CHAPTER VIII
The First Baptist Church in Illinois
[p. 27]
During 1794-5 many new families froni Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee joined the American settlements in Illinois. Among them was Joseph Chance, an unordained Baptist preacher, or "lay elder." It was the custom in some Baptist churches to appoint such officers as pastor's assistants. The father of Richard Fuller, who for thirty years was a pastor in Baltimore, was a lay elder.
Another of the new arrivals in the spring of 1796 was Elder David Badgley, of Virginia; an energetic man of active mind and sincere piety. He was the first Baptist minister to make Illinois his home. On his arrival he held a protracted meeting of three weeks at New Design, and the Holy Spirit was present in power. On May 28, 1796, Fontaine creek was again visited and fifteen were baptized. On the same day, in the house of James Lemen, these, with those baptized before by Elder Dodge, and a number who had with them their church letters, twenty-eight persons altogether, were constituted a Baptist church. The names of the men as given by John M. Peck, were: James Lemen, William Whiteside, Larkin Rutherford, Isaac Enochs, Joseph Griffin, John Simpson, James Gilham, Thomas Todd, George Valentine, Solomon Shook, Mr. Teague, Joseph Anderson, Joseph Ryan, Joseph Chance.
The formation of the church was a simple proceeding. Elder Badgley and Mr. Chance read the scriptures and offered prayer. The purpose of the meeting was stated, and the nature of a Baptist church was explained. The names were taken of those who wished to unite in church capacity, and they formally voted to become, a gospel church for the maintenance of the ordinances, the edification of one another, and the evangelization of the world. No ceremony of prayerbook or ritual, no presence of bishop or priest, was required. Articles of faith were read, considered, and adopted. Perhaps also an agreement or covenant with each other to maintain a holy life. No authority save that of their Lord Jesus Christ was needed or recognized. And as the church was self constituted it was also self governed, since the authority that constitutes a body must be the authority that controls it.
There are four theories of church government. The catholic theory vests it in one person, the pope; the episcopal theory vests it in the
[p. 28]
clergy; the presbyterian theory vests it in chosen elders; but scripture vests it in the whole church. "The church; the whole church;" Matt. 18:17; Acts 15:22. We have no Church in the sense of a territorial organization. When we refer to the denomination we may say. "churches," but not "church." It is plain that there can never be ecclesiastical oppression among us, for the machinery for such oppression is wanting. This fact is no small item in the evidence that our form of church government is from God. It is essentially the form of political government under which we live in this country. And there is current tradition that Thomas Jefferson got his idea of a government by the people from the little Baptist church near his residence in Virginia.
It is very suggestive too that Baptist churches in Illinois began in revivals. Three fourths of the membership of this first church were converted and baptized on the spot. It is a fitting symbol; may it ever be a welcome one. Our true dependence for growth is not immigration but evangelization.
Others had come with Elder Badgley to see the Illinois country, and they were so pleased with it that they returned to Virginia and began to gather a colony to emigrate the following spring. Morgantown, W. Va., was appointed the rendezvoux. The promoters were so successful that in May, 1797, 154 persons launched on the Monongahela river on flatboats, bound for Pittsburg and down the Ohio river to Illinois; a journey of about 1300 miles. Then rather than pull their heavy boats against the Mississippi current for the 135 river miles from Cairo to Kaskaskia, they landed at old Fort Massac and sttuck out through the wildnerness of woods and swamp. They were three weeks, and endured great hardship, in accomplishing that 100 miles. It was a rainy season, streams overflowed, weather hot and oppressive, provisions gave out, and then strength gave out. They had not provided for such an emergency. They arrived at the settlements exhausted and with many sick. The settlers with their single room cabins had neither accommodations nor food for such a large company. There was plenty of venison and other game to be had, but they had not salt enough to cure the meat, and the weather was so hot that it would spoil before it dried. Sickness increased among them until it became epidemic, arid half of the colony died. None of the old settlers died. The survivors were so disheartened that as many as were able made their way back to Virginia. All sorts of stories got abroad. It was believed that Illinois
[p. 29]
was a sickly country. It was reported and printed that the immigrants of 1797 died of yellow fever! In Morse's American Gazetteer for 1804 New Design received this notice:"NEW DESIGN, in Louisiana, a village of about forty houses and two hundred souls; twenty miles from the Spanish village of St. Louis, and fifteen miles from the Mississippi river. It stands on high ground, but is surrounded by ponds. In 1797 fifty seven of its inhabitants died of yellow fever." Dr. Morse supposed that the fever was among the regular settlers, and that it was caused by the ponds! It is no wonder, after that, that immigration was checked for several years.
Elder Badgley and family remained, and he became the first pastor of New Design church and the first protestant pastor on the soil of our state. He was born in New Jersey in 1749, and ordained in Virginia in 1795. He preached thirty years in Illinois, and died in 1824.
Three of the twenty-eight constituent members of New Design church became ordained preachers, viz, James Lemen, Joseph Chance, and John Simpson. The latter was an Englishman; came to Kaskaskia in 1789 and the following year removed to New Design. He died in 1806; preached at Judge Bon's in the morning and died in the evening while sitting in his chair. This raising up of ministerial gifts from so small a number and so inconveniently situated, in the midst of surrounding vice and profligacy, is a remarkable fact. Yet it is only what in substance had been taking place in our pioneer settlements everywhere. The Spirit of the Lord has mightily helped -- has chosen to help -- in laying the foundations. That is how God saved America.
Another English preacher, John Clark, reached New Design in 1797. He had been a Methodist, but dissatisfied with their form of government and with his own baptism, he had withdrawn and was now, like Joseph Lillard, independent. He traveled on foot and preached all the way from Georgia to Illinois, stopping a year in Kentucky and teaching school. He was a good teacher, governing by comradeship rather than by fear. As one of his Kentucky scholars exclaimed, long years afterwards, "I never seed the like on't!" He was the first gospel preacher to set foot on the Spanish side of the Mississippi, in 1798, in the face of the edict of the Spanish government that, "No preacher of any religion but the catholic shall be allowed in this province." The clerical hand is clearly seen in the further enactment that, "Liberty of conscience is not to be extended beyond the first generation; the children
[p. 30]
of the immigrants must be catholics." Elder Clark counted it his duty to preach the gospel of Christ everywhere, but to avoid arrest he sometimes was ferried over the river in tile evening, met his appointments at night and returned before daylight. In 1803 himself and another independent Methodist preacher baptized one another in Fontaine creek, after he had preached to a large congregation on the banks of the stream. He became a Baptist and about 1815 united with the Bethel church, and continued diligent in his fIlinistry until his death in 1833.========== [Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists -- A History, 1930, pp. 27-30. -- jrd]
Go to the next chapter
Return to Illinois Baptist Index Page
Return to American Baptist Histories
Return to HOME Page