1949-Present
Camp Judson
North Springfield, Pennsylvania PA
Camp Judson is a Christian Camp and Retreat Center located on Lake Erie in North Springfield, Pennsylvania, but it was not always so. Throughout the 1940s Baptist children and youth in northwestern Pennsylvania who wished to have a Christian camping experience would either attend a non-denominational camp like Camp Caledon near Erie, or drive to Camp Corbly, the Baptist camp in Clearfield County.
In 1948 Baptist pastors and laymen from the Oil Creek and French Creek Baptist Associations formed a committee to locate and establish a camp in Erie or Crawford County. Though occasionally separated by flooding creeks, the group was united in creating a Christian camp. They visited many potential sites, and explored nearly every suitable tract of along the lake shore between Erie and the Ohio state line.
They agreed on a 100-acre parcel of farmland that had an abandoned hotel on it built in 1910 plus 1000 feet of Lake Erie beachfront. Over the years it had fallen into great disrepair and a neighboring farmer had several feet of grain stored in the building. Bob Saxon’s story of the purchase of that property is classic Baptist lore involving Union City banker, L. D. Shreve, and his friend, Elisha H. Mack, owner of Erie’s Boston Store.
Rev. Jeffords and Bob Blair traveled to Cleveland to meet Mr. Holliday, who informed them that he would sell the property of about 100 acres with 1000 feet of lake frontage for the sum of $20,000. The committee didn’t have a dime to invest in camping at that point, so Rev. Jeffords and Bob Blair had several meetings with Mr. Mack and Mr. Shreve. Mr. Blair, on several later occasions, recounted the final meeting with Mr. Shreve in this manner: He said that Mr. Shreve asked the purchase price, which they indicated was $20,000. Mr. Shreve then asked what one third of that would be, and wrote a check to Mr. Mack for $6,666.66. He instructed Rev. Jeffords and Mr. Blair that they should take the check to Mr. Mack and tell him exactly this: “that since Mr. Mack is twice as rich as I am, I expect he will put in the other two thirds of the price. But if for any reason he doesn’t want to do that ask him to tear up my check and we will forget the matter.” Mr. Shreve and Mr. Mack were great friends and enjoyed challenging each other. Rev. Jeffords and Bob Blair hastened to meet with Mr. Mack at his office in Erie and presented him with Mr. Shreve’s check and statement. Mr. Mack’s comment was “that is more than I intended to give, but if Mr. Shreve thinks I should do it, I will. I can’t tear up that poor man’s check.”[1]
The next year in 1950, “A contest was held to name the camp, and the commissioners chose the name Camp Judson in honor of Adoniram Judson, the first Baptist missionary from America, who heroically labored for the Lord under immense difficulties in Burma.”[2] Throughout that fall and the spring of 1950 hundreds of volunteer hours were spent preparing for the first camping season. Camp Judson opened with girls staying in the hotel and boys sleeping in WWII tents.[3]
Throughout the years since then as the facilities and programs have developed, and as ministry opportunities have flourished, the prayers, labor, and support of Christians in northwestern Pennsylvania have maintained Camp Judson as a place where children, youth, and adults can come to meet Jesus Christ, to gain a new vision of what He can mean in their lives, and to fellowship with friends new and old.
Today Camp Judson covers 122 acres with 1000 feet of Lake Erie shoreline. And, yes, the 1910 hotel is still in use and the dining hall has been named for E. H. Mack who wrote the biggest check to purchase the property and who gave the money to start the Erie Community Foundation. Camp Judson is an independent 501c3 non-profit organization (with the legal name “Northwestern Pennsylvania Baptist Assembly”) and a member of the Christian Camp and Conference Association.
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[1] Bob Saxton, Northwestern Pennsylvania Baptist Assembly Camp Judson: The Early Years, 1949-1978. Unpublished manuscript available from Camp Judson, p. 5. (Bob Saxton was an early manager at Camp Judson for 10 years and his son, Kevin Saxton, is the current manager.)
[2] Ibid., p. 7.
[3] Telephone conversation with Kevin Saxton, Executive Director, Northwestern Pennsylvania Baptist Assembly, dba as Camp Judson and Judson Baptist Camp, October 27, 2022.