Information
Sheet
R Freedom
Baptist Church
(Morgan County,
Mo.).
418 Records, 1844‑1962.
Six volumes.
MICROFILM
These are record books of the Freedom Baptist
Church near Versailles in Morgan County, Missouri. The records include the articles of faith,
rules of decorum, membership records, and minutes of church business meetings,
August 1844 ‑‑ January 1962, and the secretary's record book of
the Baptist Young People’s Union, 1929‑1932.
Freedom Baptist
Church was organized on 3 August 1844
as the United Baptist
Church at New Hope.
Eleven charter members from the Glensted community near Versailles adopted the articles
of faith of the Concord Baptist Association, and the church was affiliated with
that organization until the Lamine Baptist Association was formed n
1872. The congregation selected D. N.
Johnson as its first pastor and Dave Bogar as clerk. In July 1845, the name Freedom Baptist
Church was adopted. The earliest meetings were held in the homes
of members and in a local store building.
Construction began on a permanent church building in 1870 and was completed
in 1874. Freedom Cemetery,
adjacent to the church, was established shortly thereafter. The church building served the congregation
until declining membership in the 1950s and 1960s led to the dissolution of the
church in December 1969.
The records of Freedom
Church consist of five record books
containing the minutes of church business meetings and membership records, and
a single volume containing the records of the Baptist Young People’s Union. The minutes
of meetings begin with the organizational meeting on 3 August 1844 and
continue with only minor lapses through 14 January 1962. Church business generally included the
admittance and dismissal of members, elections of officers and appointments
of delegates to attend meetings of the Concord
and Lamine associations, and the management of church property. The minutes prior to 1900 also include the investigations
of improper conduct by members, which often led to expulsions from the church.
Membership records are interspersed
throughout the record books. They were
updated several times during the lifetime of the church and were generally
well kept. Members of the family of
Andrew Estes were especially prominent in the early years of the congregation,
as were members of the Ball, Gabriel, Long, Sims, and Snodgrass families. Membership increased rapidly during the
1850s, with notable gains from protracted meetings in September 1853 and
September 1857. The ante-bellum
congregation also included many African-American members, presumably
slaves. Nine “colored brethren” were
listed as members in 1854 and others joined as late as 1868, but there are no
persons of color identified as members after that date. In February 1855, a committee was appointed
to hear preaching by “Fredrick,” a Negro member, but the records contain no
further information on his effort.
The later years of the church featured
the organization of the Women’s Missionary Society, a ladies aid society which
raised money for improvements to church property, and a chapter of the Baptist
Young People’s Union. Church records include the secretary’s record
book of the young people’s union with minutes of meetings and membership
information for 1929‑1932. Other
activities of Freedom church in its waning years are recorded in Volume 5,
which includes copies of church data sent to the Lamine Association in 1942‑1944,
and a history of the Baptist Young People’s Union. Volume 5 also contains tipped‑in
newspaper clippings on the history of the church and the missionary society.
The records of Freedom Church
document the activities of a small rural church beginning in the ante-bellum
period and continuing within a few years of its demise. The records will be useful for genealogical
and historical research in Morgan and adjacent counties.
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