f 71-27,448

CLOSSMAN, Richard Hunter, 1928- A HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BAPTIST CHURCHES IN OHIO FROM 1789 TO 1907, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE OHIO BAPTIST CONVENTION.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 History, modern

University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan

('cT) Copyright by

Richard Hunter Clossman

1971

THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED A HISTORY OR THE ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OP THE

BAPTIST CHURCHES IN OHIO PROM 1789 TO 1907,

WITH PARTICULAR REPERENCE TO THE

OHIO BAPTIST CONVENTION

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By Richard Hunter Clossman, B.A., M.A.

*****

The Ohio State University 1971

Approved by

Adviserer Department of History VITA

Sept. 1 9 , 1928 . . . Born - Kokomo, Indiana

1950 ...... B.A., Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina

1953 ...... B.D., Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois

1 9 5 5...... M.A. , The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: History

Ancient History. Professor William F. McDonald

Renaissance and Reformation. Professor Harold J. Grimm

Colonial American. Professor Paul C. Bowers

The United States. Professors Robert H. Bremner and Francis P. Weisenburger

11 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

VITA ...... ii

ABBREVIATIONS ...... iv

Chapter I. BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA . . 1

II. BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN OHIO, PROM 1788 TO 1830 24-

The Earliest Arrivals Associations, 1789-1818 Associations, 1819-1830

III. THE MISSIONARY CAUSE IN O H I O ...... 70

IV. THE CAMPBELLITE R E F O R M ...... 103

The Mahoning Revolt Reactions in Miami and Other Associations Causes for the Schism

V. THE ANTIMISSION C O N T R O V E R S Y ...... 129

The Causes The Division

VI. THE BAPTIST CONVENTION, 1830-1860, SEARCH FOR SUPPORT...... 164-

VII. HIGHER EDUCATION AMONG OHIO BAPTISTS .... 210

VIII. THE CONVENTION, 1860-1881, STRUGGLE FOR COHERENCE ...... 24-7

IX. THE CONVENTION, 1882-1907, THE BUILDING YEARS ...... 285

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 329

111 ABBREVIATIONS

In the interests of brevity in typing the foot­ notes, the lengthy and sometimes misleading titles of the printed annual minutes of various Baptist associations have been abbreviated to form a consistent pattern. The citations will read Minutes followed by the particular year of the imprint. The full titles of the annual pub­ lications of the Ohio Baptist Convention proceedings have been retained within the footnotes because of their sin­ gular importance in the study of Ohio Baptists.

IV CHAPTER I

BAPTIST BEGimiNGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA

Baptists have steadfastly denied all necessity for apostolic succession and ecclesiastical tradition. They have disclaimed any need for an uninterrupted episcopacy transmitted from the days of the apostles.^ Baptist historiography, however, until more recent years, disclosed a sizeable amount of literature forging a lineal relation­ ship to primitive Christianity. "The Baptists claim their origin from the ministry of Christ and his Apostles," asserted one religious encyclopedia dated 1875, claiming

"to be able to trace their history in a succession of pure churches, under various names, down to the Reformation of 2 the sixteenth century." To build this chronological chain, a long list of spiritual ancestors was employed.

William Gerald McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism, Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge. Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 274-76. 2 Vincent L. Milner, Religious Denominations of the World (Philadelphia: Bradley, Garretson and Co., 1875), p. 40. 2

all of whom possessed evangelical sentiments and anti-

pedobaptist feelings.^

Any lineal connection is without substantive proof.

Nevertheless the importance of such a succession theory to

the Baptist mind suggests in part the underlying reason

for the emergence of the modern Baptist movement in the

early years of the seventeenth century. All of the pre-

Reformation non-conformists, together with the Baptist

movement, possessed what Ernst Troeltsch termed a "Sect-

type" character. They aspired after a "personal inward

perfection" which sought to identify with primitive

Christianity. Renouncing the "Church-type" institution

which ascribed to itself a supernatural character quite

apart from the holiness of its members, the Sect churches

emphasized the direct rule of Christ as the basis for

"direct personal fellowship" within the relatively small A. circle of members.

Two main Sect-type streams flowed into the early

Baptist churches, the one, Anabaptist, the other, English

Separatism. Besides these there was the general movement

created throughout Europe by the Jansenists and by Blaise

^Albert Henry Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States (New York: The Christian Literature Co., 1895)» pp. 15-16.

^Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Church (2 vols.; London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1956), I, 531. 3 Pascal and Jacob Bohme, whose appeal to an inward reli­

gious experience was not unlike that associated with the

Baptists.5

The Anabaptist movement touched the Baptists

directly through the Waterlander Mennonites. The term

Anabaptist in the sixteenth century was a broadly applied

designation of abuse leveled against a wide, variety of indi­

viduals out of sympathy with the established church.

Ranging from the extreme chiliastic to the quietistic

mystic, the Anabaptists possessed the unifying feature of

practicing a second baptism which spoke of an experiental knowledge of God without priest or pope, and which pointed

to "the true church" as distinct from the "fallen.The

Munster Rebellion in 1555» which began with a peasant-

supported theocratic kingdom at Munster in Westphalia, near

the Butch border, and ended in a horrible bloodbath filled with wild excesses of cruelty and terror, brought extreme persecution and repudiation to the many varieties of

Anabaptists who espoused democratic tendencies. The

Munster legacy stained the Anabaptist name throughout

Europe for several centuries. Some Anabaptist doctrines.

^Carl J. Eriedrich, The Age of the Baroque, 1610- 1660 (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1952,), pp. 97- 105. ^Robert A. Macoskey, "The Contemporary Relevance of Balthasar Hub.maier's Concept of the Church," Founda­ tions , 71 (April, 1965), 99. 4 nevertheless, survived to touch the first known Baptist congregation in Amsterdam in 1609.^ After the Munster atrocity, Menno Simons was successful, beginning in 1537, in gathering many of the Anabaptists into a peace-loving

"quiet Antipedobaptist" group which in time became known

Q as the Mennonites. Settling in Holland, the Mennonite congregations, particularly the Waterlander variety, had a deep influence upon John Smyth as he led his congrega­ tion to become the first antipedobaptist church to assume the Baptist name.^

The church of John Smyth had originally emerged out of English separatism. When James I continued the policies of the Elizabethan Settlement, several noncon­ formist congregations migrated to the more lenient atmos­ phere of Amsterdam.Coming from Gainsborough about

1505, Smyth's congregation made the transition from Sepa­ ratism to Baptist doctrine in 1509.

^Ernest Belfort Bax, Rise and Fall of the Ana­ baptists (New York: American Scholar Publications, Inc., 1965;, pp. 381-85. ^Henry 0. Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1907), pp. 184-85. *^Henry William Clark, History of English Noncon­ formity from Wiclif to the Close of the Nineteenth Century (2 vols.; London: Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1911), I, 189-90.

^^Harold J. Grimm, The Reformation Era, 1500-1550 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954), pp. 478, 545-45. 5 It was in the rather acrimonious disputations among neighboring English Separatist congregations that John

Smyth hammered out his Baptist position. Smyth, a Cambridge graduate and an accomplished student in Biblical languages, argued more with Francis Johnson of the London group than with John Robinson of the Scrooby Manor congregation.

Examining the New Testament as a model for his church,

Smyth became convinced that the Separatist churches were oriented toward the Old Testament ceremony of convenanting, based upon a mutual contract between members, while the primitive apostolic church laid its foundation upon bap­ tism as an act of repentance and as a confession of faith.

Smyth's point of contention with the other Separatists was the character of baptism. In his The Character of the

Beast, Smyth argued:

Therefore, the Separation must either go back to England or go forward to true baptism; and all that shall in time to come separate from England must separate from the baptism of E n g l a n d . 12

Smyth pointedly scolded the Separatists for "the error of baptizing infants" as "a chief point of Antichristianity and the very essence and constitution of the false Church.

^^llfred Clair Underwood, A History of the English Baptists (London: The Baptist Union Publication Dept., 194.7 ;, pp. 33-3 7. 1 p Sydnor L. Stealey, A Baptist Treasury (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1938;, p. 5*

^^Ibid., p. 3. 6

Known later as a General Baptist church, because of its Arminian theology, the congregation survived early schism when Smyth, burdened by the unsoundness of his own self-baptism, applied for admission to the Waterlanders, finding in the Mennonites "a true church and ministers 14 established whence baptisme may orderlie be had." A leading member, Thomas Helwys, though friendly with the

Waterlanders, affirmed the validity of his baptism, not believing himself "disorderly," and led a small remnant back to England about 1512, settling in Spitalfield. By

1626 at least five General Baptist churches with about

150 members were in existence, evidenced by a continuing correspondence with the Waterlanders.^^ Comparisons of the early confessions of faith of the Dutch Mennonites and the English General Baptists reveal a close word-for-word relationship in some of them.^^

While the General Baptist churches were scarcely taken seriously in England because of their Arminian doc­ trine, the Particular Baptists received a better hearing.

John Calvin's influence upon England, beginning particularly

B. R. White, "The Frontiers of Fellowship Between English Baptists, 1609-1560," Foundations, XI (July- September, 1968), 246.

^^Eobert G. Torbet, A History of the Baptists (Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 19^0), p. 69.

^^W. J. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1 9 1 1 ), p. 5 3. 7 with, the accession of Edward VI (15^7-1555)» increased

steadily until his theology held the dominant position in

English religious thought.The first Particular Baptist church, under the leadership of John Spilshury in 1638, emerged as one of the several divisions from the noncon­ formist "Jacob Church," an Independent congregation at

Southwork, London. While clearly embracing the baptism of regenerated members only, the congregation also held 1 R to the Calvinism of their Separatist contemporaries.

Particular Baptists, with their Calvinistic Baptist doc­ trine, became more palatable to England's religious taste.

The form of immersion, unimportant at first, was written into the historic London Confession of 1644 for the first time as the only proper mode.^^

Prom the first, Baptists encouraged fellowship between neighboring churches. They initiated this fellow­ ship through an organizational structure called "associa­ tions" patterned after the associational plan of Cromwell's on New-Model Army.

^Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (8 vols.; Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub­ lishing Company, 1950), Vlll, 816-17•

^®Vedder, p. 206.

^^McGlothlin, pp. 169-70. This Confession called for a single immersion of the candidate, the first of its kind in such a confession, while the Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church of 1645 prescribed a threefold immersion. on Torbet, p. 72. 8

By the time early English Baptists began to export their persuasion to the Colonies, the main principles of

Baptist polity and doctrine were well delineated. Basic to every tenet was the acceptance of the Christian scrip­ tures as the Summa theologica of the Baptist cause. But it was their uncommon construction of Biblical truth which made the Baptist demeanor almost antithetical to the estab­ lished church. Baptists sought to unshackle the movement of the Holy Spirit which had been so well ritualized and solemnized by the ecclesiastical and magisterial powers.

All of the major "Baptist distinctives," such as the repudiation of infant baptism, insistence on regenerate church membership, immersion as the proper mode, and the individual right of freedom of conscience and worship, grew 21 out of a concern for the freedom and sovereignty of God.

Among the various Baptist congregations, the most divisive issue centered around particular and general atonement, a dispute which separated English Baptists until a final merger in 1891.^^

The English colonies in the New World could not remain quarantined against Baptist ideas for long. Soon

21 Paul M. Harrison, Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition, A Social Case Study of the American Baptist Convention (Princeton, New Jersey; Princeton Uni­ versity Press, 1959), pp. 18-21.

^^Torbet, p. 51. 9 after his arrival in Salem in 1531 as pastor of the church,

Roger Williams voiced a belief in a complete separation of state and church, not unlike the Baptists. Although

Williams claimed the Baptist persuasion for only a few months during his subsequent residence in Rhode Island, the church which he founded in 1639 in Providence survived him, carrying the distinction of being the oldest Baptist church in America.

For some time only Rhode Island gave safe shelter for Baptists in New England who had arrived from England,

Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Rev. John Clarke, a man of property and education who had organized and become the pastor of the Baptist church at Newport, assumed the mantle 24 of leadership after Williauns became a "seeker. "

Growth of Baptist activity was slow in other parts of New England, the Puritan autocracy being able to retard any substantial sentiment. The first church in the Boston area dates from 1665 with imprisonment, annoyances, and court charges plaguing the congregation intermittently until 1680.^^ By 1700 there were no more than about 300

^^Roger Williams, The Complete Writings of Roger Williams (7 vols.; New York: Russell and Russell, Inc., 1963;, I, 12-16, 55-58.

24- Henry S. Burrage, A History of the Baptists in New England (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1894), p. 26. The Newport Church is credited by some to be the oldest Baptist congregation in America.

25lbid., pp. 44-45. 10 members in ten small churches. Baptist insistence on liberty of worship, undercutting as it did the Puritan concept of theocracy, brought down the wrath of the Massa­ chusetts clergy until the Act of Toleration of 1589 stulti­ fied some of their hostility.

A far more favorable climate for Baptist growth was in the Middle Colonies where the strength of non­ conformist movements called for a greater toleration.

Centering in the Philadelphia area, the most prominent and influential nucleus of Baptists developed. The Pennepack

Church dates from 1688 when Elias Keach arrived from Eng­ land and quickly assumed pastoral leadership. Serving as the mother-church, it sent out groups of Baptists to organize more distant congregations from among the Baptist immigrants who were arriving from England with a few from 27 Wales and Ireland. '

The first formal organization among Baptist churches was initiated in 170? when five churches joined to organize p Q the Philadelphia Baptist Association. The Association copied the English pattern of Particular Baptists, being in

^^Torbet, p. 226.

Robert G. Torbet, A Social History of the Phila­ delphia Baptist Association; 1707-1940 (Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania, 194-4-), p. 13. p Q Most of the Rhode Island churches had been hold­ ing annual meetings since 1692 as members of a Six Prin­ ciple General Association; but the organization seemed to be much less formal. McLaughlin, p. 10. 11 close touch with the English brethren particularly through

Rev. Elias Keach who had soon resigned the Pennepack Church 29 to return to London where his father was also a pastor. ^

Being loose in structure, the Association acted as an advisory and ordaining council and especially scrutinized the credentials of immigrating preachers. The most lasting influence of the Association issued from its adoption in

1742 of a doctrinal statement copied after the London Con­ fession of Particular Baptists in 1589 with additions pub­ lished by Elias Keach and his father in 1697.^^ The

Philadelphia Confession of Paith was, in fact, a duplica­ tion of the Westminster Confession, altered in places to suit the Baptist outlook.The prevailing doctrine among the most prestigious Baptist group in America eventually won the way for Calvinistic theology among the Baptists throughout America.^

Only a few Baptists arrived in the Southern colo­ nies prior to the Great Awakening. Both General and Par­ ticular Baptists emigrated from England and Wales, while others, mostly Calvinistic in doctrine, drifted south from

^McGlothlin, p. 293. '

5°Ibid.. p. 2 9 5. ^^Winthrop S. Hudson, Religion In America (Hew York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965), p. 44-.

52Edward Frank Humphrey, Rationalism and Religion ______in America,, 1774-1789 (:(Boston: Chipman Law Publishing "Company, 1924), p. 522. 12

the Middle and New England areas.The earliest Baptists

in these regions appear to have settled near Charleston,

South Carolina, coming from England and from Kittery,

Maine. The ones from England arrived in 1682 or 1683 led by Humphrey Blake and settled along the Ashley and Cooper

Rivers. The group from Eittery, described by a contem­ porary as "a competent number . . . of well established people, whose hearts the Lord had opened," formed a church with Rev. William Screven who had led them in the southern move as the pastor.^

Before the Awakening, Baptist growth was slow in all the colonies, churches were not closely associated, and the general caliber of leadership was unimpressive.

The Boston courts were still inveighing against "the way of Anabaptism.The Puritan theocratic experiment, how­ ever, was visibly debilitated by the Toleration Act of

1589. Harvard College demonstrated soon afterward a sig­ nificant latitudinarianism. Increased commercial activity also drew attention away from the intense religious bent of former generations.^^ In addition, newer currents of

^^Torbet, A History of the Baptists, p. 234. 54 Burrage, p. 51*

^^Ibid.. p. 43.

^^Louis B. Wright, The Atlantic Frontier, Colonial American Civilization (1607-1763) (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1963), pp. 151-52. 13 thought, crucial in their ramifications, challenged the hyper-Calvinism of the day. Filtering down from more intellectual circles to Baptist minds came new implications from John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding which tended to alter Calvin's doctrine of total depravity 37 so as to provide more cheering tenets.

The great revival movement initiated by Theodore J.

Frelinghuysen, Gilbert Tennent, and Jonathan Edwards, and continued by John Wesley and George Whitefield, precipi­ tated a rather sudden increase in Baptist churches. The

six Baptist churches in Massachusetts in 1740 multiplied to thirty by 1768, illustrating the popular growth that was occurring throughout almost all of the colonies. The tendency of Congregational cherches to become Separatist prompted many of them to take the Baptist name or to pro- 38 vide a schismatic group with antipedobaptist convictions.-^

There were good reasons for the rapid increase in

Baptist population. By 1740 the Puritan ideal of a pure church of "visible saints" had greatly declined, and the 39 object lesson was not lost in Baptist sermonizing.The

^^Carl L. Becker, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers CNew Haven: YaleUniver- sity Press, 1964), pp. 64-65.

^^William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier: The Baptists, 1783-1830, A Collection of Source Material (Rew York: Henry Holt and Company, 1931), pp. 4-5..

^^John Gill, Infant Baptism, A Part and Pillar of Popery (Philadelphia: American Publication Society, 1851), pp. 83-87. 14

Half-Way Covenant of 1652 had admitted even grand-children of converted persons to the rites of infant baptism. As a result, a territorial parish system emerged, consisting of membership by right of birth and infant baptism and raised precisely the same issue which created the old ecclesiastical "corruption" in England in former days.

Consequently, the question of infant baptism could not be avoided, since it involved, for Baptists, the issue of how one entered the "true" church.

Another reason for growth involved the increasing tension in colonial politics. The Baptist insistence upon liberty of conscience matched the growing mood of the country to assert its spirit of liberty. The resultant growth in prestige was enhanced by the tendency of all the non-Anglican congregations to tolerate one another in an 41 effort to fend off the threat of England's episcopate.

In addition, the Baptist policy for voluntarism and independence in church government was warmly admired by many close to the frontier country. The plain preaching by common men, the aggressive quality of Baptist laymen,

40 William Gerald McLoughlin, Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967), pp. 18-19. 41 Carl Bridenbaugh, Mitre and Sceptre, Transatlantic Faiths, Ideas, Personalities, and Politics, 1689-1773 (Hew York: Oxford University Press, 1952), pp. 96-97, 100-104, 109-110. 15 and the acceptance of New Light tactics, aided the Baptist 42 growth, especially in the South.

As with the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, some Baptists could not condone the obvious emotional expressions of the revivals. These became known as Regu­ lar Baptists, and were the older churches which were rather

Arminian in character. They tended to resist such change, having long since built up a necessary insulation against the predominantly pedobaptist society of their day.

The New Light Baptists, sometimes called Separate

Baptists, thrived on the fervent emotionalism of the revivals."By the name of New-lights," explained one

European traveler in America, "are understood the people who have, from different religions, become proselytes to the well known Whitefield . . . . The New Lights soon 46 outnumbered the Regulars both north and south.

4P Clifton E. Olmstead, History of Religion in the United States (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1964;, pp. 173-74. 4% ^C. C. Coen, Revivalism and Separatism in New Englyid. 1740-1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962), p. 256. 4 4 ^ I b i d ., pp. 174 -8 5. ^^The Voluntary Church, American Religious Life (1740-1863) Seen Through the Eyes of European Visitors, ed. by Milton Power (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967), p. 22. ^^Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History (2 vols.; Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1951), II, 694. 16

John Leland, prominent Baptist pastor especially in the

North Carolina area, described the division among Baptists in Virginia in 1767, and their basic point of disagreement:

The Regulars adhered to a confession of faith first published in London, 1689, and afterwards adopted by the Baptist Association of Philadelphia in 17^3; but the Separates had none but the Bible.^7

Leland added a further observation: "The Regulars were orthodox Calvanists /sic7 and the work under them was solemn and rational; but the Separates were the most O zealous, and the work among them was very noisy."

Separate Baptists generally were ignorant, poor, and given to mannerisms in their church services which frequently 40 shocked the outsider or the uninitiated.

The Philadelphia Association, with its long-standing and capable leadership, became the missionary center for

Baptist evangelism. Such able men as Rev. Morgan Edwards

(1722 -1795)1 pastor of the First Baptist Church in Phila­ delphia, and Rev. John Cano (1727-1798), pastor of the New

York City church, were appointed for a time as itinerant evangelists.^^ When statistics began to be kept in 1762,

^^L. P. Greene, The Writings of the Late Elder Leland (New York: Printed by G. W. Wood, 18^5)1 P» 105» ^^Ibid. ^^Sweet, p . 10.

^^Torbet, A History of the Baptists, pp. 24-$-44. 17 the twenty-nine member churches numbered some 4,018 mem­ bers, and represented the stronghold of Particular

Baptists.

The growing political temper of the American

colonists who sought freedom from the English crown and

English church coincided with the Baptist struggle to be free from a dominating and persecuting state church sys­ tem on American soil. Although few Baptists were promi­ nent enough to participate in the leadership of the political struggle, they absorbed the rhetoric of the patriots, and made common cause with the revolutionary mood to strengthen their own hand in their struggle for religious liberty.

The Warren Baptist Association, organized in 1767 in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts area by such men as

President James Manning of Rhode Island College, Rev.

Hezekiah Smith, and Rev. Isaac Backus, played a leading role in New England in the demand for religious liberty.

Backus particularly was instrumental in unifying the "old"

Regular Baptists with the Separates, bringing them into a more articulate union in their continual disputation with the Established Church. Backus had slowly shifted, after

^^Torbet, A Social History of the Philadelphia Baptist Association; 1707-1940, p. 17.

^^McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism, Pamphlets, 1754-1789, p. 17» 18 his conversion in the Whitefield revival, from Congrega­ tional to Separatist to Baptist views. Converted into a

Congregational church, and called to preach as a New Light minister. Backus settled in the Titicut parish in Bridge­ water, Massachusetts, first briefly as the parish minister, then as the leader of the dissident Separatist faction, and finally as a convinced Baptist who carried a portion of his Separatist congregation into the Baptist persua­ sion.^^ Untiring in his labors. Backus was able to bridge the gap between Baptist congregations uniting them around their growing, common concern with the unequal tax burden borne by non-conformists.^^ By the time of the Revolution, the Association contained twenty-seven churches with 1393 members. By the end of the war, the Association had forty- 55 four churches with 3570 members.

Given the official title of "Agent for the Baptists in New England," Backus crusaded for more just and equal laws allowing exemptions for Separates from taxes which supported the established church in New England.Peti­ tions were drafted to the General Courts of Massachusetts

^^McLoughlin, Isaac Backus and the American Pietis­ tic Tradition, pp. 19, 37, 42, 73, 87, 100, 107-109. ^^Goen, pp. 215-24.

^^Burrage, p. 84.

^^cLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church. State, and Calvinism, Pamphlets, 1754-1789, p. 304. 19 57 and Connecticut for redress. ' Many citizens, including

a goodly share of prominent families, either sympathetic with the Baptist cause or seeing a favorable release from

a form of taxation found common cause with the Baptists.

Significant growth came to the Baptists during the

Revolutionary War years while other major denominations

seemed stultified. Baptists vigorously supported the war,

seeing in it continuing support for their cause of reli­ gious freedom. The rapid increase of membership, which

especial:.- included highly individualistic. Separatist- minded converts who were ever suspicious of any hierarchical or even pastoral control, hindered the Baptist movement in later years from "nationalizing" into an organization at a time when such unity was much sought for and needed.

In the southern colonies Baptists found the reli­ gious climate somewhat more agreeable than in the North.

New Light in their religious approach, the Baptists increased at a phenomenal rate, to the alarm of the

Anglicans. Most prominent in the demand for religious liberty was Rev. John Leland of Culpeper County, Virginia,

^"^Humphrey, pp. 530-35• ^^Torbet, A Social History of the Philadelphia Baptist Association: 1707-1940, p. 40.

^^Winthrop 8. Hudson, American Protestantism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951), p. 34. 20 who wrote a goodly number of polemics, representing a

Jeffersonian Republican stance.

The unparalleled increase of Baptists in Virginia and North Carolina precipitated several years of persecu­ tion just prior to the Revolutionary War by irate author- ities who sought to protect their Anglican influence. The

Baptists continued, however, to press for equal status.

Their position, boldly stated, aided in winning ultimate religious equality, and, meanwhile, won them wide-spread popularity among the common people, especially in the back country.In Virginia at this time the Baptists came to their closest point of organizational unity in the eighteenth century. Driven into a single effort to speak with an effective voice for the purpose of "counteracting national grievances," the Virginia Baptists developed an influential leadership. Yet, the victory for religious freedom came too quickly and easily for any lasting cen­ tralization to coalesce; and in 1791, demands for egali­ tarian procedures dissolved what could have been an emerging national leadership.

^^Wesley Marsh Gewehr, The Great Awakening in Virginia, 1740-1790 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1950;, pp. 190-9 1 . ^^Sweet, p. 4-.

^^Humphrey, pp. $$6-44. 21

The churches most closely identified with the

early westward movement were members in the Sandy Creek

Baptist Association in North Carolina. Organized in 1758

largely through the emotional preaching of Rev. Shubal

Stearns, a New Light from Boston, who had first founded

the Sandy Creek Church in 1755, the Association extended

across an area about 250 miles from north to south.The

Association reflected the emotional temperament of its

principal organizer to a large degree. When John Gano

visited North Carolina, his preaching was not quickly

accepted by the local residents since he did not speak

with "new light tones and gestures." His exhibition of

"spirit" and "power," however, won the day, and Gano found

enough acceptance to prompt some needed reform among the

churches.^

Baptist migration into Tennessee and Kentucky was

closely related to the social position of the back country residents and the hostility which was felt against non­

conformists in Virginia and North Carolina. Many Baptists

felt deep sympathy with the Regulators and their resistance

to the administration of Governor William Tryon of North

Carolina. After the Battle of Alamance in 1771 many

^^Gewehr, p. 108.

^^George W. Purefoy, A History of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association (New York: Sheldon and Co., Publishers, 1859;, p. 64. 22 backwoods settlers, of whom a large share were Baptist, migrated into east Tennessee to escape the onerous taxes in the East.^^ By 1781, five or six Baptist churches had been planted in East Tennessee.

Migration into Kentucky by Baptists commenced with the Boone family at Boonesboro before the war. Both Regu­ lar and Separate Baptists established churches in the

1780's with the Regulars forming the Elkhorn Association in

1785, the first Baptist association west of the Allegheny

Mountains.Baptists from Virginia overflowed into

Kentucky in large numbers since few of them had attained prosperity in the East. Between 1791 and 1810, fully one- fourth of the Baptists in Virginia were estimated to have migrated into Kentucky.

The frontier Baptist preacher crossing the Alle­ ghenies to minister in Kentucky and Tennessee could not help but put his imprint on the pioneer congregations.

Refusing to accept payment for preaching, but rather choosing to labor as a farmer, the average preacher was abysmally uneducated, using the "gifts of heart" rather

G^ibid., p. 71.

^^Sweet, p. 25.

G^Ibid., pp. 18-22.

^^Walter Brownlow Posey, The Baptist Church in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1771-1845 (University of Kentucky Press, 1957), p. 4-. 23 than the "gifts of mind." Thomas Coke, the earliest

Methodist bishop, once commented: "The abilities of their ministers in general were peculiarly small; but their zeal was much, and God was pleased to own it."^^

Early meeting houses were built near streams or rivers, accessible to the settlers. Sometimes a frontier preacher considered it wise to locate the structure in

some out-of-the-way place which the better educated families

and preachers would avoid. Fiercely independent. Baptists on the frontier possessed a temperament which was far removed from that of the more educated and more amenable 70 eastern Baptists.

At the time when the Northwest Territory was opened to settlement. Baptists were enjoying a high degree of growth and popularity. Their support of the war, their arguments for religious liberty, and their welcome use of the more gifted layman to become the preaching elder, con­ tributed to their growth. Behind this success, however, was the appeal to highly individualistic people, whose very independence made a national unity extremely difficult to implement in the nineteenth century.

G9powell, p. 37.

^^Posey, pp. 18-34. GHAPTEE II 4- BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN OHIO, PROM 1788 TO 1830

(,i The Earliest Arrivals

The first recorded entrance hy a Baptist minister into Ohio antedates the Revolutionary War. Rev. David

Jones, pastor at the Crosswicks Baptist Church, in New

Jersey, accompanied George Rogers Clark from Port Pitt down the Ohio River to the Kanawha in 1772.^ During the next year, he proceeded to visit the Shawnees along the

Scioto River, and then journeyed to Schoenhrunn. Not knowing the Indian languages, Jones met with suspicion and 2 failure during his days of "missionating." The coming of the war and the subsequent slaughter of the Moravian

Indians in 1782 precluded any large immigration or mis­ sionary efforts in Ohio during those years.

The organization of the Northwest Territory in

1787 precipitated an immediate westward flow of settlers

Beverly W. Bond, Jr., The Poundations of Ohio, Vol. 1 of The History of the State of Ohio, ed. by Carl Wittke (5 vols.; Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941), 191; Norman H. Maring, Baptists in New Jersey (Valley Porge: The Judson Press, 1954), pp. 52-54.

^Rufus King, Ohio, Pirst Pruits of the Ordinance of 1787 (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1903), pp. 134-35. 24 25 into the land north of the Ohio River. Since the Niagara

route was blocked by the Indians of the Six Nations, the

Ohio River was the most natural route to the West. Also,

other rivers such as the Alleghany, Monongahela, and

Kanawha, which were used as passageways to the West, as well as the land route through the Cumberland Gap over

the Wilderness Road, led toward the Ohio River, and drew

travelers early into close proximity to the land directly north of the River.^ Consequently, initial population growth commenced in the southern area of the Ohio territory.

Immigration into the Ohio territory derived from all three sections of the Atlantic seaboard. The Marietta outpost which was settled in 1788 represented the solid leadership of New England. The settlement by John Cleves

Symmes in the Miami Purchase in 1?89 was dominated by men from the Middle States. An important Southern influence iL began in Manchester in the Virginia Military Tract. The earliest and probably the strongest Baptist immigration into the Ohio territory came from the Middle States where the Philadelphia Baptist Association held a predominant influence.

^Justin Winsor, The Colonies and the Republic West of the Alleghanies, 1763-1798 (Bostcml Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1897), p. 510.

^Bond, p. 511* 25

Accompanying Symmes in his venture as the proprietor of the Miami Purchase was Major Benjamin Stites, originally from Mew Jersey, and a Baptist. Stites, who had observed the Miami territory while pursuing Indians into the region earlier, joined Symmes in 1788 in the initial settlement and contracted to buy ten thousand acres.^

Actually Stites and his party were the first to reach the Miami Purchase area, having embarked from Lime­ stone, Kentucky, on November 16, 1788, a good two months before Symmes followed them. Arriving late in 1788 or in

January, 1789,^ Stites landed his group of twenty-six a little below the mouth of the Little Miami Eiver, and founded the town of Columbia, located six miles east of the point where Port Washington (later the site of Cincin­ nati) was soon settled.^ The first Baptist church in the

Northwest Territory grew out of the small group of Baptists

^Henry A. Pord and Kate B^. Pord, History of Hamil­ ton County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland: L. A. Williams and Co., 1881), p. $48. The land purchased in partnership with John Carpenter and John S. Gano was located in the Mill Creek area between Lebanon and Deerfield. "Deerfield, Ohio, documents," III, 53-8$, John S. Gano Papers (Historical and Philosophical Society Library, Cincinnati, Ohio), Hereafter cited as Gano Papers.

^The exact date of arrival is not known with cer­ tainty. Perkins suggested four possible dates. James H. Perkins, Annals of the West (Cincinnati: Published by James R. Alback, 1847), pp. $08-509.

^Alta Harvey Heiser, West to Ohio (Yellow Springs, Ohio: The Antioch Press, 19^4), p. 8. 27 who settled in Columbia. Several had previously been members of the Baptist Church at Scotch Plains, Essex Q County, New Jersey.

When £ev. Stephen Gano, who had followed his father as pastor of the First Baptist Church, New York City, journeyed west to visit his father. Rev. John Gano, in

Kentucky and brother. Major John S. Gano, he found the small Baptist group in the vicinity of Columbia willing to organize into a congregation. Meeting in the home of

Benjamin Davis in March, 1790, Gano organized the church, baptized three converts, and administered the Lord's Supper.

O William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier; The Baptists, 1783-1830, a Collection of Source Material (New York; Henry Holt and Company, 1931), p. 29; Anthony Howard Dunlevy, History of the Miami Baptist Association from its Organization in 1797 to a Division in that Body in Missions, etc. in the Year 1836 (Gin- cinnati; Geo. S. Blanchard and Co., 1869), pp. 8-10. Dunlevy's history is the only detailed account of the Baptists of the Miami Baptist Association for the early years. Ambiguous in places and not without error, the book is dependable as a major source. The Association minutes from 1798 to 1808 have long been lost.

^Ezra Ferris, "The First Baptist Church in Ohio," The American Baptist Memorial, A Statistical, Biographical and Historical Magazine, XV (1836), 11. The two most fre- quently quoted dates are from two different sources. Dunlevy quoted the diary of Judge Goforth who gave the date as January 20, 1790, following Prof. Marsena Stone's authority from an article in the American Pioneer. Ford, however, asserts that the Goforth diary was written many years after the events by memory, and used the date given by Ezra Ferris. Actually, both dates seem to be derived from memory years later; but Ferris, in later years, was looked upon by many in the region as the most knowledgeable living authority in the history of Miami Valley Baptists. Consequently, I chose his date. A comment in the 1859 State Convention Proceedings affirmed the March 20 date, but suggested that a preliminary meeting was gathered on January 20, a procedure not uncommon. 28

Isaac Ferris was elected deacon and John S. Gano clerk.

Rev. John Smith, who, as a United States senator, later gained disastrous notoriety in the Aaron Burr conspiracy,

served acceptably as the first pastor until 1795 along with an assistant preaching elder, Daniel Clark.A

Virginian originally. Smith was an able preacher for the

small church and was well received among the citizens of the area, until he left for Louisiana in disgrace follow- 12 ing his near expulsion from the United States Senate.

In addition to Smith, the Columbia Church contained several men of accomplishment both in civic and religious life. William Goforth, who arrived soon after the initial settlement, and who had served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the war, was commissioned Judge of Common Pleas, Hamilton

County, by Gov. St. Clair in 1790.^^ His son-in-law,

John Stites Gano, son of Rev. John Gano, one time pastor of the First Baptist Church, New York City, continued the family's Baptist loyalty while serving first as major, then

^^Dunlevy, p. 17.

^^Ibid., pp. 18-21; "Description of the Columbia Church," 111, 157, Gano Papers. ^^See letter of Rev. John Smith to Mrs. Charlotte Ludlow, August 1, 1800, John Smith Collection (Historical and Philosophical Society Library, Cincinnati, Ohio).

^^Typewritten biographical sketch of William Goforth (Historical and Philosophical Society Library, Cincinnati, Ohio). 29 14 general, in the army in Cincinnati. Francis Dunlevy, who arrived at Columbia in 1791, served as a judge in the area, and was a member of Ohio's Constitutional Convention and the first state legislature. Dunlevy united with the

Lebanon Church (first known as Turtle Creek) soon after its inception and continued there until his death in 1859.^5

The name of the Columbia Church appeared in the

1791 minutes of the Elkhorn Baptist Association of Kentucky.

Two "messengers," John Smith and John L. /sic? Gano, had carried the request that year that the church "be received into this assn.The Association's statistical report revealed the Columbia Church to have thirty-seven members in 1 7 9 2 , seventy-two members in 1796, while the 1797 minutes reported Columbia's dismissal to form a separate 17 association. '

The Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the sub­ sequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795 signaled a migration

^^Typewritten sketch of the Gano family. Biograph­ ical file, Gano Papers.

^^Ford, p. 352; Dunlevy, pp. 147-59*

^^Sweet, p. 4 4 7. In Sweet's verbatim account of the Elkhorn Baptist Association's minutes, John L. Gano is no doubt John Stites Gano, son of Rev. John Gano whose name is spelled Ganoe at times in the minutes. Rev. John Gano's name appears in the associational minutes of June, 1 7 8 8 , as the elected moderator.

l?Ibid., pp. 464-76. 30

1 Q into a relatively safe interior. In consequence, by the

end of 1 7 9 7 , the Columbia Church had dismissed three sepa­

rate groups of members who had moved northward and settled

farther into the Ohio country organizing Baptist churches near their new homes. The Little Miami Island Church was

organized some eight miles up the Miami River and Car­ penter's Run Church about ten miles north of Columbia.

The Clear Creek Church settled in an area known later as

Ridgeville in Warren County.

By 1800 ten churches had organized in the vicinity

according to the associational records of the Miami Baptist

Association, while, in other sectors of Ohio territory, 20 Baptist activity was yet in its infancy. The churches generally were small and some of them short-lived as they

struggled to survive during a constant migration among the 21 Baptist population.

^^Bond, p. 275; King, p. 257.

^^Dunlevy, pp. 20-21. 20 Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829 (n.p.n.d.), pp. 4-7. A brief history appears in this year's minutes. The Middle Run and Strait Creek churches appeared in the 1799 association statistics. In 1800, the Fairfield, Sugar Creek, Beaver Creek, and Elk Creek churches were added. 21 The Carpenter's Run Church record book recorded 14-0 members in its thirty-one year history, with seventy- one members granted letters of dismission to other churches, and twenty-nine exclusions which included those who moved without giving the church notice. Carpenter's Run Record Book (Historical and Philosophical Society Library, Cin­ cinnati, Ohio). 51 The second Baptist congregation in point of time began near the town of Marietta. The Ohio Company, led by such religious figures as Rev. Manasseh Cutler and

Rev. Daniel Story, brought a heavy Congregationalist influence to the Muskingum Valley region. But the Baptist witness, though meager, accompanied the original forty- eight pioneers in the person of William Mason, who later received a captain's commission from Gen. Edward Tiffin when Ohio was organized. Mason served as a Baptist min­ ister, settling in Adams township across the Muskingum

River from Lowell, where Baptist religious services were reportedly held at the residence of Robert Alison as early 22 as 1795* Rev. Rehemiah Davis, an ordained Baptist min­ ister from Maine, arrived in 1795; and, although no exact date survives to mark the organization of the Baptist church in the area, the oftsuggested dates of 1795 or 1797 seem appropriate. "The Baptist Church of Rainbow," as the early church was called, was located on the Muskingum River twelve miles above Marietta. Rev. George C. Sedwick, some years later, characterized Mason as the guiding light of the Church and as "a very sincere and ardent Christian,

The Pounders of Ohio, Brief Sketches of the Forty-Eight Pioneers (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke and Co., 1888), p. 22; H. Z. Williams (ed.). History of Washington County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland, Ohio: Printing House of W. W. Williams, 1881), pp. 385, 551. 32

a man of prayer, and a fervent exhorter of the Rainbow

Church.

In 1803, a Baptist minister in Wheeling, (West)

Virginia wrote, "We have a respectable Baptist Church in 24 Adams, near the mouth of Muskingum." But a year later in 1804, the Church, which had accumulated more than fifty members, divided over the question of open communion with

Rev. Nehemiah Davis seceding along with the majority to form an open communion Baptist congregation. Another ordained minister from Maine, "Elder Paulk," assumed lea- 25 dership of the original Rainbow Church. Both groups

eventually dissolved, with the remaining Rainbow Church members joining the Marietta Baptist Church after its final dissolution in 1824.^^

When Rev. David Benedict toured the "Western" and

"Southern" states in 1809 to gather material for his history

^^"History of the Baptist Church of Marietta (Ohio) and Vicinity," The Western Religious Magazine, 1, 12 (May, 1828), 1 7 9 . 24 "Extract of a letter from the Rev. Thomas Hersey, Wheeling (Ohio Country, State of Virginia) to a minister in Boston, dated January 5, 1802," The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, 1, 1 (September, 1803), 26.

^^The minister was probably Cyrus Paulk of the Ames Baptist Church in Ames Township, Athens County, an area settled by New Englanders from Marietta in 1798. Scioto Baptist Association, Minutes, 1805 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1.

^^Williams, p. 385- 53 of the Baptists, he visited and reported on another early group of Baptists in Ohio, the Pleasant Run Church. In

1801, six families from Rockingham County, Virginia, migrated to a site on the Hockhocking River not far from where Lancaster was later settled. This small group, of

"German, or of High Dutch descent," had left the "White

House" Church in the Shenandoah Valley bringing with them three bilingual ministers, Lewis Seitz, Samuel Comer and

Martin Coffman.The Ames Baptist Church, closely allied with the Pleasant Run Church in the formation of the

Scioto Baptist Association, and led by Rev. Cyrus Paulk, PR dates from around 1800.

A fourth area of early Baptist settlement occurred at Warren in Trumbull County. A group of Baptists migrated into the region from Washington County, Pennsylvania, and was visited first in June, 1801, by Rev. Henry Speers also of Washington County. The Welsh leader. Rev. Thomas G.

Jones, of Shenango, Pennsylvania, visited them every other

Sunday providing their first regular religious services in the region; and finally a Baptist church with nine members was formally established on September 3, 1803» by

^David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (New York: Lewis Colby and Co., 1848J, pp. 877-78. Here­ after cited as General History. PR George E. Leonard, History of the Scioto Bap­ tist Association for One Hundred Years, 1803-1903 (Pub­ lished by vote of the Association, n.d.\), pp. 4-5- 34

Rev. Charles B. Smith. On May 19, 1810, Rev. Adamson

Bentley arrived in Warren and, within a year, became the 29 established pastor of the Church.

A significant contribution to the early Baptists in Ohio also was derived from western Pennsylvania. A number of immigrants from Wales arrived in New York in

1796 and settled the same year in Beulah, Cambria County,

Pennsylvania, where a number of them joined together in organizing a Baptist church. The Beulah Church became an artery for many Welsh immigrants who proceeded into Ohio.

Early Welsh ministers who came from Beulah included

Thomas G. Jones, Thomas Powell, Henry George, and David

Kimpton.

Except for the Miami area. Baptist churches and

Baptist ministers were extremely rare during the first decade of Ohio's statehood. Benedict expressed his impres­ sions of his 1809 tour through Ohio to Rev. Stephen Gano, then of Providence, Rhode Island:

Except what is called the Miami Purchase, a country between the two Miami Rivers, I think the state of Ohio appears more destitute of preachers than any part through which I have travelled, and opens an encouraging prospect for missionary

Mahoning Valley Historical Society (ed.). His­ torical Collections of the Mahoning Valley (3 vols.; Youngstown: Published by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, 1876), I, 183.

^^Benedict, General History, 1813 edition (2 vols.; Boston: Printed by Lincoln and Edmonds, 1813), I, 500. 55 exertions, were it not for its remote situation from any society able to send missionaries there, and the numerous Macedonian cries nearer home.5 1

Associations, 1798-1818

Baptist associations in Ohio generally followed a

typical pattern in the process of organization by convening

in several preliminary sessions to draft acceptable state­

ments of doctrine and polity. The Miami Baptist Associa­

tion, the first to organize, was no exception to this regu­

lar pattern in forming its corporate life. A council of

leaders, with Rev. John Smith as moderator, met at the

Columbia Church on September 23, and again on November 4-,

1 7 9 7 » to adopt a resolution for organization and to draw

up some general principles of faith and order. The four participating churches were Columbia, Miami Island,

Carpenter's Run, and Clear Creek.

Three of the six incumbent ministers attending the

initial proceedings were from Virginia.Two of the

"Religious Destitution in Ohio," Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, II, 10 (May, 1810), 308.

^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829 (n.p.n.d.), p. 4.

^^The Virginians were John Smith of the Columbia Church, James Lee of Miami Island, and James Mason, brother- in-law-of John Smith and later pastor of the Sugar Creek Church. Daniel Clark of Clear Creek came from Pennsylvania, while Peter Smith, second regular pastor at Columbia was a native of New Jersey although he had pastored the Upton's Creek Baptist Church in Georgia previously, founding it in 1784 from the Kiokee Church, the mother church in Georgia. Benedict, General History, 1848 edition, p 725; Dunlevy, p. 9 5. 35 ministers joining in the initial meetings, Joshua Carmen

and Josiah Dodge, represented an association of Emancipa­

tion Baptists in Nelson County, Kentucky. They attended

the sessions to assure that the beginnings of Baptist

activity in the Northwest Territory would proceed without

correspondence with the advocates of slavery. The Miami

Association maintained a constant antislavery attitude in

the following years, politely explaining to such groups

as the North Bend Association (Kentucky), in 1804, and the

Emancipating Baptists Society (Kentucky), who pursued a

gradualist view, in 1810, that the members could not con­

sider "opening a correspondence."^^

The first appointed session of the Miami Associa­ tion was again at the Columbia Church on June 3, 1798, when

the four existing churches convened with thirteen messengers present.By 1800 the Association claimed ten churches with a total of 291 members. The membership statistics for

1801, no doubt reflecting the great frontier revival across the river in Kentucky, witnessed the addition of 151 by

^ Dunlevy, pp. 37, 132-33• Miami Baptist Associa­ tion, Minirtes, 1810 (Cincinnati: Printed at the Office of the Adver/tizer/, n.d.), p. 2. ^^"Delegates to the Miami Baptist Association at the Columbia Church, June 3, 1798," Typewritten list from unnamed source (Historical and Philosophical Society Library, Cincinnati, Ohio). Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829. p. 4. This is the date from which the Association dates its origin. 57 baptism and sixty-one by letter, making a total of 4-67 members. The geographical boundaries of the Miami Associa­ tion, though increasingly unwieldy, expanded year by year, 57 with the inclusion of more and more distant churches. ^

Within a ten year period, thirty-seven churches were organized and united with the Miami Association, which expanded the geographic boundaries into an area covered 58 by nine counties in Ohio and two in Indiana.^ The high point of membership before the start of the proliferation of new associational units was in 1809 when the minutes recorded 1123 members.The year 1809 saw the dismissal

^ The six additional congregations were Middle Run (Greene County), Strait Greek (Brown County), Sugar Creek (Montgomery County), Fairfield (Butler County), Elk Creek (Butler County), and Beaver Creek (on the line between Montgomery and Greene counties). Dunlevy, pp. 30, 33; Miami Baptist Association, Minutes. 1829, p. 4-.

Dunlevy, pp. 34— 36. Some of the churches joining the Association were: in 1801, Prairie (later called Middletown) in Butler County, Popular Ford in Clermont County, and Bethlehem in Brown County; in 1803, Pleasant Run in Butler County, and Old Chillicothe (later called Old Town, then Frankfort, and still later Roxabelle) in Clinton County; in 1804-, Muddy Creek in Warren County and Staunton in Miami County.

^®Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829. p. 3.

^% b i d . , p. 5* $8 of eight churches to form Whitewater Baptist Association 40 in Indiana territory.

No church representing Cincinnati appeared in the associational records until 1814. When the Baptist his­ torian, Rev. David Benedict, visited General John S. Gano in the city in 1809, he attended the Presbyterian church, since the few Baptists who lived in the city, "if they wished to worship with their own order . . . must go out 41 six miles to the old church at Columbia . . . ." This late arrival into Ohio's leading community foreshadowed a pattern of Baptist tardiness in establishing city churches throughout the state. The first Baptist congre­ gation in Cincinnati was gathered in 1813, and appeared in associational minutes in 1815 with thirty-six members under the care of Rev. Alexander Denniston.^^ But in

1815, two quarreling factions emerged within the membership.

General Gano, commenting to Rev. Luther Rice that, "The

Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1809 (Lebanon, Ohio: Printed by Crane and McClean, n.d.), p. 1. Dismissed were Dry Pork of Whitewater, East Pork of Elkhorn, Cedar Grove, Mount Happy, Lawrenceburg, New Hope, Mount Bethel and Twin Creek.

^^Benedict, General History, 1848 edition, p. 879.

^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1814 (n.p.n.d.), p. 11; Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1813 (Dayton: Printed by Burnet and Lodge at the Office of the Ohio Republican, n.d.), p. 1; Handwritten Journal of Luther Rice, Entry for Dec. 24, 1818 (American Baptist Historical Library, Rochester, New York). 39 new difficulties in the Baptist church here have had a

tendency to confuse and perplex many," did not identify

the issue. Out of this division two churches emerged

eventually, the Enon Baptist Church, constituted in 1821,

and the Sixth Street Baptist Church, later known as the /I/I Ninth Street Church, in 1850.

Organization of a second association of Baptist

churches in Ohio developed in 1805 in the Scioto Eiver

area. Calling itself the Scioto Baptist Association,

representatives of four churches met to organize in the

Old Chillicothe Meeting House on October 12, 1805, with

Eev. Nathan Cory of the host church as moderator. Join­

ing the Old Chillicothe Church, formerly a Miami Associa­

tion member, were the Pleasant Eun congregation of Germans

from Virginia, the New England group called the Ames

Church, and the Salt Creek Church in Pickaway County.

A visit by two preachers, Peter Smith and James Sutton,

from the Miami Association to the sessions secured an

initial correspondence between the two bodies.

45 ^John S. Gano to Eev. Luther Eice, January 20, 1818, III, 211, Gano Papers. 4 4 Semi-Centennial of the Ninth Street Baptist Church of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio: George E. Stevens, n.d.), pp. 7-11.

^^Scioto Baptist Association, Minutes, 1805 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1; Benedict, General History, 1848 edi­ tion, p. 878. 4-0 The 1805 Circular Letter^^ declared the purpose of the associational structure "to be an advisory council and not to give up the independence of each individual church."

The letter firmly stated "that no rule or vote of the association is to bind any church farther than in love and entire satisfaction they may accept it." Consequently, the Association was limited chiefly to a position of "help in conducting any of their special business," such as "to constitute a church, ordain a minister, or settle differ- 4-7 ences . . . ." This firm disclaimer of "any superior order of Ecclesiastical power" was basic doctrine among all of the associations, although some of the associations labored the question more than others.

The Scioto Association did not prosper numerically as the Miami Association did. In 1815, a full decade later, the annual record listed ten churches with a total of 399 members. The Pleasant Eun Church, bilingual in its min- istry, claimed 104 members, the largest among the ten.

45 Two annual letters were composed and officially sent out by most associations, the Circular Letter to member churches, and the Corresponding Letter to other Baptist associations with whom yearly reciprocal com­ munication had been agreed upon. 47 'Scioto Baptist Association, Minutes, 1805, p. 1. 48 Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1810, p. 3*

^*^Scioto Baptist Association, Minutes, 1815 (Chillicothe: Printed by John Andrews, at the Office of the Weekly Recorder, 1815), P* 3» 41

Largely due to the influence of the Pleasant Run congregation, the Association took a strong position against slavery. A "query" came from the Eiger Baptist

Church in the 1816 session asking, "Have we authority from

Scripture to disfellowship a member who holds a slave or slaves, if such member uses such slave or slaves with humanity and gentleness, giving them such things that are just and equitable?" The Association answered, "We do not wish to correspond with any association or church that do in principles or practice hold to involuntary slavery.

Strong positions by the Scioto and Miami Associations against slavery were to sway Baptist churches in later years toward a firm position against fraternal correspond­ ence with slaveholding associations.

The Scioto Association was the first of four

Baptist associations in Ohio to which some of the churches were dismissed from the parent group, the Miami Associa­ tion. The second was the Mad River Baptist Association which was organized at the house of Abijah Ward of Buck

Creek, Champaign County, in September 18, 1812.^^ Five churches joined in the first session, representing Baptists

^^Scioto Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816 (Chillicothe: Printed by John Bailhache, 1815), p. 6.

^^Several churches had existed in the vicinity for some years, the oldest ones being Beaver Creek Church which appeared in the Miami Association records in 1800, the Staunton Church in 1804, and the King's Creek and Union Churches in 1806. Dunlevy, pp. 35-34, 56-57» 48. 42

in Champaign, Clark, and Madison Counties.By 1817,

the Association embraced fifteen churches composed of 588 members.^ Along with a yearly Corresponding Letter to the

Miami and Scioto Associations, the Mad River churches

exchanged letters in 1815 with the "Predestinarian Bap­

tist Association, friends of humanity, in Kentucky." It

was one of the very few official communications with a

Kentucky association in the early years by an Ohio

association.

The third association which was derived from the

Miami organization, called the Strait Creek Baptist

Association, involved the churches in Adams, Highland,

and Brown Counties. The Strait Creek Church had appeared in the Miami minutes in 1799, and later fellowshiped with

^ Mad River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1812, Handwritten copy bv Alby Kite in 1902 (Western Reserve Historical Library;, p. 1. The three ministers serving among the churches were James Johnson of Little Beaver who served as moderator, John Thomas of King's Creek, and Lemuel Cottrell of Nettle Creek. The other churches joining in 1812 were Antioch (Clark County) and Big Darby (Madison County).

^ % a d River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817, Handwritten copy by Alby Kite in 1902 (Western Reserve Historical Library), p. 1.

^^Mad River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816 (n.p.n.d.), p. 4. 43 the Scioto Association for a time.^^ Convening in the meeting house of the Strait Greek Church on August 22,

1812, representatives from seven churches organized the

Association.^^

The constitution, written by the four resident preachers during the 1812 sessions included four articles, the first upholding local church autonomy, and three 57 giving doctrinal statements.^ The Association viewed itself narrowly as to its prerogatives.^® The demand for doctrinal uniformity, however, was so broadly conceived

^^Dunlevy, p. 32. Since Dunlevy placed the Strait Creek Church in Brown County, while the Strait Creek Association minutes spoke of the Eagle Township Church on Strait Creek in Adams County, identification of both names as the same church is less than certain. The Eagle Town­ ship Church was termed Eagle, then, in 1817, Strait Creek. Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817, Type­ written copy from original minutes by Wallace H. Cathcart (Western Reserve Historical Library), p. 21. Cathcart's typewritten series runs from 1812 to 1852. Hereafter cited Cathcart Copy.

5®Dunlevy, p. 32; Strait Creek Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1812, Cathcart Copy, pp. 1, 4. Two other churches in fellowship with the Miami Association, Clover Lick and Nine Mile, sent representatives to the initial 1812 organization, but did not unite. The member churches were Crooked Creek, Soldier Run, Eagle Township, Red Oak, and Ebenezer.

^^The ministers were James Abrams, Thomas Elrod, Charles B. Smith (who had previously organized the Warren Church in Trumbull County), and Moses Hutching.

^®When the neighboring New Bethel Baptist Church, which was not a member, requested in writing for "council and helpers from this body," the Association answered that it had "no cognizance in such cases." Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1813, Cathcart Copy, p. 9. 44 that an early resolution required "that the churches yearly preface their letter to the Association with the

Doctrines they hold."^^ The question about the power of an association was faced when the Brush Creek Church pre­ sented the query, "Is an association a church, composed of several churches?" The 1815 session drafted the answer that "an Association is only a representation of the different churches, and possesses no other authority than invested by the churches they represent.

Upon hearing that the East Fork of the Little

Miami Baptist Association had been formed in 1817, the

Strait Creek churches, whose total membership numbered ninety-seven in 1817, immediately inquired about uniting and forming one association. But the East Fork group gave them no encouragement. The number of churches thereafter began to increase until by 1850 there were ten churches with 222 members.

^^Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1814, Cathcart Copy, p. 12.

^^Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817, Cathcart Copy, pp. 21, 23; Strait Creek Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1830, Cathcart Copy, p. 65.

