This Association was organized in 1809; the Indiana churches were Bethel, Maria Creek, Patoka, Salem and Wabash. The Association seems to have gone on prosperously for several years; it is apparent that there is a good deal of the spirit of anti-missionism in the churches, especially those on the Illinois side of the Wabash river. On the eastern side there was the positive and intelligent direction of Elder Isaac McCoy, who was permeated -- we might say saturated -- with a desire and purpose to "proclaim the gospel to every creature." This purpose led him to establish a mission station at
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Raccoon Creek in 1818 -- the same year that Daniel Parker came into the Association, having joined the LaMotte, Illinois, church. Henceforth as long as Parker was in the Association there were discord and distrust, and the demoralization if not the destruction of all beautiful Christian fellowship, and all earnest endeavor to organize for the spread of the gospel in destitute parts of the earth. Both directly and indirectly Parker sought to discourage all mission and educational operations; and he possessed a certain power of leadership that was well adapted to accomplish its purpose in that part of the country at that time. Scores of churches and hundreds of members were drawn away after him.And they went so far as to denounce missions, education, Sunday-schools and all such things. But finally those churches died as a natural result of their heinous heresy. Parker was finally excluded from his own church. But his baneful influence was long felt in many of the Associations in south-eastern Illinois and southwestern Indiana. Matters became so strenuous in 1824 that a number of the Indiana churches of the Association asked for letters of dismissal and joined others in forming the Union Association, which stood positively and always for all the enterprises that contemplate the proclamation of the gospel. Here follow some extracts from the minutes of the Wabash District Association for 1827 which will give an insight into the condition of things where Elder Parker's influence prevailed.
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"Fifth. Agreed that the following be inserted in our minutes for public information. That whereas the churches composing the Wabash Association have taken and maintained a positive stand against the principles and practice of what is called the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions; and as we find that there is a flood of errors, and hosts of enemies, under the influence of Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone, calculated and designed for the overthrow of what we believe to be the only way of distinguishing the true church of Christ from false societies, and the spirituality of the Christian religion, by denying the right of the church to be distinguished by an abstract of principles, and the spiritual call to the work of the ministry; we therefore wish to express ourselves in the strongest terms of disapprobation to such stratagems of the enemy; while we wish the public to know that we are of the regular Baptist faith and order, believing in the predestinarian doctrine, and that God's purpose of salvation of his people depends on his divine appointments as purposed in himself, and not in the soft disposition, or agency of mortal beings, but carried into effect by the work of the divine spirit; and believing that an extension of acquaintance, correspondence and union with brethren of our own faith and order would be advantageous to us, and them, in preserving order and benefits of the ministry, and in strengthening the purpose of the united band against the awful deluge of errors which mark the present signs of the times; therefore as we are
page 64informed that Little Pigeon, Blue River, and Salem Associations have dropped correspondence with the Union Association, which correspondence was the bar on the part of Wabash Association against said Association, and believing said Association to be of the same faith and order with us and standing equally opposed to the principles and practice of what is called the Baptist Board of Foreign Mission and other streams of iniquity which are now flowing out . . . . "It seems that one of these Associations - Little Pigeon - was not quite so orthodox as was assumed, for when Elder Parker visited the body in 1828 he found no desire to renew the correspondence, and he so reported. In the minutes of 1829 this occurs: "It is a notorious fact that the war is between the Armenian [Arminian] and the predestinarian principles; or that of works and grace. They are the two opposites." In the circular letter of the minutes of 1830 there is a series of warnings given in the following words: "The mission errors do not intrude into your bounds, nor does the Campbellite iniquity dare to show its deformed head in your churches, nor in the bounds of your correspondence; however, we wish to warn you against the corrupting errors of a Mr. John M. Peck of Rockspring, Illinois, editor of the Pioneer and Western Baptist. He is to be considered a dangerous foe, because he has got the name and not the substance. Could he succeed in
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blending the church and state together, our religious rights would be gone, and our government overturned, and we think you would do well to take notice on the north of you, that some of the Campbellite preachers have come in, who are aiming to establish a nest-egg which will no doubt, could they succeed, be constantly hatching vipers." Poor Dr. Peck! Thousands of Baptists all over the country admiring him and loving him, and thanking God for him, and yet the Wabash District Association distrusting and denouncing him. It is hardly worth while to pursue the history of this Association further, for it became nearly if not entirely an Illinois institution. The last minute accessible (1882) gives a list of four churches which "sent neither letter nor messengers" -- out of a total of sixteen. The whole number of members in the Association was 508. The Associations with which the Wabash corresponded were such as Blue River, Eel River, Little Wabash, Vermillion, Okaw, Sugar Creek, Lost River and Danville. It would not be just, however, to say that every church, certainly not every member in these churches, was anti-missionary.=========== [From W. T. Stott, Indiana Baptist History 1798-1908, 1908, pp. 61-65. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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