1820-1893
Adoniram Judson Buell
Baptist Pastor New York/Ohio NY/OH
Adoniram Judson Buell was born in the village of Delphi, NY, 30 October 1820. His mother was Phebe Freeman Buell whose four brothers were all Baptist preachers. Her first son, Rev. Rufus Freeman Buell was the first American missionary to Greece where he labored 15 years. Her second son, Adoniram Judson Buell, graduated from the Baptist Educational Foundation of the State of New York (now Colgate University) in 1847.
After leaving school he removed to Ohio and became Superintendent of the Public Schools of Newark. Subsequently he was employed in the same capacity in Portsmouth… In the year 1851 he was united in marriage with Susan D. Davey, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and to them were born two sons. But teaching was not to be his life work. He came from a family noted for the number of men it gave to the ministry of the Gospel….as received and taught by the Baptists.
He was ordained at Salt Creek and became pastor of that church and of the Brookfield Church. In subsequent years he served as pastor of the Good Hope and Roxabelle Churches in the Clinton Association, and of the Jackson Church where he labored as a missionary of the Ohio Baptist Convention and led in the building of a house of worship. Later on he served as pastor of the Republic, Attica and Reed Churches in the Huron Association. His public work closed with his pastorate in Richfield, Lucas County in 1881.
He was a student all his life, and in the later years of his retirement gave much of his time to the study of the word of God in the original languages. He took up the course of the American Institute of Sacred Literature under Dr. William Harper, and graduated when he was seventy years of age. He was a devout and earnest Christian, and found great delight in preaching the blessed gospel of Christ. He was devotedly attached to the Bible, and to the doctrines and practices of the Baptist denomination… His death came within twelve hours after he was stricken with paralysis while conducting a funeral service….[1]
Denominationally involved, Adoniram Judson Buell was asked by the Baptist ministers meeting in the Cincinnati Y.M.C.A. in February 1892, to write the resolution in appreciation of Charles Hadden Spurgeon upon the occasion of Spurgeon’s death. The only extant example of the writing or preaching of Adoniram Judson Buell will suffice to show something of his values.
Whereas God in his all wise providence has called unto himself that prince of preachers, the Rev. Charles Spurgeon, pastor of the Tabernacle church London, England, who by his sublime faith and eloquent Christian utterances has for nearly half of century influenced all classes in every part of the civilized world for the glory of God, therefore resolved
That in the death of C. H. Spurgeon the world has suffered a loss that language cannot express.
That no man has ever been called from the church militant whose death has caused so many devout Christians to mourn.
That we should render praise and devout thanksgiving to God of the gift of such a man to preach the gospel in the nineteenth century.
That he was preeminently a man of faith. His works prove his faith to be genuine. Like Paul and Abraham his faith always led him to comply cheerfully with the will of God.
That his course through life was a walk with God and that few if any men have ever lived who “conferred less with flesh and blood.” May all who loved him and mourn his loss know that God’s purposes result gloriously.
Resolved that these resolutions be printed in our city morning papers and that a copy of the same be sent to Mrs. Spurgeon and to the Tabernacle church, London.[2]
Adoniram Judson Buell was a touchpoint for the two most influential Baptists of the nineteenth century, Adoniram Judson Jr., and Charles Haddon Spurgeon. These two men brought Baptists out of the woodwork and made them a known force beyond their local enclaves.
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[1] Proceedings of the Sixty-Eighth Anniversary of the Ohio Baptist Convention (Norwalk, Ohio: Ohio Baptist Convention, 1893), pp. 61-63.
[2] “Baptists,” Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), February 2, 1892, p. 6.