1850-1929
Adoniram Judson Bonsall
Baptist Pastor Pennsylvania PA
The 1850, and final, report from the Baptist mission in Burma, led by Adoniram Judson, Jr., since 1813, told of 7,908 baptized Christians in 62 churches with 174 trained leaders. That same year, Adoniram Judson Bonsall was born October 30 in Sharpsburg, PA, and served nearly all his ministry in the Pittsburg area. He studied at Allegany Academy and completed his undergraduate degree at Bucknell. By 1872 he is serving as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Apollo, and is the third minister to lead this congregation which was organized and admitted to the Pittsburg Baptist Association in 1868. Bonsall set the stage and laid the groundwork for a new building but did not stay for its completion in 1873.
From 1872 to 1875, A. J. Bonsall was minister of 37th Street Baptist Church, Pittsburg, and from 1875-78 he was minister at First Baptist Church in Erie, PA. Bonsall returned to the Pittsburg area 1878 to 1904 as pastor of the Baptist congregation in Rochester which had been founded in 1874. Bonsall served as the second pastor of this congregation covering a tenure of 26 years during which he was honored with a degree from Western Theological Seminary (1883) in Pittsburgh.
The final pastorate for Adoniram Judson Bonsall was at the Sandusky Street Baptist Church where he served as assistant pastor for two years (1904-06) before coming senior pastor (1906-25). This congregation was originally named First Baptist Church of Allegany but under Bonsall’s leadership, changed its name in 1907 to be identified with the street upon which the main building was located.[1] After a long and influential ministry, Adoniram Judson Bonsall died September 27, 1929, in Pittsburgh.
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[1] William Russell Pankey, History of the Churches of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1939), pp. 27,44,56.