Oklahoma Baptists history

A commission which reported to the 1907 Convention recommended that as soon as practicable a new Baptist University be established.

The agitation for a Baptist University began in 1908.

In the summer of 1911, Doctor J. M. Carroll was elected president and the school opened that fall in temporary quarters but was compelled to close before the end of the session because of financial difficulties.

The Baptist Messenger The official news journal of Oklahoma Baptists, 1912-present

At a meeting of the Executive Board of the Oklahoma Convention January 28, 1913, there was brought to the attention of the Board a communication from the Home Mission Society concerning its future relation to the Oklahoma Baptist Convention.

The convention continued dual alignment with both the Northern and Southern Baptist Conventions until 1914 when it voted “single alignment” with the Southern Baptist Convention.

O. B. U. has had six presidents since it reopened in 1915: F. M. Masters, J. A. Tolman, J. B. Lawrence, W. W. Phelan, W. C. Boone, and Hale V. Davis.* R. J. McKnight is Business Manager.

Following the 1919 Convention, the ownership of the Baptist Messenger was transferred to the Convention.

H. Killingsworth has been connected with the Book Store since it opened in 1920.

No further school work was done by Southern Baptists among the Indians until 1921 when the property of the historic Nuyaka Academy was sold at auction and was bought by Rev.

Doctor F. M. McConnell was elected his successor and served until March, 1922, when he resigned, and Doctor J. B. Rounds, who had served three years as assistant corresponding secretary was elected corresponding secretary.

In 1923 it was taken over by the Education Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and is now under the control of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In 1925, the Convention, in collaboration with the Southern Baptist Convention, organized the American Baptist Theological Seminary.

Probably the outstanding achievement of the women, at least in recent years, has been the building of the W. M. U. dormitory for women at O. B. U., the ground for which was broken February 7, 1928.

[From E. C. Routh, The Story of Oklahoma Baptists, 1932.

Doctor Williams died in a plane crash in 1940 and was succeeded by the Reverend D. V. Jemison.

Doctor D.V. Jemison retired from office in 1953 and the Reverend J.H. Jackson from Chicago, Illinois was elected president.

In 1982, Doctor T. J. Jemison challenged Doctor Jackson for the presidency of the Convention and was elected the 13th president of the Convention in Miami, Florida.

See the Sources button on this site for a listing of all the titles (over 100) that have been indexed 1985 to the present, showing years covered for each title.

In 1998 as the Collection and its work continued to grow, it was moved to the Baptist Building in Dallas, in an effort to better serve Texas Baptists.

© 2002-22 Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The Oklahoma Baptist Chronicle The biannual publication of the Historical Commission of Oklahoma Baptists online, 2007-present (print copies are located in the Gaskin Archives)

In September of 2009, the body elected a new Baptist Chieftain as its seventeenth president, the Reverend Doctor Julius Richard Scruggs.