^^Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816, Cathcart Copy, p. 19. Benedict cited five reasons for the slow growth of the Strait Creek Association: 1. Basically, sparse population; 2. Few ministers; 3. Little education among preachers and people alike; 4. Evasion of the towns and villages; 5. "A distorted theology." Benedict, General History, 1848 edition, p . 881. 45 Rev. Charles B. Smith served as moderator during most of the first decade. But in 1824 his church, Strait

Creek, along with Red Oak, were removed from the record for "non-attendance." During the second decade Rev. Jacoh

Layman of the 2nd Church of East Fork of Miami, and Rev.

Thomas Elrod of the Soldier Run Church served alternately as moderators.

The fourth group to leave the Miami Association included eight churches which were dismissed in 1816 to organize the East Fork of the Little Miami Baptist Associa­ tion. With William Robb serving as moderator for the 1817 beginning session, messengers came from Clermont and part of Hamilton Counties.

When the Enon Baptist Church of Cincinnati was formed in 1820, the congregation sought membership in the 64 East Fork Association rather than in the Miami one.

The earlier division of the First Baptist Church of Cin­ cinnati resulted in two congregations, in which the one group, called the "Original and Regular First Cincinnati,"

^^Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1824, Cathcart Copy, p. 42.

^%iami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816 (n.p.n.d.), p. 2. The churches were Little Miami, Clover Fork, Clough, Nine Mile, Union on Indian Creek, Stone Lick, East Fork, and Duck Creek. The name Duck Creek replaced the older name, Columbia, in the 1811 Miami minutes, a new meeting house having been built two miles north on the creek in 1808.

^^Dunlevy, p. 65. 46 was favored by the Miami Association; and the other group, pastored by Alexander Denniston, was "considered, by the association, a disorderly body, and not in union with it.”

This prompted the Enon congregation to seek out friendship with the East Eork Association.^^ The Enon Church became an important city church in the 1820's reaching a member­ ship of 204 by 1825 aud including some major leaders among

Ohio Baptists.Efforts by East Eork and Miami Associa­ tions to effect a reconciliation between Enon and the now smaller Eirst Baptist church failed to bring union to the two congregations.^^

As immigration pushed population into the central interior of the state, five churches formed the Muskingum

Baptist Association in May, 1811, convening at the Welsh

Hills Church north of Granville in Licking County.

^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817 (Cin­ cinnati: Williams and Mason, printers, n.d.j, pp. 1-2; Dunlevy, p. 65.

^^East Eork of the Little Miami Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1825 (Cincinnati: Morgan, Lodge &nd Eisher, Printers, n.d.), p. 1. Leading members listed in the minutes included Henry Miller, Ephraim Robins, Isaac G. Burnet, and Noble S. Johnson. The statistics for 1825 listed seventy baptisms, forty-four in 1826, fifteen in 1827. In 1828 the church listed 418 members, with 169 baptisms and twenty-seven received by letter, becoming by far the largest Baptist church in Ohio. In 1829 the church dismissed 184 members to form the Sixth Street Church which was to become the Ninth Street Baptist Church in 1837.

^^East Eork of the Little Miami Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1825, p. 2. 47 Jacob Drake, a veteran minister of Delaware County, gives

the most accurate account of the earlier years.The

Welsh Hills Church (called Granville in the minutes) had no minister representing them at the meeting. The min­ isters attending were Jacob Drake of the Liberty Church,

William Brundige of the Marlboro Church, both of Delaware

County, William Thrift of the Mohawk Run Church in Knox

County, and J. W. Paterson of the Hopewell Church in

Muskingum County.

The Muskingum Association, like the Miami before it, attracted emerging churches from a wide circle in central Ohio into this early organization. Later, churches were properly dismissed to form three more regional units, viz. the Columbus Baptist Association, in 1817, the Owl

Creek Baptist Association in 1822, and the Meigs Creek

Baptist Association in 1825. By 1822, the Muskingum

Jacob Drake, A History of Columbus Baptist Association from its Organization to 1837. ed. by Rev. D. Randall (Columbus, Ohio: Randall and Aston, 1859), p. 6. An early 1809 imprint listed in the Ohio State Historical Society Library catalog as the Muskingum Baptist Association minutes for 1809 is incorrect. Internal evidence points to a Congregational origin. In the 1814 Muskingum Association minutes, the first printed according to Drake, member churches were Liberty, Granville, Owl Creek 1st Church, Palls of Licking, Wayne Hopewell, Friendship, Salt Creek, Union, Mohawk Run, and Salem. Muskingum Baptist Association, Minutes, 1814 (Printed in Columbus, Ohio: At the Office of the Western Intelligencer by Olmstead, Buttles and Criswold, 1814), p. 1. 48 Association numbered twenty-eight churches, which were

scattered over a twelve county area.^'^

The First Baptist Church of Zanesville joined the

Muskingum Association in 1821, and, under the leadership

of Rev. George 0. Sedwick, assumed an important role for

the next five years until the Meigs Creek Association was

formed in 1825 east of the Muskingum River.A large

complement of churches sustained the Association as an

influential Baptist organization in spite of frequent

transfers to other groups. In 1830, twenty-two member

churches embraced 690 constituents in an eight county area

and centered particularly in Muskingum, Perry, and Licking

Counties.

^Muskingum and Knox Counties each had five churches. A fewer number was found in Perry, Morgan, Coshocton, Licking, Richland, Washington, Fairfield, Athens, and Guernsey Counties. There were two "Granville" churches in Licking County as early as 1819. "Granville and St. Albans," founded by Rev. George Evans, belonged to the Columbus Association. The "Granville" Church on "Welsh Hills" remained with the Muskingum Association. 70 ' Thomas W. Lewis, Zanesville and Muskingum County, Ohio (3 vols.; Chicago, Illinois; The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 192?), I , 116; Latter Day Luminary, II, 10 (Feb., 1820), p. 53* The Zanesville Church was not the first in the vicinity. The Salt Creek Church, just east of the town, was founded by Rev. Henry Pringle with ten members in 1811. Regular Baptist Miscellany, I, 11 (Aug., 1830), 178.

^^"Minutes of the Muskingum Baptist Association," The Regular Baptist Miscellany, I, 12 (Sept., 1830), l81. 49 To the west of the Muskingum region, an associa­ tion was organized in October, 1818, at the Troy Meeting

House in Delaware County where the delegates "resolved to form an association called the Columbus Baptist Associa­ tion."*^^ One church, pastured by Rev. Jacob Drake, origi­ nally called Liberty and later called Berlin, in Delaware

County, had been started in 1805 by Rev. William Brundige and his son-in-law Mathanial Wyatt, both of Mewburg,

Hew York. It had previously belonged to the Scioto, then the Muskingum Association; and finally, with 105 members, it led in the formation of the Columbus organization.^^

Five preachers serving in the area in 1819 were

Jacob Drake, Jacob Tharp, D. Skeel, Eli Ashbrook, and

George Evans.John McLeod and Rev. George Jefferies alternated as moderator during the early years. By 1828, eighteen churches ministering in five neighboring counties 75 numbered 634 constituents.^

*^^Columbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1819 (Delaware, Ohio: Printed at the Delaware Gazette Office, 1819), pp. 1-3. *^^Drake, pp. 28-29. The other churches were Bethel, Marlboro, Westfall, Haerlem, Sunbury, Radnor, Turkey Run, Pickaway, Granville and St. Albans, and Monroe.

"^^Columbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1819, P . 3. *^^Columbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1828 (Newark, Ohio: Printed by Benj. Briggs, 1828), p. 1. Eight of the churches were in Delaware County, four in Licking County, and the others in Fairfield, Franklin, and Pickaway Counties. 50 Two churches within the Association were to wield large influence upon Ohio Baptists. Granville and St.

Albans Church, dating from June 5, 1819, was considered one parish until 1827 when St. Albans, later known as

Alexandria, became a separate congregation. The influence of the Granville Church grew out of its proximity to Gran­ ville College, later called Denison University. The

Columbus Church, pastored by George Jefferies, appeared in the Association list in 1824 having been formed the year before.The Columbus Church provided state leader­ ship through the years also.

One of the most obscure of all the Ohio associa­ tions is the one named the Stillwater Baptist Association.

On November 14, 1817, delegates gathered at the Flat Run

Baptist Church to form a "Constitution, Rules and Regula­ tions" for a proposed association. The delegates no doubt came from the general area covered by Guernsey, Jefferson,

Monroe, Belmont, Carroll, and Harrison Counties. Rev. John

Pritchard served as moderator for the meeting. The Com­ mittee to arrange business included Pritchard, Nathanial

Skinner, Elijah G. Stone, John Die (or Dee) and Deacon

Jacob Martin.The first meeting of the Association was

^^ibid., p. 1.

^^Stillwater Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817, Typewritten copy from original source by W. H. Cathcart (Western Reserve Historical Library), p. 1. Pew minutes of subsequent sessions have been found. 51 announced for September, 1818, at the Stillwater Meeting

House; but little else is known of its activities during the next decade.

Only one association, called Grand River, developed in the northern part of the state prior to 1819- Composed of five churches whose heritage was linked closely with the Hew England Baptists, the Grand River Association initiated its beginning typically with a conference in

July, 1817, prior to the formal session at Geneva on

October 15, 1817. The Jefferson Church was both the largest congregation, with fifty members, and the earliest one con­ stituted among the five, dating from October, 1811.*^®

The first moderator of the Association, Rev. Joseph

Call, of the Painesvi11e-Madison Church, was a veteran pioneer Baptist minister, who had several years earlier migrated from the older areas of Hew England into Vermont before traveling farther west into Ohio.^^ The Association opened correspondence with the Baptist Board of Foreign

^ The other churches included Painesville and Madison (listed as a single parish), dating to Jan., 1814; Kingsville, begun in 1813; Geneva and Chardon, both established in 1817. Total membership amounted to 160.

*^*^Henry S. Burrage, A History of the Baptists in Hew England (Phi1adelphia : American Baptist Publication Society, 1894), p. 92. His other preaching colleagues were Reverends Warner Goodel, Benjamin Barnes, and Azariah Hanks. Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1831 (Conneaut, Ohio: Printed at the Reporter Office, 1851), p. 11. 52 Missions during its first session, with. Rev. Azariah Hanks serving as the corresponding secretary. Even though they had migrated to what they described as "a howling wilder­ ness," they retained close ties with the eastern Baptists, particularly the Hew York Baptist associations of Holland

Purchase and Ontario as well as Baptists in Bath, Hew

Hampshire.

By 1822, the Association numbered twenty-three churches with a total of 73^ members, an increase of 574- communicants in four years; and its member churches stretched east and west along the lake area from Bloom­ field, Pennsylvania, to Huron, Ohio. The high point of

751 members came in 1821 before several member churches were dismissed to join other associations. Three of the churches, Conneaught, Waterford, and Bloomfield, all in

Pennsylvania, which left "to unite with the contemplated

Association on French Creek," signaled a decline from the 0*1 peak number of twenty-three churches.

Associations, 1819-1830

Between the years 1819 to 1830 no less than fourteen associations were organized in Ohio. They were Salem,

^^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817, Handwritten copy (Western Reserve Historical Library), p. 15. ®^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1822 (Painesville: Printed by E. D. Howe, 1822), pp. 1, 4. 55 Mahoning, Mohican, Ohio, Huron, Owl Creek, Greenville,

Meigs Creek, Zoar, Eagle Creek, Killbuck, Little Miami,

Todds Eork, and Oxford. This rapid increase can be ascribed to three basic factors. First, growth in Baptist population allowed the older associations to divide into smaller geographical units. Secondly, groups of churches emerged as the result of Baptist activity which was expand­ ing into the more "destitute" regions of Ohio. Thirdly, a pattern of theological and cultural heterogeneity became apparent in the 1820's, causing some of the geographical boundaries to fade.

The most extensive region organized in the 1820's in Ohio was in the east central area. Baptist origins in this district stemmed mostly from the Beaver Baptist Asso­ ciation of Pennsylvania which was formed near the Pittsburg Qp area in 1809. Among the member churches, three congre­ gations in Ohio were listed in the earlier associational records, viz. Concord Church in Warren, Trumbull County,

New Lisbon Church in Columbiana County, and Bethesdah

Church in Portage County.The New Lisbon and Bethesdah

op The Red Stone Baptist Association, located just to the south of Beaver, though organized much earlier in 1776, seems to have had little direct relationship with Ohio, although some Ohio churches were later reported as members by Benedict. Benedict, General History, 1813 edition. I, 398. ^^Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes. 1811 (New Lisbon, Ohio: Printed by William D. Lepper, 1811), pp. 2-3. 54 Churches were led by Rev. Thomas Higdon and Rev. William

West respectively.

By 1814, seven out of the thirteen churches in

Beaver Association were located in Ohio, as a steady flow 84 of settlers moved west into the new state. The with­

drawal of the churches near Lake Erie to form the Grand

River Association in 1817 began a more regional reorganiza­

tion; and to the south, Baptist ministers in the Beaver

Association were also not far from such plans in the years

1817 and 1818. Rev. Alpheus French established the

Mohican Baptist Church; and not far away, Thomas Rigdon

organized the Elizer Church on the Mohican.Rev. David

Kimpton and Rev. Thomas Hand joined Rev. Thomas G. Jones

at Wooster.Rev. John Rigdon established the Florence

84 By 1814, Rev. Thomas G. Jones, who had pre­ viously served the large Sharon (Pennsylvania) Church of the Beaver Association, had moved to Wooster, Ohio, and founded the Bethany Church. The Association, however, delayed the acceptance of the church's letter. No reason appeared in the minutes for the delay. The church was listed finally in the 1816 minutes. Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1814 (New Lisbon: Printed by Wm. D. Lepper), p. 2; Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816 (n.p.n.d.), p. 2.

^^Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1818 (Warren, Ohio: Printed at the Chronicle Office, 1818), p. 4.

^^Ibid., p. 5* One of the earliest churches in the western region, Canton in Stark County, pastored by a licensed minister, Edward Otis, and dating to 1814 in the minutes, changed its name to "The Baptist Church in Tuscarawas township. Stark County, Ohio," in 1817. Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817 (Wooster: Cox and Hickcox, Printers, n.d.), p. 4. 55 Township Church in Richland County; and Rev. Sidney

Rigdon, cousin of Thomas and John, visited the 1819

Beaver Association sessions in Warren and began an active role.^^ Recognizing the need "to devise the best plan for considering on the propriety of dividing the Association," the session in 1819 voted "to divide into three parts," using "for general line . . . the state line between Ohio and Pennsylvania, and another on the Tuscarawas." The older churches in Pennsylvania were to retain the name go Beaver Baptist Association.

The middle division of Beaver, called Mahoning

Association, centered in Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana,

87 'There seems to have been other Baptist ministers and churches farther south in Ohio; but their existence is obscure. Benedict mentioned the Convenanted Independent Baptist Confederacy whose principal leader was Dr. Thomas Hersey, originally from Massachusetts. The printed minutes for 1808 of the Redstone Baptist Association (Pennsylvania), which included a few Ohio churches in the early years, listed a Thomas Hersey as a delegate, but his name was neither capitalized which designated an ordained minister nor italicized which designated a licensed min­ ister. The Beaver Association minutes for 1817 also men­ tioned a Brush Creek Association in Ohio, as did Rev. Wilson Thompson in his autobiography; but its existence is too obscure to determine. In my opinion, Brush Creek was only an alternate name for the Strait Creek Associa­ tion; but this is far from certain. Benedict, General History, 1813 edition. I, 502; Redstone Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1808 (n.p.n.d.), p. 4; Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817, P- 4; Wilson Thompson, The Autobiography of Wilson Thompson, Embracing a Sketch of His Life, Travels, and Ministerial Labors (Greenfield, Ind.: Published by 0. H. Goble, 1867), P* 262. go Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1819 (New Lisbon: Printed at the Office of the "Ohio Patriot," 1819), pp. 5-6. 56 and Portage Counties. Destined a few years later to dis­ solve into the first Camphellite bloc of churches, the

Mahoning Association started peacefully enough in 1820 along Baptist lines. The initial constitution betrayed no hint of innovation and upheld typical doctrines of

"particular Redemption" and the "Irresistible Power of the Holy Ghost in Regeneration."®^ Two of the member churches, whose Articles of Paith were entered in the

Associational ledger book at some length, viz. the Concord

Church in Warren and the Bethesda Church at Nelson, cited the Philadelphia Confession of Paith of 1?42 as their guide.

The first Association gathering, August 30, 1820, with Andrew Clark serving as moderator, brought ten churches together, the largest of which was the Warren qi Church led by Adamson Bently. As usual in forming an association, the Constitution had been formulated by a constitutional convention almost a year earlier, in

^Minutes, Constitution and Articles of Paith of the Mahoning Baptist Association, handwritten ledger book for the years 1820-182? (American Baptist Historical Library), p. 3* Hereafter cited Mahing Minutes.

^^Mahoning Minutes, pp. 9-12.

^^The other nine were New Lisbon, Bethesda, Salem, Zoar, Randolph, Liberty, Mount Hope, Bezetta, and Braceville. 57 October 23, 1 8 1 9 . The group sought out the Grand River

Association as well as three Pennsylvania associations,

Redstone, Beaver, and Hartford for correspondence. ^

The Association proceeded along Baptist lines

during the earlier portion of the decade. Sidney Rigdon, who gained much prominence later as a Mormon, and who mar­ ried the sister-in-law of Adamson Bentley, joined the three

ordained ministers, Bentley, Rufus Freeman, and William

West, in the associational activities. He was sent in

1821 as the messenger to the Grand River Association, and was commissioned to write the Corresponding Letter for

1822.^^ The Wellsburgh Church, located in the (West)

Virginia panhandle region and pastored by Rev. Alexander

Campbell, was received into the Association in 1824.^^

The most western group of churches dismissed from

Beaver was the Mohican Association. Organized on Septem­ ber 8, 1820, with eleven churches, the Association spread

*^%ahoning Minutes, pp. 43-46.

95lbid., p. 4 7 .

^^Ibid., pp. 5 1, 57; Dumas Malone, Dictionary of American Biography (20 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner's Son, 1 9 5 5), XV, 600-601.

^^Mahoning Minutes, p. 70. 58 over "six large counties, mostly wilderness.Rev.

Thomas G-. Jones was the most illustrious minister in the on Association.^' He was among the early Welsh Baptists who

migrated from Milford Haven, South Wales in 1796, coming

to Beulah, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and finally into 98 the Ohio territory.^ The most notorious name among the

ministers, viewed by Baptists a decade later, was Rigdon.

Thomas Rigdon, pastor of the Mt. Vernon Church in the early

years of the Association, had the longest tenure in the

region and was a respected Baptist minister, while his 99 brother John served as pastor in the Union Church.^

^ Mohican Baptist Association, Minutes, 1838 (n.p.n.d.), pp. 9-10. The eleven churches, as listed in the 1825 minutes, the earliest found, were Bethany in Wooster, Mohican, Ebenezer, and Canaan (all in Wayne County), Elizur, Mansfield, and Union (all in Richland County), Tuscarawas (Stark County), New London (Huron County), and Mount Vernon (Knox County). Early ministers included Thomas G. Jones, Thomas Rigdon, David Kimpton, Edward Otis, Daniel J. Swinney, and William Purdy.

^^Benedict listed Jones as one of the three most renowned ministers in the state, the other two being J. Clark (probably John Clark, pastor of the Duck Creek Church for a time), and Hezekiah Stites (long time pastor of the Bethel Church, near Lebanon, Ohio). Perhaps Benedict was aware of Jones' leadership both in the Sharon (Pennsylvania) and Bethany Churches where he cru­ saded for a broadly-based Baptist support for theological education. David Benedict, Fifty Years Among the Baptists (New York: Sheldon and Co., 1850), p. 59*

^^Benedict, General History, 1813 edition. I, 600.

^^Thomas served as representative to the State Legislature in 1827, and as Senator in 1829 and 1850. A Banning Norton, A History of Knox County, Ohio, From 1779 to 1862 Inclusive (Columbus: Richard Nevins, Printer, 1862), p. 405. 59 The term "Rigdonite" later was to suggest Camphellite

persuasion.

Between the Mahoning and Mohican groups another

association, called Killbuck, developed about 1828. Few

sources have been found to trace its existence, which

seems to have been very short-lived. The Killbuck group

embraced about ten churches in Coshocton and Holmes

Counties.The name probably derived from the Asso­

ciation's largest church of seventy-one members, the

Killbuck Baptist Church, as well as the river in the area

by that name. Rev. William Purdy of the Killbuck Church

and Rev. Charles Rigdon of the Salt Creek Church (Holmes

County) were the leading elders. No exact date of origin

or dissolution has been ascertained.

Scant information exists also regarding the Owl

Creek Baptist Association which centered in Knox County.

The 1822 minutes of the Muskingum Association recorded

the dismission of "several churches in Knox county and

100"Minutes of the Kilbuck /sic7 Baptist Associa­ tion," The Western Religious Magazine, II, 7 (Dec., 1828), 105-107. ^^^Sedwick's list of twenty associations in his Western Religious Magazine, dated Feb., 1828, does not include Killbuck. The Killbuck Association minutes, however, appear in the same journal in December of the same year. Consequently, Sedwick, who was well appraised of Baptist affairs in the state, must have received notice of its existence in the interim. Therefore, Killbuck was organized in all probability not too long before 1828. 60 vicinity” to form a new association in October, 1822. No title of the group was recorded, nor was there any yearly

correspondence between the two for some reason. But this 102 was probably the beginning of the Owl Greek Association.

The Owl Greek churches, containing a large concen­ tration of vJelsh Baptists, exchanged only limited communica­ tion beyond their own vicinity. The neighboring Golumbus

Association voted to correspond in 1826, but received little response and soon discontinued. The Huron and the

Mohican Associations, however, were more successful in maintaining a yearly correspondence with Owl Greek, begin­ ning in 1825 and continuing at least through 1851.^^^ The

102 Founding churches, which must be inferred from the disappearance of churches from subsequent lists of the Muskingum Association, could have included Wayne, Ghester, Miller Township and Dry Eun (all in Knox Gounty) and Mohawk Run (Goshocton County). Muskingum Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1822 (Zanesville: Printed by Horatio J. Gox, 1822), pp. 1-2.

^^^Golumbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1826 (Golumbus, Ohio: Printed at the Office of the Western Statesman, 1826), p. 4; "Minutes of the Golumbus Baptist Association," The Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 1 (October, 1830), 2; Huron Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825 (Cleveland: Printed by Z. Willes, 1825), p. 5; Mohican Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825 (n.p.n.d.), p. 2. It should be observed that sending a corresponding letter in those early years involved writing a letter to be examined and corrected at the yearly session, after which a "messenger" was appointed to carry the letter in person to the neighboring associational session. Very seldom did a letter arrive without the messenger, unless it involved mailing a letter to the Philadelphia Associa­ tion or the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions through a "corresponding secretary" appointed by the association. 51

minutes for 1830 listed eleven churches belonging to Owl

Creek which were scattered throughout Knox, Coshocton,

Richland, and Crawford Counties.

To the west of the Grand River Association,

representatives of ten churches met at the Black River

Baptist Church in Huron County, October 2, 1822, chose

Rev. Azariah Hanks of the Euclid Church as moderator, and

formed the Huron Baptist Association.Six of the

churches, Euclid, Eldridge, Milan, Brownhelm, Black River,

Royalton, had been dismissed a month earlier from the

Grand River Association; and three of the four ministers.

Hanks, Cyrus Call, and Henry Hudson, had been among the

initial pioneer preachers who had helped form the Grand

River Association.

The 1830 imprint is the earliest record of Owl Creek found before the Association was reorganized in 1842 as the Owl Creek Harmony Baptist Association. The eleven churches in 1830 were Lexington, Wayne, Miller, Dry Creek, South Run, Bethel-Bloomfield, Salem, Owl Creek, Bucyrus, Bryn Zion, and Mohawk Run. Owl Creek Baptist Association, Minutes. 1830 (Bucyrus: Printed at the Office of the Western Journal, William Crosby, Printer, 1830), p. 3*

105The churches centering in Huron and Erie Coun­ ties were Euclid, Eldridge, Milan, Brownhelm, Black River, Royalton, Elorence, Townsend, Margaretta, and Dover-Troy. Huron Baptist Association, Minutes. 1822 (Cleveland: Printed by Z. Willes, 1822), p. 3*

^^^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1822, Handwritten copy (Western Reserve Historical Library), p. 4. 62

The Huron churches immediately began correspondence with Grand JEdver, Mohican, and the Holland Purchase (New

York) Associations, as well as the Baptist Board of foreign Missions. In 1825, however, they discontinued the Holland Purchase relationship and also a Westfield

(Massachusetts) Association correspondence "on account of the distance.Rev. Azariah Hanks was the guiding light for the Huron group in the early years, while in the IBJO's

Rev. Asahel Morse of the Ridgefield Church assumed a lead­ ing role.

Replacing the Stillwater Association as a more permanent Baptist organization in the eastern area of

Ohio was the Zoar Baptist Association. It began as a seccessionist movement from the Stillwater Association, by organizing at the Boggs' Pork Church (later called

Rush Creek, in Tuscarawas County) on October 4-, 1827.

The Stillwater churches had voted that year by a majority of two to follow Alexander Campbell, if later accounts are 1 QQ accurate. Three preachers led in the secession, Benjamin

Wood of the Boggs' Pork Church on Stillwater Creek,

William N. Smith of the Clear Pork on Wills Creek Church

(Guernsey County), and Elizah C. Stone of the Pine Run

^^^Huron Baptist Association, Minutes, 1822, p. 4; Huron Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825, p. 5*

^*^®Zoar Baptist Association, Minutes, 1880 (Cam­ bridge: Guernsey Times Job Office, 1880), p. 12. 63 Church (Jefferson Gounty). Within a decade, the Zoar

Association claimed eleven churches in Guernsey, Jeffer­ son, Monroe, Belmont, Carroll, and Harrison Counties with two additional churches across the Ohio in (West)

Virginia.

The Meigs' Creek Baptist Association was initiated in 1825 principally by two leading churches, the Marietta

Baptist Church, then member of the Parkersburg Baptist

Association (Virginia), and the Zanesville Baptist Church of the Muskingum Association. Both churches voted simi­ larly to meet at the Bristol Church (Morgan County) in

May, 1825, to discuss the formation of a new association of churches "east of the Muskingum River.The first official session, from which the Association is dated, met at the Brookfield Church (Morgan County) on May 26, 1826.

Seven churches from Muskingum, Washington, Guernsey, and

Morgan Counties sent representatives and chose Rev. GeorgeC.

Zoar Baptist Association, Minutes, 1837 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1; Zoar Baptist Association, Minutes, 1838 (n.p.n.d.), pp. 4-5.

^^^Handwritten MSS of the minutes of business meetings of the First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio, Book I, April 23, 1825 (Historical Collection, First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio); Handwritten MSS of the minutes of the business meetings of the First Baptist Church, Zanesville, Ohio, Book I, May 3, 1825 (First Baptist Church, Zanesville); Handwritten MS, Letter from the "Baptist Church of Christ in Marietta" to the Parkers­ burg Baptist Association, Sept. 13-15, 1822 (Historical Collection, First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio). 64

Sedwick of the Zanesville Church as moderatorSedwick who had settled in Zanesville in January, 1821, and had built a strong church, had become an acknowledged leader in the Muskingum Association and throughout the state in 112 the development of mission societies. The Marietta

Church also had strong leadership in the persons of

Rev. James McAboy, who led the church after its origin on

September ^ , 1818, and Rev. Jeremiah Dale, who came in 1825.113

Meigs Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1826 (Cambridge, Ohio: Printed by C. P. Beatty at the Times Office, 1826), p. 2. The eleven churches, numbering 409 members were Salt Creek, Marietta, Salem Township, Bristol, Zanesville, Cambridge, and Brookfield. The six ministers serving the churches were George C. Sedwick, William Sedwick, his brother, Jeremiah Dale, William Spencer, George Russell, and William Rees. TIP "Zanesville Baptist Church," Western Religious Magazine, I, 8 (Jan., 1828), p. 124.

U n christian Watchman, I, 15 (Sept. 4, 1819), 58. The Marietta Church developed an unusual character in the early years. With very few members in Marietta, the church thrived as a single congregation while divided into several distinct branches covering a distance of more than forty miles. Regular branches flourished at several points; there was a meeting house near the mouth of the Little Muskingum, and groups at Newport, at Cat's Creek, at Dye's Settlement, as well as other occasional locations on the Ohio and Virginia side of the Ohio River. The church did not seem to hold regular meetings in Marietta until the business sessions were ordered "to be held in future in the village of Marietta" in 1824, at the house of Deacon Caleb Emerson. It became localized totally within the city in 1834 through the leadership of Thomas W. Ewart. Handwritten MSS of the minutes of business meetings of the Eirst Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio, Book I, 12, 15, 20- 21, 39, 69. 65 By 1850, Meigs' Creek had. enlarged to twenty-four congregations listing 915 z^emhers, and had developed yearly correspondence with the Parkersburg, Muskingum,

Stillwater, and Salem Associations.The Meigs Creek

Association gradually assumed leadership in the region which once belonged to the Muskingum Association.

To the south of the Muskingum Association and to the east of the Scioto Association, a small cluster of four churches sent representatives to the "Dwelling House of Elder Peter Aleshire, in Salem, Meigs County," on

October 22, 1819, where they followed the general organ­ izing agenda and formed the Salem Baptist Association.

Centering in Athens and Meigs Counties generally, the group opened correspondence with the Baptist Board of

Foreign Missions, the Philadelphia Association, as well as each adjacent association, Scioto, Muskingum, and

Tayse's Valley,(West) Virginia. The Salem Association never prospered numerically, and by 1832, could boast only seven churches with 235 members.

"Minutes of the Fifth Anniversary of the Meigs Creek Baptist Association," The Regular Baptist Mis­ cellany. I, 11 (Aug., 1830), 155-65.

^^^Salem Baptist Association, Minutes, 1819 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1. The founding churches were Keiger, Troy, Salem, and Rutland. The ministers were Peter Aleshire, Horace Parsons, and Joshua Ripley.

^^^Salem Baptist Association, Minutes, 1832 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1. 55

In the extreme southern tip of the state, the Ohio

Baptist Association was formed in 1820, drawing together churches in Jackson, Scioto, and Lawrence Counties. Cor­ respondence with associations in Teay's Valley, (West)

Virginia, and Greenup, Kentucky, revealed a strong fraternal relationship south of the Ohio River.The leading min­ ister Rev. John Lee of the Storm's Creek Church (later called First Baptist Church, Ironton), served as Associa­ tion moderator for more than a decade before his death in 1840.118

A small association called Eagle Creek was in existence at least by 1827 in Clermont County. Occupying the same territory as the East Eork of Little Miami Asso­ ciation, the Eagle Creek group differed in its alignment with neighboring churches, corresponding only with Kentucky associations, Braken, North Bend, Union, and Campbell.

^Benedict, General History, 1848 edition, p. 884. The earliest records have not been located; but by 1825 fifteen churches were listed in the annual statistical report, totaling 427 members.

ll^Ohio Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1. A reference to an association named Storm's Creek in 1828 in George Sedwick's Western Religious Magazine (Feb., 1828) probably reflects the dominance of the Storm's Creek Church in the area, and a confusion in Sedwick's compilation, rather than a concurrent group of churches existing in the same area.

^^^Eagle Creek Baptist Association, Minute-s, 1830 (Batavia, Ohio: David Norris, Printer, 1830), p. 4. Of the four churches in the association. Red Oak was the largest; but the Bethel Church led by Rev. Aaron Sargent seemed to be leader. In 1832 Eagle Creek became the Bethel Baptist Association. 67 The difference involved the degree to which churches dis­

dained slavery, and was so publicly stated. In 1827 the

East Fork of Little Miami Association voted not to cor­

respond with Eagle Creek since they acknowledged that they 120 would then lose correspondence with other churches.

The Greenville Baptist Association emerged in

Preble, Darke, and Shelby Counties in 1825, giving

churches in the more western counties of the Mad River

Association a small, more convenient grouping. They had petitioned for "separate existence" at the September,

1825, Mad River session, and with its blessing, "met a 121 month later to organize." The Association which

extended in Darke, Preble, and Shelby Counties as well as

into neighboring Indiana was never strong.

In 1831, the East Fork of Little Miami churches voted to correspond with Eagle Creek only if "they will cease to correspond with those Associations in Kentucky which approbate slavery." East Fork of the Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1827 (Cincinnati: Printed by Morgan, Fisher, and L'Hommedieu, n.d.), p. 4; East Fork of the Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1831 (Cincinnati: Wm. J. Ferris and Co. Printers, n.d.), p. 2.

^^^Mad River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3" No record prior to 1833 has been located for the association. In 1833, ten churches were listed among which the leading ministers were John Winter- mute of the Greenville Church and Joshua Benton of the Ebenezer Church. Greenville Baptist Association, Minutes, 1833 (Eaton, Ohio : Van Aural and Neff, Printer, n.d.), p. 2. 68 In the Miami Valley, overlapping the territory dominated by the larger Miami Baptist Association, three concurrent Baptist associations appeared about 1830. Of the three. Little Miami Union Regular, Todds' Fork, and

Oxford Baptist Associations, the date of origin for Oxford,

1830, is the only one known with certainty.

In Hamilton County, six churches existed as early as 1828 under the title of Little Miami Union Regular

Baptist Association, being so listed in Sedwick's roster of 1828, the earliest list available of Ohio associations.

Minutes from 1831 listed three churches in the group,

Little Miami, Mount Carmel, and Plumb Bottom. They exhibited fraternal correspondence only with the Oxford and Todds Pork Associations in Ohio, but not with the adjacent Miami Association. Preachers visited each year particularly from Campbell County, Kentucky, and betrayed a different cultural orientation from the Miami Associa­ tion which had refused correspondence with the Kentucky associations throughout the early years because of slave- 122 holding views south of the Ohio River.

The Oxford Regular Baptist Association contained three churches in 1830, the year of organization, viz.;

Sugar Creek in Montgomery County, Oxford in Butler County,

1P? Little Miami Union Regular Baptist Association, Minutes, 1831 (Cincinnati: Looker and Reynolds, Printers, n.d.J, p. 2. The ministers in 1831 were Reverends Hezekiah Smith and James Jones. 69 and Elkhorn in Indiana. Rev. John Mason, pastor of the

Elkhorn Church and pioneer minister of the early years of

the Miami Association, served as the moderator in 1830.^^^

The Sugar Creek Church was not identical with the much

older church of the same name in the Miami Association;

but it may well have been a dissident division of the 124 older congregation.

The Todds Eork Baptist Association, whose obscure

existence is hard to trace, exchanged correspondence with

Little Miami Union in 1831, but was all but unknown to

other Baptists in Ohio at that time. Located in Warren

and Greene Counties, with seven churches reported in 1834,

the group was not listed among Ohio associations in the

Cross and Baptist Journal rosters of associations until 125 1835* Names of member churches and ministers have not been ascertained.

^Oxford Regular Baptist Association, Minutes, 1830 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1. Other ministers included Peter Webb of the Sugar Creek Church, Thomas Craven and Joseph Shank of the Oxford Church, and Moses Jeffries of the Elkhorn Church. 124 An examination of the division in the Sugar Creek Church of the Miami Association over the dispute between Rev. John Mason and Rev. Wilson Thompson, so intrinsic a part of the antimission controversy in Ohio, more properly belongs to the fuller account in Chapter Elve.

^^^Cross and Baptist Journal, 11, 7 (July 1?, 1835), 67; IV, 29 (June 17, 1836), 49. CHAPTER III

THE MISSIOMRY CAUSE IN OHIO

During the e a r l y years of the nineteenth century, as Ohio was organizing and developing as a state, a pro­ found transformation among the religious forces in the East was under way. Prompted to some degree by the process of federalization in government, Protestant churches in the

East were uniting into larger ecclesiastical organizations.

Bending the earlier Puritan theocratic pattern to the democratic character of the American republic, the east­ ern church leaders clearly envisioned the transformation of the United States into a theocratic society.^ The formal organization of the large Northwest Territory in

1787, and the subsequent purchase of the Louisiana Terri­ tory just sixteen years later, had convinced church leaders that a united effort was needed to "civilize" 2 and "Christianize" the western "wilderness."

The nationalizing tendency along denominational lines had its roots in the missionary cause. A century

John R. Bodo, The Protestant Clergy and Public Issues, 1812-1848 (Princeton, N.J.; Princeton University Press, 19 5 4), p.ix. o Colin Brummitt Goodykoontz, Home Missions on the American Frontier (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caston Printers, Ltd., 1959), pp. 115-1 7 . 7 0 71 earlier, churches of various persuasions collected Pious

Funds to aid missionary projects; hut the new missionary enterprise which was envisioned by some at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed major support.^ Some of the earliest missionary organizations, which the Baptists joined for a time, were interdenominational in character, such as the New York Missionary Society which attempted

Indian missions. Yet, denominational lines coalesced more rigidly as the years passed; and soon missionary agencies iL reflected doctrinal positions.

The first Baptist missionary society grew out of the work of the Warren Baptist Association in 1802, and was called the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society. Its support was limited to the New England region. The first national union of Baptists in the country was in response to Rev. Luther Rice's call for the support of Rev. and

Mrs. Adoniram Judson who had become Baptists after depart­ ing from America under Congregational patronage of the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

^Charles L. White, A Century of Faith (Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1952), p. 2$.

^Robert George Torbet, A Social History of the Philadelphia Baptist Association: 17C7-194C (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1944), pp. 24, 28. The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first to be organized (in 1784). The Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Dutch Reformed Churches met in national bodies before the turn of the century. 72

Thirty-three Baptist delegates from eleven states who were concerned in Judson's missionary support met in Phila­ delphia in May, 1814, and organized the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for

Foreign Missions, more commonly known as the "Triennial

Convention.Response to the needs of Judson and Rice began the modern missionary movement for Baptist in

America.^

The model for Baptist missionary outreach in

America was not the associational unit but the "society" plan. Borrowed from England, where it was tested in the work of missions, tract distribution, and the Sunday

School movement, the society pattern proved successful 7 in harnessing the religious forces to specific crusades.

In addition to the Triennial Convention which was basically

^Henry C. Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1907), pp. 531-32. ^Judson was not the first Baptist "foreign" mis­ sionary from America. Rev. George Liele, formerly a slave, left Savannah, Georgia, in 1782 to go to Kingston, Jamaica. This was ten years before William Carey sailed for India, and thirty-two years before the Triennial Convention was organized in America. Liele was supported in part by Baptists in England. Edward H. Holmes, "George Liele: Negro Slavery's Prophet of Deliverance," Founda­ tions , IX, 4 (Oct.-Dec., 1955), 337. ^Bodo, pp. 13-20. Some of the societies which Baptists later promoted in Ohio included the American Bible Society begun in 1816; American Colonization Society, 1817; American Tract Society, 1824; American Sunday School Union, 1824; American Temperance Society, 1826, and the American Sabbath Union, 1828. 73 a foreign mission society in structure, two other national

societies developed among Baptists, the Baptist General

Tract Society, established in 1824 and later called the

American Baptist Publication Society, and the American

Baptist Home Mission Society, founded in 1832.^

Although the second meeting of the Triennial Con­ vention in 1817, which began to take responsibility for home mission needs at that time, bypassed Ohio when

Rev. John Mason Peck, Rev. James £. Welch, and Rev. Isaac

McCoy were commissioned to go west, missionaries were

coming into Ohio during the early decade under the aus­ pices of various societies.^ The Philadelphia Baptist

Missionary Society reported to the Philadelphia Associa­

tion at the 1805 session, "Brother T. G. Jones, who is our missionary in the eastern parts of the State of Ohio, has already made a communication of agreeable tidings.

Q Daniel Gurden Stevens, The First Hundred Years of the American Baptist Publication~~Society (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, n.d.), pp. 3-4.

^William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier: The Baptists, 1783-1830, A Collection of Source Materials (Hew York: Henry Holt and Co., 1931), pp. 59-60.

^^Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association for 1707 to 1807, ed. by A. D. Gillette (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1851), p. 431. Rev. Thomas G. Jones eventually moved to Wooster where he pastored the Bethany Church for many years. 74 In the Western Reserve region, Rev. Squire Ahhot served

for many years as an employee on a part-time basis of the

Baptist Missionary Society of Massachusetts. He first

served the Kingsville Baptist Church and later moved

farther west in Ohio in order to serve among the "desti­

tute churches.Other Ohio ministers such as Rev. James

McAhoy of the Marietta and later the Athens churches, and

Rev. George Evans of the Granville and St. Alhans Church, 12 were supported by eastern funds during the early years.

In addition, ministers appeared in self-appointed tours

from time to time and itinerated at will through the

state.

To strengthen the Baptist missionary enterprise,

Rev. Luther Rice traveled briefly through the state of Ohio

on at least five occasions during the time from August,

"Commission" sent to Elder Squire Abbot from the Baptist Missionary Society of Massachusetts, Nov. 28, 1821, Printed and signed MS (Western Reserve Historical Library). The commission was for three months' service. The pro­ cedure for remuneration required Abbot to write to the agent of The American Baptist Magazine who, in turn, was to direct the local agent to pay him his expenses.

^^See Latter Day Luminary, 11, 13 (May, 1820), 121.

^^Por instance. Rev. John Colby, a Pree-will Baptist minister from New England toured Ohio in 1810 and openly fraternized with a wide variety of religious groups. John Colby, The Life, Experience, and Travels of John Colby, Preacher of the Gospel (Rochester, N.Y.; Printed for Daniel Mark, Jr. by E. Peck, 1827), pp. 76-81. 75 1815, to August, 1817. In summing up bis journeys in the

Latter Day Luminary, the official publication of the

Baptist Board of Missions, Rice remarked, "Passing through the state of Ohio, two or three opportunities presented to plead the cause of missions, particularly in Zanesville, and Ghillicothe." Rice's daily journal, a more personal source, indicated that his most abundant and profitable contacts were in the Cincinnati area, where he was the guest of General and Mrs. John S. Gano, preached for Rev.

Alexander Denniston of the Cincinnati Baptist Church, and met "Mrs. Goforth" and others.General Gano was treas­ urer of the "Cincinnati Foreign Mission Society" at the time. Rice also made it a point to travel to Urbana to see Rev. Jotin Thomas, "a warm friend of missions," and Rev. John Guthridge.^^ Often Presbyterians hosted

14 Rice was the first agent to make a personal visit to Ohio on behalf of foreign missions by Baptists. He collected his first offering on August 5, 1815, iri Zanes­ ville. Latter Day Luminary, I, 1 (Feb., 1818), 35; Minutes of the Nineteenth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention and Proceedings of Other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Zanesville, May, 1845 (Columbus: Stewart and Cole, Printers, 1845), p. 59*

^^Handwritten Journal of Rev. Luther Rice, entries for Dec. 24-25, 1815; Feb. 16-17, 1817; Aug. 8, 1817; Aug. 11, 1817 (American Baptist Historical Library). ^^Ibid., Dec. 28, 1815* Rev. John Thomas was pastor of the Kings Creek Baptist Church, having been encouraged to take up the work by Rev. John Gutridge, who founded the church and was the first pioneer preacher in the region. Anthony Howard Dunlevy, History of the Miami Baptist Association From its Organization in 1797 to a Division in that Body on Missions, etc., in the Year 1836 (Cincinnati : Geo. S. Blanchard and Co., 1869), p. 155* 76

Rice on M s itinerary and also supported M m financially.

Rice made good use of M s contacts later by sending them

copies of the prospectus for the Latter Day Luminary.

The missionary spirit from the East which stressed

the need of financial support for Judson in Burma and

Peck, Welch, and Isaac McCoy in the more western country,

also supported Ohio's need for the civilizing and Chris­

tianizing of the state itself. The rising flow of immi­

gration, together with the meager assortment of ministers in the region caused many to uphold missions as an impor- 1 O tant adjunct to the civilizing process in Ohio. An urgent need for ministers constantly increased as churches

continued to organize within the state.The western

^Gano replied to Rice that he would volunteer to secure a subscription list and be accountable for twenty- four or thirty-six copies. John S. Gano to Rev. Luther Rice, Jan. 20, 1818, John S. Gano Papers (Cincinnati Historical and Philosophical Library;.

^^See East Pork of Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1826 (Cincinnati: Morgan, Lodge and Fisher, Printer, 1826), p. 8. The struggle for internal improve­ ments in the state, won in the state legislature election in 1824, can well be considered a complementary part of the same movement.

^^The Meigs Creek Association received a letter from the Regular Phedestinarian Baptist Church on Duck Creek, Morgan County, at the 1827 sessions, stating, "We are a small body hitherto unknown to your body but we desire to become a member of your body." Ho minister was listed. Churches such as this soon became the responsi­ bility of the association to supply at least several preaching meetings during the year, which was a missionary task of sorts. Handwritten associational letter for May, 1827 (Historical Collection, First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio). 77 settlers who needed much assistance in providing educators,

government leaders, and preachers, often accepted partner­

ship with the eastern clergymen. The Easterner, meanwhile,

saw in the "destitute" Vest an opportunity to mold the new region by means of his moral "efficiency" into an accept­

able democratized theocracy. Baptist clergymen had mixed

feelings about such state-church viewpoints, having never before belonged or assented to the eastern established

clergy. Nevertheless, although strongly insistent on local

autonomy and "soul freedom," the eastern Baptist leaders, particularly in New England and Philadelphia, adopted a

theocratic outlook for their missionary enterprise not unlike the religious mood of the other Protestant denomi­ nations. Consequently, early Baptist support in Ohio was given to several projects such as theological education.

Sabbath schools, and Indian missions, all of which were popular among the more theocratically minded ministers of other denominations.

Baptist concern for education made an appearance

early, but only among a few churches. Interest in formal

education first appeared in the Beaver Baptist Association when the Sharon Baptist Church in Pennsylvania under the pastoral care of Rev. Thomas G. Jones brought a question

to the 1811 associational meeting asking whether it would be "expedient and conducive to form a society for the pur­ pose of raising a fund to assist pious young men who are 78 desirous to engage in the work of the ministry, to obtain

education, and to invite other associations to unite with 20 us in the plan." An offering was taken at the 1813

session; but it was not until 1815 that a committee was gathered to form a society generally described as "The

Baptist Theological Society for the education of young 21 men for the ministry." The Society was formed officially at Youngstown on November 1, 1816, called itself the Ohio 22 Baptist Education Society, and adopted a constitution.

The minutes of the Beaver Association clearly point to Thomas G-. Jones as the guiding figure in organizing the educational society. Jones wanted to raise financial sup­ port for young ministerial students, a cause not generally acceptable to Baptists. Regardless of his educational background, a young man was free "to exercise his gifts in public," as the Baptists termed it, to see if he were talented in preaching. The Baptists, however, needed

?0 Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1811 (New Lisbon, Ohio: Printed by William D. Lepper, 1811), p. 5. 21 Beaver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816 (n.p.n.d.), p. 4-.

^^"Constitution" of the Ohio Baptist Education Society, Handwritten MS (Western Reserve Historical Library). The founding committee included Azariah Hanks, Thomas Rigdon, William West, Benjamin Barnes, and Thomas G. Jones, all preachers in or near the Western Reserve, Andrew Clark of the Providence Church in Penn­ sylvania, and Benjamin Ross, a layman from Zoar, Trumbull County, Ohio. 79 preachers, as did all religious groups at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and needed to encourage major 07. support for theological schools. ^ Report of the founding of the Ohio Baptist Education Society was circulated among

Ohio's associations; and the Miami Association responded 24 by approving the Society's constitution. Little else was accomplished in the organization during the next decade beyond the recruitment of ministers and laymen in the state who were concerned with theological and higher education.

If support of theological and higher education was lacking, interest in the Sunday school was equally limited, but, again, appeared early in certain areas. The Salt

Creek Baptist Church, close to Zanesville, established a non-sectarian Sunday school as early as 1812.^^ This early effort may well have led to Zanesville's claim to have been the first Ohio town to organize "a fully officered

Sunday School." The school was intended for families who could not afford to enroll their children in a more expen­ sive week-day school. It was not until 1828 that the

^^Bodo, p. 1 3.

^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1818 (Cin­ cinnati: Williams, Mason, and Co., printers, n.d.), p. 5*

^^Thomas W. Lewis, Zanesville and Muskingum County, Ohio (3 vols.; Chicago, 111.: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 19 2 7 ), I, 116. ZGibid., I, 189. 80

Zanesville First Baptist Church decided to establish its own school and to "take into consideration the Sunday 27 School and take it under its patronage." ' Zanesville was typical of the Baptist churches in Ohio, many of which did not show real concern for the Sunday school movement until the 1830's and even later. Support of the

Sunday school was poor among Baptists during these earlier years in part because of a Baptist "disrelish for a union in Sabbath Schools with other denominations" which had p Q been the original course of action in many communities.

Passing interest by some Baptists was also given to Indian missions. The Elkhorn Baptist Association of

Kentucky had sent out John Young to the Great Lakes area in 1801 to work among Indians, the first such work among 29 Mississippi Valley Baptists. In the early years, however.

^"^Clerk's Record Book, June, 1828, First Baptist Church, Zanesville, Ohio.

^®E. Welsh to John Stevens, August 23, 183$, John Stevens Papers (American Baptist Historical Library). Two separate collections of the papers of John Stevens are important to the study of Baptist history in Ohio. Four boxes of materials at the Western Reserve Historical Library contain by far the larger amount of material. A smaller collection of highly selected and noteworthy letters at the American Baptist Historical Library are particularly informative concerning Stevens' relation­ ship to Denison University. Hereafter references to the Stevens papers will be cited Stevens Papers (ABHL) or Stevens Papers (WRHL).

^^Walter Brownlow Posey, The Baptist Church in the Lower Mississippi Valley. 1771-1843 (University of Kentucky Press, 1957)) p. 80. 81

Baptists in Ohio were too feeble to crusade strongly for

Indian missions. Rev. Henry George of Owl Greek traveled into the north central area of Ohio and preached to some converted Indians in 1818.^^ A year later, Rev. Jacob

Drake and Rev. George Evans journeyed to the Sandusky

Valley to view a Methodist sponsored "reformation among the Wyandots"; but the advice came from the Baptist Board in Philadelphia to attempt no Indian missions in Ohio.^^

After Isaac McCoy established his mission at Port Wayne, however, several Ohio associations collected and sent money to him.^

The chief concern of early Baptists in Ohio was not theological education, Sunday school education, or Indian missions, but rather the Baptist promulgation of the Gospel and the world-wide extension of its message. Rev. Joseph

Badger, early Congregational missionary on the Western

%Q "Wyandot, Sandusky Indians," Latter Day Luminary. I, 5 (February, 1819), pp. 308-10. George had written two letters to the Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions about his tour.

^^"Domestic Intelligence, Revivals," Latter Day Luminary. II, 11 (February, 1820;, p. 53. zp Several associations responded to McCoy espe­ cially in 1822. The Muskingum Association, for instance, produced eight men who "volunteered to travel each two weeks" to transport collections of clothing, grain and "saddlery" for the young Indians at the mission. Muskingum Baptist Association, Minutes. 1822 (Zanesville; Printed by Horatio J. Cox, 1822), p. 7* 82

Reserve, wrote about his early meeting with the Baptists

at Warren on September 27, 180$:

Had a conference with a number until midnight on the subject of God's covenant with Abraham. I am driven into this subject by the sectarian spirit of the Baptists, they moot the subject of immersion as soon as some people begin to think.33

The zeal of the early Baptists, the stamina of their itin-

erating ministers,^ and their rigid code of church dis­

cipline, were remarkable when tested by later standards.

Baptist "truth" and "Gospel truth" were well-nigh identical

for most Baptists. Consequently, the missionary enterprise

captured the dominating motivation of most Baptist churches

in Ohio.

Early response to the missionary movement proceeded

in several different ways. Principally the methods used

were correspondence with the national board, acceptance of

the "auxiliary society" pattern, division of each region

into missionary or "visitation" districts, and sometimes,

employment of a missionary by an association. Each associa­

tion, as autonomous as every Baptist church, developed its

own style of missionary work.

E. Dickinson, "Rev. Joseph Badger, The Pioneer Missionary of the Western Reserve," Papers of the Ohio Church History Society (Oberlin: Printed for the Society, 1900), XI, 15.

^ Luther Rice commented in his journal that he had heard "Thomas Rigdon of New Lisbon, Columbiana Co., speak to the Eemale Benevolent Society of Chilicothe" in January, 1815. Rigdon had no church in that area. His traveling must have been a labor of love. 83 Correspondence with the Baptist Board of Foreign

Missions, whose headquarters was in Philadelphia, was generally the first step in accepting missionary responsi­ bilities. The Miami Baptist Association had been cor­ responding with the Philadelphia Baptist Association even before the formation of the Triennial Convention, and had written to the corresponding secretary. Dr. William

Staughton, before 8taughton assumed a similar role in 1814 with the Foreign Mission Board.The associations responded by approving the letters received from Staughton and by appointing an associational corresponding secretary to return regional news and mission offerings.Staughton sent out a "General Circular" from time to time to inform leaders of the work, and these were occasionally reprinted in part in the West.^' In the early years, several

^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes,1810 (Cin­ cinnati: Printed at the Office of the Adver/^izer/, n.d.) p. 2.

^^Usually an outstanding minister in the associa­ tion was chosen to serve as corresponding secretary. Rev. Samuel Comer of the Scioto Association, Rev. John Mason of the Miami Association, Rev. Jacob Drake of the Columbus Association, and Rev. Azariah Hanks, of the Huron Association represent a few of the more outstanding leaders who strongly supported missions by serving as corresponding secretaries.

^"^William Staughton, "General Circular" from the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States, Oct., I8I7 , Vol. Ill, 165, John Gano Papers (Historical and Philosophical Library, Cincinnati); East Fork of Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1817 (Cin­ cinnati: Williams and Mason, Printers, n.d.), p. 4. 84 associations chose to correspond and embrace the missionary

work, which largely meant the support of the Adoniram

Judson mission in Burma.

Several associations assumed the character of a

missionary society auxiliary to the national mission board

in the decade following the founding of the Triennial Con­ vention in 1814. The Miami Association voted in 1815 to

"form ourselves into a society called A DOMESTIC MISSIONARY

SOCIETY," and proceeded the following year to accept a

constitution with a stated purpose to support "preaching

the Gospel in destitute places in this Western Country.

Other associations followed different styles in estab­

lishing missionary organizations. The Muskingum Associa­

tion adopted a method in 1818 in which an "Auxiliary

Foreign and Domestic Missionary Society" was to meet one zq day before the annual associational session.In 1819

the Columbus Association voted, "This association, shall be a MISSIONARY SOCIETY," thus assuming a double role.^^

^ Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1813 (Day­ ton: Printed by Burnet and Lodge at the Office of the Ohio Republican, n.d.), p. 4; Dunlevy, pp. 55-56. The framers of the constitution included three leading min­ isters, James Lee, Stephen Gard and James Mason, one of whom, Gard, later became aggressively antimissionary.

^^Muckingum Baptist Association, Minutes, 1818 (Delaware, Ohio, 1818), p. 5-

^^Columbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1819 (Delaware, Ohio: Printed at the Delaware Gazette Office, 1819), pp. 2, 5. 85 Generally the second became more prevalent as associations

evolved from a preaching-oriented, camp-meeting style

gathering to a report-gathering, missionary-oriented fel­

lowship. Also each individual congregation was strongly

urged "to form a missionary society within the vicinity

of each church.

Another method for mission support was an arrange­

ment for occasional preaching among the churches, in order

to serve the more "destitute" congregations. Often termed

"visitation" meetings, but also called "union," "quarterly,"

or "missionary," meetings by some, associations frequently had as many as eight or ten such preaching gatherings

throughout a given year. The fifth Sunday in a month was

especially advantageous, giving the ministers opportunity

to utilize four irregularly spaced Sundays during the year.

The Columbus Association, for example, found advantage in partitioning its area into two divisions, north and south,

and later into five districts with the purpose of "supply- 42 ing churches with occasional preaching."

At least one association. Grand River, "voted to

employ" a missionary. Rev. Warner Goodel, to work within

the bounds of the churches. Goodel, pastor of the

Mad River Association, Minutes, 1825, MSS hand­ written by Alby Kite from the original records, 1902 (Western Reserve Historical Library). 42 Columbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825 (n.p.n.d.), p. 5* 86

Painesville and Mentor Church, was employed for three weeks

in 1818, receiving fifteen dollars in payment. More fre­

quently a practice in later decades, this type of specific

employment was unique for such an early time among Ohio

Baptist associations. Yet, it must not be supposed that no "missionary" work was being done in other regions of

Ohio. Ministers were not being paid; but they worked

arduously for little or no remuneration.

The need for a state-wide organization became

apparent to many Baptists by the mid-twenties, especially

among a group of leaders in Cincinnati. The original purpose of the Miami Association, "to open a door of

friendly correspondence," in which "a personal acquaintance is brought about between brethren from different parts, was plainly inadequate to link twenty such associations

throughout Ohio. By 1820, a dozen or more associational missionary societies, the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary

Society, and the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions all had interests in Ohio. A state convention of Baptists became

a rational plan of action.

^^Grand River Association, Minutes, 1818, MSS hand­ written (Western Reserve Historical Library), p. 4.

/I /I Wilson Thompson, The Autobiography of Elder Wilson Thompson, .Embracing a Sketch of his Life, Travels, and Ministerial Labors (Greenfield, Ind.: Published by D. H. Goble, 186?), pp. 267, 288. ^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes,1810 (Cin­ cinnati: Printed at the Office of the Adver/tiser/, n.d.), p. 5* 87 The prime mover for a state-wide annual convention

of Baptists was the Cincinnati Baptist Missionary Society.

Organized in 1824 with 118 individuals signing its con­

stitution, the Cincinnati Society acknowledged that the

"ultimate design" was to publish the need for a state missionary agency.The basic composition, derived from

earlier patterns of societies in the East, included a board of management consisting of a president, two vice presidents, a solicitor (known later as an agent), a cor­ responding secretary, a recording secretary, .a treasurer,

and nine directors. With few alterations, this same

organizational plan was transferred to the Ohio Baptist 47 State Convention in 1825. ' Isaac G. Burnet served as president while Ephriam Robins served as corresponding

secretary. Both were laymen and members of the Enon Bap­ tist Church.

45 Each member agreed to an annual contribution to the cause of missions with a gift of ten dollars which bestowed membership for life. Records of Annual Meetings, 1825-34, copied in full from the Original Written Records, preserved in the Library of Denison University (Rorwalk, Ohio: Printed by the Laning Printing Company, for G. E. Leonard, Corresponding Secretary, 1890), p. J>. Hereafter cited as OBC, 1825-34.

4?Ibid., p. 5. 48 Other officers included important Baptist names: Rev. John Boyd, pastor of the Enon Church, first vice president; Daniel Gano, son of General John S. Gano, second vice president; and Henry Miller, well-known hymn book publisher and member of Enon, solicitor. Rev. James Lyon, hired as the Society's missionary for six months starting in December, 1825, traveled in a twenty-five mile radius of Cincinnati serving the Miami congregations. 88 An interesting discrepancy exists between the

stated purpose of the Cincinnati Society as it appeared in the Ohio Baptist State Convention proceedings in 1825 and as the statement was originally composed at the first session, August 19, 1824-, of the Cincinnati Baptist Mis­ sionary Society. At the Cincinnati meeting Rev. William

Randleson proposed to add to the purpose of the Society

"the amelioration of the condition of the Africans.

Being asked to submit this request "in writing . . . for the further consideration of the Society and of State

Convention when formed under the constitution of this

Society," Randleson did so; and the original wording of the Society's purpose reads:

. . . to make exertions for the support of mis­ sions, for the education of ministers, and for the melioration of the condition of the Africans in this state, by encouraging and supporting their immigration to Hayti, or to Africa or to any other eligible habitation for a colony of free people of colour.

When the "object of this Society" was published in the Con­ vention proceedings in 1826, no mention was made of the

4-9 Dunlevy's History of the Miami Association does not mention a preacher named William Randleson, but Ephraim Robins, in one of his "Reminiscences," told of Rev. James A. Ranaldson who arrived in Cincinnati during the summer of 1824-, gave a missionary "discourse" at the Enon Baptist Meeting House, and prompted the organization of the Society in August of that year. William Randleson and James A. Ranaldson were probably the same person. E. Robins, "ReminiscencesCross and Journal, VII, 4-9 (May 21, 184-1), 195'

^^Record book of the Cincinnati Baptist Mission Society, August 19, 1824-, MSS handwritten, Stevens Papers (WRHL). 89 Negro or of colonization, but only of "gospel missions" and "the education of ministers.

The original time table for convening a state con­ vention called for the first meeting to be in Cincinnati in September, 1825. The Cincinnati Society, however, had been unsuccessful in recruiting a minister to be the

"agent" who would travel and publicize the undertaking.

Consequently, the delegates from the eight neighboring churches who had been notified and who had gathered in

September to meet with the Cincinnati Society considered it wise to postpone the convention until the fourth Monday in May, 1825. They also voted to convene the session in

Zanesville, where the "north and east sections" could be 52 better represented.^ The idea expressed in the circular which publicized the proposed organization of the 1826 convention called "for a general meeting of the delegates from the societies already formed, and of those which, through the exertions of the traveling agent, should here­ after be formed, to meet in GENERAL CONVENTION at the

Baptist Meeting House in Zanesville.The convention, consequently, was actually a gathering of societies rather than a gathering of churches.

^IpBC, 1826-54, p. 5.

^^Ibid., pp. 5-4.

55ibid., p. 5. 90

The Cincinnati leaders late in 1825 were able to recruit Rev. Corbly Martin to be their agent after at least two other men had declined the position. Martin had been the minister of the respectably-sized Staunton

Church in the Mad River Association prior to this, and had become well known in surrounding areas for his per­ sonal appeals on behalf of Isaac McCoy's Indian mission at Fort Wayne.He also had been a teacher at McCoy's mission, serving as McCoy's assistant, and had been bap­ tized while working at the mission.Hired in December,

1825, Martin had but six months to travel among the Bap­ tists of the state informing them of the coming May meeting; and, consequently, he did not reach the north­ east section of the state before the delegates convened.

Meeting at Zanesville on May 22, 1825, thirty- nine "messengers" representing fifty-two missionary societies, churches and associations gathered to initiate the statewide convention.Except for the "destitute" northwest region of the state, the delegates came from

^ Mad River Baptist Association, Minutes. 1821 (Urbana, Ohio: Banes and Lewis, Printers, n.d.), p. 2; Jacob Drake, A History of Columbus Baptist Association from its Organization to 1837, ed. by Rev. D. Randall (Columbus, Ohio; Randall and Aston, 1859), p. 16.

^^John P. Cady, The Origin and Development of the Missionary Baptist Church in Indiana (Berne, Indiana: Printed by the Berne Witness Co., 1942), p. 4-7.

5^0BC, 1826-34-, pp. 1, 5* Some acted as proxies for more than one society. 91 widely-scattered areas, which proved the wisdom of the choice of location for their first meeting. Two geographi­ cal regions, centering around Zanesville and Cincinnati, tended to predominate in the sessions; but careful atten­ tion to the selection of the first year's officers broadened the base of the leadership.

Dr. Calvin Conant, a member of the Zanesville

Church, was chosen to serve as chairman, while Ephraim

Robins, a lay member of the Enon Church in Cincinnati served as secretary. The introductory sermon, an impor­ tant and coveted responsibility at Baptist gatherings, was preached by Rev. James McAboy of Athens.The Cincinnati

Society presented its call for a united missionary agency in the state, citing that about 7,000 Baptist communicants among an estimated 700,000 citizens in Ohio were "compara­ tively strangers to each other," and needed to join together in the common work of missions.In response, the mes­ sengers proceeded to organize a state convention of mis­ sionary societies and churches.

Following the society pattern, a committee of five drew up a constitution for the new organization which was officially named "The Convention of the Baptist denomination

5^Ibid., p. 1.

^^Ibid., p. 2. 92 of the State of Ohio."^^ The Convention, brought together, in the words of the constitution, "delegates from Baptist churches, associations, and societies which shall con­ tribute to the general funds of the convention.The associations were allowed three delegates while churches and societies were limited to one. The general session was designated to meet on the first Monday in May. The officers elected for a year were to form a board which would transact all business when the yearly convention was not in session. The officers consisted of a presi­ dent, three vice-presidents, a corresponding secretary, a recording secretary, a treasurer, and thirty-six trustees.

Article three of the constitution was distinctively

Baptist, and reflected a typical fear of ecclesiastical ascendancy. It read:

The convention shall never possess a single attribute of power or authority over any church or association. It specifically and forever

^^The five men were Eev. James McAboy, Rev. George C. Sedwick, Ephriam Robins, Rev. James Challen, and George Debolt.

GOpBC, 1826-34, p. 6.

^^Ibid., pp. 6-7• The officers elected at the 1825 session were Rev. James McAboy, president; Rev. William White of Ghillicothe, Isaac G. Burnet of Cincinnati and Rev. Jacob Drake of Delaware, vice-presidents; Rev. George C. Sedwick of Zanesville, Corresponding Secretary; Rev. William Sedwick of Cambridge, Recording Secretary; and Thomas Wickham of Zanesville, Treasurer. The trustees were recruited from every geographical area possible. 93 disclaims any right or prerogative of this kind; hereby avowing, that cardinal principle, that every church is sovereign and independent, and capable of managing its own internal concerns, without the least interference or assistance from any body of men on earth.62

This concept of fierce Baptist independence remained sub­

stantially a major tenet throughout the remainder of the

century.

An "Address" was printed at the end of the minutes

of the 1826 session, quite similar to a circular letter,

in which the Ohio churches were urged to support the Con­ vention. "Unity of principle and of action," declared the writer, in typical nineteenth century theocratic prose,

"is the most powerful moral engine in its operation upon human society.Not everyone, however, was convinced of this, it appeared; for "there are some of our brethren

. . . who have imbibed the strange idea that it is not their duty to unite in the cause of missions." It was also admitted, the writer continued, that "there are others who openly oppose the missionary work."^^ From the start, not all Baptists were convinced of the advisability of the missionary plan.

Reflecting current Baptist practice, the constitu­ tion defended the more unlearned preachers by asserting

G^ibid., p. 6.

G^ibid., pp. 1, 10.

G^ibid., p. 10. 94 that missionaries were to be selected "in respect to their

scriptural qualifications, and not merely to the education they may have received." Furthermore, the constitution limited the financial compensation to a "moderate" amount because "higher motives than those of a pecuniary nature ought to actuate such as devote themselves to that impor­ tant work.Even with this penurious attitude, divided opinions over the money issue were immediate. The Board, composed of officers and trustees, had been empowered to hire agents to raise money, and to employ as many mission­ aries as were willing to "run the risk of obtaining a compensation for their services from those among whom they may labor.But when the Convention met in 1827, again at Zanesville, the delegates voted to "discontinue the employment of agents" and repealed the constitutional article about compensation to read:

That the Board be instructed to engage as many of our ministering brethren as are willing to devote a certain portion of their time as mission­ aries, without fee or reward, and that the Board do not pay any minister more than TEN DOLLARS a month, who may be employed in the most destitute place.67

G^ibid., p. 7.

GGibid., p. 9. ^'^OBC, 1826-54, p. 12. The Convention Treasury did not receive large contributions with which to imple­ ment the missionary program. The yearly receipts were 8258.87 in 1826, 8213.39 in 1827, and 8305-72# in 1828. 95 Although more than ten dollars in compensation was grudg­ ingly allowed the next year "after a long debate," where family needs were clearly a factor, the mixed attitudes toward monetary support of the missionary cause were obvious. The issue was to help divide Ohio Baptists a decade later.

formation of the State Convention stimulated increased missionary activity among the churches. Rev.

Corbly Martin visited extensively over the state during his one year of service as the Convention agent; and some churches and associations collected offerings while others only assented verbally to the purposes of the state organization.^® Cf all the associations in the state, the Grand River Baptist Association designed the most vigorous line of action, becoming an auxiliary society to the Convention in 1852, and then, in 1858, forming itself into a missionary society, and employing local ministers to itinerate in the neighboring areas as mis­ sionaries.®^ Various responses around the state to the

Columbus Baptist Association, Minutes, 1826 (Columbus, Chio: Printed at the Cffice of the Western Statesman, 1828), p. 5* Rev. James Berry acted as agent in the Miami and East Pork of Little Miami Baptist Associations.

®^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1852 (Jefferson, Chio: Printed by lewis B. Edwards, Printer, 1852), p. 8; Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1858 (Ashtabula: H. Passett, Printer, 1858), p. 6. Similar auxiliary organizations were designed by the Huron and Columbus Associations. The privilege of delegating 96

Convention included the formation of auxiliaries by indi­

vidual churches, votes of approval, "missionary" meetings

by associations, and monthly "Concerts of prayer" by local

congregations.

The real labor in the missionary enterprise, how­

ever, fell upon the itinerant pioneer preacher who carved

out an area of responsibility to which he directed his

concern. Typical, perhaps, was the account of Rev. Aaron

Sargent, of the Bethel Church in Clermont County, who

described his ministry in 1835 in his own solecistic style:

As I have preached once a month Statedly to four Churches on Saturday and Sunday and the extent of Distance between from east to west about forty miles - and beside these - I have preached to five or six other churches in my Journiing - on Weekdays, Besides destitute neighborhoods and villages .... for the most of the time I have preached twice a day and some days three times. Besides Religious interviews and conversations With parents and their Children and on Some of those Occasions have Seene parents and Children melted To tears of prospects my hopes and fear alternate Have Risen. Sometimes I have had the unspeakable pleasure of seeing my Congregations Deeply engaged in the service of God While Saints Rejoiced Sinners mourned on account of Their Sins. Then preaching seemed an easy and Delightful theme, but perhaps at the next meeting prospects would seem quite different and inatten­ tion seems to prevail.70 messengers to the state convention was not contingent on any particular societal pattern used by church or associa­ tion. A casual approval was as valid as a fully constituted auxiliary.

^^Aaron Sargent to John Stevens, December, 1833, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 97 Among the nine missionaries who were commissioned to serve in the 1825-1827 opening year of state missions, doubtless several if not all were rather akin to Sargent in their ministries.

As far as can be determined from the sources, the majority of Baptists in the 1820's generally reflected an optimistic view of the times, and conceived of the State

Convention as part of the reforming process in the western country. "We cannot but recognize," observed Isaac Burnet in 1826 to the Convention delegates, "a rapid approximation to the glorious era, when that kingdom . . . shall be 71 established throughout the habitable globe." Implicit in the"kingdom" for the leaders of Ohio Baptists was the process which brought cultural, educational, and religious refinement to the State. The Ohio legislature had declared a similar objective when it called for the support of

"religion, morality and knowledge, as essentially necessary to good government.Consequently, support of various national societies which were theocratic in tendency was encouraged by the Baptist State Convention and by some of the associations.

The promotion of a Christian Sabbath had become a concern for some, and with it the attempt to prohibit

flpBC, 1826-54, p. 2.

, ^^Caleb Atwater, A History of the State of Ohio, Natural and Civil (2d ed.; Cincinnati: Stereotyped by Glezen and Shepard, 1838), p. 2$4. 98 Sunday mail delivery.The Convention voted a series of

resolutions in 1829 including a call for total abstinence

from alcoholic drinks, support of the Sunday school move­ ment, use of the Baptist General Tract Society, and the

use of the American Bible Society.Widespread enthu­

siasm developed in the use of religious tracts particu­

larly; and several depositories were organized in the state.

Independence Day religious services among Baptists included offerings for the American Colonization Society or for some 75 other benevolent cause.None of these concerns, however, displaced missions, and particularly the work of Judson in Burma, as the most exciting interest among Baptists beyond their local neighborhoods.

The infant state organization had difficulty from the beginning in implementing its proposed plans. Actually the small group of leaders who held the Convention together

^^"Sunday Mails," The Western Miscellany, I, 3 (December, 1829), 4-6. The Meigs Creek Baptist Association became auxiliary to the national organization for the observance of the Christian Sabbath in the year (1828) that it was formed in New York City. The Western Religious Magazine, II, 4- (September, 1828), 58-59.

^^OBC, 1826-34-, p. 19. The American Bible Society received a vote of support even though the Society had been rumored to have been a "Presbyterian" Society which had an ulterior purpose "to establish religion by law."

"^^Grand Elver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1828 (Ashtabula; Park and Terril, Printers, 1828), p. 9; Meigs Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829 (Zanesville: Printed by Peters and Pelham, 1829), p. 5* 99 in the early days had few supporters who understood the ambitious extent of their plans. Undoubtedly the guiding light of the Convention was Noble S. Johnson, a lay member of the Enon Church in Cincinnati. Elected president in

1827, Johnson served continuously through the year 1834.

Johnson's most lasting contribution to the Baptist cause was his recruitment and partnership with John Stevens, editor of the Cross and Baptist Journal.

A Baptist state paper had been planned as early as 1825. Indeed, one printing of The Western Religious

Magazine, "edited by a committee of the Baptist Convention of Ohio," was issued but nothing else was accomplished.^^

When the Cincinnati leaders failed to publish as they had planned. Rev. George Sedwick was appointed editor of a monthly paper in 1827* Using the same name, Sedwick pub­ lished his monthly in Zanesville, hoping, for a time, to serve the Baptists in Ohio adequately. The Cincinnati men, however, wanted a weekly publication "in folio form," and Sedwick willingly terminated his monthly in 1829. But, again, after half a year's delay by the Cincinnati group, and seeing his list of subscription names slipping away,

Sedwick began a similar monthly called The Western Miscellany

“^^The Western Religious Magazine (Cincinnati: Printed by Morgan, Lodge and Pisher), I, 1 (June 20, 1828), 1. 100 and later The Regular Baptist Miscellany. T h e publica­ tion reflected a literary competence on Sedwick's part, but also an insular quality in material which was limited in part by Sedwick's geographical position. Sedwick immediately merged his Miscellany and his subscription list when the Cincinnati leaders were ready to publish.

The Baptist Weekly Journal of the Mississippi

Valley began publication in Cincinnati on Friday, July 22,

I83I, with John Stevens as the full-time editor. Boble

Johnson and the other Cincinnati men interested in a state paper wisely had not initiated the publication until an 78 editor was found. The paper evidenced a knowledgeable and cosmopolitan quality to which Sedwick never attained, and for which John Stevens had considerable training. An eastern man, and a graduate of the Newton Theological

Institution, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, Stevens had been trained to be a teacher, and was ordained into the ministry prior to his coming west in order to succeed as

77oBC. 1826-34, p. 1$. George C. Sedwick, "The Editor's Address," The Western Miscellany, I, 1 (October, 1829), 1. *^®The other Cincinnati men included Ephraim Robins, Rev. James Challen of the Sycamore Church, Isaac G. Burnet, and Henry Miller. The name of the paper changed several times during its long publication. On March 28, 1834, The Cross of Frankfort, Kentucky, merged with it to become The Cross and Baptist Journal. In 1847, the paper assumed the name Western Christian Journal, in 1849 Journal and Messenger, and in 1920 The Ohio Baptist. 101 editor. Prof. Irah Chase of Newton Centre commented to him earlier, in typical "eastern" candor, that Stevens would probably be unhappy in Cincinnati and suggested that he not stay too long. But in a later letter. Chase more directly advised him that he should take the position, observing, "The present is a most important crisis in our affairs at the West, particularly in Ohio."^^ While

Stevens was the editor. Noble Johnson assisted as the publisher during the early years. Stevens assumed the position at a salary of #600.00 per annum; but Johnson suffered serious financial strain in the venture on at least two occasions, when the subscription price of $2.00 per year from a limited clientele did not cover operating . 80 costs.

The first decade of existence of the Ohio Baptist

State Convention was not spectacular. The annual sessions were relatively small in the number of official delegates; and the extent of influence in local church affairs, though 81 hard to measure, must be ascribed as meager. No agent

^^Irah Chase to John Stevens, January 19, 1851, and April 18, 1851, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^John Maginnis to John Stevens, April 20, 1851, Stevens Papers (ABHL); OBC, 1826-54, p. 51*

0 * 1 The printed list of messengers to the annual sessions did not include the names of many leaders who were obviously present and involved in the business agenda. Since attendance figures were very seldom printed in Baptist minutes, the size of particular sessions is gen­ erally unknown. 102 was employed oeyond the first year of organization; an idea for a "permanent fund" soon collapsed; and the treasury seldom collected or spent more than $500*00 in

Op a year. Nevertheless, the Baptist cause in Ohio had become organized. The congregational autonomy of each local church had to reckon with the existence of the equally autonomous state organization which, however slowly, was arrogating to itself certain ideational representations of what it meant to be a "western"

Baptist in Ohio.

1826-34. pp. 12, 17-18. CHAPTER IV

THE GAMPBELLITE REFORM

Baptists in Ohio were not immune to the religious excitement and ferment which drifted west with the con­ stant migration. An unusually diverse and intense assort­ ment of religiously-hased movements confronted the Baptists in Ohio in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century. Some communitarian groups, particularly the

Shakers and the followers of Joseph Bimeler at Zoar, had already arrived and formed their extraordinary religious communities.^ Anti-Masonry, more political and social than religious in character, reached into the northeastern area of Ohio; while, in the southwest, the imagined Catho­ lic plot of the Leopoldine Society to subvert the free government of the United States by sending a flood of 2 immigrants stirred the Protestants in Cincinnati.

C. Allyn Russell, "The Rise and Decline of the Shakers," Hew York History, XLIX, 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 37, 4-3; Edgar B. Nixon, "The Zoar Society: Applicants for Membership," The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, ZLV (1935), 34-1^ p The Grand River Association warned its constitu­ ents about "speculative freemasonry" as being "corrupt and pregnant with evil." Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829 (Ashtabula: Printed by Hugh Lowry, n.d.), p. 6. Concerning the Catholic plot, "There are some corroborations here in Cincinnati," wrote the Journal; 103 104

Joseph Smith and his "saints" migrated into Ohio during this period and settled briefly in Kirtland before fleeing westward for greater security. Other preachers, more orthodox, but no less millenarian in thought, created a climate of imminent change.

The unabashed competition among the more estab­ lished churches in Ohio was enough in itself to create ferment in Ohio as they vied for a lion's share of the h. growing flood of settlers. Also sectional prejudices, particularly against the Yankee New Englanders, were not absent in Ohio among the denominations. A wave of revivalism was taking form in the East where Rev. Charles

Grandison Einney was influencing churches, not excluding the Baptists, in "a great shaking among the dry bones .

m5

"we have received, within the last three or four years, a vast German population, and the number is continually increasing." Cross and Baptist Journal, II, 4 (April 17, 1835), 14. ^Alice Eelt Tyler, Ereedom's Eerment, Phases of American Social History, from the Colonial Period to the Outbreak of the Civil War (New York: Harper and Row, Pub­ lishers, 1962), pp. 94-100; William J. McNiff, "The Kirtland Phase of Mormonism," The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, L (1941), 261-68.

^Ohio Baptists were especially chagrined when Rev. James McAboy, the first state president and early Ohio missionary united with the Presbyterian Church after he moved to Pittsburgh to be an agent for the Sunday School Union. Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 4 (January, 1831), 63. ^C. Allyn Russell, "Rhode Island Baptists, 1825- 1 9 3 1," Rhode Island History, XXYIII, 2 (May, 1967), 35. 105 Baptists in Ohio, generally, did not want real

changes. This is one of the reasons why they frequently

avoided the towns and villages, preferring to build their

local "meeting houses" a half mile or so outside of town

near a shady grove of trees convenient for hitching the

horses.^ But the increasingly heterogeneous accumulation

of Baptists arriving with the westward movement made it

impossible to remain static.^ One Ohio correspondent

complained to Benedict,

. . . but emigrants from the four winds bring together a mass entirely different in its composi­ tion; each one brings his peculiar views along with him, and will often insist that the way they did things in England or Scotland, in the Eastern, Middle, or Southern States, was the best way.8

Several disparate forces were encroaching upon the

Baptist ranks during those years which eventually cut deep

among the churches in two major controversies. The Camp- bellite movement, first in point of time, alienated a progressive and able group of ministers which the Ohio

Baptists could ill afford to lose. The antimission con­

troversy, just a few years later, drained more heavily

from the mainstream of Baptist support in Ohio. The

^David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (New York: Lewis Colby and Co., 1848), p. 892. Hereafter cited as General History. ^Ohio's population, according to the Journal, increased from 581,454 to 957,679 during the third decade. Cross and Baptist Journal, I, 4 (August 19, 1851), 4.

^Benedict, p. 892. 106

Oampbellite "reform" was a viable movement, destined to grow into a major denomination. The antimission group had already begun to diminish even before their bitter division in 1836.

A great deal of unhappiness had been developing over the missionary program as organized by "Society" pro­ moting Baptists. There was some heart searching about the legitimacy of the extra-Biblical organizations necessary for the missionary enterprise. Rev. John Leland, in one of the last years of his long life, wrote:

A new order of things has taken place in the reli­ gious department since we began to preach. Then, when I went to meeting, I expected to hear the preacher set forth the ruin and recovery of men, and laboring with heavenly zeal to turn many unto righteousness. His eyes, his voice and his prayers and deportment gave evidence that his soul travailed in birth for the salvation of his hearers. But now, when I go to meeting, I hear high encomiums on Sunday Schools - Bible, Tract, and Missionary Societies, Antimasonic Societies, etc.; with a strong appeal to people to aid with their money these institutions, which are to introduce the Millennium, assuring the people that every cent may save a soul.9

This keen disapproval of non-scriptural additions to the institutional life of the church, coupled with an equally strong attempt to find a simplified unity of doctrine with which to bring together the disparate religious groups pour­ ing into Ohio, came together in the ministry of Alexander

Campbell, and in the New Light mood still evident in the

^Baptist Chronicle and Literary Register, II, 1 (January, 183i;, 4. 107 old Separatist Baptist tradition. The Oampbellite con­ troversy, which centered at first around one man, even­ tually siphoned off a large number of church members into the new movement.

Campbell struck a familiar note when he used the terms "Christian" and "Church of Christ," for Baptists had long used these labels as their own. When Rev. John

Colby, the Pree Will Baptist, toured the Miami Valley in

1810, he observed, "The people, who call themselves

Christians, though by others called New Lights, appear to be the most engaged in religion of any denomination in that state.Though not Baptists, the New Light

"Christians" were not far removed in many respects. It was not unheard of for a Baptist church to refer to itself as the "Church of Christ" and to exchange fellowship beyond the Baptist circle.On the other hand, the strong Cal­ vinism and narrow traditions among the pioneer Baptists had become serious impediments to fellowship with non-Baptists

John Colby, The Life, Experience and Travels of John Colby, Preacher of the Gospel (Rochester, N.Y.; Printed for David Mark, Jr. by E. Peck, 1827), p. 81. Perhaps this reference described the people of the Christian Connection, numerous in the Miami Valley region at the time, who eventually merged with the Congregationalists to form the Congregational Christian denomination.

church letter certifying that the bearers were "regular members of the church of Christ denomination Independents" was accepted by the Marietta Baptist Church with no debate. MS Handwritten Church Letter from Ebens- burg, dated 1828, Historical Collection (First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio). 108

The frontier churches in Ohio fiercely resisted any incur­

sion of tolerance or deviation from their strict Oalvin- 12 istic stance. The Grand River Baptist Association probably overstated the fact when the statement was made that "Open Communion Baptists" was "a very popular name at this day"; and the association was able to report that

"they have not been able to disturb the peace of our churches.The Grand River Baptists, typical of the majority in Ohio, were not amenable to the growing rest­ lessness among some Baptists who wanted to temper their current theology to a more charitable form. Baptist tra­ dition which had insisted upon a verification of a believer's inner experience both with rigid verbal assent and a deep psychic affirmation was a formidable barrier to many inquirers. There were a good many Baptists who were ready for rebellion against such an unb.ending type of theology, and who were searching for a simplified declara­ tion of the New Testament message.

12 Errett Gates, The Early Relation and Separation of Baptists and Disciples (Chicago; The Christian Century Company, 1904), p. 78. The Philadelphia Confession of Paith, the standard doctrinal statement of Baptists in Ohio in the 1820's, was heavily based on the Westminister Confession of 1648. W. P. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Paith (Philadelphia; American Baptist Publication Society, 1911), pp. 215-29, 297. ^^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1820 (Erie, Penn. : Printed by Joseph M. Sterrett, 1820), p. 8. 109 The Mahoning Revolt

The revolt grew out of a combination of the edu­ cationally progressive Mahoning Baptist Association and the skillfully verbal leadership of Rev. Alexander Camp­ bell. Campbell's strong influence in Ohio became apparent a few years after he was immersed as a Baptist in 1812 in western Pennsylvania.^^ Campbell was, from the start, at variance with the regular Baptists, and never accepted the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. Beginning particu­ larly in 1815 until he withdrew from the Redstone Associa­ tion in 1823 by forming his new church at Wellsburg,

Campbell chaffed under the hostile opposition of the extreme legalism of the Redstone Baptists.

Campbell's debate in 1820 with Rev. John Walker in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, during which he championed the immersionist view of baptism, transformed him into an immediate hero among the neighboring Baptist ministers who were awe-struck by his superior education, his debating skill, and his kindred views on immersion.It was at the

Gates, p. 10. Campbell (1788-1866), a Seceder Presbyterian in Ireland, followed his father, Thomas, to America in 1809, where together they eventually organized the Brush Creek Church and joined the Redstone Baptist Association in western Pennsylvania in 1813.

l^ibid., pp. 20, 36.

^^John Walker, A Treatise on Baptism; Being a Reply to a Book Entitled a Debate on Christian Baptism between Mr. John Walker and Alexander Campbell, Held at Mountpleas- ant on the 19th and 20th, June, 1820... (Mountpleasant, 110 debate that Rev. Adamson Bentley of the Warren Baptist

Church first met Campbell, after which a warm friendship opened the way for Campbell's entrance into the affairs of the Mahoning Association. A year later, in June, 1821,

Campbell visited the Baptist ministers' meeting in Warren, and impressed them favorably.Campbell ' s Christian

Baptist, first published August 1, 1823, with a name pur­ posely selected to conciliate Baptists, and read princi­ pally by Ohioans, extended the full weight of Campbell's invective against the professional clergy often through a “I Q skillful and entertaining use of satire. Campbell's cursory training in the classics was sufficient to produce amazement among his less educated readers.

By the time the Wellsburg Church had been received in 1824 into the Mahoning Baptist Association, several

"queries" which challenged the traditional Baptist view, revealed the profound influence of Campbell's ideas. The

Nelson Baptist Church that year had asked, "Will this

Association vote in its connection a church which

Ohio: B. Wright and B. Bates, Printers, 1824), p. 3; Henry K. Shaw, Buckeye Disciples, A History of the Dis­ ciples of Christ in Ohio (St. Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1942), p. 65.

^^A. 8. Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall” Publishers, 1875), p. 39.

^®Shaw, p. 56. Mary Agnes Monroe Smith, "A History of the Mahoning Baptist Association" (West Virginia University: Unpublished Master of Arts Thesis, 1 9 4 3), pp. 19, 66-67. Ill acknowledges no other rule of faith and practice than the scriptures?" The answer, given a year later in the affirmative revealed how widely Campbell's doctrine had spread.In voting on August 21, 1824, "to renounce the

Philadelphia Confession of faith . . . and take the word of God for our rule of faith and practice," the Nelson

Church became the first Baptist church to assert the Camp- bellite doctrine by bringing the congregation into a ,. . . 20 division.

The Nelson Church was not the only church dissatis­ fied with the Philadelphia Confession. Campbell reported in 1825 that "several Baptist congregations in the western part of Pennsylvania and in the state of Ohio, have voted the Philadelphia Confession of Paith out of doors as not 21 worthy of a place among them."

The rejection of the Confession pointed to Camp­ bell's chief goal, which was to reach beyond any

^Minutes, Constitution and Articles of Paith of the Mahoning Baptist Association, handwritten ledger book for the years 1820-1827 (American Baptist Historical Library), p. 70. Hereafter cited Mahoning Minutes.

^^Ibid., p. 89. Called "Bethesda" at times, the Nelson Church in Portage County divided into two factions, with the majority Oampbellite party led by John Rudolph, Jr., and with Mrs. Eleanor Garrett leading the old Baptist party. Shaw, p. 21; Hayden, pp. 22-24. PI Alexander Campbell, Christian Baptist, Revised by D. S. Burnet, from the Second Edition, with Mr. Camp­ bell's Last Corrections (Cincinnati! Published by D. 8. Burnet, 1848), p. 169. 112

contemporary tradition or creed, and "aim at an exact 22 conformity" to the primitive church. The ploy, to

Campbell's mind, would have united all Christians around

the one Biblical authority and made useless the many

denominational traditions of the day. The doctrine of

the reformation of "the ancient order of things," however, confounded and angered the Baptists, who had previously prided themselves as the defenders of literal New Testa­ ment truth. That Campbell had disturbingly pointed to extra-Biblical traditions among Baptist churches was patently clear to many Baptists and made them less sure of their unique character as interpreters of the New

Testament.

Adamson Bentley, who served as moderator of the

Mahoning Association, had admired Campbell's position from the first contact, and aided Campbell's reception into the

Mahoning region. Once established, the Mahoning Association became Campbell's effective credentials to publicize his reformation to Baptist churches everywhere. When the delegates from the Nelson church at the 1826 session were seated as the legitimate representatives of the church, after waiting a year between sessions, his dominance was virtually beyond challenge. By then such men as Rev. Sidney

Ridgon, Rev. Walter Scott, and Rev. Thomas Campbell, the

^^Mahoning Minutes, p. 75* 113 father of Alexander, had joined other leaders within the

Association in their strong support of Campbell's views.

Walter Scott, particularly, brought success to

Campbell's movement in the area. Elected an associational evangelist in 1827, "to travel and teach among the churches,"

Scott electrified the region by drawing large and respon­ sive audiences, beginning at the New Lisbon church in 24 November, 1827, and moving from place to place. Immers­ ing converts without observing the standard Baptist prac­ tice of examining the individual for his doctrinal convic­ tions, Scott moved the Association farther away from Baptist custom.The old regular Baptists were dismayed at such a breach of tradition; but Scott's success, which netted about one thousand converts in 1828, prompted an easy hear- ing in adjacent areas.

The neighboring Stillwater Baptist Association, immediately to the south of Mahoning, had earlier supported

Campbell. In fact, the Stillwater Baptists had turned to

Campbell almost as early as the Mahoning group. By 1825, evidence of a severe controversy, doubtless over Campbell's

^^Smith, p. 60; Ibid., p. 78. 24 Mahoning Minutes, p. 83. No association minutes relating Scott's activities were recorded after the 1827 session, being considered as extra-Biblical. Annual ses­ sions continued until 1850, however. Hayden, p. 73»

^^Mahoning Minutes, p. 85; Gates, p. 66.

^^Smith, p. 80. 114 27 ideas, appeared in the minutes of the August session.

The next year's meeting, hosted by the Clear Fork Church, in September, 1826, evidenced the turning point, when an annual letter from the Cadiz Baptist Church, carrying the

Campbellite indictment of the Baptist denomination, pro­ duced heated debate. After an association vote sustained the acceptance of the letter by a majority of three votes, the Clear Fork Church withdrew and soon declared nonfellow- pQ ship with the Association. Campbell's Christian Baptist corroborated Stillwater's bent toward the reformation, after his visit with them in 1826, calling the sessions

"altogether agreeable.Stillwater's entrance into

Campbell's fold appeared complete by 182?.^^ The old

^A notice read, "To the Church of Clear Fork of Willscreek. We, the Association, being grieved at your accusations and censorial remarks contained in your letter against some or all the churches of this Association, request an explanation at our next session." No explana­ tion accompanied the notice; but the subsequent action of the Clear Fork Church is strong evidence of its early stand against Campbellism. Stillwater Baptist Association, Minutes, 1823 (Cadiz, Ohio: Printed by David Christy, 1825), p. 4.

^^Zoar Baptist Association, Minutes, 1880 (Cam­ bridge: Guernsey Times Job Office, 1880), p. 12.

^^Campbell, p. 275*

^*^When both Thomas and Alexander Campbell in 1827 defended Cyrus McNeeley, a member of the Cadiz Baptist Church for baptizing a convert without due examination, the Association voted to uphold McNeeley's action, support­ ing a position manifestly different from the key Baptist doctrine of validating one's conversion and inner religious experience. Shaw, pp. 69-71. 115 regular Baptist remnant could only secede and begin again as they did in their formation of the Zoar Baptist Associa­ tion in 1827.^^ The Mohican Association, directly to the west of

Mahoning, was also deeply impressed with Campbell's reformation attempt, but did not repudiate their Baptist doctrine. As early as 1824, in the Circular Letter, the

Association's moderator. Rev. William Purdy of the Mechanic

Township Church in Holmes County wrote:

We still think it necessary, strictly, to adhere to the summary of our faith and practice, in connection with the discipline found in that good old book called the Confession of Paith. We are conscious that no body whether religious or political, can continue in existence without some social compact in which they may be u n i t e d .32

In spite of his defense, the churches were continually in ferment during the next few years, particularly led by the

Higdon brothers, of whom Thomas was the best known, being pastor of the Mt. Vernon Church.

^ Three ministers, originally in the Stillwater group, namely Elijah C. Stone, Benjamin Wood, and William N. Smith became the guiding leaders in the new Zoar Association.

^^Mohican Baptist Association, Minutes, 1824 (Wooster, Ohio: 1824), p. 7-

^^Charles Higdon pastored the Canaan Church in Wayne County, while John led the Union Church in Richland County. Mohican Baptist Association, Minutes, 1823 (Mansfield, Ohio: Printed at the Gazette Office, n.d.), p. 5* 116

Reactions in Miami and Other Associations

Another serious incursion by Campbell during this

formative period in the Baptist ranks developed in the

Miami Valley region where four gifted ministers, leaders

among the Baptists in the area, turned aside to embrace

Campbell's doctrine.David S. Burnet joined the Enon

Baptist Church in Cincinnati during the same year (1824)

when Alexander Campbell preached a series of sermons at

the Church. Burnet, then only sixteen years of age, and

soon known as the "Boy Preacher," belonged to a prominent

family in the city, his father, Isaac, having served as mayor for a lengthy period.In 1827, Burnet became pastor of the Baptist Church in Dayton while concurrently

laboring with Rev. James Challen, pastor of the Enon Church, in the organization of the Sycamore Street Baptist Church.

Challen and Burnet parted company from the Baptists in

^ The four were James Challen, David Staats Burnet, Corbly Martin, and Arthur Crichfield. Anthony Howard Dunlevy, History of the Miami Baptist Association from its Organization in 1797 to a Division in that Body on Missions, etc., in the Year 1836 (Cincinnati; Geo. S. Blandchard and Co., 1869), p p . 81-82.

^^More famous yet than his father was Jacob Burnet, his uncle, who served as judge of the Ohio Supreme Court (1821-1828) and as United States Senator (1828-1831), and David Gouverneur Burnet, another uncle, who was elected the first president of the Texas Republic in 1856. Noel L. Keith, The Story of D. S. Burnet: Undeserved Obscurity (St. Louis: The Bethany Press, 1954), pp.”29- 34; Mary Whatley Clarke, David -G. Burnet (Austin: The Pemberton Press, 1969), pp. 14, 62. 117 1828 to establish the first Disciples congregation in the City.56

Within two years under Burnet's leadership, the fast growing Dayton Church also developed Campbellite ideas. Turning away from the old doctrines of election and limited atonement preached by the two former minis­ ters, Stephen Card and Wilson Thompson, the church in

1829 repudiated all written confessions of faith and withdrew from the Miami Association. '

Burnet's defection to Campbell cut off the Baptists from a remarkably gifted leader. Married to Mary G. Cano, daughter of John S. Cano, in 1830, he deeply influenced an important Baptist family in Cincinnati. Rev. David S.

Burnet continued to serve as a leading contender for the ZQ movement in the Cincinnati area.^^

56jbid., p. 36; Shaw, p. 75* 5*^Henry R. Colby, 100th Anniversary of the First Regular Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio (Dayton, Ohio; The Walker Litho. and Printing Company, 1924), pp. 15-16. Keith, p. 33» The years 1827 and 1828 witnessed large ingatherings by baptism in the Miami Association. Both the old regular as well as the reforming Baptists shared in the large increases. Wilson Thompson's church at Lebanon led with seventy-eight baptisms in 1827. Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1827 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3". ^^Burnet, however, was not the only cause of a division of the Cano family. A year earlier, 1829, Major Daniel Cano had served as one of the seven moderators in the Campbell-Owen debate, and had developed a deep loyalty for Campbell. Senator Jacob Burnet, an uncle to David, also served as one of the moderators. Campbell, p. 552; Keith, p. 40. 59"Corrected Statement," Cross and Baptist Journal, I, 18 (July 25, 1834), 7- 118

Although the ranking ministers and leading churches of the other associations in Ohio by and large did not abandon the Baptist cause, the constant ferment over Camp­ bell's ideas disturbed them greatly. For instance, the

Todd's Fork Association session in 1828 raised the ques­ tion, "Shall we dissolve our association, and as a substi- 40 tute, hold an annual meeting for worship and acquaintance?"

While Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott became more and more unwelcome in Baptist circles, the Eigdon brothers, who were long acknowledged as stalwart Baptist ministers, were accepted in spite of their heterodoxy.

Given to the long-established custom of journeying from one yearly associational gathering to another, which was typical of many Baptist ministers, the Rigdons carried 41 Campbell's "ancient order of things" from place to place.

The Baptists in Ohio did not begin openly to repu­ diate Campbell's "Restoration" until the movement proved more divisive than supportive. As the movement grew beyond

Ohio and into neighboring states, Campbellism proved to be not a unifying force among Baptists, but instead a

^°Keith, p. 37. 41 John Rigdon brought fraternal greetings to the Huron Association on several occasions. Thomas Rigdon who served as state senator in 1829-1830, was the most well known among the three brothers. Charles was not as well known. Sidney was but a cousin, and not a brother as some sources allude. A Banning Norton, A History of Knox County, Ohio, from 1779 to 1862, Inclusive (Columbus: Richard Nevlns, Printer, 1862), p. 403. 119 dismembering influence. "Look at the Baptist Church in this part of the county," complained the Baptist Chronicle.

"It has been thrown into the greatest confusion, torn . .

Ll O . and lacerated to the bone . . . ." The issues became relatively clear and irreconcilable by 1829; and'by 1830, the two groups, in Ohio, were all but separate.

Causes for the Schism

One of the basic arguments developed as much out of resentment as anything. Baptists had generally assumed that a Baptist church was a New Testament church. But

Campbell's call for a restoration to a more apostolic order was a direct repudiation of this belief. The "present order of things" as Campbell explained it was overlaid with human "system-makers" and "inefficiency" rather than the

New Testament purity of apostolic Christianity. Many Bap­ tists uneasily admitted the charge.

Actually Campbell had brought a new challenge and a breath of fresh air to the Baptist cause. Dangerously embroiled in hyper-Calvinistic interpretations of the

Bible, and often resorting to abstruse and weighty homi- ies in their preaching. Baptist preachers were forced by

Campbell to search out valid reasons for their traditions and doctrines. George Sedwick admitted such a challenge,

A2 Baptist Chronicle and Literary Register, I , 2 (Feb., 1830/, 21. 120

"The Baptists need system, particularly so in Ohio," he

asserted. But he was not willing to repudiate the

"system." "The inefficiency of which we complain, does

not originate in any defect of our system," he explained,

"hut in its defective use and application." Sedwick

was representative of most ministers who could not set

aside the Baptist "name" and "system" in order to restore

a more primitive unity. Baptists would not abandon their

increasingly institutionalized system of missionary

societies, education societies, or monthly concerts of 44- prayer, all of which Campbell had violently attacked.

Closely allied to Campbell's primitivism was the

argument over the Philadelphia Confession of Paith, which

was the rigid doctrinal rule for Ohio Baptists at the

time. Campbell's principle, to speak only where the

Scriptures speak, undoubtedly hastened the attenuation of hyper-Calvinism among Ohio Baptists. But Baptist churches had found a doctrinal unity in the Confession which could not be easily dismissed. Furthermore, the Baptists viewed

Campbell's demand for Biblical terminology as little dif­

ferent from their creed. "They have done the same" argued

^^"Hon. Isaac G. Burnet's Letter," Western Mis­ cellany, I, 4- (January, 1830), 53; "Reformation," Western Miscellany. I, 8 (May, 1830), 125. 44 Campbell, p. 6. 121 a Baptist editor. "They have more than written a creed in different language ....

But there was a more crucial argument which the

Baptists leveled against Campbell. George Sedwick expressed it after he had listened to Campbell's sermon preached in

Zanesville in 1850. "He said some good things upon the external of religion," Sedwick acknowledged, "but the internal work of grace by the Holy Spirit upon the heart, he denied, and treated the idea with utter contempt.

Accepting John Locke's epistemology as he did, Campbell indeed had attempted to redefine the work of the Holy

Spirit in order to free a prospective convert to act out his faith through an external process ending in baptism.

This externalism was too "mechanical" for the Baptist mind, smacking too much of baptismal regeneration. Sed­ wick observed, "The radical defect in Mr. C.'s system of

Theology, appears to be the want on his part of an acquaintance with experimental religion." ' Proceeding from a strong Calvinistic bent, the

Baptist mind demanded the mysterious and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in conversion; and Campbell had made

"Human Creeds," Baptist Chronicle and Literary Register, I, 2 (Peb., 1850), 18.

^^"Mr. Campbell's Visit to Zanesville," The Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 5 (Dec., 1850), 4-5. ^?Ibid.. p. 4-5. 122 the issue too simple and naive. When Campbell insisted that his doctrine could not be so simplified, his defense was undoubtedly obscured by the invective and iconoclasm which had become too personal to allow any reconciliation 48 to occur.

By 1829, the division among Baptists and Camp- bellites was fairly well outlined; and by 1830 the break was complete.The Beaver Association listed eight errors of Campbellism in its 1829 Circular letter, a publication which preceded the better known statement of the Dover

Baptist Association of Virginia in 1850 where leaders such as Rev. Robert Semple and Rev. Andrew Broaddus led the session at Appomattox in a condemnation of Campbell.

Some churches left the Mahoning Association and united with the Beaver, Meigs, or Grand River Associations beginning in 182?.^^ But most of the churches accepted the new doctrine, while small remnants of the Baptist faithful

^®See Campbell, p. 363.

^^Gates, pp. 49, 67.

50lbid., pp. 89, 95; Smith, p. 84.

^^Shaw, p. 35; Smith, p. 84; Meigs Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829 (Zanesville: Printed by Peters and Pelham, 1829), p. 12; Grand River Association, Minutes, 1827 (Predonia: Hall and Snow, Printers, 1827), p. 5. 1 2 3 52 withdrew to organize anew. The Association itself dis­

solved in 1830. Prompted by Walter Scott, John Henry, a member of the Austintown Church had presented the motion,

"That the Mahoning Association, as an advisory council, or

an ecclesiastical tribunal, should cease to exist.

Campbell, much to his dislike, found his iconoclasm returning full circle and destroying the sponsoring agency

under which he operated. Consequently, he was forced to build more positively his own lines of communication and

influence.

The associations surrounding Mahoning suffered varying degrees of attrition. Grand River lost the fewest

number of churches, possessing a more homogeneous, Hew

England-oriented leadership.In the Huron Association,

^ When the Warren Church embraced Campbellism, only six members of two families held to the Baptist cause, and did not reorganize again until 1834. Shaw, p. 48; Historical Collections of the Mahoning Valley (3 vols.; Youngstown: Published by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, 1876), I, 208.

^^Hayden, p. 296

^^Also in 1830, Campbell dropped the title Christian Baptist from his publication and adopted a more kingdom-building name. Millennial Harbinger. Shaw, pp. 58-60.

^^Only the Jefferson Church was listed as "unsound in faith and practice" in 1829 over the issue of "Denying the special and particular call of any by the Holy Spirit . . . ." But the church "retracted their heterodox prin­ ciples" the following year, and was accepted back in good standing. Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1829 (Ashtabula: Printed by Hugh Lowry, n.d.), pp. 3-4. Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1830 (Jefferson, Ohio : Printed by L. B. Edward, 1830), p. 5. 124 the missionary Eev. Squire Abbott of the Henrietta Church was excluded for communing "with a people, called Camp- bellites, and Eigdonites.The Mohican Association, the rallying point for the Higdons, barely survived.

"Our peace was marred . . . almost dissolved" reminisced the 1834 Circular Letter.The Higdons wielded influ­ ence with the Association until the I83O session when a resolution was passed to "withdraw their fellowship from

Elder John Higdon." Thomas, his brother, also with a strong Campbellite bent, and pastor of the Mt. Vernon

Church, withdrew the following year even though he had been allowed to remain as a minister in good standing.

The adjacent Killbuck Association did not survive at all, 59 but joined with the Higdons in the new movement.

Baptist activity in the lower Western Heserve area, while eclipsed in many communities, had a surprising

^ Huron Baptist Association, Minutes. 1830 (Nor­ walk, Ohio: Printed by Preston and Buckingham, 1830), p. 4. ^"^Mohican Baptist Association, Minutes. 1834 (n.p.n.d.), p. 4.

^^Mohican Baptist Association, Minutes, 1869 (Mansfield, Ohio: Printed by L. B. Myers Bro. Herald Book and Job Printing Establishment, 1859), p. 11.

^^Hev. T. G. Jones reported to John Stevens, "There was a party some years ago that left the Mohican Baptist Association and . . . formed a new association and called it Killbuck. They met for two or more years but the Campbellites became the majority in it and they dissolved it." T. G. Jones to John Stevens, December 15, 1833, John Stevens Papers (American Baptist Historical Library). 125 resiliency in the next few years. Eev. Amasa Clark of

Hiram, Ohio, wrote to a Granville professor in 1854, "The

Baptist churches in this vicinity appear to be in prosper­ ous circumstances."^^

Sidney Higdon, cousin to the Higdon brothers and also a follower of Campbell, did not remain a Campbellite very long. Higdon returned from Pittsburg in 1824 to join the Mahoning leaders; and then, in 1828, became pastor of the Mentor-Painesvilie Church, where he espoused not only

Campbellite views, but also new points of doctrine later seen in the Book of Mormon.His introduction to

Amasa Clark to Hev. T. Carter, Dec. 31, 1834, John Stevens Papers (Western Heserve Historical Library). The "Hiram and Troy" Church was gathered anew in 1834, and was accepted into the Portage Hegular Baptist Associa­ tion in Sept., 1835, but not before the congregation endured another division over the issue of Temperance and a visit from Hev. J. McKelvy. Portage Baptist Association, Minutes, 1836 (Havenna, Ohio: Printed at the Star Office, 1836), p. 6.

^^William W. Williams, ed., History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men (Philadelphia: Williams Brothers, 1878), p. 1 5 9. Without mentioning Higdon by name, the Grand Hiver Association voted "to withdraw fellowship from the Painesville and Mentor Church, and that it be dropped from our minutes." To justify this act, the Association printed the following paragraph: "Hesolved that this Association deeply deplore the exist­ ence of such evils in any of our Churches as well com­ plained of in many of the Letters presented at this ses­ sion with reference to sentiments propagated by Alexander Campbell, and this Association desire to have it dis­ tinctly understood that we have no fellowship for those sentiments which have been introduced into this vicinity contrary to the original faith and platform of this body - and would also caution our brethren against receiving such men or Ministers as manifest any dispositions to trample 126

Mormonism through Perley P. Pratt occurred after Higdon had alienated himself from the Baptists.One eyewitness account recalled Higdon as a "Baptist minister" while in

Mentor, and one who urged his Baptist followers to join

"the new religion" during the time when Joseph Smith had arrived at Kirtland and was building his temple. The

Grand River Association made no allusion to Higdon's- influence after his initial exclusion in 1828. The Baptist

Church in Kirtland reported to the 1834 associational ses­ sion that it was "small" and "surrounded by heresies," but upon or disregard this bond of union by which we are cemented." Grand Hiver Baptist Association, Minutes, 1828 (Ashtabula: Park and Terril, Printers, 1828), p. 8. Por a more complete description of Sidney Higdon's early life, see History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (8 vols.; Salt Lake City, Utah: The Deseret Book Company, 1969), pp. 120-24. ^^Several hypotheses have been submitted concern­ ing Higdon's conversion to Mormonism. The intersection of Higdon in Pittsburg with Solomon Spaulding's manuscript suggests the intriguing possibility that Higdon was partner with Smith in some way in acquiring the manuscript prior to Smith's publication of The Book of Mormon. The manu­ script was ostensibly the basic material for the book. McNiff, p. 264; Henry Caswall, The Prophet of the nine­ teenth Century; or the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints (Londonl Printed for J.G.P. & J. Rivington, 1834), p. 59; Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography (2 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935), 600-601. ^^"Higdon, The First Mormon Elder," Handwritten MS account by Lucia A. Goldsmith of Painesville, Ohio, n.d. (Western Heserve Historical Library). Higdon became an important leader within the Mormon community in Kirtland not only as a popular orator but also as an interpreter of the Bible during the formative years of Mormon thought. John J. Steward, Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet (Salt Lake City, Utah: Mercury Publishing Company, 1966), p. 55• 127 listed no minister.Except for those who followed Rig- don, the Baptist churches felt no incursions upon their membership due to the Mormon excitement; but rather, the new doctrine was identified as a dangerous heresy.

In the Miami area, few churches followed the Camp­ bellite movement. The Miami Association, although stra­ tegically weakened by the loss of several progressive leaders, was too large a unit and too obsessed with the growing antimission controversy to be in danger of dissolution.

Although the division was complete by 1830, the

Campbellite controversy brought a new viewpoint to Bap­ tists. Heretofore, they had claimed the authentic New

Testament stance. This, they felt, had contributed to their confidence as being scripturally correct, and had also contributed to their increase in membership. With the advance of the Disciples, the Baptists had to share their claim with a denomination remarkably similar. Bap­ tists in Ohio were never really close to the Disciples after 1829; yet the Baptists were forced to redefine their

^^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1834 (Ashtabula; Printed at the Democratic Free Press Office, 1834), p. 8. ^^The Red Oak Church, with 229 members in 1830, well nigh debilitated the Eagle Creek Association in the Miami Valley region, when it turned to Campbellism that year. Eagle Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1830 (Batavia, Ohio: David Morris, Printer, 1830), p. 1. 128

New Testament identity, their standards for conversion and their connectionalism through associations and the

State Convention. In 1855 upon visiting the northern part of Ohio, a Convention agent remarked, "The Camp­ bellite schism which commenced about ten years since has more or less affected nearly all the churches.

Loomis, "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent, No.* XXII," Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 10 (May 27, 1856), 38. CHAPTER V

THE ANTIMISSION CONTROVERSY

The most serious crisis faced by the Ohio Baptist

State Convention during the early years was not Campbellism but antimissionism. The crisis came late for Ohio, more than a decade after the same issue had decimated mission support in Indiana and Illinois in the early 1820's.^

The Causes

The antimission controversy was, in part, a fight between East and West. But the causes for the controversy were more than sectional differences; they included both cultural, political, and theological factors which involved a wide syndrome of attitudes and arguments. Alexis de

Tocqueville could well have been describing the Baptists in the West when he remarked in 1833 that religion was 2 "the foremost of the political institutions of the country."

