"A Century of Baptist Achievement."  Edited by A. H. Newman, D.D., LL.D.
American Baptist Publication Society, 1901.  Ch. 9: BAPTISTS OF THE PACIFIC
SLOPE.  p. 98.
 
DAVID THOMAS LENNOX
 
     Into this great region a home-seeking immigration began about 1840.
Missionaries came and began work among the native races as early as 1834, and
trappers at a considerably earlier date.
     It is quite definitely known that the first Baptists to reach this
territory came with the immigration of 1843. The immigrant wagon train with
which they had cast in their lot left Westport, Missouri, May 22, 1843. Of this
train Peter Burnett, afterward first governor of California, was chosen captain
; but after three days he resigned and was succeeded by David Thomas Lennox.
Lennox was a native of the State of New York, having been born at Catskill on
the Hudson, December 1, 1801. In early manhood he left this State for Kentucky,
and there in 1825 married Louisa Swan, and for a time made his home near
Lexington. But the pioneer spirit was upon them and they soon removed to the new
State of Illinois. Here one winter day they were baptized by Rev. John Logan,
and not long afterward Mr. Lennox was made clerk of the Spring River
Association. In 1840 the family moved to Platte County, Missouri, and he and his
wife united with the Todd's Creek Church, of which Rev. Thomas Turner was
pastor. April 9, 1843, with his wife and seven children, D. T. Lennox left
Platte County for Westport, the appointed rendezvous for the Oregon train. In
this company were William Beagle and wife, Eli Blevens and wife, and Henry
Sewell, all members of Baptist churches. Late in the fall of 1843 they reached
Oregon and settled for the winter in Oregon City. In February following Lennox
bought a farm on the Tualatin Plains, about eighteen miles west of Portland, and
moved his family to that region.
     On the twenty-fifth of May, 1844, having become convinced that a Baptist
church was needful, he gathered into his own house the following persons : Eli
Blevens and wife, William Beagle and wife, and Henry Sewell. These, with himself
and wife, he organized into the West Tualatin Baptist Church. There was no
recognition council, and no words of fraternal encouragement from members of
sister churches. The nearest Baptist church was more than 2,000 miles, and by
usual routes of travel fully six months distant. A Sunday school was organized
at once by Henry Sewell, and during the summer he gathered the children in the
first Baptist Sunday-school on the Pacific Slope, and taught them from the
Scriptures. No Baptist minister reached the coast until November, 1844, when
Rev. Vincent Snelling reached Oregon. He also made the start to Oregon from
Platte County, Missouri, and in that State had known the Lennox family. He was a
native of Kentucky, having been born in Caldwell County, March, 1797. He was
ordained in Missouri and preached there for some years before leaving for
Oregon. He settled with the little church and in February of 1845 held his first
revival meeting with it. Three converts were baptized, two of them being
daughters of Lennox, and the third, Perry Beagle, a son of another of the
constituent members of the church. The first of the three baptized, and the
first on the Pacific Slope, was Mary A. Lennox, now Mrs. R. W. Ford, of Austin,
Texas.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in December 2010 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.