1814-1855

Adoniram Judson Copeland

Congregational Minister    ME/IL

We have discovered only two notations on this first namesake for Adoniram Judson, Jr., and they only tease us to know more about this pioneer to Illinois.

Adoniram Judson Copeland was born in Brewer, March, 1814. After graduation [from Bowdoin College] he entered the Theological Seminary in Bangor and graduated in 1843. He began his work in the ministry in this State [Maine] but removed after a time to Illinois, and was in the pastorate in Como of that State. We have failed to gain more information concerning him. He died in 1855.[1]

Adoniram Judson Copeland was born at Brewer, ME, in March of 1814. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1840, and from Banger Theological Seminary in 1843. He was ordained as a Congregational minister and after preaching for a time in Maine, moved to Illinois and accepted a call as pastor of the Church at Como. Never formally incorporated, Como, was in northwestern Illinois, Whiteside County, near the town of Sterling on the Rock River. Copeland died in 1855.[2]

We do not know much about Rev. Copeland beyond the above summaries. When did he come to Illinois?  Why did he choose Illinois? What was the cause of his physical demise? Did he have family who remained in Illinois or in Maine?

It is important to remember that before Adoniram Judson was a hero to the Baptists, he was a pioneering hero for the Congregationalists.  Ann and Adoniram grew up in the Congregational Church and Adoniram was appointed as a missionary by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions founded in 1810 by the Congregationalists. This first group of commissioned missionaries included Adoniram Judson, Jr., Luther Rice, Samuel Newell, Gordon Hall and Samuel Nott, all from Congregational backgrounds.

Thus in 1814, only two years after the Judsons had departed the US for missionary service, and nine months after the Judsons arrived in Burma, parents were naming their babies for these bold adventurers. Father and Mother Copeland probably did not know that Ann had lost a stillborn son nor that the Judsons had been evicted twice from India before little Adoniram Judson Copeland was born. These parents probably did not know the Judsons had resigned from the Congregational mission board and were unemployed in a foreign land when their son, Adoniram Judson Copeland, was born.

We can only guess the motivations of the parents who named their child for this missionary they never met. We can assume they read The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine published for the Congregationalists by Samuel T. Armstrong in Boston with “All the Profits, after supporting the Work,.. devoted to the Support of Foreign Missions.”[3] We can only imagine that A. J. Copeland felt the same call to go to the wilds of northwestern Illinois to establish Congregational churches to serve the spiritual needs of Natives and immigrants who were moving west as did Adoniram Judson, Jr.  Adoniram Judson Copeland may have a story as captivating as that of his namesake.

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[1] Nehemiah Cleaveland and Alpheus Spring Packard, History of Bowdoin College with Biographical Sketches of its Graduates from 1800 to 1870, Inclusive (Boston: James Ripley Osgood & Company, 1882), p. 541. Nabu Public Domain Reprints.

[2] Adoniram Judson Copeland, https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/C/copeland-adoniram-judson.html

[3] The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine (Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong), August (Part I), 1813, No 3, Vol IX, Front Cover.

1817-1892

Adoniram Judson Chaplin

Baptist Pastor     MA/NY

Adoniram Judson Chaplin was born in Danvers, MA, 15 February 1817, to Marcia O’Brien and Jeremiah Chaplin, the first president of Maine Literary and Theological Institute (now Colby College). He was the first child born to this couple and was followed by four sisters and one brother, Jeremiah Chaplin, who became an influential Baptist pastor in Boston.

Led by Baptists, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on 27 February 1813, adopted a petition to establish the Maine Literary and Theological Institution in Waterville where citizens had donated 179 acres to attract the new school to their town. The first president, Jeremiah Chaplin with a wife and one-year-old son, Adoniram Judson Chaplin, opened classes in 1818 in a vacant house. President Chaplin served for 15 years in this founding role establishing many precedents for this academic startup.

Five years later, in 1818, Maine separated from Massachusetts allowing Missouri to join the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state. Under the new Maine charter, Maine Literary and Theological Institute took on a distinctive Baptist flavor. Students could not be denied admission based on religion, Board members would not be required to pass a religious test, and the name of the institution was changed to Waterville College in 1821. Young Adoniram Judson Chaplin spent his first 15 years watching his father make these changes as president of the school. (In 1867 the name of the school was changed to Colby University in appreciation of Baptist philanthropist, Gardner Colby, who revitalized the school after the Civil War. The institution finally settled on Colby College in 1899.)

The son of this Baptist college president, Adoniram Judson Chaplin, graduated from New York’s Baptist Educational Foundation (now Colgate University) in 1845, the year Adoniram Judson, Jr., came to the States for his only furlough.  In the 1850 U. S. census, when he is 33, Chaplin lived in Dover, NY. Ten years later, when he was 43, he lived in Conway, MA, where he was serving as pastor of the Baptist congregation and where he married Ada Cornelia Coffin on 18 September 1860. By 1870 he was living in Conway, MA, again leading this same congregation after pastoring for a few years in New York (1865-68 at Castle Creek and 1868-69 at Candor).

Ada Chaplin died after 23 years of marriage on 9 December 1883, in Conway, MA, and was eulogized by those who knew her.

Few women of her age have accomplished as much. Talented and gifted with rare Christian graces her early death is an irreparable loss to her husband, her friends and the church in which she bore so active a part. Her dying words, prepared by her own hand for her funeral services, will not soon be forgotten by those who listened to them. Rest in peace, dear one, for thy work was well done and its influence shall never die.[1]

A. J. Chaplin’s final pastorates were

• 1874-84. Baptist Church, Mansfield Center, CT
• 1887-88. First Baptist Church, Colrain, MA
• 1889-91. Tabernacle Baptist Church, Ithaca, NY

Adoniram Judson Chaplin died on 29 January 1892, in Conway, MA, two days before the death of Charles Hadden Spurgeon in Menton, France. Chaplin is buried in Ithaca, NY.

We can guess that Jeremiah and Marcia Chaplin might have attended the first meeting of the Triennial Convention in 1814 and there learned of the Congregational missionary Adoniram Judson and his conversion to the Baptist faith. The young couple named their first child in appreciation of the missionary spirit that motivated Ann and Adoniram Judson, Jr., to venture to Burma.

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[1] Gazette and Courier (Greenfield, MA), Dec 24, 1883, p. 2.

1818-1864 

Adoniram Judson Rowell

Businessman/Public Servant.  Vermont

Adoniram Judson Rowell was born on 4 November 1818, in Waterville, VT. He died 46 years later on 24 December 1864, in New Troy, VT.  He married Lucy Ann Richardson in 1841 and six children were born into this family. Rowell’s obituary reads in part:

Died, at his residence, in North Troy, Dec. 24, of typhoid fever, after a distressing sickness of several weeks, Hon. A. Judson Rowell, aged 46. Thus has fallen, in the meridian of this manhood, one of the ablest and best known citizens of Vermont;… [local citizens] will never forget his zealous, his touching appeals in behalf of the oppressed, and his trilling demonstrations of the “irrepressible conflict” between freedom and slavery…[1]

A businessman and politician, Rowell attended the University of Vermont but left before graduating because of a problem with his eyes which made it difficult to study. He became active in business, including a general store in North Troy. He was an anti-slavery activist and became active in politics as a member of both the Liberty and Free Soil Parties. He joined the Republicans when that party was organized as the major anti-slavery party in the mid 1850’s. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress several times as a Free Soil candidate. Rowell served as a Justice of the Peace, member of the Vermont House of Representatives, member of the Vermont Senate, and also served as state Banking Commissioner. In 1853 he received an honorary master’s degree from University of Vermont. During the Civil War, he was appointed as a Commissary officer with the rank of Captain, responsible for acquiring and distributing supplies and equipment needed by Union Army soldiers.[2]

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[1] Orleans Independent Standard, January 6, 1865, p. 2.

[2] Adoniram Judson Rowell, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175242458/adoniram-judson-rowell

1818-1893 

Adoniram Judson Greeley

Physician/Philanthropist NH/RI

The Greeley Public Library in Hudson, New Hampshire, reports the story of Adoniram Judson “A.J.” Greeley, MD, and we are grateful for their permission to recount his story through this edited version of “Remember Hudson NH When.”

A native of Hudson, Adoniram Judson Greeley, was the oldest son of Joanna (Merrill) and Reuben Greeley. Reuben owned a farm in Hudson Center and was a prominent leader in town serving as postmaster, town clerk, selectman, representative to the legislature, and as an early member of the First Baptist Church.

AJ’s mother, Joanna, was born in Sedgwick, Maine where her father, Rev. Daniel Merrill, was the pastor of the local church. Rev. Merrill served in the Revolution and graduated from Dartmouth College. He first served as a Congregational pastor but converted to Baptist and became a leader in the Baptist movement in New England. Rev. Merrill and his family moved to Hudson in 1814 when he accepted the call to be the pastor of the Baptist Church here in Hudson. Reuben Greeley, a prominent young man, and Joanna Merrill, the pastor’s daughter, were married in November 1817.

In September of the following year (1818) their first child was born and named Adoniram Judson Greeley in honor of the first protestant missionary sent from North America to serve in Burma. He was a New Englander and a Baptist, so it was natural that Reuben and Joanna named their first son in his honor.

AJ’s early education was from his parents and a local one room district school. His high school education was at the Academy and Theological Institution in New Hampton, NH. Following high school, he attended Brown University in Rhode Island graduating in 1841. He then did medical studies at Harvard and received his MD in 1845. He practiced medicine in Searsmount, ME for about 10 years moving to Clinton, MA for a short period and then settled in or near Providence, RI area where he practiced nearly 40 years until his sudden and unexpected death in 1893.

In addition to medicine, he had an advocation for antiquity. He traveled to various countries and was particularly knowledgeable about Europe and Egypt. He was known to have a sizeable estate which included his personal library of nearly 3000 books. In his will he bequeathed some 500 volumes to the town of Hudson for a library.

Dr. A. J. Greeley died unexpectedly at the age of 74. He was found unconscious in his office and passed away the next morning at a local hospital. A local police officer was doing rounds and noticed a trail of blood outside in his doorway. He followed the bloody trail to the doctor’s office where he was found unconscious. At first his passing was considered an accident, suffering head injuries as the result of a fall. Dr. Greeley did leave a blood-stained note instructing whoever found it to get in touch with his brother, H.C. Greeley, the executor of his will. Following his death and an examination of his body the medical examiner declared his injuries were not consistent with an accident and his death was considered a homicide, the theory being he was attacked during a robbery as he was known to carry money on his person. It is unclear if anyone was prosecuted for this crime.

The rest is history. His brother was the executor of his estate. Through AJ’s generosity and the generosity of his heirs nearly 2000 volumes of his books came to Hudson over the next few months to form the nucleus of the Greeley Public Library. A.J. himself was returned to his hometown where he was laid to rest in the family lot in Westview Cemetery along with his parents and four of his siblings.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Greeley, https://rememberhudsonnhwhen.com/2019/07/27/dr-adoniram-judson-greeley/

1818-1907

Adoniram Judson Roundy

Grocer/Philanthropist    ME/WI

he last of John Roundy’s and Polly Trussell’s nine children was born on March 17, 1818, in Blue Hill, Maine and they named him Adoniram Judson Roundy. The lad later married Mary Amelia Dexter and moved to Rhode Island where he succeeded in the grocery business. Heeding the call to go west in 1872, the Roundys moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became active members of the First Baptist Church.

Since Adoniram was a laborious name, his business dealings were done under the name of Judson A. Roundy and with two partners, he founded a wholesale grocery distributorship in Milwaukee named Smith, Roundy and Company. The enterprise outgrew its first quarters and in 1885 moved to a larger building at the intersection of Broadway and Buffalo Streets. This second location was destroyed by the Third Ward Fire in 1892 but the firm rebuilt at the same location. 

Always active in Baptist life, Roundy was named in 1885 to the Church Edifice Committee of the Wisconsin Baptist Convention, a passion he maintained throughout his life.[1] Baptist businessman and entrepreneur Adoniram Judson Roundy (Judson A. Roundy) died May 15, 1907, in Fortress, Wisconsin at 89 years of age.

In 1909, when Roundy’s estate was settled, the state Convention and Wayland [Academy] each received $206,863. The Convention’s legacy was to be used as a church edifice fund. Up to that time [1844 to 1907] only $8,230 had been granted for the purpose.[2]

Toward the end of the Great Depression in 1939,

Total loans to the churches had been $276,282, a sum considerably greater than the original bequest.[3] The Roundy request (sic) was the largest gift in the history of the Convention. About one hundred Wisconsin Baptist churches have received assistance totalling (sic) more than the original bequest…[4]

Two hundred years after his birth, the Roundy name is still used on some 145 grocery stores and 99 pharmacies throughout Wisconsin.  Wayland Academy in Beaver Falls has a major building named Roundy Hall. In 1936 the Ardmore Baptist Church in Milwaukee changed its name to become the Roundy Memorial Baptist Church but due to changing demographics the congregation disbanded in 2011 donating the proceeds from its assets to the Milwaukee Hunger Task Force. The estate gift of Adoniram Judson Roundy to the Wisconsin Baptist Convention continues to advance the cause of Christ which this layman whole-heartedly embraced.

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[1] Edgar L. Killam, The Centennial History of the Wisconsin Baptist State Convention (Wisconsin Baptist State Convention, 1944), p. 54.

[2] Lawrence H. Janssen, The Road to Today: A Sesquicentennial History American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin 1844-1994 (Green Lake, WI: The Cedars Press, 1994), p. 30.

[3] Edgar L. Killam, p. 124.

[4] Ibid. p. 124.

1818-1908

Adoniram Judson Walker

Tinsmith/Pastor/Inventor     VT/MA

The story of Rev. Adoniram Judson Walker is sketchy though we know he pastored in Massachusetts at Ervings Grant and Warwick Baptist Churches 1880-1883 then took on the Savoy congregation 1884-1887. His life can best be summarized through this obituary, one of the few sources about this faithful pastor.

Rev. Adoniram Judson Walker, 90, died Sunday morning at 2 o’clock at the R. A. Pullis home on the Windsor road, where he had been spending the past eight months…. He has been a resident of Dalton for 20 years, coming here from Savoy where he was pastor of the Baptist church for several years. An interesting incident happened when Mr. Walker was taken to the Pullis home, when in cleaning out a work box which had been in his possession for many years and which was formerly the property of his daughter who was dead, two bank books were found showing deposits of $150 in a bank in Vermont. The amounts were found correct and with the interest made a total of $380 which came as a very acceptable surprise to the aged man.

Mr. Walker was in early life a tinsmith by trade. He later prepared for the ministry and following in the footsteps of his father, was ordained as a Baptist minister. He has served as pastor in a number of churches in the New England states, the larger portion of this time being served in the state of Vermont. He was of a mechanical turn of mind and was the inventor of a number of devices among them being an improved car coupler and a safety carriage axle.

He was married in Vermont and his wife and two daughters died a number of years ago. The funeral will be held tomorrow after none at 2 o’clock at the Congregational chapel… The body will be taken to Newfane, Vt., for burial.[1]

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[1] “Rev. A. J. Walker Dead,” The Berkshire Evening Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), Sat., January 11, 1908, p. 11.

1819-1850

Nancy Judson McCoy

Special Daughter IN/MO

To get a glimpse of Nancy Judson McCoy it is necessary to know her parents, Isaac and Christiana McCoy. Biographer Walter N. Wyeth describes Isaac McCoy as, “the pioneer, the Judson of the West, who enjoys the honor of arousing the people of God, and of the land generally to their duty to a neglected and misused race.”[1] McCoy was a missionary to the Indians appointed by Baptists in 1817 at the second meeting of the Triennial Convention.  At their first meeting, three years prior, the Baptists assumed the appointment of Adoniram Judson, Jr., as a missionary to Burma.[2]

Nancy Judson McCoy was born to Isaac and Christiana McCoy on 26 February 1819, the ninth child to come from this marriage. Before becoming a missionary to the indigenous Indians of America, Isaac McCoy was pastor of the Maria Creek Baptist Church in southwestern Indiana (1809-1812) where he engaged the moral crises of the day by refusing church membership to slaveholder Peter Hansbrough.[3] McCoy worked with indigenous peoples in Michigan, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri and was involved in the founding of both Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Isaac and Christiana already had birthed 8 children when they left Maria Creek and moved to Raccoon Creek, Indiana, to begin ministry among the Native Americans.[4] The first child born in this new locale was named Nancy Judson McCoy using the pet name “Nancy” which was often applied to Ann Hasseltine Judson. She seemed to be a normal child but early in life contacted a debilitating fever. Her father reported:

A young daughter [Nancy] long lingered in a nervous fever, exceedingly low; her nerves ever after remained so much affected as to render her incapable of taking care of herself, and this continued affliction of a dear child, once among the most sprightly of our children, has been a source of anxiety exceeding all others which belong to the ordinary matters of our life.[5]

In a biographical sketch of Christiana Polke McCoy, historian Gary W. Long provides a few snippets of Nancy Judson McCoy’s life.