John E. Cady, "The Beginnings of the Baptist Church in Indiana: A Segment of the Social History of the Early West," Indiana History Bulletin. IX, 5 (Feb., 1932), 220. p Timothy Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Abingdon Press, 1957), p. 35.

129 130

Ohio was western country, and the political ten­ sions between the eastern bastion of Federalism and the western bent toward Jacksonianism were not far below the surface in religious affairs. The old Baptist position had traditionally reflected the attitude of the dissenting clergy; and the role of cooperating with the theocratic dreams of religious empire through the missionary enter­ prise was chafing and new to the western pioneer Baptist % preacher.

Many preachers, particularly in the West, had an adverse feeling toward easterners such as the missionary leader. Rev. Luther Rice. Rice, in his very early endeavors, had a feeling of "success of my feeble exer­ tions in the western country."^ But by 1819, Rice admitted that unfavorable publicity had "emanated" from the Baptist mission board in New York which "had disafected /sic7 the minds of the Virginians, and indeed of all the southern and western Baptists, almost . . . and it will take

^John R. Bodo, The Protestant Clergy and Public Issues, 1812-1848 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1 9 9 4), p. 4-9; Byron Cecil Lambert, "The Rise of the Anti-Mission Baptists: Sources and Leaders, 1800-1840 (A Study in American Religious Individualism)" (Unpub­ lished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1937), pp. 12 -1 3, 2 5, 9 5. ^Luther Rice to Rev. Berr^an Hicks, May 22, 1818, Luther Rice Papers (American Baptist Historical Library). 131 considerable time and exertion, to counteract the evil

which was thus, unhappily, produced."^

The growing disaffection of Baptists in the West

issued from some basic attitudes. One fundamental atti­

tude was the Baptists' predilection for the "old ways."

The old terms "Elder" and "brother" were favored and at

times insisted upon rather than the newer designation of

"Eeverend.The "old ways" involved a very fixed system

of thought which had been assimilated into the Baptist pattern of life and accepted as immutable truth. Rev.

Wilson Thompson, who was the most prominent Ohio anti­ mission Baptist of the period, lamented, "0 that times were as in years past, when the very name of a regular

Baptist Church was enough to teach any one what were the doctrines held by its members"^ Remarkably self-educated in Biblical doctrine, Thompson felt secure only within the

^Luther Rice to Elisha Cushman, August 24-, 1819, Luther Rice Papers (American Baptist Historical Library).

^The Miami Association at its 1801 session resolved "that, in future, the title of Reverend as applied to ministers be laid aside, and that of Elder be substituted in its place." It was not until the 184-0's that the term "Reverend" became popularly used among Ohio Baptists. Anthony Howard Dunlevy, History of the Miami Baptist Asso­ ciation, Prom its Organization in 1797 to a Division in that Body on Missions, etc. in the Year 1836 (Cincinnati: Geo. S. Blanchard and Co., 1869), p. 34-.

^Wilson Thompson, Triumph of Truth or the Scrip­ ture, a Sure Guide to Zion's Pilgrims (Lebanon, Ohio: Printed by Camron and Sellers, Por the Author, 1825), p. 1 7 9 . Hereafter cited Triumph of Truth. 132 milieu of apostolic thought overlaid by the Calvinistic categories of doctrine. Thompson was typical of many

Baptist leaders.

One must keep in mind the level of education among the Baptist ministers in Ohio. Virtually none of them possessed any formal literary training beyond the meager essentials, and some did not even have the skills to read or write. Furthermore, they received little communication beyond their own parishes to give them a broader apprécia- O tion of religious movements. There were some good reasons in the minds of Baptist ministers, particularly those from southern origins, for not advocating education. They remembered, with suspicion, the ecclesiastical control and impious style of living of the Virginia Anglican clergy from whom, not too many years before, some of them had fled westward.^ The "old ways" reinforced their positions of leadership among pioneer Baptist congregations whose level of education was even below that of the ministers. Leader­ ship in city churches was not much better. "Your picture of Baptist churches in your city," wrote an eastern min­ ister about Cincinnati, "is sufficiently mortifying to our

Q Rev. Jacob Drake, A History of Columbus Baptist Association, from its Organization to 1837, ed. by Rev. D. Randall (Cols., Ohio: Randall and Aston, 1859), p. 10.

^Cady, p. 212. 135 denominational pride. I do hope that a brighter day is now dawning upon you."^^

The system of support of the Baptist clergy was crucial to the antimission spirit, and directly related to their educational level. Almost all of the Baptist ministers in Ohio gained their livelihood by means of some secular employment, very often farming. They were expected to support themselves.A congregation generally had its "church meeting" only once a month, with the spe­ cial "Visitation" or "Union meetings" planned by the asso­ ciation throughout the year. In later years the derisive 12 term "monthly Baptist" derived from this pattern. Con­ sequently, most congregations could not envision adequate monetary support for the clergy.

Rufus Babcock to John Stevens, January 24-, 1833, John Stevens Papers (American Baptist Historical Library). Hereafter cited Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^Por instance, among the seventeen churches in the East Pork of Little Miami Association in 1837, two churches, both in Cincinnati, employed their ministers full time, John B. Cook at Enon, and D. Nickens of the Union Colored Church. Two other ministers spent nearly all of their time traveling in a large preaching circuit. The others wei : chiefly engaged in secular pursuits." East Pork of Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1837 (n.p.n.d.), p. 12. 12 In 1838, the Portage Association, progressive as it was, had only two among its twenty-one churches which claimed weekly preaching. Six churches had biweekly preaching; five monthly; and six offered no information for that year. Portage Baptist Association, Minutes, 1838 (Title page missing), p. 3. 134

The churches took little responsibility for min­

isterial support, not only because of the scarcity of

money, but also because of a doctrinaire resistance to

a binding agreement reminiscent of the demands of the old

established clergy. One pastor, not antimission in spirit,

remarked:

The mischievious erour /sic7 of the Baptists on the support of the ministry is not that a minister should have nothing for his services, for they almost unanimously acknowledge that a minister should have something for his services, but that he should not make any contract with a church or a church with him concerning a compensation for his services. This erour is the cause of our churches doing measurably nothing for their pastors and also is the cause of the great part of their opposition to missions.13

Thus, the Baptist system in the West tended to pro­

duce a minister who was fiercely independent and easily

suspicious of any change. They were a breed apart, toward

which the eastern Baptist clergy scarcely restrained their

disdain. Dr. Jonathan Going, during his western tour in

1831, described his observations in Ohio, in a private

letter:

I have formed a short acquaintance with some half a hundred Ohio Baptist ministers. Though they are generally illiterate, they appear to be pious, and many of them devoted servants of our dear Lord. They exhibit a motley appearance, dressed in all kinds of garbs and colors.14

^^Hezekiah Johnson to John Stevens, January 13, 1834, Stevens Papers (ABHL). ^^Justin A. Smith, A History of the Baptists in the Western States East of the Mississippi (Philadelphia: A.B.P.S., 1896), p. 76. 155 They had a different style of preaching. They "speak

extempore," commented Caleb Atwater, pioneer historian of

Ohio, about the Ohio clergy in general, "with a great deal

of animation, otherwise, they would not be western people. ,,15

They felt intimidated by the patronizing and accomplished

eastern minister, who, though Baptist, aroused the old

fears of a church-controlled state, or at least, of the

loss of local church autonomy.

The motive of jealousy cannot be dismissed from

the antimission spirit. Although theology and methodology were the basic issues, the remembrances of personal rebuff were not far below the surface. While the missionary

agents loudly called for laborers to preach and serve, one

critic observed that:

they by their conduct seem to monopolise all of the honour and emoluments of the ministerial office to themselves and seem to deter all others from entering upon the arduous duty of preaching the gospel to others.17

The antimission ministers could not easily speak of their

jealousy just as they could not show any interest in

^Caleb Atwater, A History of the State of Ohio, Natural and Civil (2d ed.; Cincinnati: Stereotyped by Glezen and Shepard, 1838), p. 305.

^^Lambert, pp. 34-, 244-.

^"^Evan Davies to John Stevens, February 16, 1834, John Stevens Papers (Western Reserve Historical Library). Hereafter cited Stevens Papers (WHEL). 136 1 R politics in the pulpit. But it seems unlikely that the antimission movement did not rise, in part, from an anti-

Yankee bitterness because of the increasing power and skillful leadership of the educated and sophisticated New

Englander in the West.

The most obvious introduction of the missionary agent into prominence, often displacing the local minis­ ters, was in the annual associational sessions. These yearly meetings were still the most significant occasions of the year, the State Convention being as yet an infant in size and influence.The practice of selecting by ballot the ministers to preach at the yearly session was a traditional procedure in several of the associations, as in Miami and Muskingum. But the missionary cause brought a new emphasis. Benedict explained:

1 Q Any mention of political issues in the pulpit was considered a dangerous ruse to bring about a union of state and church again contrary to the traditional Baptist view, and was, generally forbidden among Baptist ministers on these grounds. Helen Louise Jennings, "John Mason Peck and the Impact of New England bn the Old Northwest" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1961), p. 5*

rather large attendance must have usually gathered at the Meigs Creek Association in the light of a request in 1828 that persons "attending our meetings with any such articles for sale" should desist. Pew numerical estimates of such gatherings are extant. "Meigs Creek Baptist Association," The Western Religious Magazine. II, 3 (Aug., 1828), 4-7. 157 Before the rise of modern benevolent institutions, our associations were at full liberty to attend to their own proper work without any interference from any quarter, but as soon as agents began to visit them from different directions, and for different objects, a great change very soon took place. These new visitors, often in considerable numbers, came to these annual assemblies full of zeal in the speaking line, and sought to be heard in favor of their various objects.20

Benedict explained further that as the "evil" grew, the association limited the speakers; and the agents moved to individual churches, "with better results."

The older pioneer preachers, such as Stephen Gard,

Hezekiah Stites, David Layman, and Wilson Thompson, just to mention those of the Miami Association region, could not share the "preaching stand" with such men. "The popu­ lar cry is," argued Wilson Thompson,

. . . there is no profit in preaching doctrine, sectarianism is no religion, say nothing hard against others, come let us preach and pray together, and change pulpits occasionally, and be full of charity; and so we see many churches are going on, and the consequence is, churches are a strange mixture of Arminiens and predes- tinarians.2l

Here was the heart of the issue. The education of the clergy and the acceptance of the missionary movement resulted too much in impure doctrine, and the departure of Baptist churches from their traditional Calvinism.

PO David Benedict, Fifty Years among the Baptists (New York: Sheldon and Co., 1860), p. 225.

^^Thompson, Triumph of Truth, p. 178. 158

Thompson and others had spent a lifetime struggling to become intellectually competent in Calvinistic theology; and they were not about to change viewpoints. Indeed, they could not.

Actually the argument among Baptists at this time was not so much an argument between Arminianism and Cal­ vinism, although the polemics of the day constantly used these polarizing terms, but rather between Gillism and

Bullerism. Arminianism was still shunned by Ohio Baptists 22 as erroneous. But the traditional Calvinism espoused by most Baptists in America had softened over the years.

Rev. John Gill (1697-1771), in his Body of Divinity, pub­ lished in 1769, was the oft-quoted English authority on supralapsarian Calvinism. Another Englishman, however.

Rev. Andrew Euller (175^-1815), had popularized a moder­ ating view_,of Calvinism which fitted the rationale of the 25 missionary enterprise. ^

The "Euller system" called for "direct appeals and 24 exhortation to those whose conversion they desired."

22 In the East, around 1820, a few Baptist leaders had become Unitarian, mostly of a "high Arian" character. But no such doctrine had drifted into Ohio. Benedict, Fifty Yeaos among the Baptists, pp. 145, 152.

^^William Cathcart, ed., The Baptist Encyclopedia (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), pp. 420-22, 452-5 4. 24 Benedict, Fifty Years among the Baptists, p. 140. 139 Since the "doctrine of election” was termed "mysterious" and "incomprehensible" by the Calvinists, and thus no one knew who could respond in faith, Fuller's method, at first glance, did not appear in conflict with the Old School.

Yet there was a subtle change, with the argument resting on the question of the "means" and the use of "effort."

"God will save his elect," the old guard Baptists asserted; and that meant without using special institutionalized methods or societies.Fullerism smacked more of general than of particular atonement, they thought. The abandon­ ment of a reliance on the Holy Spirit to call a man to conversion, and a growing reliance on the skills and learned techniques of ministers were positive threats to the "old-school" or Gillite Baptists. An obvious corol­ lary to this reaction involved the education of preachers.

"Men-made ministers" tended to rely on "means" rather than the Holy Spirit, they suspicioned. Consequently the

"old school" Baptists, steeped in the particular atonement doctrine of Calvinism, gradually moved to an "antimission,"

"anti-means," and anti-education position.

The two associations, Muskingum and Miami, destined to lead the exodus from the Ohio Baptist State Convention,

^James Witsett, "Baptist Convention," Baptist Advocate, II, 9 (September, 1856), 204. The Baptist Advocate was a short-lived journal of religious news and editorials published by John Stevens in Cincinnati.

^^Drake, p. 3* 140 were both firmly committed to the doctrine of "special and particular redemption," and were adamant in their insistence that churches "proceed agreeable to Gospel order," or be 27 branded "irregular in their discipline." ' In addition, it must be kept in mind that the Miami and Muskingum Associa­ tions included some of the earliest pioneer preachers, whose limited outlook easily clashed with the more progres­ sive men who had arrived later in the same regions. One other observation should be made concerning the theological bent of Ohio Baptists. The "new light" temper of the New England Baptists was of a milder Calvinistic type than in the Southern States, and resulted in an emphasis on a practical religious experience rather than

pD on doctrinal enforcement. After the merger of the old

Separatist Baptists with the old Regular Baptists in Ken­ tucky in 1801, the traditional rejection of formulated doctrinal confessions in favor of using only the Bible by the Separatists survived; and the result was an attitude in southern Ohio much closer to the antimission cause than

^Dunlevy, pp. 38, 41. A Confession of Faith Put Forth by the Elders and Brethren ... in London ... at Philadelphia ... Again Adopted by the Muskingum Baptist Association, August, 1824 (Cambridge, Ohio: Printed by Cyrus P. Beatty, at the "Times" Office, 1826), p. 1.

p O Benedict, Fifty Years Among the Baptists, p. 137. 14-1 the Few England Baptist spirit which predominated in the 29 northern Ohio region.

The missionary leaders in Ohio soon became known as Eullerites.^^ "All the Convention brethren are suspected of being Arminians" admitted Stevens' Advocate.R e v .

Jacob Drake, one of the respected pioneer ministers pleaded in a Circular Letter,

And when it is considered that all our differences arise not from doctrine, but from a qualifying view of the atonement - let us agree, forthwith, to dispense with the unscriptural and unprofitable terms, general and particular, and harmony will soon be restored.32

But the antimission attitude in Ohio had been building for too many years to ach'-.jve such harmony in the 1850's.

Actually Ohio Baptists had escaped the earlier waves of antimission sentiment which swept Kentucky and

Tennessee beginning as early as 1815 and increasing in the next decade under the leadership particularly of Rev. John

Taylor and Rev. Daniel Parker.When Parker moved to southeastern Illinois in 1818 and circulated his "Two Seeds"

^^Cady, p. 224-.

^^The charge was basically correct. The first few issues of the Baptist Weekly Journal printed several articles and sermons of Rev. Robert Hall, a famous General Baptist in England.

^^Whitsett, pp. 201, 205*

^^Drake, p. 2 3.

^^Lambert, pp. 252-88, 316-39. 142 doctrine, he was responsible in large measure for the sudden withdrawal of local missionary support from Rev.

John Mason Peck who was working in the area. Parker's division of all men into two groups, those begotten by the Devil, and those begotten by God, proved popular in

Indiana and Illinois, but was barely mentioned in Baptist literature in Ohio. Alexander Campbell ventured a remark about Parker's writings, that "my nerves have never been strong enough to read it all through," and then pro­ ceeded to deliver a fatal criticism of "my friend Daniel

Parker.Undoubtedly Parker's theology was appreciated by some Ohio Baptists, but the antimission movement in

Ohio was rooted in other kinds of arguments.

The antimission controversy in Ohio centered basically in a withdrawal of the hyper-Galvinistic churches from the mainstream of Baptist concern over missions and the techniques in evangelism. It was as much a difference in mood as in substance. When the break was all but com­ plete in 1835? one antimission spokesman wrote, "And while

7.h When several recent immigrants from Ohio moved to Illinois, led by Rev. Daniel Hilton, also from Ohio, they joined Peck's Friends of Humanity movement in the neighborhood of New Design, not Parker's movement. Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists, A History (Blooming­ ton, Illinois: Pentagraph Printing and Sta. Co., 1950;, pp. 64-79. ^^Alexander Campbell, Christian Baptist. Revised by D. S. Burnet, from the Second Edition, with Mr. Camp­ bell's Last Corrections (Cincinnati! Published by D. S. BurneF7~T848J7~"p7~5687~" 14-3 the New School call this the enlightened day in the

Christian era, the Old School view it as a dark and cloudy day in Zion."^^ The missionary forces could see only a coming era of a civilization fully educated in Biblical knowledge. Rev. Samuel Lynd, pastor in I83I of the Sixth

Street Baptist Church of Cincinnati, and the first Baptist leader truly of national stature to settle in an Ohio pastorate, could speak easily of the near approach "to that glorious period in which the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."^*^ But, on the other hand, at the same time, the Old School Miami leaders could only express fear that "we are in continual danger of falling into error.It was a Biblical principle, constantly expressed in the local sermons, "that there should be false teachers among his people. All that was necessary was

^ Minutes of Two "Old School Meetings" of the Miami Regular Baptist in the Mississippi Valley, Butler County, Ohio ÇRossville: Printed at the Telegraph Office, I83 5;, p. "9 ." ^^S. W. Lynd, "Address," Baptist Weekly Journal, I, 2 (August I85I), 1. Lynd had previously given leadership within the Triennial Convention, and had worked closely with Dr. William Staughton, his father-in-law, who had been Corresponding Secretary of The Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States and later presi­ dent of Columbian College in Washington. Roger Hayden, "William Staughton," Foundations, X, 1 (Jan.-March, 1967), 22-25. ^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1831 (n.p.n.d.), p. 8. ^^Mad River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1816 (n.p.n.d.), p. 8. 144- to find them. The discovery was made in identifying the

"false teachers" as those who impatiently attempted to assist God in saving the lost, and as those who used "the worldly institutions of the day known by the name of benevolent institutions."^^

Other arguments reinforced the central theme. The antimission complaint against collecting too much money for missions was "western" in its outlook and aroused the suspicions of Ohio Baptists against the advisability of giving to agents who did nothing else but collect money.

A similar complaint had all but ended the solicitation of funds in Kentucky a decade earlier, where some solicitors 4-1 had, indeed, not been dedicated men of the cloth.

The question of "means" was also often debated. In fact, for many, the controversy was not "anti-mission" but rather "anti means" in substance. "I find many persons" reported Danial Bryant of the Middletown Church, "who say that they are not opposed to the objects aimed at by the many benevolent societies; but to the means resorted to 42 to accomplish them." The original argument concerning

"means" referred to the question as to whether gospel

^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1833 (Ross- ville, Ohio: Printed by Taylor WebsteF7~1833XTp* 7- Jennings, p. 40; Whitsett, p. 204. ZtP "Prom Ed. D. Bryant," The Regular Baptist Mis­ cellany, II, 9 (April, 1851), 1 2 9 . 145 preaching possessed "a power within itself" to convert the sinner. Only the Holy Spirit could convert, insisted the

Old School Baptists. It is on this point that one can see most clearly the contrast between Alexander Campbell's type of "primitive" reformation and the antimission Baptists' concept of the church. While Campbell called for clear, matter-of-fact conditions for conversion, the Old School doctrine demanded almost a psychic experience of sorts.

The Old School preachers could often speak of "strange impressions" which were "strong and irresistible" but h.7, beyond any Lockean interpretation.

The "means" which were so resisted by the old guard referred to the "theories" and "systems" involving espe­ cially the "Society" plan so popular among the Baptists.

Progressive churches were organizing local missionary units, Sunday Schools, Bible, and temperance societies, all of which unsettled the Old School Baptists because such organization could not be documented as apostolic. Also the "anti-means" attitude included a resistance to the increasing manipulative techniques used by the progressive ministers in city revivals to attract mourners to a con- 44 version experience.

^Wilson Thompson, The Autobiography of Elder Wilson Thompson, Embracing a Sketch of his Life, Travels, and Ministerial Labors (Greenfield, Ind.: Published by D. H. Goble, 1867), pp. 295, 448. Hereafter cited Autobiography.

^^Ibid., pp. 428-34. 146

The "means" used hy Ohio Baptists in the 1830's were fast changing the tenor of Baptist activity in the state. The Ohio Baptist Education Society had met in

Lebanon on May 3, 1830, and again in Zanesville on

October 6, 1830, reorganized itself with a constitution, and proposed to establish "a literary and theological

Seminary.Classes started in 1831, under the direction of eastern men. Also there was the gathering of promi­ nent Baptists in Cincinnati in 1833 for the first meeting of the Western Baptist Convention, which purported to speak for all western Baptists. The guiding light in the Western Convention among Ohio Baptists was Rev. Samuel

Lynd of Cincinnati, whose intimate contact with the highest echelon of Baptist leadership in the East, helped lift the

Convention to a level of strategic importance. The Old

Schoolers could not have missed the import of the Cincinnati , . 46 meeting.

The Division

The Muskingum Baptist Association was undoubtedly the first to revolt against the Ohio Baptist State Conven­ tion. As early as August, 1832, the Association voted to

45"Minutes of the Ohio Baptist Education Society," The Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 2 (November, 1830), 22-23. ^^Semi-Centennial of the Ninth Street Baptist Church of Cincinnati, Nov. 7. 8, 9, 1880 (Cincinnati, Ohio : George E. Stevens, n.d.), p. 8. 147 become "Baptists of the Old School," and ally themselves with "our brethren east of the Mountains, denominated

'Baptists of the Old School.'" They had hurriedly mailed a "Letter of General Correspondence" to the antimission leaders who met in September at the Black Rock Meeting

House, Baltimore County, Maryland, where the Old School 47 Baptists first organized nationally. ' Even when the

Association passed a resolution in August, 1834, that they opposed "the benevolent operations of the day," the statement did not shatter the unity of the State Conven­ tion as a similar departure did two years later by the

Miami Association. Consequently the story of the anti­ mission controversy is better told using the events in the Miami Association.

Reluctance to support the eastern Baptist leader­ ship became evident in the Miami Association as early as

1819, when the group declined to follow a request made by the Mission Board to support "an Institution for the edu­ cation of young men possessing piety and gifts for the

/I O ministry." Two years later, the Association again answered negatively to the Board who asked for the recommendation that each church form a missionary

^^"Muskingum Baptist Association," Baptist Weekly Journal, II, 22 (January 4, 1833), 83.

^®Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1819 (Dayton: R. J. Skinner, Printer, 1819), p. 5* 14-8 society.VTtien the Association refused to answer Isaac

McCoy's personal request for aid in 1822, the mood of the dominant leadership among the churches was very apparent

Wot all of the churches were hostile toward mis­ sions in these decisive years; but a significant number of the ministers, though tenaciously loyal to the Baptist cause, moved steadily away from the missionary enterprise.

Among these, two men assumed the larger portion of the leadership. Rev. Stephen Card, long time pastor of the

Elk Greek Church, served more frequently as Association moderator beginning in 1814- more than any other man.

Card supported missions until about 1816, but gradually withdrew, especially after 1825, from all missionary con­ nections.^^ The other leader. Rev. Wilson Thompson, pastor of the Lebanon Church which was as large as the one at Elk Creek, became widely known due to the publica­ tion of four books, two of which became hotly debated sub- 52 jects prior to the antimission division.^

Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1821 (Cin­ cinnati : Inquisitor Office, James M. Mason, Printer, n.d.), p. 2. ^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1822 (n.p.n.d.), p. 2.

^^Dunlevy, p. 165. ^^Dunlevy's date of 1801 for Thompson's first book Simple Truth is surely wrong; for Thompson dated his birth in 1788. He asserted that he was thirty-six years of age when he wrote his second book. Triumph of Truth. His later books included The Autobiography of Elder Wilson Thompson, published after his death, and an Old School hymnal. 14-9 Thompson was a gifted and influential leader in spite of his meager education.A popular preacher, perennially voted to he the speaker at the several asso­ ciations which he attended, Thompson had been called to

Lebanon in 1820 to assist and then succeed Rev. Daniel

Clark, the pioneer preacher who had begun his ministry in 1790 at the Columbia Church before moving to Lebanon about 1 7 9 7 .^^ Self-taught in the ways of Calvinism, he could, in his words "perceive a tincture of Arminianism in some of the preaching" of a colleague, and soon prided himself on his knowledgeable view of the Trinity, a view which caused a great deal of consternation in the Miami

Valley region, as he attempted to explain his opposition to the "tri-personal scheme.Thompson's description of his decision to oppose the missionary cause placed the event shortly before his call to Lebanon in 1820.^^

^^He once acknowledged that "a small Bible, Rip- pon's Hymn-Book, and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress consti­ tuted my library, and, up to the time I was thirty years old, I had never read any other books, notes, or comments on the Scripture." Thompson, Autobiography, p. 189.

^^Dunlevy, p. 142; Thompson, Autobiography, pp. 288-92, 538.

^^Thompson, Triumph of Truth, p. 5 0, and his Autobiography, p. 245; Arthur Crihfield, What is Truth? or, a Search after and Defence of, the Doctrine Taught in the Sacred Scriptures ... (Xenia: Printed by J. Regans, 1825;, p. iii.

^^Isaac McCoy had invited him to join his Indian Mission near Pt. Wayne. Thompson had visited the mission and had decided to go. But, a few days before going, he experienced an almost mystical flash of insight while he 150

A portent of more divisive events to come unfolded in Thompson's feud with Rev. John Mason. Mason had been present at the first organizational meeting of the Miami

Association in 1798, had served as pastor of the Sugar

Creek church in Centerville, Montgomery County, since

1805, and had served as Association moderator several times.But Mason had, in Thompson's words, "embraced the doctrine of an universal atonement," and had thereby been "guilty" of preaching "that the atonement, or death of Christ, was not specially for the elect, but an equiva­ lent for sin, and would be applied to any sinner on the conditions of becoming a believer.A dissatisfied minority of the Sugar Creek congregation requested to join the more Calvinistic Tapscott Baptist Church. But the

Sugar Creek congregation refused to dismiss the group, calling the move "disorder." When the appeal was made to the Miami Association, the session overlooked the "dis­ order," and instead turned its judgement to the original point at issue, the theology of Mason, voting to approve stood trance-like on a country road. "I often look back to that time," he explained, "as the most solemn period in all my life. When the last-mentioned test came so forcibly to my mind I was fully satisfied that this new system of missions was of human origin .... and I have never felt that sort of mission fever since." Thompson, Autobiography. p. 279.

^^Mason served in 1811, 1813, and 1818.

^^Thompson, Autobiography, pp. 507, 510. 151 the hyper-CalviniStic minority party.The Sugar Creek

Church divided after 1824, torn by personal and theologi­ cal disputes; and Mason soon retreated to Indiana in disgrace. But the Oxford Association emerged probably as a result.The origin of Todd's Pork Association, also, may have hinged upon a repudiation of Thompson's leadership in the Miami Valley.

^ Mason then asserted that Thompson "stated a falsehood respecting the difficulty in the Sugar Creek Church." But the Association quickly discredited Mason's intemperate words and affirmed the truthfulness of Thompson. The two men continued their differences through pamphlet writing, prompting Thompson's two earlier books. Mason's pamphlets have not been found. Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1824 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3; Thompson, Autobiography, p. 316. ^^The emergence of the Oxford Regular Baptist Association, containing a church named Sugar Greek, could well have been formed in part because of this early controversy. Lack of materials forbids more than a guess. The fact that the Oxford Association voted to dissolve two years after the Old School divi­ sion would support this claim. Also Thompson's extensive description of his bitter encounter with the Oxford Church, where he laid "the ax at the root of 'Rullerism' which has long been their hobby," would seem to confirm such an origin for the Oxford Association. Oxford Regu­ lar Baptist Association, Minutes, 1830 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1; Thompson, Autobiography, p. 355; Lunlevy, p. 54; Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1823 (n.p.n.d.), p. 2.

^^Thompson's views were considered "full of error and delusion" both by East Fork of Little Miami and Todd's Fork associations, and were so publicized. In consequence, the two groups suffered some internal dissension and had difficulty in achieving good rela­ tions with other associations, particularly Miami. East Fork of Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1825 (n.p.n.d.), pp. 2-3. 152

Rejection of the missionary enterprise of the

Ohio Baptist State Convention by the Miami Association developed quickly after 1832. An offering was taken at the I832 session for the Convention at the time when

Thompson served as first Vice President. In the same year, however, the Black Rock Convention spawned a national "Old School" denomination; and more importantly, the new antimission Baptist journal. The Signs of the

Times, printed in Rew York, began in 1832, which helped coalesce the movement.

Between the annual association sessions of 1834 and 1835» the antimission churches in the Miami Associa­ tion convened two specially called meetings. The first, held at the Elk Creek Meeting House, May 30, 1835» embraced the title "Old School Meeting of the Miami

Regular Baptist" and proceeded to defend the term "Old

School" as appropriate "to us who profess to be of the

Ancient Order of Baptist.Led by moderator

Lambert, pp. 364, 373; Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 32 (October 28, 1856), 1.

^^Minutes of Two "Old School Meetings" of the Miami Regular Baptist in the Mississippi Valley, Butler County, Ohio, p. 3* Actually the term "Old School" was not well known. The Journal printed a short explanation in 1833: "It has been inquired what is meant by the term Old School Baptist; - far as I have been able to ascer­ tain, it is frequently intended to express the faith and order of the Baptist Churches 50 or more years since, but it is acknowledged that the example of the Apostolic churches alone should be our guide." Baptist Weekly Journal, II, 32 (March 15, 1833), 127. 153 Bev. Stephen Gard, the group passed four resolutions which effectively excluded all "such brethren in the ministry, who are not of the 'Old School' or are known to be engaged in, or are advocating the opperations /sic? of the day, 64 called 'Benevolent Institutions.'"

The second session, held on the fifth Sunday week­ end in August, 1835, at the Tapscott Meeting House was more outspoken in its determination "to draw a line of distinction between the Old and Hew School Baptist," and firmly stated, "We therefore have no fellowship for them as such, . . Other Old School meetings, soon held each month to give vent to the antimission energy, were almost wholly protests against the "Mission principle," the salary plan for preachers, the "society" plan, and the education of ministers.

The 1855 session of the Miami Association at

Lebanon was the turning point. Stephen Gard was again

Minutes of Two "Old School Meetings" of the Miami Regular Baptist in the Mississippi Valley, Butler County, Ohio, p. 4.

^^Ibid., p. 3* These two meetings were organized in place of the traditional quarterly Ministers' meet­ ings, which were dissolved by the "opposing brethren." Cross and Baptist Journal, II, 39 (December 18, 1835), 154. 154 elected moderatorWhen the newly organized Mount Zion

Church was considered for membership in the Association, the church's open hostility to "the Societies and Insti­ tutions of the day, commonly called Benevolent Institu­ tions" was called into question. The delegates delayed the admission in order "to investigate" the subject of missionary support, "and declare her sentiments.Out of this challenge came the resolution which officially turned the Association to antimissionism. Supported by forty yea votes, and opposed by twenty-one nays, the resolution stated:

That this Association regards those said socie­ ties and institutions as having no authority, foundation or support in the SACRED SCRIPTURES ; but we regard them as having had their origin in, and as belonging exclusively to the WORLD, and as such we have NO FELLOWSHIP for them, as being of a religious character.68

Realizing that such a resolution would exclude the mission party, Daniel Bryant introduced an added amendment to be voted on along with the resolution to the effect that the antimission churches would not "declare non-fellowship"

Lard and Rev. Thomas Childers of the Mount Pleas­ ant Church were the main Old School leaders during the actual split. Thompson had moved to Indiana in 1834. The leaders of the missionary party were Samuel W. Lynd and Daniel Bryant of the Middletown, and later, of the Dayton Church. Thompson returned to Ohio to visit during the 1836 meeting.

^"^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1835 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1.

GGibid., p. 2. 155 against the mission party. Bryant and Lynd pleaded for

the amendment from ten o'clock in the morning until sun­

down; and the session finally added the stipulation, "but

do not hereby declare nonfellowship with those brethren,

and church, who now advocate them.The antimission

churches actually considered a split "as being essential

to the peace and happiness of the Churches," but added the

amendment with the understanding that a second resolution would be passed which read:

Resolved: that this Association grant to the churches, friendly or opposed, the entire liberty of withdrawing and forming a new association according to their own v i e w s . 70

Several of the friends of missions gathered at

Lebanon soon after the 1835 session, reorganized the

Miami Baptist Missionary Society as auxiliary to the State

Convention, raised about one hundred dollars, and thus

continued through the year considering themselves members

of the Association.^^ The missionary churches assumed,

or at least hoped, that the opposition would subside and

that the Association could survive as a unity. On the

other hand, the antimission churches assumed that the

^^Ibid., p. 2; Dunlevy, p. 58.

*^^Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1833 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3. ^^Daniel Bryant, "Miami Baptist Missionary Society," Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 6 (April 29, 1836), 22 . 156 minority churches would leave and reorganize within the year. Consequently the 1835 autumn session marked the official dividing point between the two parties. The clerk's minutes recorded the event:

Whereas a number of the churches composing this body, have in their letters requested the asso­ ciation to drop from her minutes and fellowship, all churches now engaged in advocating or sup­ porting the Societies and institutions, against which the association declared non-fellowship last year; - therefore be it Besolved, that we drop from our minutes the following churches, viz: - 6th Street Cincinnati, Middletown, Lebanon and Dayton.72

Lynd asserted that the voting was unfairly distributed among the delegates attending the session, because some had been put under "censure" and were ineligible to vote.^^ The antimission forces were not content to exclude the missionary churches, but also resolved to reclaim all of the brethren within the excluded congre­ gations who were of an Old School persuasion. This atti­ tude began a process of individual and associational realignment which plagued the Ohio churches for several 74 years.'

"^^Miami Baptist Association (Old School), Minutes, 1836 (Hamilton, Ohio: Printed by I. M. Walters, 1836), p. 9* 75s. W. Lynd, "Corresponding Letter," Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 37 (December 2, 1836), 1. 7^The Lebanon Church, for instance, dissolved itself, by mutual consent, and the clerk was directed to give letters to the members of either party in order to form new church connections as they might wish. The antimission party formed a new church, known as the "West Lebanon" Church. The mis­ sion party formed the "East Lebanon" Church. The division was equal among the Lebanon members. Dunlevy, p. 70* 157 The division in the Miami Association triggered a

statewide controversy in 1855 and 1837 in which several

associations voted to withdraw fellowship, while several

others debated the issue but voted to retain connections with those involved in the missionary movement. The majority of the associations were relatively undisturbed by the controversy. The most seriously disturbed regions were those involving the Miami, Muskingum, and Scioto

Associations which were the real centers of antimissionism in the state. Acceptance or rejection of the yearly cor­ responding letters from neighboring associations generally prompted the decisive debate on the subject of missions.

The neighboring Mad River Association, whose

churches had been in close proximity to the Old School

Miami area agitation of 1835, was forced to meet the issue

the same year. After three churches requested letters of dismission over the issue, the Association felt obliged to prepare a statement. A committee of seven appealed to the

claim of Baptist autonomy. Reaffirming an 1822 "principle

of free toleration," the committee recommended that the

churches "grant to their respective members entire freedom

of opinion and action on this subject." They concluded

"that Baptist and Missionary Societies, when managed pru­

dently, have been, and may yet be, a means of disseminating

the word of God . . . ." With this almost reluctant stand on the side of missions, the committee directed that, if 158 a church, could not "feel free" to walk in "free tolera­ tion" with them, a "letter of dismission" would be given.

Not satisfied, seven churches transferred their fellowship to a newly-formed antimission "Mad River Baptist

Association," leaving twenty-nine churches within the mis­ sionary camp.*^^ Also, the small Greenville Association, immediately to the west, responding to a direct visit from

Wilson Thompson at the annual meeting, succumbed to the 77 Old School movement.''

The East Fork of the Little Miami Association, with a much stronger history of missionary support, anticipated the controversy in 1856 by adjusting the delegate ratio at the yearly sessions. Sensing that two or three churches were taking advantage of the loosely defined delegate sys­ tem which was typical at most of the annual gatherings, the

^^The committee of seven included John L. Moore of Piqua; Isaac Jones of Little Darby; Joseph Morris of Little Beaver; Chandler Tuttle of East Pork of Paint Creek; Zanes McCollock of Tharps Run; J. Phillips of King's Creek; and James Turner of Sugar Creek (Allen County). Mad River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1836 (Springfield, Ohio: John M. Gallagher, Printer, 1836), pp. 5-7. '^^The strong influence holding most of the churches was the "Gospel Union," an active missionary society among the churches which supported much needed itinerant preach­ ing within the area. The Union was established December, 1832, the main leaders being Rev. John L. Moore and Rev. Ezekial French of the Salem Church. "Something Done," Baptist Weekly Journal, II, 25 (January 25, 1833), 97. ^^Greenville Regular Predestinarian Baptist Asso­ ciation, Minutes, 1836 (n.p.n.d.), p. 2. 159 session "Voted, that each church of 20 members or less, may send two messengers and for every additional 20 mem­ bers, one m e s s e n g e r . With the Enon Church claiming

228 members in 1836, the outcome was virtually assured.

In 1836 the Enon pastor. Rev. John B. Cook attended the

Miami Association and witnessed the division. His refusal to "deliver up the letter which he bore to the body" was later justified by his own Association by a three to one vote.79 The three smaller associations in the Miami Valley,

Todd's Fork, Oxford, and Little Miami Union Regular, suf­ fered no debate on the matter. All three, however, dis­ solved within a few years, none having a rationale for 80 separate existence after the controversy was over.

Both the Scioto and Muskingum Associations, con­ taining many of the older pioneer leaders, and exhibiting

^ East Fork of Little Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1836 (Cincinnati: Printed by N. S. Johnson, 1836), p. 4. 'The move to limit representation from any one church prompted several other Associations to follow suit during the next year.

^^The vote of forty-one to twelve was described in the minutes as "probably a pretty fair index of the rela­ tive number of those friendly and those opposed to mis­ sions." East Fork of Little Miami, Minutes, 1837 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3. ^^Oxford voted to dissolve in 1838. Little Miami Union "lost her visibility" by 1840. Todd's Fork main­ tained a feeble existence until it joined in the organiza­ tion of the "Caesar's Creek Baptist Association," in 1845. Proceeding of the Ohio Baptist Anniversaries Held at Dayton, May, 1843 (Columbus: Cross and Journal Office, 1843), p. 10. 160 a long record on non-cooperation with State and National missions, eagerly responded to the open schism in Miami and Mad River. Accepting the antimission corresponding letter from Mad River in 1837 rather than the letter from the missionary party, the Scioto churches became Old

School, losing only five churches. The five withdrew from the majority to sustain a pro-missionary "Scioto

Association."^^ When the two messengers arrived with their corresponding letters from the two "Mad River" groups, the Muskingum Association accepted the Old School position without losing one church from their ranks. Long articulate defenders of the Calvinistic tradition, twenty- six churches from a wide geographical area crusaded bit­ terly for years thereafter against Rullerism as the root

Qp cause of all benevolent effort.

The other associations in Ohio reaffirmed their confidence in missions with varying degrees of debate and

Although Rev. Nathan Cory of the Frankfort Church was chosen moderator in 1837 of the missionary party. Rev. Lewis Madden of the Walnut Creek Church emerged as the more enduring leader for the small group. Scioto Baptist Association, Minutes, 1837 (Lancaster: Printed by J. and C. H. Brough, 1837), P* George E. Leonard, History of the Scioto Baptist Association for One Hundred Years, 1803-1903 (Published by Vote of the Association, n.d.), p. 8.

^^Muskingum Baptist Association, Minutes, 1837 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3; Muskingum Baptist Association, Minutes, 1841 (n.p.n.d.), p. 7* 151 hesitancy. Some did not need to bother with thé issue;

others suffered debilitating attrition. ^

Two more antimission associations, Glover and New

Market, arose in the region adjacent to the Strait Greek

Association. One group, called Sandusky, appeared in the northern part of Ohio. Another, Walhonding, began in the

eastern region near where the old Killbuck group had been.

In the southern area, a group called Mt. Pleasant was formed, completing the list of antimission bodies which 84 arose in the years immediately following the controversy.

The missionary leaders had generally used kindness in dealing with the Old School men. The Gross and Baptist

Journal was not used as "a battleaxe, but an unoffending advocate," one reader observed.Nevertheless, the

^All fifteen churches meeting wi bh the Golumbus Association identified their support for missions in 1834. But ten churches failed to report, and later were found members of the Owl Greek Harmony Association which formed September, 1833, as a reorganization of fragments of the old Owl Greek Association. The ministers led the new association into antimissionism during the 1842 session. Brake, p. 24; Owl Greek Harmony Baptist Association, Minutes, 1836 (Mount Vernon, Ohio: Printed by William Grosby, at the office of the "Mercury," 1836), pp. 1-2; Proceeding at the Ohio Baptist Anniversaries Held at Dayton, May, 1843 (Golumbus: Gross and Journal Office, 1843), p. 19.

0 / 1 Eleven Old School associations in Ohio, for all practical purposes, became another denominational group totally unrelated to the Ohio Baptist Gonvention. Most of the associations used the words "Predestinarian" or "Regular" until the 1880's when the term "Primitive" fre­ quently supplanted the word "Predestinarian."

®^A. Pangburn to John Stevens, April, 1835, Stevens Papers (WRHL). 162 progressive men believed that Baptist success called for new methods more in keeping with a rapidly growing state.

One specially called session of leaders realized that the replacement of the pioneer itinerant preacher in the

1830's was increasingly difficult. They acknowledged,

"We have been unable to provide preachers who would agree to devote any considerable part of his time to preach within the bounds of this association."^^

A new theology, measurably different from the pioneer days, was also needed, although it meant a clear break with the past. Rev. Hezekiah Johnson, pastor of the

Old Town Church in 1834, suggested.

You know that the taste of the Baptists in the West has been almost altogether for doctrine. This was wrong; yet, should it be indulged a little more, it might be the means of reconciling some, correcting the errors of others, and pre­ venting our churches from sliding too far toward the Arminian scheme.87

Johnson need not have feared; Ohio Baptists were not about to give up their doctrine. The progressive Baptists, how­ ever, were liberating themselves from seventeenth century

Calvinism and facing the demands of the nineteenth century with innovative and timely measures.

Handwritten MS, Minutes of the East Fork of Little Miami Baptist Association, March 29, 1833 (American Baptist Historical Library).

^^Hezekiah Johnson to John Stevens, December 1, 1834, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 163 The four remaining missionary Baptist Churches in the Miami Association, which quickly reorganized under the original name, were not as weak as one might suppose.

Their congregations totaled 44-1, while the twenty Old 88 School churches numbered 706. These four growing and influential churches soon became numerically stronger than the twenty Old School congregations, and added other con­ gregations to the fellowship. What was true numerically in the Miami Valley was equally true across the state.

The antimission churches could not flourish numerically, given their theological doctrine. But many Baptist churches who retained the missionary name were little different from the Old School churches in practice. Lit­ tle interest in education, reluctance to pay ministers, refusal to respond to the goals of the State Convention, persistence in the "monthly" system of church worship con­ tinued to plague the State Convention, and were not the sole possession of the Old School mentality. The major gain was in the implicit acknowledgement that each Baptist church in the state had a responsibility and a stake in the missionary cause. The missionary churches claimed an ever growing majority of the Baptists in the State, while the antimission forces leveled off at about 3,000 members by 1840.

®®The four major missionary churches, namely Sixth Street, Cincinnati, with 249 members, Middletown with 77, Dayton with 38, and East Lebanon with 44, were quickly joined by Fairfield (16 members) and Muddy Creek (17 mem­ bers). Miami Association," Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 37 (Dec. 2, 1836), 1. CHAPTER VI

THE BAPTIST CONVENTION, 1830-1860, SEARCH FOR SUPPORT

In I83O, Ohio was still more frontier than farm country.^ The large number who were settling in the state constantly discovered living conditions primitive in many areas, with cholera epidemics plaguing the towns and cities periodically, and highways minimal and seasonally unfit for travel. Day by day living was often on a sub­ sistence level. In the next thirty years, the state accumulated about 700 miles of canals, approximately 3,000 miles of railroads, and a few main roads to its list of 2 internal improvements. Baptist population in Ohio in 1830 was estimated by George Sedwick at 10,000.^ The growth rate was fair; but the Methodists and Presbyterians were by far the

1 Colin Brummitt Goodykoontz, Home Missions on the American Frontier (Caldwell, Idaho : The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1959), p. 167. ^George White Dial, "The Construction of the Ohio Canals," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XIII,(1 9 0 4), 4 7 8; Eugene H. Roseboom and Francis P. Weisenburger, A History of Ohio (Columbus; The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1961), p. 221.

^Western Miscellany, I, 5 (February, I83O), 81.

164 165 leaders in numerical superiority.^ The Baptists, for all

their "strenuous exertions," were not able to organize a

better system to capture new members in town or city

beyond the volunteerism of the congregational system.

Yet, within the loosely-structured Baptist framework, the

Baptists of Ohio experienced more change during the

decades between I85O and I85O than any others. Indeed, more events of acute importance to Ohio Baptists occurred between 1850 and 1840 than in any other decade.

The Baptists in Ohio were not lacking in vision

and direction. The "destitute" areas in Ohio and in the world were part of the agenda for mission. The Baptists were not a hierarchical denomination, and there was no one with commanding influence nor a congregation within the state which could exert effectual leadership in the first decade of the Convention's existence. In fact, one of the obvious lessons of the antimission schism was the deep-seated resistance among Baptists to any institutional leadership aside from the local church.

In 1857, the Methodists claimed to be more than four times as numerous as the approximately 15,000 Baptists, The Presbyterians were twice as numerous. Ohio Baptist Convention Proceedings, 10th Annual Meeting, Held at Granville, May, 1856, and of the 11th Annual Meeting, Held at Marietta, May, 1857 (Cincinnati: N. S. Johnson, No. 153 Main St., 1857), P* 22. Hereafter cited OBC, 1856-1857. Caleb Atwater, A History of the State of Ohio, Natural and Civil (2d ed.: Cincinnati: Stereotyped by Glezen and Shepard, 1858), pp. 506-507* 166

Far from organizing an effective and systemized home mission program for Ohio, the annual State Convention brought together an assortment of delegated individuals who only could meet to experiment with acceptable means

for promoting missions within the Baptist non-connectional

system. The result was a verbal bombardment of yearly missionary sermons, accompanied with almost futile efforts

to launch a state-wide movement toward missionary support.^

The Convention was a victim of its own autonomy.

Incorporated under the laws of Ohio at the 1835 annual meeting at Wooster, the organization was an independent body, free from the control of any one church, but only

enduring by the fragile good will of the several cooper­ ating churches.^

The Convention was not without competent leaders.

Led mainly throughout the first decade by Cincinnati men, a steady movement toward more statewide representation brought together an accumulation of highly dedicated and

^Men such as Rev. Lucius Belles and Rev. Alfred Bennett, representing the Mission Board of the Triennial Convention visited and preached about missions frequently at the annual sessions. Records of Annual Meetings, 1826-34, copied in full from the Original Written Records, Preserved in the Library of Denison University (Norwalk, Ohio; Printed by the Laning Printing Company, for G. E. Leonard, Corresponding Secretary, 1890), pp. 26, 35* Hereafter cited OBC, 1826-34.

^Ibid., p. 34. 167 n responsible leaders, both lay and ordained. To a man, they viewed the main responsibility of the Convention to be that of "domestic missions" within the state, a priority which became increasingly convincing in view of the suc­ cess of the missionary churches and the contrasting stulti- O fication of the Old School congregations. These Conven­ tion leaders were possessed by a religious imperialism not unlike that of the eastern leaders. Using religious themes, they were nonetheless captured by the thirst for westward denominational aggrandizement. This activity was being acted out on the national level by the creation of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and in the

West by the Convention of Western Baptists.

Organization of the American Baptist Home Mission

Society came about in April, 1832, chiefly through the efforts of Rev. Jonathan Going, who had toured the West a year earlier. Going, who became its first Corresponding

Secretary, was able to employ about fifty missionaries

^After Noble Johnson's long eight year tenure as President of the Convention, three men, Samual W. Lynd, serving in 1835, and 1841 through 1844, Mr. Luther D. Barker, a layman of the McConnellsville, Morgan County, Church, serving 1836, 1837, and 1840, and Dr. Jonathan Going, recently arrived at the Granville Institution, and serving in 1838 and 1839, followed as state presi­ dents during the next decade. John Stevens filled the important post as Corresponding Secretary during most of the same years, while Noble Johnson and then J. B. Wheaton, a doctor in Columbus, served as treasurers.

GoBC, 1826-34, p. 26; OBC, 1836-1837, p. 22. 168 during the year.^ By 1855» Ohio had sixteen ABHMS mis­ sionaries working in its bounds. The leaders of the

Ohio Convention felt themselves to be a strategic sector in the growing national movement to occupy and Christian­ ize the West.^^ In time the policy of the national society, that of implementing a more enduring settled ministry rather than supporting the pioneer itinerant, became accepted by the Ohio leaders.

The special needs in the western country for home missions among Baptists led, a year later, to the General

Convention of Western Baptists, which met in Cincinnati in October, 1855. An outgrowth of the earlier Western

Baptist Educational Association, which was formed May 50,

1852, in Boston, to promote various kinds of education in the West, the Convention depended heavily on Ohio leader­ ship, and particularly on the guidance of Rev. Samuel W. lynd.

^Bavid Benedict, Fifty Years Among the Baptists (New York: Sheldon and Co., 1860), p. 191.

l^Ohio Baptist Convention Proceeding of the Ninth Annual Meeting at Cleveland, May 25 and 25» 1833 (Cin- cinnati: N. S. Johnson, 155 Main St., 1855), pp. 2, 19. Hereafter cited OBC, 1833.

l^See Goodykoonz, p. 181. 1P The original round robin letter calling the Con­ vention was written by a committee of three, Samuel W. Lynd, John Stevens, and Noble S. Johnson. Ephraim Robins was also deeply involved in the Convention. Robins, along with Lynd were soon accumulating property across the river as the site for the proposed theological seminary of the 159 The Convention met each year in Cincinnati until

1838 when the delegates voted to meet biennially, alter- nating between Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati. ^

Actually the Western Convention was, for a time, a real threat to the ABHMS, especially when the plans for an

"auxiliary" Western Mission Society were proposed. "My own opinion as to our Society is," warned ABHMS Secretary IZl Luther Crawford, "Remove it and you ruin it." The Con­ vention's main accomplishment, however, was not as an auxiliary to the ABHMS, but in the Education Society's development of the Covington Seminary in 1840.

In implementing a regional missionary effort in

Ohio, the State Convention was faced with an array of difficulties. Baptist churches were small, scattered, and often even hard to reach; and few had a resident

Educational Society. S. W. Lynd, J. Stevens, H. S. John­ son to Hon. Judge Holman,/183^7,Stevens Papers (American Baptist Historical Library). Hereafter cited Stevens Papers (ABHL). Second Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Western Baptist Education Association, Presented at the Annual Meeting, May 28, 1834 (Boston: Press of Jonathan Howe, 1834), pp. 3, 7; Ephraim Robins, "Second Annual Report," Cross and Baptist Journal, IV, 9 (May 19, 1837), 35. ^^Delegates in 1838 attended from Kentucky, Ten­ nessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, and Arkansas. "Proceedings of the Eifth Anniversary of the General Con­ vention of Western Baptists," Cross and Baptist Journal, V, 35 (December 21, 1838), 138.

^^Luther Crawford to John Stevens, October 19, 1837, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 170

pastor in the neighborhood who could organize some system

of contributions. Furthermore, Baptists, whether pro­

mission or not, were fiercely independent; and any pres­

sure, even for a yearly contribution or subscription, was

resisted. More grievious, still, was the Convention's

total lack of control over Baptist growth within the state.

Baptist churches mushroomed to an amazing extent in out-

of-the-way locations, where they were destined to languish

or die in the coming years; but few churches were estab­

lished in strategic villages or county seats since Bap­

tists seemingly preferred the country. Furthermore, when

Baptist growth did occur in the ISJO's and 1840's, it was

more related to the initiative and erratic direction of a

growing number of Baptist associations than to the manage­ ment of the State Convention.

While the Convention's superintendence was mostly

located in the southern part of the state in the 1830's, principally in Cincinnati, and to a lesser degree in the

Zanesville, Granville, and Columbus areas, the rapid

growth among Baptists was taking place in the northern part of the state.^^Many churches in the southern part,

constituted in earlier times, were already "losing their visibility," and of little help in the mission program.

But, in the north, new churches were continually being 171 organized, basically in an east-to-west pattern, creating the need for new associations of churches.

Beginning the proliferation was the Rocky River

Baptist Association, which was organized in 1832 with seventeen churches and a total of 572 members, drawn from the older Grand River and Huron Associations. Centered in the Cleveland region, the Association early evidenced a progressive attitude which breathed the spirit of missions

A year later, in 1835, the Portage Baptist Associa­ tion was organized in an area immediately to the south of

Rocky River with sixteen churches which centered in Port­ age County.Another division developed in 1835 when the still new Portage Association contributed all of the

^The only new association in the southern area, aside from the antimission realignment was an abortive attempt in 1834- to gather together six churches in Jackson, Gallia, and Lawrence counties. Named after the leading church. Providence, of Jackson County, the grouping dis­ solved within a year or two. In 1833, the Bethel Asso­ ciation, in the southwest area, merged with the East Pork of Little Miami. "Statistical Table of Associations," Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 2 (June 17, 1835), 4-9; "Statistics and Notices," Cross and Baptist Journal, IV, 14- (June 23, 1837), 54. ^^Rocky River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1832 (n.p.n.d.), p. 3. In 1852, the word "Cleveland" was added to the name; and in 1859 the words "Rocky River" were dropped from the title.

Grand River Association again contributed to the new grouping. Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1835 (Ashtabula: Printed at the Sentinel Office, 1855), p. 6. 172

churches in Geauga County to form the Geauga Baptist

1 Q Association.

Farther west, in 1834, the Seneca Baptist Associa­

tion was formed with a number of churches in Seneca County,

The churches came from the Huron Association in part.

Also, the Huron Association relinquished three churches

which joined with others in 1835 to form the Sandusky

Hiver Association. By 1838, this Association had moved

the Baptist witness as far west as Hancock County, par­

ticularly to Findlay and Van Buren.^^

On September 6, 1838, the Lorain Baptist Associa­

tion was first convened with fourteen churches, seven each 20 from the Hocky River and Huron Associations. The main

concern during the initial session was the full-blown

founding of the association's missionary society.

^^OBC, 1835, p. 15.

