Baptists in California

Frank Dixon

California Magazine
1892

    Rev.  0. C. Wheeler was the pioneer Baptist missionary to California. He arrived in San Francisco February 28th, 1849, on board the California, the first steamer that ever passed the Golden Gate, having sailed from New York on December 1st on board the Falcon. As the California entered the harbor of San Francisco she was saluted by the Pacific Squadron, under the command of Commodore Jones. Five men-of-war thundered their welcome, the flagship Ohio being last. As her first gun was fired she "manned her yards, fifteen hundred men springing into the rigging." The hearts of the missionaries and voyagers leaped to their throats, and no man felt ashamed as he looked through his own tears into the moist eyes of his fellows.

    On the 6th of July the First Baptist Church was organized with six members--Rev. 0. C. Wheeler and wife of the First Church, Jersey City; Mr. C. L. Ross and wife of the Laight-Street Church, New York; Lemuel P. Crane, Galway, New York, and William Lailie of Columbia, S. C. By August 2nd the first Protestant meeting house in San Francisco was completed by this organization. It stood on the north side of Washington near Stockton. This church was not of the regular ecclesiastical style of architecture, as the First Presbyterian Church, built afterwards, seems to have been, but it was, nevertheless, erected a church, especially for Christian worship. The first accessions to this little flock were received September 2nd of the same year, 1849. They were: Rev. John Cook and wife, and Mr. John P. Pope and wife. Mr. Pope still lives, an honored member. The baptism of Col. Thomas H. Kellam, of Accomac county, Virginia, the first to unite with any Baptist Church of the State by this ordinance, occurred at North Beach, San Francisco, on Sunday morning, October 21St, 1849. The scene was characteristically described by Dr. Wheeler in a paper read before the " California Baptist Historical Society," at its session in Sacramento, 1889, a year or two previous to his death.

    "On the following Sabbath morning, it was the 21st of October, 1849, one of those lovely mornings that characterize San Francisco climate in autumn--clear, still, warm and cheerful to the fullest extent-we assembled at our humble sanctuary, on the north side of Washington street, one door east of Stockton. We had such a congregation as perhaps never assembled at any other time or place. The other churches in the city suspended their morning service. Their pastors, with their officers, and the body of their, congregations, were present and joined in the procession. The Mayor and other municipal officers, and several of the officers of the State, and officials of the general government, resident on the coast or here temporarily on business, also Commodore Jones, commanding the Pacific squadron, U. S. N., and his staff, together with a large number of marines, all in full uniform, the chiefs of the medical staff of the Pacific division of both the army and navy, with their assistants, swelled our numbers and officially gave endorsement to our proceedings. We also had with us Dr. Judd, Prime Minister of the Hawaiian kingdom, then on his way as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the United States, England and Prance, having with him the heir-apparent and his cousin, who, under Dr. Judd, were

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receiving their royal education, and each of whom afterward became king, preceding the present ruler of the nation. We had also with us large numbers of visitors from nearly every civilized nation on earth, who had been drawn here by the gold excitement, and hundreds of the citizens of San Francisco.

    "We formed with due deference to the rank and standing of our guests, and marched down Stockton street to Union, to Powell, to North Beach, where the water was shallow with sandy bottom. There was no wind that morning, and the water was clear and calm as a pond in the country. The whole train, from the church to the beach (about three-quarters of a mile), marched with all the decorum and precision you would expect to see in a platoon of the regular army or navy on dress parade. At the water each department of the long procession took its assigned position in silence, and gave to all the exercises the most undivided attention. Rev. S.H. Willey, of the Presbyterian mission at Monterey, who had been a fellow. passenger with me from New York to that place, was on my left, and, at my request, read portions of Scripture and announced the hymn. Rev. Mr. Hunt, of the Congregational Church, was on my right and offered the baptismal prayer. On his right were Commodore Jones and staff, while all around us was the official and unofficial multitude of spectators, every one of whom seemed to be as fully interested as if a personal participant in the exercises.

