Historical Tidbits from My Own Local Church

Mark Armstrong · Sep 3, 2003

Tidbit #1. One of our earliest deacons was on the Bench as Circuit Judge in 1875. The record indicates many were sentenced for "playing croquet on Sunday."

I'll share more tidbits if anyone is interested.

rlvaughn · Sep 6, 2003

I am interested in this kind of stuff. Share more when you can.

Mark Armstrong · Sep 7, 2003

Tidbit #2. Prior to being Circuit Judge, that early deacon was the sheriff. According to our church history, "this same man was to be instrumental in the organization of the Baptist Church later on. In 1855 the doors of the courthouse were opened wide for any religious worship."

According to another book on local history: "One of the first official acts of the County Court was to provide for the care and custody of the new court house. And the new caretaker was ordered to open the doors to all religious sects who wished to worship there, providing these denominations believed in the doctrines set forth in the Holy Scriptures, at such times as no legal proceedings were in progress."

"Down through the years, this custom has prevailed to this day. In 1956 the Business and Professional Women's Club decided to clean up the old court house and beautify the Square. So they cleaned the floors, scrubbing the judge's bench and th jury box, removing ambeer shot there in the days when conveniently placed spittoons overflowed or were missed in the heat of an argument...On the lawn they set shrubs and leveled the lawn and sowed grass seed. And there they struck a snag. Almost immediately after the grass was coming up, another revival meeting was started and the attending crowds were trampling the tender little new blades under their feet. In indignation the ladies appealed to the County Clerk to stop the meetings. They met a blank refusal. What had been a custom for a century, they would not revoke."

That was written in 1960. As we all now know, such customs have since been revoked. I have never had the honor of attending a revival service in the county courthouse.

Hardsheller · Sep 9, 2003

Providence Baptist Church, New Bloomfield, MO.

Our Church's first Permanent Pastor was James Suggett, Chief of Scouts and Regimental Chaplain for the Kentucky Militia under Col. R.M. Johnson during the war of 1812. R.M. Johnson went on to become Vice-President of the U.S. under Martin Van Buren. Suggett married Sally Redding, daughter of pastor Joseph Redding who preached briefly in the 1770's, in the First Baptist Church of Charleston, SC, the first Baptist Church located in the South.

John Taylor of the Elkhorn Association of Kentucky, recognized as the premier anti-missions leader in Kentucky, was an old friend of James Suggett, the Pastor of Providence Baptist Church at the time of the first meeting of the Missouri Baptist General Association. It was John Taylor who said of James Suggett before Suggett migrated to Missouri, “When I see him in the pulpit, I think he ought never to come out of it, and when I see him out of it, I think he ought never go into it.”

James Suggett was gifted as a revivalist and baptized approximately 3000 people during his ministry. Hon. J.L. Stephens of Columbia, Mo. said of him, “Suggett’s ability as a minister was in exhortation, in which but few early day preachers excelled him.”

Suggett was pastor of Providence in 1834 when the first meeting held to organize the Missouri Baptist Convention was held - at Providence.

rsr · Sep 9, 2003

Keep 'em coming.

BTW:

"No Christian denomination has been so indifferent to its history than our own. Our fathers have been left to sleep in unhonored graves. The labors they performed - the sufferings they endured - the heroic characters they bore have alike been forgotten."

THE GANO-HICKMAN PROJECT

mark · Sep 23, 2003

I like 'em. Keep posting.

rsr · Sep 23, 2003

I am indebted to local historian (and Baptist) Charles Ellenbrook for the following account of the formation of the local Baptist association, which appeared in the Oct. 5, 2002, edition of The Lawton Constitution, in conjunction with the association's centennial.

The Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation lands were opened to settlement in August 1901 and the tent city of Lawton was thrown up overnight with saloons too numerous to count. This was a time of flux as governments, businesses and churches began to organize.

In 1901, Comanche County's boundaries included what are now Comanche County, Cotton County and Tillman County.

The Rev. E.C. Deyo, early-day missionary among the Comanches at First Comanche Baptist Church (Deyo), testifies to the large size of Comanche County in his standing committee report at the first association meeting, stating, "The important need of mission workers in Comanche County can be fully known only by those who live in the county and see the disregard of the Lord's day and all things religious and the immense size of the county, which embraces a tract of land 70 miles from east to west and 50 miles from north to south, embracing about 80 townships settled by a people who have come to make homes."

