Category: Uncategorized

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.

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.

March 3, 1854 marks the date that Martha Beecher died at sea while returning from Burma where she and her husband, John, were missionaries.  Although John was the one commissioned by the church, Martha, like many missionary spouses, felt called to mission work also.

In 1878 a marble plaque was dedicated to Beecher’s memory.  He was given  “the distinguished honor of establishing the first Christian school in Burma on the basis of the indigenous support.”  ABHS has two folders of correspondence between the Beechers and the foreign mission board.  The picture above is a depiction of John Beecher.

February 28, 1851, Libbie Cilley Griffin was born.  In 1898 she was ordained by Baptists in New York state.

ABHS has her ordination certificate, marriage certificate, and many of her sermons and other writings.  She was a Free Will Baptist missionary in India 1873-1876, and again in 1883-1893.

On February 27, 1813, the Maine Literary and Theological Institution was founded in Waterville, Maine.  Later the name was changed to Colby College.  It is considered a pioneer in higher education because:

in 1833, students organized the first collegiate anti-slavery society;
in 1871, Colby, previously an all-male college, admitted women;
in 1975, they participated in the first intercollegiate women’s varsity ice hockey game;
in 1983, Colby became the first college to issue e-mail accounts to all students.

ABHS has files on Colby College from 1875 to 1960.

In 1824, on February 25, the Baptist General Tract Society was formed in Washington, DC.  The purpose was to publish Christian Literature and Sunday School materials.  Two years later the Society moved to Philadelphia.

In 1841 the first colporters were appointed to distribute the publications.  Out of this society came the American Baptist Historical Society (1853), the Board of Education and Publication (1888), and eventually the Publishing arm was named Judson Press.  The picture above is one of the first colporter wagons.  ABHS has many records from the Tract Society, and a complete collection of books published by Judson Press and its predecessors.  ABHS collections also include many pictures of various colporters using horses and buggies, trains, boats, and automobiles.

On February 16, in 1747, Isaac Backus formed a church with 16 people in Titicut, MA.  He was going against legal requirements.  Backus spoke out for separation of church and state, and was one of the original trustees for Brown University, the first Baptist school of higher learning.  In 1751, Backus became the pastor of Middleborough Baptist church in Massachusetts.   The accompanying photo shown Backus listed as the pastor of Middleborough in the 1790-1795 Baptist Register.  ABHS has a collection of Backus’ personal papers and many books by and about him. 

On February 15, 1679, Boston Baptists met for the first time in a meeting house secretly built as a ‘Brewery’.  ABHS has original church records from four churches in Boston: Bowdoin Square BC, 1840-1876; Central Square BC and Society, 1843-1915;  First BC, 1771-1960; and Trenton Street BC, 1908-1929.  Association Records from Boston date to the mid 1800s.

In 1884, on February 11, nine believers were baptized, the beginnings of the Baptist witness in Estonia. The first Estonian Baptist church was started in Haapsalu in 1884. From that time  Baptist churches have been  planted across the country. The period of Soviet dominion 1940 – 1990 seriously hampered the growth of Baptist churches since religious activities were allowed only in church buildings and leaders were regularly interrogated by the communist state.  Currently the Union of Evangelical Christian and Baptist Churches of Estonia numbers almost 6200 members worshipping in 84 local congregations.

 

February 6, 1812, marks the day five young men were ordained for missionary service at the Tabernacle UCC Church in Salem, MA.  Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall and Luther Rice were Congregationalists.  Adoniram had married Ann Hasseltine the previous day, and they sailed for India on Feburary 19.  After intensive Bible study during the long voyage, the Judson’s decided to become Baptists. Denied admission to India, they went to Burma where they both ministered until their deaths, Ann in 1826, Adoniram in 1850.  ABHS has Ann and Adoniram’s correspondence, and documentation of their work on Burma.

February 5, 1631.  After 56 days aboard the ship Lyon, Roger Williams arrived from London in the midst of winter.  He is mentioned often in these posts because his fight for religious liberty caused much uproar in the colonies that were determined to keep their worship practices and theological understandings unchallenged.  Williams  was expelled from Massachusetts eventually traveled to Rhode Island and established a colony which was a haven for those “distressed of conscience.”

February 1, 1877.  The Woman’s Baptist Home Mission Society was organized with headquarters in Chicago.  This group also founded the Baptist Missionary Training School that sent women missionaries to both foreign and home missions.  ABHS has the minutes and publications from the WBHMS which merged with other home mission societies to form the current American Baptist Home Mission Societies.

January 30, 1864. James Hickey began the First Church of Monterey, the first Baptist church in Mexico. ABHS has foreign missionary correspondence for several missionaries who served in Mexico like George Pixley and Albert Benjamin Howell.  In the beginning Mexico was considered part of the Home Mission effort, and the WAHMS sent many women missionaries.