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.[3]

Associated people
  • 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[5]
  • Rev. Milton Badger, a minister in Andover, Massachusetts who was associate secretary of the AHMS in the 1850s.[6]
  • Charles Beecher — Son of Lyman Beecher and Brother of Henry Ward Beecher, started 2nd Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne Indiana under funding from AHMS[7]
  • David B. Coe (pastor) — AHMS Corresponding Secretary in 1858[3]
  • Obed Dickinson and Charlotte Dickinson
  • 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.
  • Ira Hobart Evans — Texas businessman and onetime AHMS President.
  • 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]
  • Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs — African-American abolitionist and AHMS missionary from Philadelphia who moved to North and South Carolina during the Reconstruction era.
  • 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.[10]
  • Daniel P. Noyes — AHMS Corresponding Secretary 1858.[3]
  • William Patton — New York city pastor and a member of the AHMS executive committee for forty years during the mid 1800s
  • Agnes Louise Lesslie Peck — wife of Vermont General Theodore S. Peck; she was active in AHMS
  • Anson Green Phelps — Businessman and philanthropist who contributed large sums to the AHMS
  • Stephen Van Rensselaer — AHMS President in the 1820s.[11]
  • 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.
  • Josiah Strong — American Protestant clergyman, organizer, editor, author, and a leader of the Social Gospel movement. In 1885 AHMS published his controversial book: Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis.

Associated churches

See also

References
  1. The Home Missionary (The Home Missionary, Volumes 23-24 (June 1850) ed.). 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 1826
  2. The Home Missionary (The Home Missionary, Volumes 23-24 (June 1850) ed.). 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.
  3. The New York State Register, for 1858. New York City: John Disturnell. 1858. p. 179. Retrieved September 9, 2016. N/A
  4. Horvath.
  5. The Home Missionary (The Home Missionary, Volumes 23-24 (June 1850) ed.). 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.
  6. 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){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  7. SEIGEL, PEGGY (December 2010). "A Passionate Missionary to the West (Charles Beecher in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1844-1850)". Indiana Magazine of History. 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.
  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. Edward Harold Mott Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie. Collins, 1899. p. 460-61
  11. Peters, Absalom (June 1, 1829). "Third Anniversary". The Home Missionary. New York, NY: Alexander Ming, Jr. p. 22.
  12. 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.
  13. "Utah's First Congregational Church marks 141st year". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. January 21, 2006. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016.
  14. Otis 1900, p. 4-31.
  15. Otis 1900, pp. 141–142.

Bibliography
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