Box 76

First Missionary: 1826

Notable Correspondents: M. Badger (1842); Theron Baldwin; Flavel Bascom; Edward Beecher; Marcus Hicks; Elisha Jenny; William Kirby; Arastus Kent; A. Peters (1833); H.D. Platt; J.E. Roy; Julian Sturtevant; J. Tompkins, M.K.



Amount of Material: 44 boxes

Gaps in Correspondence: 1869, June-December; 1870, January-May; 1871, June-December; 1872, January-May; 1873, June-December; 1874-1875; 1876, January-May; 1877, June-December; 1878-1889; 1890-1891, five items; 1892, eleven items; 1893, June-December

Comments: Illinois was part of the Northwest Territory, which was organized in 1788 under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance. Settlement rapidly increases after the War of 1812. The United Domestic Missionary Society had missionaries in Illinois; subsequently, the AHMS placed great importance on satisfying the missionary needs of the state. In 1829, two members of a group of divinity graduates called the Yale Band went to Illinois with the purpose of establishing a school, an interest originating with John M. Ellis, who had been a missionary in Illinois since 1825. Members of the Yale Band included Theron Baldwin, John Brooks, Mason Grosvenor, Elisha Jenny, William Kirby, Julian Sturtevant, and Asa Turner. Five other men, Romulus Barnes, William Carter, Flavel Bascom, Albert Hale, and Julian Farnham, joined the Yale Band later.

Although official missionary reports begin in 1826, it was not until 1831 that the society employed a full-time agent, Theron Baldwin, for the state. Because the AHMS had some difficulty securing long-term agents in Illinois until 1850, official reports appear from Theron Baldwin, Flavel Bascom, William Kirby, Marcus Hicks, and Arastus Kent. Some of these men served in an official capacity for only one or two years, although they contributed voluntary assistance to the society as ministers of large churches in Illinois for many more years. For example, Albert Hale was appointed co-agent for the state in 1837-1838, and although he took charge of a church in Chicago in 1839, he continued to serve the society as a consultant after the date. The correspondence of these men contains general comments and references to missionary affairs in the entire state.

In 1843, Theron Baldwin divided the state into two missionary districts, northern and southern, reflecting the basic difference and conflicts between the two parts of the state. These conflicts sharpened in the decade before the Civil War and the slavery issue is discussed repeatedly in the Illinois correspondence beginning in 1849. The Illinois file is complete for the period 1861-1865. The society's agent in northern Illinois, Joseph E. Roy, was commissioned toundertake a tour of the South immediately after the war to assess damages done to property and to comment on locations which especially needed ministerial assistance. The final report on this tour, which took place between September and December, 1865, is included in the 1866 correspondence, filed under his name. Reports from the various states he visited are contained in their respective state files. The files up to 1869 are complete, including corresponded from both missionaries and agents. On July 1, 1878, the Illinois Home Missionary Society was formed and assumed responsibility for missionary operations within Illinois. The AHMS still had officials working within the state, especially in Chicago, where agencies assisted immigrant and other urban groups; an example is found in correspondence of 1890-1891 from M.W. Montgomery, superintendent of the AHMS Scandinavian Department in Chicago.