California.—One of the largest of the United States, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles long and nearly 200 broad

Baptist Church History Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Post by Jim Curran

California.—One of the largest of the United States, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles long and nearly 200 broad; noted for its immense productions of gold since 1849, its abundant harvests of wheat, and all the fruits of the tropics and temperate zones. All Baptist and other Protestant, as well as Catholic churches, are laying foundations for the future. Population of the State is about 1,000,000. Baptists began their work in California in 1849. They now have 121 churches, with nearly 7000 members, 1 college, 3 academic institutions, 6 Associations, 1 weekly paper, The Evangel, and l monthly, The Herald of Truth, a State Convention, College and Mission Boards, a Woman’s Home Mission and a Woman’s Foreign Mission Society, a State Ministers’ Institute, and about 120 ordained ministers. ‘The churches are most of them widely scattered and not wealthy. (See article Say FRANCISCO.) From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart