Excerpt from A History of First Baptist Church: Centennial Celebration In our effort to prepare a short history of First Baptist Church of Gastonia we begin by looking back briefly at the roots from which this church sprang. But in doing so we are trying not to look so far back that we lose sight of our immediate predecessors in the faith. Therefore we are focusing our attention upon the activities and accomplishments of our Baptist forefathers right here in America. We begin by taking a quick look at a few of the early arrivals of Baptist in this country. We' do not know who the first Baptist was to set foot on American soil. But we' know from American history that many of these early immigrants came here to escape religious persecution in the old countries. Some of them were Baptists. Others became Baptists after coming to America. Among these early arrivals were such Baptist leaders as Roger Williams and John Clarke. Roger Williams was born in Wales in 1598. He received his education at the Universities of Oxford and of Cambridge. He was a Puritan and a Separatist. He spoke out openly against religious intolerance and persecution. For this he himself became a victim of persecution. To escape such persecution he fled to America in 1630. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.