+My daughter, Nancy Judson McCoy is mentally and physically incapable of taking care of herself, her mind and the proper use of her limbs are impaired we believe by a nervous fever…previously she appeared to possess common activity of body and sprightliness of thought…[6]

In 1831 when her son Charles died, “a bereaved Christiana was also taking care of the other small children, which included their handicapped daughter Nancy.”[7] Later that year the family moved to Oklahoma Territory where Christiana had to make the most of a very difficult situation “plus the special attention needed for her daughter Nancy.”[8] By May of 1833, seven of Christiana Polke McCoy’s children had died and two were married leaving her with “…one daughter physically handicapped.”[9] From Westport, MO, on 20 April 1840, Christiana wrote to her husband, “Nancy has got over her melencholly [sic] and is now on the other extreme. She talks and laughs incessantly.”[10] Late in 1842, Isaac McCoy and wife Christiana moved to Louisville so that the elderly missionary could form the American Indian Mission Association (AIMA) taking with them “their invalid daughter, Nancy, who is now 23 years old…”[11] Upon the death of her husband, Isaac, Christiana’s family suggested she move in with her widowed brother-in-law because “it would be a good idea and a great help to Christiana who often found it difficult to manage her invalid daughter, Nancy.”[12]

She is exceedingly troublesome and crazy at times, especially when there is a storm, Aunt (Christiana) then can hardly manager her. She will mind a man without any trouble…[13] Sometime in the spring or summer of 1850,.. her dearly loved and handicapped daughter, Nancy died.[14]

Nancy Judson McCoy was probably buried in the McCoy Cemetery at the southeast corner of State Line Avenue and 51^st in Kansas City, MO. If so, those remains were removed to Union Cemetery by the J. C. Nichols Company in 1916.[15]

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[1]Walter N. Wyeth, Isaac McCoy Early Indian Missions. Isaac McCoy-Christiana McCoy, A Memorial (Philadelphia: W. N. Wyeth, Publisher, 1895), Prefatory Note.

[2] Judson (1788-1850) and McCoy (1784-1846) were contemporaries and both were appointed by the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions (Triennial Convention) in 1814 and 1817 respectively. Though they never met, McCoy had learned about Judson and used Judson’s work among the Karens of Burmah as an example of the difficulty in codifying languages. Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, Expanded and Illustrated Edition (Springfield, Missouri: Particular Baptist Press, 2003), p. 475.

[3] William Taylor Stott, Indiana Baptist History, p. 54.

[4] Gary W. Long, “Christiana Polke McCoy,” A Noble Company: Biographical Essays on Notable Particular-Regular Baptists in America, Volume 8, Terry Wolever, editor (Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 2016), p. 499.

[5] Ibid., p. 500.

[6] Ibid.,

[7] Ibid., p 509.

[8] Ibid., p. 510.

[9] Ibid., p. 511.

[10] Ibid., p. 521.

[11] Ibid., p. 523.

[12] Ibid., p. 526.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid., p. 529.

[15] Ibid., p. 532.

1819-1868

Adoniram Judson Joslyn

Baptist Pastor/Abolitionist   NY/IL

In 1819, after six years on the field, Adoniram Judson built the first Christian zayat and preached his first sermon in Burmese. On 5 October 1819, Mary Polly Waite Joslyn gave birth to a son and named him Adoniram Judson Joslyn. Her husband, Rev. Lindsey Joslyn, was a pastor in Nunda Valley, New York, who eventually led his family to Illinois. 

Rev. Adoniram Judson Joslyn came to McHenry County, Illinois, in 1838, and six years later became the second pastor of Elgin’s First Baptist Church in Kane County. He was a community activist aiding with the establishment of Elgin Academy in 1855 and serving as one if its first directors. Adoniram Judson Joslyn was “an active factor in religion, politics, journalism and the general advancement of the village.”[1] But pastor Joslyn was mainly known as an anti-slavery advocate who established the first newspaper in Elgin, the Western Christian, which

advocated repeal of the Illinois black laws restricting the rights of free Negroes. Led by Joslyn, the Elgin Baptists, in a letter from the church as a body to its association in 1846, expressed an “increased desire that intemperance, licentiousness, and slavery should be numbered among the things that were and are not.”[2]

He unsuccessfully tried to integrate the Baptist’s Shurtleff College in Alton, IL, and was a delegate to the 1848 Buffalo, NY, convention that organized the Free Soil Party that opposed the extension of slavery into the U.S. territories. Joslyn was elected secretary of the Republican Party when it organized in Geneva, Kane County, in 1854.  A year later he eventually became pastor of Union Park Baptist Church in Chicago where he aided in establishing the first University of Chicago. 

President Abraham Lincoln appointed Joslyn as Elgin’s postmaster in 1863, a position he held until 1866. Also during the Civil War, A. J. Joslyn served as interim pastor at Elgin’s First Baptist while pastor Benjamin Thomas was away from the pulpit serving with Union forces.  During that time Joslyn led the congregation to receive two train freight cars loaded with 110 “contraband” from the Civil War and helped them to organize the Second Baptist Church of Elgin. Upon Thomas’ return to Elgin, Adoniram Judson Joslyn relinquished his interim pastorate at the First Baptist Church and joined the newly-organized Second Baptist Church.[3]

Adoniram Judson Joslyn died October 9, 1868, at age 49 and is buried in the Bluff City cemetery in Elgin, Kane County, Illinois. He was survived by two daughters: Gertrude Emily (1846-1923) who married Mr. John W. Parnum; and Ada Janette who was a local teacher (1854-1874). 

[Compiler’s Note: The modern Judson University is located in Elgin, Illinois, where Adoniram Judson Joslyn had his most effective ministry. The compiler is proud to have been a member of the First Baptist Church of Elgin for 14 years while serving as president of Judson University following the pioneering footsteps of Adoniram Judson himself and Adoniram Judson Joslyn, his namesake.]

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[1] History of Kane County, Ill, Vol II (Chicago: Pioneer Press, 1908), p 579.

[2] E. C. Alft, Elgin’s Black History (Elgin, Illinois: Published by the City of Elgin, 1996), p. 1.

[3] E. C. Alft, Elgin’s Adoniram Judson (Unpublished 1976 article in the possession of the compiler, 5 pages.

1820-1868

Adoniram Judson Bingham

Baptist Pastor/Missionary     MI/MA

Adoniram Judson Bingham was born 5 April 1820, to Abel Bingham and Hannah Brown, American Baptist missionaries to the Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indians in Sault Ste. Marie, MI.  Abel Bingham was nationally known for his work with the Indians because of his regularly published letters from the field about his ministry. The Binghams had previously worked in Tonawanda, NY, as missionary teachers and moved to Michigan at the behest of Isaac McCoy.[1] Young Adoniram Judson Bingham was appointed an assistant teacher with his parents when he was 15 years old thus beginning his career in Christian ministry.[2]

Bingham attended the Baptist Educational Foundation of New York (now Colgate University) graduating in 1848 and accepted an appointment to serve at his father’s mission station October 1848 through June 1849 in Grand Rapids, MI. During that same year Bingham married Emily P. Knapp in Rockford, IL, the daughter of Elder Jacob Knapp, a leading evangelist of the time. A. J. Bingham’s first pastorate was in Grand Rapids, MI, (July 1849-June 1851) where he was appointed to serve by the American Baptist Home Mission Society for a salary of $330.78 per year.[3]  Buoyed by the reputation of his missionary father and his evangelist father-in-law, Bingham was called in June 1851 to become pastor of the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he served for 18 months. The Knapp/Bingham revival occurred in 1852.

Knapp arrived in Jacksonville the first week of January 1852 and held services for six weeks early that year… A true revival moved with its own momentum, where it would. Over one hundred new members were said to be added to the church as a result. At the fall meeting of the SBA [Springfield Baptist Association], of 116 baptisms report in the entire SBA, seventy-five took place at the Jacksonville Church.[4]

Public opposition arose toward this prairie fire revival when the local newspaper published letters written under the name “Observer” and Knapp’s crude behaviors became the center of attention rather than the influx of new converts.

Bingham left Illinois and returned to Michigan where he pastored 1853-59. He accepted the call of Second Baptist in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1860 before volunteering for a very meaningful chaplaincy in the 10^th Massachusetts Volunteers during the Civil War. After being dismissed from the army, he pastored in Montville, Connecticut (1863-65) and then at Cohoes, NY, (1865-67) where he also served as principal at Egberts Institute (High School). Adoniram Judson Bingham’s final pastorate was at the Baptist Church in Westfield, MA where he died on 6 August 1868, at age 48.[5]

In appreciation of their history, the American Baptist Women’s Fellowship in Jacksonville, Illinois, organized the Ann Judson Circle in 1986 “composed of new mothers inspired by their study of the famous missionaries to Burma, Ann and Adoniram Judson.” By 1991, however, the Ann Judson Circle had disbanded.

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[1] Wyeth, Isaac McCoy Early Indian Missions, p. 140.  Also in this group of teachers was Eleanor Macomber who eventually went to Burma to spend her life among the Karens.

[2] Ferguson, Edward E., Religion on the Prairie: A History of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Illinois, Its Pastors and Its People, In Context 1841-1991. (Jacksonville, Illinois: Production Press published jointly by Morgan County Historical Society and First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Illinois, 1995), p. 51.

[3] Ibid., p. 52

[4] Ibid., p. 52.

[5] Ibid., p. 53-55, 299.

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.

1820-1907

Adoniram Judson Adams

(3 entries)      NH/ME/MA

[Compiler’s Note: I accumulated many people named Adoniram Judson Adams but all their stories were incomplete. I winnowed them down to three and lumped them together under the first name that had a date of birth and a date of death.]

First. The first version of Adoniram Judson Adams was born 3 October 1820, in Washington, NH to an unknown father and Hannah Leavitt as mother. He had seven siblings.[1]  He might be the Adoniram Judson Adams as listed in 1906 as a director of the Faneuil Hall National Bank in Boston and a director of the China Mutual Insurance Co., in Boston. His death was reported in the Boston Globe.

Adams—at his home, 14 Greenville St., Roxbury. Feb. 11. Adoniram Judson Adams. 86 years. Funeral services from his late residence. Thursday, Feb. 21, at 1:00 p.m. Kindly omit flowers.[2]

Second. Another version of Adoniram Judson Adams was born 29 April 1821 in Starks, Maine, and he later married Hanna B. Hollis. They eventually had seven children naming their second in a manner that guaranteed he would always be first on the teacher’s alphabetized grade book–Adoniram Adonnous Adams. We know nothing about his career but we do know he died at age 73 in 1894 in Embden, Maine.[3]

Third. A final Adoniram Judson Adams who attracted our attention was a spokesman for Doan’s Kidney Pills and appeared in over a dozen newspapers we discovered touting the advantages of this pharmacutical wonder.

“Honesty is the best policy,” That old adage has always been a characteristic of the article endorsed by Mr. A. J. Admas of No. 45 Merrill street. He has been a resident of this city for over twenty years and is known to a wide circle of acquaintances…. “Now that I know their value I regard it as a personal duty I owe to others to tell them what Doan’s Kidney Pills have done for me….  I recommend them constantly.”[4]However, there was another comedic/tragic incident involving Mr. A. J. Adams which might be of interest to The Judson Legacy public:

Mr. A. J. Adams, living at 49 Merrill street had an unpleasant surprise Monday night when he went to get a drink of sweet cider. There were two jugs, one containing the cider and the other washing fluid. By mistake Mr. Adams drank quite a quantity of the washing fluid before he discovered his error. The washing fluid burnt his mouth and throat and would have been dangerous if he had not thrown it off his stomach in less than two minutes. As it was he will feel no bad results after his throat gets well.[5]

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[1] “Adoniram Judson Adams,” https://www.geni.com/people/Adoniram-Adams/6000000033142317156

[2] “Died,” Boston Herald (Boston, MA), February 21, 1907, p. 14.

[3] “Adoniram Judson Adams,” https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adams-22531

[4] “Strong Testimony,” Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), Volume 34, January 2, 1897, p. 4.

[5] “Drank Washing  Fluid,” Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), Volume 38, Dec. 13, 1899, p. 9.

1821-1850 

Adoniram Judson Blake

Methodist Pastor           Ohio    OH

The archives of Ohio United Methodism help tell the story of Adoniram Judson Blake. These documents state that he was in the Pittsburgh Conference in 1847 and was assigned to Brownsville in Licking County just west of Zanesville. The next year, 1848, he was assigned to Richmond in Jefferson County on the far eastern side of Ohio north of Steubenville. Two years later in 1850, he is listed as Adoniram J. Blake, minister at the Methodist Church, West Chester in Tuscarawas County.

Rev. A. J. Blake was born October 7, 1821, and was converted to God and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in February, 1838, under the ministry of Rev. A. M. Brown of the Erie Conference. He was received on trial by the Pittsburg Conference in June, 1847. He was appointed to the following circuits: Brownsville, Richmond, Washington and Cambridge, and Westchester, where he ended his labours and his life. He died of pulmonary consumption, December 20, 1850, in the thirtieth year of his age.

As a Christian, he was ardent and sincere; as a minister, he was eccentric, laborious, and useful. Stricken down in the high places of the field, he conquered as he fell, and we think of him not as dead but as enjoying the higher life of heaven.[1]

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[1] Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the year, 1851 (New York: Published by G. Lane and L. Scott, 200 Mulberry Street, Joseph Longking, Printer, 1851), p. 601.

1821-1865

Adoniram Judson Kneeland

Public Servant Cortland County NY

 Again I acknowledge the good research of Andy Osterdahl at “The Strangest Names in American Political History” for snippets about this next entry. We wish we knew more.

Adoniram Judson Kneeland served a brief term in the New York State Assembly during the mid-1880s. This mysterious man was born in the town of Marcellus, New York on May 5, 1821, the son of Amasa and Charlotte Kneeland. Adoniram studied law in Albany, New York, and earned his law degree in 1848. In 1883 he was elected to the New York State Assembly from Cortland County, officially taking his seat in 1885. Kneeland’s tenure in the Assembly was brief, as he died later that year on August 15 in the town of Homer, New York, and was (presumably) buried there.[1}

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/search?q=adoniram+judson

1821-1890

Family of Daniel Gray Taylor

A Country Preacher  Virginia VA

To understand the significance of the Taylor family in The Judson Legacy Project we must begin with Daniel Gray Taylor and his wife, Martha King Taylor.  A simple biography of Rev. Taylor was written by their son, Joseph Judson Taylor, and simply named Daniel G. Taylor: A Country Preacher.[1] The Taylors founded and served the Mayo Baptist Church in Henry County, Kentucky, where they raised 6 children from which 3 sons would become significant Baptist pastors. One of these sons was named for Adoniram Judson and two grandsons carried the Judson moniker with distinction.

1. Their first son was Rev. John Lee Taylor (wife, Roxie) whose 1925 biography is reported in John Lee Taylor, Minister and Missionary.[2]  John and Roxie named their third son in honor of Adoniram, as Thomas Judson Taylor who was born 28 February 1877, in Martinsville, VA, and died in that same city 18 April 1936. “Thomas Judson lives with his family on the farm where his father spent his last years, and his mother lives with him.”[3]  He married Sarah Ellen Boaz and is buried in the Mayo Baptist Church Cemetery. That is all we can find on Thomas Judson Taylor, a grandson of Daniel Gray Taylor.

2. Their second son was Rev. Sam Frank Taylor, pastor and educator, who married Ellen Burdett. This couple named one of their children for the missionary using the appellation, Eugene Judson Taylor. The sad story of this infant grandson of Daniel Gray Taylor is reported as entry 1879-1881.

3. Daniel and Martha Taylor’s third son was Rev. Joseph Judson Taylor who became the great pacifist of Southern Baptist life at the beginning of the twentieth century. The story of this courageous son of Danial Gray Taylor is reported in entry 1855-1930.

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i[1] Joseph Judson Taylor, Daniel G. Taylor: A Country Preacher (Louisville, KY: Baptist Book Concern, 1893).

[2] William Carson Taylor, John Lee Taylor: Minister and Missionary (Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press, 1925).

[3] Ibid., p. 106.

1821-1891 

Adoniram Judson Bigelow

Entrepreneur VT/CA

Rod Bigelow of the Bigelow Society shared this biography of his great-grandfather, Adoniram Judson Bigelow:

Adoniram Judson Bigelow was the son of Barna and Elizabeth (Boynton) Bigelow and was born at Hubbardston, VT, on 20 April 1821. His marriage was on 27 October 1857 to Martha Jane Munroe who was born in Jefferson, ME, on 18 April 1831. He was named after an early missionary to Burma. An early immigrant because of the Gold Rush, he sailed from New York City on 17 March 1849 and arrived in San Francisco on 10 October 1849 and resided there until January 1859 when he moved to Sacramento, CA.

He first started a soap factory in San Francisco and later sold out and moved to Sacramento. Somewhere along the line his bachelor brother, Parcellus Kendrick Biglow, also came West, and the two were associated much of the time. When Adoniram died in 1891, he appointed by will Parcellus Kendrick to be the guardian of his son, David Carlton Orvis.

Adoniram was something an historic figure. Having noted that there was a shortage of domestic bees in the State of California for the propagation of plant life, he determined to alter the situation. In the next ten years he made two transcontinental trips to bring bees from the East Coast to California. He was California’s pioneer bee man. He made the trek by sea to the Isthmus of Panama, walked across to the Isthmus, and boarded other ships to continue.

Bringing bees to California for pollinization.

On the second trip he married Martha Monroe of Vermont and brought her West. Her father was a preacher and had seven daughters, most of whom came to California and located in the San Francisco Bay area. Adoniram Judson Bigelow was both an intellectual type and a doer. He wrote a brochure on the care and management of bees in transit with particular attention to a method to insure their survival when carried on mule-back across the steaming jungles of Panama.

Near where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers join lies roughly a right-angled triangle, approximately forty miles on the sides, terminating at the cities of Antioch, Stockton, and Sacramento. In 1849 this area was all swamp, interspersed by many little, interconnecting rivers. At low tide the land was above water, and at high tide it was under water four to six feet, depending upon the season.

Adoniram Judson Bigelow and a man named Upham saw where this swampland, now known as the Delta, could be reclaimed by building a levee to keep the water out at high tide. They hired Chinese Coolies (the railroads having just been built, thousands were released and available to work) and with wheel-barrows and two-horse scrapers they built a levee and reclaimed about 6,000 acres of land lying at the confluence of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers. The levees permit intensive farming; the crops include pears, apples, tomatoes, grain, corn, beans, soy beans, and much of the asparagus reaching the East Coast comes from this area.

