HARRISONBURG BAPTIST CHURCH

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1869

Probably everyone in the Shenandoah Valley has heard of Dr. John W. Wayland, the great historian of Rockingham County; but perhaps few know that he was a member of the Harrisonburg Baptist Church and for many years historian of the Augusta Association. For each meeting of the Association, he would prePare a history of the host church, read it at one of the sessions, and submit it for later publication in the Association Annual. Largely because of the work of Dr. Wayland has the history of the Augusta Association been preserved. I share with you from his "Notes on the Baptists in Harrisonburg and the Surrounding Region" and his various histories of the Harrisonburg church.

According to Dr. Wayland, one of the earliest Baptists west of the Blue Ridge was Benjamin Borden from New Jersey, who in 1737 was brought before the county court for conducting, with five others, "unlawful and tumultuous assemblies," near BerrYVille. These early Baptist meetings, which were regarded as "tendency to rebellion," Dr. Wayland describes

as "coming as near to religious persecution as anything I have found in the early history of the

Shenandoah Valley."

Samuel Newman and his wife Martha of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, were the first known Baptists to settle near Harrisonburg. They came about 1744, and probably purchased land from Benjamin Borden around Lacy Spring and near Smith Creek.

Mr. John Harrison from New York settled in the same area, and, after making a profession of faith around 1745, traveled back 400 miles to be baptized, since there was no one here qualified to administer baptism for Baptists.

Dr. Wayland says: "These facts are all recorded in the minutes of the old Baptist church which was organized on Linville Creek, about eight miles morth of Harrisonburg, in 1756. Samuel Newman was the first clerk of that church, and he and his wife Martha were two of the seven charter members. 'Two distinguished members of that church were Silas Hart and Cornelius Ruddle. Cornelius Ruddle, 'a Gentleman of no mean Character, a Man in Authority both civil and military,' was admitted to membership at Linville Creek in June, 1757. However, his association with the Baptists there was not happy. In September, 1759, he was 'set aside,' having walked 'disorderly and riotous. '"

Brother Silas Hart, however, apParently kept in good standing until his death in 1795. One of the first magistrates and the first sheriff of Rockingham County, Silas Hart was a "man of means." In his will he left a considerable sum to "endow a school to educate Baptist preachers." Incidentally, as Dr. Wayland points out, this was 29 years before the first Baptist theological school was actually founded in this country. However, Brother Hart's money was not used for such a purpose. "The terms of his bequest were not specific enough--rather, the persons to receive and handle the bequest were not indicated with sufficient definiteness. The matter went through all the courts, finally winding up in 1819 in the Supreme Court of the United States. There Chief Justice John Marshall and his associates decided as the lower courts had done."

The leading member of the Linville Creek Baptist Church for over forty years was John Lincoln, the great-uncle of President Lincoln. A surveyor and large landowner who operated a grist mill and tanyard near Turley town, he and his family moved to Warren, Ohio, in 1819.

The first Baptist preaching in Harrisonburg actually began in 1847. Rev. John E. Massey, who was later to becane state Auditor, Lieutenant Governor, and Superintendent of Public Instruction of Virginia, traveled and preached in the Valley from Martinsburg to the Augusta County line. One of the churches he served was Salem, constituted on November 15, 1845, and located perhaps just southwest of Dayton. He is reported to have called it the first Missionary Baptist church in Rockingham County.

Rev. Massey also was responsible for moving the old Linville Creek Baptist Church a mile north of its original site. When brought before the county court for his action, he answered that few people were attending because the place was too inconvenient, so he moved it to a more convenient place so that more people would attend! The old church building was then used by various denominations for a number of years and finally torn down around 1934 .

Reflecting in his autobiography about his time at Harrisonburg, Rev. Massey wrote:

After our marriage we lived seven years in Harrisonburg, virginia. There

was no Baptist church there, so I rented a hall, employed a sexton, furnished

lights, and preached. It was natural that those denominations that had established

churches there should oppose newcomers entering their fields, and this

was fully demonstrated in my experience. I met fierce opposition on all sides;

yet this was a happy period in my life.

Rev. Massey was one of the "Sundry ministers" that The Old eommonwealth of Wed., 20, reported had "constituted a Baptist church in this place ...on Sunday last." There were 16 charter members who organized the Harrisonburg Baptist Church on January 17, 1869. Their first meeting place was a building constructed prior to the Civil War by the Northern branch of the Methodists. When the Augusta Baptist Association was formed in 1876, Harrisonburg's second pastor, Rev. William A. Whitecarver, served as its first moderator.

In 1887, Harrisonburg Baptist Church was a struggling church without a pastor, on a field with Mt. Crawford and Bridgewater, and receiving aid from the state Mission Board. Even in 1916, when a new church building was being erected, Dr. Wayland reminds us that" ...every thing that could be sold was sold--the old bell for $100; the furnace for $100; the old organ traded in for a new one. The Aid Society was asked to raise $1,000."

Today, Harrisonburg Baptist Church is the second largest church in the Association, with 825 members and receipts last year totaling almost $385,000.

From sponsoring the Virginia Avenue Baptist Mission that grew into the West Side Baptist Church, to sending missions teams to Arizona to teach Navajos, to taking on the responsibility of a satellite ministry and providing financial and moral support for a struggling sister church in Elkton, Harrisonbrug has indeed been a church actively on mission in its setting. \Vhat an awesome story! And how thankful I am to have been a part of it!