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Sept 15, 1799.  A Sunday School was established by Samuel Slater, the first one in the United States.  It was started for the benefit of children employed in Slater’s cotton factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, teaching them to read from the Bible.  The first class was composed of seven boys.  It began as a secular enterprise, but soon was placed under the care of the First Baptist Church, and began religious instruction. ABHS has minutes from many Sunday School (or Sabbath School) societies from all over the country.

 

Sept 14, 1791.  The Warren Association in Rhode Island/Massachusetts founded the Massachusetts Baptist Education Society.  Warren Association was very active and vocal about religious freedom.  The Education Society was formed to raise funds to educate promising young men for the ministry.  They had to be educated in local schools.  ABHS has the records from the Warren Association dating back to 1767.

Sept 13, 1651.  John Hazel, of Boston, was one who supported Obadiah Holmes (see September 5), even after he was whipped.  Hazel was arrested and jailed for showing compassion.  He refused to pay the fine of 40 shillings.  In court he repeatedly asked what crime he was being charged with, and managed to refute each charge the court named, like comforting a criminal.  (Since Holmes’ whipping had satisfied the law, is guilt was removed.) Hazel was returned to jail, but when it was clear he would not pay the fine, and was finally released.  He wrote of this episode on this day, and a few days later died from illness and age.

Sept 12, 1794.  Samuel Perkins, a tax collector in Connecticut, was ordered by a Justice of the Peace to collect a tax from Baptists, and if they didn’t pay the tax, Perkins could take their property and commit them to prison.  Pastors and lay people alike were jailed, whipped, or placed in the stocks.  Nevertheless, they persisted, and many Baptist churches were planted and thrived.  ABHS has many histories of the early Baptists.

Sept 9, 1832. Isaac McCoy organized a Baptist Church in the Creek Nation three miles north of the Arkansas River and about eighteen miles west of Port Gibson. He wrote: “On the 9th of September, I constituted the Muscogee (Creek) Baptist Church, consisting of Mr. Lewis and wife, Mr. Davis, and three black men who were slaves to the Creeks. In the afternoon we worshipped in another place in the neighborhood. This was the first Baptist church formed in the Indian Territory .” ABHS has correspondence from McCoy, as well as many books and articles about him.

The American Baptist Historical Society invites you to this year’s annual historical event, “Let It Not Happen Again” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept 28. The forum will be held at 2930 Flowers Road South, Atlanta, GA, in the Atlanta Administration and Conference Center auditorium.

Recently we have heard calls for a registry of Muslims, for prohibitions on immigrants and refugees from specific countries, and fearmongering of those who might be “different.”  In all of this we hear echoes of the attitudes and dispositions that allowed serious injustices to be perpetrated against Japanese Americans during World War II.

As you may be aware, this year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Executive Order that required all people of Japanese descent to move away from the west coast of the U.S.  Most of those 120,000 people spent the duration of the war years interned in “Relocation Camps” in the interior of the U.S.

Mr. Yosh Nakagawa will share about his experience as a native of Seattle who, as a young child, was relocated with his parents to Minidoka, Idaho.  Dr. Jeffrey Haggray, Executive Director of American Baptist Home Mission Societies and Director of Public Witness Advocacy will offer a contemporary prophetic call to justice.  This event is free and open to the public.  A flyer about the event can be downloaded here.  Event Flyer 2017.

Sept. 5, 1651:  Obadiah Holmes was brutally whipped for his religious beliefs, but gave a brief sermon as he was being stripped before his whipping.  Convicted with three others, Holmes refused to pay the fine levied by the courts, believing it would be an admission of guilt.  Such incidents prompted a discussion of civil and religious rights that would eventually be included in the Bill of Rights.  ABHS has many editorials, correspondence, and books on the topic of religious freedom.

Sept 2, 1845.  Sarah Boardman Judson, second wife of Adoniram Judson, passed away after twenty years of missionary service in Burma.  Sarah and her first husband, George, worked among the Karen tribes of Burma.  ABHS has correspondence of both George Boardman and Adoniram Judson.  There is also a large collection of Burmese in native dress, as illustrated by the attached image.

Sept 1, 1803.  The first issue of Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, the precursor to American Baptist Magazine was published.  It is the oldest extant religious magazine.  ABHS has every issue of this magazine, which has changed names several times.

August 31, 1688.  John Bunyan died in England.  He may most widely known as the author of  Pilgrim’s Progress but he was also a great preacher.  He authored about 60 other books and sermons.   Following the English Civil War, Bunyan was arrested as a non-conformist, and spent the next twelve years in jail as he refused to give up preaching.  Bunyan’s later years, in spite of another shorter term of imprisonment, were spent in relative comfort as a popular author and preacher, and pastor of the Bedford Meeting. He died aged 59 after falling ill on a journey to London and is buried in Bunhill Fields. ABHS has many books and articles by and about John Bunyan including several editions of Pilgrim’s Progress.  The image here is from Pilgrim’s Progress.

August 29, 1840.  Ellen Cushing was born in Kingston, MA.  Cushing was first an educator who assisted freed slaves in entering post-way society.  Later she went as a missionary to Burma with her husband, Josiah, where they collaborated on an English-Shan dictionary.  In the late 1890s, she started the Baptist Training Institute in Philadelphia to train single women missionaries.  The BTI moved to Bryn Mawr and became known as Ellen Cushing Junior College.

August 27, 1944.  The Greenlake Conference Center, the American Baptist Assembly was dedicated at Greenlake, WI. This area around Green Lake, the deepest lake in Wisconsin, has been considered holy land since the Winnebago Indians camped there, believing the Water Spirit lived in Green Lake.  In the mid-1840s Chris Briswold and his family constructed a Log Cabin there. It still stands in the back of the property. When you see the size of this one room cabin, you wonder how Chris, his wife, and five children could ever exist in such a small area!  The conference center became a key meeting place for great Baptist leaders. Many missionary conferences were also held there.  Recently, the missionary artifacts from Greenlake were transferred to the ABHS archives. Pictured here is a pulpit chair from Thailand.

August 27  First Regular Baptist Church of Huntingdon, PA celebrates their 175^th anniversary under the leadership of Pastor John C. Staje, Jr. .

August 25, 1849.  William Jewell College was chartered in Liberty, MO.  This was the first four-year college west of the Mississippi River.   It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and endowed with $10,000 by William Jewell. Another founder was Robert S. James, a Baptist minister and father of the infamous Frank James and Jesse James. ABHS has a collection of correspondence and historical catalogs from William Jewell College.  ABHS also has biographical information and an image for William Jewell.