When he was in his early sixties Adoniram sold out to Upham and purchased the land that now is the eastern half of the Town of Antioch. Adoniram died in Antioch, CA 07 January 1892 (1891?). Martha died 11 October 1891.[1]

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[1] Rod Bigelow, “Adoniram Judson Bigelow,” http://bigelowsociety.com/rod8/ado86321.htm (c) Copyright 2011 Bigelow Society, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

1821-1897

Adoniram Judson Waite

Farmer    New York/Illinois NY/IL

Due to liver problems and the loss of two children, Ann Hasseltine Judson left Burma in August 1821 to return to the States for medical care. One month before her departure, Adoniram Judson Waite was born in Washington County, NY. He eventually married Caroline Bull, also of Washington County, and to this marriage four children were born. The Waite family moved to Illinois on 8 April 1853, settling in Rockvale Township in Ogle County on a farm about five miles north of Oregon, the county seat. Sadly, Caroline Waite died 12 July 1860, at age 38 years. Adoniram Judson Waite then married his second wife, Amelia Agard Landon, on 29 January 1861. To this union was born a son who was named Judson Agard Waite.

This farm in Ogle County, Illinois, is described as being on “the west side of Rock River across from the Benjamin Boyce farm.” The census reports Adoniram Judson Waite as a

farmer who owned 439 acres with a probable valuation of $21,950. He is also doing extensive dairy business, at present milking forty-six cows. He is liberal in religion, Independent in politics, and held the office of Supervisor for four years during the war.[1]

Adoniram Judson Waite died 22 January 1897, at age 75, and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery, Oregon, Illinois.

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[1] Adoniram Judson Waite, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Waite-1712.

1823-1835?

Judson Ward Rowe

Missionary Child     India/Alabama?

While recovering from liver problems in the US under the care of Dr. Elnathan Judson, brother of Adoniram Judson, Ann Judson published her best-selling book, A Particular Relation of the American Baptist Mission to the Burman Empire informing Americans of the first-hand work of missionaries. In that same year, America’s first appointed missionary (Ann Judson was never appointed as a missionary) birthed a baby with a tragic story.

Reid Trulson tells the story of America’s first appointed woman missionary in his book Charlotte Atlee White Rowe.[1] Charlotte Atlee was orphaned by age 11 and probably grew up under the care of an older sister and in the Anglican faith. In 1803 she married Nathaniel White but within 18 months both her husband and their infant son had died. The grieving widow joined the Haverhill Baptist Church and was surprisingly appointed as the first woman missionary by the newly formed Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. (Read Dr. Trulson’s book to get the entire scandalous story of that short appointment.) Charlotte sailed on the same ship to India in 1815 as George and Phebe Hough who were on their way to Burma as the first missionaries assigned to work with Adoniram Judson.

Charlotte Atlee White disembarked in Calcutta and joined William Carey’s Serampore mission. She married British missionary Joshua Rowe who was a widower with 3 sons. After fathering twin daughters and a son, Rev. Rowe died leaving Charlotte with six children under 17 years old.   

Charlotte was supported by her brother Edwin Atlee, a physician in Philadelphia.  In appreciation of her brother, Charlotte named her last child, Edwin Atlee Rowe. Not having a husband nor close American friends in Digah, India, Charlotte wrote to her brother as a confidant occasionally questioning decisions and leadership provided by the Serampore Trio–Carey, Marshman and Ward. Her letters were not intended for public reading but rather as a collegial chat with a colleague. Edwin, however, allowed portions of these letters to be circulated in an anti-missionary publication where Charlotte was depicted as a victim of the treachery of nonbiblical, organized missionary work.  

Because Dr. Edwin Atlee allowed this series of letters to be publicized without authorization, Charlotte Rowe changed the name of her recently born son. No longer would he be called Edwin Atlee Rowe, but rather Judson Ward Rowe.

Rather than look to his Uncle Edwin, Charlotte encouraged him to emulate her fellow missionaries, the courageous Adoniram Judson who was laboring in Burma, and the warm-hearted William Ward, who had died of cholera in Serampore a month before little Judson’s birth.[2]

It is hard to trace the story of this lad encouraged to be like missionaries rather than emulate his traitorous Uncle Edwin. Charlotte Rowe, whose missionary appointment by American Baptists had been rescinded and whose appointment by British Baptists was never affirmed, returned to Pennsylvania in 1829 with the twin girls and little Judson. The older three boys were left in the care of the Serampore Mission.

By 1835 she is living in Lowndesboro, Alabama, and teaching with one of her 17-year-old twin daughters. “No record of Judson Ward Rowe has been found following the family’s move to Alabama.”[3] By 1850 Charlotte and her girls had moved back north to Strasburg, PA, but there is no mention of her son, Judson. The unmarried daughters, at age 32 and 33, died within a year and were buried next to Charlotte’s parents in Lancaster, PA, in the St. James Episcopal Cemetery.

In 1863 at age 68, Charlotte Atlee White Rowe, died and was buried in plot #9 next to her twin daughters. “America’s first appointed woman foreign missionary was laid to rest unheralded, in an unmarked grave.”[4] In like fashion both her son, named Judson, and her missionary hero, Adoniram Judson, lie in unmarked graves awaiting an eternal resurrection.

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[1] Reid S. Trulson, Charlotte Atlee White Rowe: The Story of America’s First Appointed Woman Missionary (Mercer, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2021), pp 115-120.

[2] Ibid., p. 120.

[3] Ibid., p. 168.

[4] Ibid., p. 196

1824-1897    

Adoniram Judson Batchelder

Businessman/Public Servant MA/CA

The August 8, 1897, edition of the San Francisco Call reports the headline “Mourning in Marysville: Passing to Adoniram Judson Batchelder, a Pioneer of Yuba County.”

Yuba County mourns the loss of an efficient officer and ex-representative in the State Legislature, while Marysville is in deep gloom over the passing of an honest citizen and a brave pioneer. Adoniram Judson Batcheler, since 1888, with the exception of two years, Public Administrator of this county, died at 4 o’clock this evening after a lingering illness from gangrene poisoning.

Batchelder came to California in 1857, and located in Fosters Bar, where he engage in mining and later in the merchandise business. He was chosen to represent his people in the Legislature in 1855 and 1856 and on his return to Fosters Bar he entered into partnership with J. M. Crowell in the grocery business. He became Postmaster and Wells, Fargo & Co.’s agent in the mining camp and bought gold dust for the mint and assay offices. In 1865 he was again sent to the Legislature and again in 1867.

In 1870 he was appointed United States Deputy Census Marshal for the Northern District, about that time establishing himself in the grocery business in Maryville. Here he has resided ever since.

For many years he was president of the local Society of Pioneers. He was a member of Yuba Lodge, F and A.M.; of Washington Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and of Marysville Commandery, K. T. The funeral will be held under the auspices of these societies at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning.

Batchelder was a native of Massachusetts and 72 years of age. He never married, and his only relatives are two sisters in Essex County, Mass. He was formerly a Webster Whig, but was allied to the Republican Party since its accession to power.[1]

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[1] “Mourning in Marysville: Passing of Adoniram Judson Batchelder, a Pioneer of Yuba County,” San Francisco Call, August 8, 1897, p. 7.

1824-Present     

Judson Press and Publications

District of Columbia/Pennsylvania DC/PA

In June of 1824 Adoniram Judson was imprisoned when the British invaded Burma thus beginning the First Anglo-Burmese War. His confinement would last for 21 months and during that time, Baptists in America began their publication ministry. The Judsons, aided by missionary George Hough, plus William Carey’s Serampore Mission in India, had already begun to print gospel literature in Burmese in 1817, seven years before the Americans got around to it.

What we now call Judson Press began in Washington, DC, on 25 February 1824, as the Baptist General Tract Society with the purpose of publishing Christian literature and Sunday School materials. Two years later, over the protests of Luther Rice, the Society moved to Philadelphia and has remained in that city and its suburbs for nearly 200 years. As its mission and ministry expanded the Tract Society morphed to meet the needs of the changing culture assuming a variety of corporate titles.

The first chapter of ministry for the Baptist General Tract Society, might be defined as 1824 to 1840. Money raised in the first year was $373.80 and with it the Tract Society produced 696,000 pages of Christian witness.[1] Initial publications were simple tracts with a gospel message and in the first 16 years over 3.5 million tracts were printed.[2]

The name was changed in 1840 to American Baptist Publication and Sunday School Society and shortened again in 1844 by dropping the Sunday School Society. This name change allowed for not only the publication of tracts but “sabbath school books and volumes of a biographical, doctrinal or historical nature.”[3] Colportors were an original development during this second period of ministry. These men were appointed to distribute publications town to town and door to door. “Twenty men were in service on this plan in 1845…. In 1851 there were 27 ‘colporter missionaries,’ in seven States, besides Canada and Oregon, working among the Germans, Dutch, Irish and French; the salary of each of these men being $150 a year.”[4]  “Nearly all of the Society’s colportage ‘was bestowed on waste and desert places’ and ‘was, strictly speaking, a preaching institution,’ most of the men being ministers.”[5] Out of this printing ministry came the American Baptist Historical Society in 1853.

Adoniram Judson Rowland writes that during the Civil War, “Large quantities of literature were sent to camps and hospitals, and thousands of dollars were expended in work among the colored people. Perhaps at no time in the history of the Society was there greater activity or more satisfactory results.”[6]

From 1873 until 1924 this ministry went back to its old name, The American Baptist Publication Society.[7] The Chapel Car ministry began in 1891 and the Judson Press Building at 1329 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, was dedicated in 1896.  With the formation of the Northern Baptist Convention in 1907, it was time to retool the work of the Publication Society yet again

In 1924 this American Baptist publication ministry assumed the name of Judson Press. For the past 100 years the names of these iconic missionaries have been used to identify the work of this important printing ministry. The Judson Press trademark was registered in 1922 in honor of Adoniram and Ann Judson to preserve their denominational and missionary spirit.

The publication society under its many names during its first century, was often squabbling with the American Baptist Home Mission Society which was eight years younger. Many of the same people worked with both entities and served the same constituencies.

One was designed to promote the gospel through the printed page and the educational process [Publication Society]; the other through the local church and the evangelistic process [Home Mission Society]. In actual practice, however, the boundaries could not so easily be defined or maintained.[8]

Toward the end of the twentieth century, the Judson Press publishing ministry was merged into the missions program of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies to serve Jesus Christ throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The Judson Press mission statement highlights their continuing purpose.

As a part of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, Judson Press develops Christ-centered leadership and discipleship resources for the healing and transformation of persons, congregations, and communities. Its backlist of 335 book titles (print and e-pub) are available in both secular and Christian bookstores as well as in online stores, libraries, educational institutions and churches. JP is a leader in producing materials for African-American congregations and their church leadership. Judson publishes titles on Christian living, pastoral and church leadership, Baptist beliefs and history, preaching, Christian education, and the intercultural church. Other products include church supplies, Judson Bible Journeys adult curriculum and a devotional periodical, The Secret Place.[9]

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[1] Lawrence T. Slaght, Multiplying the Witness, 150 Years of American Baptist Educational Ministries (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1974), p. 21.

[2] Ibid., p. 13.

[3] Ibid., p. 27.

[4] Ibid., p. 31.

[5] Ibid., p. 32.

[6] Adoniram Judson Rowland, “The American Baptist Publication Society,” in A Century pf Baptist Achievement, edited by A. H. Newman (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1901), p. 231.

[7] Daniel Gurgen Stevens, The First Hundred Years of The American Baptist Publication Society (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1924) p. 111.

[8] Slaght, p. 57.

[9] https://www.judsonpress.com/Pages/About/About-Us.aspx

1826-1900     

Adoniram Judson Billings

Physician/Public Servant     Maine   ME

Ann Hasseltine Judson died in 1826 not long after her husband had been released from a Burmese prison to help negotiate treaties between the British and the Burmans. Little Adoniram Judson Billings was born later that same year in Newport, Maine, December 3, 1826, and was named by his father John Billings. The young Billings lad attended Colby University at Waterville, Maine, studied medicine at Bowdoin Medical College in Brunswick but eventually received his degree from Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, in 1854. He established his medical practice in Freedom, Maine, in 1864 where he lived the remainder of his life until his passing in 1900.

Dr. Adoniram Judson Billings was president of the Waldo County Medical Society and during the Civil War was surgeon of the Nineteenth Maine Volunteer Militia. In 1864 he was appointed surgeon of the Board of Enrollment of the fifth congressional district (meaning he checked and approved the physical condition of soldiers entering the military). Appointed by President William Henry Harrison, Dr. Billings was on the board of examining surgeons for pensions (meaning he checked and approved the physical condition of those applying for pensions). Politically he was a Republican serving in 1862 and 1868 as the representative to the general court and in 1866-67 as a state senator. In 1871-74 Dr. Billings was Maine’s surgeon-general as well as inspector of prisons in 1873. In 1897 he elected to the state senate again.

He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Masonic fraternity and the Congregational Church in Freedom, Maine. Dr. Adoniram Judson Billings had two daughters by this first wife, Ann E. Clement. He lived with his second wife, Lucinda M. Bellows, until his death in Freedom, Maine, February 6, 1900.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Billings, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clement-1458

1827-1906 

Adoniram Judson Bradley

Soldier/Farmer/Watchman    MA

Adoniram Judson Bradley was born 2 March 1827, just 6 weeks before little Marie Elizabeth Butterworth Judson died in Burma at age two, the third child of missionaries Ann and Adoniram Judson to die too young. Bradley was born in Russell, MA, and was a farmer and lumber dealer before the Civil War. At age 34, in 1861, he mustered into the15^th Massachusetts Infantry and by May, 1862, was commissioned 2^nd Lieutenant. He was wounded in the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, MD, 17 September 1862 but two days later he was promoted to 1^st Lieutenant.  At the Battle of Fredericksburg, VA in December 1862 he was wounded again, this time in the face, but was soon thereafter promoted to captain.  He resigned the army because of disability in November 1863.

The 1870 census shows that he was watchman at the First National and Hampden Banks, Westfield, MA. The US Census listed him as a farmer at Springfield, Hampden County in 1880 and in Westfield in 1900. Adoniram Judson Bradley died May 13, 1906 and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery, Westfield, MA.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Bradley, https://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=5791

1827-1909

Adoniram Judson Patterson

Pastor/Legislator       PA/NH/MA

Thanks to Andy Osterdahl for allowing me to use his research on Adoniram Judson Patterson from “The Strangest Names in American Political History” blogspot.

Adoniram Judson Patterson was a noted New Hampshire clergyman who served a term in his state’s House of Representatives in the mid-1860’s. Patterson was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania on April 3, 1827, the son of James and Nancy Holt Patterson…. He was ordained as a minister in Harbor Creek, Pennsylvania, and held his first pastorate in the town of Girard in 1854…before relocating to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to accept the pastorate of that city’s Universalist church.

At the dawn of the Civil War Patterson tried resigning his pastorate in order to enter the army but this was refused by his parish! Despite being unable to resign from the church, Patterson then used a clause in the 1863 Conscription Act to hire a substitute to serve in his place on the battlefield. While this may sound odd, other prominent men of the time opted to do the same, including future President Gover Cleveland!

Despite not being about to fight, Patterson found another way to serve his country during the war effort. Beginning in 1864 he served as a chaplain at large, ministering to many soldiers on the battlefield and in hospitals in Virginia…. After returning to New Hampshire, Patterson stumped for President Lincoln (who was then running for reelection) and in 1866 was elected to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives from Portsmouth.  During his legislative service, he still maintained an active ministry, and “he did not fail to meet his congregation at any service of the church while the legislature was in session.”

Patterson eventually left Portsmouth and resettled in Roxbury, Massachusetts…and was named as President of the Massachusetts Convention of Universalists…. During the 1890s and 1900s, Patterson continued his ministry in places throughout Massachusetts, Maine and even Nebraska. He is also listed as being a major benefactor to Tufts College during this time, establishing new scholarships for students and had an honorary degree conferred upon him for his work.

Adoniram Patterson died on November 3, 1909, at age 82 in Roxbury.[1]

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/

1827-Present

Judson Baptist Church

   Mawlamyine/Myanmar Maulmein/Burma

After the first Anglo-Burmese War ended in 1826, Adoniram and Ann Judson moved their headquarters from Rangoon to Maulmein (now Mawlamyine) and settled under the safety of the British empire. The first church Judson constructed was in 1827 patterned after the zayat from which he worked in Rangoon. A few years later the original building was replaced with an open-sided masonry structure which merged the traditional zayat with a colonial-looking church building with a bell tower. The third church was started in 1907 and is appropriately listed on the World Monuments Fund.

World Monuments Fund (WMF) works with local communities around the world to safeguard irreplaceable cultural heritage. It is the leading independent organization devoted to safeguarding the world’s most treasured places to enrich people’s lives and build mutual understanding across cultures and communities.[1]

Photographer and writer Tim Webster prepared the website material for the World Monuments Fund related to the Judson Church in Mawlamyine.

Perhaps no other foreigner has had a greater impact on the land that became Myanmar than Malden, Massachusetts-born, Adoniram Judson (1788-1850). While Judson’s message remains embodied in congregations across the country—and stories of his faith, loves and travails might fill volumes—it is in Moulmein (Mawlamyine) where the evangelist made his most significant contribution to the establishment and enduring legacy of the Baptist church in Burma….

Jump to the present. As a documentary photographer and writer working with heritage, it’s unusual to receive a brief, where the importance of a structure could be perceived as secondary to its function as the home of a longstanding community…. As part of my World Monuments Fund assignments, I have begun to learn something of the people that this building serves.

Four elderly ladies seated together exude an understanding that only time can forge. Daw Nant Su Su gently laughs that she is the most recent addition to the quartet, having only made friends when her husband arrived here as pastor in the mid-1970s. Daw Aye Kyi, Daw Than Sein and Daw Htar Yin, who have known each other since childhood, spent their working lives teaching together at the former missionary school across the road, a Judson-legacy building nationalized into the state system in the 1960s as part of a larger government takeover of missionary properties….

Following a special service commemorating both a birthday and a passing away, May Hnin Phyu serves an abundance of food before taking on dozens of dirty dishes. While some in her family worship elsewhere, May is at home here, a member of the choir amongst friends. During the week she staffs the pharmacy of the Mawlamyine Christian Leprosy Hospital, another part of the Judson legacy, the one and only mission hospital in Myanmar, which provides health care without charge.