Photo
Rev. Frank Dixon,
Pastor of the Tenth-Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland

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    "When all was ready, the candidate took my hand, and we walked about one hundred yards before reaching a depth of water sufficient for the ordinance. While we were thus going 'down into the water,' according to previous arrangement, the hymn was announced and the first two stanzas sung by the whole concourse; the last two as we were 'coming up out of the water.' And such singing I never elsewhere heard. It seemed as though every professional and every layman, every soldier and every marine, every officer and every subordinate, every citizen and every foreigner of that vast throng was suddenly and specially inspired by the holy grandeur and the spiritual significance of the divine ordinance which we were administering, to sing for that once, if never again this side of heaven, with the fullness of both his spirit and his voice. The hymn was that written by Dr. Adoniram Judson, to be sung at the first baptism in the Burman Empire, at the beautiful pond on the bank of the Irrawaddi at Rangoon, June 27th, 1819:

    Come, If Holy Spirit, Dove Divine.

    "As we reached the shore, Commodore Jones came forward, and, giving me his warm, earnest hand, expressed his extreme delight and gratitude for the privilege of attending that most solemn and interesting service of our

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Sketches of the Tenth-Avenue Baptist Church of Oakland

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denomination. We then reformed and returned, in the most perfect order, to our sanctuary, where the assembly was dismissed."

    The number of baptisms in the State has increased from one in 1949 to eight hundred and twenty-two in 1891; the number of churches, from one in 1849 to one hundred and seventy-eight in 1891; the value of church property, from sixteen thousand dollars, the cost of the structure erected in twenty-five days in 1849, to eight hundred and fifteen thousand four hundred and seventy dollars in 1891. Probably the most striking progress has been made in Southern California. In 1867, Dr. Wheeler reported the organization of one hundred churches since his arrival in San Francisco, fifty-five of which had become extinct. The remaining forty-five. with a membership of two thousand, were all situated in Northern and Central California. A vast territory of one hundred and twenty-six thousand square miles, including San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Mono, El Dorado, Sierra, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Butte, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, San Mateo and Sutter counties, with a population of one hundred and ten thousand souls, had not a single Baptist minister in active service. Now the Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Tulare associations have sixty-seven churches and a membership of four thousand six hundred and seventy-two, out of a State membership of eleven thousand three hundred and sixty-six. The leading towns and cities of Southern California are occupied by Baptist churches, which are led by an able ministry. Men like Drs. D. Read and W. H. Pendleton, of Los Angeles, and A. J. Frost, of San Bernardino, C. Winbigler, of Riverside, C. E. Harris, of Pasadena, E. R. Bennett, of Pomona, Rev. H. G. De Witt, D. D., of Fresno, and W. W. Tinker, state missionary for Southern California, have greatly enlarged the sphere of Baptist activity and influence in that section of the State. Alhambra, Azusa, Downey, Monrovia, National City, Palms, San Diego, Santa Ana, all have been touched with the influence of Baptist denominational life.

    Of the forty-five church organizations in Central and Northern California in 1867, twenty-three were served by twenty-one pastors; the remaining twenty-two were pastor-less. Dr. Wheeler had little difficulty in organizing churches, but great difficulty in securing pastors to serve them. During the first six months of his labor in San Francisco, he hailed more than forty men who had served in the Baptist ministry, as they hurried towards the mines, mad with the

Photo
Rev. 0. C. Wheeler, D. D., LL.D.
Pioneer Baptist Missionary of California, and Pastor of the
First Protestant Church Erected in this State

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thirst for the treasure that perishes. It was probably fortunate for the cause that these men kept right on to the mines. After waiting a year and a half for reinforcements which had been promised him monthly by the Missionary Society in the East, but which had not come, for the simple reason that the society could not induce such men as it desired to undertake this pioneer work, Dr. Wheeler was at last cheered by the arrival of Rev. L. 0. Grenell and wife, and Rev. E. F. Preveaux and wife. Mr. Grenell took charge of the church in San Jose and Mr. Preveaux soon opened a work on Pine street, San Francisco, which, however, was speedily abandoned. Rev. J. W. Capen arrived from the East in 1850, and assumed the pastorate of the First Church, Sacramento, which had been organized in the same year.

