Author: Jean McDaniel

July 6, 1849   The first Baptist Church in California was organized in San Francisco (First Baptist) by Osgood Church Wheeler.  He also started churches in San Jose and Sacramento.  First Baptist has had 22 pastors, and when one of its previous buildings burned down in the 1906 earthquake, the congregation moved their facilities to what has now become the heart of the City, near Market and Van Ness.  ABHS has a large collection of directories, histories and articles about First Baptist, San Francisco.

July 1:  1777 The Continental Congress officially appointed Hezekiah Smith as chaplain in the U.S. Army. He started the Baptist church in Haverhill, PA, and from there 13 other churches were started by Smith and others in Haverhill. ABHS has Smith’s  diaries (1762-1805), six addresses and sermons delivered by Smith to the army plus some correspondence (1776-1780) on microfilm.

June 29, 1849.  William J. Simmons, a founder of the National Baptist Convention, was born in Charleston, SC. Born into slavery William J. Simmons served as the second president of what would later become Simmons College of Kentucky between 1880 and 1890. He was also a prominent historian and biographer of African American men.  When William was a child, he and his mother escaped to Bordentown, New Jersey.

 

 

 

June 23, 1798.  The Nova Scotia Baptist Association was formed.  It was the first organization of Baptists in Canada.  Many Baptists who supported the Crown in the American Revolution resettled in  Nova Scotia following the war.   ABHS has Association minutes from several places in Canada.

 

 

June 22, 1875. Dong Gong was ordained to ministry in Portland, OR.  He was the first Asian-American to be ordained by the Baptists. An immigrant from China, he was  converted to Christianity and baptized by Rev. John Francis in San Francisco.  Dong Gong started a Chinese mission in Portland about 1875.

 

June 19, 1808.  First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, offered “brethren of color” the use of its building.  Blacks could be offered membership in a ‘white’ church, but that didn’t mean they would be considered equal.  A researcher at ABHS recently found a record where a black member of a church was refused permission to bury his child in the church cemetery.  ABHS has many of First Church Philadelphia’s original church records.  Handwritten records go back as far as the 1750s.

June 18, 1781.  Severns Valley Church was organized in Kentucky.  It was the first Baptist church west of the 13 original colonies.  ABHS has Association records from the Severns Valley beginning in 1899.

June 16, 1636.  Residents of Providence Plantations (R.I.) drew up a compact allowing religious freedom.  This only applied to the residents of the Plantations, but was a forerunner of the first amendment (see June 8 post).  Providence Plantation was a colonial plantation that was the first permanent European American settlement in present-day Rhode Island. It was established at Providence in 1636 by English clergyman Roger Williams and a small band of followers who had left the oppressive atmosphere of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to seek freedom of worship.

June 15, 1784.  Isaac McCoy, foremost white advocate of Native American rights was born in Fayette County, PA. While still young, Isaac was inspired to become a missionary to Native Americans and determined on that work.  McCoy, his son John, his daughter Delilah and her missionary husband Johnston Lykins, worked together as missionaries to the Shawnee and Lenape (Delaware), following them to what is now Kansas City, Missouri, on the border of Indian Territory and near their reservations. The younger McCoy established a trading post at Westport, Missouri.  In 1840, McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Midwestern Native American tribes, The History of Baptist Indian Missions. In 1842 he returned East to Louisville, Kentucky, where he directed the Baptist American Indian Mission Association. He wrote additional works on Indians and the missions. He died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery^.   ABHS has many books by and about Isaac McCoy as well as 10 folders of his missionary correspondence.  His personal papers are also held by ABHS.

June 14, 1844.  The first issue of the Sabbath Recorder was published by the Seventh Day Baptists.  Seventh Day Baptists observes the Sabbath on the seventh-day of the week—Saturday—in accordance with the Biblical Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.  ABHS has issues of this magazine beginning in 1844 to present.  It is still being published.

June 9, 1834.  William Carey died at age 72 in his 42^nd year as a missionary to India. A British Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist, Carey is known as the “father of modern missions.” His essay, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, led to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society in England.   ABHS has many books and articles by and about William Carey

June 8,1789.  Baptists support James Madison’s First Amendment to the constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

ABHS has many books and tracts written by Baptists about the need for freedom of religion in the newly formed United States of America

 

June 5, 1934:  Bill Moyers, born in Hugo, OK., is an American journalist and political commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs like The Power of Myth (1988). He has won numerous awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities.

We are pleased to announce that archivist Jill Sweetapple has joined  the staff of ABHS.  She has eight years of experience as an archivist, most recently at the Georgia Archives, where she has worked as a reference archivist.  Prior to working at the state archives, Sweetapple oversaw the archives at the DeKalb (GA) History Center.  In that capacity she gained experience processing archival collections and digitizing photographic negatives.  As a contractor for Ancestry.com, Sweetapple digitized tax digests and marriage records, making them available for genealogists.  She also has done significant volunteer work at the Atlanta History Center and Georgia State University archives.

One of the things Sweetapple enjoys about working in an archives is discovering the collections —  and at the ABHS archives and Samuel Colgate Historical Library, there’s a lot to discover!  She enjoys working on conservation of documents, and has had specialized training in book repair.

Prior to earning an M.A. in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University, Sweetapple had a career in television, working for Turner Entertainment Networks in the broadcast operations center, and at CNN/Sports Illustrated.

As Head of Archives and Special Collections, Sweetapple will be responsible for the care and management of the American Baptist Historical Society’s archival collections, including the official records of American Baptist Churches/USA partners, personal papers, manuscripts and other historical records and objects in a variety of media, including maps, audio visual materials, photographs, rare books, and artifacts.  The Archivist interprets these and other special collections through reference consultation and exhibitions.  She will also provide advice and training to ABC/USA denominational partners concerning the organization and retention of records to preserve the heritage of the denomination.

 

 

 

May 25, 1803.  The American Baptist magazine was formed by a vote of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society.  Originally named The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, the name was changed to The American Baptist Magazine in 1817 and to The Baptist Missionary Magazine in 1836.  In 1910 it combined with the Home Missions Monthly and the name was changed to Missions.  The ‘s’ was dropped in 1967, and  the magazine merged with Crusader in 1970 to become The American Baptist magazine.  ABHS has all the issues of this line of magazines.

 

 

May 24, 1878.  Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor, theologian, and peace and justice activist, was born in Buffalo, NY.  Graduating from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1903, he was ordained and served churches in New Jersey and New York, including Riverside Church in Manhattan.    Fosdick became a central figure in the “Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy” within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominent liberal ministers of the early 20th Century.  He presented the Bible as a record of the unfolding of God’s will, not as the literal “Word of God”. He saw the history of Christianity as one of development, progress, and gradual change.  ABHS has many books and articles about his life, and many more that he authored.

 

May 21, 1814.  The precursor to today’s Board of International Ministries was founded in Philadelphia following the Triennial Convention (see May 18).  ABHS is the official repository of the archives of the foreign mission societies and IM.  They contain correspondence between missionaries in places like Congo, Burma and India and the sending agencies.