Category: Historical anniversary

Isaac Backus Comments on Foreign Policy

Dec. 30, 1798.  Isaac Backus commented against Federalist Party foreign policy in opposition to France.  Backus was a leading Baptist preacher during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England.   Isaac Backus joined John Brown, Nicholas Brown, William Ellery, Stephen Hopkins, James Manning, Ezra Stiles, Samuel Stillman, Morgan Edwards and several others as an original fellow or trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the original name for Brown University), the first Baptist school of higher learning.  Backus served as a delegate from Middleborough to the Massachusetts ratifying convention, which ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. He voted in favor of ratification.  ABHS has a collection of Isaac Backus’ papers and many volumes by and about him.

 

William Doane, Composer and Hymnist, Dies

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.  The Doane Collection inventory is now available on ArchivesSpace.

 

Slave Holders Denied Missionary Appointment

December 23, 1844.  A letter from the Triennial Convention was on its way to the Alabama Convention saying that in good conscience the Convention could not appoint a slave holder as a missionary.  There is much correspondence and debate about this issue, and the letter sets out the reasons why they could not approve such an appointment.  This answer set in motion the split between the Southern Baptists and the Northern Baptists.  ABHS has the original hand written minutes of this and other Triennial Conventions as well as a typed transcript.

All Ministers Allowed to Marry in North Carolina

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. As pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, he helped form the Kehukee Association.  Henry Abbot is mentioned in several of the reference books in the Reading Room.

Missionaries Executed in WWII

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.

Jesse Mercer, Hymnist, Born

Dec. 16, 1769.  Jesse Mercer, hymnist and preacher, was born in Halifax County, NC.  Mercer University in Georgia was named after him.  As a delegate to Georgia’s constitutional convention in 1798, he helped to defeat a proposal that would have made ministers ineligible to hold public office in Georgia. The convention’s delegates also gave Mercer the responsibility for writing the section of Georgia’s constitution guaranteeing religious liberty to the state’s citizens. Mercer made a run for the state senate in 1816 but was unsuccessful. From 1817 to 1835 Mercer also served four times as a delegate to the Triennial Convention which supported foreign missions. ABHS has many volumes by and about Jesse Mercer and Mercer University.  ABHS’s offices and archives are on the Mercer University Atlanta campus. 

William Staughton, Supporter of Missions and Education, Dies

December 12, 1829.  William Staughton, pioneer in the areas of missions and education, died in Washington, DC.   Staughton was a Baptist clergyman, educator, and music composer. He was also a Chaplain of the United States Senate and the first President of Columbian College from 1821-1827, which is the original name and oldest division (1821) of The George Washington University.  He accepted a position as President of the Literary and Theological Institution of Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky in September 1829. However, while making the journey to the College, Staughton died on December 12, 1829. He was originally buried in the District of Columbia’s Episcopal cemetery, but his body was later moved to Philadelphia’s Sansom Street Church Cemetery.  ABHS has the personal papers of Staughton and some of the records of Sansom Street Church.

Women’s Day of Prayer Started

Dec. 7, 1951   The first Baptist Women’s Day of Prayer was held.  This has become an annual event of the Baptist World Alliance.  “The Baptist World Alliance is a global movement of Baptists sharing a common confession of faith in Jesus Christ bonded together by God’s love to support, encourage and strengthen one another while proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit before a lost and hurting world.”  The Day of Prayer is designed to encourage and celebrate unity in Christ among Baptist women of the world and work towards peace, reconciliation, justice and development through prayer, witness and service. ABHS has the historical records of BWA.

 

State Funds Denied to Episcopal Church

Dec. 6, 1776  The Virginia Assembly, led by Thomas Jefferson, passed a law denying funds for the Episcopal Church. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was written into the state’s law and disestablished the Church of England in Virginia and guaranteed freedom of religion to people of all religious faiths, including Christians of all denominations, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus.   The statute was a notable precursor of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Virginia Assembly dates from the establishment of the House of Burgesses at Jamestown in 1619. It became the General Assembly in 1776 with the ratification of the Virginia Constitution.  ABHS has books and pamphlets on the struggle for religious freedom in colonial times.