    From the church of six members established in San Francisco in 1849, the denominational development has reached more than one hundred churches in Central and Northern California, besides those already mentioned as being in the South. These are at present in the hands of a ministry generally recognized as being the most competent body of men, as a whole, that have yet served the Baptist churches of this part of the State. Certainly the record of the past five years, from '86 to '91, is gratifying. In this time the denomination has increased eighty-eight per cent. The development of the State socially and politically has doubtless been favorable to this growth.

The towns and cities surrounding San Francisco, north, east and south, are manned by a force of pastors who have displayed great Sunday School energy and ability in holding ground already gained, and in enlarging the boundaries of denominational usefulness. Rev. J. Herndon Garnett, formerly editor of the Leader, the Baptist paper of the State, now pastor of the Tabernacle of San Jose, is a young man of more than ordinary pulpit power, sufficiently liberal in orthodoxy to impress the public that he is not seeking the living among the dead, yet "after the most straitest sect of his religion," he lives a Baptist. No man is heard more gladly in the general meetings of the denomination, and few pastors in California preach to larger congregations. Rev. W. C. Spencer, of Alameda; Rev. E. T. Whittemore, of Berkeley; Rev. S. S. Fisk, of Santa Rosa; and his son, recently ordained, Rev. Henry A. Fisk, of San Pablo; Rev. W.T. Fleenor, of Ukiah; Rev. J. B. Saxton, of (cont.)

Photo
Rev. G. S. Abbott, D.D.
Sunday-School Missionary under the
American Baptist Publication Society

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(cont.) Vacaville Rev. S. B. Randall, of Los Gatos; Rev. A. M. Russell, of Willows; Rev. Ray Palmer, of Stockton, Rev. W. T. Jordan, of Dixon-these have done an honorable work, many of them in the face of appalling difficulties.

    Oakland, with more self-sustaining Baptist churches than any other city in the State, has, as might be inferred, carried on an aggressive evangelization. The pastorate of Rev. C. H. Hobart in the First Church has been prosperous. The church has the largest membership of its history. Rev. Geo. B. Rieman, recently deceased, of the Twentieth street; Rev. I. D. Fleming, of, the Twenty-third avenue, and Rev. S. Sjolander, of the Swedish Church, have rendered excellent service to the denomination in their several spheres. The Tenth-Avenue Church, corner of Tenth Avenue and East Fourteenth street, Oakland, believes itself to be the most happily conditioned Baptist church in the State, as it is certainly the most attractive interiorly about the bay. Its pastor is Rev. Frank Dixon.

    San Francisco deserves especial attention, both because of its destitution and because of the present hopeful condition of its religious life. There are six Baptist churches in the city, including the German, Rev. H. L. Dietz, pastor, the Swedish, and the Colored, of which Rev. Geo. R. Duncan is pastor. The First Church, which now stands on Eddy street, between Jones and Leavenworth, is under the pastoral charge of Rev. J. Q. A. Henry. With its complete organization and energetic spirit of evangelism, it moves rapidly towards a position of commanding influence in the city of San Francisco. The restless life of an aggressive pastor has been imported to the church with most happy results. Mr. A. B. Forbes of this church is a splendid type of liberal Christian gentleman. Rev. A. W. Runyan of Hamilton Square Church contends with the discouragements of a difficult field with heroic persistency, and not without evidence of progress. Rev. Frank B. Cressy, of the Immanuel Church, is scarcely known in person yet to the Baptists of California, so recent is his settlement, but the influence of his coming has been wholesomely felt. He is ably supported by Deacon P. D. Code.

    Very prominent among the leaders of the Baptist cause in California are Rev. G. S. Abbott, D. D., whose brave and gentle utterance of denominational conviction has won for him the warm respect of his fellow laborers, and Rev. W. H. Latourette, the former, State Sunday School missionary, and representative of the (cont.)

Photo
Rev. J. Herndon Garnett
Pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle, San Jose.

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(cont.) American Baptist Publication Society, the latter, the State Secretary of the Home Missionary Society, under which Dr. Wheeler came to this coast. These two men have been closely identified with Baptist history in this State for a number of years, and present results in the missionary realm are largely monuments to their zeal.

