1818-1907
Adoniram Judson Roundy
Grocer/Philanthropist ME/WI
he last of John Roundy’s and Polly Trussell’s nine children was born on March 17, 1818, in Blue Hill, Maine and they named him Adoniram Judson Roundy. The lad later married Mary Amelia Dexter and moved to Rhode Island where he succeeded in the grocery business. Heeding the call to go west in 1872, the Roundys moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became active members of the First Baptist Church.
Since Adoniram was a laborious name, his business dealings were done under the name of Judson A. Roundy and with two partners, he founded a wholesale grocery distributorship in Milwaukee named Smith, Roundy and Company. The enterprise outgrew its first quarters and in 1885 moved to a larger building at the intersection of Broadway and Buffalo Streets. This second location was destroyed by the Third Ward Fire in 1892 but the firm rebuilt at the same location.
Always active in Baptist life, Roundy was named in 1885 to the Church Edifice Committee of the Wisconsin Baptist Convention, a passion he maintained throughout his life.[1] Baptist businessman and entrepreneur Adoniram Judson Roundy (Judson A. Roundy) died May 15, 1907, in Fortress, Wisconsin at 89 years of age.
In 1909, when Roundy’s estate was settled, the state Convention and Wayland [Academy] each received $206,863. The Convention’s legacy was to be used as a church edifice fund. Up to that time [1844 to 1907] only $8,230 had been granted for the purpose.[2]
Toward the end of the Great Depression in 1939,
Total loans to the churches had been $276,282, a sum considerably greater than the original bequest.[3] The Roundy request (sic) was the largest gift in the history of the Convention. About one hundred Wisconsin Baptist churches have received assistance totalling (sic) more than the original bequest…[4]
Two hundred years after his birth, the Roundy name is still used on some 145 grocery stores and 99 pharmacies throughout Wisconsin. Wayland Academy in Beaver Falls has a major building named Roundy Hall. In 1936 the Ardmore Baptist Church in Milwaukee changed its name to become the Roundy Memorial Baptist Church but due to changing demographics the congregation disbanded in 2011 donating the proceeds from its assets to the Milwaukee Hunger Task Force. The estate gift of Adoniram Judson Roundy to the Wisconsin Baptist Convention continues to advance the cause of Christ which this layman whole-heartedly embraced.
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[1] Edgar L. Killam, The Centennial History of the Wisconsin Baptist State Convention (Wisconsin Baptist State Convention, 1944), p. 54.
[2] Lawrence H. Janssen, The Road to Today: A Sesquicentennial History American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin 1844-1994 (Green Lake, WI: The Cedars Press, 1994), p. 30.
[3] Edgar L. Killam, p. 124.
[4] Ibid. p. 124.