Nov. 4, 1752. Over 100 years after Williams’ banishment, Isaac Backus was still fighting the state church’s tyranny. His mother told of her persecution at the hands of the Puritans and it persuaded her son to fight for religious freedom. ABHS has Backus’ published sermons, correspondence and a journal of family data in our collections.
Nov. 3, 1635: Roger Williams, was banished from the colony of Massachusetts because he preached ‘new and dangerous ideas’ to his congregants. The colonists had set up a Puritan theocracy and allowed no deviances. Williams went to Rhode Island and began the settlement of Providence Plantations. ABHS has many volumes by and about Roger Williams.
Nov. 1, 1812: Luther Rice, the father of American Baptist of foreign missions, was baptized in Calcutta, India. He was ordained and sailed with Adoniram Judson; like Judson he became convinced of the rightness of adult baptism on the voyage. After his baptism, he returned to the USA to raise money for missionaries like Adonirum and Ann Judson. ABHS has his journals and correspondence dating from 1803.
October 31, 1789: John Mason Peck, pioneer missionary to the western frontier (Ohio and Illinois), was born in Litchfield. Having secured funding as “missionaries to the Missouri Territory,” the Peck and his missionary partner Welch and their families traveled westward, arriving in St. Louis in December, 1817. Peck and Welch organized the First Baptist Church of St. Louis, the first Protestant church in the city, and baptized two converts in the Mississippi River in February, 1818. By year’s end, they also soon founded the first missionary society in the West: The United Society for the Spread of the Gospel. Peck became active in establishing Bible societies and Sunday School associations, distributing bibles as well as spreading literacy and Christian principles. Peck moved to Rock Springs, Illinois in 1822 to farm, and arranged a circuit to visit the various societies which he continued to establish, as well as isolated farms. On one trip, Peck visited Daniel Boone, then nearly 80, and later wrote a book about the frontiersman’s life. ABHS holds Peck’s correspondence from 1833-1852 and a journal from 1854.
October 28
Central Baptist Church, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, celebrates their 125th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Dr. George Hancock-Stefan.
Good Shepherd Baptist Church, Richmond, VA, celebrates their 100th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Sylvester T. Smith.
Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church, Cleveland, OH, celebrates their 35th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Earl Simpson
October 27 St. Luke Baptist Church, Berryville, VA, celebrates their 15oth anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Delbert R. Pope.
October 25, 1962: Ralph Elliott was fired by Midwestern Seminary (an SBC affiliated seminary) in the midst of the controversy over his Genesis interpretation. The controversy erupted at Midwestern in 1961 when Ralph Elliott, the chair of the Old Testament department, authored a book published by Broadman Press titled The Message of Genesis. Elliott used a historical-critical method of interpretation to examine the first book of the Bible, arguing that it was not literal history, but that it could be religious truth nonetheless. Elliott assumed multiple authors for Genesis and concluded it was full of “symbolic stories” not to be taken as “literally true,” such as: Adam and Eve were not actual historical figures, the flood was local, and Abraham did not actually hear the voice of God commanding him to sacrifice Isaac. ABHS has several of Elliott’s books and holds his personal papers.
October 24, 1826: Ann Hasseltine Judson, one of the first American overseas missionaries, died of smallpox in Burma at age 37. She was a teacher from graduation until her marriage to Adoniram Judson in 1812. During the first Anglo-Burmese war (1824–26), her husband was imprisoned for 17 months under suspicion of being an English spy, and Ann moved into a shack outside the prison gates so as to support her husband. She lobbied vigorously for months to convince the authorities to release her husband and his fellow prisoners, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She also sent food and sleeping mats to the prisoners to help their time in prison to be more bearable. After her husband’s release they both remained in Burma to continue their work. Ann wrote a catechism in Burmese, and translated the books of Daniel and Jonah into Burmese. She was the first Protestant to translate any of the scriptures into Thai when in 1819 she translated the Gospel of Matthew. ABHS has her letters from Burma and the books she translated in the archives as well as books about her and her work.
October 21, 1795. David Irish established the first Baptist church in Cayuga County, New York, in the Finger Lakes area. He was sent out by the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society. This was a frontier area at the time, and pastors like Irish helped settle and expand our nation. The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, published by the society, published a letter from Rev. Irish in the December, 1812, issue. The MBMM became the Baptist Missionary Magazine, which eventually evolved to the American Baptist. ABHS has a complete set of all the issues of these magazines.
October 20 Sandy Ridge Community Baptist Church, Stockton, NJ, celebrates their 200th anniversary under the leadership of John Valiant, Jr.
The Edith Grace Traver Papers, RG 1078, is now in our online catalog. This collection includes correspondence, diaries, 300 photos of China and its missionaries, Chinese language material, hymns and notebooks about Chinese history and missions.