^^In the Seneca Association, the 1841 minutes, the first listing extant, enumerated sixteen churches, with Seneca and Lodi being the largest with 58 and 56 members respectively. Seneca Baptist Association, Minutes, 1841 (Norwalk, Ohio; S. and C. A. Preston, Printers, 1841), p. 3; Z. Loomis, "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent, - No. XIII," Cross and Baptist Journal, II, 52 (March 18, 1835), 207; Joseph Jackson, "To the Editor of the Cross and Journal," Cross and Baptist Journal, IV, 50 (March 2, 1838), 199. 20 Lorain Baptist Association, Minutes, 1838 (Elyria, Ohio: Printed by C. Hall, n.d.), p. 3. The two largest churches were Elyria, with 78 members, and La Grange, with 103 members. 173 In 1839, a realignment of two groups formed two new associations. Trumbull Baptist Association, whose separate identity was carved mostly from the adjacent

Portage Association, included such churches as Mecca, the largest (with fifty-three members), Hubbard, and Youngs- 21 town. The Wills Creek Baptist Association was created out of a division of the large Meigs Creek Association, and included Salem Township, in Muskingum County, with

157 members, and Market Street Church in Zanesville with 22 168 members. All of these divisions were relatively harmonious procedures based on growth patterns and attempts to arrange closer fraternal subdivisions among

Baptists. The twenty-six associations existing at the time of the antimission schism varied greatly in mission sup­ port, even among those decidedly favorable to missions.

The usual support given was a yearly offering taken at the annual session. The most aggressive was undoubtedly the

Trumbull Baptist Association, Minutes, 1840 (Warren, Ohio: Printed at the Job Office by J. Palm, 1840), p. 3; Portage Baptist Association, Minutes, 1840 (Ravenna, Ohio: Cabinet and Visitor, Print, 1840;, p. 11. 22 The Market Street Church preferred the Wills Creek Association because of its strained relations with the First Church, having originated from a schism with First Baptist just before George Sedwick resigned his leadership of the church in 1833. Cross and Baptist Journal, VI, 17 (Sept. 6, 1839), 2; Wills Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1841 (Zanesville, Ohio: U. P. Bennett, Pr., Gazette Office, n.d.), pp. 1-2. 174 Rocky River Association which had a missionary society

employing two full-time and three part-time men, and was

under the guidance "entirely of laymen, who appeared to

be thorough-going business men.Associations such as

Rocky River and Portage employed their own missionaries

for their own area and spent a goodly portion of their 24 benevolence giving locally. In 1838, eleven associa­

tions reported missionary activities.

The Ohio Baptist State Convention clearly lacked

a commanding place of leadership during the 1830's.

Sensing this clear disadvantage, Noble Johnson and John

Stevens recognized the strategic importance of the state newspaper in cultivating an appreciation for Baptist

activities on state and national levels. For years, the paper was to be the key source of Baptist information in

Ohio.^^ Sold for two dollars per year, the four-page

^E. Loomis, "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent - No. XV," Cross and Baptist Journal, III, 4 (April 15, 1835), 1 5. The benevolent giving from Cleveland, Rocky River's leading church, reported in 1837 was a remarkable $1,200. 24 Similarly in the south in 1839, churches of the Miami and Mad River Associations joined together to form the "Miami Union" Missionary Society which that year appointed four men to serve in the region as mission­ aries. Cross and Baptist Journal, VI, 26 (November 15, 1839), 102. ^^When Benedict was writing his Baptist history, he commented to John Stevens in 1844 that Ohio was "very deficient" in the compilation of the names of ministers, and felt obliged to depend on Stevens's sources to a large degree. D. Benedict to J. Stevens, January 22, 1844, John Stevens Papers (Western Reserve Historical Library). Hereafter cited as Stevens Papers (WRHL). 175 weekly contained national and state news, secular as well as religious; but the subscriptions, listed at about 700 in I8 3 2, did not pay all of the bills.

The financial burden fell heaviest on Johnson whose long term as Convention president had transformed his pub­ lishing responsibilities of the Baptist Weekly Journal

(later called the Cross and Baptist Journal) into a per- 27 sonal and sacrificial crusade. By 1837, the paper's indebtedness was #4,000 and, a year later, #5,000. This debt involved non-payment of subscriptions rather than arrearage to Johnson. Johnson had made no charge for his services even though he "devoted most of his time to publish 28 the Cross and Journal."

The merger with The Cross of Frankfort, Kentucky, on March 28, 1854, was an attempt to increase the list of subscribers and to become more regional in scope. But soon Kentucky Baptists altered their support to more locally- oriented journals, and the Cross and Journal still lost money. "Valedictory," Cross and Baptist Journal, V, 15 (July 11, 1858), 58. ^^Whatever personal sacrifice Stevens made to continue the paper was not publicized. His salary was for a time raised separately through individual subscrip­ tions. pa Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting Held at Columbus, May, 1858 (Cin­ cinnati! N. S. Johnson, 153 Main St., I858), pp. 1, 1?. Hereafter cited OBC, 1858. Johnson's loss was basically in unpaid subscriptions. In 1855, Johnson wrote to Prof. John Pratt of the Granville Institution, "My pecuniary embarrassments forbids my sending my grandson John M. Bush to the Granville Institution any longer. This I regret exceedingly . . . ." N. S. Johnson to John Pratt, September I5, 1855, Stevens Papers (WEHL). 176

Johnson's position grew to be an impossible one by 1838. The Convention delegates, that year, sympathizing with him, voted that the Board be "instructed to pay to brother N. S. Johnson, the balance due to him for printing the minutes, etc., of 1 8 3 5 On July 11, 1838, Johnson announced, "I have transferred the proprietorship of the

'Cross and Baptist Journal' to Mr. George Cole, of Colum­ bus, Ohio.

Other Baptist periodicals were attempted in Ohio in the years prior to the Civil War. Stevens edited the monthly Baptist Advocate in 1835 and 1836. In Zanesville, two periodicals were published. The Evangelical Preacher, edited by Rev. N. N. Wood in 1848, and The Christian

Register, a weekly, which continued at least three years after its initial publication in May, 1830, and was edited by

Reverends B.T. Siegfried and David E. Thomas.But no other publication even faintly rivaled the increasingly influential Cross and Journal, later known through the

29oBC, 1838, p. 3.

S. Johnson, "Notice," Cross and Baptist Journal, V, 15 (July 11, 1838), 58. Cole had previously taught at the Granville Institution and had the support of Rev. T. R. Cressy of the Columbus Church and Dr. Jonathan Going, both very able men. A full circulation of 1,600 was well above the average ratio of subscribers to Baptist population apparent in other states. The paper was considered to be on "a safe and permanent basis."

^^The Baptist Almanac (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1852), p. 44. 177 second half of the nineteenth century as the Journal and

Messenger.

The need for a collecting agency for the Conven­

tion became apparent soon after the state organization was

created. The abrupt move in 1827 to terminate the employ­

ment of agent Corbly Martin after but one year, no doubt

to please the restive, antimission mood of the time, had

proved crippling to the Convention. A few churches gave

meagerly; but most ignored all the appeals for funds.^

Attempts to appoint delegated representatives to visit

each association and appeal for funds brought no increase

into the treasury."Temporary agents in the present

state of things," observed Rev. John L. Moore, pastor at

Piqua, who was destined to fulfill a leading role in state

affairs, "in my judgment are worse than nothing."^

A consensus at the 18$4 Convention at Wooster led

to a resolution that the Board of Trustees, commonly referred to as the Board, "employ an agent, or agents.

^ Until I8 3 4, when Convention leaders finally realized that a collecting system by an employed "Agent" was indispensable, the Convention receipts permitted only the most ill-paid and haphazard sort of missionary labor. The highest level of receipts from 1826 to 18$4 was #624.20 in 1851. OBC. 1826-1854, p. 27.

^^Ibid.. p. 26.

^^J. L. Moore to John Stevens, March 28, 1854, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 178 to travel through the state to promote the interests of the Convention.

When the Convention met at Cleveland in 1855? after eight years without any agent, Rev. Hezekiah Johnson was finally appointed. He was a fair choice. A staunch pre- destinarian, and an Abolitionist, with long years of service in Highland County particularly, Johnson was well equipped to visit among the Baptist churches in the state.^ Within the year Johnson paid his way by bring­1 ing in $1,569.68 in receipts by the end of the year. 57

A second agent, employed in November, 1835, proved invaluable to the state work. An agent on loan from the

ABHHS, Rev. S. Loomis was far better trained than most Ohio ministers. He came at a time when the Board was attempting to determine a job description and the quality necessary for a state agent. The Board had high standards for the man:

^^The records do not include any reference to the growing tension over the antimission dilemma in regards to the employment of an agent; but this Convention action may well have expressed the key decision to risk a stronger policy by hiring agents rather than continuing the weak and decentralized practice used the previous seven years. OBC, 1826-1834, p. 35-

^^OBC, 1835, p. 2; Hezekiah Johnson to John Stevens, February 20, 1835, Stevens Papers (ABHL); "Eld. H. John­ son's Pamphlet, No. 1," Cross and Baptist Journal, II, 14 (June 26, 1835), 55. ^^OBC, 1836-1837, p. 2. Johnson did not report beyond the 1836 annual meeting as an agent. 179 According to the views of the Board, it comes appropriately within the sphere of an agent's duty, besides collecting funds, to visit and preach to the churches - to inquire into their condition, point out deficiencies and suggest remedies - to advise with them as to their own ability and the most effectual way to secure, as far as practicable, the stated preaching of the Word - and to stir them up to every good word and work.58

Loomis was an indefatigable itinerant who reported almost weekly through the Gross and Baptist Journal.

Loomis worked only six months for the Convention; and, after he left, the receipts dropped from #1,400 to

#572.10 by May, 1858, reflecting to some degree the loss of an effective agent as well as the economic crisis that 40 had descended upon the nation in 1857. So popular was

^^Ibid., p. 6.

^^A typical description tells of events of January 18, 1856. "Grossing Wills creek, proceeded south west, over hills and through deep gutters or hollows, following blind paths, several times losing my way, but finally arrived a little before night, and got up a meeting. Received some encouragement. This was a hard day's work." His letters contain a wealth of material about small and forgotten Baptist congregations. "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent - No. VIII," Gross and Baptist Journal, II, 46 (February 5, 1856), 182.

^^Faced with the resignation of Loomis, the grow­ ing burden of communications with various churches fell increasingly upon the Corresponding Secretary, an elected office. Sensing the added responsibility, the Convention voted to alter the Constitution to allow some financial compensation for the job. This initial decision began the long evolution which was eventually to lift the role of the Corresponding Secretary to the highest and most powerful office among Baptists in the state. OBC, 1836- 1812, p. 15. 180

Loomis that the Convention Board quickly requested the

ABHMS for another such agent, promising that, in turn, the collections coming into the Convention treasury could be drawn out to pay missionaries employed in Ohio by the

ABHMS. In response, the Executive Committee of the ABHMS agreed to send Rev. Reuben Winchell into Ohio to collect funds, feeling his presence would aid the national society which was severely affected by the "pecuniary embarrass- 41 ment of the times."

Winchell spent only a little over two years as an

Ohio agent. Yet he was instrumental in introducing a financial scheme, called the Village Plan, which proved the most successful arrangement for gathering money prior to the Civil War. First promoted in Elyria in July, 1838, the Village Plan proposed to secure one hundred individual donors who would subscribe ten dollars per annum for five years, and two hundred more donors who would give five dollars similarly. The gifts were to be then matched by funds from the ABHMS for Ohio's domestic missions. The new appeal, the first sensible and organized plan adopted 42 by the State Convention, was immediately successful.

4^Ibid., pp. 11, 23; OBC, 1838, pp. 1-2, 4. In 1837, the ABHMS, with 129 missionaries, supported "about 20" in Ohio. Many were jointly employed with the state board. ? Reuben Winchell, "Report of R. Winchell, Agent to the Board of the 0. B. M. Convention," Cross and Baptist Journal, V, 20 (August 24, 1838), 78. 181

Prior to the 1859 Convention proceedings, Winchell and

Rev. John L. Moore, who had been recently employed as a second agent, were able to secure over one hundred pledges. ^

Winchell's successful Village Plan came none too soon for Ohio Baptists. Starting with the ineffectual plan in 1829 to raise a permanent fund, the Convention had failed each year to attract adequate money. It was true that specie was painfully scarce for the western man; iLlL and a missionary offering usually meant cash. But money was being expended in Ohio for other things. "Every part of the State is on the high road to improvement," remarked

Daniel Bryant, the Middletown pastor, after his visit to the State LesislatureEspecially were some churches busy with improvements, by constructing new meeting houses.

Ilt . ^Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Thirteenth Anniversary, Held in the Market Street Baptist Meeting House, Zanesville, May, 1859 (n.p.n.d.), p. 5T Hereafter cited OBC, 1859. 44 Douglass C. North, The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790-1860 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice- Hall, Inc., 1951), pp. 184, 199-200. ^^D. Bryant, "Letter from Columbus," Gross and Bap­ tist Journal, II, 44 (January 22, 1856), 1?5* ^ % n 1858, several key churches, namely Ninth Street in Cincinnati, Lebanon, Market Street in Zanesville, Columbus, Massillon, Akron, and Wooster, were all building new meeting houses, incurring burdensome debts. In Cin­ cinnati, the Baptists expended #7,000 each year from 1851 to 1841 for new construction costs. Ephraim Robins, "Statistics of Baptist Meeting Houses in Cincinnati," Cross and Baptist Journal, VIII, 49 (May 20, 1842), 194-; OBC, 1858, p. 12. 182

The Village Plan can well be described as the turning point for Ohio Baptists, in spite of the fact that the amount raised was really quite small. Prior to 1838, the missionary program in Ohio was "almost exclusively confined to itinerant labor." But the direction of state missions in 1838 shifted toward the more urban areas.

In 1840, the Convention created a "Town and Village Depart­ ment" and appointed fourteen men to settle in village . . 48 locations. Ohio Baptists had, up to 1838, virtually ignored any designed settlement in the towns and villages. In

1837 only thirty of the seventy-five county seats had a

Baptist church; and Baptists were reluctant to invade such 4Q areas. In fact, some village churches had resettled in open country over the years.

^Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Fourteenth Anniversary, Held in the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church, Zanesville, May, 1840 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1 3. Hereafter cited OBC. 1840. The Oxford Regular Baptist Association had actually entitled their mission­ ary organization "The Baptist Itinerant Society. "Domestic Missions," Baptist Weekly Journal, II, 3 (August 24, I8 3 2), 11. /I O The mission policy narrowed to exclude the feeble church with little growth potential, and to concentrate on the "strongest of the feeble" in order to see a quicker return on the investment. OBC, 1840, pp. 14, 20. ^^The Convention leaders were aware of the pre­ dicament. One commented, "The apostles first laid siege to the cities .... Here, again, our churches are unlike the primitive churches .... ours are mostly in the country." OBC, 1836-1837, pp. 7, 25* Loomis described the Mansfield church as "seven miles from the town." He explained, "They once held 183

One reason for the success of the Village Plan was the explicit limitation of $100 appropriation per year to any one location. Assuming the traditional allotment of $12.30 per month for Baptist missionary work in Ohio, the $100 allotment matched the near sub­ sistence standard, typical among ministers, and, hence, was looked upon without jealousy. When the Village Plan began in 1838, there were distressingly few full-time 51 pastors serving a single church.^ Some men served full time among a cluster of churches; but most supported them­ selves basically by secular pursuits.

It was not surprising that so little money was available for benevolent giving, considering the charac­ ter of the typical Baptist church. In 1838, the average membership of the 364- Baptist churches in Ohio was thirty- eight. According to one report, only fourteen congrega­ tions claimed over one hundred members; and only fifteen their meetings in the town, but have for some reasons, retired. They have no meeting house, and the church is small and scattered." The Cambridge church had done the same. E. Loomis, "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent - No. VII," Cross and Baptist Journal, II, 4-3 (January 29, 1836), 178; E. Loomis, "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent - No. XII," Cross and Baptist Journal, II, 30 (March 4-, 1835), 199.

^^In 1836, only ten churches in the state claimed the full-time attention of a minister. These churches were Enon, Sixth Street, and Union Colored, all in Cin­ cinnati, Lebanon, Middletown, Columbus, Granville, Marietta, First Baptist in Zanesville, and First Baptist in Cleveland. OBC, 1836-1837, pp. 7, 11. 184- boasted preaching services every Sunday. Over one hundred congregations held services but once a month. These were, later, derisively characterized as "30-day Baptists" or as 52 those pursuing "the monthly system. Not infrequently, the local Baptist missionaries would "ramble at large" often in the same neighborhood competing with one another, with no sense of "system" agreed upon, aside from the appointments of local churches.Instead of prospering under the guidance of settled preaching, congregations, and preachers alike were often possessed with "western fever," moving farther west, and leaving the congregations

"nearly broken up by removals.In contrast to these impeding circumstances, the Village Plan began a concentra­ tion upon more settled neighborhoods where churches had a better prognosis for survival.

To understand the Baptist disinterest in giving to state missions, one must be aware of the other categories of benevolent giving among Ohio Baptists. Foreign missions had been of measurable importance for twenty years; but, in 1856, the issue of baptism was coupled with foreign missions in such a way as to be "of momentous importance"

52QBG, 1838, p. 12.

^^George C. Sedwick to J. Stevens, Feb. 4-, 1834-, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

Loomis, "Letter from E. Loomis, Agent - No. XIII," Gross and Baptist Journal, II, 52 (March 18, 1836), 207. 185 to Baptists. The American Bible Society, to which Baptists had contributed for eighteen years, refused to sponsor or finance a Bengalee translation, in which the Greek word baptizo and its cognates were translated to mean

"immerse.The issue struck at the heart of Baptist doctrine, and soon resulted in the formation of the Ameri­ can and Foreign Bible Society in 1836 with Dr. Spencer H.

Gone as president. The new Society was to publish new foreign-language translations with an immersionist rendering.

The Baptist cause now rested not only on sending missionaries but on underwriting correct translations of the Bible for the missionaries to distribute. During the next three years, Bible societies, auxiliary to the national society, were organized throughout the state; and a state auxiliary, the "Ohio Baptist Foreign Mission and Bible

Society" was formed at Zanesville during the 1840 Conven­ tion, with Dr. Jonathan Going, the most illustrious Baptist in the state, as president.The home mission societies in the state now had to share priorities with "The Bible

^^"American Bible Society," Baptist Advocate, II 4 (April, 1836), 83. ^^T. R. Cressy, "Ohio Baptist Foreign Mission and Bible Society," Cross and Baptist Journal, VII, 44 (April 15, 1841), 1?4. 185 Cause. Contributions to the American and Foreign

Bible Society leveled off at about $500 per year over the next few years, and the renewed interest in foreign mis­ sions tended to eclipse home missions to some degree.

A sense of rivalry between various competing societies must not be viewed as resulting in contention.

In many cases, the same leaders were prominent in all these different ventures.This was particularly true of John Stevens, who spent his adult life committed to the Baptist cause in Ohio. Stevens, who began his Ohio career as editor of the Baptist Weekly Journal, and later served as professor at Granville, was also the appointed agent in 184-5 of the American Baptist Board of Foreign

Missions.Yet concurrently he promoted state missions in Ohio as aggressively as anyone.

^^The Grand River Association, for instance, in 1836 formed a Bible Society and seriously resolved to raise $1,000 within the Association for the cause. Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1836 (Ashtabula: Printed at the Sentinal Office, 1836), p. 5»

^^Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Fifteenth /sic7 Annual Meeting Held at Wooster, May, 1842 (Columbus: Cross and Journal Office, 1842J, p. 13. hereafter cited OBC, 1842.

^^In 1835, Lucius Belles, of the Foreign Board in Boston, depended heavily upon John Stevens. Samuel W. Lynd and Roble S. Johnson to promote the cause of foreign mis­ sions in the state. Lucius Belles to John Stevens, July 22, 1835, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^R. R. Pattison to Prof. John Stevens, Feb. 22, 1843, Stevens Papers (WRHL); R. E. Pattison to John Stevens, August 18, 1842, Stevens Papers (WRHL). Stevens continued in this capacity for some time, asking to resign in 1849, 187 The list of agencies appealing to the Ohio chnrches

for support did not end with Home, foreign, and Bible

Societies. There was also the Baptist General Tract

Society, begun in 1824, which became the American Baptist

Publication and Sunday School Society in 1840.^^ Local depositories of books and tracts centered in Zanesville,

Cincinnati,--and Marietta in various years. Also there was the American Sunday School Union which worked closely with the Ohio Baptist Sunday School Union, begun in 18$4.^^

In addition, local temperance societies absorbed a great

deal of energy among various local congregations, who

looked upon themselves as "patriots, philanthropists and 64 Christians" in their endeavors. Then there was the

Granville Institution, which was continually on the brink of collapse, and in need of Baptist gifts. The Ohio but remaining in a position of responsibility until 1835* Edward Bright to John Stevens, January 16, 1849, Stevens Papers (WRHL).

^^Daniel Gurden Stevens, The first Hundred Years of the American Baptist Publication Society (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, n.d.), pp. 14, 2 1 . ^^OBG, 1829. p. 20; Minutes of the Twentieth Anni­ versary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, and Proceedings of Other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio, Held at Lebanon, May, 1846 (Columbus: Geo. Cole, Printer, 1846), p. 39. Hereafter cited OBC, 1846.

^^"The Ohio Baptist Sunday-School Union," Cross and Baptist Journal, I, 23 (September 12, 1834), 97; OBC, 1839. p. 4.

G^OBO, 1859' p. 5- 188

Baptist State Convention struggled to grow among these

several agencies, a feat which proved difficult.

The 184-0 ' s brought some improvement in the finan­ cial receipts for state missions, largely attributable to the Village Plan. But the success and sustained energy more directly came from the leadership of two men. Rev.

John L. Moore who served more than a decade as a Convention

Agent, and Rev. Orrin M. Sage, who had pastored the Mas­ sillon Church until 184-0 before becoming an agent.

Anthony H. Dunlevy, a contemporary of the period, com­ mented, "Elder Moore has done more, perhaps, than any one else in the State in building up the Baptist cause.

Moore was able to direct convention policy toward the establishment of key churches located in towns and vil­ lages, so that, by the end of the decade, Ohio Baptists, for the first time, could be characterized as not almost totally rural.

Moore became "Missionary and Agent" in 1838, the same year in which the State Convention transferred to its

Executive Board the practical supervision of its mission

^Anthony Howard Dunlevy, History of the Miami Baptist Association, From its Organization in 1797 to a Division in that Body on Missions, etc. in the Year 1836 (Cincinnati : Geo. S. Blanchard and Co., 1859), p. 183. 189 program in Ohio.^^ Also it was a time when the Convention was forced to seek higher caliber missionaries, due mostly to the prodding of the ABHMS with whom the State Conven­ tion was in joint partnership. The ABHMS made it clear that all future appointments using society money had to be cleared by a "judicious and competent body of brethren in the state.Up to that time, the Board, at times, was not even sure of the number of men employed at any given time.

The employment of Moore in 1838 and Sage in 1840 seemed providential. The job was arduous enough to attract few volunteers.When Winchell resigned due to "declining

The Constitution was altered to read, "The board shall have the sole power of appointing missionaries and agents, and of disbursing funds; and in the recess of the Convention, shall be competent to transact all business." OBC, 1838, p. 4.

^^OBC, 1839, p. 7. The ruling was an attempt to screen out the itinerant types found in frontier settle­ ments. Stevens pictured one such man. Rev. James Lyon, the first missionary employed by the Miami Society. "Eld. Lyon whom I have known well for near 20 yrs., is very rigid in his views, doctrinally, practically, and very impatient at men and things that do not exactly square with his view." J. Stevens to Br. Bright, Jan. 8, 1852, Stevens Papers (V/RHL).

^^OBC,^1839, p. 7* Application and report pro­ cedures were finally outlined and publicized in 1841.

^^Others had been asked to accept the position. One man's refusal gives an insight into the job. His first excuse was "I think my constitution is too feeble to endure the labor and e%q)osure of such an agency. " His second reason was "I have an expensive family to support, and the amount of salary you have hitherto given would not be suf­ ficient to sustain them." Rev. C. Morton to John Stevens, March 13, 1839, Stevens Papers (WRHL). 190 health." in 1840, and the ABHMS had transferred support of all but six men from Ohio to the more western states,

Moore and Sage both attempted to make the work of an agent as palatable as it could be made. Moore announced, "I wish it distinctly understood that I am not about to leave the ministry and become a collecting agent for the Conven- 70 tion." He insisted he was still a preacher.'

By 1842, in spite of reports of money being

"scarce," the agents collected $3,592.60, and supervised the work of twenty-nine missionaries of whom twenty-three were settled in villages where small congregations were 71 struggling to grow.' The Village Plan had been instru­ mental in attracting almost half of this increased 72 revenue.'

So successful was the Village Plan that it was followed in 1841 by the Penny Plan, reminiscent of the older mite societies used for foreign missions years before. Ephraim Robins argued that Ohio needed something more than a "penny a week" plan; he suggested proposing a

'^^Cross and Baptist Journal, VII, 41 (March 26, 1841), 162.

^^The term "missionary" becomes a somewhat ambigu­ ous term here. Often ministers in need of economic sup­ port applied for aid and thus became "missionaries." The church did become a missionary outpost in the sense that the Board took an active responsibility in helping to find replacements at the all too frequent time of removals, OBC, 1842, p. 6. f^ibid. 191 standard gift of 6^40.But no other plan produced such revenue; and with the complete severance of ABHMS funds in

1843, Ohio Baptists were left to their own efforts to sus­ tain state missions. The Village Plan was consequently 74 renewed for another five years.' In addition, the Board worked out two different types of "Auxiliaryship” for the associations in order to capture the funds and loyalty of all the associations, both those which did not sustain active societies, as well as those which employed men in 75 given areas.

Sage resigned as agent in 1844 and also as Cor­ responding Secretary, a position he held from 1841 to 1844.

The role of agent by this time, had accumulated "more complicated duties of a financial character" which tended

Robins to J. Stevens, May 14, 1842, Stevens Papers (ABHL). Nothing came of the suggestion. The hopes of receiving a great increase in finances after the Con­ stitution was altered in 1858 to expect payment of one, ten, and thirty dollars from "annual," "life," and "honorary trustee" members also brought disappointment. Even the Village Plan failed to bring in sizable sums of money. 74 ' Proceedings of the Ohio Baptist Anniversaries Held at Dayton, May, 1843 (Columbus: Cross and Journal Office, 1843), p. 4. Hereafter cited OBC, 1843.

^^Minutes of the Nineteenth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention and Proceedings of Other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Zanesville, May, 1845 (Columbus: Stewart and Cole, Printer, 1845), pp. 12, 34. Hereafter cited OBC,^1845. The associations were about equally divided in their choice of plans. 192

to increase its necessity in Convention life.^^ Two main

agents were basically in charge of collections in the

state, one south of the National Road, and one north.

The progressive direction of the Baptist leader­

ship, intent upon capturing a larger hearing in the

increasingly numerous Ohio towns, brought with it another

set of problems. Complaints of "the frequent removal of

pastors," most of whom were frustrated by economic depriva­

tion, were common. Evidence of a "restive spirit which

prevails so extensively among us at the present time,"

tended to erode the effectiveness of many churches in the

1840's . T h e increasing number of small congregations

and the maintenance of a growing number of meeting houses

among the 4-44- churches in 1845 consumed the energies and

economic capacities of most congregations, allowing little

overflow for benevolent gifts.Also the Convention

agents found themselves involved in appealing for too many

funds. In 1846, Moore and Bloomer worked eight months for

the State Convention, and four months for Granville College,

and, as a result, secured more money for Granville than

'^^Ibid. , p. 1 5. Rev. I. Bloomer replaced Sage as agent in 1845.

??OBC, 1845. p. 12.

*^®Ibid. , p. 5 1. In 1845, the average membership for Baptist churches related to the Convention was fifty- nine. Baptist churches in eastern states had much larger congregations on the average. 193 for the Convention. Yet, both of these causes, namely

"domestic missions" and "ministerial education" were harder to "sell" by Moore and Bloomer than the more popular 79 Bible and Foreign Mission causes.

A maximum salary level of $4-00 was agreed upon in

184-6 for appointed missionaries. It was hoped that this more acceptable standard would lengthen the tenure of the men. But in the following year, Moore requested that the

Board rescind their previous action, arguing that it was too difficult to attract competent men "to important places"; and, instead, "discretion in reference to amount of salary" should be used.^^

By the time Moore retired from the agency job in

184-9, the Baptists in the State Convention had developed a sense of institutional coherence. The 477 churches which were scattered among the twenty-five associations had felt an increasingly effective leadership by the Convention

^^QBC, 1846, pp. 11-12. The Bible Cause was creat­ ing new ferment at the time. In 1848, the Ohio Baptist Foreign Mission and Bible Society divided; and the Ohio Bible Union became a competing society in 1851. Auxiliary to the American Bible Union, the Union crusaded for the immersionist translation of "baptizo" and its cognates into English language publications of scripture, an action which the older society hesitated to do. ^^OBC, 1846, p. 8; Minutes of the Twenty-First Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, and Proceedings of Other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Wooster, May, _ 184-7 _ (Columbus: Randall and Batchelder Printers, 184-7;, pp. 5, 9. 194 officers. The churches included 25,766 constituents just

0*1 one decade after the antimission schism.

The Convention yearly sent out between twenty to forty missionaries most of whom located in county seats or other important towns. It had assumed responsibility for all domestic missions, the ABHMS having even dissolved its auxiliary ties with the Ohio Convention in 1846. Moore served as Corresponding Secretary from 1844 until he announced his resignation in 1847 due to poor health.

Finding no one to take his place immediately, he served two more years aided by Rev. John Kelley and then Rev.

Jacob B. Sackett. Finally in 1849, he refused to continue any longer, and became pastor of the Dayton church, having served eight full years as the senior agent for the

Op Convention.

The role of Agent and Corresponding Secretary, brought together first by Orrin W. Sage and then by

0*1 In 1837, there had been 364 churches in twenty associations with 14,415 members, which included most of the antimission members soon to leave. OBC, 1836-1837, p. 19; Minutes of the Twenty-Third Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Mt. Vernon, May, 1849 (Dayton; Printed at the Daily Journal Office, 1849), pp. 12, 14. Hereafter cited OBC, 1849.

^^OBC, 1847, pp. 12, 35; Minutes of the Twenty- Second Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Piqua, May, 1848 (Columbus; J. H. Riley and Co., 1848), p. 17; OBC, 1849, pp. 12, 14. As late as 1856, however, Moore was still serving the Convention in less arduous tasks. 195 John L. Moore, set a precedent which was to evolve even­

tually into one strong leader serving both as an elected

official and as a financial director. The presidency of

the Convention, served by such men as John M. Gallagher

in 1845 and 1847, and Byron Leonard in 1848, both members

of the Ohio Legislature, and by Thomas W. Ewart in 1849,

a lawyer in Marietta, became mere ceremonial and super­

ficial in nature than in former years.

During the decade of the forties, four associations

joined the Convention ranks. The Wooster Regular Baptist

Association began in 1840 with eleven churches, among which

the Wooster and Massillon churches were the leaders numer­

ically.^^ In 1842, the Maumee River Baptist Association,

with fourteen churches, united with the Convention program.

Organized in 1838, Maumee River had allied itself with the 0/1 Michigan State Convention previously. The Mt. Vernon

Regular Baptist Association brought together in 1845

thirteen churches which refused to continue with the Owl

Creek Harmony Association which had just declared itself

^^Wooster Regular Baptist Association, Minutes, 1840 (Wooster: Printed by Miller and Carpenter, 1840), pp. 3, 6. ^^Maumee River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1842 (Maumee City: Printed at the Times Office, 1842), pp. 2, 3. The Perrysburg and Maumee churches were the principal congregations. In 1849, the title of the Association was shortened to "Maumee." 196

Old School.®^ Tiie Auglaize Baptist Association came into existence in 1844- when eleven churches were dismissed from the Mad River Association. All of the churches in Auglaize were relatively young, ten years old or less in age, and represented a northern expansion of Baptist influence.

In 1845, The Wills Greek Association divided in order to form the Coshocton Baptist Association in the northern section of the Wills Creek area. Seventeen churches reported to the first meeting in August, 1846.^*^ And, finally, the Caesar's Creek Baptist Association with eight churches was organized in 1846. Drawing in part from rem­ nants of the older Todd's Fork churches, the Association 88 centered in Greene, Montgomery and Warren counties.• The

Negro churches, as well as the Welsh congregations, formed associational alignments; hut these affiliations seemed so

^The churches covered in distance from Mt. Vernon in Knox County to Radnor in Delaware County. Mt. Vernon Regular Baptist Association, Minutes, 1843 (Mt. Vernon: "Democratic Banner" Print, 1843), p. 3.

®^Robert Hughes, A Condensed History of the Auglaize Regular Baptist Association (n.p.n.d.), pp. 6-8. Auglaize Baptist Association, Minutes, 1845 (Lima: E. Marot, Printer, 1845), pp. 1-2.

^"^Coshocton Baptist Association, Minutes, 1877 (Zanesville, Ohio: Printed at the Courier Office, 1877), p. 11.

QQ Caesar's Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1846 (Wilmington: Republican Office Print., 1846), pp. 1-2. 'The largest churches were Caesar's Creek and Cedarville. When the Association was first proposed in 1843, the sug­ gested name was listed as "Caesar's Creek Baptist Associa­ tion, friends to the equal rights of man." OBC, 1843, p. 19. 197 tenuous in the 1840's that the Convention ignored listing them for some time, and did not accept them as functional units.

Much of the membership growth among the churches came from "revival" or "protracted" meetings. The services lasted at times two or three weeks, sometimes longer, and increased in popularity among the Baptists during the period. Reports of such meetings, including the excitement and resulting conversions, revealed a widespread use among the churches. It was the progressive church, in the main­ stream of Protestant activity, which used the revival method. The effort was considered a device to bring reform and cultural uplift to society.

Baptist ministers became increasingly eager to learn and adopt innovative techniques in order to aid in the growth of church membership. Rev. Levi Tucker, suc­ cessful pastor in Cleveland, took great pride in his "Rail

Road Baptistry," an indoor pool built in beneath the pulpit, a new device in Ohio.^^ The Ohio Baptist Pastoral

^The confident recommendation of revivals by the Convention leaders corroborates the thesis of Timothy Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform,in which he concludes that "in the 19th Century, revival measures, being new, usually went hand in hand with progressive theology and humanitarian concern." Timothy Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth-Century~~America (New York : Abingdon Press, 1957), PP* 89, 4-7. ^^0. N. Sage, "Ohio Baptist Convention," Cross and Baptist Journal, VII, $6 (February 19, 1841), 142. 198

Conference, organized in 1841 and held in connection with the State Convention, was, in part, a yearly workshop for ministers to improve their techniques for adding members to their churches.

The Convention entered into a series of constitu­ tional reforms at mid-century. Due to the increased centralization of state missions, and the need to ration­ alize the various society appeals, the 1851 session 92 appointed a Committee on Revision of the Constitution.^

Previously, in 1849, the Constitution had been altered to qz change the annual meeting from May to October. ^ Two major constitutional alterations resulted from the committee's recommendations. A system of representation to the annual session was adopted which tended to increase the power of the local church and lessen the role of the societies and associations; but, in reality, the balance of power was held by the Convention members who could secure Annual or

Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Fif­ teenth Annual Meeting Held at Columbus, May, 1841 (Columbus; Cross and Journal Office, 1841), pp. 18-19.

^^The Committee included, Eliam £. Barney, current president and Dayton manufacturer, Rev. D. B. Cheney, the Corresponding Secretary, Rev. Samual W. Adams, pastor in Cleveland, Rev. Jacob B. Sackett, Agent, and three well- known pastors, David E. Thomas, James Lyon, and Enos Prench. Minutes of the Twenty-Sixth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Dayton, October, 1851 (Colum- bus : Printed by Scott and Bascom, 1851), p. 15*

95pBC, 1849, p. 10. 199 Life membership by making the proper donations. Each church was allowed one delegate for each 100 members or fraction thereof. The auxiliary societies were limited 94 to one delegate, and the associations to two.^

The other major development was the incorporation into "departments" of the several ministries previously handled entirely by the societies. The departments included: Foreign Mission Department; the two Bible societies, namely, American and Foreign Bible Society and the Ohio Bible Union; and the two educational societies, which were the Western Baptist Education Society and the

Ohio Baptist Education Society.Smaller changes involved a new name, shortened to the "Ohio Baptist Convention," a three-year term for Convention trustees, and an abbre­ viated form of Article III, still very important, to read,

"This Convention shall never possess a single attribute of power or authority over any church or association what­ ever.

' Minutes of the Twenty-Ninth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio, Held in Wooster, October, 1854 (Columbus: Printed by the Ohio State Journal Company, 1855), p. 5*

^^Minutes of the Twenty-Seventh Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held in Cleveland, October,1852 (Columbus: Printed by Scott and Bascom, 1852), p. 15. Hereafter cited OBC, 1852.

^^OBC, 1854, p. 3; Minutes of the Thirtieth Anni­ versary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held in Springfield, October, 1855 (Columbus: Printed by Osgood and Pearce, 1855), p. 8. 200

Continuing the constitutional trend toward cen­ tralization, the Convention Board attempted to give general supervision to one fiscal agent, calling him the "Cor­ responding and Fiscal Secretary, or General Agent." But the combination was not easy to achieve, since there were, basically, two different tasks involved, one fiscal, the other, pastoral.Rev. Orsemus Allen of Columbus, who succeeded Dr. J. B. Wheaton's long tenure as treasurer in

184-9, became the Financial Agent in 1853 for a time, while

Rev. David Austin Randall assumed the role of Corresponding

Secretary in 1852.^® The jobs were not popular. One short-term agent commented, "I am sick at heart of this eternal croaking about agents' salaries.But the role of agent was working too well to weaken it with lesser paid men. When Rev. D. F. Carnahan came from Philadelphia in 1857 to become Financial Agent, and also the Correspond­ ing Secretary the following year upon Randall's resignation.

97pBC, 1832, p. 14.

^^Minutes of the Twenty-Eighth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held in Cincinnati, October, 1855 (Columbus; Printed by Charles Scott, 1853), P* 36. Hereafter cited OBC, 18^. ^^S. B. Webster to J. Stevens, Jan. 25, 1852, Stevens Papers (WRHL). 201 the Board began speaking in terms of the "Secretary­ ship.

No sudden financial increase came in the 1850's.

Yearly receipts averaged a little better than $4,000 from an increasingly larger list of churches. The ABHMS took sole responsibility for key missions such as the ones at

Toledo, Third Church in Cleveland, Massillon, and Troy, where success seemed imperative. There was more than a subtle undercurrent of frustration among the leaders because money could be raised by everyone else more readily than by the Convention agents.The churches continued to remain relatively small, with 270 congre­ gations claiming less than fifty members and only 201 102 over fifty. The emergence of the Upper Miami Associa­ tion, formed in 1852, and later called the Miami Union

Association in 1859, and the organization of the Central

Baptist Association in 1859, revealed a continuing

Minutes of the Ohio Baptist Convention at the Thirty-Second Anniversary Held in Piqua, October, 1857 (Columbus: Printed by Osgood and Pearce, 1857J, P« 19. Hereafter cited OBC. 1857. Minutes of the Ohio Baptist Convention at its Thirty-Pourth Anniversary Held at Urbana, Oct. 19th, 20th and 21st, 1839 (Zanesville, Ohio; Printed at the Courier and Gazette Book and Job Printing Office, 1860), pp. 18-19. Hereafter cited OBC, 1839.

^^^OBC, 1854, pp. 14, 34; Minutes of the Ohio Baptist Convention at its Thirty-Third Anniversary Held at Granville, Oct. 20 and 21, 1838 (Columbus, Ohiol Osgood and Pearce, Printers, 1858), p. 22.

lO^OBC. 1859. p. 9. 202 expansion in some areas of the state.The northwestern region of Ohio, for instance, did not yet have one strong

Baptist church.

Ethnic groups in Ohio gave Baptists some opportunity for bilingual missionary work. Baptists had shared from the earliest times such work among the Welsh communities.

Several Welsh churches were among the oldest in Ohio, particularly at Radnor in Delaware County, Welsh Hills in

Licking County, and in Gallia and Jackson counties.

Rev. T. Hughes served as a bilingual missionary among the various settlements in Ohio for a time. Also an associa­ tion of Welsh churches developed in 1841; but in the earlier years it was essentially a fraternal convention for Welsh preaching and hardly an association of churches.

By 1855 1 however, the Association listed eleven churches with two in Pennsylvania, and nine in Ohio. The Association

^The Miami Union Association centered in the Dayton area and became known as the Dayton Baptist Associa­ tion in 1882. Henry P. Colby, 100th Anniversary of the First Regular Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio, Founded May 29, 1824 (Dayton, Ohio: The Walker Litho. and Printing Company, 1924), p. 65; L. E. Gayman, A History of the Dayton Baptist Association and Member Churches (Troy, Ohio : The Montgomery Printing Co., 1851), p. 11. The Central Baptist Association began with fifteen churches in Scioto, Gallia, and Jackson counties. Central Baptist Association, Minutes, 1839 (Portsmouth, Ohio: Printed at the Tribune Book and Job Office, 1859), p. 2.

^^^William Harvey Jones, "Welsh Settlements in Ohio," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XVI (1907), 194. ^^^OBC, 1858, p. 1; "Welsh Association," Cross and Baptist Journal, VIII, 14 (September 17, 1841), 54. 203 did not include some of the older Welsh churches which by then were less bilingual and more closely allied to regional associations.

The German immigration, particularly coming into the Cincinnati area, was looked upon with a good deal of suspicion. In 1851, the German population of Cincinnati made up twenty-eight percent of the total, prompting one

Baptist report to use the Biblical warning, "The enemy 107 is coming in like a flood." Eev. David Rothen was employed as early as 1846 under the joint patronage of the State Convention and the American Baptist Publication

Society. His main task was to evangelize as a colporteur 1 QO of German Bibles. In 1853, under the impetus of Eev.

John Mason Peck, who visited in Ohio that year, the Conven­ tion appointed a "Committee on German Missions" in order to encourage such a ministry. The churches in the Cincin­ nati area had previously created a Baptist City Mission

Society a year before and employed Eev. Joseph Emery to

The eight Ohio churches were Coalport in Meigs County, Ebenezer and Centreville in Gallia County, Weathers- ville, and Youngstown in Mahoning County, Palmyra in Portage County, Oak Hill in Jackson County, and Cincinnati in Hamilton County. "Ohio Welsh Baptist Association," Journal and Messenger, XXIY, 24 (June 8, 1855), 93•

^^^OBC, 1853. p. 16; Cincinnati, A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors (Cincinnati : The Wiesen-Hart Press, 1943), p. 3 9. lOGoBO, 1846, p. 10. 204 minister principally among the poor. The Mission developed a variety of ministries in the next few years. German members of the Ninth Street Church formed a separate German church in September, 1857, with Nev. G. V. Bickel as leader.

In Dayton a German church emerged under the leadership of Rev. J. H. Otto.l°9

The city churches, stronger and more progressive than others in the state, utilized especially the Sunday

School movement to attract newcomers to the city, many of whom were eager to learn American ways. Begun as schools in a multiple of locations, young churches soon mushroomed during the fifties and eventually grew into strong autono­ mous congregations rivaling the parent churches.

The Negro Baptist churches were also given some encouragement as they sought to grow through the ministry of itinerant missionaries; but there was an obvious bar­ rier which early prompted the Colored churches to seek out their own associational connections. Negro Baptists set­ tled in sufficient numbers to plant separate churches in

Cincinnati, Columbus, Chillicothe, and along Brush Greek

lO^OBC, 1855, pp. 12-14; OBC, 1859, pp. 16-17; "German Church, Dayton," Journal and Messenger, XXVII, 10 (March 5, 1858;, 58; "German Baptist Missions in this Country," Journal and Messenger, XXVI, 40 (October 2, 1857), 158. 205 in the Strait Creek Association.The Colored churches began separate associational connections in 1836 when three churches came together. At the second associational meeting in Columbus, Reuben Malvin was elected moderator and Rev. B. Charles Satchell, clerk.The original group first used the name Ohio Colored American Baptist

Association, but changed to become ".Antislavery" Baptists with the rise of the antislavery movement among Baptists in the 40's. The Convention lists of associations did not include the Colored churches until 1857, when two groups were listed, the "Union Antislavery (Colored)" claiming twenty-seven churches, and the "Providence Antislavery

(Colored)" claiming fifteen churches.The Chillicothe church and the Zion church in Cincinnati were the largest

The Colored Branch of Enon became the Union Colored Baptist Church in 1835, a strong and large congre­ gation with a full-time pastor. Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Union Baptist Church of Cincinnati (Cincinnati : Published by Order of the Church, 1880), p. 5; "Letter of Correspondence," Cross and Baptist Journal, I, 26 (September 19, 1834), 101.

llliijyiinutes of the Second Annual Association of the Regular Baptist Churches of Color in Ohio, convened in the City of Columbus, Sept. 8, 1837," Cross and Baptist Journal, IV, 39 (December 15, 1835), 155• TIP OBC, 1857, p. 30. The Providence Anti-slavery Association may have retained a continuation of the older Providence Association. Several churches did have member­ ship in both groups; and the association could well have continued a paper existence through the intervening years. Providence Antislavery Association of Regular Baptists, Minutes, 1856 (Columbus: Printed by Greiner and Scott, 1856), p. 3. 206 in the Union Antislavery group. Some fellowship developed between Union and Providence by 1860.^^^

The first Negro missionary who served as itinerant was Rev. C. Yancey, in 1844. But the most effective and well-known leader was Rev. B. Charles Satchell of the

Union Church in Cincinnati. Satchell traveled among the

Colored Baptist churches from 1846 until 1849.^^^

The few references to the Colored churches were of such a perfunctory nature as to exclude the expression of any personal attitudes toward the Negro. The Columbus and

Cincinnati churches included them in their membership at an early date; and Baptists in Ohio were, by tradition, against slavery. Ever since Joshua Carman and Josiah Dodge appeared at the opening session of the Miami Association in 1797, an antislavery attitude was implicit among Bap­ tist associations in Ohio.^^^ Generally Ohioans were not abolitionists, of course; and the Cross and Baptist Journal especially attempted to retain a neutral position, in order to extend its circulation to the south into Kentucky. But each year the slavery question, debated nation-wide, com­ pelled Ohio churches to consider the issue anew.

^^^Union Antislavery Baptist Association, Minutes, 1860 (Columbus: Printed by Glenn and Thrall, I860), p. 2.

ll^OBC. 1849. p. 10.

^^^Ezra Perris to J. Stevens, March 26, 1849, Stevens Papers (ABEL). 207 In I8 3 4, the Baptist Church in Geneva expressed

a strong statement in its letter to the Grand River Asso­

ciation calling for "Emancipation of the enslaved." A year later, the Grand River Association followed the

example of its member church and adopted an antislavery resolution.Closer to the Ohio River, the Strait Creek

Association adopted a resolution in 1840 calling slavery

"a high crime against God," and demanding that churches

"speak out boldly.A little farther west. Rev. William

Brisbane resigned from the First Baptist Church of Cin­

cinnati in 1842, and, taking thirty members with him,

organized the Sixth Baptist Church, publicly announcing that they grounded their constitution on "Abolition prin-

-] 1 Q ciples." The show of antislavery . 3ntiment among Bap­

tists in the Cincinnati area helped to erode a growing

Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1834 (Ashtabula: Printed at the Democratic Free Press Office, I834), p. 5; Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1833 (Ashtabula: Printed at the Sentinal Office, 1833), p. 5. A similar announcement against slavery by the General Conference of Freewill Baptists held in Conneaut, Ohio, 1839, was probably more influenced by national trends than by any fraternization between Regular and Freewill Baptists. The two were still two distinct groups. Norman Allen Baxter, History of the Freewill Baptists, A Study in New England Separatism (Rochester, New York: American Baptist Historical Society, 1937), p. 96. ^^^Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1840 (West Union, Ohio: James Smith, Printer), p. 3*

*1 1 Q "Regular Baptist Churches in Cincinnati in 1842," Cross and Baptist Journal, Vlll, 44 (April 1 5, 1842), 174 . 208 friendship with Kentucky Baptists just as the Western ¥ Baptist Education Society had sponsored an important edu­ cational project in Covington, Kentucky, which needed the goodwill both of Ohio and Kentucky Baptists.

The Convention of Antislavery Baptists was held in Brisbane's church in Cincinnati in September, 184-4-, and chose Rev. Thomas Craven as president. Craven was the son of Rev. John G. Craven, who founded the

Eleutherian College in College Hill, Jefferson County,

Indiana.A close relationship developed between Craven and a few Ohio Freewill churches, resulting in the forma­ tion of the Western Regular Baptist Antislavery Association in 1854-, in which four Ohio Freewill churches joined the

Indiana leader with the stated purpose of becoming

"practically separated from all societies which involve 120 church fellowship with slaveholding." Most Baptist

^"Convention of Antislavery Baptists, Held in Cincinnati, September 28, 29 and 30, 184-4," Cross and Journal, XI, 3 (Oct. 25, 1841), 4; "Eleutherian College," Journal and Messenger, KXVI, 29 (July 17, 1857), 114; Curtis Marshall, "Eleutherian College," Indiana History Bulletin, XXV, 11 (Nov., 1948), 200-203. The Eleutherian College flourished from 1849 to 1851 in an attempt to educate Negro and white students. During its thirteen years of coeducational endeavors, approximately 225 pupils attended the school. Of this enrollment 50 or 60 were Negroes. 1 PQ The churches were Litchfield in Medina County, Kirtland in Lake County, Clarksfield in Huron County, and Orwell in Ashtabula County, all in Ohio, and College Hill in Jefferson County, Indiana. Rev. Thomas Craven was elected moderator. In 1856 the Western Regular Baptist Antislavery Association was renamed to the Free Regular Baptist Association. Western Regular Baptist Antislavery 209 churches in Ohio were not aggressively involved in the

slavery issue, preoccupied instead with their typical

concerns of doctrine and polity.

Association. Organized in Litchfield, Medina County, Ohio, Nov. 8-9, 1854 CCleveland: Harris, Fairbanks, and Co., Printers, Herald Office, 1855)» pp. 5, 5* CHAPTER VII

HIGHER EDUCATION AMONG OHIO BAPTISTS

The educational endeavours among Baptists in Ohio revealed the wide range of cultural differences among them.

Following the societal plan, the Ohio Baptist Education

Society, rather than the Ohio Baptist Convention, sustained direct and continuous sponsorship of the cause of higher education. Even omitting the Old Schoolers, only a small fraction of the Baptist population was concerned with edu­ cational pursuits. The societal system dictated a prin­ ciple of volunteerism in Baptist polity which allowed limited support and only to the amount of local sympathetic concern. Such support was generally poor; hut a dedicated minority, committed as they were to the equalitarian move­ ment to educate the common man, was able to provide a significant contribution to Ohio's efforts in education.^

The Ohio Baptist Education Society, which began in

1816, barely maintained it's existence until after the organization of the Ohio Baptist State Convention in 1826.

As the lack of educated leadership became painfully apparent

^See Merle Eugene Curti, The Growth of American Thought (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), pp. 510-11.

210 211 among Baptists within the state, the Society sought to revitalize its purposes by meeting at Lebanon on May 3»

1830, during the gathering for the annual sessions, to reorganize itself and to rewrite a constitution. Meeting again in Zanesville the following October, during which the reorganization was completed, the Society then pro­ posed to establish "a literary and theological Seminary" 2 in order to train ministers for Ohio.

The Cincinnati leaders, led by francis Dunlevy of

Lebanon who had been elected Society president, already had a site in mind. From the start, they envisioned the proposed seminary directly across the river in Newport,

Kentucky.^ But the Society went on record at the October meeting that the seminary should be located only within the state, not fully trusting the "views of Kentucky . . . a slave state." The Society, meeting on November 2, 1830, and desiring to begin ministerial training as quickly as possible, appointed Eev. George C. Sedwick as Principal of a Preparatory School until the proposed seminary could be located. Sedwick initiated the temporary school in

^"Minutes of the Ohio Baptist Education Society," The Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 2 (Nov., 1830), 22-23.

^The other men from the Miami Valley region who supported Dunlevy's proposition were Wilson Thompson, George Patterson, Noble S. Johnson, John Woolley, Adam McCormick, Thatcher Lewis, A. Dudley, and Ephraim Robins. Ibid., p. 21.

^Ibid., p. 22; "Address to the Churches," The Regu­ lar Baptist Miscellany, II, 4 (Jan., 1831), 60. 212

Zanesville with a tuition fee of five dollars for a term from December, 1830, to May, 1831.^ The enrollment was not publicized by Sedwick; and one can only surmise that the response was poor.

A decision to locate at Granville was made during the Society's meeting at Lancaster in May, 1831, where the

State Convention was meeting. The two preachers of the

Granville church. Rev. James Berry and Rev. Allen Darrow, both of whom had attended previous Society meetings, pre­ sented the only definite offer for a site within Ohio.

The Granville men had taken an option on a 200 acre farm, and had secured half of the pledges locally to purchase the farm for #3,300.^ The members of the Education

Society, eager to begin, accepted the offer, seeing in

Granville a community prospering due to the construction of the Ohio Canal being built not far away, and small enough to sustain a rural, "safe" atmosphere deemed neces- 7 sary to protect the virtue of Baptist students.' The

Society raised $43.00 for ministerial education at the

^"Preparatory School of the Ohio Baptist Education Society," The Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 3 (Dec., 1830), 38. ^G. Wallace Chessman, Denison, The Story of an Ohio College (Granville, Ohio: Denison University, 1957), pp. 19-20.

David Bronson Potts, "Baptist Colleges in the Development of American Society, 1812-1861," (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Harvard University, 1967), p. 136. 213 meeting, while the Granville community was left with much of the burden of the $3,300 debt.

The visit of Eev. Jonathan Going to the Lancaster

Convention on his tour of the western areas of the United

States brought a profound change of direction in the found­ ing of the Granville school. Recommending the "New England plan," which called for the broadening of the curriculum beyond its proposed theological studies. Going convinced the Ohio leaders that a school could serve chiefly as a preparatory institution for the ministry by including classical and scientific studies, while serving, at the same time, more generally the needs of other Ohio students.^

Thus the proposed seminary became the "Granville Literary and Theological Institute," receiving its name temporarily from the town where it was located while awaiting for "a donation of ten thousand dollars, or more" to determine "a permanent name."^ At the time of the school's beginning, it was commonly believed that not one Baptist pulpit in

Ohio was occupied by a college graduate.

Rev. John Pratt, a graduate of Amherst, arrived in

October, I83I, to head the school, and classes began in

Q Chessman, pp. 11, 15, 21.

^"Granville Literary and Theological Institution," Baptist Weekly Journal, I, 12 (Oct., 14, 1831), 12.

^^Rev. Allen Darrow, "The Beginning at Granville," Journal and Messenger, LVIII, 37 (Sept. 12, 1889), 1. 214

December in the village while the farm buildings were still being renovated. Before this task had been completed, a disastrous fire leveled the main building in May, 1832, and the Institution was forced to appeal for new subscrip­ tions from the Granville community. By the end of the year the debt on the farm and the new buildings was $5,000.^^

This indebtedness caused almost yearly fiscal crises over the next few years. The Institution early found how few were the friends who were willing to come to its rescue.

Rufus Babcock of Massachusetts wrote, "I am sorry your

Granville Institution has dived into debt so deeply in the outset. Rev. Joshua Bradley, soliciting agent for it, has visited most of our churches in the neighborhood without 12 very distinguished success." A committee report of the

East Pork of Little Miami Association gave insight into

Ohio's support of the Granville undertaking in 1855• The report admitted that "perhaps one third of our denomina­ tion is hostile to the Institution, and perhaps another 15 third is quite indifferent whether it lives or dies."

^^Chessman, pp. 24-50.

^^Rufus Babcock to John Stevens, Jan. 24, 1855, John Stevens Papers (American Baptist Historical Library). Hereafter cited as Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^Handwritten report of the Committee on the Gran­ ville Institution, East Pork of Little Miami Baptist Asso­ ciation, 1835 (American Baptist Historical Library). The committee members were John Stevens, Samuel W. Lynd, and E. Lane. 215 By 1854-, the school was in dire circumstances.

