APPENDIX
Administration of Rev. H. C. First
As Superintendent of Missions
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From June 1888 until October 1898, a period of ten years and four months. When Mr. First took the work, a debt had been carried by the General Association for several years and amounted to $8,000, beside $207, due for printing minutes and enough due the missionaries to make a total indebtedness of $11,000. Two serious things faced the work of the General Association at that time.
1. The heavy debt that had been accumulating for several years. 2. The unfortunate arrangement with local associations, whereby, the executive co,mmittee of a local association could appoint missionaries and collect state funds from Life Memberships and other sources, and not report it to the state treasurer. This in no way cut down the expense and responsibility of the General Association, but did cut off its income in a very large measure. This matter was put very plainly before the state meeting in the Report of the Board ip 1888. The total membership of the denomination in the state at that time, American, Foreign, and Negro was 83,375.
When the Superintendent made the Report of the Board at the end of sixteen months of his administration, he stated that the entire indebtedness was so nearly raised that it ought to be finished at once. A sufficient amount was raised at that meeting in Mt. Vernon to more than clear the Board of indebtedness. Besides this, a successful year of missionary work had been done. The missionaries reported 358 baptisms, and 547 additions to the churches. The missionaries had all been paid in full. The Association passed the following report of a committee on the report of the Superintendent. "A committee appointed by the Board to present some brief supplementary words to follow the report read by the Superintendent of Missions, presents the following. The Board desires to express its high appreciation of the patient efforts of the Superintendent of Missions. Rev. H. C. First, who, with unflagging zeal and untiring hope has labored so successfully, particularly in regard to the obtaining of funds and pledges
[p. 182]
toward the removal of the debt which has so long rested heavily upon us and crippled our work, which removal he has, under God, so nearly accomplished, as the Treasurer's Report will show. We bless God for the wisdom and strength given our brother and highly commend him to His gracious favor."
In 1891, the Superintendenr made a very fine report. Among other things, the Board says the following. "While in all our deliverations there has been the most kindly and Christian spirit, and unanimity in all our actions; and on the part of the missionaries, the most faithful and earnest work. Many of these have worked with self-denial and heroic labors for the building up of the cause of our Redeemer."
Mr. First reported that year a total of $16,834.85, raised and the missionaries reported for that year 302 added to the churches by letter and experience and 612 by baptism, making a total of additions 914. Rev. J. B. Brown was employed as a missionary in the Central portion of the state and Rev. B. F. Rodman in the Southern one-third of the state. The whole number of baptisms in Illinois for that year was 7642.
In 1892, Superintendent First made the fifth, annual Report of the Board under his administration. The following are three sections of his report. "This is the fifth annual report presented by your present Superintendent, and we believe that some progress has been made in that time in our State Mission Work. As is well remembered, we had a debt of $9,000, and this did not include the money due the missionaries and other arrearages. The missionaries had labored for six months of the year and had received no part of their salaries, only what they had collected on the fields and retained. This statement is not made to draw comparisons, but to indicate some of the advancement which we have made. This year we have added $2,500 to the permanent funds, which now amounts to $10,000. While four or five years ago, we were actually paying between $400 and $500 interest money. Now after paying the annuities and interest that goes for special purposes, we have a net interest of more than $400 per year. And for this year we report all our missionaries paid up and a balance of over $800 in our treasury."
The following was adopted in this meeting in 1892.
"A resolution was presented by Dr. FrederiCk and unanimously adopted as follows: Whereas, Rev. H. C. First has been unanimously appointed by the Board as Corresponding Secretary and Superintendent of Missions of
[p. 183]this General Association for the ensuing year, therefore be it Resolved, That we pledge to him our individual and collective support in the im:. portant work to which we have called him; that we pray God fot continued and incr~asing success upon hjs efforts, and that we will, by every proper means stimulate contributions to State Missions."It was during the year 1892, that a State Mission Bulletin was established, which continued for six years. It was a monthly, and 5,000 copies were issued monthly. It paid all expenses for publication and distribution and left quite a sum for the mission treasury. Mr. H. M. Carr, a prominent merchant of Alton, served as the very efficient treasurer for eighteen years, until the time of his death about 1915. Mr. Carr was a devoted layman of the First Church of Alton, and never spared himself in devotion to the work of his home church, the work of the State Convention, and as a trustee in Shurtleff College.
The report in Jerseyville in 1893, showed a good year's work, but a hard one financially. The Board closed the year with $820 deficit, which was raised at that meeting of the General Association. It was that year the First Church was established and the first meeting house built in the growing city of East St. Louis.