Work Among Chinese

    In 1854 Rev. J. Lewis Shuck came to San Francisco under appointment of the Southern Baptist Convention, and inaugurated mission work among the Chinese. Some progress was made, but the civil war came on, and, in 1861, Mr. Shuck withdrew to the South. This work was renewed under Dr. Graves in 1871, and continued until 1876, when again it came to an abrupt close. It was reopened In 1879 by Rev. J. B. Hartwell, D.D., who, as superintendent of Chinese missions on this coast, has charge at the present time of thirteen missions in a territory extending from Port Townsend, Washington, to Los Angeles. There are fifty-four members of the church in San Francisco immediately under Dr. Hartwell's care, thirty-three of whom are resident. Sixty-five Chinese on an average assemble in the schoolroom of the Baptist Mission on the corner of Sacramento street and Waverly place, to receive instruction in the Scriptures, in the Chinese classics and in English.

    Few, who are unacquainted with the Chinese in California and the American antipathy for them, can appreciate the warfare which Dr. Hartwell has waged against pagan iniquities and Christian indifference or hostility. He is made of martyr-stuff and is absolutely without fear, save of Almighty God's disapproval. The circumstances have needed just such a man for his peculiar mission in San Francisco, a man not likely to be driven from his work of preaching the gospel to the Chinese upon the streets of the city by howling hoodlums. Opposition upon the part of American Christians grows weaker daily, which fact is not the least gratifying result of his devotion. Two years before his arrival in San Francisco, Mrs. J. R. Bradway, of Oakland, began work among the Chinese of that city. A woman of singularly sweet character, beautiful in her consecration, she has taught a score and a half Chinese to love and serve the God in whom she trusts. In Fresno and Chico the Chinese have not been forgotten.

    Seven converted Chinese have returned to China as Christian Missionaries from the territory under Dr. Hartwell's supervision.

Educational

    The public school system of California had its beginnings in the First

Photo
Rev. J. B. Hartwell, D. D. 
Superintendent of Chinese Missions

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Baptist Church of San Francisco. The first free public school in the State was opened there on December 26th, 1849, with three pupils in attendance, by Mr. John Pelton and his wife. On March 25th, 1850, the Council of San Francisco passed the following resolution:

    "Resolved, That from the first day of April, 1850, John C. Pelton and Mrs. Pelton, his wife, be employed as teachers for the public school at the Baptist Church which has been offered to the Council free of charge, and that the average number of scholars shall not exceed one hundred; and that they shall be entitled to a monthly salary, during the pleasure of the Council, of five hundred dollars per month, payable each and every month."

    None have greater cause for feeling proud of their historical connection with the system of public instruction of the State than Baptists.

    Within the past two years a summer resort has been acquired by the Baptists at Twin Lakes, near Santa Cruz. Thirty-five thousand dollars have been spent in improvement upon the grounds. A tabernacle has been built in which the State Convention meets annually and in which summer schools are held. Twin Lakes is destined to become speedily a center of educational life in the summer.

    The Baptists of Southern California have a university at Los Angeles. The in institution, however, which probably represents the best endeavors of the Baptists of the State in the educational field is California College, situated at Highland Park, Oakland. It was formerly located at Vacaville, at which place it languished hopelessly. In early days the staunchest friend this institution had was Deacon Isaac Lankershim, whose widow now lives in Los Angeles. He laid the foundation of a permanent endowment in a gift of two hundred acres of land near Vacaville, for which he had paid ten thousand dollars. The college received this property while Rev. A. S. Worrall was president. Another true friend of the cause has been Hon. H. E. McCune, of Dixon. When it was located in Oakland six years ago, Mrs. E. H. Gray, of Oakland, a noble Christian woman who has contributed thousands, indeed, tens of thousand, to missionary and educational enterprises, gave the site, valued at ten thousand dollars upon which three good buildings now stand. A farm of one hundred and sixty acres at Milton, the Stuart fund of ten thousand dollars, and a partial endowment of the President's chair, twenty-eight thousand, complete the assets of the institution. Rev. S. B. Morse, D. D., has been

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Hon. H. E. McCune of Dixon

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president for the past five years. Possibly no other man in the Baptist ranks in the State could have maintained the work with equal success. For what he has done in the way of raising funds toward an endowment he merits the gratitude of the Baptists of California.

