HISTORY & GENEALOGY OF SIDNEY RIGDON
The First Theologian of the Latter Day Saints
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SIDNEY RIGDON CHRONOLOGY I (Up to his First Baptism in 1817) |
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| 1761 | Fort Pitt built by the British at site of modern Pittsburgh | 1773 | Nov 10 | Peter's Creek Baptist Church organized; held services in Robert Estep's log house with Rev. John Whittaker as the preacher. | 1776 | Redstone Baptist Association formed (incl. Peter's Cr. Church) | 1780 | Rev. David Phillips moved to Peter's Creek area and became Minister of Peter's Creek Church | 1781 | Washington County PA formed | 1781 | Apr | Rev. David Phillips called to minister to Peter's Creek Baptist Church & Elizabethtown Church; ordained in May of 1781 | 1785 | William Rigdon (Sidney's father) purchased land along Piney Fork of Peter's Cr. (later Peter's twp., Washington Co., PA) | 1786 | Peters Township, Washington Co., formally organized | 1788 | Alexander Campbell born in Ireland | 1789 | May 2 | Peter's Creek Baptist Church "Subscription Paper" drawn up; among signers were Thomas & William Rigdon (Sidney's father) |
| 1790 | William Rigdon married Nancy Gallagher | 1793 | Revival in the Peters Creek Church; many new members joined | 1793 | Feb 19 | Sidney Rigdon born near Library, (Peter's Creek area) PA | 1794 | Jan 1 | David Phillips formally became Pastor of Peter's Creek Church; his congregation at Elizabethtown was united with Peter's Creek |
| 1800 | First public school formed in Peter's twp, Washington Co. | 1801 | May | The Connecticut Land Company gains ownership of the Ohio Western Reserve | 1803 | Sep 3 | Concord Baptist Church of Warren, OH established | 1804 | John Johnston became Post Master of Pittsburgh and served in that office until 1822; he was occasionally assisted by his young daughter, Rebecca Johnston. | 1807 | Thomas Campbell left Ireland; arrived in Washington Co., PA; was assigned to the Presbytery of Chartiers by the North America Synod of the Seceder Presbyterian Church | 1808 | Thomas Campbell suspended by the "Anti-Burgher" Presbyterian Synod | 1809 | Rev. David Phillips partitioned his land, providing a lot for a house of worship of Peters Creek Baptist Society | 1809 | Thomas Campbell and his followers formed The First Church of the Christian Association of Washington (near Washington, PA); meetings were held at Crossroads and Brush Run |
| 1810 | Oct | Thomas Campbell's "Christian Association" sought union with the Presbyterian Synod of Pittsburgh; application was refused | 1810 | Beaver Baptist Association formed of churches on PA/OH border | 1810 | May 19 | Adamson Bentley became Minister of Concord Baptist Church at Warren, OH | 1810 | May 22 | William Rigdon died, leaving Sidney 100 acres of land -- at about this time Sidney evidently began occasional training as an apprentice tanner (such an apprenticeship would have been required before he was accepted as a "journeyman tanner" in 1824) | 1810-11 | Peter's Creek Church log meeting house erected | 1811 | R. Johnson, daughter of Pittsburgh Post Master John Johnson, became the regular clerk at the Post Office, serving there until 1816, after which she only occasionally worked in the office; during this general time-period she knew Solomon Spalding, Robert & Joseph Patterson, and probably J. Harrison Lambdin and Silas Engles; later (probably after 1816) she knew Sidney Rigdon | 1811 | Mar 11 | Alexander Campbell married Margaret Brown; reception in Thomas Campbell's house near Washington, PA | 1811 | May | Thomas Campbell's "Christian Association" formally organized as an independent church; issued his "Declaration and Address" | 1811 | May-Jun | Alexander Campbell's 1st preaching tour, to: Steubenville, Cadiz, Wheeling, St. Claisville, Warren, OH, Charlestown | 1811 | Fall | Alexander Campbell's 2nd preaching tour, to: Steubenville, Cadiz, Wheeling, St. Claisville, Warren, OH, Charlestown | 1812 | Jan. 1 | Alexander Campbell licensed to preach (possibly also ordained) | 1812 | Apr | First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh formed by the Rev. Edward Jones, undere the direction of Rev. David Phillips of Peter's Creek Church | 1812 | Jun. 12 | Thomas, Jane & Campbell re-baptized by immersion; Buffaloe Creek, Washington Co., PA (by Rev. Mathias Luse) | 1812 | Sep 21 | Thomas Campbell, Senior minister of church at Crossroads and Brushrun, Washington Co., signed son Alexander Campbell's certificate of ordination | 1812 | Fall | Solomon Spalding, wife, & daughter move from New Salem, OH to Pittsburgh; open a small retail store | 1812 | Nov 5 | Patterson & Hopkins Booksellers firm in Pittsburgh was dissolved and replaced by the Robert & Joseph Patterson Book and Stationery Store; Robert Patterson had a close