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Milton Baptist Church.
Membership List.

The Milton Baptist Church was located on the East Fork of the Indian-Kentuck Creek, north of Manville. It was located in the NW1/4 Section 11 Twp. 4N Range 11E. It had two periods of operation. No records exist from the first period, except for the names of messengers reported in the records of the Madison Baptist Association, and one member who presented a letter as recorded in the minutes of the second church. The church joined the association on Sept. 5, 1829. In September 1837, the association minutes report Milton has disbanded. The church reorganized on the First Saturday of May 1840. Although the church existed through at least 1881, the last church minutes are for the Third Saturday in April 1872. However, in the last few years, minutes were sometimes entered out of chronological order. The last record of the church’s existence is in the minutes of the Madison Baptist Association for its 1883 when clerk, Aaron Hankins, reported the deaths of James Griffin and E.A. Hankins as members of Milton. But it seems likely the church was already disbanded. The membership was listed as 50 in the 1881 association minutes, half of what it had been just three years earlier. There is no report of membership in the 1883 association minutes and the 1882 minutes are missing.

The minute books were transcribed by Lee, Lynn, and Randall Rogers. Their great-grandfather (and my great grandfather) Elijah Rogers was one of the clerks and our ancestor Joseph Hankins Sr. was a minister at the original Milton Church. I want to thank them for permission to offer this information to the pubic in this form.

The minute books include two long of membership lists, one from the formation of the church, and another apparently compiled in 1865. I have transcribed the lists, which generally have names, but no dates, and matched them against admissions and dismissals in the minutes themselves. In some cases, there are members on the list for whom there is no record of the date they joined (or rejoined in some cases after being expelled). In other cases, there are members whose admission is recorded in the minutes, but the names are not on the lists. There are also some common names for which a match is difficult. For example, members included William Hankins 1788-1864 and wife Elizabeth McCarty, ca. 1796-1883; their son William Hankins born ca. 1818 and his wife Elizabeth Peak, and William Hankins, 1833-1908, William’s grandson, and wife Eliza Vernon 1829-1907. There are some educated guesses here, but I believe the matches to be largely accurate. There are also a number of people who joined and left more than once and are list multiple times.

A History of the Milton Baptist Church was contained in the minutes. It shows that fourteen members joined in May 1840 at the home of Aaron Hankins. These were Aaron Hankins, Sarah Hankins, Moses Hankins, Rachel Hankins, Nancy Hankins, Sarah Hall, William Hankins, Elizabeth Hankins, Abraham Crandall, Franky Ray, Amy Moore, Sarah Ann Jackson, Jemima Weathers, and Nicholas Lock. This history was apparently written in 1878 as it reports that the membership stood at 105 and Robert Imel was the minister. Madison Association minutes for 1878 report that membership and given Imel as elder. At the time of the sketch’s writing, charter members Aaron Hankins, Sarah Hankins, Elizabeth Hankins, Nicholas Lock, and Amy Moore were still living.

A careful reader will note that in the list below, the first 14 members include only 13 of the 14 people mentioned above. Abraham is given elsewhere on the list. The fourteenth person on the list, instead, is Elizabeth Lock. Generally, however, members are listed in the order they joined.

Abbreviations used on the actual records

The following were on the lists next to names.
d. In most cases, the letter “d” is used without a date. This apparently indicates the person
      died while still a member in good standing.
l dismissed by letter
x Excluded

Abbreviations used by Robert W. Scott.
Aft. Meeting dates are sometimes given as the Wednesday after the 1st Saturday, etc.
     Following is sometimes used. I’ve used aft. in all occasions.
Bap. Received by Baptism
Bef. Meeting dates are sometimes given as being before the 1st Saturday, etc.
Dis: Dismissed. Members were given letters of dismissal if they left in good standing
     and followed rules for moving membership.
Disobey: Disobeying church rules.
Drunk: Drunkenness
Exp. Received by Experience
Ext. Extended Meeting. Meetings sometimes were extended beyond a single day.
      Also called protracted meetings.
Joining. Dismissed for joining other churches
Fri. Friday
Let. Letter
Mon. Monday
Moving. Moving without getting a letter of dismission from the church.
Prot. Protracted meeting
Rel. Received by Relation
Rest. Restored to membership. There are examples of members who are restored, but
      who were only brought up on charges, not excluded.
Sab. Sabath
Sun. Sunday.
UC. UnChristian Conduct. A general explanation given for expelling members.
X. Excluded from membership, with reason often given.
X. Rqst. Expelled by the member’s request

1S, 2S, 3S, 4S. Denotes when the action was taken. Meetings were held on Saturdays. The records generally list meetings by month and year and whether they were held the first, second, third, or fourth Saturday of the month. The schedule changed probably depended on the availability of the minister hired for a particular year. Occasionally there were protracted meetings in which worship services extended over the weekend.
** Indicates name has been struck through on the list.
[ ] All notes in brackets are by Robert W. Scott

Other churches mentioned.

Macedonia. Macedonia Baptist Church, Milton Township
Mt. Pleasant. The former Mt. Pleasant Baptist congregation in Pleasant Township.
Mt. Zion. Probably Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Craig Township
Reformed Church. A term for the Manville Christian Church.

Spellings:
Spellings are often phonetic. Here are some name variants

Bohannan, Buchanan
Bashears, Bulshears, Brashears
Brambarger, Brumbarger, Brumbargo
Crandale, Crandell
Demoritt, Demoree
Lonas, Lones, Lonis (pronounced Loan us)
Memanic; McManice
Woodfield, Woodfill

If a person’s name has no dates in either column, it means that they are on the membership list, but that there is no record of their joining and/or dismissal in the minutes. It is clear that the names in the list were entered out of order at times. I suspect when the clerk found blank space at the bottom of a page with older names, he entered newer ones. –RWS.

Known members of the first Milton Baptist Church (1829-1837)

Messengers to the Coffee Creek Association from Milton Baptist Church
1829. John Lanham, William Yates
1830. William Yates, Aaron Hankins
1831. William Brooks, S. Sylvester, William Hankins
1832. John Pherigo, Joseph Hankins (Ordained Preacher)

Madison Baptist Association formed 1833 Messengers from MIlton
1836. William Hankins, John Pherigo, Joseph Runnal
1837. “Milton Church has been dissolved.”