Information Sheet

 

 

R         Rock Springs Baptist Church (Barry County, Mo.).

397                  Records, 1869‑1990.

                                    Four volumes.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are records of the Rock Springs Baptist Church, a United Baptist con­gregation near Washburn in the southwestern quarter of Barry County, Missouri.  The records include min­utes of meetings, membership records, and statistical information.

 

Twenty‑four United or Missionary Baptists organized the Rock Springs Baptist Church near Washburn, formerly Keetsville, on 1 March 1869.  The Rogers, Roller, Seamster, and Sparkman families were among the early members.  William Seamster was elected moderator and F. M. Seamster was elected clerk.  Meetings were held in various locations during the early years of the church, including sites at Rock Springs and at the People’s School in Wash­burn.  There were also occasional joint meetings with the Mount Pleasant, New Salem, and Washburn Prairie Bap­tist churches.  The congregation built its own church in 1896 on land deeded by J. A. Roller.  The building continues in use to the present.  Membership, which sur­passed one hundred indi­viduals by the 1940s, has declined in recent years.  The church has been affiliated, in turn, with the Spring River, Shoal Creek, and Barry County Baptist Associa­tions.

 

The records of the Rock Springs Baptist Church consist of four record books.  Each con­tains minutes of monthly congregational meet­ings held to transact routine church business, which in­cluded the ad­mittance and transfer of members, occasional expulsion of members for unchristian conduct, appointments of delegates to local association meetings, appointments of ministers and church officials, and main­tenance of church property.  The minutes of meetings are complete from 1 March 1869 through 11 March 1990.

 

Volumes 1‑3 include membership records.  The rosters were up­dated in 1913 and 1943, but are not entirely complete.  Volume 3 in­cludes statistical material on total membership and finan­cial support of the church, ca. 1943‑1970.

 

 

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