Resources for the study of Baptists in the Northwest in the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives

Baptist History and Heritage, Summer-Fall, 2004 by Bill Sumners

Examining the general historiography of Baptists in the Northwest is beneficial before venturing into specific sources located at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (SBHLA). This examination will be selective and not nearly exhaustive, but several sources should be mentioned.

Histories of Baptists in the Northwest

Two works on the early Baptist endeavors in the Northwest are: Baptist Annals of Oregon, 1844-1900 by C. H. Mattoon, and Baptists and the Oregon Frontier by Clifford P. Miller. Mattoon described the difficulty in being one of the first to write such a history: "Indulgence is asked, because this is the first effort to write a detailed history of Baptist work on this field and because much of the data, especially the earliest, has been exceedingly hard to find. Many records are lost, and, with solitary exceptions, brethren contemporary with the events, are far removed or dead." (1)

Miller, in his preface to this 1967 book, observed about the use of research material, "Whether one examines a dusty church record book, leafs through brittle pages of old associational minutes, peruses the crude diaries of unlettered preachers, or explores a forgotten, weed-choked cemetery, he will find variety and color, unexpected surprises, and fresh insight into human nature and conduct." (2) Another study of Oregon Baptists is Albert Wardin's exhaustive study published in 1969.

Wardin's work covered the broad scope of all Baptists in the state. A quick look at his bibliography reveals the vast sources found in this impressive study. (3) Any serious look at Baptists in Oregon has to begin with Wardin's volume.

Roy Johnson's Northwest Southern Baptists chronicled the influence of Baptists from the South on the Northwest and the development of the Baptist General Convention of Oregon and Washington in 1949. Johnson's history included particular information on southern-oriented associations and churches in the Northwest. (4) A more recent history, Northwest Southern Baptists, 1884-1998, traced the influence of Southern Baptists on the Northwest. The makers of much of this history, Cecil Sims, Roy Johnson, and Max Daley, authored the volume. (5)

A final book source is a seventy-two-page paperback volume entitled Southern Baptists, Westward Ho! by R. E. Milam. This small book is an apologetic for Southern Baptist influence in the Northwest. Milam dedicated his book to Texas Baptists and to the Baptist Standard for their influence on his life. Milam wrote of the coming of Southern Baptists into the region and some of the conflicts that ensued. (6)

Northwest Baptist Sources at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives

The sources on Baptists in the Northwest housed at the SBHLA are useful but somewhat limited. The collection holds only ten Northwest Baptist Convention church records. All of these are located on microfilm. The collection of associational annuals is more extensive. The archives contains a few nineteenth-century annuals, including the following Oregon associations: Central, Middle Oregon, and Willamette. In Washington, our earliest annuals are from the Northwestern and Palouse associations. Most all of the other holdings of annuals are related to Southern Baptists and begin in the 1950s. The Siloam Baptist Association of Regular Predestinarian Baptists annuals has a scattered, but significant, run from 1879 to 1920 in the archives. The SBHLA also houses a complete series of state annuals for the Northwest Baptist Convention (NWBC) from 1948.

Holdings of publications and newspapers related to Baptists in the Northwest are also modest. Yet, several of these publications merit attention. The Pacific Baptist (and its predecessors, North Pacific Baptist and the Baptist Beacon) began in 1877 and continued until it ceased publication in 1919. This newspaper documented much of early Baptist actions and endeavors in the Northwest. The paper had a close connection with McMinnville College in Oregon and ties to American Baptists. The SBHLA's holdings of the newspaper run from 1877 to 1919.

The Baptist Sentinel newspaper was a Landmark Baptist publication from Oregon and Washington in the period 1894 to 1899. The newspaper was produced as a response to the refusal of the Pacific Baptist to print Landmarker articles.

The Pacific Coast Baptist began in 1931 as the newspaper for several associations in Oregon. With the establishment of the Baptist General Convention of Oregon in 1948, the newspaper was handed over to the new NWBC. In 1974, the name of the paper was changed to the Northwest Baptist Witness. The holdings of this publication are complete and extend from 1931 to the present.

Archival material on Northwest Baptists is also limited. The J. D. Grey Papers include information on the early efforts of Northwestern Baptists to join the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Grey, a pastor from New Orleans, served as president of the NWBC in the late 1940s.

In addition to Grey's papers, files on the establishment of the Baptist General Convention of Oregon and Washington may be found in the records of the SBC Executive Committee. These files contain a letter dated April 28, 1948, from R. E. Milam to Porter Routh, executive secretary of the Executive Committee. Milam wrote on behalf of the Baptist General Convention of Oregon, applying to the SBC for "recognition as a constituent group." Milam reported that the new convention already had sixteen churches with well over 2,000 members. In this same letter, Milam wrote, "Our relations with our brethren of the Northern Convention are excellent. In fact, we get along with both groups in the Oregon Baptist Convention better than they do with each other as they are critically divided over the question of modernism in the Northern Convention and its affiliation with the Federal Council of Churches." The flew Oregon pastor and leader concluded his application letter with this sentence. "In behalf of my parents who sleep in Lincoln Cemetery overlooking Portland; In behalf of our faithful pastors, who at great sacrifice have pioneered the work; In behalf of 2,000 members in our sixteen churches and thousands more who would like to be in such churches in the Northwest, I make my plea for recognition and help." The SBC Executive Committee records include at least four folders on the early work of Southern Baptists in the Northwest. (7)