association with the job-office print shop of Butler & Lambdin, established after 1817. Silas Engles was the printer for Patterson & Hopkins, as well as for R. & J. Patterson | 1812-13 | Fall | At about this time, Solomon Spalding, newly arrived from OH, apparently approached Joseph Patterson in regard to having Butler & Lambdin print a book he had written. Silas Engles told Robert Patterson "that a gentleman from the East originally" had left a manuscript written "in the style" of "the Bible" for publication. Patterson looked at the MS and approved it publication, provided the author pay the costs. | 1813 | Fall | Thomas Campbell moved from Washington Co., PA to Cambridge, OH; operated farm and ran a seminary | 1813 | Winter | Solomon Spalding obtains temporary residence with the Wilson family in Washington Co. | 1814 | Andrew Clark begins ministry at Providence Baptist Church in Beaver Co., PA | 1814 | Solomon Spalding, wife, & daughter move from Pittsburgh to Amity, Washington Co., operate a "temperance" tavern | 1814 | Feb 23 | Partnership of Silas Engles & Co. in Pittsburgh was dissolved and replaced by the Silas Engles Printing Shop | 1815 | Oct | Thomas Campbell moved from Cambridge OH to Pittsburgh and established his English Classical School or "Mercantile Academy" | 1815 | Fall | The Campbells' Brush Run Church applied for membership in the Redstone Baptist Association; after some debate they were accepted | 1815 | Rev. Andrew Clark accepted by Beaver Association as ordained Minister | 1815 | Small Pittsburgh Independent Church formed under the leadership of Thomas Campbell; active until 1817 | 1816 | Aug | Thomas Campbell's group applied for admission to the Redstone Baptist Association and was refused | 1816 | Aug | Angry over the Redstone's refusal to admit his father's church in Pittsburgh, Alexander Campbell delivered "Sermon on the Law" | 1816 | Oct | Solomon Spalding dies in Amity, PA and is buried there | 1816 | Aug? | First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh accepted into the Redstone Baptist Association | 1817 | Spr | Thomas Campbell moved with family from Pittsburgh to Newport, KY; served as headmaster at new academy in Burlington, Boone Co. | 1817 | Spr | Thomas Campbell's Independent Church united with another independent group of Haldane persuasion, under the leadership of John Tassey. Samuel Church and John Tassey presided over the joined congregations. | 1817 | Spr | SR affected a conversion experience (a personal experience of the miracle of grace); applied with Peter's Creek Church for baptism; Pastor Phillips "entertained serious doubts at the time in regard to the genuineness of the work" | 1817 | May 31 | SR baptized by Rev. Phillips and became a member of the Peter's Creek Baptist Church (Library, PA); may have studied some preparatory ministry under Rev. David Phillips. |
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SIDNEY RIGDON CHRONOLOGY II (After Rigdon's First Baptism) |
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| 1817 | Aug | Annual Meeting of the Redstone Association at Peter's Creek; both Sidney Rigdon and Alexander Campbell attended | 1817-18 | SR said to have "coveted the aging David Philips's pastorship." and "began to put himself forward and seek the preeminence" | 1818 | Jan 1 | Partnership of Robert & Joseph Patterson suffered bankruptcy and was replaced by the Partnership of Robert Patterson & J. Harrison Lambdin; Lambdin had been a former employ of Robert Patterson in his previous partnership with Mr. Hopkins; the firm operated a book store on 4th St., a book bindary, and a separate job-office print shop under the name of Butler and Lambdin; Robert & Joseph Patterson appear to have begun or continued only one division of their former firm at this time: the Robert & Joseph Patterson steam paper mill on the Allegheny River | 1818 | Wtr-Spr | Alexander Campbell opened Buffalo Seminary, located near Brush Run in Washington Co.; Alexander lived on his father-in-law's farm (Brown Farm) | 1818 | Obadiah Newcomb became Minister of First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh | 1818 | Aug | Annual Meeting of the Redstone Association (at Peter's Creek?) both Sidney Rigdon and Alexander Campbell attended; Campbell served as association secretary that year | 1818 | SR moved to North Sewickley on the Connoquenessing River, where he studied for the ministry under the Reverend Andrew Clark, minister of the Providence Regular Baptist Church | 1818-19 | Adamson Bentley met Alexander Campbell when his family was traveling across the mountains of Pennsylvania to their new home. | 1819 | Feb. 27 | SR Presented Dismission from the Peters Creek Church and accepted into the Providence Regular Baptist Church of North Sewickley | 1819 | Sum | Thomas Campbell moved to West Middleton, PA; assisted son Alexander at nearby Buffaloe Seminary in VA | 1819 | Mar | SR received preaching license from the Regular Baptists in PA | 1819 | SR may have served as assistant to Rev. Obadiah Newcomb in Pittsburgh; kept membership in Providence Baptist Church | 1819 | Aug 4 | SR received letter of dismission from Providence Baptist Church | 1819 | Fall | Annual meeting of Beaver Association in New Lisbon, OH -- lists Sidney Rigdon as a member -- Andrew Clark, Adamson Bentley, and another minister were appointed to a committee which was to consider the ordination of Sidney Rigdon, provided the church applied for this ordination | 1819-20 | SR occasionally returned briefly to Library area, may have engaged in occasional preaching at First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh and/or Peter's Creek Church | 1819-20? | Mrs. Nancy Rigdon left the farm and went to live with her daughter Lacy Rigdon Boyer (Mrs. Peter Boyer). |
| 1820 | Rev. Andrew Clark ended his ministry at Providence Baptist Church | 1820 | Rev. George Forrester drowned in the Allegheny River | 1820 | Walter Scott becomes Forrester's replacement as Minister of "Sandemanian" or "Haldanean" church in Pittsburgh; also called the "New Light Presbyterian Society" | 1820 | John Davis became Minister of First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh | 1820 | Jan-Feb | SR may have served as assistant to Rev. John Davis in Pittsburgh | 1820 | Mar. 4 | SR presented Aug. 4 letter to Warren Baptist Church | 1820 | Mar-Apr? | SR moved in with Adamson Bentley, an ordained Baptist minister in Warren, OH | 1820 | Apr 1 | SR requested a certificate as a licensed preacher -- licensed to preach by Concord Baptist Church of Warren (later called Warren Central Christian Church under Campbellites) -- served as traveling evangelist in the Warren region -- preached in northern Trumbull Co. (as did "Elder Goff") | 1820 | SR met Phebe Brooks, of Bridgetown, Cumberland Co., NJ; she was the sister of Adamson Bentley's wife | 1820 | bef. Aug 24 | SR ordained a Baptist minister in Warren OH | 1820 | Jun 12 | SR married Phebe Brooks (prob. in Warren by Rev. A. Bentley) | 1820 | Jun 19-20 | Alexander Campbell debated with Seceder Presbyterian Minister John Walker in Mount Pleasant, OH | 1820 | Sum | Sidney Rigdon and Adamson Bentley baptized in Warren and vicinity "upward of ninety persons. | 1820 | ? | SR visited Pittsburgh region; preached four Sundays at First Baptist Church while visiting in Library area; may have been informally invited to apply for the Pastor's position there by some members (this may be the same trip as the one reported for Nov) | 1820 | Aug 24-26 | Last Annual Meeting of the Beaver Baptist Association in Connoquenessing; Rigdon reported to have already been ordained; Sidney was asked with his mentor Bentley and cousin Charles to draft the "Corresponding Letter" for the year. | 1820 | Aug 30 | The "middle division" of the old Beaver Association met at Salem, where Andrew Clark was now minister, and formed the Mahoning Association, covering the counties of Trumbull, Portage, Mahoning, and some of Columbiana County and consisting of the churches of Warren, New Lisbon, Nelson, Youngstown, Salem, Randolph, Liberty, Mount Hope, Bazetta, and Braceville. | 1820 | Oct 4 | Beaver Baptist Association was formally divided and the newly formed Mahoning Association (mostly in OH) would become the future seedbed for Alexander Campbell's views | 1820-21 | Concord Baptist Church of Warren built its first meeting house; Rigdon assisted in the construction and "occasionally delivered a sermon from the church's pulpit" | 1820-21 | Alexander Campbell occasionally visited the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh and preached there, winning some members over to his reform | 1821 | Alexander Campbell first met Walter Scott (suspect date) | 1821 | Alexander Campbell's Debate with Walker published; read enthusiastically by Adamson Bentley and Sidney Rigdon | 1821 | Jul | While traveling through Virginia, Brothers Bentley and Rigdon visited Alexander Campbell at Buffaloe (the future Bethany, West Virginia) and after a day and a night's stay both men were won over to his reform cause. | 1821 | Sum | Rigdon and Bentley return to Warren, to spread Campbell's reforms among the Baptists of the Western Reserve. | 1821 | Rev. John Davis left the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh | 1821 | Sept | Sidney was a member in the council of the Mahoning Baptist Association, convening that year at Palmyra, Portage County, Ohio. At the meeting, he was asked to become the Association's messenger to the Grand River Association and to write the "Corresponding Letter" for the next year. | 1821 | Nov | SR took his family to visit his mother and sister in PA; conferred with First