by Laurel | November 1st, 2011
28 Oct 1928
Holyoke First Baptist Church
The celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the First Baptist church in Elmwood closed tonight with a union service at 7, several of the pastors of the city participating. At the morning service Rev. Arthur C. Darrow of Burma gave a description of the missionary work in that country, this being particularly timely as the first of several missionaries from the Holyoke church, Rev. Hosea Howard, was sent to that country in 1834. Rev Chapin H. Carpenter also went in 1858, Rev. Stephen B. Rand in 1869 and Mrs. Cornelia Rant Elwell in 1872.
Additional notes: This church, the second oldest in Holyoke, was formally organized at the home of Caleb Humeston, on Homestead avenue, October 5, 1803, where a society had been organized two years before. The first building was erected opposite the cemetery, near Ely Grange, in 1792, and traveling preachers used it until 1800, when the Congregationalists secured a third interest in it and it was moved north to where the Joseph Metcalf schoolhouse now stands. In 1826 this church felt strong enough to stand alone and erected a frame building on the present site. The church plotted and sold about three acres of land on the south side of South street in 1873, and in 1880 erected the present brick building and parsonage. In 1906 the addition was built.
