John Fields devotion to the Second Baptist Church for 75 years

Editor's note: To celebrate Black History Month, the Journal & Courier is featuring daily briefs about prominent Black community members in Tippecanoe County.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — John Fields demonstrated unwavering devotion to the Second Baptist Church for nearly 75 years. Fields was one of the 12 Southern charter members of the Church in 1872. In 1869, at the age of 21 Fields moved to Lafayette from Kentucky.

Fields held the honor of being the first person baptized after the formation of the congregation. On the day of the baptism, the congregation cut a foot of ice from the old canal at the foot of Salem Street. Ice clung to Fields’ clothing after the ceremony, he said, “I didn’t catch cold; you didn’t catch colds in those days.”

Fields became a lay preacher in 1874; he preached one Sunday to raise money to pay for the expenses of the next Sunday’s scheduled minister. He continued to preach past his 100th birthday.

In the congregation’s earliest days, Fields solicited donations and subscriptions for building a meeting house. He and a fellow charter member drove a two-horse wagon throughout the countryside to gather stones. They secured rocks from creek beds, fields, along roadways and from cooperative landowners to build the church’s stone foundation.

The congregation completed the Second Baptist Church at 16th and Hartford streets at the cost of $3,100 by 1877.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: John Fields devotion to the Second Baptist Church