Pigeon Creek Baptist Church near Callahan, north of Jacksonville, was probably the first Baptist church organized in what we now know as the State of Florida. Pigeon Creek was organized in 1821 and later became a Primitive Baptist Church.

Luther Rice is credited with being the father of Baptist journalism. In 1822 he founded the Columbian Star. Nine Baptist state papers were the forerunners of Florida Baptist Witness and each of them has made wonderful contributions. Georgia (1821), Kentucky (1825), Virginia (1828), North Carolina (1833), Tennessee (1835), Alabama (1835), South Carolina (1869), Mississippi (1877), and Louisiana (1883) had state papers before Florida (1884).

There have been six men who served as pastors of Florida Baptist State Convention churches and as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. These men and their families were Convention servants and need to be remembered for their labors.

Elroy Barber (1945-2001) was born September 8, 1945, in Sarah, Miss. The eldest of three children, Barber was raised and educated in Buffalo, N.Y. He attended Barry University, Stetson University, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Logos Bible College and Seminary.

C. Roy Angell served as pastor of Central Baptist Church in Miami from 1936 to 1962. He was probably the best known Southern Baptist preacher in his day to serve in the state of Florida.

In 1904 the Florida Baptist Children’s Home had 23 residents. One hundred years later, in 2004, they had ministered to over 23,000 children. From the first year to the centennial year is a story of love, faith, professionalism, and caring.

Elamb Jackson Daniels (1908-1987) was born at O’Brien, 20 miles south of Live Oak near the Suwannee River. Daniels was one of eight children and was born into a family that had known material prosperity due to hard work and wise investing. His father was a farmer-timberman and was willing to work hard and risk. Much was lost but much was also gained. This was not lost on young E. J.

The present population of Cuba is about 11.2 million and 2.3 million of those live in Havana. The Republic of Cuba is 42,800 square miles and about the same size as the state of Tennessee. Standing on the beach at Key West Florida, Baptists are reminded that Cuba is only 90 miles away and close to the heart and ministry of every Florida Baptist Church.

There have been nine men who have served the Florida Baptist Convention as executive secretary since that work was begun in 1880. These nine men made indelible impressions in leadership, service and ministry in the convention.

The first Florida Baptist Convention constitution included a desire to have an educated ministry. Reading early Florida Baptist history gives one an appreciation for the struggles, hard work, and sacrifice of many to see that Florida Baptists had a plan and purpose in educating its preachers.

This is seventh in a series of vignettes.

The Alachua and West Florida Baptist Associations were begun in 1847. These two associations with the Florida Baptist Association were the organizing entities that formed The Baptist Convention of the State of Florida in 1854.

The third and fourth associations in Florida were begun the same year. The West Florida Association and the Alachua Association were begun in 1847. It was at Fort Clark that the Alachua Association was organized.

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.

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)-Richard Johnson Mays (January 22, 1808-July 18, 1864) could be considered the "Father of the Florida Baptist Convention." W. N. Chaudoin would later (1880) be seen as the organizational genius of the convention but it was the spirit, leadership, and impetus of Mays that was so important in the foundation days of the new state convention. It was in the home of Richard Johnson Mays that the Florida Baptist Convention was organized on Monday, November 20, 1854, at 8 p.m., in the parlor of his plantation mansion. He was elected the first convention president.

The idea of the Florida Baptist Convention was born in Georgia. On November 22, 1853, the Florida Baptist Association of churches met at Olive Church in Thomas County, Georgia. A resolution was passed unanimously that stated it was "proper, expedient and practicable to form an association to be styled The Florida Baptist State Convention."