Stephen Gano
A Grandmother's Prayers Were Answered
By David L. Cummins

      Stephen Gano was born on December 25, 1762, in New York City, where his father pastored the Gold Street Baptist Church. His parents planned for Stephen to enter Brown University, where his uncle, Dr. James Manning, was the president; but the Revolutionary War changed those plans. Stephen's father, the Reverend John Gano, entered the army as a chaplin, and thirteen-year-old Stephen was sent to another uncle, Dr. Stites, to be educated in the medical profession. While on the way to his uncle's home, he and his father stopped at his grand-mother's house. She placed her hand on Stephen's head, prayed for his salvation, and said,"Stephen, the Lord designs thee for a minister of the everlasting Gospel; be thou faithful unto death, and He will give thee a crown of life."²

      Thus, Stephen completed the medical course and became a doctor before he was saved. The young man entered the army as a surgeon, and in time he was called upon to serve on board a ship. The two-masted vessel ran upon a reef of rocks, and Gano was taken prisoner along with thirty-four others. They were all left on Turk's Island in the Caribbean to perish without food. Escaping from the island, the men made their way to St. Francis and there arranged to board a vessel for Philadelphia. Four days later, the British captured that ship, and Gano was placed in chains on a prison ship. In time he was repatriated in a prisoner exchange and soon set up his medical practice in Tappan, New York. After several years of medical practice, "he was converted and in 1786 was set apart to the Gospel ministry."

      On August 2, 1786, Dr. Stephen Gano was ordained into the ministry by his father, uncle, and several other pastors in the Gold Street Baptist Church. After two brief but successful pastorates, in 1792 he received a unanimous invitation to the pastorates of the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, where he served until his death. When he became pastor, the church numbered 165 members; however, during the thirty-six years of his ministry there, five new churches were born, and the membership of the First Baptist Church grew to 647.

      First Baptist Church of Providence was one of the largest Baptist congregations in America. The members expeerienced frequent revival. In 1820 alone the records reveal that one hundred and forty-seven were baptized. Dr. Gano was a pre-eminent public speaker among the Baptists, and his executive ability was stellar. For nineteen years he served as moderator of the Warren Association. Few of the early Baptist leaders left a more hallowed influence on their hearers.

      Dr. Gano outlived three wives, and at his death he left six daughters, four of whom were married to Baptist pastors. Though an invalid during his last years, he continued to preach until within three months of his death, which took place August 18, 1828. Dr. Stephen Gano was the son of a famous preacher, and his life honored his father's memory and faith.

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[From This Day in Baptist History, pp. 316-317. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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