The fifty-first anniversary of the Association was held in Quincy. It had been a difficult year to raise money, and the Board reported $1300 indebtedness. But, in other respects, it had been a good year, and the Association passed the following resolution. "Resolved, That the report of our State Board and State Missionaries are most gratifying and encouraging, and should awaken a deeper interest in the work of enlarging the kingdom of Christ in the state. We express the hope that during the coming year more generous offerings may relieve the Board of the financial burden now resting upon it, and open the way for enlargement on every hand. We would recognize the gratitude, the self-denying labors of Dr. Buckley and record our appreciation of our Historical Secretary, Dr. Bulkley, of the invaluable service he is rendering to the Baptist denomination."In 1896, when the state meeting was held in Urbana, the Board reported the association had begun the year with a debt of $1300, and that during the year it had been increased $700, making a total indebtedness of $2,000. The Superintendent in his report gives some very interesting information concerning illinois, and as a matter of history, showing how our Baptist people thought of these things thirty years ago, it is given in part below.
[p. 184]
"We have taken some pains to look up a few statistics, bearing on this question and give herewith the results. Illinois is situated in what is known as the 'prairie region' of the United States, and is, in the language of the compiler of the latest census, a part of the' granary of the country.' It is third in population of all the United States, arid had at the time the census was taken in 1890, 3,824,357 people within its borders. Of everyone hundred people in Illinois 77.99 are native born and 22.01 are of foreign birth. In every 100,000 population in the state, 1,513 are colored. There are 669,812 dwelling houses in the state, and each one is the home of about five people on an average.
Considering the fact that Illinois was an unknown wilderness when the region east of the Allegheny Mountains had been settled for two hundred years, its immense progress shows that in calling it the granary of the country, the superintendent of the census made no mistake. No state in the union has better facilities for reaching markets, and none are more richly endowed with fertile soil, favorable seasons or fuller harvests. The great cities that lie within easy access east and west are ever ready to take the surplus of the state, and the net-work of railways, exceeding more than 25,000 miles., are not only an evidence of the immense demand for carrying capacity, but for great riches in the way of agricultural products and mineral wealth. It is the manifest destiny of Illinois to become one of the greatest of all the sisterhood of states. Such, then is the field where God has put us. It is sure large enough, needy enough, and important enough, to demand our highest and best energies.
Our mission work in this state is no experiment. It is not a theory of missions, but it has the most substantial and permanent results to present as the fruitage of its endeavor. Out of the 1,000 churches in this state, fully 400 have come to their present position under the fostering care of this Board. Many of these churches are among the largest and most prosperous in the state.
But there is yet much land to be possessed in our state. Three counties, fifteen county seats, and 120 cities with a population of 1,000 people and over, to say nothing of smaller cities and villages as well as rural districts, without Baptist churches, presents a field demanding our best and most consecrated efforts. More than 1,200 missionaries have been commissioned by this body. These have buried in Christian baptism fully 18,000 persons. We cannot even present a summary of
[p. 185]
the work that has been done by this body. The Judgment Day alone will reveal the results that have been accomplished."
In that year 734 persons had been added to the churches by the missionaries.
The Association met in Taylorville in 1897. The $2,000 debt at the beginning of the year had been raised by July first, but the appropriations so over-ran the income that the Report of the Board showed another debt of $2,500. Superintendent First informed the Board, when reelected, that he would close his work at the end of that year, and would make a strong effort to clear the Association, of all indebtedness.
Accordingly he closed his work with the meeting at Aurora in 1898. For a little over ten years he had served the Association as Superintendent of Missions. When Superintendent First began his work the Treasurer's report showed a debt of about $11,000; when he completed his work, permanent funds on hand amounting to $10,550. ($10,000 was subsequently added to the permanent funds by arrangement made by Brother First but not paid in until after he closed his work.)
The reports show the following su~mary during the decade of Superintendent First's administration:
$120,000 was contributed and expended in support of missions in Illinois. 467 missionaries were under appointment. 7,017 were added to the mission churches (4,330 by baptism). The Baptist membership in the stiLte bad grown in eleven years ftom, $3,000 to more than 115,000.
It is now more than 25 years since Brother First closed his work as Superintendent of Missions, but he has been busy most of the time. He now resides in Rock Island and is highly respected by the brethren who know him. =============== [Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists -- A History, 1930, pp. 181-185. -- jrd]
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