Baptist congregation in Pittsburgh and received an invitation to become their full-time to succeed Rev. John Davis as the 4th Pastor there -- the plan behind this invitation was initiated and pushed forward by Alexander Campbell, who in 1821 still had some influence in the Redstone Association, to which the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh belonged; Campbell also used his influence to get Rigdon to accept the offer. | 1821 | Dec 2 | Phebe Brooks Rigdon baptized into Concord Church at Warren | 1822 | Jan 5 | SR ended his ministry in the Warren region with final sermon at Warren -- Rigdon and Phebe his wife requested letters of dismission to the baptist Church at Pittsburgh which was granted | 1822 | Jan 28 | SR arrived in Pittsburgh to become Minister of the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh (under the jurisdiction of the Redstone Baptist Association) | 1822 | Feb 6? | SR officially became the Minister of the First Baptist Church | 1822 | John Johnson resigned as Postmaster of Pittsburgh and was replaced by his son-in-law William Eichbaum; John's daughter, R. J. Eichbaum (also William's wife) worked in the Post Office when her husband was absent; she recalled knowing Robert & Joseph Patterson, Silas Engles, J. Harrison Lambdin and Sidney Rigdon during this general time-period | 1823 | Jan 1 | The firm of Patterson & Lambdin (along with their Butler & Lambdin Print Shop) in Pittsburgh went into banckruptcy. If a copy of the Spalding MS had survived in the Print Shop until this date it was probably then disposed of along with the other possessions of the bankrupt firm. | 1823 | Alexander Campbell begins publishing the "Christian Baptist" | 1823 | Spr? | Rev. John Winter later claimed that at this time he saw "a large manuscript" which was "a romance of the Bible" in Sidney Rigdon's study; Winter also claimed that Rigdon told him the MS had been written by "a Presbyterian Minister, Spaulding, whose health had failed, brought this to the printer to see if it would pay to publish it; Winter's daughter, Mary W. Irvine, later said that her father was informed that Rigdon "had gotten it from the printers to read it as a curiousity." | 1823 | Spr | SR worked as an advocate of Alexander Campbell's reforms while serving as Minister the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh | 1823 | Spr | SR refused to teach the "Philadelphia Confession of Faith" in Pittsburgh; argued against infant damnation with Pittsburgh school teacher and Baptist Minister John Winter; following this Winter soon "formed an opposition coalition of twelve to twenty members" within Rigdon's congregation | 1823 | Jun 28 | SR sold his inherited land near Library to James Means | 1823 | Jul 11 | Winter's group excluded Rigdon and denied him the "liberty of speaking in self defense;" the Rigdon group of "seventy to eighty members and the smaller Winter group each claimed to be the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh;" declaring "non-fellowship" and expelling each other. | 1823 | Aug | Threatened with expulsion of his Brush Run Church from the Redstone Association, Alexander Campbell and the newly formed Wellsburg Church joined the Mahoning Association (thus avoiding excommunication) | 1823 | Sept | The two Pittsburgh Baptists groups appeared at the Redstone Association annual meetings (held in Pittsburgh) and argued as to which group should be accepted as the official Pittsburgh church. A commission is set up to investigate heresy charges brought against SR by the Winter faction. | 1823 | Oct | SR left Pittsburgh to accompany Alexander Campbell on a trip to KY | 1823 | Oct 11 | SR was "excluded from the Baptist denomination" about the time he arrived in KY; this was meant as an excommunication but was only valid within the Redstone Association | 1823 | Oct 15-21 | SR served as secretary to Alexander Campbell in his debate with Kentucky Presbyterian Rev. William L. McCalla | 1823 | Fall | Rigdon's disfellowshipped faction of the First Baptist Church "lost the meetinghouse "due to non-payment of ground rent." | 1823 | Fall | The Rigdon-led seceders from First Baptist Church and Walter Scott's Independent Church informally united, holding joint-meetings "every Sunday in the Allegheny County Court House;" the united group was loyal to the tenets of Alexander Campbell | 1823-25 | SR took up work as a "journeyman tanner" (and eventually as a "currier") at a Pittsburgh tannery; he worked with his brother-in-law, Richard Brooks and/or William Brooks: SR may have purchased a part of this business with the proceeds of his June land sale to James Means | 1823-25 | According to E. D. Howe, Rigdon "abandoned preaching and all other employment for the purpose of studying the bible" | 1824 | Rev. David Phillips resigned from ministry of Peter's Creek Church | 1824 | May | SR wrote the Preface for the publication of Alexander Campbell's "A Debate on Christian Baptism..." with W. L. McCalla | 1824 | Sum | Campbell published his "A Debate on Christian Baptism..." | 1825 | Aug 1 | J. Harrison Lambdin died at age 27 (probably at Pittsburgh); if Lambdin had loaned or given a Spalding MS to his friend Rigdon, he was no longer alive to tell of that transaction |
| 1825 | Dec? | SR moved out of Pittsburgh and relocated in Bainbridge twp., Geauga Co., OH -- a new tannery had recently opened at that place and Rigdon evidently did piece-work leather finishing at home to pay for groceries. Although SR was reportedly called to Bainbridge by the small Bainbrigge Baptist congregation, he reportedly did no preaching during his first winter there. | 1826 | Aug 24-27 | SR preached a funeral service for deceased Baptist Rev. Warner Goodell in Mentor: he then attended the annual meeting of Mahoning Baptist ministers at Canfield, OH (evidently as an observer representing the adjacent Grand River Assoc.) | 1826 | Nov 2 | SR solemnized the marriage of Julia Giles and John G. Smith at Mentor -- apparently Rigdon became the new presiding elder for the Baptist congregation at Mentor about this time | 1826-27 | SR reportedly was visited in Ohio by the young Joseph Smith, Jr. -- During this period Rigdon carried on periodic preaching for Baptist a congregation in northern Portage Co., Ohio -- he also visited Mentor, in northern Geauga Co. on occasion. | 1827 | Spring | SR apparently split his time between visits to Mentor and preaching obligations in northern Portage Co. Before summer he relocated his family from Bainbridge to Mentor, occupying a cabin on the Orris Clapp farm in that village. | 1827 | Jul 17 | Silas Engles died at age 46 (probably in or near Pittsburgh); if Engles had been aware of Lambdin, or anybody else, having once loaned Rigdon a Spalding MS, he was nolonger alive to tell of that transaction | 1827-28 | Winter | SR brings Baptist "teachers" Darwin Atwater and Zeb Rudolph from northern Portage Co. to Mentor, to attend his instructional classes -- the two students notice that Rigdon is frequently absent from that place (parts of Jan-Mar.) | 1828 | Winter | SR brings Baptist "teachers" Darwin Atwater and Zeb Rudolph from northern Portage Co. to Mentor, to attend his instructional classes -- the two students notice that Rigdon is frequently absent from that place (parts of Jan-Mar.) | 1828 | Mar | SR visits Adamson Bentley and Walter Scott at Warren, OH and accepts Scott's "ancient gospel" method of evangelizing -- it is possible that Rigdon asked for a second baptism (for the remission of sins) during this visit | 1828 | Apr | Adamson Bentley accompanied SR back to Mentor and assisted in implementing the "ancient gospel" within Grand River Associations congregations such as Kirtland and Mentor -- many new converts were brought into the "Reformed Baptist" ranks | 1829 | Peter's Creek Church congregation adopted the Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith as a measure against recent inroads by Campbellism | 1829 | Aug | The Beaver (and subsequently Redstone) Baptist Association publishes an anathema against all members of the Mahoning Baptist Association in OH, breaking off fellowship -- some Redstone churches in Pennsylvania object to this action and separate from their parent organization to form the Washington Baptist Assoc. | 1830 | Aug | Dissolution of the Mahoning Baptist Association -- largely because of the disruptions caused by Alexander Campbell's reforms | 1830 | Aug | SR spoke before the annual meeting of the Mahoning Baptist Association, advocating a community of goods be established in the member churches as a major point in the restoration of Apostolic Christianity, similar to the experiment he was then conducting with members of his own congregation in OH; his suggested plan was demolished by Alexander Campbell's speech denouncing communal living for modern congregations | 1830 | Nov 8 | SR and wife baptized into Mormon Church by Oliver Cowdery |
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SIDNEY RIGDON CHRONOLOGY III (After Rigdon's Mormon Baptism) (under construction) |
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| 1832 | Alexander Campbell's group "united with the Christian Connection, led prominently by Barton W. Stone. Although their internal organization was not complete until 1849, the Disciples of Christ can be said to have assumed denominational status by the earlier date." | 1836 | Those members of Peter's Creek Church who followed the teachings of Alexander Campbell, separated as a new church under David Newmyre | 1876 |
SR died in Friendship, Allegany County, NY
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last revised August 6, 2006