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Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives He pastored all the Baptists in NYC and Philadelphia On June 19, 1762<\/strong>, the First Baptist Church of New York City was constituted by Benjamin Miller and John Gano. Gano immediately became the pastor and also accepted the pastoral care of the Baptist church in Philadelphia. The meetinghouse in N.Y. was enlarged in 1763. During the Revolutionary War, the church was dispersed and its members scattered and the building used as a stables for the British as they occupied the city for seven years.Gano served that time with honor as a chaplain. On his return he found emptiness, desolation, and ashes. He collected 37 out of nearly 200 of his former flock. Many had died and others were scattered throughout every part of the new nation. After the building was cleaned, at the first service he preached from Haggai 2:3-\u201cWho is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now?\u201d The days of spiritual prosperity soon returned and lasted until he baptized his last convert on April 5, 1788.John was born July 22, 1727, the fifth son of Daniel Gano and Sarah Britton. He was a direct descendent of the French Huguenots of France. His great-grandfather Francis fled from the persecution that resulted from the bloody edict revoking the Edict of Nantes.Francis Gano settled in New Rochelle, N.Y. His son Stephen raised six sons one of whom was John\u2019s father, Daniel. John\u2019s father was a godly Presbyterian, his mother a Baptist, hence the children were raised in Baptist convictions.John began his ministry by preaching through-out the South, and accepted a call to take charge of an infant church at the \u201cJersey Settlement\u201d in N.C. The church grew to be quite large but upon an outbreak of war with the Cherokees he moved to New Jersey.He ended his ministry as a missionary to Kentucky.Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins\/Thompson, pp.300-01 <\/p>\n\n\n\n