Indiana Baptists
Author: Sheryl D. Vanderstel
The Baptists in America look to Roger Williams as the founder of the Baptist church in the New World. Dismissed from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his radical beliefs, Williams and his followers went to Rhode Island for the religious freedom they sought. Here, they founded the first Baptist church in 1639. The faith remained a fairly small denomination, with the first Baptist Association formed in Philadelphia in 1707. By the mid-century, however, dissension among Congregationalists and Presbyterians in the north and central colonies as well as revivals and camp meetings in the southern colonies began to add to the Baptist membership. At the end of the American Revolution, as the western territories opened to settlement, many of those moving into the untamed wilderness were affiliated with the growing Baptist faith. (Sweet: 3-17)
Many of the earliest settlers in the land that was soon to become the Indiana Territory were Kentucky Baptists. Among them was Squire Boone, a Baptist preacher and the brother of the trailblazing Daniel Boone. Settling along the Ohio River, these hearty pioneers quickly began establishing homes and farms in the new land. Part of that settlement process was the founding of fledgling congregations. On November 22, 1798, along Owen's Creek in Clark's Grant, two Baptist couples chartered the first Baptist congregation in what is now Indiana. John and Sophia Fislar and John and Cattern Pettet located their church, called Silver Creek Baptist, near the falls of the Ohio in what was then Knox County and it was served by a circuit rider from Kentucky. By 1809 enough Baptists had formed churches that they organized the first Baptist association--the Wabash District Association--in southwestern Indiana Territory and adjacent areas of Illinois. The Whitewater Association (Little Cedar Grove Church) formed later that year along the shared southeastern border of Indiana and Ohio. And in 1812, the Silver Creek Association formed along the Ohio River region. The strength of the Baptist lay in the Ohio, Wabash, and Whitewater river settlements of the new territory. (Tonks: 11-13)
A Baptist family was among the earliest settlers of what was to become the new capital at Indianapolis. John McCormick, a Baptist from southeastern Indiana, led his family and a group of settlers to the banks of the confluence of Fall Creek and the White River in 1820. In 1822, McCormick and other Baptists in the fledgling settlement formed a congregation that was pronounced a "regular Baptist congregation" by an examining committee from established churches in the southern part of the state. (Conner Prairie: 50) The congregation met in the schoolhouse and private homes and was shepherded in the early years by itinerant preacher Benjamin Barnes. Congregational growth was slow, and it was not until 1841 that their number had grown to 100. (Indianapolis: 294)
The organization of the Baptist denomination was possibly the single greatest hindrance to the faith's growth in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The basic unit of the church government was the local congregation. Congregational officials consisted of deacons and clerks, both elected yearly by the congregation. The local church also hired and licensed its minister. The very democratic nature of this arrangement appealed to the western settler's ideals of self-determination and freedom. A number of congregations in a given area were loosely formed into an association and associations within a state were formed into a state convention. Both the associations and state convention met annually. These groups were formed for mutual aid and fellowship, but they had no ultimate jurisdiction over a local congregation's actions. (Conner Prairie: 39-40)
Each congregation followed the basic Baptist theology of divinely inspired and infallible scriptures, a Triune God, the basic human sinfulness, salvation by grace, baptism by immersion and the Bible as the confession of faith. Through these guidelines the local congregation strictly policed the lives and behaviors of its members. The congregation met weekly for worship led by the local minister or ministers. The service consisted of prayers, sermons and music. Regular monthly meetings for "Renewal of the Covenant" brought the church together to closely examine the belief and behavior of all members. The Baptist strongly advocated a system of examination and discipline in order to maintain individual adherence to the rules of faith. (Conner Prairie: 39) The rules were strict and exact and required faithful adherence if a member wished to remain in good stead. (McCoy: 13)
Because of the emphasis on local congregational control over the life of the church, evangelism was not stressed. There were only two ways to become a member of the church. First was a letter of transfer from an organized Baptist church. When a member moved out of an area, a letter of dismissal was issued stating that the member was in good standing in the matter of behavior and doctrine. The letter was then presented by the member to the new church. It was usually accepted without problems. The second membership path was through a conversion experience. The prospective member had to submit to extensive questioning by the congregation, deacon, clerk and minister. If the conversion was judged to be sound and sincere, the prospective member was admitted on probation. After proving the sincerity of the conversion to the congregation's satisfaction and surviving a congregational vote that required unanimous acceptance, the new member was baptized into the church. This system, along with the emphasis on local congregational orientation, left the Baptists a distant second to the actively evangelizing Methodists. (Conner Prairie: 39-40)
