MINUTES. OCEAN PARK, OLD ORCHARD, ME., Oct. 3, 1892. In pursuance of the foregoing notice Oren B. Cheney, George H. Ball, Nathan C. Brackett, DeWitt C. Durgin, Richard M. Lawrence, George A. Gordon, Rufus Deering, Alpheus W. Gates, Arthur Given, Charles S. Perkins, George F. Mosher, Ellen A. Copp, Elizabeth Colley, Laura A. DeMeritte, Eliza M. Jackson, Emeline Burlingame Cheney, and Emily L. Marshall met at the time and place indicated in said notice. O. B. Cheney was chosen temporary chairman and George F. Mosher was chosen temporary clerk, the latter taking the oath of office as follows: STATE OF MAINE, YORK SS., Personally appeared George F. Mosher, duly elected clerk protem. of the meeting of the incorporators of the General Conference of Free Baptists, and made oath that he would faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of said office according to the best of his ability. Before me, HIRAM KNOWLTON, Justice of the Peace. Prayer was offered by George A. Gordon, and the meeting adjourned to meet in the parlor of the Granite State Hotel at Ocean Park in thirty minutes. The persons hereinbefore named reassembled in accordance with the adjournment. An object of the meeting was declared to be the incorporation of the Freewill. Baptist Connection of North America, in accordance with instructions given by the said Connection at its triennial Conference at Marion, Ohio, in 1886, and repeated at its next triennial Conference at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., in 1889. A charter that had been granted by the Legislature of the State of Maine was read, and after due consideration, on motion, the same was unanimously adopted. (See first pages of record.) An act of the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, authorizing the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society and the Freewill Baptist Education Society to transfer their property and rights to the General Conference of Free Baptists, was read and ordered to be made a part of this record, as follows: STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE. AN ACT authorizing the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society and the Freewill Baptist Education Society to transfer their property and rights to the General Conference of Free Baptists. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened: SEC. 1. The Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society, a corporation created by the laws of this State by an act approved June 28, 1838, and the Freewill Baptist Education Society, a corporation created by the laws of this State by an act approved July 7, 1846, are hereby authorized and empowered to transfer and deliver to the General Conference of Free Baptists, a corporation created by the Legislature of the State of Maine by an act approved January 19, 1891, all their real and personal property and estate, and all their powers, privileges, and rights, to be held and used by said General Conference of Free Baptists for religious, missionary, educational, and charitable purposes. SEC. 2. All property held by said Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society and said Freewill Baptist Education Society, and all gifts, bequests, devises, and conveyances of property heretofore made to said societies, or either of them, or which may hereafter be made to them, or either of them, shall be held and used by the said General Conference of Free Baptists for the purpose designated in the making of the several gifts, bequests, and conveyances, and shall be subject to all the conditions, limitations, and uses contained in the several gifts, bequests, devises, and conveyances to said societies respectively, and upon such transfer and delivery the powers, privileges, and rights of said societies respectively shall be vested in said General Conference of Free Baptists. SEC. 3. If at the time of the transfer and delivery of the real and personal property and estate of said societies to said General Conference of Free Baptists either of the said societies holds any property, gifts, bequests, or devises which are not transferable said societies shall continue to hold and use the property thus held by them respectively for the purpose designated in the making of the gifts, bequests, devises, or conveyances of property thus held. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect on its passage. FRANK G. CLARK, Speaker House of Reps. Approved February 18, 1891. HIRAM A. TUTTLE, Governor. STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, SECRETARY'S OFFICE CONCORD, March 2, 1892. I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the original act as filed in this office. In testimony whereof I hereunto subscribe my official signature and affix the seal of the State. C. B. RANDLETT, Deputy Secretary of State. {SEAL} J. Burnham Davis appeared and took his seat with the incorporators. On motion of N. C. Brackett Pres. O. B. Cheney was appointed a committee to present a draft of a constitution and by-laws for the incorporated body. George H. Ball was called to the chair, and Pres. Cheney read a draft of a constitution and by-laws, which on motion of D. W. C. Durgin was considered item by item, and after various amendments was finally adopted in the following form: CONSTITUTION OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF FREE BAPTISTS. ARTICLE 1. The bodies composing the General Conference of Free Baptists shall be the New Hampshire Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Maine Free Baptist Association, the Vermont Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Massachusetts Free Baptist Association, the Rhode Island Free Baptist Association, the Connecticut and Western Rhode Island Free Baptist Association, the Holland Purchase Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Genesee Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Susquehanna Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Saint Lawrence Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Union Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the New York Central Free Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Western Pennsylvania Free Baptist Association, the Ohio and Pennsylvania Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Central Ohio Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Ohio Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Ohio River Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Ohio and Kentucky Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the West Virginia Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Indiana Freewill Baptist Association, the Michigan Freewill Baptist Association, the Illinois Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Southern Illinois Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Central Illinois Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Wisconsin Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Minnesota Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Iowa Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Nebraska Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Northern Nebraska Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Northern Kansas Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Southern Kansas Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Golden Gate Free Baptist Association, the Virginia and West Virginia Free Baptist Association, the Kentucky Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Louisiana Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Ontario Free Baptist Association, the Bengal and Orissa Free Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Western Missouri Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Northwestern Missouri Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the South Carolina Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Mississippi Freewill Baptist Yearly Meeting, the Prosperity Free Baptist Association, the Denton Creek Freewill Baptist Association, the Mount Moriah Freewill Baptist Association, the North Missouri Freewill Baptist Association, the Pleasant Hill Freewill Baptist Association, the Union Baptist Association, and such other bodies of evangelical polity believing in the divinity of Christ, a general atonement, the necessity of regeneration, the immersion of believers, and the communion of all Christians, as may be admitted to the Conference by a two-thirds vote at any regular meeting. ART. 2. The object of this Conference shall be to devise and execute, either directly or through its servants, plans for the extension and strengthening of the kingdom of Christ through Free Baptist churches and influence; for the maintenance of Free Baptist Foreign Mission interests; for the establishment and support of Free Baptist educational institutions; for the publication and circulation of Free Baptist literature; for the formation and development of Free Baptist Sunday-schools and young people's societies, and for the employment of all means that shall perfect the organization, increase the prestige, and promote the growth of the Free Baptist denomination. ART. 3. This Conference shall have authority to apportion to the Yearly Meetings a due ratio of the amount necessary to prosecute the denominational work, and to ask contributions from Yearly |