American Baptist Historical Society

June 23, 1798. The Nova Scotia Baptist Association was formed. It was the first organization of Baptists in Canada. Many Baptists who supported the Crown in the American Revolution resettled in Nova Scotia following the war. ABHS has Association minutes from several places in Canada.

June 22, 1875. D**g Gong was ordained to ministry in Portland, OR. He was the first Asian-American to be ordained by the Baptists. An immigrant from China, he was converted to Christianity and baptized by Rev. John Francis in San Francisco. D**g Gong started a Chinese mission in Portland about 1875.

June 19, 1808. First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, offered “brethren of color” the use of its building. Blacks could be offered membership in a ‘white’ church, but that didn’t mean they would be considered equal. A researcher at ABHS recently found a record where a black member of a church was refused permission to bury his child in the church cemetery. ABHS has many of First Church Philadelphia’s original church records. Handwritten records go back as far as the 1750s.

Today we mark Juneteenth, celebrating the day in 1865 when the proclamation of emancipation from slavery was read out in Texas. This was 2-1/2 years after emancipation within rebellious states was formally declared by President Lincoln.

The American Baptist Historical Society stands with those celebrating this day, and prays for the realization of full liberation and equality of all people, regardless of their race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, or religion.

June 18, 1781. Severns Valley Church was organized in Kentucky. It was the first Baptist church west of the 13 original colonies. ABHS has Association records from the Severns Valley beginning in 1899.

June 16, 1636. Residents of Providence Plantations (R.I.) drew up a compact allowing religious freedom. This only applied to the residents of the Plantations, but was a forerunner of the first amendment.

Providence Plantation was a colonial plantation that was the first permanent European American settlement in present-day Rhode Island. It was established at Providence in 1636 by English clergyman Roger Williams and a small band of followers who had left the oppressive atmosphere of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to seek freedom of worship.

On June 15, 1784, Isaac McCoy, foremost white advocate of Native American rights, was born in Fayette County, PA. While still young, McCoy was inspired to become a missionary to Native Americans.

McCoy, his son John, his daughter Delilah and her husband Johnston Lykins, worked together as missionaries to the Shawnee and Lenape (Delaware) peoples, following them to the border of Indian Territory in what is now Kansas City, Missouri. The younger McCoy established a trading post at Westport, Missouri.

In 1840, McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Native American tribes in the midwest, The History of Baptist Indian Missions. In 1842 he returned to Louisville, Kentucky, where he directed the Baptist American Indian Mission Association and wrote additional works on Indians and the missions. He died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery. ABHS has 10 folders of Isaac McCoy's correspondence with the American Baptist Home Mission Society in addition to his personal papers.

McCoy wrote, "I learned that the Baptist Triennial Convention had just met in Philadelphia and appointed John Mascon Peck to be an itinerant missionary to the West. I sent in an application. In October of 187, I received news of my appointment."

McCoy wanted to start a school for Indian children stating, "Your children will not lose their language or have their dress changed. Our children will exchange languages because we want to learn your language while you're learning ours."
Although McCoy's plan to open up the western plains to the Indians eventually failed due to the westward expansion of white settlers - he tried by talking with Presidents, surveying the west and plotting new plains reservations - allowing for 24 Eastern tribes to settle in the expanded Indian Territory.

June 14, 1844. The first issue of the Sabbath Recorder was published by the Seventh Day Baptists. Seventh Day Baptists observe the Sabbath on the seventh-day of the week—Saturday—in accordance with the Biblical Sabbath of the Ten Commandments. ABHS has issues of this magazine beginning in 1844 to present. It is still being published. See less

ABHS celebrates Sheldon Street Baptist Church in Providence, RI on their 121st anniversary!

ABHS celebrates First Baptist Church of Canton in Canton, KS on their 150th anniversary!