Iman family notes

David Badgley: PIONEER MINISTER IN THE ILLINOIS TERRITORY

By LYN ALLISON YEAGER, as published in Foundations: A Baptist Journal of History and Theology, Volume XX No. 3, 1977.

(It should be noted that I have scanned and excerpted this article and provide it without permission of the author who I've been unsuccessful at reaching through many efforts to correspond with her and her publisher. I hope and believe she'd support this sharing. It's a loving and caring account of a man who did a lot, and who was controversial. There is some sadness here.

Iman readers should note the important role Abraham Eyman had as a scout for the migration described here. He played a key role in advance, and in describing Illinois to the Hardy settlers. He's thought to have been the last of the returnees from the original expedition -- so committed to the place that he'd picked land and planted crops. There are related stories. Half the people on this expedition perished. It's not known for sure whether or not, or how many Eymans were in the large migration party.

There have been controversies about the faith of Imans. Sometimes they've been described as "dunkers" (German Baptists) or Brethren. Many of the Conestoga Eymans were Mennonite or Reformed. Readers of this account may want to know that Abraham <1767> was a member of the "Lemen church" described here long after the turn of the century. Northwest Imans will be interested in the appearance of the legiondary William Whiteside -- Indian fighter who protected settlers. Christian Iman, the father of Felix Grundy, married Mary Whiteside, the grand daughter of this William, and the son of Davis Whiteside.)

THE GROWTH OF A PEOPLE CALLED BAPTISTS in America accelerated after 1740 in the wake of religious revivals known as the Great Awakening. Better prepared than more traditional churches for the separation of church and state, Baptists thrived in an environment of religious freedom. As the pioneer population gradually migrated westward, Baptists moved with the tide. One Baptist from Virginia was to organize and become the pastor of the first Baptist church to be located in the Illinois Territory.

David Badgley, son of Anthony and Ruth Badgley, was born in Westfield, New Jersey, on November 5, 1749. In 1768 the family moved to Virginia. David married Rhoda Valentine in 1769 and reared a large family on his three hundred acres of Virginia land in Hampshire County, which later became Hardy County. Census records show that David owned a house and three other buildings. Descendants say that one of those buildings was a foundry. David owned no slaves. His hard-working farmer's life was directed by an active mind. He listened to ministers, considered all he heard and accepted some of it. In 1775 David Badgley was baptized by Elder William Marshall at the Lunies Creek Baptist Church in Hampshire County on the south branch of the Potomac River in the Lord Fairfax Manor. The following year (1776) Badgley was set apart by his church as a "lay‑elder." The early Baptist ‑churches considered the lay‑elder as a necessary appendage to the office of the pastor. It was not exactly a presbyterian idea, for these lay‑elders exercised no authority in government. They took part in conducting religious meetings by prayer and exhortation, visiting the sick, and other like services and were considered as having official liberty to visit other churches and destitute settlements.

Soon David began to preach. Although he lacked formal theological education, Badgley accepted preaching opportunities because he felt the need for personal, spiritual fulfillment and had a willingness to help others. Through a practical learning experience he developed an effective ministry and his congregations looked up to him. He was not an ordained minister in the 1770's or 1780's, but because pastors were few, the people liked to worship and study the Bible together, and needed a pastor, he was called to minister.

By 1790 Badgley was pastor of a United Baptist Church outside of Hardy. Preachers traveled a lot in those days. That church had been organized in 1788 and received into the fellowship of the Orange District Association of the United Baptist Churches, despite the fact that the group had not yet adopted a confession of faith. The Baptists who then were using the name "United" were striving for unity between varied groups of Baptists. When this union was finally achieved, the name United Baptists was adopted. Their basic belief was that salvation was "by Christ and free unmerited grace alone." In 1795 David Badgley was ordained into the ministry by the United Baptists. On May 17 of that year, using his new legal privilege, he united in marriage five couples in Hardy, County.