The setting for the first association meeting was one of glorious beauty, with the skyline of mountains on the north and a pastoral landscape surrounding the little white frame church on the mesquite prairie. Surveying across the prairie, it seemed that one could see forever as skies open up and the peaks of Mounts Sherman, Carlton, McKinley and Wall stand out on the broad horizon to the north and the bell-shaped peak of Mount Scott looming on the northeast above all others.

The first meeting to form an association convened at 2 p.m. in the Indian Mission Church; from all references it was probably the original white wood frame building of the Indian Mission Church. The little box-frame church building, built around 1893 or 1894, was given a coat of whitewash, adorned with a bell tower and capped by a six-sided steeple, and it sat on the prairie in all of God's splendor.

A mile north of the church, just south of the Frisco railroad tracks, was where the Taupa Store and Post Office had been built in 1902. Taupa was the official post office for the Indian Mission Church and Deyo was the first postmaster.

The first order of business was to elect a temporary moderator. On the motion of the Rev. Job Ingram, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lawton, Deyo was elected temporary moderator and Dr. E.D. Jeter, clerk.

Most of the churches were in their infancy and were in various stages of organizing and forming their churches; few, if any, had built a house of worship, but felt God's calling and were moved to form an association of Baptist churches in the county.

In this historic first meeting, a handful of messengers from six churches met to organize and form a Baptist association in Comanche County. Deyo, as temporary moderator, opened the meeting as the minutes state, "with devotional exercises, after which he called the people to order and stated the object of the meeting. On a call of letters the following churches responded: First Baptist Church of Lawton, First Baptist Church of Frederick, Hulen Baptist Church, Taupa Baptist Church, First Baptist of Walters and Texawa (Davidson) Baptist Church. After the reading of letters from the churches by motion of S.N. Gosnell, the body was declared fully organized as an association. Upon a motion by the Rev. Job Ingram, all messengers and all Baptists present were allowed seats and participation in the body."
During this session the body adopted a constitution and by-laws and order of business. Ingram was elected as moderator, Jeter was elected clerk and Gosnell was elected treasurer.

The executive board was elected as follows; Ingram, Deyo, R.A. Rushing, Gosnell and L.D. Johnson. The moderator made appointments to the following committees: association missions, state missions, home missions, foreign missions, state of churches, finance, Sunday schools, BYPU, woman's work, education, literature, obituaries, temperance, nominations and devotional committees.

The second day of the meeting began with an inspired sermon by Gosnell, taken from John 7:46. The officers answered, "Never man spake like this man." After the sermon, standing committee reports and resolutions were given and a number of the churches and individuals made monetary pledges for the support of an associational missionary. Ingram and Jeter were elected as messengers to the territorial Baptist state convention to convene in Norman in October. The association adjourned to meet in Lawton on Saturday before the fourth Sunday in August 1903. After singing "Blest Be the Tie" and a prayer by the Rev. C.N. Ray, the association meeting was officially adjourned.

Upon adjournment of the association the executive board met and elected Jeter as the first associational missionary.

On Aug. 22, 1903, the second annual associational meeting was held at First Baptist Church in Lawton, whose pastor, Ingram, was moderator. Twelve churches petitioned the association and were accepted into the fellowship: Bethel, Friendship, Plainview, Hastings, Temple, Gregg, Mount Pleasant, Deep Red, Oak College, Mount Scott, Tesca and Apache. That brought to 18 the number of churches accepted into the association.

Jeter, associational missionary, reported on Aug. 23 that during the past 14 months he had traveled 2,500 miles, preached 156 sermons, delivered 37 addresses, made 250 religious visits, baptized or assisted in baptizing 16 persons, and received 58 by letter. He reported visiting the following churches "in the interest of the work": Tesca, Frederick, Bethel, Walters, Taupa, Lawton and Mount Scott. He also visited the following places destitute of churches, with a view to organizing if desirable: Indiahoma, Cache, Faxon, Chattanooga, Golden Pass, Manitou, Junction City and Nelms.

By 1906, the association had grown from the original six churches to 32. At the fifth annual session of the association, held at Faxon, a committee report puts the church growth in perspective commenting, "Of these 32 churches only one has whole-time preaching; five half-time preaching; and the rest only one-fourth time. Six of these churches have houses of worship, the other are houseless and hindered by the school house 'encumbrance.'" In other developments, in an effort to assist the associational missionary, a "coulpertour," G.W. Tubbs, was hired. A "coulpetour" is a seller of religious books and tracts.
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Historical Tidbits from My Own Local Church

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