Although merely scratching the surface, a religious basis for health and education—healing and teaching—now occurs to me. Among many dozen Buddhist pagodas, Islamic mosques, Hindu temples, and Christian churches, this congregation is considered by many to be the ‘mother church’ of Mawlamyine. This church and its physical premises are also a reminder of longstanding connections between the United States and Myanmar, and a salient example of the impact that one individual can have. Judson’s journey speaks not only of endurance but perhaps even triumph, exemplifying fidelity in the courage of one’s convictions. (Tim Weber, 2016)[2]

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[1] https://www.wmf.org/blog/judson-legacy

[2] https://www.wmf.org/blog/judson-legacy.

1830-1830

Judson Wade Boardman

Infant  Burma

Missionaries Sarah Hall and George Dana Boardman had three children while in Burma working alongside Adoniram Judson. Rev. Boardman was born in 1801 and was in the first class of graduates from Waterville College (Colby College, Maine) in 1822 where the president’s son was the young Adoniram Judson Chaplin. The Boardman’s arrived in Burma in 1827. Their first child was a daughter Sarah who lived only three years, 1826-1829, and was named for her mother.

The second child, George Dana Boardman, Jr. (1828-1903) was born in Tavoy, Burma, and named for his father who died at age 30 on 11 February 1831. The younger Boardman was raised by his step-father, Adoniram Judson, Jr., and attended school in the U.S. eventually becoming a leading Baptist pastor in Rochester, NY, and Philadelphia, PA. “George the Younger” was a founder of the Brotherhood of the Kingdom and became a leader in the social gospel movement along with Walter Rauschenbusch.[1]

The third child born to these missionary pioneers was named Judson Wade Boardman and died as an infant in 1830, a year before his father died.  His father, George Dana Boardman, Sr., was the pioneer missionary to the Karens who baptized Ko Tha Byu and led evangelistic efforts in the Karen villages near Tavoy. Jonathan Wade was his missionary teammate who codified the Karen language thus making the Bible available to those who came to Christianity through the work of Boardman. This baby carried the legacy of three great American missionaries in Burma—Judson, Wade and Boardman.

Eight years after the death of George Boardman, his widow, Sarah became the second wife of Adoniram Judson, Jr. Sarah grew up in the First Baptist Church in Salem, MA, where she was baptized and first married. A pew from that building is now in Herrick Chapel at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois.

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[1] George Dana Boardman, Jr., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boardman_the_Younger

1831-????

Adoniram Judson Kelly

Baptist pastor/Missionary        NC/GA

The 1831 report from the Burman mission told of 217 baptisms and in that same year Adoniram Judson Kelly was born in North Carolina. We are able to find no report on the demise of Adoniram Judson Kelly but his peers wrote glowingly of his ministry while he was still alive in 1881 at age 50. Next to his picture with full beard and period dress, The History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia reports his life and mission thusly:

Rev. Adoniram Judson Kelly was born in Macon county, North Carolina, October, 1831; professed faith in Christ and joined the Baptist church at Franklin, October, 1848, and was licensed to preach in August, 1854. [Kelly sold his farm] and, October, 1854, entered Sand Hill Academy, a high school taught by a Presbyterian minister in Buncombe county, North Carolina… At the close of the first year he determined to make an effort to graduate at Wake Forest College. But in two years at the College [1855-57] his health so failed that he was compelled to abandon the further prosecution of his studies.

In the latter part of 1857, he returned to his mother’s and engaged in mission work under the auspices of the Western Convention of North Carolina, and was ordained to the full work of the ministry, March, 1858….

In August of that year he came to Gwinnett county, Georgia, and traveled as missionary and colporter in the Lawrenceville Association, teaching school also as necessity required. Having been chosen pastor of the Academy church, in Jackson county, in 1860, and of Cabin Creek church in 1861, he moved to Jefferson, January, 1862, married Mrs. Burns, of that place, the 9th of February following, and soon after settled on a farm in its vicinity.

He has labored under serious disadvantages, during the greater part of his ministry. Almost a constant sufferer from chronic sore throat, he sometimes despairs of ever preaching again….

He is a good writer; and though he has extensively contributed to the secular and religious press, yet he scarcely ever writes an article which pleases himself.

A warm friend of missions both at home and abroad, of temperance, Sunday schools and strict discipline among the churches, he labors and prayers for their universal prevalence…[1]

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[1] History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia with biographical compendium and portrait gallery of Baptist ministers and other Georgia Baptists, (Publisher: J. P. Harrison and Company, 1881), pp. 300-301.

1831-1914 

Adoniram Judson Padelford

Baptist Pastor  New York/Maine NY/ME

Adoniram Judson Padelford was born 26 July 1831, in Galway NY. His mother was Martha Crane and his father was appropriately named Sedate Padelford.  In 1858 he graduated from the University of Rochester (NY) and stayed on to finish seminary there in 1860.

The databases provided 185 newspaper articles that carried his name reporting that he performed numerous weddings and attended even more denominational meetings. The oldest of these articles reported that,

An ecclesiastical council convened with the First Baptist Church, Fall River, in the afternoon of the 22^nd inst., to examine Bro. A. J. Padelford with reference to his ordination to the work of the ministry as an Evangelist…  The candidate gave a full, explicit and satisfactory statement of his religious experience, call to the ministry, and view of Christian doctrine. The council voted to proceed with his ordination in the evening…[1]

Thus, his ministerial career began at the First Baptist Church, Fall River, MA, where he served 1861-1862 before moving to Providence, Rhode Island, to serve Jefferson Street and Third Baptist churches concurrently 1862-66.

Rev. Padelford next led the Baptist Church, Amherst, MA (1866-68) followed by Portland Street Baptist Church, Haverhill, Essex Co., MA (1868-76) where his ministry was obviously productive.

The Portland Street society, Baptist, appears to be in a thrifty condition under the pastoral care of Rev. A. J. Padelford. Last Sunday the rite of baptism was administered to seventeen, nine males and eight females, a very large assemblage of people witnessing the ceremony. Last evening, at a meeting of the society, it was voted to enlarge the church by adding to it 10 feet in length and 20 feet in width. The estimated cost will be $10,000, of which sum $4000 were subscribed at that time.[2]

 Adoniram Judson Padelford was too busy with blessings, baptisms and buildings to do much writing but I did discover one published piece from Haverhill in a section of the local paper called “Sunny Side.”

My people have put me on the Sunny Side in a very sensible and pleasant way, by adding $300 to my salary. Our society have just closed another year very successfully in a financial view—and we have received many spiritual blessings, which have made our hearts glad in Jesus.[3]

During this busy ministry in Haverhill a cheeky newspaper editor wished to support the preaching of Adoniram Judson Padelford.

Rev. A. J. Padelford will preach at City Hall on sabbath morning at 10-15 and in the afternoon at 3 o’clock, subject: “Fast Women.” We only wish our paper circulated more extensively in Lawrence. The hall would be crowded.[4]

The Rev. Dr. Adoniram Judson Padelford died 28 September 1914, the same day as R. W. Sears, founder of Sears, Roebuck & Co. He was survived by two sons, Rev. Frank W. Padelford, Educational Secretary for the Northern Baptist Convention, and Frederick Martin Padelford, head of the department of English at the State University in Washington.[5]

His longest pastorate, 32 years, was at Second Baptist Church, Calais, ME (1877-1909) where he also served as school superintendent, 1885-1895. During this ministry he was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Colby College in Maine.

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[1] “Ordination in Fall River,” Christian Era (Boston, MA), February 1, 1861, p. 2.

[2] “A Writer,” Christian Watchman (Boston, MA), April 27, 1871, p. 7.

[3] “Sunny Side,” Christian Watchman (Boston, MA), April 18, 1872, p. 8.

[4] Daily Evening Bulletin (Haverhill, MA), August 26, 1871, p. 3.

[5] “Obituary,” Evening Bulletin (Providence, RI), September 29, 1914, p. 6.

1831-1915

Adoniram Judson Twogood

Farmer/Horticulturalist   NY/CA

(Compiler’s Note: I would love to give credit to someone who wrote this wonderful sketch of the life of Adoniram Judson Twogood but I cannot find the author. This biography is stored at accessgeneology and was written while Mr. Twogood was still alive. I have made a few edits to this original work and wish to thank the anonymous author for his/her good work which we enjoy today.)

Adoniram Judson Twogood is one of the original founders and members of the Southern California Colony Association, and among the pioneer settlers in Riverside, CA. He was a native of Onondaga County, New York, dating his birth in 1831. Mr. Twogood’s parents were natives of New York, and representatives of old families in that State. His father, Simeon Twogood, spent his life in agricultural pursuits. Mr. Twogood’s mother, before marriage, was Miss Harriet Hoag.

He was reared to farm labor and educated in the public schools. In 1855 he emigrated to Benton County, Iowa, where he engaged in farming until the war of the Rebellion roused his patriotism and he entered the military service of the United States. He enlisted as a Sergeant in 1862 and fought in the Indian outbreaks in the northwest suppressing the uprisings while protecting the settlers. He served his full term of enlistment, and was honorably discharged in 1865.

In 1866 he was united in marriage with Miss Alice Coddington, a native of Michigan. He was successful in his business pursuits, and in 1870 became interested in the scheme of founding a model colony in Southern California. He joined the Southern California Colony Association and visited the lands selected in Riverside. Being much pleased with the location, and having a strong faith in the future of the Riverside colony, he decided to establish his home among them.

In June 1871, he moved his family to Riverside and purchased, in connection with his brother, D. C. Twogood, a twenty-acre tract on Prospect Avenue. He immediately commenced the clearing and preparing of his lands, and in 1872 entered heartily into horticultural pursuits, planting largely with walnuts and almonds. He was a thorough and successful horticulturist, and soon had one of the model orange-groves of Southern California. It is worthy of note that his original orange-grove of fourteen acres in 1888 produced a crop that was sold on the trees for $10,000.

Mr. Twogood’s residence is on Fourteenth Street, at which point he has a five-acre tract. Upon this he has erected a model home, a two-story residence of architectural beauty and finish, in which he has combined the comforts and luxuries that characterize a modern home. The well-ordered grounds abounding in beautiful lawns, ornamental trees and rare floral plants, attest the culture and refinement of the occupants. He is successful in his enterprises and ranks among Riverside’s wealthy citizens.

Mr. Twogood has always taken a great interest in the growth and prosperity of Riverside and in the establishment and support of schools and churches. He is a member of the Baptist Church and a trustee of the same. He was a member of the first Board of City Trustees, and prominent in establishing the municipal government. In political matters he is a Republican. He is a member of Riverside Post, No. 118, G. A. R. He has a family of two living children, living, Louie M. and Fred W.[1]

Adoniram Judson Twogood died 14 March 1915 and is buried in the Olivewood Cemetery in Riverside, CA.

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[1] “Adoniram Judson Twogood,” https://accessgenealogy.com/california/biography-of-adoniram-judson-twogood.htm

1832-????

Adoniram Judson Allen

Baptist Pastor   New York    NY/NY

The story of Adoniram Judson Allen begins with his birth in 1832 in Albam, NY. He attended the University of New York and in 1859 graduated from Madison University (now Colgate University), in Hamilton, NY.  He was licensed to the gospel ministry in 1861 by the First Baptist Church in Albany, NY, while he pastored the Baptist congregation in South Dover. That same year he successfully completed studies at Hamilton Theological Seminary, Hamilton, NY. Rev. Adoniram Judson Allen was formally ordained in 1864 while he pastored the Baptist church in Banksville in Westchester County. His career in ministry continued in his home state of New York:

• 1865-73., Baptist Church, Ticonderoga, Essex Co., NY
• 1873-76, Baptist Church, Johnstown, Fulton Co., NY
• 1876-77, Baptist Church, Manhattan, New York Co., NY
• 1877-84. Baptist Church, West Henrietta, Monroe Co., NY
• 1884-86, Baptist & Bethel Churches, Gorham, Ontario Co., NY
• 1886-89, Baptist Church, Gilbertsville, Otsego Co., NY
• 1891-94, Baptist Church, Ludingtonville, Putnam Co., NY
• 1894-96, Baptist Church, East Marlon, Suffolk Co., NY
• 1897-1900, Baptist Church, West Park, Ulster Co., NY[1]

We have been unable to discover anything about his personal life and his eventual death and burial.

[Compiler’s Note: See another Adoniram Judson Allen at 1836-1911.]

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[1] George William Lasher, editor, The Ministerial Directory of the Baptist Churches in the United States of America (Oxford, Ohio: Ministerial Directory Company, 1899), p. 22.

1832-1885 

Adoniram Judson Underwood

Publisher/Public Servant   New York/Minnesota NY/MN

I am grateful for the research of Andy Osterdahl in “The Strangest Names in American Political History” for most of the information in this posting.

Adoniram J. Underwood was born on May 26, 1832, in Chautauqua, New York, in the small village of Clymer. Underwood relocated to Ohio with his family in 1835 and as an adolescent learned the trade of printing on the staff of the Western Reserve Chronicle. Underwood married in 1857 to Nancy Folsom and the couple had five children. Underwood served his country in the battlefield during the Civil War, being a member of the First Minnesota Volunteers and later as a sharpshooter.

After his military service, Underwood was elected tot the Minnesota State House of Representatives, serving from 1871-72, and is also listed as being the publisher of two newspapers.  He died at age 53, on December 21, 1885, in the town of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Underwood was later honored in 1912 by having the town of Underwood, Minnesota named after him.[1]

The village, now called Underwood, was platted in 1881 and established as a post office in 1884, the year before A. J. Underwood died. He was editor of the Weekly Journal, a Fergus Falls-based newspaper.  The Village of Underwood was formally incorporated in 1912. Though the Lion’s Club photo to the right boasts a population of 341, the 2020 census reports growth up to about 356 residents.

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/

1832-1889

Adoniram Judson Barrett

Baptist Pastor/Professor    OH/NY

Adoniram Judson Barrett was born in 1832 in Ashtabula, Ohio, to Annis Mariah Brown and her husband, Amos J. Barrett, a Baptist pastor. Originally, young Judson was a teacher and school principal at the Literary Institute in Nunda, NY, while maintaining his calling as a Baptist minister. He married Emily Barrows who also was a teacher and dedicated Baptist. Barrett was serving as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Kingsville, Ohio, where his first daughter, Helen, was born on July 31, 1861. He graduated from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1876 and became pastor of Lake Avenue Baptist Church in Rochester, New York, that same year. He served the Lake Avenue congregation and occasionally taught at the University of Rochester until his death in 1889.

Though carrying the name of Adoniram Judson, A. J. Barrett is most famous for his first daughter, Helen Barrett Montgomery, who became a scholar and activist in the Northern Baptist Convention. He instilled in her a love for education as well as a deep devotion to service through the church. Helen became the first woman to translate the Greek New Testament into contemporary English thus producing in 1924, The Centenary Translation of the New Testament. She was the first president of the Women’s American Baptist Foreign Mission Society and the first woman president of the Northern Baptist Convention.

(This is the first of two named Adoniram Judson Barrett. Also see 1851-1910, Adoniram Judson Barrett, NY/NY.)

1832-1918

Adoniram Judson Furman

Baptist Pastor     Pennsylvania    PA/PA

Adoniram Judson “A.J.” Furman was born on 11 November 1832, in Strattanville, Pennsylvania. He attended Bucknell University 1859-62 in Lewisburg while pastoring the Baptist Church in Lock Haven, PA, where he was licensed to the ministry and ordained. He was a Civil War veteran serving 25 September 1862 to June 16, 1864, as chaplain in the 7^th Reserves. Rev. Adoniram Judson Furman had two sons, Charles B (b. 1861) and Leander B (b. 1866) and two daughters, Leila and Carrie.  According to the 1870 census, his wife, Marie, was a teacher born in New York in 1840.

After completing his service in the Civil War, Adoniram Judson Furman, spent his career in the Baptist ministry serving these churches:

• 1865-68. Minister, Baptist Churches at Union and Huntington, Lancaster Co., PA
• 1868-71. Minister, Baptist Church, Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., PA
• 1871-75. Minister, Baptist Church, Factoryville, Wyoming Co., PA
• 1875-76. Minister, Baptist Church, Vermillion, Clay Co., SD
• 1876-78. Minister, Baptist Church, Oskaloosa, Mahaska Co., IA
• 1880-87. Minister, Baptist Church, Pittston, Luzerne Co., PA
• 1890. Minister, Baptist Church, Indiana, Indiana Co., PA
• 1890-91. Minister, Baptist Church, Johnston, Franklin Co., PA
• 1892-96. Minister, Baptist Church, Brandywine, Chester Co., PA

In addition to these local pastorates, A. J. Furman also served as editor of “The Baptist Visitor” and “The Temperance Herald.” The Phi Gamma Delta Magazine describes the passing of Adoniram Judson Furman and his wife, Marie, from the perspective of his sons who among the first Fijis.

