Information Sheet

 

 

R         Prosperity Baptist Church (Pulaski County, Mo.).

444                  Record book, 1874‑1892.

                                    Two folders, photocopies and typescript.

 

 

 

This is the record book of the Prosperity Baptist Church near Crocker in Pulaski County, Missouri.  The volume includes minutes of monthly business meet­ings, membership records, and mis­cellaneous entries, 1883‑1892.  Included are minutes of meetings of the Tavern Creek Bap­tist Church, 1874‑1876.

 

The volume opens with the records of the Tavern Creek Baptist Church, beginning with the minutes of organizational meetings at the Lee School­house in January 1874 and continuing through 17 March 1876.  John R. David and Dabney T. Hudgens were the pastors at Tavern Creek, and James M. Skaggs was the church clerk.

 

The record book has several pages missing and a gap in the minutes from March 1876 to January 1883.  There is no explanation for the missing period.  It was during this period, in 1879, that the Prosperity Baptist Church was first organized.  The membership rosters indicate that the congregation at Tavern Creek included several individuals who later belonged to the Prosperity Baptist Church.  The church at Tavern Creek, a Freewill Baptist Church, may have disbanded to form the Prosperity Bap­tist Church, which followed the Missionary Baptist arti­cles of faith.

 

Evidently the first congregation of the Prosperity Baptist Church did not thrive, and there are no records of its earliest meetings.  The minutes of the church begin on 14 April 1883, when ten individuals met “to reorganize” the church.  During the first meetings after reorgani­zation, S. O. Burks was elected pastor, and John A. J. Lee and Eli N. Vickers were elected deacons.  The con­gregation also voted on the articles of faith and rules of decorum, which were duly entered in the records.

 

Most of the entries in the volume consist of the minutes of monthly business meetings, which continue through April 1892.  Church business generally concerned the appointment of of­ficers, the admittance and dismissal of members, hearings on charges of improper conduct by members, and financial matters.  The church was especially active in 1889.  In June the con­gre­gation ap­proved the acceptance of land offered by J. P. Caldwell as the site of its first church building.  In July the church sent delegates to the organizational meeting of the Miller County Baptist Associa­tion, and in September the church hosted the annual meeting of the Osage River Baptist Associa­tion, to which it belonged.  The volume con­cludes with miscella­neous entries concerning Sunday School meetings, donations to the church, and the ordination of deacons.

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