This week in Christian history: John Gano dies; Bud Robinson conversion; Martin Spalding ordained
John Gano dies – Aug. 10, 1804
This week marks the anniversary of when John Gano, a Baptist preacher and chaplain in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, died at the age of 77.
Born in Hopewell, New Jersey, and raised Presbyterian, Gano became a Baptist minister in 1754 and did three missionary journeys in the American South before leading a church in New York.
Gano served as a chaplain during the Revolution and later moved out to Kentucky to preach, reducing his ministry efforts following a fall from a horse and a stroke in 1798.
The Louisville-based Baptist news outlet Kentucky Today credits Gano with helping to stop the growth of Arianism in the state in 1803, when he “preached a powerful sermon on the deity of Christ” at the behest of the Elkhorn Baptist Association.
“The next year John Gano died,” noted Kentucky Today. “If God can use Gano at this point in his life, what difference for the Lord can you make?”