President Pratt and Paschal Carter, a fellow teacher, had borrowed #1,000 to extend the #5,000 debt, hoping that some of the unpaid pledges would be received soon. But 14 contributions came slowly. Rev. John B. Cook, pastor at Enon in Cincinnati, described the crisis:

Bro. Pratt is almost crazy about being ruined by that #1,000.00 - All his labors will be lost, the denomination disgraced - the cause of educa­ tion prostrated, so that, much more money and several yrs. labors would be required to get as far as they now are.15

The Baptist churches in Ohio, by and large, did not respond to the crisis. The Convention report of I855 admitted that the Institution was "relying for funds solely on the liberality of the community," although Pratt had journeyed to the East also to collect funds from more lucrative sources.Actually the school had been success­ ful in attracting a goodly number of students and was well organized. About one hundred students were enrolled in

18351 and participated in the manual labor system in vogue

L. Moore to J. Stevens, April 29, 1834, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

B. Cook to J. Stevens, April 24, 1834, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^Baptist Advocate, I, 2 (Feb., 1835), 45; Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting at Cleveland, May 23. and 25, 1835 (Cincinnati: H. S. John­ son, 133 Main St., 1835), p. 3* 216 17 at the time. Fuads, however, became increasingly

scarce.

Finally, in desperation, Pratt resigned as presi­

dent and appealed to Stevens to leave his editorship of

the Gross and Baptist Journal and come to Granville as

the new president. Pratt's difficulties were not entirely

financial. He had alienated most of the school's faculty,

with more than a hint of heavy-handedness in his effort 1 R to subdue the volatile issue of abolitionism. Pratt

had fired one man; and two others had resigned. Stevens

received letters from Pratt, Carter, Going, and others,

all recommending that he assume leadership. "As things

are," questioned Pratt, "can the paper be of more importance

than the college?

17"^he Union of Labor and Study," Regular Baptist Miscellany, II, 8 (May, 1831), 113-14. The Granville school, said Carter, was trying to give manual labor help to needy students by the construction of pork barrels. The market, however, for such barrels "for the present" was "poor," and the students were about to begin making flour barrels. P. Carter to J. Stevens, Oct. 18, 1835, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^John Pratt to J. Stevens, March 20, 1835, Stevens Papers (ABHL). In the aftermath of the 1834 Lane Debate which brought such distress to Rev. Lyman Beecher, Pratt may well have had good reason to attempt to subdue similar feelings at Granville. One student, W. W. Alford, com­ plained that he had not been allowed to write or speak on the subject of Abolition at the school. W. W. Alford to "To whome it may concern," Aug. 8, 1836, John Stevens Papers (Western Reserve Historical Library). Hereafter cited Stevens Papers (WRHL).

^^John Pratt to J. Stevens, March 27, 1837, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 217 The college was certainly on the point of failure, and everyone knew it. "Something must be done at the annual meeting," argued David C. Bolles, treasurer at

Granville, "the question indeed, whether the Institution is to live, or die, will doubtless be virtually settled .

. . . There is a reasonable prospect of saving it, pro­ vided you will assume the helm, and give your energies 20 and influences to the object."

Stevens did not want to go, and told the Board so, but continued pressure forced him to seek the advice of his friends in the state and to consider the move.

When Dr. Jonathan Going consented to leave the East where he had served as the Corresponding Secretary of the Ameri­ can Baptist Home Mission Society to become the new college president, his acceptance hinged on the one condition that 21 Stevens come to the Institution "in due time." Conse­ quently Stevens was thrust into an academic role hardly of his own choosing. All of the Convention leaders, however, saw Stevens as the most influential and acceptable Ohio man for the rescue of the important Granville School.

Jonathan Going was one of the most prominent min­ isters in the Triennial Convention, a factor which meant

^^David C. Bolles to J. Stevens, July 28, 1837, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 21 The term, "in due time," stretched into a period of almost two years. See Jonathan Going to John Stevens, Sept. 15, 1837, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 218

added prestige to the struggling college. Going was progressive in his theology, having served on the com­ mittee producing the New Hampshire Confession shortly 22 before. He was also a warm friend of the Vest, and was a preacher more than a scholar, traits not altogether

to his disadvantage in the West.^^

Going was soon able to raise #3,000, enough money

to negotiate a larger loan; but with this, the debt increased rather than diminished. Baptists could not have responded very easily during these years. The whole 24 country was caught up in a serious financial depression.

Baptists in Ohio, however, did have some money for the more doctrinal issue of the "Bible Cause"; and the friends of education feared that churches were dangerously ignoring 25 a project of high priority. ^

22 The New Hampshire Confession was a much abbre­ viated, moderating version of the older and more Calvinistic Philadelphia Confession of Paith. The New Hampshire Con­ fession dated to 1832. 2$Going came to Granville in 1837, having asked for a #200 advance to aid in moving. Carter tried to get a #200 loan in the East, but failed due to a combination of economic crisis and lack of faith in the college. "The report is that the money could not be had in the East were it to save the State of Ohio" reported Carter. Then he added, "And now the money must be raised in Ohio." P. Carter to John Stevens, Oct. 13, 1837, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 24 P. Carter to John Stevens, Jan. 13, 1838, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^Ohio Baptist Convention Proceedings, 10th Annual Meeting Held at Granville, May, 1836, and of the 11th Annual Meeting Held at Marietta, May, 1837 (Cincinnati : N. S. Johnson, No. 133 Main St., 1837J, PP- 14-, 23. 219

Steven's reluctance to come immediately to Gran­ ville was, in part, due to his unwillingness to abandon

Noble Johnson, who was already debt-ridden, until some satisfactory arrangement was made concerning the Cross and Baptist Journal paper. Once the paper was sold to

George Cole of Columbus, and Johnson was reimbursed suf­ ficiently, Stevens transferred his greatly needed energies to Granville and was instrumental in recruiting a competent faculty which had been depleted since the episode with

President Pratt.

Even with two well-known and trusted ministers leading the Institution, both of whom worked hard at encouraging financial support and were able to recruit a corps of over one hundred students of whom more than fifty were "hopefully pious," the Baptists of Ohio failed to 27 underwrite jhe school. ' By 1842, the school's debt was

$10,228.00; and Going, ill by then, was never able to pQ relieve the condition. The over-all contributions

Jonathan Going to J. Stevens, Jan. 8, 1859» Stevens Papers (ABHL); John Pratt to J. Stevens, August 5» 1859, Stevens Papers (WRHL). To some degree, Pratt spoke the truth when he had asked Stevens to come to Granville knowing that "Dr. G. would be paid for his character, and you for your work." Pratt referred to this years later as he reminisced. John Pratt to J. Stevens, Jan. 1, 18^2, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the fifteenth Annual Meeting Held at Columbus, May, 1841 (Columbus: Cross and Journal Office, 1841), p. 5«

^®Going died in 1845, and Dr. Silas Bailey became president in 1847. 220 from all sources since 1831 had amounted to approximately #24,000.00.29 Although the financial crisis began to ease con­ siderably in 1845, and the Baptists in Ohio were able to raise #7,000 for the school, Granville College, its new name that year, was not really secure. Not until a decade later when the College was able to raise #65,000, was the school on relatively safe financial ground.^ Baptists had never responded liberally with financial support during the earlier years. A trickle of benevolent giving flowed into home missions, higher education, foreign missions, and

2Q The sources of the contributions were as follows: #10,000 from local citizens in Granville and Licking County, #7,000 from other parts of Ohio, and #7,000 from the East. In the same year, 1842, the Ohio Baptist Edu­ cational Society collected only #126.62 for indigent stu­ dents preparing for the ministry at Granville. The Society was never able to collect large gifts, its whole function being that of an auxili ary arm of the school to promote funds for students preparing for the ministry. Ohio Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Fifteenth /sic7 Annual Meet­ ing Held at Wooster, May, 1842 (Columbus: Cross and Journal Office, 1842J, pp. 3, 14, 26.

^^The #65,000 was the amount raised in a campaign to reach #125,000 in subscriptions. Again, it was the Licking County residents who raised over #50,000 of the amount pledged. The permanent name, Denison University, came out of this campaign. William Denison, a farmer in Muskingum County and a member of the Adamsville Church, pledged to contribute #10,000; and the school's name was officially changed on June 25, 1856. Minutes of the Twenty-Ninth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held in Wooster, October, 1854 (Columbus: Printed by the Ohio State Journal Company, 1855), PP* 14, 21. Hereafter cited, OBC, 1834; "Denison University," Journal and Messenger, ZLIV, 51 (Dec. 22, 1875), 1; Chessman, p. 35. 221 the Bible cause; but most Baptist money was consumed on

the survival and maintenance of an increasing number of

small, struggling, and mainly inward-looking congrega­

tions which could ill afford generous gifts during the 51 early, crucial years of Granville College's existence.

One of the reasons for the continuous financial difficulties of the college during the early years was

the reluctance of the Miami Valley Baptists to support

such a venture located north of the National Eoad.

Instead, Rev. Samuel W. Lynd of the Ninth Street Church,

Cincinnati, along with Ephraim Robins and others developed

the plans which had been rejected by the Education Society

concerning the site at Newport, or as it was later desig­ nated, Covington, Kentucky. Lynd had in mind using the

Covington site as a broadly supported theological seminary for all Western Baptists, a proposal espoused also by

^Granville College, however, fared better than the Granville Female Seminary which had to be sold some years after its start in 1854. At the same time, Gran­ ville Female College, largely under Congregational and Presbyterian auspices, managed to survive until 1898. Also the Norwalk Institute, an academy with Baptist con­ nections which lasted from 1847 to 1854, never grew strong enough to survive. Rev. Jeremiah Hall, pastor at Norwalk, had led in the purchase of the school and, for several years, turned it into the largest feeder to Granville College, a feat which led in part to his presidency at Granville from 1853 to 186$. Chessman, p. 52; Minutes of the Nineteenth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Conven­ tion, and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Zanesville, May, 1845 (Columbusl Stewart and Cole, Printers, 1845), p. 9; OBC, 1854. p. 18. John Mason Peck.^^ Doubtless this was one of the main purposes in Lynd's mind in helping to organize the Conven­ tion of Western Baptists and then in persuading them to meet in Cincinnati for their annual meetings. The "Coving­ ton Theological School" was an important item on the agenda of the Western Baptist Education Society in 1838 which met during the Western Convention; and only the strong leader­ ship of the newly-established theological department at

Granville restrained an earlier development of the proj­ ect.President Going had assumed the chair of Theology while John Stevens had been appointed Vice President and

Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in 1837*^^

During the years of delay in the development of the Covington site, the Cincinnati leaders were less than helpful toward the struggling Granville institution.

Calling the Cincinnati men "incorrigible" and "hard­ hearted," Henry Miller, the hymn book publisher and member of the Ninth Street Church, sympathized with President

Going: "I do not accept the apologies that are made for

^^See T. G. Jones to J. Stevens, Dec. 15, 1833; Samuel W. Lynd to Dr. Noll, Jan. 7, 1833, Stevens Papers (ABEL).

"Fourth Anniversary of the Western Baptist Edu­ cation Society," Cross and Baptist Journal, V, 36 (Dec. 28, 1838), 141.

5^T. R. Cressy, Address, Delivered before the Ohio Baptist Education Society, at their Annual Meeting, Held in Granville, August, 1837 (n.p.n.d.), p. 14. 2 2 3 not lending a helping hand to Granville. At any rate, the wealthiest Baptist region in Ohio had a strong pre­ dilection toward the neighboring site, and had determined to make the Cincinnati area the leading theological center in western country.

The Western Baptist Theological Institute was incorporated by the Kentucky General Assembly which on

February 3, 1840, set apart a considerable tract of land which is now a part of the city of Covington, Kentucky.^

Anticipating the adequate funding of the school through speculative sales of the land holdings, the seminary did not seem to publicize its operation to any great degree in order to raise funds, and no major article regarding it appeared in the Baptist weekly newspaper now located in Columbus. The Seminary began operations in 1845 when

Rev. Robert Everett Pattison of Massachusetts came west to serve as president. Pattison had formerly worked with the Board of Foreign Missions and had been John Stevens' immediate superior when Stevens served as the western agent

^%enry Miller to Dr. J. Going, March 9, 1839, Stevens Papers (WRHL).

^^Some of the Chio trustees were Ephraim Robins, John Stevens, Isaac Colby, Samuel W. Lynd, John B. Cook, Noble S. Johnson, Henry Miller, and Aaron Gano. Ephraim Robins was called "the life of the enterprise." He lived in the house on the Institution's grounds merely for the purpose of being able more conveniently to take care of the property. He was "buried there" in 1845. Edward Turney to J. Stevens, May 50, 1848, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 224 for the Board. Within two years Pattison came under heavy fire from the Kentucky Baptists for suspected antislavery views.Baptist leaders across the river in Cincinnati were not without their strong opinions on the subject of slavery; and Pattison had become closely involved in

Cincinnati affairs, having assumed the role of pastor of the new Walnut Street Baptist Church. His colleague,

Prof. E. G. Robinson, also became a second pastor within the same church.^

The Kentucky suspicion was substantially true.

The charge had come at a time when the newly organized

Southern Baptists had made all Baptists extremely restive %q concerning the slavery issue.Pattison was accused by the Kentucky Baptists of planning to sell the Covington property and move the seminary north of the Ohio River,

^^Orie S. Ware, "The Old Western Baptist Theologi­ cal Institute of Covington, Kentucky," Typewritten paper read November 22, 1949, before the Christopher Gist Historical Society, Covington, Ky. (Cincinnati Historical and Philosophical Library;, pp. 5-8.

^^Cross and Journal, XIII, 15 (Jan. 29, 1847), 2. ^^Pattison had termed the Alabama Resolution the "Alabama demon" in a letter to Stevens, and was no doubt more sympathetic to the North than to the South. The "Alabama demon" referred to the demand that slave holders be accepted as missionaries by the Board, a demand that led to the schism among Baptists in 1845. R. E. Pattison to John Stevens, April 3, 1845, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 225 a charge he could not deny. The plan had not been secret

at all; but the formation of the Southern Baptist Conven­

tion had indeed alarmed the Kentucky men about the real 4-1 possibility of losing the seminary. The Kentucky Baptists

accused three men principally of designing a plot "as early

as the spring of *4-7" to "place the institution entirely 42 in the hands and under the control of the free states."

The three men were Pattison, Stevens, and Rev. Orrin Sage.

When Pattison was forced to resign over the issue,

Lynd, who had since become pastor in St. Louis, was offered

the presidency of the Seminary as an acceptable choice for both sides. Lynd had worked fifteen years in creating the institution, and had a personal stake in its success. He knew that Kentucky and Ohio Baptists basically sponsored or supported no other seminary.Lynd accepted the

40 Later, Pattison said that he could not remember who had made the fatal comment about moving. But he felt that it had been Lynd who had actually said it in the summer of 1845. The agreement was that if the South would not cooperate, they would move the Seminary across the river. R. E. Pattison to J. Stevens, Nov. 9, 1848, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^T. R. Cressy denied that the possibility of moving had been secret at all. T. R. Cressy to J. Stevens, Oct. 18, 1848, Stevens Papers (ABHL). Zip "Western Baptist Theological Institute," Journal and Messenger, XVI, 41 (July 25, 1850), 162.

^^The reference here concerns Ohio Baptists joined to the Ohio Baptist State Convention. The Geauga Seminary was founded in 1844 in Ohio and served the Freewill Bap­ tists until 1854. James A. Garfield was the Seminary's most illustrious student spending four terms there during 226 presidency and was formally elected in October, 1848, but not before the General Assembly of Kentucky passed a bill which added sixteen trustees, all citizens of Kentucky, to the institution's Board of Trustees. This, in effect, put the seminary securely under the control of the Kentucky

Baptists, and precluded any hope of moving the school to 44 another site. The school, financed mainly by northern, and particularly Cincinnati money, immediately became a legal battleground between Ohio and Kentucky Baptists.

Lynd hoped to effect some conciliation, but the

Ohio men looked upon him in a different light. Rev. T. R.

Cressy, formerly of the Columbus church before moving to

Indiana and the son-in-law of President Going, expressed the reaction clearly: "In coming, Lynd has nothing to sacrifice in regard to the North. He has already sold himself to the South." Then Cressy expressed the general plan of action advocated in Ohio: "The object of this note the years 1849 and 1850. In 1850 the school, headed by Daniel Branch, enrolled more than 200 students, and offered courses in mathematics, natural and moral science, English, ancient and modern languages, as well as other subjects. Geauga Seminary merged with Hillsdale College in Michigan after 1854. Norman Allen Baxter, History of the Freewill Baptists, A Study in New England Separatism (Rochester, New York: American Baptist Historical Society, 1957), p. 90; James A. Garfield, The Diary of James A. Garfield, ed. by Harry James Brown and Frederick D. Williams (.2 vols. ; East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1957), I, xvii.

)\ h Ware, pp. 8, 11. 227 then is to call the Cincinnati brethren to act with all

that promptness and energy, that will be necessary—

absolutely necessary in getting up a rival institution.

It will be hard, but it must go— Delay will be sure

defeat. If Lynd comes, as he surely will, he will divide

and conquer.The Ohio men did not wait long. A deed

dated July 24-, 184-8, transferred three acres of land in

Hamilton County, just outside the city limits in Cincin­

nati, to the Fairmount Land Company to be used "for an

institution of learning." Rev. John Stevens had made the

necessary arrangements, giving the Western Baptist Educa- 4-5 tion Society a possible new beginning for a seminary.

Meanwhile a controversy developed over the

Covington matter, in which different stories emerged with

Lynd and John Mason Peck defending the Covington venture

against the statements of Stevens and Pattison. One friend

reported to Stevens, "The course of Bro. Peck is surprising

to me, but I account for it by knowing the strong prejudices

which he has been for years nourishing against the east,

and he thinks that Cin® is disposed to tread in their

paths .... you must bear in mind that Peck, Lynd and

^^T. R. Cressy to J. Stevens, July 6, 184-8, Stevens Papers (ABHL).

^^Deed of land, Pairmount Land Company to John Stevens, July 24-, 1848, Stevens Papers (WRHL). Other Ohio men signing the transaction were C. S. Bryant, 0. N. Sage, and S. B. Munson. 228

Malcom were fellow students at The controversy,

involving newspaper explanations as it did, hardly helped

the Covington school. In 1849, Lynd had only one student

at Covington, and soon found out that Kentucky would not 4*8 support a school so close to "the infected district."

The resulting litigation over the legality of the two

contesting hoards of trustees was finally won in 1854 by

the original board of the Western Baptist Education Society.

But, by then, the sources of financial support had dis­

appeared, and the trustees could only sell the Covington property in 1855 and divide the money equally between

North and South.

During the litigation, progress toward an Ohio

seminary at Eairmount developed quickly. Several meetings during 1849 and 1850 brought together key leaders who were

committed to the seminary. The Ohio men played a leading role in the venture, even though Pairmount was intended for "Theological Education for the North West." The Western

Baptist Education Society, embarrassed to some degree by the open rift between Peck and the Cincinnati leaders,

expressed the desire to abandon the whole project of the

47 Charles C. Crosby to J. Stevens, May 5, 1849, Stevens Papers (ABHL). 4^Ibid.

^^Ware, pp. 11, 14. 229 seminary as early as 1849, but retained a legal title to the property until the final settlement of the Covington issue. The Fairmount project was transferred to a board of independent trustees in 1855.^^ John Stevens, who had left Granville for a time, freed himself of time-consuming ties as the western agent for the American Baptist Mis­ sionary Union in order to promote the new seminary.

The fairmount location was not agreed upon without some serious consideration of two other possible sites.

Both Lebanon and Granville were proposed by several leaders;

^ Minutes of the Twenty-Third Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, and Proceedings of other Societies of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held at Mt. Vernon, May, 1849 (Dayton; Printed at the Daily Journal Office, 1849), pp. 56, 62-64; Proceedings of the Western Bap. Edu­ cation Society, at Pairmount, June 20, 1855 ... (Cincinnati; T. Wrightson and Co., Printers, 1855), p . 15; Henry P. Colby, Tribute to the Memory of Ebenezer Thresher (Dayton, Ohio : Press of United Brethren Publishing House, 1886), p. 72. Relinquishment of the Seminary by the Society signaled the breakup of the Baptist unity of the Vest which had heretofore evidenced a strong coherence.

^^J. Stevens to Rev. Edward Bright, Corresponding Secretary of the ABMU, Dec. 14, 1848, Stevens Papers (WRHL). Stevens and J. L. Moore hoped to raise approximately #50,000. Moore drew up an estimate from various possible sources in Ohio, as he knew them. His estimate included: #15,800 from the Miami region with Cincinnati giving #9,000; Dayton, #3,000; Lebanon, #2,000; Franklin, #500; Middletown, #500; Lockland, #500; and Hamilton, #300. Prom other parts of Ohio, he listed four areas expected to give more than #1,000, namely East Pork of Little Miami, #2,000; Mad River, #1,500; Rocky River, #1,500; and Wills Greek, #1,200. He listed Strait Creek, Columbus, Meigs and Huron areas as giving #1,000. J. L. Moore to J. Stevens, Dec. 24, 1849, Stevens Papers (ABHL). By 1853, Ohio had raised over #24,000. 250 and, as a result, a serious rift developed between some of the men in 1852, mostly because the whole affair thrived more on intrigue than on open debate. Granville College was particularly weakened for a time. President Silas

Bailey, who became president at Granville in 1845 after

Going's death, seemed willing to move the college to

Lebanon where it would have become more accepted and bet­ ter supported by the Miami Valley Baptists. Pascal Carter, long-time professor at Granville, argued that the school could not be legally transferred from Granville because of the provision made in its charter. Other leaders,

Stevens, Anthony H. Dunlevy, and Convention Corresponding

Secretary John Moore among them, were drawn into the turmoil that centered in the question of whether Granville would move or remain. Granville remained, and Pairmount was chosen, but the student enrollment at Granville was 52 badly reduced because of the uncertainty.^

The Pairmount Theological Seminary opened on

October 27, 1855, housed in a four-story building capable of accommodating forty students, and built at the cost of

$20,000. Two professors composed the faculty. Rev. Edmund

Turney, who had come from the Madison University in

^ Henry Carr to J. Stevens, March 15, 1852; P. Carter to J. Stevens, August 6, 1852; P. Carter to J. Stevens, Sept. 15, 1852, Stevens Papers (ABHL). Granville actually had to suspend its teaching schedule for almost a year partly because of the uncertainty, but reopened in December, 1855* 251 New York to become Professor of Biblical Literature and

Interpretation, and Eev. Marsena Stone, who had been pastor at Norwich, New York, and who began his employment as Principal of the Preparatory Department and Professor of English Language.After three years of operation,

Pairmount, heavily in debt, housed only twenty-four S4- students.^

The early days witnessed some rather sizable gifts to the Pairmount institution; and the team of Rev. John L.

Moore as general agent and Rev. Orrin N. Sage as financial agent seemed to foreshadow a successful future. Pour classes were graduated, although the enrollments were smaller than expected. Then abruptly, at the June gradua­ tion in 1858, the Board of Trustees announced that they were unable to pay the current expenses, and, with a total indebtedness of more than #12,000, closed the school until money could be found.

^^Minutes of the Twenty-Eighth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio, Held in Cincinnati. Oct., 1853 (Columbus; Printed by Charles Scott, 1853), pp. 52-55; John P. Poote, The Schools of Cincinnati, And its Vicinity (Cincinnati: C. P. Bradley and Co. Power Press, 1855), P* 165*

^^Minutes of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention of the Baptist Denomination in Ohio Held in Springfield, October, 1853 (Columbus: Printed by Osgood ^ d Pierce, 1855), P* 12. ^^"Pairmount Anniversary," Journal and Messenger, XXVII, 25 (June 18, 1858), 98. 2)2

The money had not dried up without cause. There had been some prejudice on the part of other states against the major role played by Ohio in the maintenance of the school. Cincinnati Baptists found themselves burdened with the same lack of support experienced by Granville when Cincinnati had denied the earlier aid.^^ The emer­ gency conferences which followed the closure contained discussions of great length about the need for a seminary for the whole "North West."^^ But Pairmount remained closed, and eventually the property was put up for sale by the sheriff to settle the debt.^®

No further attempt to reorganize a theological seminary in the state was supported within the Ohio ranks.

The professors quickly drifted away from the Pairmount debacle. Rev. Marsena Stone moved to Granville where he became professor of theology at Denison University, and, concurrently, principal of the Young Ladies' Institute.

^ "Shall Pairmount be Sustained?" Journal and Messenger. XXXVII, $4- (Aug. 20, 1858), 154; "Our Seminary Subscriber's Meeting," Journal and Messenger, XXVII, 4-2 (Oct. 15, 1858), 156.

^^"Educational Meeting at Springfield," Journal and Messenger, XXVII, 48 (Nov. 26, 1858), 190.

^®Miami Baptist Association, Minutes, 1898 (Cin­ cinnati: Armstrong and Pillmore, Printers, 1898), p. 57*

^^The Young Ladies' Institute represented a renewed interest in female education among Baptists in Granville. Charles Sawyer, a member of the Granville Baptist Church, had begun a seminary for young ladies in 1832, just east of the church, but had sold the property 23$ Not long after, in October, 1867, the Baptist Union

Theological Seminary opened its doors one block from the

University of Chicago; and the last vestige of hope for

Cincinnati and indeed for Ohio to become the mecca for

Baptist theological leadership in the western states completely vanished. The Committee on the Increase of the Ministry and Theological Education reported to the

Western Baptist Educational Convention in 1871 that future strategy called for "no new theories or plans" or "the diffusion of strength in multiplying schools, but rather concentrates and intensifies effort upon the establishment and endowment of a few first class literary and theologi­ cal institutions ....

After the demise of Pairmount, Granville emerged as the single location for higher education in the state for Regular Baptists and attracted a growing allegiance of the state's pastors. Notwithstanding, Denison con­ tinued to languish for several difficult years without the and school to the Episcopalians in 1839 after seven trying years. Working closely with Reverend and Mrs. Nathan S. Burton of the Granville Church who had organized a school for young ladies in the church basement in 1839, Stone repurchased the Sawyer property from the Episcopalians in 1861, and reestablished the cause of female education among the Baptists. "Our Twin Schools at Granville," Journal and Messenger, XLII, 38 (Aug. 13, 1875), 1; Chessman, pp. 29, 178-80.

^^Proceedings of the Western Baptist Educational Convention, Held in the Eirst Baptist Church, Chicago, May 24- and 23. 1871 (Chicago: The Lakeside Publishing and Printing Company, 1871), p. 8$. 234 stability of endowment funds. Towards the end of the presidency of Rev. Jeremiah Hall who served from 1853 to

1863, the school struggled to survive even without ade­ quate finances to pay the full salaries of the faculty members. The four faculty members who served with Hall frequently received their salaries late, if indeed they received them at all. Before his resignation in June,

1863, President Hall had donated $975 to Denison in an effort to sustain the school, only to acknowledge at the time of his departure that he needed some continuance of salary in order to support his family during his search for another position.Not until the advent of Rev.

Samson Talbot to the presidency in 1863 did the institu­ tion finally receive substantial endowment funds. The secure establishment of Denison could well be dated from

Talbot's success in enlisting the active support of several wealthy Baptist men in the state.

The significance of the Pirst Baptist Church of

Dayton, or, to be more specific, the significance of sev­ eral leading members within the church, cannot be over­ looked. The Church had long known Samson Talbot's family as pioneer Baptists in the Mad River Association, and had

"The Presidency of Rev. S. Talbot, D. D., and its Results," Journal and Messenger, XLII, 29 (July 23, 1873), 4; G. Wallace Chessman, Ohio Colleges and the Civil War (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1963), pp. 11, 23-24. 235 watched Samson respond to the suggestion of Rev. Ezra

Going, agent for the Granville school and brother to the president, that he enter the college. After his gradua­

tion from Granville and later from Newton Theological

Seminary, the Dayton Eirst Church called Talbot to become

their young pastor. During his eight year pastorate, he became close friends with several men of growing wealth,

especially Ebenezer Thresher, Eliam E. Barney, William P.

Huffman, G. H. Crawford, and J. B. Thresher, nephew to

Ebenezer. When Talbot removed to Granville, he had already

secured the wholehearted support of these men. The role of Ebenezer Thresher, particularly, was of such importance to the school as to prompt a later writer to comment,

"Above any other man, he was the founder of Denison Uni­ versity. All that was before him was temporary."

The annual state session which convened at Dayton in 1854 marked the first major financial achievement of the school, namely the launching of a drive for $100,000 for a permanent fund. Heretofore, proposals calling for the underwriting of the school's financial strength had always failed to materialize significantly in spite of

"Editorial Briefs," Journal and Messenger, LZV, 40 (Oct. 1, 1896), 5; Journal and Messenger, XL, 27 (July 1871), 4; "Death of President Talbot," Journal and Messenger, XLII, 27 (July 2, 1872), 4; Handwritten Minutes of Business Meetings from Jan. 7, 1848 to Jan. 12, 1887 (Eirst Baptist Church, Dayton, Ohio), 126. 236 several efforts. The personal leadership of Ebenezer

Thresher, who prompted several wealthy members of the

Dayton church to join him in the campaign, was decisive in raising a total of #102,640.36 during the subsequent campaign.Another factor, almost equally strong, was the involvement of Rev. Stephen B. Page as the special agent for the campaign. Resigning from the prestigious

Cleveland pulpit at the Erie Street Baptist Church, later known as the Euclid Avenue Church, Page traveled through­ out Ohio cultivating Baptist laymen of financial means to aid in the endowment campaign. His most obvious success was in the Cleveland area where the largest share of the 64- gifts were solicited. Strong fraternal and monetary support linked Denison with the Cleveland area from that point.

Actually, the success of the Endowment Fund sub­ scription accrued from a very limited number of contribu­ tors. Fully $85,000 of the total amount came from only fifty-five individual givers.In addition to the

^"Editorial Briefs," Journal and Messenger, XL, 21 (May 24-, 1871), 4-; "Commencement Week at Granville," Journal and Messenger, XXXVIII, 26 (July 1, 1869), 4; Chessman, p. 95» ^^"Our College," Journal and Messenger, XXXVI, 8 (Feb. 21, 1867), 1; William Cathcart, The Baptist Ency­ clopaedia (2 vols.; Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), II, 878. ^^"Plain Talk to an Ohio Baptist," Journal and Messenger, XXXVIII, 36 (Sept. 9, 1869), 1. 237 Dayton Baptists, other men of wealth in Ohio who con­

tributed included James M. Hoyt, John D. Rockefeller, and

Henry C. Chisholm of Cleveland, George Cook of Canton, and

Hubbard Colby of Mansfield.

Very few Baptists in Ohio had ever contributed

even the .smallest amount to the educational cause in Gran­ ville. "The attachment of our people to our college is

•feeble," admitted one observer, "because they have done

so little for it."^^ Baptist gifts generally came in two ways, either through infrequently taken Sunday church

offerings, or through the direct pleadings to generous individuals by paid agents who begged for gifts with more

than a hint of dire emergency, a situation which was usually the case.^® After the success of the endowment

campaign in 1867, however, there developed a growing optimism in regard to a more broadly based support by Ohio

Baptists. John Stevens began talking about a plan "to

canvas the entire field" in the state, the "unwealthy as well as the larger and more wealthy churches.But such

"The Endowment of Denison University," Journal and Messenger, ZXXVI, 18 (May 2, 1867), 5; "Commencement Week at Granville," Journal and Messenger, ZXXVI, 27 (July 4, 1867), 4. ^^"Our Ministry in Ohio," Journal and Messenger, ZZXVI, 12 (March 21, 1867), 1. ^®S. D. Bowker to Martin E. Gray, Jan. 25, 1865, Martin E. Gray Papers (Western Reserve Historical Library) Hereafter cited Gray Papers. Denison University," Journal and Messenger, ZLIV, 21 (May 26, 1875), 1. 258 endeavors to reach the rank and file, such as the "Ohio

Dollar Roll" plan to collect one dollar from every Baptist in the state, were far from successful; and the significant contributions continued to center in the larger gifts of the more wealthy Baptist businessmen in the state. By

1885, the Board of Trustees of Denison announced that the school possessed a little more than #500,000 in invested funds.In 1877, William Howard Doane of Cincinnati, a prominent leader in the State Convention, contributed

#10,000 to Denison to build a library and chapel, beginning a precedent which was followed by several men in later years, such as Eugene J. Barney of Dayton, who contributed 71 heavily to build a new science building in 1892. Eliam

Barney was the heaviest contributor to the school during his lifetime, with others, such as the Threshers, Chisholm, and Doane, also making several substantial gifts. Rocke­ feller also was generous in his gifts to Denison, as he was with every department within the life of the Ohio Bap­ tist Convention; but his larger gifts were eventually directed more toward the University of Chicago than toward 72 any Ohio project.'

Journal and Messenger, LIV, 25 (July 1, 1885), 4.

^^"#10,000 to Denison University!!!" Journal and Messenger, XLVI, 14- (April 4-, 1877), 4-; "The Granville Commencements," Journal and Messenger, ZLI, 25 (June 25, 1892), 4-.

^^Journal and Messenger, LXI, 9 (March 5, 1892), 4-. 2^9 It would be wrong, however, to conclude that the small contributor was not involved in the Granville enter­ prise. Such giving was mostly channeled through the work of the Ohio Baptist Education Society. This organization, kept alive generally by the college president and the ministerial friends of education in the state, appealed for support on behalf of the many ministerial students which Denison sought to educate. During the annual offer­ ing at the Eirst Baptist Church of Cleveland, Rev. Philip S.

Moxom announced in a typical introduction to his yearly sermon on education, "Today you are asked to make your annual offering to the Ohio Baptist Educational Society," and then proceeded to delineate his reasons. His reasons centered in the Baptists' favorite theme, evangelism and missions.If the rank and file of Ohio Baptists had an authentic connection with Denison University, the basis lay in evangelism and missions. Ebenezer Thresher revealed to

Martin E. Gray what lay at the heart of his interest in

Denison by once remarking that "if Baptists educate them they have them. And whoever has the youth soon has pos­ session of the land.""^^ Thresher and others were particu­ larly concerned with the proper education of Baptist

"Reasons— For Contributing to the Support of the Society for the Education of Christian Ministers," Journal and Messenger, L, 18 (May 4-, 1881), 1.

^^E. Thresher to Martin E. Gray, Nov. 18, 1876, Gray Papers. 240 ministers, and looked to Denison as the indispensable means whereby Baptists could evangelize Ohio and, to some degree, the world.

According to repeated statements of Denison's leaders, the young ministerial students who arrived in

Granville were, more often than not, unable to meet the full costs of a college education. "The larger part of those who present themselves as called of God to preach," observed Henry W. Jones, the Education Society's Cor­ responding Secretary, "come from the homes of the poor, and are unable to meet the full expense of the education necessary to fit them for the highest usefulness.Most of the young men needed constant aid; and the Society ful­ filled an important role in providing "beneficiary aid," always careful to stipulate that the agency was, according to the mood of the times, "not supporting young men, but helping them to support themselves.In 1875i between twenty and thirty students were planning to become minis­ ters out of the student body of nearly two hundred. The receipts collected by the Ohio Baptist Education Society

^^Proceedings of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held at Pirst Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Oct. 25-24, 1893 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Laning Printing Co., 1895), p. 99. Hereafter cited OBC, 1895. '^^Proceedings of the Porty-Seventh Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Urbana, Ohio, Oct: 24-26, 1872 (Columbus; Nevins and Myersl Printers, 1872), p. 70. 24-1 in the same year amounted to #4,759.10.^^ The money was not squandered. Each student had to repeatedly declare his intentions to enter the Baptist ministry. "We do not believe we are justified," stated the Society in 1895i

"in aiding young men who do not give promise of becoming efficient and useful ministers of the New Testament.

This type of strict accounting of the Society's funds and the constant return of the investment in the form of young college-trained pastors slowly developed a grass-roots loyalty toward the college which continued well beyond the nineteenth century.

Denison University was not the only school in

Granville which received substantial Baptist support during the last quarter of the century. The Young Ladies' Insti­ tute, which had first originated in the basement of the

Granville Baptist Church in 1859, and which was later expanded by Professor Stone, became, increasingly, an object of state-wide support. The support developed par­ ticularly after Rev. Daniel Shepardson, pastor at Piqua,

"Granville and its College," Journal and Mes­ senger, ZLI, 2 (Jan. 10, 1873), 2; Proceedings of the Forty-Eighth Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio, Held at Canton, Ohio, Oct. 23-24-, 1873 (Columbus: Nevins and Myers, Printers, 1873), p. 65.

'^^OBC, 1895. p. 95- Hen like Martin E. Gray, member of the Painesville Church, assisted numerous stu­ dents through their college careers, generally with a watchful eye to their behaviour and motivation. See M. E. Gray to Prof. E. 0. Marsh, Jan. 15, 1874, Gray Papers. 242 purchased the property and the school from ailing Profes­ sor Stone in July, 1 8 6 8 . The underlying motivation for the Young Ladies Seminary was similar to that of the support for Denison. "What we need," reasoned Shepardson,

"is a leading class of deeply religious and wholly intelli­ gent women to mold and control all the departments of OQ society in the interests of Christ's cause." An "Ohio

Baptist Woman's Education Society" was created to stimu­ late the flow of Baptist money toward female education.

By 18751 an optimistic group of influential leaders, similarly convinced in the cause of female education, was amenable to Shepardson's proposal that he would offer the school, property and all, to the Baptists of Ohio on the

Q-j condition that they would raise $100,000 in endowment.

The plan was quickly opposed by some of the "leading

Trustees of the College," who viewed the proposal as untimely and as threatening to the current efforts of 82 Denison to raise a similar amount. Shepardson waited more than ten years until Denison's endowment fund was

"^^"Religious Intelligence," Journal and Messenger, XZXVIII, 7 (Feb. 18, 1869), 5- ®^D. Shepardson to Mr. E. Gray, Esq., July 19, 1871, Gray Papers. QT "Commencements at Granville," Journal and Mes­ senger . ZLIV, 26 (June 30, 1875), 4.

^^Charles Rhoads to M. E. Gray, Esq., Oct. 7, 1875, Gray Papers. 245 substantially secured and the proposal looked more accept­ able to all the men supporting Ohio's higher education cause. Finally on December 30, 1886, after a successful campaign to raise the money, Shepsirdson College for Women, its new name that year, became incorporated under the aegis of the Baptist denomination in Ohio. Eben M. Thresher became the moving spirit in the development of the college, much as his father before him had set the pace for Deni­ son. When Dr. Shepardson retired shortly after the school changed hands, the Board of Trustees invited Dr. Galusha

Anderson, president of Denison from 1887 to 1889, to supervise the instructional affairs of Shepardson College temporarily. The arrangement initiated an era of an ever- increasing cooperation between the two schools until they eventually merged in 1927 *^^

Most of the Baptists of the state generally looked to Denison as the accepted leader in academic and cultural affairs. Progressive in outlook more often than not,

Denison's leaders seemed to be able to live happily within

^"Shepardson College for Women," Journal and Messenger, LYI, 1 (Jan. 5, 1887), 4; "Shepardson College," Journal and Messenger, LVI, 17 (April 27, 1887), 1; Eben Thresher to Martin E. Gray, April 19, 1890, Gray Papers; Chessman, p. 383. 244 Q /i the Baptist community. The school cooperated in devel­

oping a lecture program during the Talbot years called

"The Granville Ministerial Institute." This attempt to

foster a greater appreciation for academic improvement

among the Baptist ministers of the state was led par­

ticularly by Rev. Augustus Hopkins Strong of Cleveland

and attracted about fifty ministers annually.

Later in the century, Denison was not pressed to

explicate a theological position during the rise of the

dispute over higher criticism. When 'the views of William

Rainey Harper of the University of Chicago became known regarding his acceptance of the "higher criticism" of

Scripture, no great suspicion developed over the fact that

Harper had begun his teaching career at Granville. The

Denison faculty would have agreed with the views aired in the Journal and Messenger more often than not. The paper, which considered itself an arbiter of Baptist doctrine while at the same time allowing debate on many

questions, was wisely circumspect in its orthodoxy.

Reacting to the inauguration of the Presbyterian

0/1 The progressive stance of the school came rela­ tively early. Samson Talbot was known to all as a pro­ gressive man, and was suspected of being an "open com- munionist." Yet he was well received and respected within the Convention leadership. "The Late Dr. Talbot's Views," Journal and Messenger. XLII, 52 (Aug. 5, 1875), 1.

®^"Notes from Granville - O.B.M.I.," Journal and Messenger, XXXVI, 28 (July 11, 1857), 1. 245 Dr. Charles A. Briggs at Union Theological Seminary, the paper declared:

We readily accept the statement that "European teachers" do not believe in the inerrancy of the Bible; but then European teachers are not the highest authority for us Baptists. For fifty years European (German) teachers have been putting forth these ideas; but Baptists have not accepted them, whatever Presbyterians may have done.86

Denison avoided any of the heated debate with its Baptist constituency which shook the Presbyterians at Lane Seminary not far away, and was able to exert continual leadership within the state. The fact that Denison was controlled throughout the period by a board of trustees who, by con­ stitutional mandate, were members in good standing in

Baptist churches within the state, kept the school "safe" 87 in the minds of many Ohio Baptists.

Toward the end of the century, the school began to change perceptively. The strict discipline of older days became much more relaxed. Baptist students were not attending Denison in numbers commensurate with the pro­ portional increase of Baptists in the state. Most could not afford such an education; but, also, many Baptists were not interested in patronizing any such enterprise in higher education at all. The school began slowly to move

Journal and Messenger, LX, 20 (May 14, 1891), 4.

Journal and Messenger, LXVI, 25 (June 17, 1897), 8. 246 away from its church-centered moorings. Dr. Daniel

Boardman Purinton, although a son of a Baptist minister, was not an ordained clergyman when he became president in

1890, a noted departure from past tradition. The school took on broader lines of study in addition to the tradi- 88 tional classical courses.

Notwithstanding all of these alterations, Denison remained the Baptist headquarters for the collegiate training of Ohio's ministerial students. The number of ministerial students seldom dipped below twenty, even though, at the turn of the century, American Protestantism generally was publicly upset over the reduction of minis­ terial volunteers. In 1907, Denison boasted fifty-four ministerial students, two-thirds of whom were enrolled in the college classes, and one-third in the Academy. Deni­ son University kept in touch with the affairs and purposes of the Ohio Baptist Convention as much through the service rendered to such ministerial students as in any other 89 way.

oo "Old Times at Granville," Journal and Messenger, L, 12 (March 23, 1881), 1; "Granville, Ho!" Journal and Messenger, LI, 8 (Feb. 22, 1882), 1; Chessman, p. 237.

^^Proceedings of the Eightieth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the Ninth Street Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 18-19, 1905 (n.p.n.d.), p . 107 ; Proceedings of the Eighty-Second Annual Meeting of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the First Baptist Church, Youngstown, Ohio, Oct. 22-24, 1907 (n.p.n.d.), pp. 88-89• CHAPTER VIII

THE GOHVEHTIOH, 1860-1881, STRUGGLE EOR COHERENCE

When the Civil War came, Baptists in Ohio officially

supported the actions of the federal government "in the

suppression of a wicked rebellion" with well-worded resolu­ tions throughout the conflict.^ The State Convention annual meeting had first taken notice of "that gigantic sin, Ameri­

can Slavery" in 1855 when violence to "peaceful citizens"

and "property" which seemed "unparalleled in our history" 2 alerted Baptist concern. Some of the associations, such as Grand River and Rocky River, both in the Western Reserve region, had much earlier declared a more aggressive opposi- % tion to slavery.^

The war understandably occupied a major place among the people. Pastoral vacancies increased as the younger

Minutes of the Thirty-Sixth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held at Mansfield, Oct. 24, 25, and 26. 1861 (Mansfield, Ohio: G. T. Myers and Bro., Book and Job Printers, 1862), p. 11. 2 The reference was no doubt pointed to the near civil war taking place in Kansas that year. Minutes of the Ohio Baptist Convention at its Thirty-Eirst Anniversary Held in Columbus, October, 1856 (Columbus: Printed by Osgood and Pearce, 1856), p. 11.

^Grand River Baptist Association, Minutes, 1861 (title page missing), p. 4-.

24-7 248 men entered the Union Army. Rev. D. P. Carnahan, the

Corresponding Secretary, resigned to assume war-time

employment. Rev. Samuel W. Adams, pastor of the First

Baptist Church, Cleveland, responded to a call to serve in the Christian Commission, an agency which had grown out of the Young Men's Christian Associations' national

convention in November, 1851, in order to implement "a work of evangelical beneficence, proposed for the patriot

armies of the republic."^ On the first day of the 1864

Convention session, October 20, C. L. Barker, a layman from McConnelsville, broke into the meeting to "read a telegram announcing the victory of General Sheridan at

Cedar Creek." The delegates in response suspended busi- ness and offered thanksgiving.^

The conflict produced some new attitudes among

Ohio Baptists. They became more aware of the "numerous feeble colored churches struggling for existence all over

The Christian Commission had more indirect roots in the prayer meeting revival of 1857 and in the division of evangelicals from the United States Sanitary Commission. J. P. Bishop (ed.). Memoir of Rev. Seymour W. Adams, P.P. (Cleveland, Ohio: Printed by Fairbanks, Benedict and Co., Herald Office, 1866), p. 105; U. C. Wilkinson, "The History of the Christian Commission," The Baptist Quarterly, II, 2 (April, 1868), 198-202.

^Minutes of the Thirty-Ninth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held at Portsmouth, Oct. 20, 21, 22, 1864 (Mansfield, Ohio: L. D. Myers and Bro., Herald Book and Job Office, 1865), P* 4. Hereafter cited OBG, 1864. 249 our State.The two Colored Baptist associations num­ bered 3,191 members in forty-seven churches in 1854, and represented one-tenth of the total Baptist population in

Ohio, 32,504. The Convention resolved to "make no dis­

tinction on account of race or color in extending aid, granting privileges, or receiving assistance." Rev. John

Buell Sackett, who followed Randall as Corresponding Sec­ retary in 1862, attempted to exert more active support 7 than had previously been extended.' But, in reality, the

Colored churches were afforded little more encouragement than formerly, either monetary or fraternal.

Another result of the war was the initiation of conversations in Ohio between the Freewill Baptists and the Regular Baptists. The two groups had found much in common when some of them had joined in the earlier anti­

slavery conventions in Cincinnati. Before that time,

Freewills and Regulars had been poles apart. Rev. Benjamin

Randall had founded the Freewill Baptist denomination in

I78O in New England. Known as New Lights, and Open Com- munionists, among other names, the Freewill Baptists had

^Ibid.. pp. 6, 2 9. '^Fortieth Annual Report of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Convened at Marietta. Oct. 19. 20, 21, 22, 1865 (Mansfield, Ohio; Printed by L. D. Myers and Brother, Herald Job Office, 1866), pp. 10, 46. Hereafter cited OBC, 1865. Sackett had served as pastor at Kings­ ville, in Ashtabula County, an area where Baptists had seriously pursued Abolitionist views. 250

been Arminien in theology from the first, and had developed

some measurable strength particularly in the rural areas

of New England. They were successful in expanding the

denomination westward until about 1855, when their rural Q orientation began to work against them. By 1845, six

Quarterly Meetings of Freewill churches in Ohio belonged

to the Ohio Northern Yearly Meeting.^ After the Regular

Baptists in Ohio incurred the loss of the Old School churches, the theological temper among them became increas­ ingly moderate and progressive, until, by the time of the war, there was virtually only one major difference between the Regulars and the Freewills, that being open or closed communion.

Communication was initiated by the Freewill Baptist

Yearly Meeting through an inquiry to J. B. Sackett in 1864.

The Convention responded by delegating a representative to

Q Norman Allen Baxter, History of the Freewill Bap­ tists, A Study in New England Separatism (Rochester, New York: American Baptist Historical Society, 1957), pp. 1, 20, 69. ^The six groups were Huron Quarterly Meeting with thirteen churches, Delaware Quarterly Meeting with ten churches, Medina Quarterly Meeting with sixteen churches, Marion Quarterly Meeting with six churches, Lorain Quarterly- Meeting with thirteen churches, and Lake Erie Quarterly Meeting with five churches. Total membership was 1955, with the Huron group of churches composing the largest sector, claiming 559 members. The Constitution, By-Laws, and Statistical Representation of Ohio Northern Yearly Meeting, Together with the Most Important Resolutions Passed by said Yearly Meeting (Published by Order of the Yearly Meeting, 1845), pp. 10-12.-- 251 attend the next Freewill Yearly Meeting. The following year, the Convention heard a "report from I. D. King, a delegate to the Free-will Baptist Yearly Meeting, by which we were encouraged to look for a union of that body with us."^^ Both Baptist groups saw the mutual advantage of such a union. The Regular Baptists had acquiesced in the more democratic doctrine of "natural ability" espoused by Arminianism, while holding at the same time to a moder­ ate Calvinistic stance. The Freewills, on the other hand, found that they now possessed no distinctive appeal to people, since the Regulars had softened their claim on election and particular atonement.But the doctrine involving open communion was not so easily settled. All of the progressive leaders among the Regulars in Ohio still held to closed communion, which disallowed non­ immersed believers from participating in a Baptist com­ munion service. This doctrinal difference was to prevent formal union between the two groups until a national merger 12 on October 5, 1911. Meanwhile the Freewill churches con­ tinued to prosper in Ohio, and even developed their own college in 1875, the Rio Grande College in Gallia County,

^^OBC, 1864, p. 7; OBC, 1865, p. 12.

^^Timothy L. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America (New York; Abingdon Press, 1857), p. 86; Baxter, p. 156.

^^Baxter, p. 175. 252 which, was made possible by a sizable donation by Mrs. Perme- lia Wood.^^ Another result of the war appeared in the worsening plight of the small Baptist congregations which could not sustain ample pastoral support. Having been deprived quite frequently of their meager pastoral leadership during the war years, the small congregations could not adequately sustain their vitality in many cases. Even churches in county s^-at towns were often without ministers, and became increasingly feeble and extinct. Sackett, having been given the title of "Exploring Missionary" in addition to being the Corresponding Secretary, reported with alarm,

"There are more than one hundred Churches destitute of the stated ministry of the word— mostly small and inefficient— in a half-living, half-dying condition."Inefficient" was the important word, a term used for a century to describe the unsuccessful and declining church. Factors such as shifts in population or an over-abundance of various sec­ tarian groups were seldom mentioned. The "inefficiency" seemed more to weigh upon the guilt of the congregation, or, as one report described it, "a want of that deep toned

^ Combined Report of the Recording and Corresponding Secretaries of the Ohio Free Communion Baptist Association, for 1878 (Cleveland, Ohio: J. B. Savage, Printer, Frank” fort St., n.d.), p. 5.

l^OËC, 1864. p. 27 . 253 earnest piety, or whole and honest hearted devotion to the cause of God and religion.

The "inefficiency," however, seemed more basically to lie in the excessive quantity of Baptist churches in certain areas together with the contrasting paucity of

Baptist leadership. Given the congregational polity where a group of Baptists, independent of any denominational control, could form a local church, and where Baptists keenly felt an imperative to plant new churches, the proliferation of local, autonomous congregations far exceeded the supply of competent leadership. To compli­ cate the matter, constant shifts in population, particu­ larly westward migration, left many churches "languishing" and often virtually extinct. Even the more substantial churches had to endure long periods without adequate pastoral leadership, as pastors all too quickly moved on after a short pastorate. Sackett described the southern portion of Ohio particularly as filled with such small churches.

^Grand Hiver Baptist Association, Minutes. 1863 (n.p.n.d.), p. 11. There was one good reason to support this view. It was summed up in a Board report in 1876. "But let us not imagine that we have no other than a denominational /task7 to do in this state. The population of Ohio, at the last census, was 2,655»118. The aggregate number of members of all religious denominations in the State, including the Catholics, does not exceed 600,000, leaving more than 2,000,000 of people in the State who are unconnected with any religious body whatever."

^^"Short Pastorates," Journal and Messenger, ZLll, 4 (Jan. 22, 1873), 1; OBC. 1864, p. 2?. In George Stevens' 254

The small church was no small problem. It grew

with, the years, perplexing both the associations and the

State Convention. The Convention Executive Board reviewed

the problem in 1869: In nearly all the local Associations in the State there are sickly, dying churches, and in all there is new territory to be possessed .... Many of these Associations have, for a few years past, been attempting some plan of operation to reach and build up these churches and reclaim the moral wastes. But these attempts have, for the most part, been unsuccessful. Some are turning their thoughts to the Convention for relief . . . .

Eventually, the Ohio Baptist Convention inherited the

responsibility for all of these "inefficient" churches which became a constant burden requiring attention while more productive fields lay unentered. The frustration produced

a dichotomy of attitudes. On the one hand, Baptist leaders praised the "rural districts" for having produced the major­

ity of professional and business leaders who had migrated

to the more progressive city churches. On the other hand.

historical account of the Miami Association, he estimated one hundred churches as having been members of the Miami Association during a one hundred year period, and at least thirty of them becoming extinct. Miami Baptist Associa­ tion, Minutes, 1898 (Cincinnati: Armstrong and Eillmore, Printers, 1898), p. 50. ^^Eortv-Third Annual Report of the Baptist Con­ vention of the State of Ohio Convened at Cleveland, Oct. 22 and 23. 1868 (Mansfield, Ohio: Printed by L. D. Myers and Bro., Herald Establishment, 1868), p. 23. Hereafter cited OBC, 1868. 255 the declining churches were verbally assaulted as a blight "I Q on the cause.

The existing associational regions did not alter too much for most groups between 1860 and 1881; but the initiation of four new associations located basically in southern Ohio and the demise of three associations in northern Ohio suggest a growing regional division in Bap­ tist temperament. In the southern part of the state, some

Baptists seemed to live more comfortably in smaller churches and seemed to survive under more arduous circumstances than in the north. In the north, many of the smaller churches failed to survive; and the remaining ones gravitated into other alignments which seemed to reflect a more urban orientation. In the south, six churches were dismissed from the Marietta Association to organize the Zanesville

Baptist Association in 1862.^^ In 1867, the Portsmouth and Ironton churches both of which had previously had no

1 Q Porty-Ninth Anniversary of the Baptist Conven­ tion of the State of Ohio Held at Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 22-23. 1874 (Columbus; Nevins and Myers, Printers, 1874), p. 18. Hereafter cited OBC. 1874. "Baptist Cause in Ohio," Journal and Messenger, XXXVI, 1 (Jan. 3, 1867), 2. The small churches had to depend on part-time preachers and could pay little for their services. One church in Union County, typical of many, paid one dollar per Sunday for its preaching in 1872, and increased the amount to two dollars in 1878. 93 Years of History of Allen Center Baptist Church (1871-1966) (n.p.n.d.), p. 5»

^^Marietta Baptist Association, Minutes, 1873 (Zanesville, Ohio: Sunday Morning Times Print, 1875), p. 23. 256

connection with any existing association for some years

joined together to form the Portsmouth Baptist Associa- 20 tion. The very large Union Antislavery Association

which claimed sixty-eight churches divided in 1873 into

the Eastern Union and the Western Union Baptist Associa­

tions.^^ In the next year, 1874, the Gallia Baptist

Association began obscurely, and by 1880 claimed thirteen 22 churches in Lawrence and Gallia counties. In the north,

the Geauga Association vanished as an organization shortly before 1865, while the adjacent Portage Association dis­ banded in 1870 because of weakness and recommended that

the remaining congregations unite with other neighboring

associations. In 1877, the Seneca Association also dis­

solved itself because of "weakness and scattered condition,"

20 "A New Association," Journal and Messenger, XXXVI, 48 (Nov. 28, 1867), 5- 21 The Negro associations continued to carry the Antislavery name for a time. The Eastern and Western associations voted to meet together every four years, and convened in their first joint quadrennial in 1878. Proceedings of the Porty-Eighth Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Canton, Ohio, Oct. 23-24, 1873 (Columbus; Nevins and Myers, Printers, 1875), P* 54; Eastern and Western Union Antislavery Bap­ tist Association, Minutes, 1878 (Chillicothe: Paper and Wolfe, Book and Job Printers, 1878), p. 2; "Western Union A.S. (Colored) 0.," Journal and Messenger, XLVII, 36 (Sept. 4, 1878), 5. 22 Proceedings of the Pifty-Pifth Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Norwalk, Ohio, Oct. 21 and 22, 1880 (Granville, Ohio : Times Book and Job Printing House, 1880), p. 58. 257 2? the surviving churches joining nearby groups. ^ Some names of associations changed. Meigs Greek became

Marietta, and Mohican was changed to Mansfield in 1871, while in 1878 Maumee became known as the Toledo Associa­ tion. The small Salem Association merged with Marietta 24 in 1875* These alterations were, by and large, minor, and reflected settled geographical alignments more than major shifts.