The picture above is of some metal hair decorations and the one here is of Chinese wood and fabric shoes.
Follow this link to our online catalog: https://libraries.mercer.edu/archivesspace-priv…/…/109/edit…
October 15, 1752. Elizabeth Backus, a fifty-four widow and mother of Reverend Isaac Backus, was arrested and imprisoned for two weeks for failing to pay the church tax that went to the official (Congregational) church. In 1728 an Act was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, exempting Baptists from the tax, but that was the personal tax only, the property tax was still liable. ABHS has many writings of Isaac Backus and microfilms of his personal papers.
October 14, 1774: The Warren Association in Massachusetts petitioned the Continental Congress for religious liberty. The Warren Association was in the vanguard of the battle for religious freedom in early America. Baptists had been persecuted throughout their history; their struggles to attain their “privileges” led to the insertion of the anti-establishment clause in the Bill of Rights. In 1774 the Warren Association sent a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to plead for religious freedom. Two years later, when a Baptist meeting in Pepperell, Massachusetts, was broken up by a mob, the Warren Association published an account of the affair, and engaged the people of Pepperell in a pamphlet war until they “made the town ashamed of what they had done.” ABHS holds the Warren Association Minutes from 1767.
October 14
Berean Baptist Temple, Bridgeton, NJ, celebrates their 125th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Kenneth James Scovell.
Springdale Baptist Church, Marysville, OH, celebrates their 150th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. C. Rorke Warne.
The First Baptist Church of Chicago, IL, celebrates their 185th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Jesse M. Brown.
Scaffold Lick Baptist Church, Lexington, IN, celebrates their 200th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. David L. Culley.
First Baptist Church of Saratoga Springs, NY, celebrated their 225th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. George Stefani.
October 11, 1665: Four Baptists were brought before the Massachusetts court and told to cease ‘schismatical practices.’ Puritans in Massachusetts were not open to any other practice of religion, and Quakers, Baptists and Anglicans were not allowed to preach. When King Charles II (of England) insisted, Massachusetts passed a law deliberately using the king’s language, allowing anyone “orthodox in religion” to practice in the colony; however, they also defined such orthodoxy as consisting of views that were acceptable to local ministers. This effectively negated the law, because there were probably no ministers in the colony who would agree that other protestants satisfied their idea of orthodoxy. ABHS has pamphlets and other histories of the struggle for religious freedom.
October 10, 1779: David Benedict born in New England. Although he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, he went to school, including Brown University. While in seminary Benedict preached for Baptists in Pawtucket, RI, and following his graduation he was ordained and became the pastor of the newly established First Baptist Church in Pawtucket. Benedict traveled (on horseback) collecting materials about Baptists, and sent out questionnaires for his History of the Baptists in the United States which was published in 1813. ABHS has a copy of Benedict’s History, and is it used frequently by staff and researchers alike.
October 8. 1609. John Clarke was born in Suffolk England. He was a physician, Baptist minister, co-founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, author of its influential charter, and a leading advocate of religious freedom in the Americas. He arrived in Boston where Baptists were considered heretics and were banned, in 1637 and decided to go to Rhode Island. But Clarke wanted to make inroads there and spent time in the Boston jail after making a mission trip to the town of Lynn. The fledgling Rhode Island colony needed an agent in England, so Clarke handled the colony’s interests. All of the other New England colonies were hostile to Rhode Island. After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, it was imperative that Rhode Island receive a royal charter to protect its territorial integrity. It was Clarke’s role to obtain such a document, and he saw this as an opportunity to include religious freedoms never seen before in any constitutional charter. He negotiated for months with Connecticut over territorial boundaries. Finally, he drafted the Rhode Island Royal Charter and presented it to the king, and it was approved with the king’s seal on 8 July 1663. This charter granted unprecedented freedom and religious liberty to Rhode Islanders and remained in effect for 180 years, making it the longest-lasting constitutional charter in history.
October 7
First Baptist Church, Howell MI
, celebrates their 180th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Herbert C. Wilson, Jr.
Shiloh Baptist Church, Columbus, IN, celebrates their 150th anniversary under the leadership of Pastor Ancel Harden.
Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Akron, OH, celebrates their 100th anniversary under the leadership of Pastor William C. Bunton.
October 6
New Covenant Baptist Church, Pottstown, PA celebrates their 25th anniversary under th
e leadership of Pastor Melody Walden. (Pictured right)
First Baptist Church of Rochester, NY, celebrated their 200th anniversary under the leadership of Rev. Brent Bowden.
October 5, 1783. William Carey was baptized in Northampton County, England. Carey is known as the “father of modern missions.” He was a Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree awarding University in India. He translated the Hindu classic the Ramayana into English, and the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Arabic, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. When Adoniram and Ann Judson landed in India, they sought out Carey to talk about Baptist beliefs.
