The importance of remembering Baptist history and heritage is a fundamental purpose of the Baptist Heritage Revival Society.

      “When we forget our heritage or history, when we forget the price that was paid for what we hold in our hands, what we believe, then it is possible to change our stands and what we believe,” said Bill Delperdange, director of Bible Institute at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Shepherdsville and involved in Baptist Heritage Revival Society work.

      His article originally appeared in the Spencer Journal that details efforts to erect a monument for Isaac McCoy, who was buried in Western Cemetery in Louisville. “His grave has been destroyed and there is no real remembrance of him. We want to make sure he is not forgotten. The last burial in that cemetery was in the mid- to late 1800s, and a lot — 90 percent — of the gravestones are gone.

      “Attempts to erect a monument to McCoy in the Western cemetery, but to date, those attempts have met with no success,” Delperdange said. During a historical trip with the Baptist Revival Heritage Society in May 2024, Delperdange spoke with the director, Dr. Ted Alexander, about the possibility of reviving this effort.

      “Most likely his grave was where they paved what is now 16th Street.” Working with the Office of Parks and Recreation in Louisville, a memorial is scheduled to be unveiled April 11. The memorial will include information on his life and ministry.

      Ben Stratton, pastor of Farmington Baptist Church in Graves County and a historian with the J.H. Spencer Historical Society, noted the society’s goal of restoring and replacing “stones of remembrance” included placing a monument at Columbia Baptist Church, which he wrote about in last November’s Western Recorder magazine. That church is the mother church of what is now First Baptist Church of Cold Spring in northern Kentucky. Stratton has been on several tours of the Baptist Revival Heritage Society, which visits various sites in different areas related to Baptist history, having services along the way.)

      "The Preacher Under 16th Street"
By Bill Delperdange

      Who was the most important missionary to the native Americans in our history? Ask the average Baptist in church today and, if they had any answer at all, they would probably say David Brainerd. Brainerd was a Presbyterian minister who traveled about 3,000 miles trying to take their version of the gospel to the native population of the northeast.

      Sadly, they would be less likely to know of the man who has been called the “Greatest Friend the Indian Ever Had.” This man would have traveled nearly 3,000 miles in a single trip between Kansas and Washington, D.C. and back and he frequently made such trips.

      In 1843, just three years before his death, the following resolution was put forth regarding this man:

      “Itsp;  The difficulties the McCoys faced in their ministry were enormous.

      Western America of their day was largely a vast rugged wilderness. The climate was often very harsh, particularly in the winter. He faced great opposition from the Primitive Baptists (Daniel Parker and his associates) and Catholic Jesuit missionaries.

      He also faced conflicts with and allegations regarding Mormons in Independence, Mo., in 1838 (the Mormon Wars). Moreover, the McCoys had 14 children — but due to the hardships they faced only four of them survived to adulthood. Since Isaac was frequently away doing the work, Christiana was often left alone to attend to them in death and bury them.

      Isaac worked tirelessly both to ensure the government of the United States preserved native rights and to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

      During his ministry, McCoy became increasingly concerned over the social predicaments of the native population. Extreme prejudice existed against the American Indian among white Americans of the day. In fact, there were some in the government that seemed bent on the complete eradication of the nation’s first inhabitants.

      There was also the problem of the available abundance of whiskey and firearms that was causing them great harm. McCoy came to believe the best thing for the American Indians was for them to have an independent state west of the Mississippi River. This, he believed, would create a permanent separation from white settlements and their corrupting influence.

      He saw this as a permanent home and place of safety for the Indians that was free from the mistreatment they had suffered in the east. He feared those who remained in the east would face eventual extinction. He repeatedly rode to Washington, D.C. to propose a sovereign Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Though McCoy sought to protect the Native Americans in this way, the later execution of this vision by others proved problematic. McCoy also failed to recognize the magnitude of America’s westward expansion that was only then beginning.

      Some of McCoy’s accomplishments include:

1. Established a mission to the Wea tribe in Armiesburg, Ind. 2. Established a mission to the Miami tribe in Fort Wayne, Ind. 3. Established the “Carey Mission” (after Baptist missionary to India, William Carey) to the Potawatomi tribe in Niles, Mich. 4. Established a mission to the Ottawa tribe in Grand Rapids, Mich. 5. Established a mission to Shawnee tribe in Johnson County, Kansas. 6. The cities of Niles and Grand Rapids, Michigan, were initially established as McCoy missions.