Author: Jean McDaniel

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.

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

January 24, 1811:  Sansom Street Baptist Church in Philadelphia 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).  We also have the original drawings of the dome of the church.

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 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. One of the ABHS membership circles is named for her.

January 21.  The Eglise Baptiste de la Nouvelle Naissance in Spring Valley,  New York celebrates their 25^th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Philippe W. Antoine.

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.  ABHS has information from and about many of the Baptist related colleges.

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.

The National Museum of American Religion has undertaken a project to save and restore Chapel Car Good Will.  Good Will was one of seven chapel cars put on the rails by the American Baptist Publication Society and the American Baptist Home Mission Society.  If you are interested in this project to save an important artifact of American Baptist history please view this link.     Other Chapel Cars are Grace, Evangel,  Emmanuel, Glad Tidings, Messenger of Peace, and Herald of Hope.  These cars traveled all over the country with missionaries who helped bring the word of God to newly settled areas.   ABHS has books, CDs and videos about the Chapel Cars.

January 2:  The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch conference 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 closes March 25.

Dec. 24. 1915.  William H. Doane, composer and hymnist, died in South Orange, NJ.  Doane was a manufacturer, inventor, hymn writer, choral director, church leader and philanthropist. He composed over 2000 church hymns. More than seventy patents are credited to him for innovations in woodworking machinery. His philanthropy led to the renaming of the Granville Academy, as the Doane Academy, a boys’ and girls’ private preparatory school associated with Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he was a major benefactor.  Although raised in a Presbyterian household, Doane converted to his mother’s Baptist faith, while a young student at Woodstock Academy. This conversion began a lifelong commitment to service in that church, through his musical compositions, choir direction, denominational leadership and philanthropy.

Doane was a prolific composer of Christian hymn tunes. He edited forty-three collections of hymns and composed an estimated 2,300 works, including hundreds of original hymns and hymn settings. He is best known as a longtime collaborator of Fanny Crosby, having written music for an estimated 1,500 of Crosby’s poems.  As well as hymns, Doane composed secular instrumental, vocal, and choral works, including two cantatas on the legend of Santa Claus.   ABHS has a collection of Doane’s business dealings, charitable endeavors, copyright registrations, sheet music and family photographs and memorabilia.

Dec. 22, 1776.  Henry Abbot submitted a resolution to North Carolina allowing all ministers to perform marriages.  Under colonial rule only the established church was authorized to perform the marriage ceremony, and this privilege was extended to dissenting sects only after ties with the mother country had been severed.   Abbot’s resolution provided that ministers of all denominations might perform the marriage rite. Although passed in a slightly amended form, this resolution was the forerunner of a state law approved by the legislature some fifteen months later. In 1776, Abbot and four other men were chosen to represent Pasquotank County in the provincial congress that met at Halifax and endorsed American independence.  He is generally recognized as author of the nineteenth article of the state constitution, which made formal acknowledgement that “all men have natural and inalienable rights to worship almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience.” Variously described as an “elegant gentleman” and “popular idol,” Abbot came to exercise an influence hardly equaled by ministers from his area before or since. Henry Abbot is mentioned in several of the reference books in the Reading Room.

Dec. 20, 1943.  Eleven Baptist missionaries were captured and executed by the Japanese in the Philippines.  The missionaries had been in hiding since the beginning of the war, supported by the local people.  They created chapel they called Hopevale.  Known as the Hopevale Martyrs, Jeannie Clare Adams, James “Jimmy” Howard Covell and his wife Charma Covell, Dorothy Antionette Dowell, Signe Amelia Erickson, Frederick Meyer and his wife Ruth Meyer, Francis Rose and his wife Gertrude Rose, Erle Rounds and his wife Louise Rounds, and finally Erle Douglas, the Rounds’ son, are remembered for their bravery and faith.  ABHS has photographs and records of these missionaries and the Hopevale chapel.