Bro. Charles B. Furman, ’86, of Norristown, Pennsylvania, one of the founders of Delta, and Bro. L. B. Furman, of Denver, Colorado, one of the first initiates, lost their aged and highly esteemed parents within twenty-four hours, their father passing away at 6 o’clock Sunday morning, their mother at 3 o’clock Monday morning. Rev. A. J. Furman was one of the very best known Baptist clergymen in the state of Pennsylvania. He had also served pastorates in Vermillion, South Dakota, Oskaloosa, Iowa and Hillsdale, Michigan. Reverend Furman was 85 years of age, Mrs. Furman 78. They had been married over 58 years.[1]

He died October 19, 1918 (age 85) and is buried in the Oakland Cemetery and mausoleum in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

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[1] Adoniram Judson Furman, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134067902/adoneram-judson-furman

1833-1901 

Adoniram Judson Thompson

Physician/Farmer    NC/NC

Adoniram Judson Thompson was born into a family of North Carolina farmers and plantation owners on 1 December 1833, and by 1849 he was a student at Wake Forest College. We have been unable to determine where he went to medical school but by 1858, Dr. Thompson was registered as a physician in Wake County, NC. When the new town of Apex, NC, was incorporated in 1873 on a proposed new railroad, Dr. A. J. Thompson was one of the 14 who would be “among the first to buy lots in the new community.”[1]

The first doctor to establish a practice in the town of Apex was Dr. A. Judd Thompson.  Both the 1872 and the 1877-78 editions of the North Carolina Business Directory list Dr. Thompson as Apex’s only physician.[2] 

The Compiler’s contacts with North Carolina historian Warren Holleman about Dr. Thompson resulted in these exchanges:

To be honest, he has been a bit of an enigma to me as well. For example, his family is buried at the Apex cemetery, but he is not. That’s rather unusual unless he had a second marriage or moved away. I’m not sure where he lived, either. He owned a lot of land in the new town of Apex in the early 1870s, and built a nice house in town. But, as best we can tell, never lived in the house and may never have lived in town. My guess is that he lived out in the country, which wasn’t hard to do in our tiny town, which was only 1 mile square.[3]

Surveyor Stanley Smith’s research into Apex land titles revealed that Dr. Thompson was involved in real estate which sheds some light on his domestic life:

In 1872 A J Thompson bought 9 acres from A F Thompson and Annie S. Thompson.  It appears he was in acquisition mode as a single man in Apex in 1872 as he acquired five other parcels around town in or about that same year.

Dr. A J Thompson executed deeds as a seller of real estate in Wake County (Apex) from 1874 to 1900.  It is interesting to note that the 7 December 1874 conveyance to Gray Jones indicates he is a single man.  An 1880 conveyance indicates he is married to I E (Yates?) Thompson.  An 1889 conveyance indicates he is married to Bessie E (BE) Thompson.[4]

Uncovering the story of Dr. Adoniram Judson Thompson also led to some speculation about his first marriage to Isley E. Yates:

One other thing to consider: I noticed Dr. Thompson’s wife was a Yates from Chatham County, which probably refers to the eastern edge of Chatham County only a few miles from Apex. That is the area that Matthew T. Yates came from. He was one of the first Baptist missionaries to China, the first to translate the NT to the Shanghai dialect, and just an amazing human being. So it’s possible that Matthew T. Yates was Islie Yates’ uncle or great uncle or cousin. And that might explain why she was attracted to a man named “Adoniram Judson”![5]

Dr. Adoniram Judson Thompson died on 5 November 1901 and is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Halifax, Virginia.

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[1] Warren Lee Holleman and C. P. Holleman, Jr., Pluck, Perseverance, and Paint. Apex, North Carolina: Beginnings to 1941 (Houston, TX: Halcyon Press, Ltd., 2010), p. 23.

[2] Ibid., p. 131.

[3] Warren Holleman in an email to the compiler, February 28, 2023.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

1833-1903

Adoniram Judson Loomis

Attorney/Post Master         NY/KS

The original notes on Adoniram Judson Loomis are reported here from FindAGrave.

Adoniram Judson Loomis was born 21 June 1833 in Geneseo, New York. He was the son of Jacob and Sarah M. Kimball Loomis. His first wife was Nancy Vradenburg who birthed two children in Michigan before her death in 1867. These two boys were Lewis Herbert Loomis and Elon Albert Loomis (1865-1870). His second wife was Louisa E. Loring, a native of Canada who birthed one son for A. J. Loomis.

Upon the death of his five-year-old son, Elon in 1870, Adoniram Judson Loomis moved from Michigan to Marshall County, Kansas, where he was one of the founders of the village of Blue Rapids. This village was platted where the Big Blue and Little Blue Rivers meet in northeastern Kansas. Adoniram Judson Loomis was a lawyer and post master for this young village that uniquely built a courthouse in a circular town square. Because of a commitment to education, the public library was opened in 1875 and remains today the oldest public library in Kansas.  Adoniram Judson Loomis died 2 March 1903 at age 69 and is buried in the Fairmont Cemetery at Blue Rapids, Kansas.[1]

Further research revealed that Adoniram Judson Loomis migrated to Kansas in 1870 with a large group from Genesee, New York, the town where he was born. Grieving the loss of his second son, he joined the group of New Yorkers headed west after the Civil War. They were attracted to Kansas by the recently completed railroad plus the water power provided by Little Blue River.

The Blue Rapids Town Company was formed, and the townsite was laid off on a beautiful slope extending from the railroad to the river…. Each town lot was sold or distributed on the fixed condition that it never hold the foundation for a grog shop or a gaming house. Ten years after Mr. Loomis died, on October 24, 1913, more than 3,000 fans watched the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants play a world tour exhibition game on the local ball field that is still in use today. Today, Blue Rapids claims to be the smallest town in the U. S. to have hosted a National League baseball game.[2]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Loomis, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116566370/adoniram-judson-loomis

[2] https://legendsofkansas.com/blue-rapids-kansas/

1833-1910

Adoniram Judson Waterbury

Baptist Pastor   New York/Michigan    NY/MI

Rev. Adoniram Judson Waterbury was born in Nashua, NY, in August, 1833. He was licensed to preach 20 years later by Second Baptist Church of that city and ordained 4 years later while pastoring in Petersburg, NY. His ecclesiastical career went from New York to Colorado to Michigan and always in a Baptist pulpit.

+1870-74. Lebanon Springs, Columbia Co., NY

+1874-80. Greenbush, Schoharie Co., NY

+1880-81. Westerloo, Albany Co., NY

+1881-88. Rensselaerville, Albany Co., NY

+1888-90. Franklin, Delaware Co., NY

+1890-92. Golden, Denver and La Junta, CO

+1892-99. Tawas City, Iosco Co., MI

+1894-98. East Tawas, Iosco Co., MI[1]

A unique touch with Adoniram Judson Waterbury can be experienced through this picture identifying him as the founder, pastor and builder of the Baptist Church and parsonage in Prescott, MI. Though the photo is undated, Rev. Adoniram Judson Waterbury was pastoring just a few miles to the east in Tawas, MI, while constructing the church in Prescott which would eventually be named Judson Baptist Church.

Rev. Adoniram Waterbury died December 24, at the home of Rev. J. Pearson, Onaway….  He was loved and revered by all who knew him. His life was a benediction. For years he was the self-appointed pastor-at-large in the southern part of the Alpena Association. His funeral was held in Tawas City at the Baptist church….[2]

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[1] Lasher, The Ministerial Directory of the Baptist Churches…, p. 766.

[2] Seventy-first Annual Meeting of the Baptist Convention of the State of Michigan, 1911, p. 56.

1833-1915

Adoniram Judson Rich

Congregational & Unitarian Minister  ME/MA

Adoniram Judson Rich was born in 1833 the son of Daniel Fogg Rich and his wife, Anne.  He had nine siblings. He later married Harriet Louise Rich and they birthed four children. He studied (1859-61) at the Baptist’s Colby College in Maine and then Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1863. Adoniram Judson Rich spent his career as one of the leading pastors and theologians for the Congregationalists and Unitarians through the nineteenth century. His pastoral record reads like this:

• 1863-67. Minister, Congregational Church, Dorchester, Suffolk Co., MA
• 1867-70. Minister, Congregational Church, Westminster, Worcester Co., MA
• 1870-76. Minister, Unitarian Church, Brookfield, Worcester Co., MA
• 1879-83. Minister, Unitarian Church, Hyde Park, Suffolk, Co., MA
• 1883-85. Minister, Unitarian Church, Fall River, Bristol, Co., MA
• 1891-95. Minister, First Unitarian Church, Milford, Hillsborough Co., NH
• 1908. Minister, Unitarian Church, Dighton, Bristol Co., MA

Adoniram Judson Rich was also a prolific author and thinker for the liberal church movement.  Some of his more renown works were republished again and again making as many as 10 editions and as recently as 2017.

1833-1918

Adoniram Judson Wright

Dentist              New York/California

Born in 1833, Adoniram Judson Wright spent his career as a dentist.  This New York native graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1855 but stayed on at least one more year for post-graduate study.[1] He was married to Rose Ann Riley Wright (1837-1918).  Dr. Wright died in 1918 at age 84 and is buried in Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose, Santa Clara County, California.

(Compiler’s Note: While researching the history of dentist Adoniram Judson Wright, I discovered in the same catalogue a listing of A. Judson Sedwick from Virginia who graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1853. I make the assumption that A. Judson is also named for Adoniram but am unable to document it or find anything else about his career.[1])

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[1] Sixteenth Annual Announcement and Catalogue of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery: Session 1855-56 (Baltimore: John W. Woods, Printer, 1855), pp. 8, 10.

[2] Ibid., p. 7.

1834-1910

Adoniram Judson Warner

Businessman/Public Servant      NY/OH

In January 1834 Adoniram Judson, Jr., finished translating the Bible into Burmese after working on 25-30 verses each day since 1813. Also, in January 1834, Adoniram Judson Warner was born. I am grateful to “The Strangest Names in American Political History” blogspot and Wikipedia for Warner’s story.

Born on January 13, 1834, in Wales, New York (near Buffalo, New York), Warner moved with his parents to Wisconsin at the age of eleven. He attended school in Beloit, Wisconsin, and New York Central College. He was principal of Lewistown (Pennsylvania) Academy, superintendent of the public schools of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and principal of Mercer Union School, Pennsylvania, from 1856 to 1861. He was commissioned as captain in the Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves on July 21, 1861, promoted to lieutenant colonel on May 14, 1862 and became colonel on April 25, 1863. He was transferred into the Veteran Reserve Corps in November 1863….

Warner studied law and was admitted to the bar in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1865 but never practiced. At the conclusion of the war, he returned to Pennsylvania, and in 1866 moved to Marietta, Ohio. He engaged in the oil, coal, and railroad businesses.

Warner was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress.

Warner was elected to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1887). He was not a candidate for reelection in 1886. He served as delegate to the 1896 Democratic National Convention. He engaged in street railway construction in the District of Columbia and in railroad construction in Ohio. From about 1898 until six months before his death, he engaged in transportation and power development in Georgia. He died in Marietta, Ohio August 12, 1910. He was interred in Oak Grove Cemetery.[1]

While in congress Adoniram Judson Warner and William Jennings Bryant led the debates on U. S. monetary policy.

Also during this time, he began a lifelong interest, one that would later be a prominent theme during his years in Congress: the advocation of free silver. Over the succeeding years, Warner would author several pamphlets and books relating to the unlimited coinage of silver, including The Appreciation of Money (1887) and Facts about Silver (1891).[2]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Warner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoniram_J._Warner

[2] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/

1835?-1910

Adoniram Judson Colby

Baptist Pastor/Missionary     IA/IL/KS

(Compiler’s Note: We can find no record of the birth of Rev. Adoniram Judson Colby only picking up his ministry in 1860 in Iowa. Thus, I arbitrarily will guess he was born 25 years before this ministry and place him in the legacy listing at 1835.)

The first printed record of Rev. Adoniram Judson Colby reports him pastoring two Baptist congregations in Mitchell County, Iowa, 1860-62. By the end of the Civil War (1865), Rev. Colby is pastoring the Gardner Baptist Church in Audubon County, Iowa.

Rev. A. J. Colby became a leading figure in founding Morgan Park Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois, which would become the home of the Baptist Union Theological Seminary, frequently called Morgan Park Seminary. This seminary would morph into the “new” University of Chicago under the leadership of William Raney Harper.

Public religious work was begun in Morgan Park by Rev. J. Colbey (sic), a Chicago Baptist Minister, in 1872. There was no building adequate to the needs of such work, so services were held in private homes, the railroad depot and the school house. The first building specifically a house of worship was elected in 1873-74 by the Chicago Baptist Union, on the site of the present church. The land for the building was donated by the Blue Island Land and Building Company, as a means of booming their new proposed suberb (sic).

In this building were held the service of the Morgan Park Religious Association, organized in 1875 to maintain public worship. Union services were conducted on alternate Sundays by Baptist and Methodist ministers.[1]

A man of action, Chicago Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson Colby, accepted the challenge when he learned the Blue Island Land and Building Company

…offered to donate a lot and $4,000, agreeing to raise $4,000 more among adjoining land-owners, to any denomination which should proceed immediately to the erection of a $12,000 church. Rev. A. J. Colby, perceiving at a glance the importance of the field, began immediately to raise the remaining $4,000, but soon afterward concluded to transfer his interest to the Chicago Baptist Union, which accepted the offer, and entered upon the work, continuing Rev. Mr. Colby as missionary.[2]

By March of 1874, the $12,000 Morgan Park Church had been constructed but the Panic of 1874 had hit the U.S. economy.

The Rev. A. J. Colby, Baptist missionary at that place, had been promised a salary of $1,200 per annum, the churches of the city having pledged themselves to raise the amount.  Only two churches, however, had redeemed their pledges, and in consequence the missionary had been seriously inconvenienced…  The Rev. A. J. Colby, of Morgan Park, then spoke briefly of the affairs of the church at that place, which appeared to be in a somewhat tangled condition, and urged the union to adopt some measures for his relief.[3]

The measures of relief evidently did not work and by 1877, Adoniram Judson Colby is pastor of the Baptist Church in Clayton, Adams County, IL. He then headed west in 1879 to serve the Baptist Churches in Beloit and Salina, KS. A retirement notice was published in the Phillipsburg, KS, newspaper in November, 1890, noting that, “Rev. A. J. Colby who is well known to our old settlers, has returned from Illinois to Phillipsburg where he will remain in the future.”[4] He retired close to a son in Phillipsburg listed in “Local Businesses” in 1883 as a broom manufacturer (see entry 1861-1904).[5]

Rev. A. J. Colby, of Clay Center, passed from this life at a ripe age, Dec. 23, 1910. He had for some years been practically confined to his home. He was a good man, and had rendered efficient service at an earlier period of his life. The Clay Center Church, of which he was a member, showed him special attentions during his declining years. Pastor J. W. Bayles conducted the funeral on Christmas Day in the midst of friends and relatives.[6]

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[1] Helen G. Laycock, “How it all Began: Historical Sketch of the Morgan Park Baptist Church,” Morgan Park Baptist Church archives, 1927.

[2] The Standard (Chicago, Illinois), August 28, 1873, p. 5.

[3] “The Baptists,” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, IL), Volume 2, Issue 311, Wednesday, March 18, 1874, p. 8.

[4] Phillipsburg Herald (Phillipsburg, KS) Volume 13, November 6, 1890, p. 6.

[5] “Local Businesses,” Phillipsburg Herald (Phillipsburg, KS), Volume 5, March 29, 1883, p. 2.

[6] Kansas Baptist Annual of the Fifty-first Annual Meeting of the Kansas Baptist Convention, 1911, p. 62.

1836-1895 

Adoniram Judson Gordon

Baptist Minister/Educator   NH/MA 

Historian Richard V. Pierard reminds us that Adoniram Judson Gordon was a true New Englander all his life. He was born in New Hampshire on April 19, 1836, to a Baptist deacon named John Calvin Gordon. Young A. J, went to college in Rhode Island (Brown University), attended seminary in Massachusetts (Newton Theological Institute) and pastored Baptist churches in Boston before he died on February 2, 1895, at age 58. Pierard tells the story well in a 2015 article for American Baptist Quarterly.[1]

Gordon was no rigid fundamentalist as so many evangelical preachers of a later generation would be labeled by their critics. He was a moderate Calvinist in his doctrinal beliefs but was open to Holiness insights and a firm believer in the power of the Holy Spirit. He even had some interest in faith healing. He was not a “high church” type of person even though he ministered in an upper class church. He reached out to people of lower status by dispensing with pew rents and encouraging congregational singing. He compiled four hymnbooks and wrote a number of songs himself. He acknowledged the important role of women in the church. He believed they should be allowed to preach (but not become ordained), and female students were enrolled from the very beginning in his Boston Missionary Training School. His wife Maria played a very influential part in his life and ministry. Although Gordon anteceded the “social gospel” movement in American Protestantism, he grasped the social aspects of the faith. In a variety of ways, he ministered to the physical as well as the spiritual needs of those who came to Christ. He was also an advocate for temperance causes, regarding alcoholic drink as a burning social issue.[2]

Adoniram Judson Sage described the preaching of Adoniram Judson Gordon as

…the flow of a clear stream spiritual and practical in thought, and replete with suggestions from a wide range of reading…. A manly presence, a deep and rich voice, an utterly simple and unaffected manner, energetic, yet with no obstructive action, gave great power to his discourse…. His ministry was largely fruitful; the church became actively evangelistic, it reached the poor, the fallen, the outcast, it reclaimed the intemperate.[3]

Because of his commitment to missions, A. J. Gordon founded the Boston Missionary Training Institute in 1889 which became Gordon College. Gordon Divinity School then grew out of this undergraduate program. In 1970 Conwell School of Theology from Philadelphia merged with the seminary to become Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

A church music minister as we know them in the twenty-first century did not exist as such 200 years ago and preaching ministers frequently wrote hymns to be sung during worship to reinforce the message of the sermon. Adoniram Judson Gordon wrote his own hymns including my favorite “My Jesus, I Love Thee.” He edited two books of music for churches and for a time served as editor of the monthly publication Watchword. He was a close friend of Dwight L. Moody and greatly assisted Moody’s evangelistic efforts in Boston.[4]

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[1] Richard V. Pierard, Editorial Introduction, American Baptist Quarterly, Summer 2015 XXXIV:2, American Baptist Historical Society, p. 137.

[2] Ibid., p. 138.

[3] Adoniram Judson Sage, “Baptist Pulpit of the Nineteenth Century: Northern,” in A Century of Baptist Achievement, A. H. Newman, editor (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publican Society, 1901), p. 383.

[4] William J. Reynolds, “Authors, Composers, and Sources,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal, (Nashville, TN: Convention Press, 1992), p. 351.

