268 – Sept. 25 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

They reached the Navajo

 

1852, Rev. and Mrs. Samuel Gorman were approved by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to serve among the Navajos in New Mexico. That field had recently been opened by H.W. Read of Connecticut. Two additional couples had also recently gone to that field of service, including James Milton Shaw and his wife from New York. A letter from Bro. Gorman dated in 1876 relates many of the trying experiences from the time that they arrived in Laguna in 1852. They had a nine month delayed entrance into “the Pueblo” as promised by Capt. Henry L. Dodge. The priests (Catholic) had done everything possible to “rout” them from the village including suing them at law in Taos, which they won at great cost of time and money. At times they had a hard time finding enough to eat and out of funds most of the time. Thankfully when Capt. Dodge did come he persuaded the Indians to allow them to teach their children and to preach Christ to them. He was able to preach every Sabbath except when on mission tours and finally in 1858 he was able to build a little chapel. The first Indian convert in N.M. was Jose Senon who carried on the work when the missionaries had to leave when the area was occupied by the Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Gorman died at 92 after he pastored successful churches in Ohio and Wisconsin. [Lewis A. Myers, A History of N.M. Baptists (Baptist Convention of New Mexico, 1995), pp. 59-60. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 525-27.] Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon