1839-1912
Adoniram Judson Cheves
Baptist Pastor Georgia GA/GA
Adoniram Judson Cheves was born July 5, 1839, at Montezuma in Macon County, Georgia the son of Isaac Green Cheves and Ann Elizabeth Cheves. He began studies at Mercer University during the Civil War finishing a BA in 1862 and an MA in 1869. His wife was Anna Marie and together they had five children.
From 1874-79 Cheves pastored the Baptist Church at Travelers Rest, Georgia, overlapping with a pastorate at the Baptist Church in Hayneville 1877-81. He then organized a church in his hometown of Montezuma, Georgia, and served as its pastor 1882-92.
His last ministry challenge was to lead in the founding and organization of Cedar Valley Baptist Church as reported by their historian.
In the first decade of the 1900’s, a small group of such people, living in an area five miles southeast of the 50-year-old town of Montezuma, met for a week of preaching by the Rev. Adoniram Judson Cheves in a frame building they had earlier built for a community schoolhouse. They came out of the final meeting on fire with a conviction that their area should have Baptist Church and that it was up to them, as Christians, to organize it.
And so it was that five men and five women, on September 4, 1910, established the Cedar Valley Baptist Church…. The Rev. Cheves, who they called as their first pastor, had earlier helped organize the Montezume Baptist Church.[1]
After a faithful career of ministry Adoniram Judson Cheves died on January 16, 1912, at age 72 and 100 years after his namesake departed the U.S. for missionary service in Burma. Cheves is buried in Montezuma, Georgia, his hometown.
+++++++++++++++
[1] Cleone Poteet, The Origin and History of Cedar Valley Baptist Church, http://www.cedarvalleybaptistchurch.com/history