Richard DeBaptiste
Richard DeBaptiste | |
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Baptist |
Richard DeBaptiste (November 11, 1831 โ April 21, 1901) was a Baptist minister in
Early life
Richard DeBaptiste was born free in
His grandfather, John DeBaptiste, was in the American Revolutionary War[1] and had been born on the island of St. Kitt's.[2] His uncle, George DeBaptiste, fought for the US in the War of 1812. Richard had two brothers, George and Benjamin, who both took part in the American Civil War (1861โ1865).Move to Detroit, Michigan
In 1846,
After moving to Chicago, DeBaptiste also worked with noted abolitionists John and Mary Jones.[5]
Detroit and Mount Pleasant
DeBaptiste had converted to the Baptist religion in 1852 at the Second Baptist Church in Detroit under Reverends William P. Newman and D. G. Lett. He was immediately active at that church and taught at the Sunday School. Later he became ordained as a Baptist preacher.
DeBaptiste married Georgiana Brische of Cincinnati, Ohio in October 1855. She was the daughter of James and Louisa Brischo. The couple lived in Detroit until 1858, when they moved to Mount Pleasant, Hamilton County, Ohio. They had three children together. Georgiana died November 2, 1872. Their daughter, Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste (born November 24, 1867), became a noted journalist.[6]
The widower DeBaptiste married again on July 13, 1885. His second wife, Mary E. Grant,[7] died of tuberculosis, then often a fatal illness, in April 1886.[1] They had no children. Lastly, he married Nellie Williams of Galesburg, Illinois on November 11, 1890.[2]
Chicago
In Mount Pleasant, DeBaptiste was licensed to preach and organized a Sunday School. He also preached at the Union Baptist Church in Cincinnati. DeBaptiste was ordained in April 1860 at Mount Pleasant, Ohio by a council called by the Union Baptist Church of Cincinnati. It consisted of five Baptist churches in Cincinnati and Lockland, Ohio.[2] In addition to conducting his ministry, he taught public schools for black children in Springfield Township and Mount Pleasant for three years. Also, he organized and was pastor at a black Baptist church there from 1860 to 1863.
In August 1863, DeBaptiste was called to succeed Jesse Freeman Boulden as pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago. There he served nearly two decades until February 1882.[1] James Alfred Dunn Podd was called to the office after him.[2] During his service, DeBaptist baptized more than 1,700 people. He organized or planted several churches in Illinois, including the Second Baptist Church of Elgin, the Third Baptist Church of Aurora, the Baptist Church at St. Charles, and the Second Baptist Church of Evanston.[2] Also in Chicago, he attended lectures for two years at the Morgan Park Theological Seminary, a part of the University of Chicago.[1]
In 1869, he organized Illinois' first Colored Convention to fight for black civil rights.[8]
DeBaptiste held numerous leadership positions in local and national Baptist organizations. He was elected corresponding secretary of the Wood River Association, serving from 1856 to 1887. He was elected recording secretary of the Northwestern and Southern Baptist convention in 1865 in
From 1872 to 1876, DeBaptiste attended the national convention and was elected president each of those years. At the 1877 meeting at Richmond, Virginia, DeBaptiste was elected corresponding secretary of the Foreign Mission department, a position he held for two years.
About this time, DeBaptiste also served as a trustee at
In 1886, DeBaptiste was a leader at the American National Baptist Convention called by
He worked closely with Illinois' first black state legislator, John W. E. Thomas.[10] He was also president of the Cook County Building and Loan Association of Chicago, an African-American group organized to promote black business.[2]
DeBaptiste also published articles in numerous journals. Following the work of founder
Honors
- He was granted a Doctor of Divinity on May 17, 1887, by the University of Louisville.[1]
Death and honors
In 1887, he was given an honorary doctorate of divinity by Simmons College of Kentucky.[12]
He died April 21, 1901, in Chicago.[13]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p352-357
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Pegues, Albert Witherspoon. Our Baptist Ministers and Schools. Willey & Company, 1892. p154-164
- ^ Woodson, Carter G. A Century of Negro Migration, Courier Corporation, Feb 3, 2003. p28
- ^ Calarco, Tom, and Cynthia Vogel. Places of the Underground Railroad: A Geographical Guide. ABC-CLIO, 2011. p55
- ^ Reed, Christopher Robert, Sherrilynn J. Bevel, Herman Jenkins, Kimberlie Jackson, Gene Barge, Jesse JacksonSr, Leonard Rubinowitz et al. The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North. University Press of Kentucky, 2016. p101
- ^ Penn, Irvine Garland. The Afro-American Press and Its Editors. Willey & Company, 1891. p387-388
- ^ "Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1968", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7X6-34H : 10 March 2018), Richard De Baptiste and Mary E. Grant, 13 Jul 1885.
- ^ Brunson III, James E. The Early Image of Black Baseball: Race and Representation in the Popular Press, 1871-1890. McFarland, 2009. p28
- ^ Washington, James Melvin, The Making of a Church with the Soul of a Nation, 1880-1889, in eds West, Cornel, and Eddie S. Glaude, eds. African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. Westminster John Knox Press, 2003. p419
- ^ Joens, David A. From Slave to State Legislator: John W.E. Thomas, Illinois' First African American Lawmaker. SIU Press, 2012. p17, 33
- ^ Dolinar, Brian, ed. The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers. University of Illinois Press, 2013. p113
- ^ [No Headline] Washington Bee (Washington, DC) June 4, 1887, page 3, accessed November 8, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7370010/no_headline_washington_bee/
- ^ Murphy, Larry G., J. Gordon Melton, and Gary L. Ward. Encyclopedia of African American Religions. Vol. 721. Routledge, 2013. p229
External links
- Media related to Richard DeBaptiste at Wikimedia Commons