The Rev. Mr. Badgley believed the principal Baptist doctrines as adopted and printed by the Baptists of Virginia in 1773. Those beliefs were the most important guidelines of his life and they became vital to him as he grew older. His early ministry was aggressive. Aggression is often encroachment, but in David Badgley's case the encroachment was for good. He became respected, not only by his own congregation, but by his community. To compensate for his lack of theological training, Badgley studied diligently. He read all available materials and considered carefully what he read. He discussed and argued with other ministers. He prayed for guidance and believed in and practiced "sincere piety."

The Virginia Baptists, like other pioneers, were impelled by land hunger to penetrate the West. They heard intriguing tales of the Illinois country so they asked Badgley if he would lead a group of men to investigate that country's possibilities as productive land. Badgley consented. He was accompanied on the journey by "Leonard Carr, Abraham Stookey, Daniel Stookey, Abraham Iman, Solomon Shook, a Mr. Whetstone, a Mr. Borrer and others," including Badgley's son, Aaron, a flour miller. The long and difficult journey was made on horseback. Protection from the hazards of the trip required close grouping and cooperation. Indian attacks were a prominent danger. Nevertheless, those rugged mountain men were equal to the task. Carrying their hunting and camping supplies and food staples, they set out. Each man wore a general, all purpose garment called a hunting shirt. This was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down to the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when not belted." 10 That extra space served to hold food, rope, and bullet bag. The shirt was made of deer skin or linsey. Thus attired, on May 4, 1796, those Virginians arrived near St. Louis:

In the low Illinois land across the Mississippi from St. Louis and cast of the river bluffs was a community called New Design. A young Revolutionary soldier, James Lemen, from Virginia, had formed and named the New Design Colony in 1786. The location lay along the trail between St. Louis, Cahokia and Kaskaskia, about four miles south of the present Waterloo, Illinois. This place had the first English‑speaking school in Illinois. It was conducted in a log cabin "by Samuel Seely in 1783." Twelve pupils took to class whatever books their parents had. For the study of arithmetic, the teacher composed problems on a slate.

In 1786 a foundation of religious interest had been laid on this frontier by James Smith, a Kentucky preacher, who conducted services in the settlers' homes. After returning to Kentucky for a few months, Smith preached in Illinois in 1787 and again in 1790. During one of the services there was an Indian attack. A woman was killed, a man was wounded, and Smith was taken captive. Although he was ransomed and released, Smith never cared to make Illinois his home; so he returned to Kentucky.

By 1793 more settlers had arrived at New Design, and in 1794 a minister, Josiah Dodge, preached in the Lemen home. Dodge stayed in the community for some time visiting, preaching and baptizing but he did not organize a church. So, when David Badgley arrived at New Design in 1796 he was welcomed and asked to preach. This he did both night and day until May 28, when he baptized fifteen persons, 13 in Fontaine Creek, and on the same day, aided by Joseph Chance, organized with twenty‑eight members the first Baptist church in the history of the Illinois country. The organizational meeting was in the home of James Lemen. The male charter membership consisted of James Lemen, William Whiteside, Laren Rutherford, Isaac Enochs, Joseph Griffin, John Simpson, James Gilliam, Thomas Todd, George Valentine, Solomon Shook, Joseph Anderson, Joseph Ryan, Joseph Chance and a Mr. Teague. As one author put it, this pioneer organization made New Design, Illinois, "as important a name in early western Baptist history as the name Plymouth is in the annals of the Pilgrims."

While surveying the Illinois land, Badgley made a trip across the Mississippi to St. Louis to scout the area. Finding himself there on a Sunday, he wished to conduct worship services. Forbidden by the Spanish to preach on their land, Badgley took a boat out to a small island in the river and preached there. Then he returned to the Illinois country. He and the Virginians who scouted with him decided that the area, due to its fertile soil, was a fine place for settlement and farming. The section they chose later became St. Clair County.

