Martinsville Primitive Baptist Church was founded on October 28, 1899, and located in Martinsville, Virginia. Several names are used throughout the records books including Primitive Baptist Church at Martinsville, Martinsville Primitive Baptist Church, the Church Street Primitive Baptist Church Martinsville, Virginia, and Chatham Heights Primitive Baptist Church. Reference is made to the church meeting at a new location in Chatham Heights in 1963 which may explain some name variation. The church typically met monthly during which time minutes were recorded in the church record books. The first entry in this record book is June 2006 and the final entry is December 2010. A letter from May 2013 is also included.
The Signs of the Times collection contains digitized copies of the Signs of the Times newspaper, a monthly Primitive Baptist publication that dates back to 1832. This collection is arranged according to the date of publication. All twelve editions of that year’s papers are in a single .pdf file and cover every year from 1832 to 2014.
This collection consists of materials loaned to the Archives and Special Collections at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary by the Primitive Baptist Library and Archives for digitization. Materials in this collection include record books of individual Primitive Baptist churches, programs from services at various churches, records books of Primitive Baptist associations, maps, letters and correspondence, newsletters of historical societies, books on the histories of Primitive Baptist associations, and membership directories of assorted Primitive Baptist churches. These materials span the years 1778 to 2013.
After digitization by SEBTS staff, all material in this collection was returned to the Primitive Baptist Library and Archives in Elon, NC where they are physically housed.
This collection contains a full run of Commencement Programs produced for SEBTS from 1954-1999. For programs from 2000-2024, please contact the archives at archives@sebts.edu or 919-761-2329.