CHAPTER XXXI
Thr General Meeting at Winchester
[p. 104]
After the organization of the Edwardsville Association in 1830, a call was issued for a general meeting of Illinois Baptists at the same place, July 22, 1.831. On the fourth day of that meeting, July 25, a permanent "Committee of Correspondence" was appointed to aid more efficiently in destitute settlements. That Committee was the beginning of our State Mission Board, and there has not been a more efficient board in all the years since. As organized it consisted of James Lemen, chairman; Geo. Stacey, secretary; Paris Mason, B. F. Edwards, James Pulliam, Hubbell Loomis, J. M. Peck. The place of secretary was afterwards taken by Dr. George Haskell. George Stacey was born in Boston, and was one of the first students at Rock Spring Seminary. He died in 1848.
That part of the state that most appealed to the Committee was within the triangle bounded by Alton, Springfield and Burlington. It was not the frontier, for there were by that time scattered settlements all through the state, but it was the part most rapidly filling up, and more promising than the eastern side of the state because farther away from Parker's antimissions and Two Seeds. Unfortunately the evil seeds he and his people were sowing were more than two seeds! The funds of the Committee were such as they could collect on the field out of the poverty of the settlers, aided by such as they could beg from the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society.
They began in a humble way with the following resolution: Resolved, that so soon as means and suitable men can be had this Committee will employ one preacher to travel through the state, and one to aid brother John Logan in the Military Tract.John Logan was a faithful and successful farmer and preacher who emigrated from Virginia to Indiana in 1823, and to McDonough county, Ill., in 1828. He was a self-supporting missionary in the midst of anti-mission preachers who should have been his helpers instead of his opposers. If he accepted outside aid it was only that he might devote more time to his itinerant work. He was the pioneer preacher of the Military Tract, and the founder of the Salem Association. Elder Logan and Gardner Bartlett aided in organizing the first Baptist church in the
[p. 105]
state of Iowa, October 19, 1834. It was Long Creek, now Danville, near Burlington. He died in 1851.
The traveling missionary of the Committee was found in the person of J. M. Peck; the publication of the semi-monthly "Pioneer and Western Baptist" being included as part of his work. They did not become financially responsible for the paper, but allowed him to go on publishing it and paying the deficit out of his own pocket, as he had been doing.
That fall, 1831, two young Vermonters and their wives, graduates in the same class at Hamilton, N. Y., appeared on the scene. Alvin Bailey was twenty-nine years old, and Gardner Bartlett was thirty-two. After counseling with the Committee Mr. Gardner settled as pastor at Lebanon, preaching also at Rock Spring and Belleville, and Mr. Bailey opened a school at Upper Alton which when united with Rock Spring Seminary became Shurtleff College. He also preached for the Upper Alton and the Edwardsville churches.
During the summer of 1831 Jonathan Going, commissioned by the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society to "explore the conditions of the Baptists in the west," spent three months with Elder Peck in itinerating work. They parted at Shelbyville, Ky., in September, where they "agreed on the plan of the Baptist-Home Mission Society.;' It was organized in New York city the following spring, April 27, 1832. Four days later the Committee met at Edwardsville and voted to solicit aid from the new society to the amount of $100 for Bro. Gardner at Winchester and vicinity; $50 for Bro. Bailey at Alton and vicinity; and to take Bro. Logan over from the Massachusetts Society. Bro. Moses Lemen was also continued as an additional itinerant preacher.
July 23 following ,the Committee met in Mr, Peck's farmhouse at Rock Spring, and issued a call for a General Meeting at Winchester, October 12. It convened according to call, and was attended by fifteen preachers and six brethren. It was handicapped by the Black Hawk war, by the cholera scourge, and by the lack of a general sympathy even on the part of his missionary brethren with Bro. Peck's constantly developing talent for organization. Brethren Peck, Moses Lemen, Bailey and Loomis were there from the south, and Brother Logan from the north; for the rest the attendance was local. Joel Sweet was there, representing the Philadelphia Sunday School Union; but his father, Eld. Jonathan Sweet, was not present though his home was but a few miles away near Jacksonville. Gardner Bartlett was present as pastor
[p. 106]
of the church. Jacob Bower, P. N. Haycraft, L. M. Moore, were present from Morgan county adjoining, and Jesse Sitton from over the Illinois river in Pike county. The other preachers were William Spencer, William Kinner, John Biddlecome, Lewis Allen. The names of the brethren were A. T. Hite, Wm. Scholl, Jos. Swan, Thos. Edmonson, John Duval, Geo. Kelly. Of the thirty preachers of the Friends to Humanity not one was present except Moses Lemen. The meeting organized with brother Peck, moderator, and brother Lemen, clerk. The others were divided into ten committees, which reported as follows:1. Antimission Churches. We advise all in those churches who favor gospel effort, and oppose associational lordsbip, to be formed into separate churches. 2. Education. We report the securing of a farm and the commencement of a building at Upper Alton for a manual labor college, to which Rock Spring Seminary will be removed; and we recommend that this meeting appoint J. M. Peck, Justus Rider and James Lemen trustees of the institution in addition to the seven already appointed. 3. Systematic Bible Study. We urge this ona1l, and that children should be encouraged in the same. 4. Itinerant Preaching. We favor the continuance of this practice. 5. Ministers' Meetings. We favor these, and recommend that they be held for three or four days each quarter, beginning on the "fifth Saturday." 6. Temperance. We recommend total abstinence, and temperance societies. 7. Campbellism. We counsel to steadfastly maintain Baptist principles, yet to avoid unkind remarks. 8. Address to Illinois Baptists. (Not ready; subsequently prepared and circulated.) 9. Concerning Organizing a Convention. We recommend that a meeting for that purpose be held at Alton, October 11, 1833; all Baptist churches and societies in the state to be invited to send delegates. {Adopted.) 10. Report of the Committee on Correspondence. John Logan had organized two churches, three Sunday schools, one tract society, many temperance pledges, and had baptized 46. His salary was $150 a year. Moses Lemen had performed similar labors, and had baptized 16. He had organized the "Baptist Charitable Society" of St. Clair county and vicinity to help support the itinerating preachers. Brethren Bailey
[p. 107]
and Bartlett had done good work at Alton and Winmester. Elder Peck had engaged largely in revival work, and baptized sixty converts. He labored some weeks in St. Louis. Traversed thirteen counties in Illinois, from Monroe to McDonough. A respectable minority in the Spoon River Association protest against the anrimission policy of the body. The evil influence comes from the eastern side of the state.Sunday at this meeting was given to evangelistic work, and three were baptized. This is excellent. If instead of providing great sermons for the saints 9ur able preachers came prepared to make clear what it is that God offers to sinful men, there would be another reason why our churches would desire the convention. ======== [Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists -- A History, 1930, pp. 104-107. -- jrd]
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