1836-1899 

Adoniron Judson Boyakin

  Printer and Publisher  IL/ID

(Compiler’s prerogative: Though this name is not spelled like the traditional Adoniram, the compiler is free to assume the lad’s parents had the great missionary in mind when they phonetically spelled out the name of their new son.)

When Adoniron Judson Boyakin was born on 6 December 1836, in Belleville, St. Clair, Illinois, United States, his father, Rev. Williamson Franklin Boyakin, was 29 and his mother, Maria McQuary, was 26. He married Ida Nevada Clifton (1860-1942) in 1876 and together they had seven children. He died on 28 March 1899, in Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States, at the age of 62, and was buried in Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States

A note in a local Oregon newspaper reports

the sudden death of J. Boyakin at Boise City, Idaho, March 29^th. Deceased was a well-known printer, and a very bright man. Old pioneers in Portland will revert to the time when he worked on “The Oregon Weekly Times” in the 50s, and later on in the 60s on “The Oregonian,” when H. L. Pittock was sole owner and proprietor. “Jud,” as he was familiarly called, was a great compositor and a rapid one, and few there were, if any, who could “snow” him, using a printer’s phrase. In 1866 “Jud” established the “Boise City Democrat,” which he owned and published for many years. Many old Oregonians will regret to learn of the sudden demise of A. J. Boyakin.[1]

Adoniron Judson Boyakin was laid to rest in the Pioneer Cemetery in Boise on 30 March 1899 after services at the Presbyterian Church.

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[1] https://shermancountyoregon.com/obituaries/moro-leader-obituaries/moro-leader-obituaries/

1836-1902 

Adoniram Judson Sage

Baptist Pastor/Professor     OH/OH

Adoniram Judson Sage (1836-1902) was born in Massillon, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Rochester, NY, in 1860. His father, Orrin N. Sage (1805-1884), was a pastor in Ohio and one of the leading figures in stabilizing the Ohio Baptist Convention through his efforts as a fund-raising agent 1840-1844 and as corresponding secretary 1841-1844.[1]

Following the British model, Adoniram Judson Sage entered an essay competition during his senior year competing against the other 30 graduates at the University of Rochester. The theme for his 1860 class was “The Historical Value of Satirical Writing.”  Sage’s essay entitled “Soul in Nature” won first place among his classmates and was a source of pride the rest of his life.[2] Three years later (1863) in the midst of the Civil War, he graduated from Rochester Theological Seminary and again received first place for his senior essay and second place in the junior Greek award.

Sage pastored the Baptist Church in Shelburne Falls, MA, 1863-67, followed by a short pastorate at the Strong Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, before moving to Fourth Baptist Church in Philadelphia, 1868-69. He returned to his alma mater as a Latin professor, 1870-71, and was awarded an honorary D. D. degree from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1872.

His longest pastorate was at First Baptist Church, Hartford, CT (1872-1884) which he left to become professor of homiletics at the Baptist Union theological Seminary in Chicago (Morgan Park), 1884-1888. Adoniram Judson Sage always maintained ties to Ohio where he was born, and especially to the Cincinnati area.  He was a Director of Cincinnati’s Union Central Life Insurance Company, 1884-1888, and continued to do scholarly and popular writing from there. He wrote the analysis of the “Baptist Pulpit in the Nineteenth Century: Northern” which was published at the turn of the century, a year before he died, in A. H. Newman’s A Century of Baptist Achievement.[3]

One of his most popular poetic writings was about the violin and revealed some of the whimsy apparent in his early satirical writing in college and seminary. The poem is included here in appreciation of my daughter-in-law, Sheri Smith Cain, who is a strings teacher, youth orchestra conductor and excellent violiness.

The Violin

By Adoniram Judson Sage (1836–1902)

OH, fair to see!

Fashioned in witchery!

With purfled curves outlining

Thine airy form, soft shining,

In mould like ripening maiden,

Budding and beauty-laden;

Thou’rt naught but wood and string,

Crowned with a carvèd scroll,

Yet when we hear thee sing

We deem thou hast a soul.

In some old tree

Was born thy melody—

Its boughs with breezes playing,

Its trunk to tempests swaying,

Carol of wild-birds singing,

The woodman’s axe loud ringing;

Light arch of forest limb

Curving thine every line,

Tones of the forest hymn

Grown ripe in thee like wine.

Lightly the bow,

As if with life aglow,

Thy mystic grace revealing,

Shall set the witches dancing;

With classic notes entrancing,

Touch deepest chords of feeling.

Thy secret caves resound

As where enchanting elves,

Flinging the echoes ’round,

Blithely disport themselves.

How wild thy glee!

How sweet thy harmony!

Murmur of light heart dreaming,

Voice of the valkyr screaming,

Song of the cascade’s dashings,

Dance of auroral flashings!

O weird and wondrous thing!

Whate’er thy mood of art,

To wail or laugh or sing,

Thou’rt monarch of the heart.[4]

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[1] Richard H. Clossman, A History of the Baptist Churches in Ohio, 1789-1907, with Particular Reference to the Ohio Baptist Convention, (Springfield, Missouri: Particular Baptist Press, 2023), pp. 175-178.

[2] “University of Rochester,” Christian Watchman and Reflector (Boston, MA), Thursday, July 19, 1860, p. 2.

[3]  “The Baptist Pulpit of the Nineteenth Century: Northern,” Adoniram Judson Sage in, A Century of Baptist Achievement, A. H. Newman, editor (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1901), pp. 373-388.

[4] https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/a-library-of-american-literature/the-violin/

1836-1911 

Adoniram Judson Allen

Editor/Journalist   NJ/IA

Adoniram Judson Allen was born on 15 July 1836 (maybe 1837), in Newark, New Jersey to James Madison Allen, who was 26 and, Harriet Brown, who was 21. Allen was the fourth of 12 children born to this couple. At age 26, he married Amanda Ball on 25 September 1862, in Stark, Ohio, but she had an untimely death. Mr. Allen then moved to Iowa where he married Helen Laffer in 1866 and they had 8 children before her passing in 1891.

His obituary reports in the Davenport Democrat,

Mr. Allen had been a resident of Scott county for 57 years, and was not only favorably known here, but also in Muscatine county. For a number of years he devoted his time to newspaper work, having been publisher and editor of three papers, namely, the “Scott County Blade”(1882-89), “The Friendly Farmer” (1889-1895) and “Advance.” Mr. Allen lived in Buffalo for a long number of years…[1]

Adoniram Judson Allen died on 25 April 1911, in Davenport, Iowa, at the age of 73 after having a meal in an unnamed Davenport restaurant. He is buried in Oakdale Cemetery, Wilton, Muscatine County, Iowa.

[Compiler’s Note: See another Adoniram Judson Allen at 1832-????.]

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[1] “A. J. Allen Victim of Heart Attack,” Davenport Democrat and Leader, April 25, 1911, p. 13.

1837-???? 

Adoniram Judson Gray

Soldier/Physician      ME/CA

Adoniram Judson Gray was born in Tisbury, Dukes County, Massachusetts, October 28, 1837, of American-colonial descent and attended the Massachusetts State Normal School and Bowdoin College (1859). His professional training was at Harvard and Dartmouth Medical Colleges where he received the M. D. degree in 1861. He married Alice Worth Merry on May 7, 1862.[1]

Dr. Gray was a Medical Officer in the United States Army from 1862-81, serving in the Civil War at stations in Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington and eventually 1865 at the Hospital for Refugees and Freedman in Mobile, Alabama. When the war ended, he accepted assignments in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. Dr. Adoniram Judson Gray was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. A summary of his medical career in the army is glowing:

During the eighteen years, and more, spent with the army, not one of his appointments as acting assistant surgeon U.S.A., was terminated except at his own request. This is not said boastfully, but in grateful memory of the uniform courtesy and personal consideration shown by the surgeon general and by the medical directors under whom he served.

He has never held a professional position in civil life beyond what is common to every practitioner, having been content to labor “in the ranks,” and leave the special honors to those who are more worthy to bear them.[2]

Dr. Gray eventually moved to San Diego, California, in 1887 to establish a medical practice but the trail ends there.

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[1] George H. Kress, A History of the Medical Profession of Southern California, 2^nd edition (Los Angeles: Times-Mirror Printing and Binding House, 1910), p. 140.

[2] W. Thornton Parker, Editor, Records of the Association of Acting Assistant Surgeons of the United States Army (Salem, MA: Salem Press Publishing and Printing, 1891), p. 44.

1837-1916  

Adoniram Brown Judson

Physician     Burma/New York

Missionary and historian, Rosalie Hall Hunt, reports vividly on this son of Adoniram Judson, Jr. and Sarah Hall Boardman Judson, in Bless God and Take Courage.

In 1915, an elderly Dr. [Adoniram Brown] Judson wrote recollections of his Moulmein childhood. His reminiscences are full of the derring-do of children living on the edge of a jungle, short on toys but long on imagination…. He particularly relished occupying a howdah (seat) on the back of a massive elephant going for a sky-high ride…

Then it was 1845, and eight-year-old Adoniram Brown Judson was headed to American for the first time. He never saw Burma again…. The memories of that voyage grieved him ever after as he recalled waking up one morning near the shores of St. Helena to find his mother [Sarah Hall Boardman Judson] dead….

Adoniram and his younger brother Elnathan lived with Dr. and Mrs. Newton in Worcester, Massachusetts, where half-brother George [Dana Boardman, Jr.] also lived. Later the younger two boys lived with Dr. and Mrs. Bright….

Adoniram graduated from Brown in 1859 and studied medicine at Harvard. During the Civil War, he was an assistant surgeon in the U. S. Navy. Later becoming a specialist in orthopedic surgery, he was head of the New York Hospital’s outpatient department for thirty years. A prolific writer, Adoniram published more than fifty papers. He also helped organize the American Orthopedic Association and became its president in 1891.

In 1916, the year he died, Adoniram reflected on what might be the biggest tragedy of missionaries’ lives—separation from their children. It was wrenching for both parent and child….. “A divided and scattered family presents the saddest and most perplexing problem of missionary life.”[1]

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[1] Rosalie Hall Hunt, Bless God and Take Courage (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2005), pp. 284-286.

1837-1922 

Adoniram Judson Pinkham

Soldier/Public Servant       IL/ID

Thanks to “The Strangest Names in American Political History” and Andy Osterdahl for the information and image in this entry.

Adoniram Judson Pinkham’s political claim to fame rests on his service as Idaho Secretary of State from 1891-1893 as well as being a signer of the Idaho State Constitution. He was born in Illinois in 1837 and was 85 years of age at the time of his death in 1922. He married a woman named Adah and served as a sergeant in Co. A of the 13th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War, later being promoted to Captain. Sometime after the war, Pinkham relocated to Idaho territory and in 1890 was elected as that state’s inaugural Secretary of State (1891-1893). A Washington state death record reports that he died on April 8, 1922, in the city of Walla Walla.[1]

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/adoniram-judson

1838-1882  

Adoniram Judson Pickard

Physician   Maine   ME/ME

Long before there was a Jean-Luc Picard (born July 13, 2305), Captain of the Federation starship USS Enterprise, there was an Adoniram Judson Pickard who was born in Penobscot County, Maine, on Christmas Eve, 1838. He received his A. B. degree from Bowdoin College (1863) but his class had been decimated by departures to fight in the Civil War. A classmate wrote,

College life, not usually very exciting, consisting of ceaseless digging for Latin roots, grabbing for Greek stems, delving for the hidden mysteries of the calculus, rolling in luxury during senior dignity—is, if possible, more alarmingly quiet this term than usual… owing to the absence of many students of the profession in the army as assistant surgeons and hospital stewards. About 60 is the present number in attendance.[1]

During this time of turmoil A. J. served as a high school principal in Rockland, ME, in 1863. He volunteered for the war and was commissioned as 1^st Lieut. 2d Cavalry Regiment Maine Vols., 63-64; Adjutant, 64-65. Pickard earned an A. M. in 1866 from Bowdoin and then worked at a research station in Pensacola, FL, where he met and married Elizabeth Matilda Favorite (1848-1886). Pickard was granted an M. D. on February 15, 1872, from Homeopathic Hospital College, Cleveland, Ohio.

Though we know little about his life and work in Maine, we do know the sad story of his death only eleven years after he finished medical school. On December 27, 1882, The Portland Daily Press reported this tragedy under the title, “Physician Killed by Maine Central Train.”

Bangor, Dec. 26.–The Maine Central train from Portland to Bangor early this evening collided with a team on the crossing near Carmel station. The sleigh was broken to splinters and the occupant instantly killed and the lifeless body thrown on the cow catcher. It proved to be Dr. A. J. Pickard, homeopathic physician of Carmel.  He was about 60 years old and leaves a widow and five children.[2]

Two months later we read the “Verdict Against the Maine Central Railroad.”

Bangor, Me, Feb 21–An indictment against the Maine Central Railroad Company for carelessly and negligently killing Dr. A. J. Pickard of Carmel, December 26 last at the crossing of the railroad and a public highway, has been tried. Dr. Pickard at the time was traveling along the highway alone in a sleigh. The alleged acts of negligence on the part of the railroad were excessive speed and a fail to whistle and ring the bells. Verdict guilty. Forfeiture imposed by the jury $5000.[3]

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[1] “Local and State News,” Lewiston Daily Evening Journal (Lewiston, ME), July 1, 1863, p. 2.

[2] “Physician Killed by Maine Central Train,” (Portland, ME: The Portland Daily Press) December 27, 1882. Vol. 20, Page 2.

[3] “Verdict Against the Maine Central Railroad,” Boston Evening Journal (Boston, MA) February 21, 1883. Vol. L. Issue, 16417, Page 1.

1838-1912

Adoniram Judson Hutchinson

Soldier/Citizen       VA/WV

The Raleigh Herald of Beckley, WV, reported the passing of Confederate veteran Adoniram Judson Hutchinson on page 3, its obituary page of 2 August 1912.

Last Sunday afternoon at four o’clock Judson Hutchinson, after having reached a ripe old age of 76 years, was summoned to answer the death call and his spirit went to the God who gave it. Mr. Hutchinson had been in feeble health for some time but not until recently was his condition considered critical but for the past several days his life had been despaired of.

Mr. Hutchinson was a native of Raleigh county and was the progeny of Charles H and Elizabeth Hutchinson, and was one of fourteen children from the above marriage, all of whom lived to exceed their three score and ten years. Extensive relationship naturally followed such a large offspring and at the time of his death but few persons in the county had as many near and distant relations, most of whom are residing in the county, as did Mr. Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson was a member of Robert E Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans….

The remains of this estimable man were laid beside that of his wife in the J W Gray old graveyard, Rev W W West, of the Baptist church, conducting the services. A large concourse of sorrowing relatives and friends were present at the obsequies attesting to the high esteem in which he was held. The Messenger joins their large circle of friends in extending sympathy in this sad hour.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Hutchinson. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19477587/adoniram-judson-hutchinson

1838-1913 

Adoniram Judson Clark

Soldier/Public Servant   NY/NJ

We depend on Wikipedia again to provide a good summary of the life of this Judson legacy.

Adoniram Judson Clark was born in Fayetteville, NY, October 1, 1838, but most of his life was lived in New Jersey. He commanded a New Jersey battery in the American Civil War. He enlisted in April 1861, and became a sergeant in Company F. His battery served in the Peninsula Campaign, the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of Mine Run.

Clark was slightly wounded at the Second Battle of Ream’s Station in 1864. He later escorted the troops in his battery whose enlistments had expired back to Trenton, New Jersey, before returning to the Petersburg front. Back at Petersburg, Clark was put in charge of the artillery on the front lines in December 1864. Judson Clark was recommended for promotion more than once, but the most he received was a brevet rank of major, conferred on 2 April 1865, for his service at Petersburg.

After the war, Major Clark served as police chief in Newark while also an officer in the New Jersey National Guard. An active Republican, he was secretary of the Board of Assessment and Revision of Taxes and Receiver of Taxes (ca. 1888). Captain Clark was named to the Board of Assessment and Taxes in 1900. Adoniram Judson Clark died on July 24, 1913. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside, New Jersey.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Clark, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Judson_Clark

1838-1918 

Adoniram Judson Frost

Baptist Pastor/Lecturer      NY/CA

I am sure there must be an obituary or summary of the life of Adoniram Judson Frost but I have not yet discovered it. Calculating that he was 80 years, 3 months and 20 days old when he died in 1918, we can assume he was born in 1838. He graduated from the Baptist-related Madison College (now Colgate University) in 1865 and was a Baptist pastor in Syracuse, NY, 1867-69, and in Bay City, MI, in 1869.  From there he moved westward toward California and we can pick up his trail through newspaper articles that give sketchy information.

Ten years after graduation, the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean announced on 2 July 1875, that Rev. A. J. Frost resigned a pastorate in Chicago. “It became generally known yesterday that the Rev. A. J. Frost, pastor of University Place Church, had resigned his church on account of an alleged dissatisfaction among the members of the congregation and the church with unorthodox tenants promulgated by him from the pulpit.”[1] We are left to wonder what these unorthodox tenants were.

Ten years later Adoniram Judson Frost was pastoring the Baptist Church in Sacramento, CA (1884-1888), and again raising eyebrows.

’Lying as a Fine Art’ was the subject of a lecture delivered by A. J. Frost of Sacramento, before the Y.M.C.A. of San Francisco last Thursday night. Frost was the pastor of the Baptist Church in this city [San Jose, 1878] a few years ago. In the lecture referred to he spoke like a man who was thoroughly familiar with his subject, and when he speaks of pious lying for religious ends, he creates a grave suspicion in the minds of some persons concerning his own truthfulness….[2]

In September, 1896, Frost lectured on the “Wonders of the Yosemite” in Prescott, AZ, where the rector at the local Episcopal Church wrote to the local newspaper,

I have heard Dr. Frost’s lecture on the Yosemite. I consider it the best descriptive lecture I ever heard…. The doctor is not only very instructive in his lecture, but exceedingly humorous in some of his descriptions.[3]

While Adoniram Judson Frost was pastor of the First Baptist Church in San Bernardino, CA (1889-1901) on

October 19, 1900, Mrs. A. J. Frost, wife of the well-known Baptist minister, died at Los Angeles yesterday. The deceased was well known in this city where the family has many friends who will learn with regret of the good woman’s death.[4]

Ten months later in July, 1901, we find Dr. Adoniram Judson Frost in Portland, Oregon.

