Historical Vignette: Florida Baptist Association: Sunshine State’s oldest group of churches

The first Baptist association in Florida was the Suwannee Association organized at Providence Church in Columbia County in 1835. However this association changed its name to the Suwannee River Primitive Baptist Association in 1847. The name change came because of a leadership crisis in the anti-missionary movement of the time. Many missionary churches had been excluded from the association.

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The Florida Association was formed previous to October 16, 1843. According to the few records we have from that period of time it appears the association was formed at Ebenezer Church in Jefferson County.

In the 1848 record of the Florida Baptist Associational Minutes there are thirty churches listed as members of the association. Five of the churches were in Madison County, six in Jefferson County, ten in Leon County, three in Hamilton County, one in Gadsden County, and five churches in Georgia. Richard Johnson Mays was listed as pastor of Concord (organized in 1841) and William Brauner Cooper, Sr., was listed as pastor of Monticello (1841) in Florida, and three churches in Georgia.

William Brauner Cooper Sr., (1807-1878) was born in Abbeville, South Carolina. Many consider him to be the first "missionary Baptist preacher" in Florida. He attended Furman Institute followed by two years of study at Columbian College in Washington, D.C. He served at Hamburg, South Carolina, but due to a rheumatic condition had to seek a milder climate further south.

Cooper came to Florida about 1833 as a Primitive Baptist. However he abandoned those tenets and in 1838 became pastor of the Hickstown Baptist Church, now First Baptist Church in Madison. He worked as a Baptist missionary in Madison, Leon, and Jefferson counties in Florida, and Lowndes and Thomas counties in Georgia.

Cooper was the spiritual father of the Florida Baptist Association. He served as moderator 16 times, and served three terms as president of the Baptist Convention of the State of Florida (1866, 1872, and 1876).

The Florida Baptist Association has seen its membership and geographical boundaries change many times but it has always provided mature leaders and leadership for our convention.

The current Florida Baptist Association is made up of over 45 churches and missions. Some of our strongest mission emphasis churches are in this, our oldest, association. There are four churches in the Florida Baptist Association today that were in the association in 1841. The churches and their known organizational dates are Ebenezer (1828), Indian Springs (1829), Monticello (1841), and Aenon (1843).

Author Jerry Windsor is secretary— treasurer, Florida Baptist Historical Society and a professor at Baptist College of Florida. This is the third in a series of 25 vignettes highlighting FBSC beginnings.