The China Mission Association, at first called the "Roberts Fund and China Mission Association," of which a brief account is given in the preceeding chapter1, was intended as a medium for the foreign mission operations of the Western States. But its board was located in Louisville, and it received its chief support from Kentucky. It employed one missionary to China, Issachar J. Roberts, with whom it communicated directly through its own board. For a time, it published at Louisville, a monthly magazine, called the Chinese Advocate. In 1840, it became auxiliary to the American Board of Foreign Missions located at Boston. In 1843, it again changed its name to that of the CHINA MISSION SOCIETY OF KENTUCKY. In 1845, it withdrew its auxiliaryship from the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, and became virtually, though not formally, auxiliary to the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, located at Richmond, Virginia. In 1848, it again changed its name, and was henceforth known as the KENTUCKY FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY. Under this style it continued to operate, till 1851, when, the Foreign Mission Board at Richmond, having been entrusted with the management of all the Foreign Missions of the Southern States, it was dissolved. This society, did a good work. Its average receipts, from its organization to its dissolution, was probably about $1,000 a year. It supported I. J. Roberts and his several native assistants in China, during its entire existence.
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1 The Roberts Fund and China Mission Society for the Mississippi Valley, with its Board of Managers located at Louisville, Ky., was organized near the same period. The object of this society was to hold in trust, and properly dispose of certain lands in the State of Mississippi, donated by Elder I. J. Roberts, for the benefit of China Missions, and to collect and appropriate monies for that Mission. Spencer, Volume I, p. 675.=================== [John Henderson Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists, Volume I, 1885; rpt. CHR&A, 1984, p. 679. — jrd]