The scouts returned to their relatives and neighbors in Virginia with a favorable report. Community meetings were held, questions were asked, and discussions conducted. Finally all agreed to move to the Illinois Territory. There was much excitement, some fear, and a great deal of work to be do . Property was sold, though some of the land owners could not rind an immediate market. The men met to plan the methods of travel and the time of departure. The women found it necessary to make difficult emotional decisions as to what they could bear to leave behind. Finally, each family had organized and packed its belongings and said good‑bye to friends and, even in some cases to relatives. The time of departure had come. The future was unknown.

In the spring of 1797 the big task of traveling was begun. One hundred and' fifty‑four persons ‑crossed the mountains in wagons, on pack horses and on foot to Morgantown and the Monongahela River." 17 The popular boat of the day for moving household goods was the flatboat. Many of these were built in, Morgantown but it is believed that this group went on to the little town of I Brownsville, Pennsylvania, a river town incorporated in 1785. Brownsville's situation was both picturesque and unique as it hung on the steep river bank. Some of the houses were three hundred feet straight above others. There, as in Pittsburgh, flatboat building was a flourishing industry. The Virginians decided to have their boats built in Brownsville.

The clumsy but practical flatboats were being constructed in amazingly large numbers This interesting parallelogram‑shaped craft had several names: "Kentucky boat" or "Kentucky flat," because travel along the Ohio passed the length of Kentucky, "family boat," because whole families could travel rather comfortable on one, "Ark," a craft reminiscent of Noah's Ark to hold families, livestock, food, feed, furniture, farm implements, and cooking utensils. Their sizes ranged from forty feet in length and fifteen in width to one hundred feet in length. The covered sides were six feet in depth. Some of them that were especially designed to carry freight could carry as much as eight tons. These were made of plank fastened upon ribs by wooden bolts of either black walnut, white oak, or locust wood.

The flatboat was "similar in construction to the old wooden barge, except that it frequently was just a big box with square ends." There were four oars, called sweeps, two on each side, requiring four oarsmen. A long oar at the stern was used for steering and a gouger oar was at the bow; this was a small helper oar. Oarsmen were professionals. A boat with an open bow for animals and a shelter for a family cost thirty-five dollars. A flatboat with a fireplace cost ten dollars more.

The building of the huge boats for the large Virginia party took much longer than they had expected. Finally, in May, they could wait no longer, as the farmers needed to plow and plant crops on their new farms if they were to cat during the next winter. Also, navigation of the Ohio River would be more difficult after the spring rains ceased. The pioneers loaded their unfinished, open boats and pushed off on the water for Illinois, "a journey of nearly 1,300 miles." The large brigade of transports may have had some boats lashed together, due to lack of oarsmen. Because of the shortage of time, the boats had not been covered, so the passengers had to endure rain, wind, and sun. When evenings came. the boats were pulled to shore, for flatboat travel could not be done in the darkness. The trip was difficult, and when the Virginians approached the Illinois Territory they decided to dock at Fort Massac. After selling the boats for far less than they had paid for them, they began their overland journey.

It was the rainy season, and the hundred‑mile trip overland took three weeks. Sometimes the weather was very hot, the atmosphere muggy. Their provisions ran low and, due to weariness, exposure, lack of proper food, mosquito bites', and the damp air, many became ill. A fever epidemic took the lives of many and disheartened many more. "Scarcely a family of all these immigrants but did not have to mourn the loss of one or more of its number." Those colonists who survived and remained in the Illinois country became known as respectable people, orderly and moral. They had with them their pewter dishes and spoons, wooden bowls, trenchers, and noggins, and iron pots, knives, and forks. They had not forgotten to carry salt, that most important commodity. Their standard diet in their earliest days in Illinois was hog and hominy and their bread consisted of johnnycake or corn pone.

