HISTORY OF THE BETHLEHEM

MISSIONARY BAPTIST

ASSOCIATION OF

NORTHEAST ARKANSAS

CHAPTER I
 

       Even though the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Association was organized in 1853, our history
began long before that time. How do we know? We trace our history back through churches that      
     believed and practiced the principles that Christ and the Apostles taught. Therefore, the principles of      
 our associated work began with the associated work of the churches during the apostolic days.          
This writing begins with the first Baptist to cross the Mississippi River from Kentucky into the 
Louisiana Territory of which Arkansas was a part.                                                                          
The blessings of religious freedom have been taken for granted so long that it is difficult to    
comprehend that this freedom has not always been enjoyed. But in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s 
all the land west of the Mississippi River was owned by France, thus, the religion, laws, and            
government were controlled by the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church with the bishop located in  
Cape Girardeau. Even the Non-Catholic were to obey. So no religious freedom prevailed.                
    There had been some dedicated ministers who had withstood the many hindrances and dangers
   of the wild and unsettled land to preach the gospel to the people of this area. Perhaps the first Baptist
  minister to preach west of the Mississippi River was Josiah Dodge, brother of Israel Dodge, who lived
  near St. Genevieve, Missouri. Josiah, who lived in Kentucky, visited his brother, Israel, in 1794, and    
preached to the settlers there. (lOp3O)                                                                                         
    There were a few Baptist families that came from Kentucky across the River to settle in this land.
The first were Thomas Bull, his wife, and her mother, Mrs. Lee. They settled in what is now Cape    
Girardeau County in 1776. Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Bull died before the first church was organized. In      
1797, Enos Randol, his wife, and Mrs. Abernathy settled south of Jackson, Missouri, on a creek,      
which later was named Randol Creek. For a number of years they lived in this forested, wild land    
 without any religious services except occasional meetings in private homes. In 1799, Elder Thomas  
 Johnson, a native of Georgia, visited this area as a missionary with authority to baptize the new      
converts. He gave the people encouragement and preached the gospel to them. His preaching did   
more than encourage-some were saved! One of those that was saved was Mrs. Ballou, the wife of 
one of the oldest settlers of the area. Elder Johnson baptized her in Randol Creek and gave her a   
certificate of baptism which was equal to a church letter of dismission. (8)                                      
  In 1803, France ceded the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Then religious freedom was
realized! Baptist churches could be organized; and the people could preach, sing, and pray openly   
without fear of being molested.                                                                                                     
Elder David Green made 1805 a more memorable year by his coming to this area to preach to
the people. He was a native of Virginia. He spent some years in North and South Carolina, then        
moved to Kentucky before he moved his family to Missouri. He came to this territory to permanently 
plant the gospel seed in this great wilderness. He organized the first churches -