“Go west, young Baptist” could be the topic of the forthcoming Virginia Baptist Register,” says Lee Shepard, editor of the annual journal of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society.
Shepard said the latest issue features three Virginia Baptists who experienced the California Gold Rush of 1849. John W. Reins, a medical doctor and Baptist layman served aboard the Glenmore in its six-month ocean voyage around the tip of South America to San Francisco and kept a journal of his experiences. Michael Whitt, a free lance journalist and special projects assistant at the VBHS, introduces Reins through passages from the journal.
Edward Jefferson Willis, who arrived in California after a cross-country trek on a wagon train, experienced a call to the ministry and eventually returned to the East. An account of Willis's trip and life is presented by Fred Anderson, executive director of the VBHS.
Thelma Miller, president of the VBHS and author of a biography of pioneer missionary J. Lewis Shuck, highlights Shuck's work with Chinese laborers in California.
Copies of the Register will be mailed to all annual members of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. Others may secure a copy for $6 plus $2 for postage and handling from VBHS, P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.
Special to the Herald