1830-1830
Judson Wade Boardman
Infant Burma
Missionaries Sarah Hall and George Dana Boardman had three children while in Burma working alongside Adoniram Judson. Rev. Boardman was born in 1801 and was in the first class of graduates from Waterville College (Colby College, Maine) in 1822 where the president’s son was the young Adoniram Judson Chaplin. The Boardman’s arrived in Burma in 1827. Their first child was a daughter Sarah who lived only three years, 1826-1829, and was named for her mother.
The second child, George Dana Boardman, Jr. (1828-1903) was born in Tavoy, Burma, and named for his father who died at age 30 on 11 February 1831. The younger Boardman was raised by his step-father, Adoniram Judson, Jr., and attended school in the U.S. eventually becoming a leading Baptist pastor in Rochester, NY, and Philadelphia, PA. “George the Younger” was a founder of the Brotherhood of the Kingdom and became a leader in the social gospel movement along with Walter Rauschenbusch.[1]
The third child born to these missionary pioneers was named Judson Wade Boardman and died as an infant in 1830, a year before his father died. His father, George Dana Boardman, Sr., was the pioneer missionary to the Karens who baptized Ko Tha Byu and led evangelistic efforts in the Karen villages near Tavoy. Jonathan Wade was his missionary teammate who codified the Karen language thus making the Bible available to those who came to Christianity through the work of Boardman. This baby carried the legacy of three great American missionaries in Burma—Judson, Wade and Boardman.
Eight years after the death of George Boardman, his widow, Sarah became the second wife of Adoniram Judson, Jr. Sarah grew up in the First Baptist Church in Salem, MA, where she was baptized and first married. A pew from that building is now in Herrick Chapel at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois.
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[1] George Dana Boardman, Jr., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boardman_the_Younger