The pulpit of the First Baptist church will be occupied this evening by the Rev. A. J. Frost, D.D., of Los Angeles who is well known as a lecturer and a preacher. He is regarded as one of the ablest men in the California ministry. He has filled pastorates in New York and Chicago and has attained a wide reputation as a scholar thorough his exposition of the Book of Roans, given as Bible readings.[5]

On July 13, 1901, the Oregonian (Portland, OR) reported the last day of Chautauqua for the Williamette Association has been a success.

The most prominent literary features today were the lecture by Dr. A. J. Frost of Los Angeles and Polk Miller’s “Old Times Down South” entertainment. Dr. Frost’s description of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was listened to with rapt attention throughout and was so vivid that the listeners imagined themselves threading its might labyrinths, where magnificent height was coupled with the colors of a flower garden.[6]

Three years after the passing of his first wife (1903),

The announcements are out of the marriage of Dr. Adoniram Judson Frost, the well-known Baptist divine, and Lizzie Avery, the marriage taking place on September 12, at Denver, Colorado, the newly wedding pair taking their departure for Minneapolis to make their home.[7]

Fifteen years later, “Dr. A. J. Frost, for 12 years pastor of the First Baptist Church in San Bernardino, widely known in church circles, died at the Good Samaritan hospital in Los Angeles Wednesday night.”[8]  

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[1] “Rev. A. J. Frost,” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), Volume IV, Issue 85, July 2, 1875, p. 8.

[2] “A. J. Frost, A Strange Subject for a Christian Minister,” Evening News (San Jose, CA), Volume 5, Issue 104, November 21, 1885, p. 3.

[3] “Rev. A. J. Frost’s Lecture,” Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner (Prescott, AZ), Volume, XXXIII, Issue 23, September 16, 1896, p. 1.

[4] “Mrs. A. J. Frost,” Riverside Independent Enterprise (Riverside, CA), October 19, 1900

[5] “Will Preach Today,” Oregonian (Portland, OR), July 7, 1901, p. 22.

[6] “Last Day of Chautauqua,” Oregonian (Portland, OR), July 13, 1901, p. 10.

[7] “Personal,” Riverside (CA) Enterprise, Friday, October 2, 1903, p. 8.

[8] “Death of Dr. A. J. Frost,” Riverside Daily Press (Riverside, CA), January 4, 1918.

1838-2021  

Judson College

Marion, Alabama      AL/AL

The Wikipedia entry on the noble history of Judson College gives a sweeping picture of this Alabama school for women.

Judson College was founded by members of Siloam Baptist Church in Marion, Alabama, in 1838, making it the fifth-oldest women’s college in the country and the longest-lived namesake of the Judson educational legacy. This proud institution closed her doors in 2021 after 183 years of service. Judson College was named for Ann Hasseltine Judson, the wife of Adoniram Judson, often considered the first female foreign missionary from the United States though she was never formally appointed as such. She served in Burma, now Myanmar.

Dr. Milo Parker Jewett was the first president of the fledgling school and the stately administration building still carries his name. He came to Alabama with the goal of establishing a school for young women that would provide them with the same quality of education that young men received at Harvard and Yale. Jewett later became president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Judson College formally affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention in 1843 and received funding from them throughout its history.

The principal building of the campus is Jewett Hall, the third of this name. The first Jewett Hall, built in 1840, was destroyed by fire in 1888. The rebuilding of Jewett Hall was begun that same year but in 1947 the dome was hit by lightning and fire consumed the building again. Rebuilding efforts began almost immediately, and funds were raised by the sale of bricks from the rubble. The present Jewett Hall provides a stately and imposing entry to the campus.

Other notable buildings on campus include the A. Howard Bean Hall, a former Carnegie Library which now houses the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame as well as 2 classrooms, the Alumnae Auditorium, and the Women’s Missionary Union residence hall. The Judson College Historic District places the campus on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Outstanding alumna include Margaret Lea Houston who was the First Lady in Texas when her husband, Sam Houston, served as president of the Republic of Texas.  Emera Frances Griffin from the Class of 1860 became a women’s suffrage and temperance leader so widely known in Alabama that she was allowed to speak at the state’s Constitutional Convention of 1901, making her the first woman to address an Alabama legislative body. Janie Shores was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Alabama.  Titilayo Adedokun, who was born to Nigerian immigrants, was named Miss Ohio in 1993 and second runner up in the Miss America pageant in 1994.

Battling the cultural prejudice of young adults uninterested in small towns and gender specific education, enrollment at Judson in 2019 had dropped to 268 students. In 2020 the college experienced severe financial challenges, declining enrollment and COVID-19. In December, the college’s president issued an urgent plea for $500,000 in donations to prevent the college from closing immediately. Although it had raised $1.3 million, enrollment dropped from 145 in the fall of 2020 to 80 for the fall of 2021. In May of 2021, the college’s board of trustees voted to close the college and begin Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The college closed its residence halls after the spring semester ended and suspended academic operations after the summer term ending July 31, 2021.

In 2022 the school’s archives were transferred to Samford University, a sister school, founded in Marion which relocated to Birmingham in 1887.[1]

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judson_College_(Alabama)

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.

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[1] Cleone Poteet, The Origin and History of Cedar Valley Baptist Church, http://www.cedarvalleybaptistchurch.com/history

1839-1918 

Judson LaMoure, Sr.

Businessman/Public Servant         CA/ND

As compiler and czar of The Judson Legacy Project, I have chosen on only four occasions to allow someone into my listing who did not meet the standard of verifiably being named for Ann or Adoniram Judson.  I choose to do this with Judson LaMoure who was born in Canada and lived his adult life in North Dakota. Records from Canada are hard to retrieve and thus we do not know why his parents named him Judson.  I will arbitrarily make the decision that his parents named him for Adoniram Judson because of their deep Christian faith.  I invite dialogue from those who might know that history to get in touch with me. But until then we will let Jack Dura’s story on Prairie Public Broadcasting tell the story of Judson LaMoure, Sr.—JBC

Perhaps no one has as many places in North Dakota named for themselves as Judson LaMoure. Political boss Alexander McKenzie comes close with two towns and one county, but Jud LaMoure has him beat. LaMoure was a Dakota territorial lawmaker whose name is in LaMoure County and the towns of Jud, Judson and LaMoure.

LaMoure was born in 1839 in Quebec and came to Dakota Territory in 1860 after time in Iowa and the goldfields of Colorado. He farmed in Union County in southern Dakota, worked for a transportation business, and was also a subagent for the Lower Brule Reservation. In 1870, he moved to Pembina County in far northeastern Dakota, where for decades he owned a mercantile business at Neche.

LaMoure was also a politician, serving in the legislature a record sixteen terms from 1872 to 1911. That included two terms in the Dakota Territorial House of Representatives, two terms in the Territorial Council and twelve terms in the North Dakota State Senate. He was also on the Dakota Territorial Board of Railroad Commissioners for an appointed term in 1889, and even did duty as a U.S. deputy marshal for many years.

LaMoure was just 34 years old when LaMoure County was created and named for him in 1873. The county’s only town at the time was Grand Rapids, which became the county seat by default. In 1882, the town of LaMoure incorporated, and on this date that year, the town’s post office was established. In 1884, after a bitter contest with Grand Rapids, LaMoure won an election to wrest away the county seat. Today, Grand Rapids is no longer incorporated.

Also in LaMoure County is Jud – a railroad town south of Jamestown – renamed in LaMoure’s honor in 1906 after two name changes. Then there’s Judson, North Dakota, a ghost town west of Mandan. It was named in 1901 after its siting along the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Interestingly enough, LaMoure’s father-in-law was a prominent namesake too – Nelson E. Nelson of Nelson County fame.

And one other note. Judson LaMoure’s name also found a home on the high seas, as the United States Navy commissioned two tank landing ships named for the county. They were in service at different times, but both were christened the USS La Moure County.[i]

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[i] Jack Dura, Dakota Datebook. https://news.prairiepublic.org/main-street/2018-12-13/judson-lamoure

1840-????              

Adoniram Judson Gibbs    

Farmer/Public Servant       OH/MI

I must rely on the research of Andy Osterdahl at “The Strangest Names in American Political History” for information on

….Michigan native Adoniram Judson Gibbs, whose life is shrouded in obscurity. Very few details could be found on this man’s public career and political exploits, and I’m quite surprised that I was actually able to locate a picture of him!

 Gibbs was born in the town of Nelson, Ohio on January 18, 1840, and moved to Michigan with his father in 1854. He is listed by the Early History of Michigan as receiving an “academical education” and spent the majority of his younger years engaged in farming. He is also listed as being a justice of the peace in the town of Orange, Michigan, and was later a school superintendent.

Gibbs was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives in 1880 from Ionia County and served in the session of 1881-1882. Nothing else could be found on this obscure man, including his date of death.[i]

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[i] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/search?q=adoniram+judson

1840-1917 

Adoniram Judson Rowland

Baptist Pastor/Publisher     PA/PA

Adoniram Judson Rowland was born on February 9, 1840 in Valley Forge, PA, the son of Samuel Norton and Susanna (Suplee) Rowland. He was baptized at Lawrenceville, PA, by Rev. W. H. H. Marsh on January, 6, 1858. AJ earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Bucknell University in the 1860’s and later graduated from Rochester Theological Seminary. His ordination was at Lawrenceville, PA, October, 1862 which qualified him to serve as chaplain of the 175th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers through the remainder of the Civil War. He married Harriet East Frick, May 31, 1865, and after she died Rowland married Kate South on October 29, 1878. He had one son, Arthur John Rowland.

Adoniram Judson Rowland’s career in ministry was both deep and wide.

• Pastor Mount Auburn Church, Cincinnati, 1866-1868.
• President Mount Auburn Institute, Cincinnati, 1868-1870.
• Pastor First Church, Pittsburgh, 1870-1872.
• Pastor Tenth Church, Philadelphia, 1872-1884.

An evaluation of his career was written in 1881 for The Baptist Encyclopedia which reads:

Dr. Rowland is a man of superior mind, pleasing manners, studious habits, extensive learning, and exemplary piety. As pastor of a large and influential church, he magnifies his office, and is very highly esteemed in love for his work’s sake. His sermons are rich in original thought and Bible knowledge, clear in expression, and impressive in delivery. His writings show enlarged acquaintance with books and men. He has gathered a large library of choice and standard works, which he utilizes with rare ability. He is the first and the successful editor of Our Young People, a very able monthly journal for the older scholars in our Sunday-schools. This paper deserves the great circulation it has already secured, and under its gifted editor it will be a still greater power among the young.[1]

Adoniram Judson Rowland served as Pastor of Franklin Square Church in Baltimore, 1884-1895 while also serving as editor of Senior Quarterly. Rowland served the last 21 years of ministry as General Secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society (now Judson Press) 1895-1916. He was listed as a noteworthy clergyman by Marquis Who’s Who.[2]

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[1] The Baptist Encyclopedia, (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1881) p. 1013.

[2] https://prabook.com/web/adoniram_judson.rowland/1098793

1841-1915 

Adoniram Judson Smith

Soldier     NY/CT

Adoniram Judson Smith was born 25 August 1841, in Whitestown, NY, to Henry Smith and Emily Watson. Historical Record Lists reports that Adoniram Judson Smith was a participant in the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, VA. He married Ophelia (Vessie) Pyott and had 10 children.  He passed away on 22 February 1915, in New Haven, CT.

1841-1917 

Adoniram Judson Sawyer

Businessman/Public Servant NH

Andy Osterdahl’s very interesting blogsite entitled “Political Strange Names” provides this summary and this image of Adoniram Judson Sawyer.

Hailing from New Hampshire, Adoniram Judson Sawyer gained distinction on the Civil War battlefield as well as through public service in the city of Exeter, where he served at various times as selectman, postmaster, and state representative. Born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire on February 16, 1841, Sawyer enlisted in Co. H., 2nd Regiment of the New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in 1861 and in May 1862 was wounded at the Battle of Williamsburg. In 1864 he became a sergeant and was later mustered into a New Hampshire heavy artillery regiment.

Sawyer was mustered out of service in June 1865 and was later engaged as a boot and shoe retailer in Exeter, also dealing in insurance in the firm of Sawyer and Heath. He served Exeter as a town moderator and selectman, and in 1886 was elected to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives, serving in the legislative session of 1887-89. Sawyer would later serve two terms as postmaster for Exeter and maintained memberships in the local Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges. He died in Exeter on June 26, 1917, at age 76, and was later interred at the Highland Cemetery in Newton, New Hampshire.[1]

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/adoniram-judson

1842-1924

Adoniram Boardman Dunaway

Baptist Pastor           VA/NC

Rev. Adoniram Boardman Dunaway carries the name of two great missionaries to Burma, Adoniram Judson and George Dana Boardman. He was born in Lancaster County, Virginia, 5 October 1842, and died 3 October 1924. He was buried on the date of his birth, October 5, in which would have been the occasion of his 82^nd birthday.

Adoniram Dunaway entered the Confederate Army in 1861 when he was 19 years old and served in W.H.F. Lee’s Division of J.E.B. Stuart’s Corps for four years, the entire duration of the Civil War. He was first married to Martha Ellen Kidd in 1864 and they had one daughter but Martha died in 1881. His second wife was Elizabeth Jordan.

Adoniram Boardman Dunaway was determined to enter the Baptist ministry and was ordained in the Lebanon Baptist Church 31 July 1872 at the same time that his cousin, Wayland F. Dunaway, was ordained. He served in various churches in Virginia and two congregations in North Carolina and at the time of the First World War in 1917 he was serving his last pastorate which was Drummondtown Baptist Church at Accomack, Virginia. He received the degree of D. D. from Richmond College in 1897.

About his professional effectiveness, a peer, Rev. W. W. Reynolds, wrote of Adoniram Boardman Dunaway:

I regarded Dr. Dunaway as a most excellent sermonizer. He was at his best in making sermons, that was his delight and he showed an artistic skill in delving to the depths of a text and bringing the hidden jewels to the surface. His sermons were not fossilized nor did they ever grow old for the reason that they were made today and for today. His illustrations were not born of the past but were the living things around him and made his preaching breathe and throb with a living reality of events as they then existed. In the act of preaching, he was very effective, he would thrill you through and through and drive home his thoughts with marvelous skill and force….  But notwithstanding his ability, natural and acquired, he was a modest and diffident man. He could never push himself forward …. Dr. Dunaway had a lovable disposition. He never puffed himself up but he could puff others. He delighted in the success of his younger brethren. There was no jealousy about him.[1]

After rounding out fifty-two years in the ministry of the Baptist faith, Dr. A. B. Dunaway, 82, will, on Sunday, October 28, preach his farewell sermon at the Drummond town Baptist Church, Accomac, VA, which church he has served since January 1, 1911. He will retire from the ministry, making his home with his only child, Mrs. S. B. Carney, of Portsmouth, VA….  he has been considered for a number of years one of the most forceful and able preachers in the State. His retirement from the ministry is deemed a great loss to the Drummondtown Baptist Church as well as to the Southern Baptist Association, in which he has been a leader and organizer for years.[2]

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[1] A. Elizabeth Clendening, compiler, “The Dunaways of Virginia,” (Ogunquit, Maine: Published by S. Judson Dunaway, MCMLIX), p. 57. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 59-14861.

[2] Ibid., pp. 58-59.

1843-1918 

Adoniram Judson Johnson

Baptist Pastor/Colporteur OH/IN

Adoniram Judson, Jr., was working on the Burmese-English dictionary, which is still in use today, when Adoniram Judson Johnson was born on 15 November 1843 in Muskingum, Ohio. Various census takers have spelled his name Adaniron or Adamison but these public servants spelled phonetically when necessary. We know that Rev. Johnson was married in 1869 but do not know the name of his bride or anything about his family. He served as a District Secretary for the American Baptist Publication Society 1864-1876.[1] Rev. Johnson died August 15, 1918, Liberty Center, Wells County, Indiana…[2]

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[1] Daniel Gurgen Stevens, The First Hundred Years of The American Baptist Publication Society (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1924) p. 92

[2] Adoniram Judson Johnson, https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/43/?name=Adoniram+Judson_Johnson&birth=1843_Muskingum-+Ohio-+United+States&death=1918_Liberty+Center-+Wells-+Indiana-+USA&types=p

1844-1927 

Adoniram Judson Mathis

Realtor/Mayor   Des Moines, Iowa       IA

Andy Osterdahl has information on 13 people named for Adoniram Judson at his blogspot, “The Strangest Names in American Political History.” He has granted permission to republish his work and the image he provided for this entry.

Adoniram Judson Mathis was born on November 26, 1844, in Iowa, the son of William and Elizabeth Duke Mathis, former residents of Kentucky. The family resided on a farm during Adoniram’s youth and later moved to another farm located in Polk County, Iowa. A.J. Mathis is also recorded as marrying in Iowa to Amanda Carr (1841-1907). The couple had two sons, Frank A. (1866-1938) and Whitney H. (1871-1921).

