American Home Missionary Society

The American Home Missionary Society (AHMS or A. H. M. Society) was a Protestant missionary society in the United States founded in 1826.[1] It was founded as a merger of the United Domestic Missionary Society with state missionary societies from New England.[2] The society was formed by members of the Presbyterian, Congregational, Associate Reformed, and Dutch Reformed churches with the objective "to assist congregations that are unable to support the gospel ministry, and to send the gospel to the destitute within the United States."[3] In 1893, the Society became exclusively associated with the National Council of Congregational Churches and was renamed the Congregational Home Missionary Society.[4]

Structure

The structure (as described in 1858) consisted of a President, Treasurer, Recording Secretary, an Auditor, and three corresponding Secretaries.[5]

Associated people
  • Eleazar Lord - Businessman in New York City who was an early organizer and first corresponding secretary of the AHMS. He wrote the first annual report of this society.[6]
  • John Jay Shipherd - New-York born clergyman who moved to Elyria, Ohio in 1830 as an AHMS missionary, and soon after co-founded Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1833 with Philo Penfield Stewart. In 1844, Shipherd also founded Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan.
  • Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs—African-American abolitionist and AHMS missionary from Philadelphia who moved to North and South Carolina during the Reconstruction era.
  • Anson Green Phelps—businessman and philanthropist who contributed large sums to the AHMS
  • William Patton—New York city pastor and a member of the AHMS executive committee for forty years during the mid 1800s
  • George H. Atkinson—AHMS missionary and educator; he and his family settled in settled at Oregon City, Oregon in 1849 as the first Oregon missionary sent by the American Home Missionary Society[7]
  • Reuben Gaylord—AHMS missionary in Iowa (after 1840) and Nebraska (1855-) ; was the recognized leader of the missionary pioneers in the Nebraska Territory,[8] and has been called the "father of Congregationalism in Nebraska."[9]
  • Ira Hobart Evans—Texas businessman and onetime President of the American Home Missionary Society.
  • Agnes Louise Lesslie Peck—wife of Vermont General Theodore S. Peck; she was active in AHMS
  • Charlotte Dickinson
  • Rev. Milton Badger, a minister in Andover, Massachusetts who was associate secretary of the AHMS in the 1850s.[10]
  • John Waldo Douglas—American Presbyterian minister (ordained in 1848) from New York who spent a brief time in the 1850s as an AHMS missionary to California prior to the Civil War.
  • Charles Beecher - Son of Lyman Beecher and Brother of Henry Ward Beecher, started 2nd Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne Indiana under funding from AHMS[11]
  • David B. Coe (pastor) (Corresponding Secretary in 1858)[12]
  • Daniel P. Noyes (Corresponding Secretary 1858)[13]
  • Stephen Van Rensselaer, served as the organization's president in the 1820s.[14]

Associated churches

See also

References
  1. The Home Missionary (The Home Missionary, Volumes 23-24 (June 1850) ed.). 150 Nassau St. New York: Executive Committee of the American Home Missionary Society. 1851. pp. 25–32. Retrieved September 8, 2016. the American Home Missionary Society held its Twenty Fourth Anniversary in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York on Wednesday evening, May 8th, 1850" + table on page 31 goes back to 1826 + page 32 says "at the organization of this Society in 1826CS1 maint: location (link)
  2. The Home Missionary (The Home Missionary, Volumes 23-24 (June 1850) ed.). 150 Nassau St. New York: Executive Committee of the American Home Missionary Society. 1851. pp. 25–32. Retrieved September 8, 2016. "the missionaries of the United Domestic Missionary Society, whose responsibilities were transferred to it" ... "The New England State Societies, also, became integral parts of the National Society, in several successive years -- the Maine Missionary Society and the Vermont Domestic Missionary Society in the third year of its operations; the New Hampshire Missionary Society, in the fourth year; the Connecticut Missionary Society, in the fifth year; and the Massachusetts Missionary Society in the seventh year.CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. The New York State Register, for 1858. No. 333 Broadway, New York City: John Disturnell. 1858. p. 179. Retrieved September 9, 2016. N/ACS1 maint: location (link)
  4. Horvath.
  5. The New York State Register, for 1858. No. 333 Broadway, New York City: John Disturnell. 1858. p. 179. Retrieved September 9, 2016. N/ACS1 maint: location (link)
  6. Edward Harold Mott Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie. Collins, 1899. p. 460-61
  7. The Home Missionary (The Home Missionary, Volumes 23-24 (June 1850) ed.). 150 Nassau St. New York: Executive Committee of the American Home Missionary Society. 1851. p. 45. Retrieved September 8, 2016. The society now has *two missionaries* in Oregon the arrival of one, Rev. *George H. Atkinson,* and his settlement at Oregon City, were announced in the last Report. In November, the Rev. *Horace Lyman* and *Mrs. Lyman* arrived and were subsequently stationed at Portland.CS1 maint: location (link)
  8. Clark, J.B. (2006) Leavening the Nation: The Story of American Home Missions. Kessinger Publishing. p 117.
  9. Punchard, G. (1865) "Congregationalism in Nebraska," History of Congregationalism from about A.D. 250 to the Present Time. Hurd and Houghton. p 360.
  10. The New York State Register, for 1858. No. 333 Broadway, New York City: John Disturnell. 1858. p. 179. Retrieved September 9, 2016. "Milton Badger" (1858)CS1 maint: location (link)
  11. SEIGEL, PEGGY. "A Passionate Missionary to the West (Charles Beecher in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1844-1850)". Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 106, Issue 4, pp 325-355. Indiana University. Retrieved October 11, 2016. The new pastor's early months in Fort Wayne tested his physical and emotional fortitude. In his first quarterly report to the AHMS home office in September 1844, Charles candidly reported the difficulties he faced.
  12. The New York State Register, for 1858. No. 333 Broadway, New York City: John Disturnell. 1858. p. 179. Retrieved September 9, 2016. N/ACS1 maint: location (link)
  13. The New York State Register, for 1858. No. 333 Broadway, New York City: John Disturnell. 1858. p. 179. Retrieved September 9, 2016. N/ACS1 maint: location (link)
  14. Peters, Absalom (June 1, 1829). "Third Anniversary". The Home Missionary. New York, NY: Alexander Ming, Jr. p. 22.
  15. Money, Jana; Osborne, Julie; Eqleston, Elizabeth (November 1994). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: First Methodist Episcopal Church, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT". National Park Service. The Congregational church was the first non-Mormon denomination introduced to Utah with the establishment of the First Congregational Church in Salt Lake City in February, 1865.
  16. "Utah's First Congregational Church marks 141st year". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. January 21, 2006. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
  17. Otis 1900, p. 4-31.
  18. Otis 1900, pp. 141–142.

Bibliography
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