Hezekiah Johnson was a true pioneer missionary here in the United States. When a few Baptist families moved across the Mississippi from Illinois into Iowa, the first church in the new territory was constituted in Burlington in 1834. The first “settled” pastor of the church was Hezekiah Johnson.
Johnson had been born in Maryland, and it was there that he was born again. His father was a Baptist pastor and in order to serve his Lord, took the family to Ohio. It was there that young Hezekiah was called to preach and ordained to the ministry. After seven years of ministry in Ohio, Hezekiah took his wife and family to Iowa to pastor the church mentioned above.
But America was continuing to move west, taking with it the need of the gospel. In 1845 pioneer missionary Hezekiah Johnson left the comforts of the church he had built and became one of the first Baptist ministers in Oregon, establishing a church in Oregon City.
After a long and successful ministry beginning in Ohio and ending in Oregon, Bro. Johnson passed away at the age of 67, and a memorial service was held for him on this day in 1866.
Source: This Day in Baptist History III, by David Cummins