1847-1933
Adoniram Judson Holt
Baptist Minister KY/FL
It was at the suggestion of my Grandfather Buckner that I received the name of that distinguished missionary to Burmah, Adoniram Judson. This great man was living and in the meridian of his fame and usefulness. I recall how difficult it was for me to learn to pronounce my own name, and that of the county and town of my nativity. “Adoniram Judson Holt, born in Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky, December 1, 1847.”[1]
He served as a private in the confederate army at age 14 beginning as a waggoneer and then as a substitute infantryman for a soldier who never returned from a furlough away from the lines. Holt studied at McKenzie College near Clarksville, Texas in 1866 where he paid for his tuition with the horse he had during the war. After his ordination in 1868, Holt taught school and served 3 Baptist churches (Webberville, Perryville, Bethlehem) one Sunday per month.
I taught school every week-day and preached every Sunday. It was not customary to pay a preacher then, so I taught school for a living. I made a good living, too, receiving about one hundred dollars a month for my services which was good wages, then. It was ten years after that before I ever received nearly so much as a preacher. I rode horseback to my appointments every Sunday, carrying my Bible and my hymn book in my saddlebags. Only one hymn book was used in the congregation and from it the preacher would announce and line out his hymn and its metre. The he raised the tune an led the singing. Everybody sang…. The sermons were usually from one hour to two hours in length.[2]
He left Texas in 1874 to attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, SC, for the next two years (1874-76). However, his first wife died during these seminary years leaving A. J. Holt with two children. There was a rushed courtship with Emma Dennis reported in his autobiography with this story:
When we returned to the house, I asked Miss Emma to take a walk with me. We went out into the orchard and there I made about this speech to her: “Miss Emma, I have a question to ask you and I desire that you shall take you own time in answering me. Do you think you could consent to marry a preacher, to have a really hard life, to go, possibly, to a foreign land and spend your life among a heathen people, all for the love of the Lord and your husband? If you think kindly of such a life, I shall ask you to share such a life with me. Remember, I have two little children and you would have the responsibility of raising them. I regret that I cannot offer you what you deserve, a life of ease and comfort. Without doubt it will be a life of hardships and perhaps of dangers.”[3]
Emma Dennis said yes and they were married on June 16, 1875, and they eventually had 5 children. His seminary education was interrupted for a year of missionary work with Indians (1878) and a pastorate in Denison, Texas, 1879-1880. He returned to Southern Seminary which had moved to Louisville, KY, to pastor the Portland Avenue Church, 1880-82, work for the seminary and finish his seminary degree in 1883.
Returning to Texas he was elected to serve as the state Superintendent of Missions 1882-1889 because he attended the wrong meeting at the right time.[4] After a visit to Palestine 1889-1890, Holt returned to Texas and accepted a pastorate in Nacogdoches, Texas, 1890-1892, though the First Baptist Church of Houston offered him three times the Nacagdoches salary.
He became the state Secretary of Missions for Tennessee 1892-1902 while completing a Ps.M. (Master of Psychology) degree from the Atlanta School of Psychology in 1899 and serving as superintendent of the Tennessee Baptist Orphanage gratis for 8 years.
Adoniram Judson Holt accepted a pastorate in South Knoxville (1905-09) where he was elected president of the Tennessee Baptist Pastors’ Conference and even served as president of Tennessee College for one year (1905). His later career included these ministries:
- +1909-10, Pastor, Chickasha, Oklahoma.
- +1911-15, Pastor, Kissimmee, Florida, where began a long tenure as president of the Florida Baptist Pastors’ Conference.
- +1915-21, Pastor, Arcadia, Florida and editor of The Florida Baptist Witness (1916-17).
- +Pastor, First Baptist Church, Punta Gorda, FL
In his spare time A. J. Holt served as a trustee of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for 10 years and authored several books including: Missionary Manual, 1884; Pastor’s Record, 1923; and Pioneering in the Southwest, 1923. Adoniram Judson Holt was awarded honorary degrees from Keachie College in 1887 and Baylor University in 1888. He died May 15, 1933, in Arcadia, Florida, and was laid to rest at the Oak Ridge Cemetery there.[5]
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[1] Adoniram Judson Holt, Pioneering in the Southwest (Nashville, TN: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1923), pp. 7-8.
[2] Ibid., p. 56.
[3] Ibid., p. 100.
[4] Ibid., pp. 196-197.
[5] Adoniram Judson Holt. https://prabook.com/web/adoniram_judson.holt/1098547