David Badgley, the preaching plainsman, became the pastor of the New Design church in 1797, the year of his group's arrival in Illinois. Life in the area was ..genuinely pioneer." The Indians still attacked. Wild animals -- the cougar, coyote, and bear -- tried to save themselves and their places of habitation from the human invaders. The settlers had to plow, plant, and care for crops, reap harvests, and build homes while guarding their families. They met in each others' cabins for church services. The minister went to meetings dressed in "buckskin, with moccasins on his feet, shot pouch swung to his side, and the ever present rifle on his shoulder, and preached the gospel to the few neighbors gathered inside the log cabin while others were stationed as pickets."

The ponds, streams, and foliage of the bottom land were beautiful but sometimes the water became stagnant and bred mosquitos, and their bites brought serious illness among the settlers. Because of Indians in the woods and disease in the lowlands, the country was dangerous. Nevertheless, David Badgley, a John the Baptist of the West, wasted no time. In the spring of 1798, he and Elders Chance and Simpson conducted revival services in the Mississippi River bottom land near Chester. In April they organized the Bottoms Baptist Church, so called because of its location in the area known as the American Bottom.

In 1799 David and some others explored area which later became Madison County. Badgley named it Goshen, perhaps trying to claim for it the safety from plagues that‑ the Israelites found in their Egyptian Goshen. As' usual, all of Badgley's emphasis was biblical. The Goshen settlement became a happy and prosperous community, though "there never was a distinct village." 23 'the location was "just under the bluffs some four miles and a half or five miles south and a little west of Edwardsville." 24

David's first Illinois home was ten miles west of the present Waterloo, near Bond's Lake. He farmed and preached and soon moved near to what is now the town O'Fallon. "He bought 400 acres of land there in 1804." On land which is now the property of Attorney Robert Jennings, he built a log‑frame house characteristic of the middle class houses of New Jersey and Virginia. It had a steep gable roof upheld by log beams, dormer windows in three upstairs rooms, no porch, and at the back a small vernada. The heating was done by fireplaces. Many years later the little back porch was enclosed and used as a kitchen. Today the house is badly deteriorated, having been used as a storage barn for cattle feed. The roof of the added wing has fallen in and vines cover a large portion of the old structure. There Rev. David Badgley lived from 1812 to the time of his death in 1824. That Illinois county, Macoupin, had only ten families in it when Illinois became a state in 1818. David and Rhoda Badgley had a family of nine children: Aaron, Job, David, Ichabod, Abraham, Mary, Betsy, Rachel, and Priscilla. Anthony Badgley moved to Illinois with his brother and also reared a family.

The Rev. David Badgley was active for the good of his new home state. On several occasions he signed petitions to Congress for the betterment of Illinois' conditions. He tried to keep the ever‑arguing Baptists at peace, but held one church discipline belief steadfastly that some others of his time did not like. This was church government by unanimous vote. Of it he said, "In all manners touching fellowship, work by oneness.:

While David was pastor of the New Design Church, he became ill and was unable to attend services. During his absence, the church held a business meeting and voted (not unanimously) thereafter to pass motions by a majority vote rather than by 'the one‑hundred percent which had been their rule, by Badgley's advice. They also voted to observe Communion services with their Methodist brethren.

This caused much distress among them, and when Elder Badgley's health was restored he was called upon to administer the Lord's Supper to the said New Design church, but refused, believing it to be contrary to the sentiments of the United Baptists to commune with other orders; in consequence of which he was taken under dealings by a number of members, but a majority sustained him. He then took his letter and put his membership in the Mississippi Bottom church.

This was in the year 1800.

In 1808, the association of churches where Badgley worked raised a question concerning the authenticity of Badgley's credentials as a Baptist minister authorized to baptize converts. The associational minutes do not make clear exactly what the problem was; the notes only state that..