    To the further liberality of Mrs. E. H. Gray, Baptists are indebted for about thirty-five thousand dollars, the nucleus of an endowment for a Theological Seminary.

    The friends of Christian education are surveying the field in California at the present time with much anxiety, lest steps be taken in the wrong direction, and the situation, educationally, become hopelessly involved. The crisis in religious education-that such is at hand is patent-opens no difficulties to such minds as have a serene faith in the adaptation of methods which have been partially successful in Eastern States to the conditions which prevail in California. But one need not be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, to see quite clearly that there is no room in California for colleges. The University at Berkeley and the Leland Stanford Jr. University at Palo Alto more than occupy the ground. Both have splendid financial support, and, in order to justify the heavy expenditures of their establishment and maintenance they will be driven to search for students through every village and county on this coast. They have able faculties; they charge no tuition; they have reduced expenses to a nominal figure. Henceforth ignorance on this Western coast will have no shadow of justification. To compete in collegiate work with these institutions would require a permanent endowment of three million dollars. Such an endowment cannot be raised by any religious body on this coast. If it could, to establish another high-grade institution would be a reckless waste of money. What is to be done by those who desire to place their sons and daughters under religious influence at school? No rational thing can be done, save this: Establish and endow liberally first-class academies. These are in demand. The religious influence of an academy is worth as much as that of a college. To build any other educational institution than, an academy on this coast for the next fifty years would be madness. The truest friends of education among Baptists will not fail to see the wisdom of this policy. The responsibility of a father to his son forbids that he should sacrifice his education by placing him in a third-rate religious school out of a mistaken loyalty to sect. His first duty in this matter is to his son. The advantages of the State University and the Stanford

Photo
Rev. C. Winbigler,
Pastor at Riverside

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University are overwhelmingly superior to any that can be offered by any denominational college in California. Yet the academic field, equally important, and in the judgment of many wise men, more important, religiously, is comparatively undeveloped. A magnificent opportunity presents itself to Baptists, and they will surely seize it.

    In the sphere of theological instruction the actual condition of things dictates a policy different from that pursued by some denominations in the State, and in danger of being pursued by Baptists. They have a fund of thirty-five thousand dollars, generously donated by Mrs. Gray, with which to begin, but it would require at least one million dollars to found a seminary whose advantages would be great enough to justify a young man desiring to enter the ministry in not going East. Education is too serious a thing to be trifled with. In spite of the excellent work done by the seminaries of the East, there are enough incompetent men in the ministry. Christians cannot afford to impose upon the patience of their God. The best course to be pursued by Baptists, under the circumstances possibly it would be best, even if their capital were unlimited is to endow a theological chair in the State University, and send their young men there. The trustees of the University would probably consent to such an arrangement. A stronger element of Christian influence would thus be introduced into the life of the University, and theological students would be brought into contact with men whom they are to meet, and with whom they are to deal in practical life. Such an acquaintanceship would be incalculably beneficial to the clergy of any denomination. The Christian denominations of the State, by such a

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Rev. Geo. E. Duncan,
Pastor of the Third Baptist Church (Colored), San Francisco.

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policy, would free themselves from the reproach strangely and unjustly flung by them at the University, however - of having tried to make the instruction "godless" by their ungenerous opposition to the institution.

    If it be deemed wise by, Baptists to carry their educational work beyond the academic stage, permission could easily be obtained, no doubt, from the authorities of the State University, to build a Baptist dormitory in Berkeley to be placed under the religious supervision of an endowed Baptist professorship. It would be possible for Baptists thus to avail themselves of the advantages of a great institution with a comparatively small outlay of money. If every Christian denomination of the State should thus identify its interests with those of the State, who can doubt but that the result would be to give preeminence to our State University, in which every true Californian feels a patriotic pride, and to develop a university life which would have all the intellectual freedom of secular surroundings, with the wholesome restraint of Christian conviction? It is quite probable that Stanford University, notwithstanding the fact that its royal endowment insures it a position of unlimited influence from the very first, would welcome a similar affiliation with the religious organizations of the State.

