Tag Archives: Corresponding Letter of the Boston Association in 1816

p. 20 – Administration, Setting, and Staff, 1820-1833

Posted on March 28, 2012 by | Leave a comment

philanthropist, Gerrit Smith, gave 10,000 feet of seasoned pine boards, 20 bushels of wheat, and $25.00 worth of “furnace ware.” Kendrick, Olmstead and Galusha on a trip to Albany obtained $20.00 from Governor DeWitt Clinton, $10.00 from Lieutenant-Governor John Tayler, and $2.50 from Chancellor James Kent. On commencement day, 1823, the Reverend Calvin Philleo of Westmoreland; a Trustee, gave 150 acres of military bounty land in Illinois. The best the Baptist Triennial Convention could do for the Institution, however, was to wish for its work “the blessings of heaven” because the interests of the national organization were centered in Columbian College, in Washington. Nonetheless, favorable sentiments of any kind must have been appreciated by Kendrick and other officers, who were always quick to note the state of public opinion towards the Seminary.

In areas where Baptists took kindly to their cause; the agents formed auxiliary or: branch societies to act as local, fund-collecting agencies for the parent society in Hamilton. This practice, then in common use for raising money for home and foreign missions, proved a convenient method for combining many small contributions into substantial sums. The women’s’ auxiliary’ societies were especially valuable’ because many of the members who were unable to give money contributed through these organizations the products of their spinning wheels, looms, knitting needles, and kitchens.

From 1820 to 1830 Vermont was an important reservoir of funds and students. The Corresponding Letter oil ministerial education sent out by the Boston Association in 1816, which had stirred Baptists of New York State to action, met with a similar response in Vermont. Here also an education society was founded, its constitution in many respects resembling those of the Massachusetts and New York societies. However, provision had been made in it for cooperation with other organizations with the same objectives.

When the Executive Committee of the New York society learned of the existence of the Vermont group they foresaw competition with it in the eastern counties of the Empire State. A correspondence between the two potential rivals led to Kendrick’s being sent to discuss matters with the president of the Vermont society, his cousin, the Reverend Clark Kendrick, and with other members of the board. These he found cordially disposed to cooperate with the New York State organization rather than found a school to compete with it. When their views

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A meeting at the home of Samuel Payne (p. 7)

Posted on March 15, 2012 by | Comments Off on A meeting at the home of Samuel Payne (p. 7)

England Baptists with whom he was in touch, and from similar activities of the Baptists in New York City and elsewhere. Thus, when he read the eloquent Corresponding Letter of the Boston Association for 1816, he was encouraged to dream of an educational institution in the West urged by Jeremiah Chaplin. When he broached the idea to his old friend, Nathaniel Kendrick, who visited the vicinity in the fall of 1816, he found a sympathetic listener. Kendrick, pastor of the church at Middlebury, Vermont, though not a college man, had studied with the Rev. Samuel Stillman of Boston and other able divines. When in 1817 he settled at Eaton, a few miles over the western ridge of hills from Hamilton, further detailed discussion was possible.

The first step toward forming an education society was taken in May, 1817, when five or six “Ministers and Brethren” met in Hamilton at the home of Samuel Payne “to consider the propriety and importance of affording assistance to young men, in obtaining a competent education, who are called of God to preach.” A committee of four reported further:

After prayerful deliberation on the subject, it was the unanimous opinion of those present, that to promote the future usefulness of those whom God is raising up to be Ministers of the New Testament, some provision should be made for their instruction.

The undersigned were appointed to consult with Fathers and Brethren not present, and to obtain information from several Theological Institutions recently established by the Baptist denomination in other places; and advertise another meeting. These directions have been attended to, and the subject is assuming an interest with many, beyond what was at first anticipated.

We hereby give notice, that the next Meeting will be held at the Baptist Meeting-House in Hamilton, on the fourth Wednesday in September next, at ten o’clock A.M. at which time a sermon may be expected on the occasion.

The Ministers and Brethren from the several Associations in the country, as far as will be Practicable, are respectfully solicited to attend.

Joel W. Clark
Nathaniel Kendrick
Charles W. Hull
Daniel Hascall*

*American Baptist Magazine, I (November, 1817), 238. This notice was printed on the cover of the Western New York Baptist Magazine, II (Aug., 1817), though no copy with a cover is known to exist.

 

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p. 3 – Origin

Posted on March 15, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 3 – Origin

who were educating their ministers and the presence of a few well-trained men in American Baptist pulpits also helped to silence the opposers. The best minds in the denomination generally realized that if the Baptists were to keep pace with other religious groups they must have a trained leadership for their rapidly growing church and organizations.

Since any education program adequate for the needs was too vast for one or a few churches to undertake, the Baptists had turned to the formation of voluntary societies as a means of consolidating their resources. The first, the Baptist Education Society of the Middle States, was founded in 1812 under the auspices of the Philadelphia Association. Its young men were sent to study with William Staughton, the active and popular pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. An Englishman educated at the Baptist college at Bristol, he had trained students in his home and pulpit as early as 1807. Instruction on an “apprenticeship” basis had long been employed in the ministry as well as in medicine and law.

To send funds and men to Staughton’s “school,” an auxiliary organization was formed in New York City in 1813. Prominent among the members was the Reverend John Stanford, also an Englishman who for several years had taught divinity students at his home and in his private “academy.” In 1817 the New York group was incorporated as the New York Baptist Theological Seminary and the next year established a school of their own.

These educational endeavors in Philadelphia and New York were known to the founders of the institution which eventually became Colgate University, but their chief inspiration seems to have come from New England. Particularly important was the Corresponding Letter of the Boston Association for 1816. This was an annual communication among associations and Jeremiah Chaplin, Baptist pastor of Danvers, Massachusetts, used it for presenting a persuasive plea for improved facilities for educating young men for the ministry. He, like Staughton and Stanford, had trained some in his own home and was well aware of the need for “raising up” more preachers and urged associations, churches and ministers to exert themselves to this end. Refuting the old arguments against an educated clergy he built up a strong case for including secular subjects, such as history, geography, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, philosophy and astronomy, as a part of theological training as well as divinity and the “sacred languages,”

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Posted in Chapter 1, Origin, p. 3

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