The American Home Missionary Society (AHMS or A. H. M. Society) was a historic protestant Christian missionary society in the United States founded in 1826 At its founding, formed as a merger of the United Domestic Missionary Society with State missionary societies from New England and other states. It was formed by members of the Presbyterian, Congregational, Associate Reformed, and Reformed Dutch churches with the objective as "to assist congregations that are unable to support the gospel ministry, and to send the gospel to the destitute within the United States."
The structure (as described in 1858) consisted of a President, Treasurer, Recording Secretary, an Auditor, and three corresponding Secretaries.
Eleazar Lord - Businessman in New York City who was an early organizer and first corresponding secretary of the AHMS. He wrote the first annual report of this society.
John Jay Shipherd - New-York born clergyman who moved to Elyria, Ohio in 1830 as an AHMS missionary, and soon after co-founded Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1833 with Philo Penfield Stewart. In 1844, Shipherd also founded Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan.
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs—African-American abolitionist and AHMS missionary from Philadelphia who moved to North and South Carolina during the Reconstruction era.
Anson Green Phelps—businessman and philanthropist who contributed large sums to the AHMS
William Patton—New York city pastor and a member of the AHMS executive committee for forty years during the mid 1800s
George H. Atkinson—AHMS missionary and educator; he and his family settled in settled at Oregon City, Oregon in 1849 as the first Oregon missionary sent by the American Home Missionary Society
Reuben Gaylord—AHMS missionary in Iowa (after 1840) and Nebraska (1855-) ; was the recognized leader of the missionary pioneers in the Nebraska Territory, and has been called the "father of Congregationalism in Nebraska."
Ira Hobart Evans—Texas businessman and onetime President of the American Home Missionary Society.
Agnes Louise Lesslie Peck—wife of Vermont General Theodore S. Peck; she was active in AHMS
Charlotte Dickinson
Rev. Milton Badger, a minister in Andover, Massachusetts who was associate secretary of the AHMS in the 1850s.
John Waldo Douglas—American Presbyterian minister (ordained in 1848) from New York who spent a brief time in the 1850s as an AHMS missionary to California prior to the Civil War.
Charles Beecher - Son of Lyman Beecher and Brother of Henry Ward Beecher, started 2nd Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne Indiana under funding from AHMS
David B. Coe (pastor) (Corresponding Secretary in 1858)
Daniel P. Noyes (Corresponding Secretary 1858)
Stephen Van Rensselaer, served as the organization's president in the 1820s.
First Congregational Church (Salt Lake City, Utah)—Established in 1865, it was the first church not a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Utah. The congregation started Utah's first free public schools. Started by AHMS missionary Norman McLeod.
First Presbyterian Church (Chicago) - this was the first (and therefore oldest) religious society in Chicago. The first public school in Chicago was organized in the meeting house of the First Presbyterian Church, and Eliza Chappel was the first teacher in this school. The church was established by AHMS missionary Jeremiah Porter on June 26, 1833 in Chicago.
References:
Otis, Philo Adams (1900). The First Presbyterian Church: a history of the oldest organization in Chicago : with biographical sketches of the pastors and copious extracts from the choir records (Public domain ed.). C.F. Summy Co.
Otis, Philo Adams (1913). The First Presbyterian Church (Public domain ed.). Chicago: F.H. Revell Co. ISBN 978-5-88230-217-6.
