Frontier conflicts about religion in pioneer Indiana

<p dir="ltr">A controversy about religion divided churches, communities and even families in southern Indiana during the early 1800s. The conflict among Baptists even affected the church that young <strong><a href= "https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/abraham-lincoln/">Abraham Lincoln</a></strong> attended with his family in what is now <strong><a href="https://spencercounty.in.gov/">Spencer County</a></strong>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Our guest <strong><a href= "https://randrmillsauthors.com/about/">Randy Mills</a></strong>, a retired distinguished professor at <strong><a href= "https://www.oak.edu/">Oakland City University</a></strong> in southern Indiana, has researched and written about the fights, which involved missionaries sent to the then-Western frontier (which included Indiana) from the East as well as foreign and domestic missions. According to Randy Mills, a Midwest historian, some historians suspect the bickering that impacted <strong><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Pigeon_Creek_Community">Little Pigeon Baptist Church</a></strong>, which young Abe Lincoln attended, may have caused the future president to avoid formal religious affiliations later in life.</p> <p dir="ltr">"At the heart of the bitter conflict was a frontier preacher named Daniel Parker whose violent preaching against mission efforts split churches, communities and families," Randy Mills says. In an article that he wrote for <strong><a href= "https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh">Indiana Magazine of History</a></strong>, Randy Mills noted the feud among congregations was triggered by the arrival in the frontier of a Baptist missionary, John Mason Peck, from New England.</p>