Dubuque Baptist Association (1863)

BATES

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 12/7/2007 at 09:56:24

Historical Sketches of Iowa Baptists
Burdette Company, Burlington, Iowa, 1886.

Dubuque Association of the Iowa Baptist State Convention

Met at LaMotte Friday, June 12, 1863, sermon by Rev. James Kay, John Bates moderator, Jesse Clement clerk. Churches 15, pastors 8, baptised 41, total membership 648. At this meeting the writer of these sketches first met with the Dubuque Association as agent of the Iowa Baptist State Convention. On his way to LaMotte he stopped over night with the family of Elder John Bates at Cascade. On entering the home we found it wrapped in a cloud of sadness never to be forgotten. Intelligence had just been received of the first great assault on the fortifications at Vicksburg. A breach had been made in the walls and the company to which Brother Bates' eldest son, Samuel, belonged had fallen within the fortifications upon the repulse of the Union forces. Whether the noble young man had met immediate death or awaited the tortures of a rebel prison was wholly uncertain. We have never witnessed a deeper sorrow nor borne with more noble Christian courage. In the grief-stricken home were two beautiful young ladies who afterward became the wives of two of our Foreign Missionaries, Mr. Tympany and Mr. McLaurin of Canada. At the meeting the 2d Dubuque Church appears upon the records with 44 members, and Rev. A. Chapin soon after becomes pastor. The name of the 1st Dubuque Church continues upon the records for two or three years without any report and then disappears.