Congregational Home Missionary Society [RG2659.AM]

HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID

RG2659.AM: Congregational Home Missionary Society

Nebraska letters, reports: 1855-1893
Nebraska: Missionary society
Size: 4 reels of microfilm

BACKGROUND NOTE

The examples of missionary societies on a national scale led to the creation at New York on May 10, 1826 of the American Home Missionary Society, a body formed on the basis of a joint association of Presbyterians and a few members of the Dutch Reformed Church which had been organized under the title of the “United Domestic Missionary Society” in 1822. By 1860, the body had become predominantly Congregational, drawing seven fifths of its receipts from Congregational sources and reckoning seven tenth of its mission fields to the same denomination. The Society became wholly Congregational on May 27, 1861 with the withdrawal of the remaining “New School” Presbyterians, and the name was changed in 1893 to the Congregational Home Missionary Society.

The Society has done an immense work in spreading Christian institutions throughout the West and in supporting feeble churches in all parts of the land. By 1893 it could report that it had organized 6121 churches, of which 2978 had become self-supporting. In that year it had 2002 missionaries on its rolls, and was conducting regular religious worship at 3841 stations.

The Society was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York 6 February 1871 and in its first year it contributed to the support of 169 missions of whom 129 were in the Middle States. The exact date a mission was formed in Nebraska in not known.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of correspondence and reports from ministers in the field, mostly in Nebraska to the headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. The material is arranged chronologically on four reels of microfilm.

The collection includes correspondence and reports from pastors in Nebraska to the American Home Missionary Society at the Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Ill., concerning aide and organization of various Nebraska churches. Also included are the reports of the Congregational Home Missionary Society, Weeping Water, Nebraska, 1860-1861. An index to the Nebraska letters to the American Home Missionary Society is provided at the beginning of reel one.

Correspondents include: Reverends, Reuben Gaylord, Omaha; Thomas Gibson, Fontanelle; Isaac E. Heaton, Fremont; Everett B. Hurlbut, Fontanelle; T.W. Tipton, Brownville; Robert Page, Decatur; William C. Catlin, Weeping Water; E.M. Lewis, Nebraska City; Lucien Harrison Jones, Fontanelle; Fred Alley, Weeping Water; Charles G. Bisbee, Fontanelle; Charles Little, Lincoln; and E.G. Taylor, Lancaster; and others.

The reels are positive copies of records now on file at the American Home Missionary Society Archives, Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. This material was received in March, 1966 from Rev. Fred P. Register, Conference Minister, Nebraska Conference of the United Church of Christ, Lincoln, Nebraska.

DESCRIPTION

Reel #1 – 1855-1866 (includes a calendar of letters arranged to provide a complete guide to all authors and subject matter on reels 1-4)

Reel #2 – 1866-1872

Reel #3 – 1872-1877

Reel #4 – 1877-1893

Subject headings:

American Home Missionary Society
Congregationalism
Missionaries
Missions, Home
United Church of Christ, Nebraska Conference

07-22-1996 KFK

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