Baptists of the North in the post-war years progress both in terms of establishing new local congregations and developing new educational institutions. Progress takes place unevenly. These narratives of uneven progress are represented in events this day. In Newark, New Jersey, members of the Baptists’ City Mission Board begin discussions about establishing a Baptist church…
As Protestant Christianity continues spreading westward in the months following the war, Baptists, never a majority religious faith in the North, often find themselves a distinct minority on the expanding frontier. Such is the case today in the establishment of the first church founded in Ames, Iowa, a community established in 1864. The few citizens…
Born in 1816 near Sherburne, New York and orphaned at the age of five, as an adult John Anson Nash became a Baptist minister. First pastoring in New York, the American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1851 sent him to Fort Des Moines, Iowa. There he helped organize the First Baptist Church of Des Moines.…