"The committe adjourned until Saterday 7 oclock Met acording to adjournment after divine worship in inquiry to know what is to be done with David Badgley concerning his credentials a request to take into consideration ... the motion concerning D. Badgleys Credentials . It agreed greed that he keep them until the next meeting of the church where he was a member ... upon the matter of David

Badgley taken up and he is restored into fellowship on his acknowledgement. Signed by order of the Association Jno Hendrickson Moderator Wm Whiteside."

Just what happened is not clearly explained in those records but there were several persons in the area jealous of Badgley's ministry. Also, some persons disagreed with his theology but were unable to remain friendly while differing. In the next associational meeting Rev. Badgley preached on Romans 8:9.43 teaching that believers have the Spirit of God dwelling in them and that indwelling Spirit is the proof of their Christianity. Evidently David Badgley was trying to illustrate from the Scriptures the need for the Spirit of God in all persons who say that they are Christians, and he was also trying to present the need for the evidence of that Spirit as a criteria for judgment of himself and his critics.

Baptist associations have always been democratic assemblies for business, worship, and fellowship. The early Baptists, who experienced the solitude of the wilderness, found great joy in meeting with the brethren of like faith. The first Illinois association was planned in the home of Anthony Badgley on January 9, 1807, and organized on June 24 of the same year. Five churches were incorporated into that first association: New Design, Mississippi Bottom, Richland, Wood River, and Silver Creek. Rev. David Badgley was elected moderator and preached the introductory sermon on John 3:16. That first association' existed only two years before a typical Baptist upheaval took place. "In 1809, James Lemen in a sermon delivered at Richland Creek said,'I have no fellowship for slaveholders, nor for those who fellowship with them.'"

This Mr. Lemen was in a frontier that was becoming a melting pot where pioneers of varied cultures mingled in an effort to accommodate to new surroundings. Though the Baptists who went to Illinois and Indiana agreed for the most part upon the basic matters of faith and practice, they disagreed on some other matters. It was reported that James Lemen said in his Journal% that he was personally acquainted with Thomas ' Jefferson and was acting as his secret agent to prevent the Old Northwest from entering the Union as slave states. It was true that Jefferson, though personally a slave owner and believed to he the father of several illegitimate children by his slave. Salley Hemmings. was opposed to the extension of slavery into the territory. In the Confederation Congress of 1784 Jefferson had introduced a bill that would have abolished slavery in the Old Northwest after 1800. The bill failed I led by one vote due to the illness and absence of Beatty of New Jersey, who would have supported it. The vote was strictly, sectional. Every southern state, including Jefferson's own Virginia. voted against it while ever northern state except New Jersey every supported it. It is also true that Jefferson was in Annapolis on May 2, 1784, when Lemen is quoted as saying that they met and discussed Lemen's antislavery role in Illinois. There is no evidence, however, beyond stated quotations from Lemen, to support Lemen's story of his employment and pay by Jefferson.

Author Merrill D. Peterson says of this problem "The so‑called 'Jefferson‑Lemen Compact' further illustrates the belief that Jefferson was deeply involved in the anti‑slavery history of the Northwest. Joseph B. Lemen, in a paper read before the Illinois Historical Society in 1908, told how Jefferson, disappointed by the defeat of the slavery proviso in 1784, entered into a secret compact with James Lemen (the author's grandfather) under which Lemen would migrate to Illinois with his family and there serve as Jefferson's agent to prevent the introduction of slavery. Willard C. MacNaul's scholarly inquiry in 1915, The Relations of Thomas Jefferson and James Lemen in the Exclusion of Slavery from Illinois and the Northwest Territory, vouched for the truthfulness of the family tradition. MacNaul cited several letters from Jefferson, entries in James Lemen's diary, even the "compact" itself. These, however, were transcripts, certified as true copies of the originals by James Lemen, Jr. half a century or more after they had allegedly been written. The remaining evidence was inconclusive. Although the 'Jefferson‑Lemen Compact' initially won the support of some historians, the best authorities on the Old Northwest have for some time regarded it as false or unproven. According to Julian P. Bopyd, present author of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, there is no record whatsoever of Jefferson's relationship to James Lemen.'

