No doubt Miss Bishop’s training in Albany, New York, didn’t adequately prepare her for the religious ministry she found herself immersed in after her arrival in Minnesota Territory. This chapter chronicles the progress of her first ten years as a teacher, community leader and spiritual leader.
Miss Bishop quickly discovered that she was the “only professing Christian in St. Paul.” She described her situation on pages 112-113:
“The responsibilities of discharging the combined duties of superintendent, teacher, and almost, minister, she might not and dared not lay aside; and amid encouragements and discouragements, hopes and fears, sunshine and shade, she worked on wishing, hoping, praying, that God would put it into the hearts of some of his children to ‘come over and help’ to cultivate the promised garden.”
God soon began answering those prayers.
Summer of 1848: a Baptist, Deacon A.H. Cavender, arrived.
May 1849, Rev. J.P. Parsons, appointed by the Baptist Home Missions Board, came on the
scene.
1850: Rev. Joshua Bradley arrived.
1852: JT Cressey arrived to pastor 1st Baptist, St. Paul.
1852: The Minnesota Baptist Association (MBA) organized in St. Paul with less than 100 members in 6 churches.
1854: Rev. AM Tobet succeeded Rev. Cressey at 1st Baptist.
1856: the MBA convened in Minneapolis and received 8 churches. Total churches now 17.
1856: (August) Four churches with over 100 members organized the Southern Minnesota Baptist Association.
Miss Bishop summarized the progress by saying, “In view of all this change, we can only say, ‘What hath God wrought!’”
