Information Sheet

 

 

R         Little Piney Association of Regular Predestinarian Baptists (Mo.).

283                  Minutes of annual sessions, 1837‑1974.

                                    Ninety folders.

 

 

 

These are minutes of annual meetings of the Little Piney Association, which was composed of churches in Camden, Cole, Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Miller, Osage, Phelps, Pu­laski, Shannon, and Texas counties in Missouri.  At various times, the organization had also been titled a “United” and “Primitive” Baptist association.

 

The Little Piney Association was organized in 1834 as a United Baptist group.  It was com­posed of five churches in what were then Crawford and Pulaski counties.  The association re­mained affiliated with the United Baptists until 1838, when members voted to end the rela­tion­ship and to substitute “Regular” for “United” in their own title. The change signified the concur­rence of the Little Piney group with the anti‑mission movement then popular in south­ern Mis­souri.  In con­trast with United Baptists, who advanced programs to establish foreign and home missions and Sunday schools, Regular Baptists insisted on the total preeminence of the scriptures in their prac­tice.  They rejected missions, Sunday schools, theological colleges, and temperance societies as secular inventions.

 

The name was modified in 1853 to the Little Piney Association of Regular Predesti­narian Baptists.  About two hundred members were represented during the ante-bellum pe­riod.  Some of the prominent members were Isaac N. Bradford, J. B. Harrison, David Lenox, and Pleasant Way­man.  The minutes available for the postwar period indicate a decline in the number of member churches and the number of individuals involved.  Sometime after 1894 and before 1900, the asso­ciation again changed its name, becoming the Little Piney Association of Primi­tive Baptists.  Four churches representing 153 members made up this association in 1900.

 

The annual meetings of the association were hosted by different member churches each year.  Copies of the minutes were printed by the association and distributed through the churches.  The proceedings include membership information for each constituent church and summaries of busi­ness taken up by the association.  Typical business matters included the admission, dismissal and exclusion of churches, the exchange of correspondence with neigh­boring associations, and formu­lation of “circular letters.”

 

Circulars concerned matters of doctrine and ensured uniformity of belief.  Correspon­dence with other associations was printed occasionally, particularly where a divergence in doctrine had developed.  In some cases, such as that of the Bethel United Baptist Association in 1843, com­mu­nications were broken off and a detailed explanation of the case was inserted in the annual minutes.  There were similar disagreements with the Osage River Association in 1848, and the Salem Asso­ciation in 1854.  The incidents demonstrate the distinc­tions between “United” and “Regular” Bap­tists.

 

A small group of miscellaneous items is filed following the Little Piney minutes. In­cluded are the fragmentary minutes of an unidentified Regular Baptist Association, ca. 1855, which may have been the Center Creek or Osage association.  There are also the December 1883 issue of Regular Baptist Magazine, the Primitive Baptist Hymnal (St. Louis; 1881), minutes from the Salem and Fishing River associations of Primitive Baptists (1953, 1965), and a history of Rocky Fork Church in Hinton, Missouri (ca. 1971).

 

Church locations noted below follow the post‑1857 designations for Missouri counties. Min­utes for pre‑1857 annual meetings bear the earlier county designations.  Some of the locations are speculative, based on the addresses of church clerks.

 

At one time or another, the following churches were members of the Little Piney Baptist As­socia­tion to 1894:

 

Bethel Baptist Church (Cole County, Mo.).

Big Piney Baptist Church (Pulaski County, Mo.).

Cherry Valley Baptist Church (Crawford County, Mo.).

Dry Fork Baptist Church (Dent County, Mo.).

Little Hope Baptist Church (Osage County, Mo.).

Little Maries Baptist Church (Osage County, Mo.).

Little Piney Baptist Church (Phelps County, Mo.).

Mount Zion Baptist Church (Pulaski County, Mo.).

Pine Baptist Church (Texas County, Mo.).

Prairie Valley Baptist Church (Miller County, Mo.).

Rock Springs Baptist Church (Maries County, Mo.).

Sardis Baptist Church (Gasconade County, Mo.).

Union Baptist Church (Camden County, Mo.).

Union Baptist Church (Maries or Osage counties, Mo.).

 

The Little Piney Association of Primitive Baptists included the fol­lowing churches in 1900:

 

Bethel Church (Phelps or Dent counties, Mo.).

Big Piney (Pulaski County, Mo.).

Dry Fork Church (Dent County, Mo.).

Little Flock Church (Pulaski County, Mo.).

Little Hope Church (Pulaski County, Mo.).

Little Maries Church (Maries County, Mo.).

Mount Zion Church (shown as Shannon County, Mo., in 1900, but as Oregon County by 1932).

Not Church (Shannon County, Mo.).

Pine Church (Pulaski or Texas counties, Mo.).

Sardis Church (Gasconade County, Mo.).

Walnut Grove Church (Miller County, Mo.).

 

 

In 1901, only Bethel, Big Piney, Dry Fork, Little Flock, and Little Hope churches attended the annual session.  For much of the remaining period covered by the minutes, only the Bethel, Big Piney (the two were combined as Big Piney-Bethel Church in 1924), Dry Fork, and Pine churches attended the sessions.  Of all the churches, only Dry Fork stayed unchanged in name and identity.  J. M. Lenox and W. L. Bradford were the longtime moderator and clerk, respectively, of the Asso­ciation.  For other historical details, see the minutes for 1934 in Folder 17d.

 

 

 

 

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