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Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a log house in Lake Spring (marked by the present Lake Spring Road) near Franklin, Kentucky, in 1866 – just after the Civil War. His boyhood was spent on a farm – and then at 16 he started teaching in the country schoolhouse he had attended. and in teaching district schools until he was Read more...
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John Clarke’s tombstone stands in the John Clarke Family Cemetery, on the west side of Dr. Marcus Wheatland Boulevard. The key to the cemetery’s padlock is available at the United Baptist Church office. Adjoining the cemetery, a small park has two Memorials to John Clarke: A plaque on a small rock, and a monument, erected by the Baptist History Preservation Society. Read more...
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Dwight L. Moody was working at his uncle’s Holton Shoe Store. Moody promised his uncle he’d go to church, and enrolled in Edward Kimball’s Sunday School Class. On April 21, 1855, Kimball went to visit Moody to talk about his soul. Not sure if he should interrupt his work he walked past the store. Moody says, “One day I recollect Read more...
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As Featured in Kirk Cameron’s Monumental Movie From Wikipedia: Located at 72 Allerton Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the 81-foot-tall (25 m) monument was commissioned by the Pilgrim Society. The original concept dates to around 1820, with actual planning beginning in 1850. The cornerstone was laid August 2, 1859 by the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, under the direction of Read more...
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Ida Lilliard Reed (November 30, 1865 – July 8, 1951) was an American religious writer and music composer from West Virginia. Composer and author Ida L. Reed was born on a hilltop farm near Philippi on November 30, 1865. In the face of illnesses, family deaths, and constant poverty, she was a devout Methodist all her life. She wrote some Read more...
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In 1857, the California gold rush was in decline. The railroad bubble peaked in July. Business failures began in August. The fashionable churches were moving north, but Jeremiah Lanphier lived in the nonreligious lower part of the city. Lanphier never married, and had no formal schooling to prepare him for ministry, but he was commissioned as a lay missionary of Read more...
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Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was the son and grandson of colonial ministers. He started at Yale when he was 12, and at 19 was an interim pastor in New York. At 23 he joined his grandfather Solomon Stoddard at the Northampton church and married Sarah Pierpont. At 25 his grandfather died, leaving him as senior pastor. At age 30 a revival Read more...
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One night in September 1898 two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, shared room 19 in the Central Hotel, Boscobel. They wondered if some organization could not be started for the mutual help and recognition of Christian travelers. A chance meeting of the two on May 31, 1899 in Beaver Dam led to plans for an organizational meeting Read more...
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On September 14, 1898, John Nicholson, a travelling salesman (think of the Music Man era) from Janesville, checked into the Boscobel Central House Hotel. Back in the day, not all hotel rooms were private – in fact often you may not have a bed to yourself. In 1776, John Adams wrote of having to share a bed with Benjamin Franklin, Read more...
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On the back campus of Phillips Academy, one can walk down “Judson Road” and visit the secluded area by the “Rabbit Pond,” where Adoniram Judson, Luther Rice, and other believers kneeled each morning by a huge boulder, prayer for missions, and dedicated their lives to God. On that boulder (affectionately called “Missionary Rock“), citizens of Andover, in 1910, affixed a memorial Read more...
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The Prophet Daniel (Image Credit: (13) Facebook. www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1088959693232777&id=100063562690733&set=a.720653793396704.) As a good patriotic American, you will come to Washington D. C. several times. On your first visit, you will want to see the Capitol, wander thru the Supreme Court, sample a couple of the Smithsonians on the National Mall, gaze up to the Washington Monument, see the fortified Lincoln Memorial, contemplate Read more...
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The Billy Sunday Fairfield Revival 1907 was one of the early large-scale evangelistic meetings led by Billy Sunday, marking a turning point in his rise as a nationally known revivalist. Held in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1907, the campaign demonstrated both his distinctive preaching style and the growing influence of mass evangelism in early twentieth-century America. By 1907, Billy Sunday had Read more...
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Eleazar Clay was an early Baptist minister associated with Chesterfield County, Virginia, whose life and work reflect the formative years of Baptist growth in the American South. Though surviving records about him are limited, his ministry belongs to the generation of earnest preachers who helped establish Baptist churches, defend religious liberty, and shape the character of evangelical Christianity in the Read more...
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The Chesterfield County Museum, at 6813 Mimms Loop, is a replica of the 1749 courthouse where magistrates, during 1770-74, sentenced seven Baptist preachers to jail for preaching Christ without state-church approval. Where the jail once stood, there now stands the Religious Freedom Monument, a grantie memorial with a bronze tablet inscribed to the memory of those Baptist preachers. See the section, “Virginia Read more...
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Only archaeological remnants of Studley survive today, but in the 18th century this was the site of an impressive two-story brick house. Studley was built by John Syme in the 1720s for his wife Sarah Winston. After his death, she married John Henry. The couple’s nine children were born at the house, including their son, Patrick Henry, who was born Read more...
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George Whitefield, the renowned eighteenth-century preacher and leading figure of the First Great Awakening, was known not only for his powerful sermons but also for his willingness to confront what he believed were moral and spiritual dangers in everyday life. Among the many stories that circulated about his ministry is the account of his interrupting—or “breaking up”—a public dance, an Read more...
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George Whitefield (1714–1770) was one of the most influential preachers of the eighteenth century and a central figure in the transatlantic revival known as the First Great Awakening. His powerful oratory, tireless travels, and deep concern for the spiritual condition of ordinary people helped reshape Protestant Christianity in both Britain and the American colonies. Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, Read more...
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The Cheshire Mammoth Cheese stands as one of the most unusual and memorable episodes in early American history, symbolizing both political support and the principle of religious liberty. Created in the small town of Cheshire, Massachusetts, this enormous wheel of cheese became a national sensation and a powerful expression of goodwill toward President Thomas Jefferson. The story begins in 1801, Read more...
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The meeting between John Leland and James Madison stands as a notable moment in the early history of American religious liberty. Though surrounded by some elements of tradition and later retelling, the encounter symbolizes a real and consequential alliance between Baptist advocates of religious freedom and the political leaders who would shape the United States Constitution. John Leland, a prominent Read more...
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At Williams College (Congregational), a twelve-foot-high marble monument, called the Haystack Prayer Meeting Memorial, commemorates “The Birthplace of American Foreign Missions 1806,” out of which came Baptists Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. See the section, “Haystack Prayer Meeting at Williams College (1806),” in Chapter 17. Copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Read more...