Editor Boyd wrote in answer to this writer's query, "The so‑called 'Jefferson‑ Lemen Compact' is without foundation . . . that such a compact existed is inherently implausible and, with respect to Jefferson, wholly uncharacteristic."

A Lemen descendant writing later of the family was very careful in his reference to the Lemen‑Jefferson bit, saying only "When under the advice of Thomas Jefferson, and prompted by his humane instincts to always oppose oppression, he left his home in Virginia to rear his family in free soil, he and Jefferson both agreed that, sooner or later, there would be a mighty contest made to fasten slavery on the Northwest Territory."

Lemen created dissension in the Baptist ranks over slavery. It was not that Badgley and others favored slavery, for the Scriptures they preached abhor human slavery as a viable institution, and all knowledgeable Illinois Baptists understood this. However, due to varied cultural backgrounds, they viewed the institution with varying degrees of abhorrence. It is likely that Lemen's zeal to prevent slavery was a desire for political and religious recognition as   well as a matter of personal conviction. Badgley, McCoy, Peck, and other Baptist leaders ceded nothing to Lemen in their respect for every human being, but Lemen's zealous efforts created the impression among his colleagues that he felt himself especially superior to them. This feeling did not enhance their love for him. Badgley held no brief for slavery, but he thought the problem was resolved by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which finally had been passed with its restriction against slavery.

Isaac McCoy, government employee to survey and explore government lands and relocate Indian tribes, was also a Baptist missionary to the Indians. Inquiring into this associational problem, he found that the New Design and Richland churches had adopted an emancipating doctrine that barred slave holders from their membership but not from* Christian fellowship. While Lemen, of Richland, publicly declared that he had no fellowship with slave holders, the church saw that he had violated their agreement. When the association met to try to solve the problem," it was at length proposed by Elder David Badgley that all those who were disposed to be in union with Baptists generally should write down their names in this place, and those to style themselves, 'Friends of Humanity' should write their names in that place." There were two parties in the Richland church, the Lemen group and the moderate emancipators. Both of these groups signed the "Friends of Humanity" sheet. The old Union Baptists, the majority, signed the other paper. So thus David Badgley moderated effectively each person's right to do as he wished ‑‑ a Baptist belief. The "Friends of Humanity" group numbered only five, and by December tenth of that same year, 1809, had added two more to its organization. The majority of the group were genealogically related. They existed as a denomination until 1834 when they returned to the Baptist convention.

From 1807 to 1820, the records of the Illinois Association of United Baptists listed the names and entrance dates of its churches. In 1807 New Design and Mississippi Bottom, both organized by Badgley and Joseph Chance, entered. In 1808 Feefee's Creek in the Louisiana Territory joined, and in 1809 Looking Glass Prairie, Ogles Creek, and Turkey Hill (formerly called Silver Creek) united. Beaf and Nigro Fork entered in 1812, Femoshage and Prairie de Long in 1814, Mount Pleasant in 1816, Cantine Creek, Shoal Creek and Upper Quiver in 1817, Hurricane in 1818, Bethel, Providence on Macoupin, Twelve Mile Pike, and Union in 1819. These churches, with some differences of opinion, continued in and out of, and sometimes in again, the associational fellowship.

Rev. David Badgley worked diligently and honestly in the Illinois and Missouri churches. He was moderator of the association and preached at its meetings in 1807, 1809‑10, 1814, 1816, and 1818‑20. In 1807 he was on tile committee to ‑Settle the distresses that remain among the churches." He was also on the committee of decorum. Often David would host meetings in tits home. Much later. Frank, one of the Lemen family, wrote of Badgley as a pioneer Baptist minister, a faithful worker, a successful laborer, and a man of large influence.

