Society for the Spread of the Gospel. Peck became active in establishing Bible societies and Sunday School associations, distributing bibles as well as spreading literacy and Christian principles. Peck moved to Rock Springs, Illinois in 1822 to farm, and arranged a circuit to visit the various societies which he continued to establish, as well as isolated farms. On one trip, Peck visited Daniel Boone, then nearly 80, and later wrote a book about the frontiersman’s life.  ABHS holds Peck’s correspondence from 1833-1852 and a journal from 1854.

 

October 25, 1962:  Ralph Elliott was fired by Midwestern Seminary (an SBC affiliated seminary) in the midst of the controversy over his Genesis interpretation. The controversy erupted at Midwestern in 1961 when Ralph Elliott, the chair of the Old Testament department, authored a book published by Broadman Press titled The Message of Genesis. Elliott used a historical-critical method of interpretation to examine the first book of the Bible, arguing that it was not literal history, but that it could be religious truth nonetheless. Elliott assumed multiple authors for Genesis and concluded it was full of “symbolic stories” not to be taken as “literally true,” such as: Adam and Eve were not actual historical figures, the flood was local, and Abraham did not actually hear the voice of God commanding him to sacrifice Isaac.    ABHS has several of Elliott’s books and holds his personal papers.

October 24, 1826:  Ann Hasseltine Judson, one of the first American overseas missionaries, died of smallpox in Burma at age 37.  She was a teacher from graduation until her marriage to Adoniram Judson in 1812.  During the first Anglo-Burmese war (1824–26), her husband was imprisoned for 17 months under suspicion of being an English spy, and Ann moved into a shack outside the prison gates so as to support her husband. She lobbied vigorously for months to convince the authorities to release her husband and his fellow prisoners, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She also sent food and sleeping mats to the prisoners to help their time in prison to be more bearable.  After her husband’s release they both remained in Burma to continue their work. Ann wrote a catechism in Burmese, and translated the books of Daniel and Jonah into Burmese. She was the first Protestant to translate any of the scriptures into Thai when in 1819 she translated the Gospel of Matthew.    ABHS has her letters from Burma and the books she translated in the archives as well as books about her and her work.

October 22: Bethany Free Baptist Church in Pawtucket, RI, celebrated their 125^th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Nikita McCalister.

October 21, 1795.  David Irish established the first Baptist church in Cayuga County, New York, in the Finger Lakes area.  He was sent out by the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society.  This was a frontier area at the time, and pastors like Irish helped settle and expand our nation.  The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, published by the society, published a letter from Rev. Irish in the December, 1812, issue.   The MBMM became the Baptist Missionary Magazine,  which eventually evolved to the American Baptist.  ABHS has a complete set of all the issues of these magazines.

“The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch” will take place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information is available. Download a registration form.

This campus is home to the American Baptist Historical Society, which holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers.  ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration fees increase after “early bird” registration ends on Jan 1, 2018.  Registration closes March 25.