Convention leadership also represented a more consistent form of management than in earlier years. Only five men served as Corresponding Secretary in a forty year period, beginning in 1862.^^ Also, Mr. James M. Hoyt, a successful Cleveland lawyer and member of the First Baptist

Church, served as president of the Convention for twenty- five years beginning in 1854. Hoyt assumed a larger share of executive leadership than had presidents in the previous

^Portage Baptist Association, Minutes, 1870 (Akron, Ohio: Lane, Canefield and Co., Printers, 1870), p. 7; Seneca Baptist Association, Minutes, 1877 (Attica, Ohio : Attica Journal Print, 1877), P« 2. 24 "Mansfield Baptist Association," Journal and Messenger, ZL, 40 (Oct. 4, 1871), 5; Marietta Baptist Association, Minutes, 1875 (Zanesville, Ohio: Sunday Morning Times Print, 1875), PP* 22, 24; Toledo Baptist Association, Minutes, 1900 (Toledo, Ohio: Andrews-Jones, Printers, 1900), p. 25. ^^The men were Rev. John B. Sackett, 1852-1870; Rev. J.W. Osborne, 1871-1874; Rev. Samuel G. Dawson, 1875; Rev. Hiram L. Gear, 1875-1881; and Rev. George E. Leonard, 1882-1902. 258 twenty years, and contributed measurably to the policies of the Executive Board of the Convention. Serving along with Hoyt were other competent business men. Ebenezer

Thresher, partner with Eliam E. Barney in the Barney and

Smith Manufacturing Company in Dayton, Hubbard Colby, wealthy layman from Mansfield, and Thomas W. Ewart, a lawyer and judge from Marietta, all served as vice presi­ dents for a time along with Hoyt, and were influential in 27 state affairs.

When Sackett became Corresponding Secretary in

1862, no other agent was hired to share the responsibility, as had been done at times in previous years. Some of the national Baptist societies which had dispensed with regional collecting agents hoping that direct contribu­ tions would continue no doubt influenced similar action within the state. The policy to limit agents, consequently, determined a broadened job description for Sackett. He traveled approximately 10,000 miles each year into almost every Ohio county, wrote annually about 500 letters, pub­ lished numerous publicity articles, superintended the

Proceedings of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held at first Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 25-24-, 1893 (Norwalk, Ohio: The i/aning Printing Co., 1895), p. 4-5.

^"^Henry E. Colby, Tribute to the Memory of Ebenezer Thresher (Dayton, Ohio: Press of United Brethren Publish­ ing House, 1886), p. 64-. 259 printing of the Annual Report, counseled with pastors and laymen, and, during his earlier years in the job, spent about one-third of his time in "evangelistic labors" in

"our mission stations." Given the new title of Exploring

Missionary for a time, Sackett became the indispensable administrator for the Convention, and supervised the financial needs and disbursements for a fluctuating num­ ber of twenty-five to thirty-five mission stations each

p O year. In 1866, his title became Superintendent of

Missions rather than Exploring Missionary; and his func­ tion was altered to concentrate in the collection of funds PQ instead of his evangelistic efforts. Sackett explained his work one year:

The general supervision of the work; the extended correspondence connected with it; the perplexing and sometimes embarrassing questions in relation to the work, claiming his attention; and a wide correspondence, not official, but incidental to the office, such as calls from churches for pastors.

pQ Minutes of the Thirty-Seventh Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held at Toledo, Oct. 23, 24-, 25, 1862 ÇMansfield: G. T. Myers and Bro., Book and Job Printers, 1863), p. 10. Hereafter cited OBC, 1862; OBC, 1864, 28; OBC, 1865, 21; Forty-Second Annual Report of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Convened at Lebanon, Oct. 24, 23. 26, 27% 1867 (Mansfield, Ohio: Printed by L. D. Myers and Bro., Herald Establishment, 1867), P- 18. Hereafter cited OBC, 1867. "Too Many Societies," Journal and Messenger, XXVII, 13 (March 26, 1858), 49. ^^Forty-First Annual Report of the Baptist Conven­ tion of the State of Ohio Convened at Wooster, Oct. 25, 26, 27, 28, 1866 (Mansfield, Ohio: Printed by L. D. Myers and Brother, Herald Job Office, 1866), p. 10. Hereafter cited OBC, 1866. 260

and from ministers in nearly all the States for pastorates, a correspondence year by year increasing, unavoidably consumes much valuable time.30

?or a denomination with a well established episcopacy,

such duties would have been considered routine. But, for

Baptists, only thirty years removed from the antimission

crisis, the rationale for an evolving ecclesiastical

administrative position came slowly and not without

struggle.

During Sackett's tenure, yearly revenue from the

churches increased substantially and afforded the Conven­ ed tion a sounder financial basis for its mission work.^

But the money tended to become less beneficial in the

extension of new missionary activity. Many mission sta­

tions, long established, had not grown sufficiently to become self-sustaining, but continued to drain the mis­

sionary treasury each year while stagnating far below the

level of self-support. Sackett remarked:

5°0BC, 1867. p. 18.

^^The receipts ranged from 12,213 in 1862 to a peak of #8 ,091.83 in 1868, and leveled off to #6,201,69 in Sackett's last year. Prior to Sackett's leadership, receipts had reached into the #4,000 level only four times. After his service, the average yearly receipts remained at a rather constant level of #8,000 until the end of the century. Also, the idea of "Systematic Benevolence" popularized in Ohio by Rev. I. W. Carman of Marietta in his convention sermon entitled "The Bible Doctrine of the Tithe" had caused no small stir and had led to stronger giving. OBC, 1867. pp. 5» 7; "The Doctrine of the Tithe," Journal and Messenger, ZZXVI, 45 (Nov. 7, 1867), 2. 251

. . . we ought no longer to confine ourselves to assisting churches that apply to us for aid in neighborhoods where Baptist influence is already felt, but should seek out, each year, some large and growing town, where no Baptists are at present known, send a competent preacher there and support him liberally till he has planted the standard of our denomination, and has gathered about him a self-sustaining church . . . .32

Sackett's statement, though not immediately taken to heart, marked another change in Convention policy. Heretofore, the State Convention had generally channeled its money only into existing projects initiated by associations or indi­ vidual congregations, rather than becoming the founding agency. How, the Convention leaders viewed themselves as becoming self-governed enough to plant new churches by wise forethought.

Part of the concern involved the higher standards urged upon the ministerial candidates, and the difficulty of finding such men. "Incompetence on his part," observed one Board report concerning Ohio's Baptist ministers, "will result in defeat." Speaking of the proper qualifications, the report continued, "Should he be wanting in these qualifications, he should seek for some other field of labor.Part of the difficulty lay in the lack of

^ Porty-Pifth Annual Report of the Baptist Conven­ tion of the State of Ohio Convened at Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 20-22. 1870 (Columbus: Hevins and Myers, Book and Job Printers, 1870), p. 26. Hereafter cited OBC, 1870.

33QBC, 1867, p. 19. 262 theological training; hut another factor lay not so much

in incompetence as in the short terms of pastoral service

stemming mostly from inadequate salaries. The Board pondered, "there must he a fault somewhere . . . . It is next to impossible to secure permanent growth with this migratory system.

Sackett's recommendation to gain entrance into new fields was also an attempt to unify the work and, at the

same time, to capture a position of acceptance among Bap­

tists in the state. He and the Board were well aware of the lack of coherence in planning. The Board observed,

"the present tendency among Baptists of Ohio, is to separate missionary operations; one church, or city, or association, looking after the spiritual wants of its own people.

The cities particularly had formed their own organizations and had rivaled the State Convention in mission work.

Cincinnati Baptists had been promoting their own work since 1852 when the Baptist City Mission of Cincinnati

Proceedings of the Forty-Sixth Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio, Held at Youngstown, Ohio, Oct. 19, 20, 21, 1871 (Columbus: Hevins and Myers, Printers, 18?!), p. 20. Hereafter cited OBC, 1871. "Fre­ quency of Ministerial Changes— Its Results," Journal and Messenger, XXXVI, 7 (Feb. 14, 1867), 4. The average salary of a Baptist pastor in Ohio was about #400, although some accounts suggested levels as high as #700. "Church Sta­ tistics for 1868-9," Journal and Messenger, XXXVIII, 56 (Sept. 9, 1869), 1; OBG, 1866, p. 54.

35oBC, 1870, p. 24. 26$ was begun. They had employed Rev. Joseph Emery, an immi­

grant from England, to minister to the indigent and

unchurched of the city, a work which led him into close

relationship with the immigrant groups and the Negro popu­

lation. Emery became a frequent visitor to Cincinnati's

orphan asylums, the House of Refuge, prison. Commercial

Hospital, pest house, and the City Infirmary.He worked

ten years under Baptist patronage, largely supported by

the Ninth Street Church, and developed, among his other

projects, mission Sabbath Schools for "the children who

run the streets uncared for."^^ After ten years, Emery's

ministry became more independent of the Baptists and was

supported by a group of citizens of various denominations.

Eor years he served as pastor and Sabbath School superin­

tendent of one of the Colored Baptist churches in the city,

and spent a substantial portion of his ministry in aiding

the city's Negro population.

^ First Annual Report of the Baptist City Mission of Cincinnati. Feb. 22, 1833 (Cincinnati: Printed by I. Hart and Co., 1855), pp. 5-10.

^^Fourth Annual Report by the Rev. Joseph Emery, City Missionary of the Ninth Street Baptist Church (Cin­ cinnati, Feb. 22, 1836) (Cincinnati: Wrightson and Co., Printers, 1856), p. 4. 7.Q Proceedings of the Seventy-First Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with Ashland Ave. Baptist Church, Toledo, Ohio. Oct. 21-22, 1896 (Norwalk, Ohio; The Laning Printing Co., 1895j, p. 59. 264-

In 1868, eight churches joined together to form

the Cincinnati Baptist Social Union. Out of this organiza­

tion, a year later, came the Cincinnati Baptist Church

Union, an organization designed to aid the city's weaker

churches, and to encourage particularly German and Negro congregations. The Union aided the First German Church and the Freeman Street Church, later known as the Lincoln

Park Church, and sponsored the founding of the Walnut Hills zq Church in 1870. Over the next decade the Union employed a woman to serve among the Germans, sponsored the German

Baptist Publishing Company in the city, promoted periodic large public rallies, and aided the Negro Baptist churches 40 to some degree.

A similar city mission society, the Cleveland

Baptist Union, appeared in Cleveland in 1869, and soon became more enterprising than the Cincinnati Union,

Cincinnati Baptist Church Union," Journal and Messenger, XXXVIII, 10 (April 22, 1869), 4-; Miami Baptist Association, Minutes. 1898, p. 49; 90th Anniversary, 1869-1959, Cincinnati Baptist Church Union (n.p.n.d.), pp. 1-10. There were eight churches in the city, namely Ninth Street, First Church, Freeman Street, Welsh, German, Mt. Auburn, Shiloh, and Union.

^^The Colored Baptist churches were in periodic need of support. The large Union Church in Cincinnati received a profitable return on its sale of cemetery lots in addition to the regular contributions, and was the most prosperous of the Negro churches. Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Union Baptist Church of Cincinnati for the Year Ending December 31, 1879 (Cin- cinnati; Published by Order of the Church, 1880), p. 8; "Cincinnati Baptist Church Union," Journal and Messenger, XLII, 17 (April 25, 1875), 5- 265 reflecting in part the progressive leadership of its major

supporter, the Hrst Baptist Church.Becoming the fourth denomination to organize a congregation in Cleveland in

1835, the first Baptist Church was favored with a con­ tinuous succession of competent pastoral and lay leadership from the start. The Church pursued a policy of dismissing members to organize new Sunday schools, and soon secured a 42 flourishing Baptist population in the city. After the

Civil War, the same fear of Catholicism which had been apparent in Cincinnati three decades earlier, spurred the

Baptists to focus their energies on city mission work among ZlX the foreign immigrants. ^ A German mission was begun in

January, 1863, with nineteen members, led by Hev. George

Koopman. By 1872, the Cleveland Baptist Union was sup­ porting three missions, and had invested in properties

Actually, the organization of the Union took place on December 51, 1868. The first meeting was Janu­ ary 19, 1869. The churches which joined were first, Euclid Avenue, Third (which later merged with Olivet), Shiloh, first German, and Tabernacle (later called Willson Avenue). 42 The earliest Sunday Schools eventually grew into churches. The Erie Street Baptist Church, founded in 1851, and later known as Second, and later still as Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, developed the largest Sunday School among Baptists in the state for some time. The Third Baptist Church, founded in 1853, merged with the Olivet Church in 1895. Even with the dismissals, the first Baptist Church prospered numerically, receiving, for instance, eighty- five members by baptism during the revival year of 1858, during the pastorate of Rev. Samuel W. Adams. Bishop, pp. 91, 93-94, 184.

^^OBC, 1866, p. 32; "Papal Supremacy," Journal and Messenger, XL. 42 (Oct. 18, 1871), 1. 265 worth. $4^,4 7 1 .3 2. ^ Cleveland also became the center for

Baptist literature in the German language when the German

Baptist Publication Society began in 1866 under the leader­ ship of Eev. P. W. Bickel. Many of the publications by

Bickel were German reprints of materials from the American

Baptist Publication Society. In 1879, Rev. J. G. Haselhuhn assumed the editorship and expanded the project.

Other bilingual mission work, in addition to that in Cincinnati and Cleveland, was occasionally aided by the

State Convention. A Welsh missionary at Weathersfield,

Mahoning County, a German minister in Shelby, Richland

County, and a Prench pastor at Mowrytown, Highland County, were among the Convention-supported workers.

As the Baptist denomination became increasingly more amenable to education after the Civil War, a marked theological difference from earlier pioneer days charac­ terized Baptists in Ohio. They still prided themselves on

44 Proceedings of the Porty-Seventh Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Urbana, Ohio, Oct. 24-26, 1872 (Columbus: Revins and Myers, Printers, 1872J, p. 7; OBC, 1865, p. 10.

^^"Bible and Publicity Society," Journal and Mes­ senger , XLI, 1 (Jan. 4, 1872), 4; Baptist Home Missions in North America (New York: Baptist Home Missions Rooms, 1885), p. 475; Proceedings of the Sixty-Eighth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the Central Baptist Church, Circleville, Ohio, Oct. 18-19< 1893 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Laning Printing Company, 1893), p. 54.

^GpBC, 1862, p. 25; OBC, 1865. p. 19. A second Prench mission at Stryker was transferred to the American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1867. OBC, 1867, p. 15. 257 possessing the essential qualities of "the primitive

Church," and were, at times, no less dogmatic, as in the 47 demand for closed communion. ' Nevertheless, the differ­ ence was apparent. The number of educated ministers accounted for much of the change. Having received their training most frequently in New York at Hamilton Theo­ logical Seminary, Rochester Theological Seminary, and, in Ohio, at Granville, ministers in the leadership churches had become more circumspect and tolerant than had generally 48 been the case in the past. At the funeral of Rev. Samuel

Dawson, pastor at the East Toledo Church, and for a short time. Corresponding Secretary of the State Convention, a

Presbyterian colleague paid tribute to him by reminiscing in a rather condescending but revealing manner:

I remember his telling me on one of the tenderest and most confidential of our many conversations, how at one time he rebelled at the thought of being a poor Baptist preacher, but he had courage to be just that, when he felt that he ought to be. If I had not long since learned that it was a mistake to suppose his denomination were pre-eminently

"Baptist History," Journal and Messenger, XXVI, 46 (Nov. 15, 1857), 182; OBC, 1868. p. 12. 48 The three schools were the most frequently men­ tioned in the obituary columns of the Convention Annuals for the years 1865 to 1900 for ministers who served in Ohio. The information in the lists was incomplete and highly selective, but represented a clear indication of the three educational institutions chiefly used by the Ohio pastors. 258

narrow and bigoted, he himself would have taught me better. 49

Such seminary men signally changed the tenor of the Con­ vention. On several occasions, the Convention delegates adopted some rather surprising latitudinarian resolutions stating, "On motion, visiting brethren of our own and other denominations were invited to enroll their names, and par­ ticipate in the deliberations of the Convention.

The growing spirit of interdenominational coopera­ tion also added to the change. Movements such as the Young

Men's Christian Association, Evangelical Alliance, the noon-day prayer revival movement of 1858-1859» the public school, the Temperance Alliance, and the Christian Com­ mission of Civil War days all had their influences upon the broadening of the Baptist spirit.One Baptist asso­ ciation acknowledged the primary cause of its weakness to have stemmed from the fact that "we have become too much isolated, live too much for ourselves, and too little for 52 the common cause.

^Fiftieth Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Zanesville, Ohio, Oct. 21-22, 1873 (Columbus: Nevins and Myers, Printers, 1875), P« 10. Hereafter cited OBC, 1873.

^OpBC, 1867, p. 3. "Christian Union, No. 1," Journal and Messenger, ZXXVI, 4 (Jan. 24, 1867), 2; OBC, 1871, pp. 8-9; Smith, pp. 63, 7 1 . ^^Strait Creek Baptist Association, Minutes, 1869 (Cincinnati: Elm Street Printing Co., 1869), p. 7* 269 Baptists, nonetheless, were limited by their own tradition, were not about to allow any appreciable change, and were incapable of expressing other than Baptistic views. This attitude was clearly evident when the Ohio

Christian Missionary Society sought fraternal greetings and dialogue with the Ohio Baptists in 1870. A delegation of six was appointed to inquire into Baptist interest and explain the salient points of the Disciples' doctrine.

The Disciples disclaimed any proposal toward union. They looked to the Baptists with the assertion that, "We think we discover, in their position and aims that which more

czl nearly accords with our own.Yet, in sensing a "sub­ stantial agreement" between the two groups, the Disciples admitted an implicit question in the negotiation, which asked, "Is the difference sufficient to justify the exist­ ence of a separate party, or to prevent co-operation among those who thus differ?

The Ohio Baptists received the written document which had been offered by the Disciples and, in turn.

^^The Ohio Disciples were doing what had previ­ ously been done in Richmond, Virginia, earlier in 1866. Correspondence between the Ohio Christian Missionary Society and the Ohio Baptist State Convention (Cincinnati : Bosworth, Chase and Hall, n.d.), pp. 2-4. Hereafter cited as Correspondence. Henry K. Shaw, Buckeye Dis­ ciples, A History of the Disciples of Christ in O M o (St. Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1952), p. 229.

^^Correspondence, p. 2.

55lhid.. p. 18. 270

appointed a committee of five to formulate a response.

The answer, similar to the Disciples' document, was

cordial and explanatory and was meant to express a warm

fraternal relationship. Encouraged by the exchange of

fraternal greetings, the Disciples sent a second document 57 the next yearThe Baptist's second response, given by

Rev. Samson Talbot, chairman of the second committee of

five, expressed an appreciation in reviewing "the points

of agreement and difference between us," but announced,

"any further presention of these points is unnecessary, besides being beyond the province of this Convention as

simply a missionary body.Talbot was plainly con­

cluding the negotiation gesture of the Disciples, who had

explained that they were "seeking the restoration of the

Christianity of the New Testament," and who believed that

such a restoration involved "the overthrow of denomina­ te tionalism."^^ Both denominations had moderated in the

^ The Committee members for the Baptist committee were Rev. Reuben Jeffrey /_JeîfTie§y^ Rev. T. J. Melish, both of Cincinnati, Rev., Loomis G. Leonard of Lebanon, Rev. Augustus Hopkins Strong of Cleveland, and Rev. Henry E. Colby of Dayton. OBC, 1870, p. 9«

Three men signed the Disciples document, J. P. Robinson, W. T. Moore, and James A. Garfield. OBC. 1871, p. 88; "Baptists and Disciples," Journal and Messenger, XL, 25 (June 7, 1871), 1-2; "Address of the Disciples," Journal and Messenger, XL, 4-5 (Nov. 8, 1871), 2.

^GpBC, 1871, p. 9.

5^Ibid., p. 75* 271 intervening forty years since the open break over the views of Alexander Campbell. The Disciples frankly dis­ claimed a belief in "baptismal regeneration"; and Ohio

Baptists had come far from their former hyper-Calvinistic position.But the two groups were still far apart; and

Ohio Baptists particularly seemed reluctant to pursue any serious discussion involving union.In 1870, the Bap­ tists, numbering about 39,000, approximately one-third more than the 30,000 Disciples in the state, were satis­ fied to retain the Baptist identity and traditions rather than confront serious change. Also, by 1870, Baptists had reached a fairly prosperous and successful period, and felt little need for union.

Baptists in Ohio, by 1870, were becoming very con­ scious of the growth factor produced by ample church edi­ fices. "It is the deliberate judgement of the Board," declared the 1868 Report, "after years of observation, that your missions will not be likely to prosper without places of worship under their own control." Instead, a congregation would be laboring under "immense disadvantage

^^Correspondence, p. 18.

^^The negotiation brought up a question among Bap­ tists as to how a state convention whose sole constitu­ tional purpose was to promote missions could formally implement any plan of merger between denominational bodies. The question was to demand an answer when merger with the Free Baptists became a reality in the early twentieth century both on the national and state levels. 272 without suitable church accommodations." The early meeting houses, most often rude affairs, and frequently with two front doors flanking the pulpit centered between them, were not adequate for growing and prosperous con­ gregations. Generally the city churches evolved through several increasingly expensive buildings. The $90,000 new building of the Ninth Street Church, or to be more correct a renovation of the older structure, in 1858 was the third edifice occupied by Cincinnati's leading Baptist church. Cleveland First Church did not build its third structure until 188?.^^

In 1867, the average cost for a Baptist meeting house, according to a committee report, was estimated at

#4,000. The report admitted, however, that the effort by

Ohio Baptists to raise sufficient funds to fill Ohio's needs would be unwise. Instead the Committee suggested joining a recently inaugurated project of the American

Baptist Home Mission Society to raise half a million dol­ lars as a denominational building fund.^^ The campaign

^^OBC. 1868, p. 21.

^%iami Baptist Association, Minutes. 1898, p. 49; Semi-Centennial of the Ninth Street Baptist Church of Cincinnati. Nov. 7. 8, 9. 1880 (Cincinnati, Ohio: Geo. Stevens, n.d.). p. 13; OBC. Ï893. p. 101. ^^OBC. 1867. p. 5; S. B. Page to Deacon M. E. Gray, Sept. 28, 1871, Martin E. Gray Papers (Western Reserve Historical Library). 273 was designed to grant small loans to churches to erect modest edifices, rather than more spacious and elabo­ rately designed buildings. The Church Edifice Fund was not initiated until 1871, after which Ohio Baptists sup­ ported the project for nine years, managing to raise over

#24,000.^^ The Convention realized by 1880 that calls for use of the Fund in Ohio were rarely made; and the Church

Edifice Committee discontinued Ohio's support of the project that year.^^

One of the reasons for larger buildings was the

Sunday School movement which had become so successful in promoting Protestant growth. Sunday School conventions on the association level had become popular after the war as local schools joined in societal efforts to become more ■

"efficient" and to compare attendance records and library holdings.The Saturday afternoon and evening sessions at the State Convention gave way to a state-wide Sunday

School Convention with a children's rally on Sunday.

Later, the rally convened before the regular Convention

'^^OBC, '1871, pp. 7, 10; "Way Notes - The Baptist Churches in Ohio," Journal and Messenger, XLI, 9 (Feb. 28, 1872), 1 .

G^OBC, 1880, p. 16. ^^The Auglaize Association reported 600 children and 4-00 adults in a one day "Sabbath-School Convention" in 1871. The associations took on new life particularly after 1870. "News from the Churches," Journal and Messenger. XL, 4-1 (Oct. 11, 1871), 5* 274

sessions.^® The beginning date for the Ohio Baptist State

Sunday School Convention, a date which marked a striking

rise in Sunday School attendance, was 1870.^^

Rev. Charles Rhoads, appointed the Sunday School

missionary to Ohio in 1871 by the American Baptist Pub­

lication Society, developed a markedly successful organi­

zation within the state. With his leadership, the Sunday

School movement generated such growth among Ohio Baptists

in the early 1870's that it threatened to rival the State

Convention in importance. In 1870, 241 Sunday Schools

among Ohio's 536 churches claimed an average attendance of

9,770 members. Just two years later, the number had grown 70 to 427 schools and 26,171 in average attendance.' The

sudden growth of an entirely new area within the state 71 organization was not without some friction.' The Conven­

tion Board invited Rhoads to transfer his employment from

Scheduling the sessions during the annual meetings became no small problem. The Sunday School Convention, Education Society, Pastoral Conference, and the Women's missionary meetings all vied for time either before or after the regular sessions. OBC, 1872, p. 1$.

^^"Sunday School Convention," Journal and Messenger, XL, 43 (Oct. 25, 1871), p. 4.

^^Ibid., pp. 68-69.

^^The Convention Board chaffed under the circum­ stance where it had virtually no supervision over the Sunday School movement, and acknowledged, "We all know there has been some rubbing that has not been pleasant, growing out of the relation of the S.S. work to the Con­ vention. " Ibid., p. 22. 275 the Publication Society to become the Sunday School Mis­ sionary of the Ohio Convention. He was to have the freedom to continue with the very same work; but Rhoads declined the offer and continued within his existing relationship to organize Sunday Schools and to provide

Teachers' Institutes, Normal Classes, literature dis- 72 tribution and fund collection.' Beginning in the seven­ ties, Sunday Schools, which had often followed the custom of closing during the winter months, became increasingly a year-round activity in the Baptist churches. ^

Both Rev. Orsemus Allen and Rev. John Buell

Sackett died in 1870. Allen had served as treasurer of the Convention for twenty-two years, while Sackett had served as Corresponding Secretary for nine years, and as

Superintendent of Missions and Financial Agent for a shorter period, having relinguished the latter title two years before he died.*^^ Rev. J. W. Osborn, pastor of the

First Baptist Church, Columbus, resigned his pastorate and assumed the positions of Corresponding Secretary and

^ Ibid., pp. 22-23; OBC, I860, Appendix, p. 10. Rhoads' reasons for not joining the State Convention organization do not appear. The impotence of the Conven­ tion program could well have been the important reason. The Publication Society on the national level was more secure for him financially.

^^"Our Sabbath-School Will Open Soon Now Again," Journal and Messenger, ZLIV, 24- (June 15, 1875), 7*

f^CBC, 1870, p. 21; OBC, 1871, p. 21. 275

Financial Agent in 1871 realizing that he would he serving

alone because of the "unwillingness of the churches to

sustain" any additional "outlay. Osborn soon discovered

what had frustrated Sackett in the earlier decade, that

the state mission program was in danger of being reduced

to supporting "dying churches" rather than supporting new

mission locations.In addition, "systematic benevolence"

had been more preached than practiced. An "apportionment"

system among the churches had been used for years; but no

"unbaptistic" pressure suggesting a "tax" was possible.

Osborn was able, however, to arrange a policy which would phase out stagnant churches and strengthen the hand of the

Board. Churches had to pay their ministers promptly and

in full in order to receive aid, a feat some churches

seemed incapable of performing. Also, a policy of gradual

reduction of financial grants ultimately liberated some 77 funds for other uses. When Osborn retired from his secretariat, and his

successor. Rev. Samuel G. Dawson, died less than a year

^^"A Collecting Agent in the Field," Journal and Messenger, XL, 21 (May ?A, I87I), 1; OBC, 1872, p. 21. The Convention had attempted to raise #12,000 a year for state missions only to fall far short of the goal. Money was being diverted into other channels such as new edifices and other local projects. Retrenchment, not progress, seemed to be the order of the day. OBC, 1871. p. 23*

f^OBC, 1872, p. 26.

77lbid.. p. 29; OBC, 1874, p. 7- 277 after he assumed the position, Rev. Hiram L. Gear became 78 the new Corresponding Secretary in 1876.' Gear began at

a time when business had not fully recovered from the

economic panic in 1875; and offerings to state missions barely averaged #6,000 each year. Also Gear faced increasing resistance from churches "against the employ­ ment of paid agency." Actually the hostility was the result of a growing opposition of the country churches toward a state leadership which publicly concentrated its

efforts in the towns and cities. State leaders had dis­ criminated openly against the more rural portions of the state, and had alienated the smaller congregations more and more. The real source of religious contributions lay by now with the city churches, not in the farming com­ munities where slow attrition in population was sapping their leadership. Before the Civil War, the country churches had maintained a larger segment of the leadership and the giving, aiding the town and city churches through the Village Plan. But the rural churches had grown com- OQ paratively weaker ever since. ^ Gear assessed the

^ "Rev. S. G. Dawson - Expressions of Sorrow and Esteems," Journal and Messenger, XVIV, 37 (Sept. 15, 1875), 4; OBC, 1873, p. 18; Pifty-Pirst Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Toledo, 0., Oct. 19- 20, 1876 (Xenia, Ohio: Hon Pariel Printing Co., 1876J, p. 10. Hereafter cited OBC, 1876.

'^*^Pifty-Second Anniversary of the Baptist Conven­ tion of the State of Ohio Held at Cincinnati, 0., Oct. 23- 26, 1877 (Xenia, Ohio: Non Pariel Printing Co., 1877), pp. 11-15. 278 approximate sources of Baptist benevolence in terms of types of churches and outlined a relatively stark picture of Baptist strength in Ohio. He asked the question,

How how many self-sustaining churches have we in the State? The 4-6,000 Baptists are distributed among 580 churches. From this number, in esti­ mating our available resources, we must at the outset deduct 100 churches, containing 7,000 colored members, as being non-participants in our work. This leaves 4-80 churches comprising 39,000 white Baptists. But by far the greater part of these are country churches, and there are no less than 385 of them, comprising 22,000 mem­ bers, making an average membership of about 60 each, which are all destitute of whole time preaching, and the majority of which have preach­ ing only once a month. Then deducting 15 mission fields which sustain whole time preaching only by the help of the Convention, and which comprise about 1,000 members, with an average membership of about 7 0 , we have left only 100 churches, com­ prising only 16,000 members, with an average mem­ bership of 160, which are self-sustaining churches, having whole time preaching on their own account.Go

As Gear viewed the state, the future of Baptist missions in

Ohio was closely bound to the benevolence of the larger churches.

At times, the larger churches would without notice divert money which might have aided the state mission pro­ gram to other projects or to home expenses during times of economic hardship. The Ninth Street Church in Cincinnati, source of such important leadership in earlier days before

RO Fifty-Third Anniversary of the Baptist Conven­ tion of the State of Ohio Held at Granville, Ohio, Oct. 24- 25, 1878 (Xenia, Ohio; Non Pariel Printing Co., 1878), p. 11. Hereafter cited OBC, 1878. 279 the Civil War, particularly fluctuated in its giving in a disappointing fashion and in some years gave nothing into the state treasury. Other churches in the Cincinnati area were seemingly affected by Ninth Street's attitude.

On the other hand, the First Baptist Church of Cleveland contributed large and more constant amounts into the state treasury. The churches of the Cleveland Association were the largest contributors of any association to the State

Convention, carrying an average of twenty-three percent of 0-| the state mission budget during the decade of the 1870's.

The highest and most constant congregation giving to state missions came from the First Baptist Church of Dayton, which gave an average of S513 each year to the Convention treasury during the 1870's. This was just short of ten percent of the annual receipts from all the churches.

Gear served as Corresponding Secretary from 1876 to 1881 when he resigned due to ill health. Under his direction, the Convention finally became the initiator and sponsor of new missions fields. Gear reasoned that the city "Baptist Union" societies were directing and funding

Q-| This percentage did not include the individual gifts by John Do Rockefeller. His first gift of record in the treasurer's report in 1878 was $200. By 1881 he had increased the gift to $600. His giving toward Convention projects prior to 1878 was through his local church, Buclid Avenue. The Cleveland support was rewarded in part by the Convention following the leadership of James M. Hoyt as state president for a quarter of a century. 280 church extension projects within their respective city limits and received large donations of money to finance their ventures. He further concluded that the associa- tional mission work should generally be responsible for the interests of the small churches in rural districts.

Consequently, he envisioned an area of need remaining between these two in which the Convention should concen­ trate its resources. Gear made reference particularly to

Op cities where no Baptist work existed yet. Steubenville and Chillicothe with populations of 10,000 were the largest cities in the state with no Baptist churches, while an additional list of twenty important towns and cities with less population were also without a Baptist congregation, and thus were targets for mission work.®^ By 1881, the

State Convention was able to appoint Rev. H. C. Cooper, a recent graduate of Newton Theological Seminary as a missionary pastor in the city of Steubenville with the Oh salary of #800 per year.

Op Rifty-Rourth Anniversary of the Baptist Conven­ tion of the State of Ohio Held at Springfield, Ohio, Oct. 23-24, 1879 (Xenia, Ohio: Non Pariel Printing Co., 1879),p. 9. Hereafter cited OBC, 1879. ^^There was a Negro Baptist Church in Chillicothe; but this was not considered in Gear's strategy. OBC, 1876, p. 1 5.

Q/i Proceedings of the 36th Anniversary of the Baptist Convention of the State of Ohio Held at Portsmouth, Ohio, Oct. 20-21, 1881 (Granville; Granville Times Book and Job Print, 1881), p. 8. Hereafter cited OBC, 1881. 281

By the time Gear resigned in 1881, six cb.nrcb.es out of the sixteen receiving new mission money had been organized through his efforts. He had given a considerable portion of his time to leadership in protracted meetings using them to organize four of the churches in unoccupied areas. Several men heretofore had envisioned such pre­ meditated designs in state missions; but Gear was able to lead the Convention "into a more aggressive policy for the establishment of new missions by its own incipient efforts.

By 1880, the leaders in the Convention was ready to adopt plans to put several district missionaries into Ohio specifically to labor among the rural churches. They were waiting only until the churches could raise an annual state budget of ten thousand dollars. There was a growing con­ cern that the rural churches had to be given extra measures of pastoral leadership. Calls went out repeatedly for money; but the resistance of many of the churches to the suggestion of a "distributive apportionment" again too nearly resembled "a tax from a foreign jurisdiction," and kept the treasury far below the ten thousand dollar goal.®^

The bequest, however, of $5000 from the estate of

G^Ibid., p. 14. G^Ibid., pp. 5, 18; OBC, 1880, p. 1$. 282 Eliam E. Barney in 1881 set a notable example in giving to 87 the Convention and was the first gift of such size. '

By 1878 some Convention leaders were seriously calling for a major reorganization of the Convention structure; and, in response to the demand, a Committee on Reorganization was appointed in 1879* Headed by Rev.

Henry E. Colby of Dayton, the Committee struggled to out­ line some plan of unity within the state Baptist work.

The report in the following year declared that any plan to centralize and unify the Baptist administrative struc­ tures in Ohio, though possessing obvious advantages, carried "dangers and embarrassments" far too great to risk. 88 The recommendation thus suggested no major change. The study revealed the Baptist mood in Ohio as well as any other action. Becoming more progressive in doctrine, more educated in leadership, more innovative in plans and mis­ sion work, Ohio Baptists were still circumscribed by the feeling of congregational autonomy and independence and could not bring themselves to abandon these precepts in order to capture a stronger ecclesiastical unity.

^Much larger amounts had been given by Baptists in Ohio to Denison University and to national agencies, but none so large to the State Convention. The gift, called "The Maria T. Barney Memorial Eund," was for a perpetual investment. OBC, 1881, p. 8. B^OBC, 1878, p. 39; OBC. 1879, p. 21. The report­ ing committee included Colby, Rev. W. P. C. Rhoads of Granville, Rev. C. D. Morris of Toledo, Rev. Samuel W. Duncan of Cincinnati, and Mr. James M. Hoyt of Cleveland, who had just competed his twenty-five years as Convention president in the same year. CHAPTER IX

THE COHVEHTIOH, 1882-1907, THE BUILDING YEARS

When Rev. George E. Leonard assumed leadership of

the Convention in 1882 as Corresponding Secretary, Ohio

was becoming a strongly industrial and increasingly urban­

ized state.^ Population shifts from farm to city had

seriously begun to rob the rural areas of political and religious strength within the state, while the larger

cities, particularly in the northern section of the state, were feeling the sizable invasion of the new immigration

from southern and eastern Europe, bringing people into

Ohio who were less amenable to Protestant Christianity 2 than those already there.

Like the state, the Ohio Baptist Convention was

also undergoing changes. The Constitution still declared

the Convention's objective to be "to conduct domestic

John A. Garraty, The New Commonwealth, 1877-1899 (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1968), p. 82; Arthur Meier Schlesinger. The Rise of Modern America, 1865-1951 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951), pp. 40-41. 2 Oscar Handlin, Immigration as a Factor in American History (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1999), pp. 14-15, 76-77; Richard Hofstadter. The Age of Reform Prom Bryan to P.D.R. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963), pp. $2-34, 45; Garraty, pp. 34, 70-75, 183• 283 284 missions in the State of Ohio.” But, in reality, this narrowly defined purpose represented hut a small portion

of the Baptist organizational activity. The more central

objective, expressed by Leonard rather clearly in 1889 was actually "to unite the Baptists of Ohio in efforts to

increase the number and efficiency of the Baptist churches

of this State.State missions were only one relatively minor pursuit of the organization. By 1895» the annual

Convention sessions, officially lasting two days, were

devoting only two hours and fifteen minutes to state mis­

sions.^ The rest of the Convention agenda served to

coordinate, explicate, and unify the sundry and multiform

departments under the umbrella of Ohio Baptist Convention

activity.

George E. Leonard, who had begun his ministry in

Ohio in a mission church at Wauseon in 1865 and had then pastured in Peru, Indiana, assumed the multiple-titled

leadership position in 1882, at a time when rural discontent

^"More About Ohio State Missions," Journal and Messenger, LIV, 4? (Nov. 25, 1885), 1; Proceedings of the Sixty-Pourth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the First Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 25-24, 1889 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Pair Publishing House, 1889), p. 49. Hereafter cited OBC, 1889. ^Proceedings of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held at Pirst Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 23-24, 1895 (Norwalk, Ohio; The Laning Printing Co., 1895), P* 41. Hereafter cited OBC, 182^. 285 and urban preoccupation with local projects were seriously impairing the state mission efforts.^ Prior to Leonard's

commencement of his new work, the Board of Managers, as the Trustees were now more frequently called, had expressed its intention to expand the state ministry, particularly among the rural churches, by employing district mission­ aries for evangelism and organizational work.^ Also, the

Board had exhibited a new boldness and had determined, with the help of Leonard, to exert a more uniform, even if heavy-handed, regulation of the mission program. Over the next two decades, the Board tightened its allotments

^Following the previous custom, Leonard was elected to the non-paying office of Corresponding Secre­ tary, and then was hired by the Convention Board of Trustees to become Financial Agent and Superintendent of Missions, which composed a full-time position. The paying jobs were by far the more important part of the Secretary's work. The office of Corresponding Secretary was finally altered to the title Executive Secretary in I9 1 5. "Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LI, 4 (Jan. 25, 1882), 4; Proceedings of the 37th Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, Held in Wooster, Ohio, Oct. 19-20, 1882 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Norwalk Chronicle Book and Job Print, 1882), p. 2. Hereafter cited OBC, 1882. Pro­ ceedings of the Seventy-First Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with Ashland Ave. Baptist Church, Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 21-22, 1896 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Laning Printing Co., 1896), p. 27. Hereafter cited OBC, 1896.

^Rev. Philip S. Moxom, pastor of Cleveland's First Church, had proposed that the state be divided into five districts in which district missionaries would serve as soon as money became available in the state treasury. Proceedings of the 56th Anniversary of the Baptist Con­ vention of the State of Ohio Held at Portsmouth, Ohio, Oct. 20-21, 1881 (Granville: Granville Times Book and Job Print, 1881), pp. 6, 18. 286 of monetary aid by demanding from mission clmrcbes specific information such as the pastor's credentials, the prognosis of congregational growth rate, and the full disclosure of local finances.^ Furthermore, the Board occasionally became the legal possessors of church property held in a fiduciary capacity. Although an encroachment upon Baptist independence, this was considered necessary to retain con- O trol of liens upon church property.

While the mission policies of the Board became more strict, their attitude toward the declining rural church and the small town church became more conciliatory and understanding. "Perhaps we have said too much against

'once-a-month' preaching," admitted the Convention

'OBC, 1889, pp. 2 5, 5 0; Proceedings of the Seventy- Eighth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with The First Baptist Church, Delaware, Ohio, Oct. 21-22, 1903 (Columbus, Ohio : Press of Myers Bros., 190$), p. I5. Hereafter cited OBC, 1903. O The most notable action by the Board was the purchase of a new church building in Massillon in 1899 for #6 ,2 9 0 from a congregation of another denomination which had been forced to sell after just completing the edifice worth #1 2 ,5 0 0. The Baptist congregation in Massillon num­ bered but twenty members and could not have begun to manage the loan. The Board defended its action by explaining, "The property is deeded absolutely to the Convention, subject to the mortgages. But it will become the property of the Massillon Baptist Church, as soon as it is paid for, the Convention holding only a conditional reversionary interest." Proceedings of the Seventy-Fourth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the Lincoln Park Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 25-26, 1899 (Columbus, Ohio: Press of Myers Bros., 1899), p . 26. Hereafter cited OBC, 1899. 287 President, Rev. Henry P. Colby, pastor of the Dayton First

Church.^ The Board report expanded on Colby's admissions,

and sought to correct the impression that "'country people,' so called, are neglected by the Board.But,

in truth, the Convention had given very little help to rural churches, expending almost all of its limited yearly receipts on mission churches in middling-sized towns and

cities where population growth signified a better possi­ bility of•success. Even in the towns where aid was extended,

the mission pastors, frequently living on a subsistence

salary, and often "shorted" by an insolvent local church treasury, would often quickly resign to escape the frustra­ tion of failure or near-poverty.^^ A constant movement of people away from the more rural areas, the steady weakening of farm incomes, and the constant uncertainty in mining

Q Proceedings of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, Held in Granville, Ohio, Oct. 22, 1883 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Fair Publishing House, 1885), P- 50. Hereafter cited OBC, 1883.

^^Ibid.. p. 1 7 .

^^"The Frequent Removal of Ministers," Journal and Messenger, L, 1 (Jan. 5, 1881), 2; "A Pastor's Salary," Journal and Messenger, Eli, 27 (July 4-, 1883), 2; Proceedings of the 39th Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held in Youngstown, Ohio, Oct. 23-24-, 1884 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Norwalk Chronicle Book and Job Print, 1884), p. 26. Hereafter cited OBC, 1884. 288

towns, each produced a debilitating effect on nearby 12 churches.

The stipulation for district missionaries came as

a direct call for leadership in the "rural districts."

The proposal centered in a return to "itinerant" missions,

a concept which had been out of vogue for forty years.

In 1882, while Leonard was employed as the executive

administrator, two other men were hired to itinerate among

the churches, in special evangelistic projects particu­

larly.^^ The itinerancy of the proposed district mis­

sionary was broadly viewed as an attempt to strengthen

the small churches, many of which had endured for decades

without regular preaching; but an attempt to write a more

specific job description revealed differing points of 14 view within the constituency of the Board of Managers.

12 "Those Extinct Churches," Journal and Messenger, LI, 1 (Jan. 4-, 1882), 4; "A Plea for the O.B.G.," Journal and Messenger, LI, $1 (Aug. 2, 1882), 4.

^^Rev. A. B. Charpie toured among selected churches for three months. Rev. A. L. Jordan began service as "General Missionary," intending to conduct protracted meetings. Jordan resigned in 1884 because of nervous fatigue. In addition to these two. Rev. J. L. V/yly worked in the Marietta Association with some state support. "Ohio Baptist Anniversary," Journal and Messenger, LI, 43 (Oct. 23, 1882), 5; "General Missionary for Ohio," Journal and Mes­ senger , LI, 48 (Nov. 29, 1882), 4. 14 There were three main viewpoints. Some members viewed the main work of the proposed district missionaries as conducting what were popularly called "revivals" in the local churches. Others felt that "pioneer" work was more needed, in which the men, either through revival meetings or other means, would initiate and build up new churches. Still a third group proposed a ministry more similar to 289 Recognizing that the success of employing district

missionaries was contingent upon increased contributions,

Leonard was well aware of the strategic need for the city

churches and set about to recruit their support. The

northeast region in Ohio, which was the location of the most affluent and energetic Baptists in the state, was

Leonard's first target. He actively recruited prominent

laymen and pastors to attend a Cleveland District Baptist

Convention, which was held in Akron on December 1, 1885

The delegates "voted to invite the Convention to employ"

a district missionary for a region extending throughout

the Ashtabula, Cleveland, Wooster, Trumbull, Lorain, and

Welsh Associations.^^

For four years, the Convention hesitated, mainly because such a move was thought to endanger the meager general fund. Rinally in 1890, Rev. Henry H. Bawden, wbo the role of Rev. Charles Rhoads, the state Sunday School secretary, in which the District Missionaries would aid pastors and lay churchmen in conferences relating to church and Sunday School work. The Board admitted that "probably our real need is a form of general service which will combine all of the three above mentioned agencies." OBC, 1885, p. 29. ^^Rev. G. A. Leonard to Mr. Martin Gray, Nov. 24, 1885, Martin Ë. Gray Papers (Western Reserve Historical Library). Hereafter cited Gray Papers.

^^Proceedings of the Sixty-Pirst Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Oct. 21-22, 1886 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Pair Publishing House, 1885), p. 25. Hereafter cited OBC, 1886. 290 had pastored prominently in Elyria and Dayton, accepted the invitation to serve. He was assigned to the central 17 district of the state. ' Ambitiously, the Convention employed Rev. W. H. Hurburt early in the following year to serve in the Northeast distri*^'-. Also, the Convention worked out a plan with the Eastern and Western Union Asso­ ciations to share in the salary support of a missionary to serve among the 10,000 Negro people scattered among

150 churches in the state. In 1891, Rev. W. A. Burch accepted the assignment. Ill health, lack of support by the churches, and the economic crisis in 1895 soon removed all of the men except Bawden. Several additional attempts were feebly made to employ other district missionaries, but it finally became apparent that the State Convention could only sustain one such missionary. Bawden served for more than a decade, roving far beyond his original central

^The other four districts were designated by the four corners of the state, northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest. Bawden's district included Huron, Mansfield, Mt. Vernon, Columbus, Scioto, Jackson, Central, Gallia, Ohio, and Portsmouth Associations. Approximately one-half of the State Convention budget in 1890 came from seven men who pledged to give the needed support for the new District Missionary project. "Ohio Convention Missionary," Journal and Messenger, LIX, 2 (Jan. 9, 1890), 1; "The Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LX, 1 (Jan. 1, 1891), 4-; Pro­ ceedings of the Sixty-Eifth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the Pirst Baptist Church, Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 22-25, 1890 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Pair Publishing House, 1890), p. 15. Hereafter cited OBC, 1890. 291 district, and writing some of the most descriptive and

readable narratives of home mission work printed in Ohio.

Without adequate leadership among the rural churches,

the Convention resorted to other devices to raise the level

of "efficiency" among the many pastorless churches. The

plan to combine churches into a preaching circuit, which

functioned so well among the Methodists, was advocated.

But often Baptist churches failed to work courteously

together. "They do not readily fall into the Convention's notions," admitted one Board report.!^ Also, Leonard made

1 ft Bawden served a total of eleven and one-quarter years as District Missionary. The bicycle became an indis­ pensable means of travel during his ministry. He typically held "Church Institutes" rather than "Revivals," but did not hesitate to lead in evangelistic meetings, especially in pastorless churches. "The Chio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LXI, 4-4- (Nov. 3, 1892), 1; Pro­ ceedings of the Sixty-Sixth Anniversary of the Chio Baptist Convention Held with Pirst Baptist Church, Canton, Chio, Cot. 21-22, 1891 (Norwalk, Chio: The Laning Printing Co., 1891), p. 2C. Hereafter cited CBC, 1891. Proceedings of the Sixty-Highth Anniversary of the Chio Baptist Conven­ tion Held with the Central Baptist Church, Circleville, Chio, Cet. 18-19, 1893 (Norwalk, Chio; The Laning Printing Company, 1893)» P* 34. Hereafter cited CBC, 1893.

^^These churches were often very suspicious of the Convention leadership. They viewed the Convention as a controlled agency of a few wealthy men who notoriously played favorites in the support of a few churches. "Some Ignored Pacts," Journal and Messenger, L, 4- (Jan. 25, 1881), 1; Proceedings of the Sixty-Seventh Anniversary of the Chio Baptist Convention Held with the Market Street Baptist Church, Zanesville, Chio, Cet. 26-27, 1892 (Norwalk, Chio; The Laning Printing Co., 1892). p. 25; CBC, 19C3, p. 2?. 292 good use of several ministerial students at Denison

University each year during the summer months, giving 20 them preaching experience in pastorless churches. By the end of the century, a nostalgic paternalism concern­ ing the small, rural church was evident. "If we want strong churches, we must keep up the small churches," advised one preacher, who expressed the oft-repeated axiom that the great laymen of the cities "were reared in the 21 little churches." Yet the task seemed well-nigh insur­ mountable. In 1899» eighty-six churches in the state, each with fewer than one hundred members were pastorless; and fifty-six of these claimed a membership of less than fifty.22

Although much of the Convention money and effort centered in the cultivation of the small mission church, such efforts had become through the years an increasingly smaller sector of its ministry. During the last two decades of the century, the Baptist churches in Ohio channeled most of their mission and special project dollars

2Qq b G, 1893, p. 35. 21 Proceedings of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention with the First Baptist Church, Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 24-25, 1900 (Columbus, Ohio: Pressof Myers Bros., 1900), p. 9* Hereafter cited OBC, 1900.

22q b c , 1899, p. 27. 293 directly into other societies and projects, so that only

approximately one-third flowed through the state

treasury.

The Convention sessions represented a yearly rallying point for several organized ministries of the

Ohio Baptists. A general increase in the number of

churches who contributed and participated in the related

Convention programs enhanced the growing success and 24 unity of Ohio Baptists during the period. The Conven­ tion sessions, especially the coveted evening hours, were increasingly in demand as the various departments and 25 societies competed for allotted time. The annual ses­

sions, which were held during the week following the fourth

^T’or instance, in 1882, the total receipts of the Convention were #9,048.24; but the combined total of giving through associational missions, the Baptist unions of the cities, and benevolent contributions for church lots and buildings amounted to #28,984. This total did not include contributions to the national societies. The grand total of Baptist benevolent giving for projects beyond local expenses for the year was #42,707.58, an exceptionally good year. OBC, 1882, pp. 17-18. 24 The Convention finally altered its legal name in 1882 to correspond with its more popular name, the Ohio Baptist Convention. OBC, 1882, p. 19.

^^In 1884, a plan was arranged whereby the national organizations and each of the state organizations received an evening allotment of time every third year at the annual sessions. Non-Baptist appeals for recognition at the annual meeting were generally given no opportunity for an appearance. The Baptist Ministers' Aid Society joined the list of other national societies in 1888. OBC, 1884, p. 25. 294

Sabbath in October, became an increasing burden upon the host churches which were expected to supply free housing for the arrival of two or three hundred delegates. In

1893, when no church offered to host the annual burgeoning list of delegates, Leonard persuaded the members to begin paying "fair prices" at hotels and boarding houses.

After this was agreed upon, several offers were forth- coming. 25

The churches had long since coalesced into rather static associational groupings. Nevertheless, between

1882 and 1907, three new associations were organized, two of them among the Negro churches. The churches in

Jackson County divided from the Central Association in

1886 to form the Jackson Baptist Association. The two new

Negro groups were the Mt. Zion Baptist Association, which began in 1886 and was located in the eastern region, and the Northern Ohio Baptist Association, which was organized 27 in 1904 in the northeast part of the state. Several

Reduced railroad rates had long been also a standard benefit and were negotiated and publicized each year. The reaction against "free hospitality," as it was called, had been building up over a period of years because of the change in social amenities from earlier days. In 1881, one leader explained, "It is no longer regarded as just the thing to put ten to twenty-five persons on the floor in one room for lodging .... Such entertainment was more acceptable and more readily offered thirty years ago than now." "Ohio Convention Echoes," Journal and Messenger, L, 44 (Nov. 2, 1881), 4; OBC, 1893, p. 44. ^^"A New Organization," Journal and Messenger, LV, 40 (Oct. 6, 1886), 4; Jackson Baptist Association, Minutes, . _ 295 28 association names changed over the same period. The

Welsh Baptist Association reported for the last time in

1 9 0 3, having become progressively weak, and was eventually dropped from the state's statistical listing. The number of churches reporting to the Convention leveled off above the six hundred mark during the period; and the local 29 congregations generally became larger in membership.

The churches generally reflected an increasing prosperity, a growing membership, and institutional activity; but only a minority responded to Leonard's constant encouragement to follow a "systematic benevolence."

Without a doubt, the Sunday School movement was the most stimulating ingredient of Ohio Baptist church life in the late nineteenth century. The Sunday School Conven­ tions, which commenced in most of the associations in the

1870's, brought new energy and increased attendance to the

1887 (Jackson, Ohio: Herald Printing Office, 1887), p. 1; Mount Zion Baptist Association, Minutes, 1890 (Huntington: Pioneer Printing House, 1890), pp. 1-2; Northern Ohio Baptist Association, Minutes, 1905 (Urbana, Ohio: Curry School Print, 1905), pp. 1-2.

p o East Pork became Clermont; Strait Creek, Adams; Wills Creek, Cambridge; Portsmouth, Pomeroy; and Miami Union, Dayton.

^^In 1882, thirty-one associations reported 610 churches. In 1907, thirty-three associations claimed 625 churches. The membership among the churches had risen significantly, from 50,056 in 1882 to 80,409 in 1907. OBC, 1882, p. 71; Proceedings of the Eighty-Second Annual Meeting of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with The Pirst Baptist Church, Youngstown, Ohio. Oct. 22-24, 1907 Cn.p,n.d.), p. 152. Hereafter cited OBC, 1907. 296 Baptist gatherings and often doubled the time necessary for the delegates to convene into two separate organiza­ tions.^^ The guiding light of Ohio's Sunday School move­ ment among Baptists continued to be Rev. Charles Rhoads of the American Baptist Publication Society. Attending the associational meetings upon invitation to hold Insti­ tutes or special rallies during the adjoining annual Sunday

School conventions, Rhoads developed a program for Sunday

School workers which captured the enthusiasm of Baptists throughout the state. He crusaded for better teaching and organization in local churches; and as a result, his leadership tended to rival the Convention program in importance. The Chio Baptist Sunday School Convention gave Rhoads prominence as State Sunday School Secretary which made him every inch the equal of Leonard in effec­ tiveness and popularity. Rhoads' objective, to a large degree, was, as he put it, "to make the membership work, 7.1 which aids the churches far more than any other thing.