William Henry Harrison appointed Badgley as a judge early in 1801. As judge, Badgley signed three petitions for division of territory, one squatters' petition and several others. Writing of Badgley, another judge said, "There is nothing unworthy."' On to 1811 Badgley continued an active citizen serving in the St. Clair County court, signing a petition against the annexation of Louisiana and signing a letter to Congress favoring militia and against treason and civil war. On May 3, 1809, a commission as Justice of Peace was issued to Badgley in proclamation by Nathaniel Pope, Governor of the Illinois Territory.

As the Baptist denomination grew, the younger men took administrative positions. Inexperienced, but eager, they criticized the older men, including Badgley. However, not all Baptists were so critical. Rev. John Taylor. an early Baptist minister in Virginia and Kentucky, had witnessed Badgley's baptism in Virginia.

Later, Taylor wrote of Badgley as: "A worthy old preacher ... settled on the river not far below St. Louis; his labours have been successful from the beginning of his preaching there as well as in Virginia before he moved. A number of churches by his labours as well as others, have been raised not far from St. Louis. He told me himself, he began to baptize there twenty years ago. Of all this the missionaries could not be ignorant: for they became acquainted personally with Badgley soon after they went to St. Louis, so that nothing can excuse the false statements of these vain young men, but the conclusion that nothing was valid except under the direction of the Board of Missions.

The Board of Missions to which Taylor referred was the Board of Foreign and Home Missions of the East which sent young missionaries to the West to preach, to inspect, and to invite associations to join their organization. Evidently some of those young men did not quite know how to go about their task. They were easily influenced by men wishing to make changes and do away with the strict laws of the older man. Badgley.

Badgley continued to serve on various committees and was appointed interim pastor in several churches, including Shoal Creek, Mississippi Bottom, and Wood River at different times. He was elected to correspond with the Baptist associations in Missouri and Indiana and was a delegate to the Missouri associational meeting one year. In 1818 he preached for two days at Hurricane Church. The original papers of that church for October 1818 state that Badgley "disclaimed Brother Shipman an unbeliever in the word of God. Agreed Brother Badgley tend his bizness this church tend tours." The members of this accepted associational church were democratic and could disagree and still speak to the one with whom they disagreed as "brother" even

while they told him to mind his own business.

Rev. David Badgley continued to be a busy minister. In 1818, his association appointed him to correspond with the Baptist Board of Missions in Pennsylvania, and because of this the young missionaries in Illinois felt the need to get along with him, their man of responsibility. That same year, Badgley was appointed to write the history "of the Baptists In the Illinois to be preserved with the documents of the Association." In October of 1819, Badgley reported that he had made "some progress in composing an outline of the history of the Association." 59 On October 16, 1820, he reported that he had completed the outline. Whatever happened to that outline is not known. Badgley's only known writing, it seems to have been lost or destroyed (as does an article about Badgley by his friend William Jones).

On October 24, 1818. Badgley was elected to the Board of Managers of the Association of Missouri Baptists whose headquarters were in St. Louis. In the previous March, Badgley, then pastor at Ogle's Creek Church, had invited the Rev. John Peck, with whom he had a hearty friendship, to preach about the United Society for the Spread of the Gospel. Through this organization Peck was trying to raise money for himself, a Mr. Welch, and the Rev. Isaac McCoy for missionary purposes. On Friday, March 19, 1819, still active in this moneyraising pursuit, Peck was again at Badgley's home. It was a cold, wet day. Though the early spring weather remained bad, and it was a poor time to travel, Peck and Badgley began a week's horseback tour of Silver Creek, Looking Glass Prairie and Second Canteen churches. Elder Badgley became the first missionary for the Rev. John Peck at the wage of $16.00 a month. As they rode, the ministers discussed theology.

Peck later wrote of their talks: "Elder Badgley like many of our frontier preachers, who never knew any rules of the interpretation of Scripture, but their own fancy, or as some of them mistakenly thought, the Spirit of God taught them the meaning‑had some queer speculations, which he occasionally preached to the world."