At the turn of the nineteenth century, most Protestant denominations were organizing evangelistic efforts. In 1814, the General Missionary Convention of the Baptists was formed. This organization, supported by eleven eastern state conventions, began sending missionaries into the West in 1818. These first two western missionaries traveled to the Missouri and Illinois Territories to start churches and schools. After only two years, support was withdrawn due to lack of funds. At the same time, the minister of the Maria Creek Baptist Church in the Indiana Territory petitioned the society for help in establishing a mission to the Indians in the area around his church. Granted aid for one year, Isaac McCoy began what was to become his life's work. By 1820, McCoy decided to move his mission work to the Ft. Wayne area. There, he opened a school for whites and Indians, housing the Indian students in the protection of his own large family. Experiencing difficulties with interference by corrupt Indian agents, he moved the school to just south of Niles, Michigan. (Sweet: 60-61) While there he devised his philosophy of an Indian state, which was adopted by the United States government. Simply stated, McCoy felt that the Indians must be free of the corruption that came with white contact. The Indian nations should live on reservations, separate from outside cultural influences, so they could be converted to Christianity, educated and protected from whites. McCoy, meaning to save the Indians he respected and loved, created the system that lead to their ultimate abuse. In 1824, McCoy accompanied the Indians of the area as they were moved into the Indian Territory. Here, until his death in 1846, he worked tirelessly, with little help and less money to improve the lives of the Native Americans around him. (Rudolph: 38; Tonks: 25- 27)
The lack of assistance that McCoy and other devoted Baptist missionaries felt was due to one of the many theological schisms that developed in the faith during the 19th century. Indiana Baptist life was fraught with fights, splits and schisms. One of the most destructive to the growth and continuation of the faith in the state was led by Daniel Parker. A charismatic and dynamic minister to a southeastern Illinois congregation, Parker spread his extremist doctrine of predestination called the "two seed" theory. This doctrine stated that all the "elect" were from God's seed while the "non-elect" were the spawn of the devil's seed and thus doomed to hell. Consequently, to evangelize or establish missions was contrary to God's plan and therefore evil. The follower's of Parker's two-seed doctrine, called "hard-shell," "primitive," "anti-means" or "anti-mission" Baptists, were also against education, reform and benevolent societies and Sunday schools, calling any attempt to alter the predestined state of any individual the work of the devil. Between 1838 and 1844 many congregations adhering to the Parker doctrine withdrew from district ssociations and aligned with the Primitive Baptist Church. Strong in Indiana through the Civil War, the groups' influence dwindled late in the century, but not before the suspicion, bigotry and intolerance that sprang from the doctrine had crippled the growth of the faith in the state. (Rudolph: 39-48; Blake: 19-22)
More moderate Baptists formed district associations throughout the state and the minutes of their yearly meetings were filled with reports of the work that occupied the individual congregations and the associations. The moderates saw a need for mission and benevolent societies, schools and seminaries for the development of an educated clergy. Some associations, like the Flat Rock Association, specifically avoided missionary societies so as not to invite controversy within the association. But most gave their support to such organizations as much as their means allowed. An association with the American Sunday School Union developed and continued through the 1840s. (Blake: 44) The Union is mentioned in the 1834 minutes of the General Association meeting held in Franklin. First stating that some in the association "oppose the cause of Sunday Schools", it was then decided to form the Indian Baptist Sunday School Society and align with the American Sunday School Union. The proposal met with unanimous confirmation. (General Association, 1834 :3)
