Author: Jean McDaniel

Sept 22, 1886.  Ernest and Ida Roscoe arrived at Kodiak Island.  They were the first Baptist missionaries to Alaska.  Among other things, they started a school and the Baptist Mission at Kodiak.  ABHS has a book their son, Fred, wrote of his life growing up in Alaska where there was no local government and no federal control except for customs collections.

Hattie May Price Papers, MP 38

Hattie Price was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was a missionary to Burma. Her collection is comprised of photographs of India, Japan and China from the 1910s.

Hanna Judson Papers, RG 1516

Stanley Hanna and his family donated Adoniram and Emily C. Judson  (pictured here) personal correspondence to the ABHS beginning in 2007. The collection also has a large selection of Emily Frances Judson’s writings and poetry. Emily Frances is the daughter of Adoniram and Emily C.

Sept 19, 1749.  Philadelphia Baptist Association stated its support for local church autonomy.  The Church of England and Methodist church had a defined hierarchy that left little local church autonomy, but the Baptists had only loose Associations, and a local church could choose which Association they wanted to join.  Other decisions like which pastor to call, and who could join the church were decided by the local congregation.  The Philadelphia Association was influential; ABHS has records from this association beginning in 1763.

Sept 18, 1901.  Alderson Academy was founded in Alderson, West Virginia by Emma Alderson, a committed Baptist laywoman. Classes started with 40 students.  As the years passed, Alderson Academy added junior college status. Financial hardship in the late 1920’s led to the decision to merge Broaddus College and Alderson Junior College to become Alderson-Broaddus College in Phillipi, West Virginia.   ABHS has many folders of correspondence about Alderson-Broaddus which is affiliated with the American Baptist Church-USA and the West Virginia Baptist Convention.

Sept 17, 1902.  Joseph S. Murrow organized the Indian Orphan’s Home in Oklahoma.  This was the first Baptist orphanage for Indians.  Murrow also founded Bacone College on which campus the Orphan’s Home was located.  He was 94 when he died, and had been a missionary for 72 years.    ABHS has his obituary which was printed in the Baptist in 1929.

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, was finally released.  He wrote of this episode on this day, and a few days later died from illness and age.

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 worshiped 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 collection of Hosea and Theresa Howard, missionaries to Burma in the 1850s, had been processed  and is now available for researchers.   For three years they served at the mission station in Rangoon working with the Karens.   Here Mrs. Howard soon started a school comprising twelve children. Rev. Howard was engaged in evangelistic work.   On their way back to the US in 1850, their ship wrecked and they were rescued and taken to the island of Mauritius.  In 1856, Rev. Howard published a pamphlet titled, “An Account of the Shipwreck of Hosea Howard & Family”, detailing the trip from Burma.  ABHS has their missionary correspondence and personal papers, including a copy of the book mentioned above.

 

 

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. Sara’s Burmese translation of The Pilgrim’s Progress is still in use today. She also translated the New Testament into Peguan.   Judson asked Emily Chubbuck to write Boardman’s biography.  ABHS has a copy of Sara’s Catechism and collections of correspondence of both George Boardman and Adoniram Judson.

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, 1817.  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.

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 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.

August 24, 1832.   Northumberland Baptist Association in Pennsylvania resolved to found a university in Lewisburg, PA because it was “desirable that a Literary Institution should be established in Central Pennsylvania, embracing a High School for male pupils, another for females, a College and also a Theological Institution.” In 1846, the “school preparatory to the University” opened in the basement of the First Baptist Church in Lewisburg. Known originally as the Lewisburg High School, it became, in 1848, the Academic and Primary Department of the University at Lewisburg. In 1886, the name was changed to Bucknell in honor of William Bucknell, a member of the Board of Trustees, whose large donation kept the institution from collapse.  ABHS has a collection of correspondence and historical catalogs from Bucknell.  We also have biographical information and an image for William Bucknell.