Tywappity and Bethel - in the territory.

Elder David Green stopped in what is now Scott County, Missouri, found a few Baptist families and organized a church in Tywappity Bottoms with eight or ten members. This soon became extinct, but was reorganized in 1809. On July 16, 1806, Elder Green with the help of Deacon George Lawrence and Elder Henry Cockerham, gathered the Baptists near Jackson, Missouri, and organized the Bethel Church of which the before mentioned Mrs. Ballou became a charter member. (8 p.10) Bethel Church sent messengers to the Red River Association in Kentucky in 1810 and continued to do so until the formation of Bethel Association. (8 p.18)

The Bethel Church was the first non-Catholic Church west of the Mississippi. She also built the first house of worship in the territory. And from Bethel Church, directly or indirectly, sprang all the Baptist Churches that composed the first association ever organized west of the great river. (8 p.13)

On the fourth Sunday of September, 1816, these churches, namely, Bethel, near Jackson; Tywappity, south of Cape Girardeau; Barren, in Barren, now Perry County; Belview, Caledonia in Washington County; Providence near Fredericktown; St. Francis, near Ironton; and Dry Creek, met and organized the Bethel Association named after the church with which it met. This was the first Association of Baptist Churches west of the Mississippi River. There was a total of 230 members in the churches at the beginning of the associated work. (By 1824 it had grown to 14 churches with a membership of 417.) The Bethel Association adopted the same constitution as that adopted by the Virginia Association. (8 p. 22)

Bethel Association has not connected herself as a body with any missionary organization, foreign or domestic, outside of her own bounds since 1821, when the correspondence with the Foreign Board of Missions was dropped. (8 p.38)

Old Bethel will be found to be the parent of most associations of Southeast Missouri (up to 1859) and some of those in Arkansas.

At the organization of the Bethel Association, Elder James Phillip Edwards was appointed to preach and organize churches in the association. The next year he made a tour of the principal settlements in Arkansas Territory. In 1822, he, with Elder William Street, and Benjamin Clark, organized two churches - Union and Little Flock - in Lawrence County, Arkansas. (8 p.27)

On the second Sunday in November, 1829, these churches - Spring River, New Hope, Little North Fork, and Richland - with dismissal letters from Bethel Association in Southeast Missouri, met at Spring River Church to constitute the Spring River Association in Arkansas. Four preachers, J. Williams, S. Frost, M. Bailey, and William Street, were appointed to help in the organization. (8 p.28)

The second association in Southeast Missouri that was organized was Cape Girardeau Association with eight churches which were dismissed from Bethel Association in 1824. Then in 1831, two other churches were dismissed to form the Franklin Association, the third association formed in Southeast Missouri.

The fourth association in Southeast Missouri was Black River Association. It was organized in Greenville, county seat of Wayne County, November, 1835. There were six churches, namely, Black River, Cherokee Bay, Columbia, Big Creek, Greenville, and Bear Creek, that had letters of dismission from Cape Girardeau Association for this work. They had a total of 180 in membership. This association, like nearly all the older ones of Southeast Missouri, at the time of its organization, was a strong missionary body. Ministers connected with its organization were Elders William Mason, Sherrod Winningham, moderator Henry McElmurry, and clerk Sam Knight. Others who came into the work were Elders B. Clark, N.G. Ferguson, and William Settle. The location of this association was in one of the largest, and probably the most destitute fields of Southeast Missouri, extending from Madison County south through Wayne, Stoddard, Dunklin, and west into Butler Counties. (8p.93)

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