First Baptist Church of San Francisco Built In 1849

The Baptist State Paper

    From the time when Rev. 0. C. Wheeler edited The Baptist Banner, the first paper published by the denomination west of the Rockies, it has been found exceedingly difficult to maintain a paper. That early effort cost Mr. Wheeler three thousand dollars over and above all receipts. Probably the best paper yet published is that now in the field- The Leader, of San Francisco. This paper, known at the time as the Herald of Truth, passed into the hands of Mr. Garnett in the year 1889, and its continued existence is largely due to the readiness of himself and Rev. C. H. Hobart to invest thought and money in an enterprise from which there have been

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no returns, save an increased interest in the life of the denomination throughout the State.

    The problem of religious journalism in California is yet much involved in the minds of Christian people. Nothing need prevent Baptists from solving it. With the present mail facilities, there is little demand for more than one or two strong Baptist denominational papers in the United States. Local church news, State news, could easily be disseminated through the daily and weekly press. No worthy effort has as yet been made by the Christian Church to avail itself of the secular press for developing its interests. In this day there is scarcely a family that does nor take a daily paper-none that would confess itself too ignorant to take at least a weekly. How small is the space devoted in these papers to religious news, in which at least one-fifth the population is presumably interested! Scandalous phases of religious life are noticed faithfully enough, but religion itself is practically ignored. The time is ripe for such method as is being now studied by a few Baptists of this State. An effort is soon to be made to induce the denomination to arrange with one of the leading dailies of the State for the editing, religiously, of half a column or a column, in each issue by an editor selected for that purpose. At least the weekly issue of such a paper would go into every Baptist home in the State, and the influence of Christian thought upon the minds of thousands who never glance at an exclusively religious paper would be vastly augmented.

The Future

Chinese Baptist Mission, San Francisco

    The experience of Baptists in the past has been much like that of other Christian denominations in California, possibly a little more restless. This is easily understood, when it is remembered that their polity is Democratic. Wherever Democracy fails, their polity is affected unfavorably. In the early days, government

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in California was chaotic, hence Baptist life was more or less turbulent. Since, however, the political institutions of the State have began to crystallize into the forms of a purer Democracy, Baptist life has grown more placid, and, the progress of the denomination has been correspondingly rapid. The lessons of the past have been learned with much pain and discouragement, but they will never be forgotten. The March winds of trial have shaken the denominational tree with great violence, and tugged at its roots with gigantic force, but it stands. Spring has fully come; the sap rises freely, and luxuriant branches stretch their shady welcome to the soul exhausted by the heat of early struggle. And now, many wonder how the turmoil of the past was possible. It would not have been, had the Baptist polity been faithfully enforced; had the Democratic right of each church to govern itself been respected at all times; had councils upon matters of discipline, which have often and sadly distracted the churches, been avoided, and had ministerial unions, which are in no sense a part of the organic life of the denomination, scrupulously refused to concern themselves with any matter beyond their jurisdiction. But these are unhappy features of a past from which there has been a triumphant escape. The future is secure, and Baptists look towards it eagerly. Their simple ecclesiastical machinery makes it possible for them to adjust themselves to the new civilization so rapidly developing on this coast, and control, in some measure, its inner life. The energy of progressive men is breaking traditional fetters, and gaining fullest freedom for Christian activity. Young men of broad culture, among whom Rev. H. B. Hutchins, pastor of the Immanuel Church, of Sacramento, is worthy of mention, are concerning themselves with the educational life of Baptists, and their influence will be felt in future policies. Some have laid firm hold upon social and industrial problems, and are determined to bring the church into contact with the masses. Preachers of persuasive power strive to convince the people of California that that nation is blessed whose God is the Lord. The hour is full of hope for Baptists, and they hasten towards the future with eager hearts, to possess it-not in the name of sectarianism, but in the name of Him who respecteth no person, but accepteth every man that feareth God and worketh righteousness.