Those two men could discuss their beliefs without getting angry and could have happy relationships even when disagreeing and criticizing. Of another of their discussions, Peck wrote, "We had a long but friendly talk about the fall of man." Their talk was on whether or not Adam died a spiritual or a moral death, and Peck wrote, "We had a profitless discussion." They went cheerfully on their way preaching in the churches about the need for missions.

The times and activities among ministers, churches and members were generally serious, but amusing things did happen and were thoroughly appreciated in those hard pioneer days. Once Badgley and Jones were conducting a revival service in the log home of Uncle Johnny Rattan. It was customary in those pioneer meetings, if there was more than one minister available. to have one man preach the sermon and the other exhort the sinners to accept Christ. At this particular service, Jones had preached and Badgley was making the exhortation, pleading with emotion and physical exertion. Brother Jones was sitting beside him. Jones noticed that the people were very much interested, not in the exhortation, but in something about the exhorter. Some were smiling. and a few young people were even snickering. Thus alerted, Jones leaned forward on his chair and looked at the speaker. He saw that the drawstring string of Badgley's trousers had come untied. Quickly he nudged Badgley and gave an ominous look at Badgley's belt. Badgley stopped speaking, looked down. and then very quickly but calmly tied a tight knot in the string and then continued his appeal to the listeners.

In 1820 Badgley was still active, but by 1822 illness and the knowledge of the nearness of death caused the old preacher to write his will "In the name of God." He left to his wife all his money, bonds, bills, notes, live stock, household furniture, beds, bedsteads, and‑property. To his four living sons, Aaron, Ichabod, Job, and Abraham, who had borrowed money from their father, he declared the notes null and void. He also gave them his "moveable property, that is to say a cart, Mill Stones, Joiner tools, Smiths tools, Turners tools, etc." He left his deceased David's boys, Absolom and Abraham. "One hundred and sixty acres of Land situated on Shoal Creek, adjoining Power's Mill." To the dead son's daughters, Priscilla and Salley, he left fifty dollars. However, six days before his death, Badgley dictated and signed a codicil to his will stating that those two grandaughters were not to receive the twenty‑five dollars each that he had previously stated would be theirs. He also stated in that codicil that those girls were not to be "heirs to my estate in any wise." The reason for such a stern act was not stated but it was very likely triggered by the girls' interest in the churches sponsored by Lemen, churches which held views contrary to those of Badgley, would not fellowship Badgley, and sometimes spoke unkindly of him. Because David Badgley believed that the doctrines which he held were right and necessary, he could not go contrary to them in the principle of parental guidance and authority as he saw them. Salley did join the Friends of Humanity on January 1, 1825, less than a month after her grandfather's death. That church had been organized by the Lemen family, her grandfather's enemies.

On December 16, 1824, pioneer Baptist, the Rev. David Badgley died. He had owned land in two states, had traveled and searched the primitive countryside, had led Christians in worship and church organization, had sincerely conducted and sponsored mission work, and had been a dutiful and active citizen. Devotedly, earnestly, continually he had done his best. Though envied. criticized, and persecuted, he was loved, followed. and honored. He had been hurt; he had hurt. He had been helped and he had helped. "He was what we call a revivalist and did great work in the pioneer times." He made mistakes, but he tried to do right.

Among weeds and vines, on a hill just outside O'Fallon, Illinois fallen stones mark his grave. Dried leaves cover the fact: of a fallen stone which had long ago been erected to mark his grave. The stone bears this inscription:

In Memory

of Rev.

David Badgley

Born in Essex C. New Jersey

Nov. 5, 1749

Emigrated to Hardy co. va.

in 1768. Visited Ill. in 1796

& constituted the first Bap­

tist church in the territory.

1797 emigrated to Ill.

Died Dec. 16, 1824

peace to his memory"

This is the final resting place on earth for David Badgley, the John the Baptist of the early Illinois Territory.