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January 16, 1821: Prominent black missionaries Lott Cary and Collin Teague sailed to Liberia from Norfolk, VA.  ABHS has a folder of Lott Cary’s correspondence as a missionary.  His information is in our on-line collection called ArchivesSpace.

January 15:  Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is celebrated today.  ABHS has digitized several of his speeches at various American Baptist events.  This digitization is possible because of the At Your Fingertips campaign.  More information about At Your Fingertips is available on “support ABHS page.”

Mercer University’s Center for Theology and Public Life and McAfee School of Theology, in partnership with the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies (ACBAS) and the American Baptist Historical Society(ABHS), announce the program details for an international scholarly conference in recognition of the centenary of Professor Walter Rauschenbusch’s death.

“The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch” will take place April 9-11, 2018, on the University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. This same campus hosts the American Baptist Historical Society, a premier religious historical society, which houses the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

The conference will begin with dinner on Monday, April 9, and end at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, April 11.

Confirmed speakers include: Bill Brackney (Acadia University), Heath Carter (Valparaiso University), Wendy Deichmann (United Theological Seminary), Ralf Dziewas (Theological Seminary, Elstal), Gary Dorrien (Union Seminary, NY), Christopher Evans (Boston University), Dominik Gauthier (University of Oldenburg), David Gushee (Mercer University), Roger Prentice (Acadia University, Andrea Strubind (University of Oldenburg), and Darryl Trimiew (past president, Society of Christian Ethics).

See detailed information about the schedule and register on the Mercer web site.

January 12, 1724:  Samuel Harris, the persecuted defender of religious liberty, was born in Hanover County, VA.  ABHS has booklets, tracts and sermons about the importance of religious liberty (especially in the matter of baptism) in colonial America, some dating to 1700.

January 8, 1841.  Judson College was chartered in Marion, AL, as Judson Female Institute.  It was founded by members of Siloam Baptist Church; the three individuals  who were most instrumental in the founding were Julia Tarrant Barron, General Edwin D. King, and Milo P. Jewett.  ABHS has information from and about many of the Baptist related colleges.

January 7, 1821: The first Baptist church in Florida was organized.  It is the Pigeon Creek church in present-day Nassau County.  ABHS has original church records from many states.  The earliest is First Baptist, Philadelphia, dating to 1691. ABHS gives anniversary certificates to churches who request them for a significant anniversary

January 5, 1527:  Felix Manz, Swiss Anabaptist, was sentenced to death by the Zurich Council for his beliefs.  Freedom of religion was not a common concept prior to the Constitution of the United States.

The National Museum of American Religion has undertaken a project to save and restore Chapel Car Good Will.  Good Will was one of seven chapel cars put on the rails by the American Baptist Publication Society and the American Baptist Home Mission Society.  If you are interested in this project to save an important artifact of American Baptist history please view this link.     Other Chapel Cars are Grace, Evangel,  Emmanuel, Glad Tidings, Messenger of Peace, and Herald of Hope.  These cars traveled all over the country with missionaries who helped bring the word of God to newly settled areas.   ABHS has books, CDs and videos about the Chapel Cars.

January 2:  The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch conference will take place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information is available. Download a registration form.

This campus is home to the American Baptist Historical Society, which holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers.  ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christo­pher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration closes March 25.

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.

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. Henry Abbot is mentioned in several of the reference books in the Reading Room.

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.

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.

Dec. 15 1836  The first Baptist church in Australia, Bathhurst Church in New South Wales, was constituted by John Saunders.  At an anniversary celebration they give thanks to those pioneer preachers who saw the need to bring the Gospel to this town of 5000 people with its 50 pubs. They gathered around them a core group to establish a church within a year of meeting in the old courthouse. Bathurst was the gateway to the west and it was from these beginnings that the Gospel began spreading further afield in the surrounding area and then further westward. ABHS has Yearbooks from the New South Wales and Queensland Baptist churches.

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.

Early Bird registration ends on January 1, 2018 for “The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch”  conference which will take place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information is available. Download a registration form.

This campus is home to the American Baptist Historical Society, which holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers.  ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration closes March 25.

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.