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If your church has an significant anniversary coming up soon, and you would like an Anniversary Certificate from ABHS, please go to the “For Churches” page and scroll towards the bottom to download the Certificate request.  Your church will be listed in our Newsletter, Primary Source, on this web site, and on Facebook.

July 16, 1759  Rev. Isaac Backus posted a notice at First Baptist Church of Middleborough, MA, that a list must be made of all who belong to the church.  This was so that they could be excused from the ‘church tax’ that each resident paid to support the Standing Order churches.  Backus spent a lot of time fighting to eradicate state support of churches.  He maintained that it robbed the local Baptist churches from building their own buildings, supporting their pastors, and establishing colleges to train preachers and expand their ministries.  Eventually the Religious Freedom Act was included in the Bill of Rights.  ABHS has a collection of Isaac Backus’s papers including sermons, correspondence, and a journal of family data.

July 13, 1813  Ann and Adoniram Judson arrived in Rangoon, Burma and began their mission work.  Ann died in 1826, but Adoniram worked in Burma for 37 years.  ABHS has several letters from Ann some of which deal with the change of views on baptism.  There are 5 linear feet of correspondence and other memorabilia of Adoniram’s.  The ship pictured here is a model of the ship the Judson’s sailed in from Salem, MA in 1812.  There are other artifacts in the Judson Memorial Room at ABHS including Adoniram’s trunk and desk which he used in Burma.

July 10, 1851  Marcia Dawes Ingalls, with her husband Lowell Ingalls, sailed for the mission station in Burma.  Even though Lowell died in 1856, Marcia continued her work  for 46 years.  She endured two fires that destroyed virtually all her personal property and feared for her life when the chief of a hostile tribe and his warriors approached her home.  She showed courage by confronting them kindly and told them stories about America.  They left without harming anyone.  ABHS has 16 folders of correspondence from the Ingalls.

July 8, 2018   Now available in our on-line catalog, an inventory of the Glen Stassen Papers RG 1558. Glen H. Stassen helped define the social-justice wing of the evangelical movement in the 1980s and played a role in advancing nuclear disarmament talks toward the end of the Cold War.  Dr. Stassen championed a pragmatic approach to social justice and world peace, outlining a program of grass-roots activism to reduce military spending, improve the lives of the disadvantaged and give citizens a voice in international conflict resolution.  His father, Harold E. Stassen, was a former Minnesota governor and champion of the United Nations.  This collection includes  Personal papers,  speeches, notes and preliminary drafts of his published works, correspondence, teaching materials and extensive research materials.  To see the inventory, go to: https://libraries.mercer.edu/archivesspace.

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.

August 2, 1786.  Stephen Gano was ordained into the ministry by his father, John and several other pastors in the Gold Street Baptist Church in New York City.  A medical doctor by profession, he had been captured at sea in the Revolutionary War, escaped from Turk’s Island where the British left him and 34 others, recaptured and repatriated in a prisoner exchange.  After his ordination he served at the First Baptist Church in Providence, RI where he served until his death in 1828.  He increased the membership of the church from 165 to 647.  ABHS has many articles on the life of Stephen Gano and several books on the Gano family.

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.  ABHS has many books, articles and newspapers telling about the National Baptist Convention as well as books and articles about Simmons.

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.  ABHS has biographical information about him.

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, an inventory of which has been put on-line.   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.