In 1833, the General Association of Baptists was formed and the delegates from associations, churches and societies statewide committed to mission work at the very first annual meeting. (Tonks: 27) The delegates also discussed the need for Bible distribution, Sunday schools and temperance societies. The need for western institutions of higher learning to advance the cause of education in general and to aid in establishing an educated clergy to fill the pulpits of western churches were seen as urgent. It was here that the first discussions for the establishment of Franklin College took place. (Memorial: 201) Chartered in 1834, the school opened in 1837 as the Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute under the direction of Rev. Albert Tilton and Rev. A. R. Hinckley. In 1841, the college became the first in the state to admit women and in 1844 the college name changed to Franklin College. (Indiana: 377)
The corresponding secretary's report to the General Association's meeting second meeting in 1834, documents the work of a handful of dedicated Baptist circuit riders in spite of noting the opposition to such work found among some Baptists in the state. (General Association, 1834 :4) The minutes of the 1846 meeting document benevolent work statewide. This included raising funds and distributing Bibles for the Indiana Bible Society. Foreign and Indian mission work was supported not only by raising funds but also by requesting local preachers to deliver yearly sermons on the subject of mission. The Indiana Baptist Education Society reported the good work done Franklin College. (General Association, 1846: 1-6)
By the late 1840s the General Association enthusiastically aligned with the work of the Baptist Home Missionary Society and encouraged their work in Indiana. Observing the advances made by the Methodists and even the Presbyterians by the use of missionaries, the General Association hoped they too could increase their numbers. (Blake: 44) In 1842 The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Chronicle reported that the Indiana General Association consisted of 31 district associations, which had 417 churches served by 220 ordained ministers, 40 licensed preachers. The total membership for the state was set at 17,000. (Memorial : 201) Methodist membership for the same year was nearly 63,000. (Circuit Rider: 321) By 1848 Timothy C. Cressy led the push to evangelize in the state. A graduate of Newton Theological Seminary in Newton, Massachusetts, and former pastor of the Baptist church in Indianapolis, Cressy served as the secretary for the Indiana General Association. An educated Easterner, Cressy recognized the good that could be done for the faith through the use of home missionaries. With the help of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society he recruited fifty Baptist preachers to work in Indiana as circuit riders. In a two-year period the fifty traveled more than 25,000 miles, preached 3,500 sermons and increased Sunday School enrollment more than four times. (Blake: 56)
Baptists north and south suffered from the division caused by the issue of slavery. In the South, Baptists split with their northern ounterparts to form the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. Initially, Indiana Baptists tried to remain moderate on the issue, condemning the practice and the spread of slavery but stopping short of supporting abolition. However, by 1856, the General Association minutes include a resolution against "all forms of despotism and tyranny.. and every species of bondage and slavery as a sin against God…" Now only a minority of Hoosier Baptists disapproved of interference with the institution. (Blake: 63-65)
One of the ways that Hoosier Baptists chose to fight slavery and the bigotry that stemmed from the practice was through the Eleutherian Institute. Opened in 1848, the Institute took its name from the Greek word for "freedom." The members of a local congregation, the Neal Creek Abolition Baptist Church, along with nearby abolitionist societies, provided support. Located in Lancaster, Jefferson County, about ten miles north of Madison, the Institute was the second institution of higher learning west of the Alleghenies to admit blacks as students. In the years between 1848 and 1861, nearly one quarter to one third of the school's students were fugitive or freed slaves. The Institute provided preparatory classes as well as college level classes in the all areas of study. The school was responsible for educating some of the future leaders of black Baptists congregations in the state. (Indiana: 137)
Most blacks in the South and the East were members of white congregations. Always relegated to the balconies of the sanctuary during services, meetings or lectures, these slaves and freedmen and women were Baptists of strong faith and conviction. As these black Baptists moved or escaped into the new territories they joined with white Baptists in new western congregations. The Maria Creek Baptist Church north of Vincennes was organized in 1809. One of the ten charter members was John Morris, a free black, and the first black to be admitted to full membership in a Baptist church in the territory. (Rudolph: 588) As more blacks moved into the state, they began to organize all black ongregations, led by black ministers, in both rural and urban areas. Zachariah Bassett came to Parke County and settled near North Carolina uakers. Here, he organized a black Baptist congregation and saw his two sons educated in the Quaker school. Later both the sons, Richard and Miles, became Baptist ministers. After the Civil War both pastored