Roger and Mary Williams Sail to the New World

Dec. 2 1630 Roger Williams and his wife, Mary, were aboard the ship Lyon sailing to the New World.  Williams had come to a position as a separatist, believing the Church of England to be corrupt and false.  He believed that “soul liberty” or freedom of conscience is a gift from God, and thought freedom of religion a natural right which demanded that church and state be separated.  This also put him opposed to the rule of the Congregationalists (Puritans) in Massachusetts.  In the spring of 1636, Williams and a number of his followers from Salem began a new settlement on land that Williams had bought from Massasoit in present-day Rumford, Rhode Island. ABHS has many books about Roger Williams and several items written by him including Christenings Make Not Christians written in 1645.

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr, Born in New Haven

Nov. 29, 1908:  Adam Clayton Powell Jr.  was born in New Haven, CT.  A preacher and congressman, he is also known for his civil rights work.  Powell was the first person of African-American descent to be elected from New York to Congress and the fourth in the 20th century. He grew up in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem where his father was the pastor, and graduated from Colgate University in 1930.  ABHS has Powell’s autobiography and other of his writings as well as many books and magazine articles about him.

John Bunyan Born in England

Nov. 28, 1629:  John Bunyan was born in Elstow, England.  Bunyan was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. In addition to The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons. He spend 12 years in prison because he would not stop preaching a ‘nonconformist’ gospel.   ABHS has many copies of this work, the earliest dating from 1676.   The theme of the fall-Winter 2014 issue of the American Baptist Quarterly is “John Bunyan and the Baptist Academy.”

First Baptist American Woman Missionary to China Dies

November 27, 1844:  Henrietta Hall Shuck, the first Baptist American woman missionary to China, died at the age of 27 in Hong Kong.  She and her husband, John Lewis, sailed for China in 1835, when she was just 17 years old.  She started the first Christian school for Chinese children in China.  She encouraged girls to come to her school, in fact she allowed boys to come only if they brought a girl also.  ABHS has a biographical file on Henrietta as well as several magazine articles reporting on her activities.

Missionary to South India, John Clough Dies

Nov. 24, 1910:  John E. Clough died in Rochester, NY.  Sent by the American Baptist foreign Mission Society to the Telegues of South India, he served for 46 years.  ABHS holds published and unpublished manuscripts of his, as well as correspondence, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks and biographical information.  His second wife was Emma Rauschenbusch.  ABHS has the missionary letters of John Clough from 1864-1918 and of Emma Rauschenbusch from 1920-1940.

Backus Returns to Middleborough, MA

Nov. 19, 1774:  Isaac Backus returned to Middleborough, MA, where he had been pastor of the Baptist church since 1751. Ordained in 1748, Backus became a Baptist in 1751 when he became pastor of the church.  He was a leading proponent of religious freedom leading up to the ratification of the Constitution.   He was also one of the founders of the college that became Brown University, the first Baptist school of higher learning.  ABHS has many of Backus’ writings and information about him.

Isabel Crawford, Missionary with Kiowa, Dies

Nov. 18, 1961:  Isabel Crawford, died in Winona, NY.   She was a missionary with the Kiowa people in the Oklahoma Territory. Crawford, who had lost most of her hearing due to an illness, communicated with the Kiowa using Plains Indian sign language. She lived among the Kiowa for about eleven years, sharing their lives and helping them build their first church and, when she died, she was buried in their cemetery. ABHS has a collection of her papers and photographs.

Church Doors Nailed Shut

March 6, 1680: The doors of First Baptist Church of Boston were nailed shut by court order; the Bay Colony was not tolerant of anyone who advocated for believers’ baptism.  Men and women were banished from the colony and others were put to death. The Baptists in Boston continued to meet outside in the freezing church yard for several weeks until one Sunday they found the doors unlocked so went in to worship with no repercussions.  ABHS has some of the original church records of First Baptist Church of Boston from 1771-1960.

William Penn Given Charter

March 4, 1681.  Britain’s King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania in order to offer religious freedom to those who settled there.  Then, as now, Baptists strongly upheld religious freedom and opposed a state-supported church.

ABHS has many tracts and essays from early Baptists defending religious freedom.  The national offices of the American Baptist Churches, USA,and their affiliated mission societies, are in Pennsylvania.  ABHS has several tracts written by William Penn, mostly about religious freedom.