^ The Wooster Association had its first Sunday School Convention in 187C, and through the years developed two annual assemblies meeting on adjacent days. By 189C, the Association was clearly aware of the danger of having inaugurated a rival organization which was usurping the attention and loyalty of the people. Wooster Baptist Association, Minutes, 189C (Wooster, Chio: Clapper's Print, 189C), p. 21.

^^Charles Rhoads to Martin £. Gray, Jan. 3, 1875, Gray Papers. 297 Earlier efforts in 1872 to invite Ehoads to serve

under the patronage of the State Convention had resulted

in his refusal. When the Ohio Baptist Sunday School Con­

vention unanimously adopted a resolution at its 1885 meeting that "the Ohio Baptist Convention . . . take into

consideration the feasibility and propriety of adopting

Sunday School Missions as a definite department of its

work, under some efficient and authorized form of admin­

istration," the Convention voted to extend the offer to

Ehoads. 7 . 0 Rhoads agreed to accept on the condition "that

the Constitution and By-laws be so altered as to create a

separate Board to have charge of this work." Ehoads was

obviously not trustful of the weak and sometimes arbitrary

Board of Managers which traditionally had failed to raise

an adequate budget or implement a successful home mission program in Ohio.^^ The Board could not accede to Ehoads'

condition, and, in response, turned the Sunday School

duties over to Leonard, already overworked as the Corre­

sponding Secretary. Sensing the rift, the Ohio Baptist

Sunday School Convention voted to discontinue as a

separate organization, but to meet only in a separate

session to emphasize Sunday School topics. Ehoads

^^"Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger. LV, 44 (Nov. 5, 1886), 1.

^^OBC, 1886. pp. 24-25; "Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LV, 5 (Feb. 3» 1886), 4. 298 continued to serve in Ohio, paid by the Publication Society, overseeing literature distribution and Sunday School Insti- tutes, and aiding churches upon invitation. No Sunday

School personnel was hired by the State Convention; and

Rhoads continued to lead the Sunday School work until, near the end of the century, he finally resigned to serve the Publication Society in another state. Thereafter, a

Committee on Sunday School Work served under the direction of the Board of Managers, guiding an ever-growing Sunday

School ministry.

Responding to the increasingly graded departmentali­ zation in the Sunday School, the young people in Ohio organized into a separate department at the 1891 Convention

^ The Convention Board was urged to "avoid antago­ nizing" Rhoads and the Publication Society, and allow them to do their work. One of the points of disagreement was the Publication Society's insistence that it be allowed to appeal for special contributions for its work in the state, a privilege which the State Convention Board wanted to restrict in order to unify Baptist benevolence giving in the state. OBC, 1885, p. $0; Proceedings of the Sixty- Second Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the Linden Ave. Church, Dayton. Ohio, Oct. 19-20, 1887 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Pair Publishing House, 1887), pp. 25-25. Hereafter cited OBC, 1887. Proceedings of the Sixty-Third Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the Euclid Avenue Church, Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 24—25, 1888 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Pair Publishing House, 1888), p. 25.

^^Rhoads' successor. Rev. W. A. Holmes, consented to serve in a dual role beginning in 1905» as a paid mis­ sionary of the Publication Society and an appointed Field Worker serving without pay, under the sponsorship of the Ohio Baptist Convention. OBC, 1905, pp. 12, 4-0. 299 session, combining the emerging church youth groups,

including the older Christian Endeavor societies, to form

the Ohio Baptist Young People's Union (GBYPU). The

organization did not begin without some serious question­

ing as to its merit. Leonard publicly acknowledged his

"great abhorrence of societies," thus revealing his dis­

approval of the new organization, while others, with older

loyalties to the Christian Endeavor plan, criticized the

"effort to denominationalize the young people's organi­

zations."^^ Led by several ministers, Rev. E. W. Hunt of

Toledo, Prof. J. D. S. Riggs, and Prof. G. W. Manly of

Granville, the GBYPU initiated a "Young Peoples' Assembly"

at Lakeside, Ohio, in 1891» and created a summer confer­

ence which eventually became a regional "Chautauqua"

gathering for Baptists in Ghio.^^ In 1893 the Summer

Assembly moved to Hiawatha Park, near Mount Vernon, and

expanded into a summer conference for all age groups.

Sponsored and directed by the GBYPU, the Lake Hiawatha

Assemblies featured Bible lectures by nationally popular

speakers, Sunday School courses for teachers, concerts.

^^"Ghio Baptist Anniversaries." Journal and Mes­ senger , LIX, 44 (Get. 30, 189G), 4; Journal and Messenger, LX, 1 (Jan. 1, 1891), 4.

"Lectures at Lakeside," Journal and Messenger, LX, 2G (May 14, 1891), 7; "Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LX, 44 (Get. 29, 1891), 4; OBC, 1891, pp. 7, 12, 24. 300 and selected entertainment, in addition to the GBYPU program.Residing in tents, cottages, or rooms in the city, the Assembly attracted about I5OO people each year at the turn of the century. The summer program was directed particularly by Rev. Charles J. Rose, pastor of the neighboring Pirst Baptist Church in Mount Vernon.

The young people's local organizations and the summer assemblies had no rigid age limit. Leadership on the state level usually came from members of ages from thirty to forty-five.

As the Sunday School movement gradually trans­ formed the Baptist churches in Ohio into a departmentalized system of small group class units, the architecture of church buildings necessarily was adapted to the mushroom­ ing attendance in the Sunday classes. Architectural plans had to include a variety of rooms in addition to the preach­ ing auditorium. This factor increased the average cost of a new church building, and, in turn, made the venture a much larger task than it had been before. The type of architecture had been changing for some time, in proportion

10th Annual Program of the Ohio Baptist Assembly. Mount Vernon, Ohio, July 20 to July 30, 1903 (Mt. Vernon, Ohio : Republican Mews JPrint, n.d.), pp. 3, 19-23* 59iiThe Young People's Assembly," Journal and Messenger, LX, 27 (July 2, 1891), 1; Augustine S. Carman, "The Story of Ohio Baptists," Baptist Standard, LI, 36 (May 7, 1904), 11. 501 to the change in the fortunes and cultural tastes of

Baptists in Ohio. They had long since learned not to be

satisfied, as one minister remarked, with "God's barn" zj_0 when they could build a more expensive "Lord's House."

While the less expensive new buildings continued to be of frame construction, the more elaborate edifices used brick and stone, and added more and more rooms according to the church's needs and budget. The Sunday

School rooms had highest priority, and were almost always

so arranged that a movable partition could be lifted or folded. In this way the extra rooms could be used to accommodate additional seating for the "audience room" where the pulpit was. Other important additions were the baptistry, which was built into the front of the church near the pulpit, and the "robing rooms" for the baptismal candidates. Other features in the more elaborate edifices often included a bell tower and spire, stained glass windows, organ, pastor's study, dining room, prayer and library rooms, and toilet facilities.

Secretary Leonard had an obvious penchant for

encouraging church building construction, and developed

^^Rev. Lyman Whitney to Martin E. Gray, Jan. 7, 1857, Gray Papers.

^^The Ohio Baptist Annuals described many of the new buildings constructed in Ohio. The median cost of these buildings for a twenty year period beginning in 1888, was #6000. The average seating capacity was approximately 425 in. the "audience room." 302 some settled policies concerning monetary aid during his 42 tenure of office. He attempted to seek the enlistment

of the more wealthy Baptist laymen toward large capital

gifts for building projects. The Convention appointed

several members of the Board of Managers as a Committee

on Church Edifice Aid in 1885, in order to implement State

Convention superintendence over the procurement of money

and loan procedures.The Board refused to donate money

from the general missionary fund, but generally acted as

an endorsing agency, publicizing what churches were truly needy and which ones were following the suggested Conven- 44 tion procedures. When churches applied for building aid,

as many were inclined to do during the years of Leonard's

leadership, the Board began to investigate more boldly

into the church's economic strength and practices. They

42 When Leonard retired from the office of Corre­ sponding Secretary, he remained on the state staff for nine additional years as Church Edifice Secretary. The Ohio Baptist Annual, 1913 (n.p.n.d.), p. 65.

^^Rev. George 0. King, a Cleveland pastor at the Logan Avenue Church, was the first chairman. OBC, 1885, p. 6. typical endorsement by Leonard was publicized in the Journal and Messenger. "Dear Brethren and Sisters: - By vote of the Board of Managers of the Ohio Baptist Con­ vention, I am instructed to commend to your favorable con­ sideration the call of the Tenth Avenue Church, Columbus, for Aid in building a house of worship." Leonard con­ tinued to list the details of the "investigation" which led to the endorsement. "To all the Friends of the Mission work of the Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LXI, 54 (Aug. 25, 1892), 5. 303 insisted that a church not overbuild beyond its means, but

rather be able to cancel the debt soon after the construc­ ts tion ended, or surely in time for the dedication. If a

church was considered worthy of receiving aid, it was given

the official privilege of appealing particularly to the neighboring churches in the surrounding Baptist associa­

tions.^^ On several occasions, Leonard had to move beyond his normal Baptist role in order to save church property heavily in debt and about to be lost. Eventually legal procedures were adopted to help in the prevention of such un possible losses.

Although the Convention did not officially organize a Church Edifice Fund until 1903, the term was used con­ tinually by all Ohio Baptists, including the treasurer, to designate the funds which flowed through the Committee

^OBO, 1883, p. 4-1 ; Proceedings of the Sixty-Ninth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with Bethany Baptist Church, Wooster, Ohio, Oct. 24— 23. 1894- (Norwalk. Ohio : The Laning Printing Company, 1894-), pp. 19, 21, 24- 2 5. Hereafter cited O B C , 1894.

^^Also, Leonard often wrote to moneyed Baptist laymen describing the validity of a church's worthiness and appealing for aid in special cases. George E. Leonard to Martin E. Gray, Dec. 12, 1882, Gray Papers.

^^The new "Meeting House" at Tiffin was such a church which was in jeopardy in 1892. The money had to be found and advanced quickly to save the situation. These emergencies tended to put a strain on the Baptistic policy of autonomy and of societal democracy. George E. Leonard to Martin E. Gray, Dec. 24, 1892, Gray Papers; "Notes by the Secretary," Journal and Messenger, LXI, 45 (Nov. 10, 1892), 4. 304 48 on Church. Edifice Aid to specific churches. Baptists in

Ohio had only a few wealthy contributors largely centered in the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cleveland areas; but none did so well as John D. Rockefeller who added thirty-three percent yearly to the amount contributed through the

Church Edifice Fund.^^ Leonard had hoped to channel the larger gifts into urgent building programs while sustain­ ing a constant increase of contributions into the general missionary fund by stressing the need for Systematic

Benevolence, in which each member and each church shared loyally in the work. The results, however, were far from encouraging. The applications to the Edifice Aid Fund far outdistanced the liberality of the contributors; and the budget of the general fund fluctuated painfully in reaction

/ I O "Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LXI, 45 (Nov. 10, 1887), 5; Proceedings of the Seventy- Second Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the First Baptist Church, Washington, C . H . , Ohio. Oct. 21- 2 3, 1897 (Norwalk. Ohio: The Laning Printing Company, 1897), p. 1 3. Hereafter cited OBC, 1897* OBC, 1900, p. 15.

^^The givers included G. Moore Peters, R. A. Holden, John Trevor, and William Howard Doane of Cincinnati; Ebenezer Thresher, Eben M. Thresher, Eliam E. Barney, Eugene J. Barney, Frederick P. Beaven, Milliard D. Cham­ berlin, and Edward Canby of Dayton; Martin E, Gray of Painesville; Henry C. Chisholm, Henry A. Sherwin, James M. Hoyt, and John D. Rockefeller of Cleveland; and Charles T. Lewis of Toledo. These men, who were generous in Baptist affairs, actually gave token gifts to such projects as state missions and building programs when compared to their other benevolences. "The Story of Ohio Baptists," Baptist Standard. LI, 36 (May 7, 1904), 11; OBC. 1893. p. 35. $05 to the variety of mission appeals and to the economic shifts of the period.

Following a pattern from much earlier days, the

State Convention had lagged continuously behind some of the other missionary agencies in receipt of funds. Bap­ tists in Ohio had traditionally doubled or tripled their foreign mission giving in comparison with their support of the State Convention.In 1880, when Ohio churches raised #12,453.82 for foreign missions, and the Baptist women raised an additional #2,821,44, the State Conven­ tion received only #6,929.61 for its work.^^ Furthermore, large amounts of Ohio Baptist money were flowing into the

American Baptist Home Mission Society funds, and the

^ The panic of 1893 which disrupted the national economy was responsible for a worrisome attrition of funds for a time. For the farmer, the whole period from the Civil War until the early nineties produced declining prices and high rates for loans. Harold Underwood Faulkner, American Economic History (8th ed.; New York: Harper and Row, I960}, pp. 39$, 518-322; "Hard Times," Journal and Messenger, LXIII, 3$ (Aug. 16, 1894), 1.

^^For instance, in 1848, when the churches gave #5265.60 to the Missionary Union, which was a good year, they contributed #3603.02 to the state work. In 1850, when #4 5 0 9 .9 8 was sent to the foreign field, the State Convention received only #1,788.38. John Stevens, The Home Work of Foreign Missions in Ohio, From May, 1843 to October, 1850 (Cincinnati: 1851), p. I3.

^^"Ohio in Foreign Missions," Journal and Mes­ senger, XLIX, 17 (April 28, 1880), 4. By 1884, total giving to foreign missions through the national agencies amounted to #26,799.46, while giving to the Ohio Baptist Convention was only #7,546.28. OBC, 1893, p. 75- 306 Publication Society, each of which had state agents in

Ohio constantly publicizing their work alongside the foreign society agent.

There was some quiet competition, consequently, for the Baptist missionary dollar in Ohio among the various agents; but all was done within the context of zealous and non-competitive concern for a particular field of endeavor. Deacon Ebenezer Thresher, long time

State Convention treasurer, and leading member of the

Dayton First Church, was less oblique. On one occasion he publicly attacked the function of the Baptist women's recently organized foreign and home mission societies, since he viewed them as a multiplication of agencies com • peting for benevolence money.The women's work, however, grew steadily into an important and well organized sector of Baptist life in Ohio. By the turn of the century, one- third to one-half of the delegates to the local

^^Martin E. Gray, a farmer in Willoughby and a member of the Painesville church, had succeeded in con­ tributing $5 0 ,0 0 0to the American Baptist Home Mission Society by the year 1895, in addition to his support of ministerial students at Denison University. His life­ time contributions were estimated as having reached $1 5 0,0 0 0. Alex. Turnbull to Martin E. Gray, July 29, 1895, Gray Papers; OBC, 1899, p. 4-0.

^^"Run into the Ground," Journal and Messenger, XLVIII, 2 (Jan. 8 , 1879), 1. $07 associational sessions were women.The competition was

felt mostly in the jockeying for time during the annual

convention sessions. Rev. Thomas Allen privately

remarked to Deacon Gray after one convention, "I am quite

disgusted with regard to the utter exclusion of Foreign

Missions from all the meetings of our State Convention," pointing to the use of five sessions, three by the Sunday

School leaders and two by the Educational Society.

Leonard was eminently fair in the matter during his tenure

as secretary as far as the public record shows and arranged

a revolving schedule during the sessions to give each national society equal platform time.

Another aspect of the competition was the constant

appeals by the various agents among the local churches,

causing frequent confusion and tediousness. Finally,

Leonard reported that the secretaries of six organizations in Ohio met for a conference in Norwalk on January 30,

1895, and worked out a plan whereby a system of collections would distribute the agents in various portions of the

^^In 1895, when Convention receipts were $8,488.39, the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of Ohio reported $5,164.53 for the same year. Eighth Annual Report of Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of Ohio (n.p.n.d.), p. 18; "The Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LXI, 41 (Oct. 13, 1892), 5»

^^Rev. Thomas Allen to Martin E. Gray, Nov. 1, 1882, Gray Papers. 308 state during the year, five of the societies agreed to the plan, namely the State Convention, the Publication

Society, the Missionary Union, the Ohio Educational

Society, and the Home Mission Society. The Ministers'

Aid Society, a new agency, did not join. The system, known as the "Ohio plan," assigned a two-month period for collections in each of the five regional areas in Ohio,

Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and Central. One period, July and August, coming just before the autumn association meetings, was left open "for all secretaries 57 to trouble all Israel what fails to adopt the plan.

The normal use of the plan which was accepted quickly by over one hundred churches called for five special offer­ ings each year, one each two months, for the five socie­ ties. A large share of these Baptist mission dollars never passed through the Convention treasury, but went directly through the agency of each society.

^^The system could have been better named the Indiana Plan since the plan had been used for several years before in that state. "Notes by the Secretary," Journal and Messenger, LXII, 3 (Jan. 19, 1893), 5; "Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, LX7, 45 (Nov. 5, 1896), 3; OBC, 1896, pp. 33-54. 58pBC, 1894, pp. 144-45. Not until 1919, at the time of the New World Movement, did the State Conventions in the Northern Baptist Convention become the collecting agency for the Unified Budget, as well as for their own funds. Prank W. Padelford, The Kingdom in the States, A Study of the Missionary Work of State Conventions (Phila­ delphia: The Judson Press, 1928), p. 17« 309 The State Convention leadership had little part in the city missions, and, indeed, considered the respon­ sibility to be totally with the city societies. Much of the reluctance which the city churches evidenced in their giving to the State Convention resulted in their own deep commitments to mission work in the burgeoning urban areas.

In Cincinnati, the Ninth Street Church was sustaining seven mission stations in 1899 which enrolled more than

1800 pupils. In Dayton, the First Church supported three such missions, each with an "associate pastor." The Ash­ land Avenue Church in Toledo had built two missions, each containing a free kindergarten for the neighborhoods.

The largest and most aggressive work done in Ohio by Bap­ tists was in the Cleveland area. They were also the most cooperative with the State Convention. When Secretary

Leonard summoned Baptist leaders into a northeast conference to bring unity to the mission work of the region, the

Cleveland Baptist Association promised to underwrite the

^^OBC, 1899. pp. 29-32. During the same year, while the State Convention spent $8,31?*53 for missionary labor in the state and #1 0 ,3 0 2 .9 0 in aid for new church buildings, the city societies and several associations expended #15?755*^3 for local missionary labor and #20,067.03 for local aid in building church edifices. The total missionary expenditure in Ohio, excluding all giving to national agencies or local church expenses, was #3 4,4 3 4.8 9. 510

added cost of the State Convention's missionary work in

the area neighboring the city of Cleveland.

For more than two decades, since the founding of

the First German church in 1853, Cleveland Baptists had no other bilingual ministry. Encouraged by the Cleveland

churches, the First German Baptist congregation, together with the editors of the German Baptist Publication Society which had made its headquarters in Cleveland in 1870, was able to aid in the organization of four other German con­ gregations.^^ The Welsh and Swedish Baptists also organized churches, the Welsh by 1880, and the Swedish in 1889.^^

Cleveland Baptists, together with other Ohio Bap­ tists, had always been critical of the immigrant newcomer, particularly on account of his Catholic or agnostic

George E. Leonard to the Missionary Committee and Pastors of the Cleveland Association, Sept. 30, 1892, Gray Papers; Cleveland Baptist Association, Minutes, 1891 (Cleveland, Ohio, n.d.), p. 11; "Cleveland and Vicinity," Journal and Messenger, LX, 25 (June 18, 1891), 5«

^^The four were Erin Avenue Baptist Church, Second German Baptist Church, Starkweather Mission, and the Nottingham Mission. "First German," The Baptist News, I, 3 (May, 1891), 2; Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, Erin Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, June 24-26, 1 % 0 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1 ; Proceedings of the Eighty-Third Annual Meeting of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with The Fifth Street Baptist Church, Newark, Ohio, October 19-22, 1908~(Granville, Ohio : Rev. C. J. Rose, Editor and Publisher, n.d.), pp. 103-104; "German Baptists of Cleveland," Baptist Standard, LXIV, 37 (May 12, 1917), 14, 18. ^^"Swedish," The Baptist News, I, 2 (April, 1891), 2; "Cleveland and Vicinity," Journal and Messenger, LXII, 6 (Feb. 9, 1893), 5. 311 background and his obvious disregard for the Protestant's

Sabbath. Consequently when the growing flood of immigra­ tion began to arrive from the countries of eastern and southern Europe, which were traditionally more Catholic, the urgency to proselytize and "Americanize" the new arrival became an imperative task for the Protestant churches.President Thresher used his opening addresses as Convention president from 1895 to 1899 to warn the delegates of a Homan Catholic ascendancy and the dire results that might accrue. The reminder was not lost on the Cleveland leaders. Although the determined effort to reach groups from southern and eastern Europe did not become very well organized until Rev. Charles A. Brooks became the executive secretary of the City Mission Society in 1908, work among some foreign-speaking groups was seri­ ously undertaken earlier with some results. The Josephine

Mission, begun by the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church in 1882, was serving eleven different nationalities in the neigh­ borhood by 1900, with the Bohemians and Germans being the most prominent among the non-English attendants.The

^"Our Eoreign Population," Journal and Messenger, LX, 4-2 (Oct. 20, 1885), 1; "Why We Discuss Immigration," Journal and Messenger, LXI, 25 (June 9, 1892), 1; Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted, The Epic Story of the Great Migra­ tions that Made the American People (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951), PP* 270-72. ^^"Cleveland Baptist City Mission Society," The Standard, LXIV, 57 (May 12, 1917), 13, 18; Historical Committee, Historical Sketches, Seventy-Pive Years of the 3 1 2

First Church developed a mission for the Bohemians on

Sleeker Street; and the City Society under the direction of Rev. Alfred W. Stone, aided the establishment of an

Hungarian church in 1904.^^

Other missions to the new immigration in Ohio, which soon developed in Cincinnati, Dayton, Youngstown, and Akron, were the results generally of the work done by the city churches rather than by the State Convention.

Due to the Catholic orientation of most of the immigrants, growth of the missions was slow and difficult, and no serious impact on the vast number of new arrivals was really made.^^ As the new immigration was prompting calls for urgent help in some cities, older non-English speaking

Baptist congregations, mostly in mining and agricultural

Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, 1851-1926 (Cleveland, Ohio: Davis and Cannon Printing Co., 1927), pp. 85-88.

^^Cleveland Baptist City Mission Society, Annual Letter and Financial Report For Year Ending Dec. 31st, 1903 (n.p.n.d.), p. 1; The Forty-First Annual Report of the Cleveland Baptist City Mission So. Presented at the Annual Meeting Held at the Euclid Ave. Baptist Church, Feb. 2, 1911 (Cleveland. Ohio: Press of German Baptist Publication So, n.d.), p. 5; Proceedings of the Eightieth Anniversary of the Ohi" Baptist Convention Held with the Ninth Street Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 18- 19. 1905 (n.p.n.d.), pp. 122-23. Hereafter cited OBC, 1905. ^^Typewritten MS, Report of the Committee on Foreign Speaking People, Cols, Oct. 24-, 1912, Report by Rev. Brook to the Board (Western Reserve Historical Library); Wellington G. Fordyce, "Immigration Institu­ tions," The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLVII, 2 (April, 1938), 88. 313 areas, were often facing the threat of an exodus by the

English-speaking younger members who had begun to resist

the use of the traditional preaching in the Old World

language. The Welsh congregations particularly were torn by the controversy during the period.

If Ohio Baptists exerted serious efforts to achieve

only limited results among the immigrants from Europe,

they responded in a lesser way to the needs among the Negro

Baptists of Ohio. The Negro churches were virtually

ignored as a factor in mission work even though the Negro

Baptists numbered approximately one-fifth of the total

Baptist population in Ohio. Concern among white Baptist leaders largely centered on an occasional emergency call for help for an indebtedness of a newly purchased build­ ing.The Convention leaders publicly considered the

Colored churches as part of the Convention family, but also acknowledged that their lack of "sympathy with the emotional excesses which characterize most of our colored

^The decision to use English came painfully to members in such churches. The Welsh Baptist churches did not receive solicitous attention which the Germans had drawn from the Ohio Baptists; but efforts were made to aid them as leaders were found to work in a bi-lingual ministry. OBC, 1887, p. 15; OBO, 1899, pp. 18, 22; OBC, 1900, p. 27.

^^Proceedings of the 58th Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention, Fifty-Eighth Annual Meeting, Newark, Oct. 23-26, 1883 (Norwalk, Ohio: The Norwalk Chronicle Book and Job Print, 1883), p. 11; OBC, 1887, p. 19; "Our Colored Brethren," Journal and Messenger, LIX, 4-4- (Oct. 50, 1890), 1; OBC, 1900, p. 31. 514 churches" in addition to the "uncertain income" among

Negroes made them a group apart.The white churches were generally happy that the Negro brethren found their fellowship among their own color.

The large Union Antislavery Baptist Association had divided into two associations in 1872, one called

Eastern Union Antislavery, and the other Western Union

Antislavery.Rev. James Poindexter of the Second Bap­ tist Church, Columbus, became the moderator of the Eastern branch, and Rev. W. Shelton of the Zion Baptist Church,

Cincinnati, moderator of the Western group. The two asso­ ciations planned to meet together every four years in a joint session, and did so until 1890. There seems to have been little substantial contact between the white and colored churches during the years, except in ceremonial

G9pBC, 1885, p. 18. ^^The name varies in the Western group. Sometimes called the Western Ohio Anti slavery Baptist Association until 1877, the title Western Union Antislavery was ge&-..,. erally followed after that date. The "iintislavery" designation was deleted from the title of the Western Union Association in 1895" Union Antislavery Baptist Association of Ohio, Minutes, 1872 (Cincinnati, Ohio: Journal and Messenger Print, 1872), p. 9; Western Union Antislavery Baptist Association, Minutes, 1877 (Spring­ field, Ohio: Republic Printing Com., Printer, 1877), p. 9; Western Union Baptist Association, Minutes, 1895 (Urbana, Ohio: Urbana Publishing Co., 1895), p. 1. 515 functions and in the use by both groups of the same litera- 71 ture from the Publication Society.

Two attempts at a convention-type organization among the Negro Baptists were publicized earlier; but the efforts did not bring any organic union among the various 72 Negro associations prior to 1895* Another Negro associa­ tion which was formed by several churches in Ohio and West

Virginia in 1887 made the need for a state-wide Negro

Baptist organization more evident.In 1895, no doubt responding to the national move toward Negro Baptist unity when, in the same year, the National Baptist Con­ vention of the U.S.A. had formed in Atlanta, Georgia, the

Western Union Association invited the Eastern Union and

Providence Associations to meet in 1896 at Mechanicsburg,

^^Eastern Ohio Antislavery Baptist Association, Minutes, 1879 (Ripley: Times, Book and Job Print, 1879), p. 12.

*^^A "Colored Baptist Convention" met at the Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati in 1879 and formed the "Consolidated American Baptist Missionary Convention." The Providence Association formed the "Providence State and Foreign Mission Convention" in 1889. "Colored Baptist Convention," Journal and Messenger, ZLVIII, 45 (Cet. 22, 1879), 5; Providence Antislavery Missionary Baptist Asso­ ciation, Minutes, 1889 (n.p.n.d.), p. 15-

^^Mount Zion Baptist Association, Minutes, 189C (Huntington: Pioneer Printing House, 189C), p. 15; Eastern Union Antislavery Baptist Association, Minutes, 1889 (Columbus, Ohio: Myers Bros. Book and Job Printers, 1889), p. 9» The Association,described as the "Western Virginia and Eastern Chio" earlier, became known as the Mount Zion Baptist Association. 316 74 Ohio, to organize a state convention/ Answering the call, the groups met during the closing exercises of

Curry College, known also as "The Curry Normal and Indus­ trial Institute," and formed the Ohio Colored Baptist

State Convention, electing Rev. J. M. Riddle of Rendville 75 as president.

At the same time, the Board of Managers of the Ohio

Baptist Convention worked out an arrangement with the three

Negro associations to appoint Rev. J. M. Riddle as "Dis­ trict Missionary .... provided he would depend upon the colored people for two-thirds of his salary.Riddle only worked a few months, soon discovering that the colored 77 churches were not meeting their share in salary support. '

^^Western Union Baptist Association, Minutes, 1893 (Urhana, Ohio; Press of Urbana Publishing Co., n.d.), p. 15. *^^The Curry Institute, founded and sustained by Prof. E. W. B. Curry, had attracted the interest of Negro Baptists in the state. It was, for a time, declared to be the educational center for Negro Baptists in Ohio. In 1897, however, dissension among the leaders caused the strong Western Union branch to withdraw its official sup­ port. Prof. Curry continued to publish the Negro Baptist state journal. The Informer. Western Union Baptist Association, Minutes, 1896 (Mechanicsburg, Ohio: Item Print, n.d.;, p. 24; E. W. B. Curry, A Story of the Curry Institute, Urbana, Ohio (The Curry Institute Print, n.d.), pp. 9, 23; Peter Bergman, The Chronological History of the Negro in America (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1959), p. 315. ^^The Board promised to pay the remaining third. "The Committee on Resolutions," Journal and Messenger, LIX, 44 (Oct. 30, 1890), 4; "The Colored Baptists of Ohio," Journal and Messenger, LXIV, 39 (Sept. 26, 1895), S.

??OBC, 1896, p. 15. 317 Riddle continued on as president of the Colored Convention

for more than a decade. Meanwhile, his Convention was

strengthened by the organization in 1905 of the Northern

Ohio Baptist Association, which joined them during the

same year.^^ By 1905, the Negro churches were a distinct

organization in Ohio, and not connected with white Baptist

activities. Although they did not openly repudiate the

claim of membership within the Ohio Bapuist Convention, which carried their statistics as members in the printed

Annual until 1909, the Negro churches were actually a

separate group with little in common with the Ohio Baptist

Convention churches.

Far different from their basic disregard of the

slow formation of the Negro state convention was the anxious concern of the members of the Ohio Baptist Conven­

tion over the future direction of the Free Baptists of

the state. The possibility of merger had been broached in editorials as early as 1859; but the practice of open communion by the Free Baptist churches dispelled any real 79 negotiations for a long time.'^ Rev. Adolphus Julius

78 ' This group of churches was generally found in the larger northern cities. Northern Ohio Baptist Asso­ ciation, Minutes, 1905 (Urbana, Ohio: Curry School Print, n.d.;, pp. 1, 7, 9. 79 '^The change of name from Freewill to Free gradu­ ally occurred during the years. By 1890 the term "Free" was the accepted name. "Why not 'Free Baptists'?" Journal and Messenger, LIX, 38 (Sept. 11, 1890), 4-; Norman Allen Baxter, History of the Freewill Baptists, 318

Frederick Behrends, pastor of the First Baptist Church,

Cleveland, found himself almost totally alienated from the Ohio ministers after he wrote an article in 1875 in the Journal and Messenger defending open communion.

Within a year he left the church and became a Congrega- ftO tional minister of national repute. Behrends' exodus sobered some of the Baptists in Ohio into rethinking their position, feeling that there should have been room for

Behrends and his views. A decade later, in 1885, Ohio

Baptists had occasion again to reconsider their position as several groups openly courted the Free Baptists with hopes of a merger, namely the Christian Connection, the

Disciples, and the Congregationalists. The Free churches in the more western states were particularly charmed with the thoughts of union, since they were, unlike the Free

Baptists in the northeastern region, more in the minority, and thus felt more isolated and in the need of a larger Q 1 fellowship. When the Twenty-Sixth General Conference of Free Baptists met in Marion, Ohio, in 1886, the

A Study in New England Separatism (Rochester, New York: American Baptist Historical Society, 1957), P* 155* RD "Rev. Dr. Behrends leaves the Baptists," Journal and Messenger, XLV, 4- (Jan. 25, 1875), 4; Journal and Messenger, ZLIV, 1 (Jan. 5, 1875), 4; Dumas Malone (ed.). Dictionary of American Biography (22 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner's Son, 1957), H , 141.

0*1 Baxter, pp. 155, 167; Journal and Messenger, LXII, 25 (June 25, 1893), 4. 519 delegates went on record to declare, "we are ready to

form such alliances with other Christian bodies as may

Qp promise larger results in advancing our Lord's kingdom."

The exchange of fraternal delegates in 1895 between

the Ohio Baptist Convention and the Free Baptists of Ohio

signaled the "desire for closer fellowship" by both groups; and, to continue the gesture, the Regular Baptists appointed a committee, headed by Rev. Henry F. Colby of the First Baptist Church, Dayton, to consult with the Free

Baptists on the possibility of merger. The report of the committee in 1894 urged more cooperation between the two groups, such as the open reciprocity of membership trans­ fer, and declared that doctrinal agreement was all but complete except for the one point regarding participation in the Lord's Supper.

The official resolve to pursue plans for merger came on a national level in 1905 and 1905, but was delayed, in part, until the legal formation of the Northern Baptist 84 Convention in 1907 which was to make merger more orderly.

Op Baxter, p. 164. No serious negotiation developed between any of the non-Baptist groups.

^^The possibility of merger was thought feasible to some extent because of the recent union in Great Britain between the Particular and General Baptists in 1891. OBC, 1895, pp. 7, 10-11; OBC, 1894, pp. 7, 9-10.

Alvah S. Hobart, A Statement to the Baptist Brotherhood of the Steps Leading up to the Cooperation and Union of the Baptists and the Free Baptists (n.p.n.d.), pp. 5-4. 320

After approval of a jointly-written document, The Basis of Union, the Free Baptists approved the merger at the

1910 session; and the actual transfer of property was executed on October 3, 1911. Merger in Ohio was com­ pleted with only a small amount of friction. The Board of Managers recognized that differences between the two groups were "so slight and of such a nature . . . that would not sacrifice or compromise any principle by either denomination."^^ There were a few Regulars in Ohio, how­ ever, who viewed the Free Baptists as "becoming" Baptists and not as being "substantially one," an attitude which rankled some of the Free men.^^ Eighty-one Free congre­ gations were listed in Ohio at the time, of which eight refused to join with the Ohio Baptist Convention.

The gradual acquaintance and final marriage between Regular and Free Baptists were illustrative of the tempering in the theological mood of Baptists in Ohio.

Virtually all of the pastors in the leading churches had received a fair education, many having completed their seminary training. Quite a few were comfortable with the

G^OBC, 1 9 0 7 , p. 28.

^^Getting Together, Baptists and Free Baptists for Two Years, Report of Special Joint Secretary, October 15. 1913 (n.p.n.d.;, p. 10. ^^Typewritten MS, "Free and Former FREE BAPTIST CHURCHES in Ohio" (Archives of Ohio Baptist Convention Office, Granville, Ohio). 521 m o d e m direction of "scientific theology" and the growing 88 acknowledgment of "the immanence of God in his universe."

Some of the city ministers, especially in Cincinnati,

Dayton, and Cleveland, were in close touch with progres­ sive Baptist affairs on a national level, and were, at times, large contributors to denominational activities.

For instance, in 1905, the Baptist Social Union of Cin­ cinnati hosted the National Baptist Congress, a yearly gathering which discussed questions of current importance in the fields of law, politics, and religion.Rev.

George William Lasher, editor of the Journal and Messenger, convened the meeting, being, perhaps, the most prominent local member. Lasher was a progressive and a broadminded man; and yet, resembling most Ohio Baptists, he reflected a theological frame of reference which was narrowly Bap- tistic and traditional. While a few people were asking,

"Are there Churches enough where there is no Baptist

Church?" the majority of the Ohio Baptists saw their denomination as a "peculiar people" who stood for "a con­ verted (regenerate) church membership" in a way which other

OQ "Theistic Evolution," Journal and Messenger, LII, 25 (June 6, 1886), 1; Augustus Hopkins Strong, Miscellanies in Two Volumes (2 vols.: Philadelphia: The Griffith and Rowland Press, 1912), I, 17.

^^Twenty-Third Annual Session of the Baptist Congress for the Discussion of Current Questions. Held in the Walnut Hills Baptist Church. Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 14-16, 1905 (New York: Baptist Congress Publishing Company, 19 O6), p. 1. 322 churches did A popular Baptist historiography had developed over the years which proposed a "spiritual" succession from the apostolic times down to the present, and which presented Baptist churches as uniquely apos­ tolic.By the end of the nineteenth century, Ohio

Baptists were basically still dependent upon the immersion issue to give them special identity, and thus kept the 92 issue alive in sermon and print.^

The heartbeat of Baptist life in Ohio continued to be closely related to the missionary spirit, and virtually all Baptist activities were delineated in these terms. Perhaps one of the most honored men among Ohio

Baptists at the time was Rev. William Ashmore, Baptist missionary to Swatow, China, who had grown up in Zanes- ville and graduated from the college at Granville.^

^ "Not 'Churches Enough' Where There is no Baptist Church," Journal and Messenger. BVI, 4-4- (Nov. 3, 1887;, 2; George W. Lasher, "Rejoicing in Divine Workmanship," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publication, III / 1 8 % 7 , 227. ^^Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (New York: Bryan, Taylor, and Co., 1887), p. 1; "Antiquity of the Baptists," Journal and Messenger, XLVI, $2 (Aug. 8, 1877), 4-; "The Baptist Succession Delusion," Journal and Messenger, IIV, 11 (March 18, 1885), 1. M. lams. Behind the Scenes, Sketches Prom Real Life (Cincinnati, Ohio: G. W. Lasher, Publisher, 1883), p. 28; P. M. lams. Before the Poot-Lights (Cin­ cinnati, Ohio: G. W. Lasher, Publisher, 1888), p. 155•

^^In 1885, nineteen of the 24-7 missionaries sup­ ported by the Missionary Union were from Ohio. "Our Poreign Missions," Journal and Messenger, LIV, 1 (Jan. 7, 1885), 5; OBC, 1885, p. 8; OBC, 1889, p. 63. 323 The missionary work was conceived, in terms of the ameliora­ tion of society by moral and religions reforms, such as perfecting the moral character of the individual, assisting every person to avoid the evils of the day, and lifting the social order to a Christian level. It was from this perspective that Ohio Baptists passed resolutions almost every year to combat ’’intemperance" and the "liqueur traffic," and to protect the Christian Sabbath from all disorderly activity. The Convention, however, did not appoint representatives to temperance or Sabbath-keeping organizations. They did not consider it "within the con­ stitutional province of this Convention," but rather saw their union, in this circumstance at least, narrowly q/L defined only as a Baptist missionary agency.^

Towards the end of the century, the Baptist churches in Ohio had developed quite often more prestige in the various cities and towns than they had possessed formerly.

One pastor wrote, "Baptists now have a position in this community which many thought could never be attained.

Baptist citizens had gradually become more educated, wealthy and prominent, until the old "martyr complex" of earlier days was generally a thing of the past.^^ The

9^030. 1884, p. 10.

95oBC, 190 0 . p. 27.

^^Some Baptists had risen to prominence in the state such as Governor Judson Harmon, who served as Ohio's governor from 1909 to 1913* His father. Rev. B. J. Harmon $24

churches were better organized than ever before, often

with sizable Sunday Schools and Sunday congregations much

larger than their stated membership. Notwithstanding, the

churches were not growing as fast as they thought they

should. Baptist growth in the United States from 1850

to 1900 had registered a 254 percent increase; but growth

from 1890 to I9OO had been only $6 percent.Further­

more, Baptist growth in Ohio from 1890 to 1900 registered

only 20 percent, just shy of the population growth rate

for the nation.

The Baptist ministers in Ohio, having been encour­

aged to raise their educational levels, possessed far better academic credentials than in past years. To safe­

guard the worthiness of the Baptist clergy, the Ohio Bap­

tist Ministers' Conference appointed a Committee on Min­ isterial Credentials, beginning in 1899, which was to

scrutinize each new arrival in the state, both as to did as much as anyone to extend the Baptist cause into the eastern neighborhoods of Cincinnati, and served for forty years as pastor of the Norwood Baptist Church, one of the two churches which claimed a lineal descent from the old Columbia congregation of 1789* "News from the Churches," Journal and Messenger, XXXVIII, $ (Jan. 21, 1869), 5; Hoyt Landon, Progressivism in Ohio, 1897-1917 (Ohio State University Press, 1964), pp. 213, 221.

^^Augustus Hopkins Strong, in giving these sta­ tistics in an address in Cleveland in 1904, admitted that most of the real growth had been in the southern and western states. Growth in the northern states roughly came to 128 percent, just ahead of the Presbyterians, but not as rapid as the Methodists. Strong, pp. 1, 8, 14. 325 QQ educational training and moral fitness. Denison Uni­ versity ministerial students brought preaching to con­ gregations which would have had no other opportunity to engage a regular pastor. Length of the average pastorate was generally quite short, probably about the same as the estimated national average for Baptists which was about three years.There were of course notable excep­ tions such as Rev. Henry Francis Colby who served the First

Baptist Church, Dayton, for thirty-five years, beginning in 1859.^^^ The short tenure of Baptist pastors was doubt­ less determined by the relatively poor circumstances of many of the churches. In spite of such favorable condi­ tions as improved social standing, educational advancement, and larger membership, most Baptist churches in Ohio still

Were woefully poor especially in some of the farming and mining areas.

When Leonard resigned in 1903, after completing twenty-two years of service as Corresponding Secretary, the state missions program was struggling to minister on

^^The concern was mainly for respectability rather than for erudition. OBC, 1899, p. 96.

^^Charles 8. Scott, "Baptist Polity and the Pas­ torate," The Baptist Quarterly Review, 211 (1890), 292.

1°°0BC, 1913, pp. 63-68. lOlurphe Ohio Baptist Convention," Journal and Mes­ senger. L2III, 14- (April 5, 1894), 4; OBC, 1894, p. 18; OBC, 1900, p. 24. 326 about the same amount of yearly receipts as when Leonard began his service. The dream of placing five district missionaries in the field had not been fulfilled. Fur­

thermore, the severe problems relating to pastorless

country churches, the calls for money to build adequate buildings, and the need to maintain unity within an ever increasing departmentalized organization were even more

acute. Yet Leonard's ministry was deeply appreciated,

and not considered a failure by his colleagues. Indeed, he was "pensioned" in great honor and appointed the first 102 incumbent Secretary of the Church Edifice Department.

Leonard had established a Granville residence in 1895» having previously resided in Norwalk.Although other agents had lived in Granville in the past, coincidentally, no precedent had dictated residence in the town. Leonard's move, however, brought a permanence to the Granville head- 104 quarters for the Ohio Baptist Convention.

102 Leonard had served along side seven Convention presidents, namely Sev. Samuel W. Duncan, pastor of Ninth Street Church, Cincinnati, Rev. Henry F. Colby, pastor of First Church, Dayton, Rev. Alvah Sabin Hobart, pastor of First Church, Toledo, Rev. George 0. King, pastor of the Cedar Avenue Church, Cleveland, G. Moore Peters, Cincinnati layman, Ebenezer M. Thresher, Dayton layman, and William Howard Doane, Cincinnati layman. OBC, 1903, pp. 18-19, 4?.

^^^George E. Leonard to Martin E. Gray, Sept. 12, 1895, Gray Papers. ^^^Leonard made use of his close proximity to Denison's library archives. When the copies of the Con­ vention minutes, 1826 to 1854, were all but lost, Leonard discovered the original handwritten minutes at Denison, 327 Rev. Charles J. Rose, pastor of the Mount Vernon

Church, was chosen Leonard's successor, partly due to his leadership in the Summer Assembly held at Lake Hiawatha.

He entered the secretariat just as Baptists were renewing an emphasis on the use of evangelism in a more extensive manner. Following this national trend. Rose was able to lead the Board of Managers to seek again the employment of the five district missionaries, using them to bring evangelistic meetings to the small churches particularly.

Three were actually hired in 190$.^^^ Rose began his own publication in 190$, entitled the Ohio Baptist Bulletin.

The Journal and Messenger had long since grown far beyond a regional newspaper, and really did not serve the function of providing the publicity needs of a house organ.

In 1907 when the Northern Baptist Convention was formed in Washington, D. C., the Baptist churches in Ohio represented a strong union of over 80,000 members. Faint rumblings were heard from those who were disturbed by the

"new theology, higher criticism, liberalism and worldliness," and by those who looked at the growing interest in a and had them printed at his own expense. He also wrote knowledgeable and accurate histories of the Ashtabula and Scioto Associations. See OBC, 1890, p. 18.

lO^oBC, 1905, p. 21. ^^^Ohio Baptist Bulletin, I, 1 (Jan. 190$), 1. 328 "Pederation of Church.es" as a "trust" which could "inter- 107 fere with denominational belief or practice." But these were not yet organized voices. Rather, the Ohio

Convention had sustained the loyalty both of the poor rural and wealthy city congregations through the years by its constant support of missions and evangelism. In many senses a failure, the organizational structure of

Ohio Baptists served the needs of the local churches admirably by championing on the one hand the Baptist insistence for local autonomy while, on the other hand, unifying the various ambitions and crusades under the one flag of missions. Both ideals lived within a contradi- tion of terms. The congregations were not autonomous, but rather gained their identity and strength from the

total convention of churches. Neither was the Convention a strong coherent force, existing as it did with the ten­

sion of continual weakness in the management of mission

efforts and goals. For most Ohio Baptists, the Convention in 1907 still represented an effort in home missions and

a banner under which independency could achieve power.

^ OBC, 1897, p. 29; Proceedings of the Seventy- Seventh Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention Held with the First Baptist Church, Elyria, Ohio, Oct. 22-23, 1902 (Columbus, Ohio; Press of Myers Bros., 1902), p. 27 . BIBLIOGRAPHY

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William Goforth, Biographical Sketch, Historical and Philosophical Society Library, Cincinnati, Ohio.

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329 530

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First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ohio. Deposited in the local church.

First Baptist Church, Zanesville, Ohio. Deposited in the local church.

Printed Records of Baptist Asso­ ciation Annual Meetings

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Eastern and Western Union Antislavery Baptist Association (This is the quadrennial session jointly of the Eastern Union Baptist Association and the Western Union Baptist Association).

Grand River Baptist Association.

Greenville Baptist Association. 332

Huron Baptist Association.

Jackson Baptist Association.

KillBuck Baptist Association.

Little Miami Union Regular Baptist Association.

Lorain Baptist Association.

Mad River Baptist Association.

Marietta Baptist Association.

Maumee River Baptist Association.

Meigs' Creek Baptist Association.

Miami Baptist Association.

Miami Baptist Association (Old School).

Mohican Baptist Association.

Mt. Vernon Baptist Association.

Mount Zion Baptist Association.

Muskingum Baptist Association.

Northern Ohio Baptist Association.

Ohio Baptist Association.

Owl Creek Baptist Association.

Owl Creek Harmony Baptist Association.

Oxford Regular Baptist Association.

Philadelphia Baptist Association (Pennsylvania).

Portage Baptist Association.

Providence Antislavery Missionary Baptist Association.

Red Stone Baptist Association (Pennsylvania).

Rocky River Baptist Association.

Salem Baptist Association. $33 Scioto Baptist Association.

Seneca Baptist Association.

Stillwater Baptist Association.

Strait Creek Baptist Association.

Toledo Baptist Association.

Trumbull Baptist Association.

Union Antislavery Baptist Association.

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Wills Creek Baptist Association.

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A Confession of Faith Put Forth by the Elders and Brethren ... in London ... at Philadelphia ... Again Adopted by the Muskingum Baptist Associa­ tion, August, 1824. Cambridge, Ohio : Printed by Cyrus P. Beatty, at the "Times" Office, 1826.

The Constitution, By-Laws, and Statistical Representation of Ohio Northern Yearly Meeting, Together with the Most Important Resolutions Passed by said Yearly Meeting. Published by Order of the Yearly Meeting, 1845. 334

Gorrespondenoe between the Ohio Christian Missionary Society and the Ohio Baptist State Convention. Cincinnati: Bosworth., Chase and Hall, n.d.

Cressy, T. R. Address, Delivered before the Ohio Baptist Education Society, at their Annual Meeting, Held in Granville, August, 1837, n.p.n.d.

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The Forty-First Annual Report of the Cleveland Baptist City Mission So. Presented at the Annual Meeting Held at the Euclid Aye. Baptist Church, Feb. 2 , 1911. Cleveland, Ohio: Press of German Baptist Publication So., n.d.

Fourth Annual Report by the Rev. Joseph Emery, City Missionary of the Ninth Street Baptist Church, (Cincinnati, Feb. 22, 1836). Cincinnati : Wrightson and Co., Printers, 1856.

Getting Together, Baptists and Free Baptists for Two Years, Report of Special Joint Secretary, October 15, 1913. n.p.n.d. Hobart, Alvah S . A Statement to the Baptist Brotherhood of the Steps Leading up to the Cooperation and Union of the Baptists and the Free Baptists, n.p.n.d. Minutes of Two "Old School Meetings" of the Miami Regular Baptist in the Mississippi Valley, Butler County, Ohio. Roseville: Printed at the Telegraph Office, 1835. Proceedings of the Ohio Baptist Convention. Series of annual minutes begins in 1826 and continues each year thereafter, the name appearing concurrently with the title The Ohio Baptist Annual in later years. 335 Proceedings of the Western Baptist Education Convention, Held in the First Baptist Church, Chicago, May 24 and 25, 1871. Chicago: The Lakeside Publishing and Printing Company, 1871.

Proceedings of the Western Baptist Education Society, at Pairmount. June 20, 1855. Cincinnati: T. Wright­ son and Co., Printers, 1855* Second Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Western Baptist Education Association, Presented at the Annual Meeting, May 28, 1834. Boston: Press of Jonathan Howe, 1834-.

10th Annual Program of the Ohio Baptist Assembly, Mount Vernon, Ohio, July 20 to July 30. 1903. Mt. Vernon, Ohio: Republican News Print, n.d.

Twenty-Third Annual Session of the Baptist Congress for the Discussion of Current Questions, Held in the Walnut Hills Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 14-16, 1905. New York: Baptist Congress Publishing Company, 1905.

Periodicals

The Baptist Advocate. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Baptist Chronicle and Literary Register. Georgetown, Kentucky.

The Baptist News. Cleveland, Ohio.

Christian Watchman. Boston, Massachusetts.

Latter Day Luminary. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine. Boston, Massachusetts. Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publication. Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio Baptist Bulletin. Granville, Ohio.

The Standard, A Baptist Newspaper. (Also known as the Baptist Standard.) 336 The Western ReliRious Magazine, I, 8 (Jan., 1828) to II, 10 (March, 1829); The"Western Miscellany, 1 , 5 (T'eb., 1850), to I, 10 (July, 1830); The Hepiular Baptist Miscellany, I, 11 (Aug., 1830), to II, 9 (June, I8 3 1). Zanesville, Ohio.

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Baptist Weekly Journal. The title of this weekly news­ paper varied over the years becoming the Cross and Baptist Journal (1834), Western Christian Journal (1847), and Journal and Messenger (1849).

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Campbell, Alexander. Christian Baptist, Revised by D. S. Burnet, from the Second Edition, with Mr. Camp­ bell's Last Corrections. Cincinnati: Published by D. S. Burnet, 1848.

Colby, John. The Life, Experiences and Travels of John Colby, Preacher of the Gospel. Rochester, N.Y.: Printed for David Mark, Jr. by E. Peck, 1827.

Crihfield, Arthur. What is Truth? or, a Search After, and Defence of. The Doctrine Taught in the Sacred Scripture. Xenia: Printed by J. Regans, 1826.

Garfield, James A. The Diary of James A. Garfield. Edited by Harry James Brown and Frederick D. Williams. 2 vols. East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1967. Gill, John. Infant Baptism, a Part and Pillar of Popery. Philadelphia: American Publication Society, 1851.

Greene, L. P., ed. The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland. New York: Printed by G. W. Wood, 1845. lams, P. M. Behind the Scenes, Sketches Prom Real Life. Cincinnati, Ohio: G. W. Lasher, Publisher, 1883.

______. Before the Poot-Lights. Cincinnati, Ohio: G. W. Lasher, Publisher, 1888.

McGlothlin, W. J. Baptist Confessions of Paith. Phila­ delphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911. 357 McLoughlin, William Gerald, ed. Isaac Backus on Church. State, and Calvinism, Pamphlets, 1754-1789. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968.

Milner, Vincent L. Religious Denominations of the World. Philadelphia: Bradley, Garretson and Co., 1873.

Thompson, Wilson. The Autobiography of Elder Wilson Thompson, Embracing a Sketch of his Life, Travels, and Ministerial Labors. Greenfield, Ind.: Pub­ lished by D. H. Goble, 1857.

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Walker, John. A Treatise on Baptism: Being a Reply to a Book Entitled a Debate on Christian Baptism Between Mr. John Walker and Alexander Campbell, Held at Mountpleasant on the 19th and 20th, June, 1820. Mountpleasant, Ohio: B. Wright and B. Bates, printers, 1824.

Williams, Roger. The Complete Writings of Roger Williams. 7 vols. New York: Russell and Russell, Inc., 1963.

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Nixon, Edgar B. "The Zoar Society: Applicants For Mem­ bership." The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLV, 4 (1956), 341-30.

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Drake, Jacob. A History of Columbus Baptist Association from its Organization to 1857. Edited by Rev. D. Randall. Columbus, Ohio: Randall and Aston, 1859. Dunlevy, Anthony Howard. History of the Miami Baptist Association From its Organization in 1797 to a Division in that Body on Missions, etc. in the Year 1856. Cincinnati: Geo. S. Blanchard and Co., 1869. Faulkner, Harold Underwood. American Economic History. 8th ed. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, I960. Foote, John P. The Schools of Cincinnati, And its Vicinity. Cincinnati: C. F. Bradley and Co. Power Press, 1855. 342

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Goen, C. C. Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962. Goodykoontz, Colin Brummitt. Home Missions on the American Frontier. Caldwell, Idaho : The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1959. Grimm, Harold J. The Reformation Era, 1500-1650. New York: The Macmillan Company, 195^.

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McLoughlin, William Gerald. Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967.

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North, Douglass C. The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790-1860. Hnglewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1961. Horton, A. Banning. A History of Knox County, Ohio, From 17,9 to 1862, Inclusive. Columbus: Hichard Hevins, Printer, 1852.

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Perkins, James H. Annals of the West. Cincinnati: Pub­ lished by James E. Alback, 1847. 345 Posey, Walter Brownlow. The Baptist Church, in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1771-1843. University of Kentucky Press, 1937. Powell, Milton, ed. The Voluntary Church, American Religious Life (1740-1863) Seen Through the Eyes of European Visitors. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967. Purefoy, George W. A History of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association. New York: Sheldon and Co., Publishers, 1859. Rosebloom, Eugene H., and Weisenburger, Francis P. A History of Ohio. Columbus: The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1951.

Schlesinger, Arthur Meier. The Rise of Modern America, 1865-1951. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951. Schaff, Phillip. History of the Christian Church. 8 vols. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950.

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Shaw, Henry K. Buckeye Disciples, A History of the Dis­ ciples of Christ in Ohio. St. Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1952. Smith, Justin A. A History of the Baptists in the Western States East of the Mississippi. Phila­ delphia: A.B.P.S., 1896.

Smith, Timothy. Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid- Nineteenth-Century Amerir '.. New York: Abingdon Press, 1 9 5 7. Stealey, Sydnor L. A Baptist Treasury. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1958.

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Stevens, John. The Home Work of Foreign Missions in Ohio, From May, 1843 to October, 1850. Cincinnati, 1851. Stewart, John J. Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet. Salt Lake City, Utah; Mercury Publishing Company, 1956.

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Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: The Baptists, 1783-1830. A Collection of Source Material. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951. Torbet, Robert George. A History of the Baptists. Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1950.

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