large congregations in the state. (Rudolph: 589) Moses Broyles, one of the Eleutherian Institute students, came to Indianapolis in 1857 as a teacher. In August he applied for membership to Second Baptist Church and by November had been called and ordained as the congregation's minister. Broyles studied church government to learn his duties as pastor and for the first years of his ministry received only board as pay. Devoted and energetic, Broyles not only ministered to the congregation but also onducted a night school in the church. In the years following the Civil War the church grew rapidly and Broyles and Second Baptist Church helped establish six new Baptist churches in the city and surrounding area. In the first ten years after the Civil War black Baptist church growth doubled, going from 31 congregations at war's end to 60 by the mid-1870s. With the phenomenal growth Broyles saw the need to create an association of black Baptist congregations, which ultimately became the Indiana Missionary Baptist Convention in 1895. (Rudolph: 590-593; Indianapolis: 294-295; Blake: 88)
From the opening days of the Civil War, Hoosier Baptists were wholehearted Union supporters. Baptist churches statewide supported the war effort through sewing circles, sanitary fairs and donations. Baptist sons went to war in such numbers that Franklin College closed its doors by 1862 due to lack of students - all gone to war. In 1864 the State Convention resolved "that the treason against this government is a willfull (sic) and premeditated sin against God." The resolution went on to condemn anyone that was not fully involved in the war effort as "in league with the Southern Confederacy." So many Baptist ministers and parishioners responded to the call to arms that many churches were left bereft of both preachers and funds to operate. (Blake 86-88)
For a few years following the Civil War, rebuilding the Baptist presence in Indiana met with some difficulty. Franklin College struggled to rebuild its student body and re-establishing its financial base. It was finally necessary to close the college in 1872, reorganize the school and reopen later the same year. But by the mid-1870s several issues revitalized the church and membership growth was experienced statewide. The Sunday School movement of the 1870s energized the faith with the Baptist State Convention do all in its power to aid growth in that area. (Blake: 73)
Women too revitalized the church. Women's societies and organizations were formed to deal with such issues as foreign and domestic mission, education, Sunday schools, and temperance. Baptist women were especially faithful in the area of domestic mission in the south. Funds were gathered and teachers recruited to go south to open schools for black education and bettering the lives of the newly freed citizens. (Blake: 84-85)
Temperance was a cause championed by Baptists statewide. Men's and women's temperance organizations were formed in congregations all over Indiana. From pulpits, Baptist preachers urged member to deny votes to any candidate not willing to speak out in favor of prohibition. By 1895, the Baptist State Convention was a vocal supporter of the Anti-Saloon League. (Blake: 87) Because of this focus on temperance, Baptists were slow to respond to the needs of impoverished immigrant workers in the northwest part of the state. The State Convention was vehemently anti-Catholic, in part over the temperance issue. The Convention saw these Catholic, mostly eastern European immigrants as anti-temperance. There was, however, one outstanding champion of the working man, William Steele Holman. The son of an Indiana congressman and staunch Baptist, Holman began his appeals to the state convention as early as 1871, to no avail. He continued his championship of their plight and personally worked for improvements throughout his life. (Blake: 90)
One Baptist group was a latecomer to the Hoosier State. In 1914, 40 members of First Baptist Church in Hymera, in Sullivan County, were dissatisfied with what they saw as the "looseness" of the Indiana Baptist Convention doctrine. They withdrew from the church and formed the first Southern Baptist affiliated congregation in the state. The denomination grew slowly and is mainly located in the southern part of the state. (Rudolph: 599-600; Tonks: 32)
Slowly the church gained membership and actually doubled around the turn of the century although it did not keep up with the general growth of the state's population. However, by the opening years of the First World War the Baptist state Convention began to see a more rapid growth. One of the vital instruments of the growth was the Indiana Convention's involvement in the Baptist Observer, a publication to assist in sharing the work of the church. With a continued emphasis on prohibition, domestic and foreign missions, the faith gained strength in the years following the war and gained a vibrancy that has resulted in the many Baptist denominations constituting one of the largest Protestant faiths in the state of Indiana. (Blake: 96-97)
Bibliography
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Sweet, William Warren. Circuit Rider Days in Indiana. Indianapolis: W.K. Stewart Co., 1916.
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