Before his tenure as Mayor A.J. Mathis engaged in real estate transactions and served as judge of the police court in Des Moines. In 1908 was elected Mayor of that city. Mathis’ term in office is notable for the establishment of the “Des Moines Plan” mentioned by experts and political scientists of the time as “the ideal form of city government“. Des Moines was the first city outside of the state of Texas to adopt this “city-commission” form of government. Mayor Mathis himself is quoted in the April 23, 1910 edition of the St. Paul Appeal as stating:  

“Of all the accomplishments coming as a direct result of the Des Moines Plan, the greatest is the constant public interest is in the work of the council…. There was previously no public interest save that inspired by property interests and politics. Next in importance is a changed press, which in an improved degree tells what is going on a city hall. The press and the public lean on each other, and the council is thus inspired. The Des Moines Plan is responsible.“

Despite being a prominent figure in the establishment of this landmark form of municipal government Mathis served only one term as Mayor, leaving office in 1910. Little else is known of his life after this point, except notice of his death in 1927 at age 83. He was interred at the Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines.[1] 

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/adoniram-judson

1844-Present 

Adoniram Baptist Church

Abbeville, Henry County       Alabama AL

The Adoniram Baptist Church was one of 9 congregations that met in 1850 to form the Judson Missionary Baptist Association in Henry County, Alabama. The pastor of the church, W. B. Lacey, also served as pastor of the Abbeville Baptist Church. The Adoniram Church congregation with 120 members was the second largest in the group behind only the Judson Baptist Church with 166 members.[1] An interesting blip in history occurred around the Adoniram Church in 1888-1889 as recorded by local historian R. J. Lee:

About this time the Saville trouble started. It seemed that Saville came from Georgia where he has been turned out of the church for disorderly conduct. Later he reformed and was taken in by the Adoniram Church. Some of the ministers of the Association would not have fellowship with Adoniram because Saville had never been reprimanded by the Association and re-ordained. Finally Bro. A. J. Armstrong, who was a leader with influence, moved that it all be discarded and dropped. After a heated discussion the motion carried, but some of the churches withdrew from the Association. At this same time, the Association disolved (sic) fellowship with Adoniram. The following year Adoniram sent a delegation to the Association to apologize and ask to be re-admitted to the Association. Adoniram was re-admitted on the promise that all members received into the church during this period be taken off the rolls. That ended the Saville affair.[2]

In 1963 the Judson Missionary Baptist Association hired its first Director of Missions, Rev. Marvin Agee, with a very limited salary but with permission for this new director to also pastor one of the smaller churches in the association for additional income. By 1972 the Director of Missions, Rev. James Perry, was also serving as pastor of the Adoniram Baptist Church to support his family’s income.[3]

Compiler’s Note: Members of this congregation later migrated to Texas and named a church and the village of Judson, Texas, for their Alabama congregation. See entry 1883-Present, Village of Judson, Texas 75660.

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[1] R. J. Lee and Larry Smith, History of Judson Missionary Baptist Association, unpublished manuscript available from 532 Ozark Road, Abbeville, Alabama 36310, p. 1.

[2] Ibid., p. 8.

[3] Ibid., p. 19.

1845-1899

Adoniram Judson Stone

Farmer/Public Servant         NH/VT

I am grateful the research of Andy Osterdahl at the blogspot “Political Strange Names” for thus summary on Mr. Stone and the image he graciously shared.

Adoniram J. Stone was born in the town of Cornish, New Hampshire on October 13, 1845, the son of Erastus and Lucy Burr Stone. He received his schooling in New Hampshire and is recorded as having relocated to Vermont in the early 1860s. Shortly after his resettlement Stone signed on for military service in Montpelier, joining Co. H of the 6th Vermont Volunteers in August 1861. He is listed by the Gazetteer of Washington County, VT as being mustered into service in October of that year and served his term of enlistment, leaving the service in March 1862. Stone later re-enlisted in Co. H’s 13th Vermont Volunteers and served another term of duty until his discharge.

After returning home Adoniram Stone married in the village of Bethel on March 8, 1865, to Mary Elizabeth Hardy, with whom he would have three children: Arthur Wilbur (born 1866), Fred Adoniram (born 1875), and Lucy (born 1881). The Gazetteer notes that Adoniram was a farmer, notary public, lister, and town auditor for Worcester and in 1882 won election as first selectman for that town. Sources of the time also recorded him as being a parishioner in the Unitarian church.

In 1883 Stone was named as second selectman for Bethel, and his prominence in that town eventually culminated in his being elected to the Vermont State House of Representatives in November 1887. His term of service lasted from 1888-1890…. A burial location for Stone is also unknown at this time. A rare portrait of Adoniram J. Stone appeared in the Pictorial History of the Thirteenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers, originally published in 1910.[1]

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[1] https://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2012/05/

1845-1917

Adoniram Judson Banker

Physician Ohio/Indiana OH/IN

The 1860 census records of Washington Township in Shelby County, Indiana note a citizen named John Banker, age 42, as the head of household, a farmer with real estate valued at $4,600 and a personal estate of $975. In his household is his wife, Elizabeth, age 40, and five children. The second child listed is Adoniram age 17. Later census records list Adoniram Judson Banker with a birthdate of January 8, 1845 in Ohio and a date of death as April 23, 1917 in Columbus, Indiana.[1] He married Mary H. Boyd on January 4, 1870, in Clifford, Bartholomew County, Indiana, and eventually graduated from Bellevue Medical College in Manhattan, NY, in 1880.

Twenty years later, in the 1880 federal census, Adoniram Judson Banker, aged 34, is a physician living as a boarder in the house of Marsall Harker. His wife, Mary, aged 30, is with him as well as a daughter Blanch who was 5 years old.

The Columbus Evening Republican reported on July 8, 1890,

The New City Hospital. The large brick residence at No. 720 Franklin street, recently purchased by Dr. A. J. Banker to be used as a city hospital, has been remodeled and placed in a first-class condition, and is today open to the doctor’s patients….  When competed, this building will be an ornament to that part of the city and not easily distinguished from a residence in that locality, as one of the chief objects has been to have the institute appear pleasant, home-like, and attractive.

On April 23, 1917, the newspapers announced that “Dr. Adoniram J. Banker, 71, is dead at his home here today. For several years he was a professor surgery and obstetrics at Central Medical college, Indianapolis. He was educated at Indiana Medical college and in Berlin, Germany. His church membership was Baptist.”[2]

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[1] https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/banker/271/

[2] Ibid.

1845-1919 

Adoniram Judson Titsworth

Congregational Pastor               NJ/WI

Adoniram Judson Titsworth was born the year that Adoniram Judson, Jr., came to the States for his only time away from Burma. Young Titsworth was the son of Dunham Titsworth and Hannah A. Sheppard and was born on October 23, 1845, in Shiloh, Cumberland County, New Jersey, where he grew up with eight siblings. He earned an A.B. in 1870 from Amherst College, Amherst, M.A., and B.D. from Union Theological Seminary, Manhattan, NY, three years later. He eventually received honorary doctorates from Beloit College in 1885 and from Amherst, his alma mater, in 1908.

In 1873 he married Julie E. Van Duzer and they eventually had two children. That same year, Rev. Titsworth was ordained into the ministry of the Congregational Church. He served three churches in Massachusetts before moving to Wisconsin in 1883.

After serving as pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Milwaukee, 1883-1909, he became chaplain for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Milwaukee. This program, started by Abraham Lincoln for Civil War veterans, established this home as its northwestern facility.  In 1899 Titsworth wrote The Moral Evolution: Lenten Sermons on Sin and its Remedy. Later in life, for two years, 1917-18, he pastored the First Congregational Church, Eau Claire, WI.

Adoniram Judson Titsworth died on April 9, 1919, and is buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, WI.

1845-1926

Adoniram Judson Chandler

Baptist Pastor       NY/VT/CT

Adoniram Judson Chandler was born in Chester, VT, on 12 March 1845, the son of William and Louisa Ellison Chandler, being one of five children. He received his boyhood education in the school of Springfield, VT. In 1863, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted in the ninth Vermont Infantry seeing service during the rest of the war and engaging in three major battles.

At the end of the war, he entered Madison University (now Colgate University) graduating in 1872 where he presented a paper at commencement entitled “The Advantages of Party Spirit in America.” Two other orations on that day were delivered by students from Burma who were impacted by the work of Adoniram Judson: “The Future of India” by Myah Sah[1] of Rangoon, Burma; and “Culture Essential to Society” by Kah Chur[2] of Shwaygyeen, Burma.[3]

Three years later (1875) Chandler graduated from Newton Theological Institute and, though he was registered from Chester, VT, he was licensed by a Congregational church in North Springfield, VT.

He was ordained at North Troy, Vt., December 1, 1875, serving as pastor there until September, 1877; at Shaftsbury, Vt., January, 1878–April, 1881; Clinton, Conn., in September, 1881–1885; First Groton, Conn., 1885–1895.

After the service at First Groton he retired from the active pastorate and entered the business life, supplying churches occasionally; he made New London his home. Theresa M. Fowler, of New London, whom Mr. Chandler married, died about five years ago and he is survived by two sons, Merle J. of New London, and E. Lawrence, of Dayton, Ohio, as well as two grandchildren. He died at the Lawrence Hospital, New London, April 6, 1926, at the age of 81 years. Mr. Chandler was held in high esteem because of his loveable, gentle, kindly nature and had endeared himself to a host of friends.[4]

[Compiler’s Note: There was another Adoniram Judson Chandler in New England who served as a State Representative in the legislature from New York County in 1838. The next year he was Commissary General of New York. I hope to learn more about him for an additional entry.]

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[1] Also written as Myat San Po Kway in Angelene Naw, The History of the Karen People of Burma (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2023), p. 85.

[2] Also written as Ka Hser, in Ibid., pp. 85-86.

[3] “Commencement Week at Hamilton, New York,” Christian Watchman and Reflector (Boston, MA), June 27, 1872, p. 6

[4] Rev. Adoniram Judson Chandler, The One Hundred and Third Annual Report of the Connecticut Baptist Convention, 1926, p. 75.

1846-???? 

Adoniram Judson Huggins

Soldier                     MA/KY

In February of 1846, during his only furlough to the U. S., Adoniram Judson, Jr., made the request in Richmond, VA, that if the North rattled sabers to begin a war over slavery, “I hope they would be met, on the part of the South, with dignified silence.” Census records report that Adoniram Judson Huggins was born that same year, the son of Eri Huggins and Samantha B. Huggins.

• +In the 1850 census, Adoniram J. Huggins is 4 years old and reported as an inhabitant of Acton, MA, living in the household with Eri Huggins, a farmer, along with his mother, Samantha Huggins (age 42) and 5 siblings.
• +The Massachusetts state census of 1855 reports that his father was a shoe peddler and that James Kidder, age 83, was living with the family.
• +The 1860 federal census lists Adoniram Judson Huggins, age 14 is an inhabitant of West Acton, MA, in household dwelling #170 living with Eri Huggins, age 50, a farmer, and 4 other family members.
• +But in 1865, Adoniram Judson Huggins, age 19, is reported as a Solider in Service, from Acton, MA.

A. Judson was attached to Company A, Twenty-sixth Massachusetts Infantry, and served throughout the entire period of the war. Although he escaped the assailing shot and shell of the enemy during all of this long and trying period, it was his fate to be the victim of an explosion soon after the war, being killed in a locomotive explosion in Bowling Green, Ky.[1]

The name A. Judson Huggins is recorded on the Acton, Massachusetts, Memorial Library Soldiers’ Tablet as one of “The Men of Acton Who Fought For The Union.”

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[1] Adoniram Judson Huggins, https://www.actonmemoriallibrary.org/civilwar/records/huggins_adoniram_judson.html

1846-1859 

Judson College

Mount Palatine, Putnam County, Illinois     IL

Baptist businessman Christopher Winters donated the land in north-central Illinois that would become the second Judson College. After participating in the Black Hawk War, Winters settled in the area now called Putnam County in 1839 where his house was known as The Baptist Tavern because of his willingness to host itinerate preachers passing through the area. When the Illinois Central railroad decided not to extend its tracks westward from Tonica, area leaders determined to make a name for the community by becoming an educational center rather than a railroad center. Elder Thomas Powell, the Baptist pastor in the community, platted a town and set aside a large plot measuring 568 feet by 566 feet for the educational edifice of a Baptist college.  Rev. Powell named the land gifted by Winters “Mount Palatine” for one of the hills upon which Rome was built.

Judson College was originally chartered as Mount Palatine Academy in 1846, under the auspices of local Baptists with Rev. Otis Fisher as the first superintendent.  Fisher had previously been a teacher at Granville Academy before that school closed for lack of support. Baptists in the Mount Palatine area constructed a two-story brick building and at one point hosted over 140 students in its early enrollment.

In the winter of 1850-51 Mount Palatine Academy changed its name and began doing business as Judson College. (Adoniram Judson had died on April 12, 1850.) The founding superintendent, Rev. Otis Fisher, gave way to the new president, William Sanderson, A.B., and a bulletin advertised:

This institution possesses the advantages of a pleasant and healthy location, new and commodious buildings, and of being removed from the vicious influences to which the young are exposed in cities and larger villages.[1]

The local trustees seemed to think this name change to Judson College would be advantageous publicly and would negate any financial liabilities assumed under the previous name of Mount Palatine Academy. But in a lawsuit vs Kleinschnitz the Illinois Supreme Court said “not so” meaning the new Judson College was obligated to pay the debts and maintain the contracts of the previous institution.[2]

Mounting debts from both the academy and the college plus the fact that there was no river nor railroad running through Mt. Palatine doomed the future of the village and thus the future of the second Judson College.  The college closed and its property was sold by the sheriff on December 8, 1859. Founder Christopher Winters died three days later on December 11. The Catholics in the area bought the property of Judson College with a condition in the sale that the buyers should maintain a permanent school on the property. Failure to do so would cause the property to revert to the original owners. (Compiler’s note: Hmmm..)

Judson College alum Robert Maclay (1834-1898) became a wealthy business and urban development executive in New York. Judson professor Coates Kinney (1826-1904), author of the poem “Rain on the Roof”, was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as paymaster for the US Army during the Civil War.[3] The Mount PalatineCemetery is in the northwest part of the “onetime town” of Mount Palatine and is the resting place for several of the founders of Judson College. The cemetery is not accessible to the public and has been returned to a natural prairie nature preserve.[4]

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[1] George O. Davis, Mt. Palatine History (Written for the Tonica News in 1885—71 years ago). Published by the Tonica (Illinois) News, 1956, p. 7.

[2] Rich, Burdett A.; Wailes, M. Blair, eds. (1920). “Mt. Palatine Academy vs. Kleinschnitz, 28 Ill. 133”. American Law Reports, Annotated. Vol. VIII. Rochester, N.Y: Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co. p. 582.

[3] George O. Davis, p. 8.

[4] http://www.interment.net/data/us/il/putnam/palatine/index.htm

1846-1912 

Adoniram Judson Applegate

Jeweler/Inventor   Massachusetts

Peter Wilson Applegate and Allice Ann Mount had a son on 16 May 1846 in Cambridge, MA, and named him Adoniram Judson Applegate. In 1871 he married Hanna Elizabeth Pratt. By the time of the 1880 census, when A. J. was 34 and Hanna was 28, they had a daughter named Alice (age 7) and a son named William (age 1).  Mr. Applegate reported his occupation as that of watchmaker.

Though we have learned very little about his early life and his family life, we know that Adoniram Judson Applegate and his friend Burt Shattuck received a patent for a reversible broiler on 24 February 1880. This reversible broiler was about 8 inches by 3 inches, made of metal and described thusly:

Applegate and Shattucks patent provides a “means whereby the holding-clamp frames may be reversed, end for end, in their relative position in the handles, for as to put food placement between the said clamp-frames to be cooked evenly, or so that when the portion nearest the fire is fully cooked that portion furthest from the fire may be turned into the position of the former, so as to be cooked without over cooking the portion previously cooked…” (Patent number224.761)

Both Adoniram Judson Applegate and Burt Shattuck are listed as patentees but Adoniram Applegate is listed as the assignee. The original model, listed as object number 2015.14.3125, is in the collection of the Rothschild Patent Model Collection at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, DE. The reversible broiler of Adoniram Judson Applegate went into production on the day of its patent, February 24, 1880.[1]

But by 1888 A. J. Applegate is again listed as a jeweler in the Cambridge city directory. At the turn of the century census, 1900, A. J. Applegate is 53, and rents a home he shares with his wife, Hanna, and son, William Augustus, who is 21 years old. By 1906 he lists his occupation as manager.  He died on January 18, 1912, in Belmont, MA.

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[1] Adoniram Judson Applegate, https://museumcollection.hagley.org/persons/4529/burt-e-shattuck

1846-1927

Judson Harmon

Attorney/Governor         OHIO OH

Judson Harmon (3 February 1846 – 22 February 1927) was born in Newtown, Ohio and named after Adoniram Judson, the famed Baptist foreign missionary.[1] His parents were Benjamin Franklin Harmon, a Baptist minister, and Julia Brunson, a native of Olean, New York.

Harmon graduated from the Baptist-related Denison University in 1866. He graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1869. In 1870 Judson married Olivia Scobey, the daughter of a leading physician in Hamilton. They had three daughters.

Harmon was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1876 but left months later to run unsuccessfully for the State Senate. He was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1878 and served until he resigned in 1887 to resume the practice of law.

He was appointed U. S. Attorney General by President Grover Cleveland on June 8, 1895 and served out the remainder of Cleveland’s second term in office. Shortly after his appointment, Harmon urged Congress to fix some of the weaknesses in the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Harmon was elected as Ohio governor in 1908 and reelected in 1910, this time defeating future President of the United States Warren G. Harding.

During Harmon’s administration, the federal income tax amendment to the U. S. Constitution was ratified, and laws were enacted establishing a single board of the state’s penal, benevolent and reformatory institutions; protecting against trafficking in votes; providing for workers compensation; creating a Public Utility Commission; and enabling direct popular election of U. S. Senators.[2]

In June 1912, Harmon led the Ohio delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was nominated as a candidate for the presidency. He was a favorite son of the State of Ohio but found additional support from elsewhere and on the first ballot of the Convention, and he received the votes of 148 delegates. By the time of the 26th ballot, no candidate had yet received the nomination for president, and Harmon’s support had dwindled to 29 votes, Balloting continued until the 39th ballot, when the support of William Jennings Bryan helped Wilson obtain the votes necessary to become the nominee.

Following the convention, Harmon returned home to Ohio to serve out the rest of his term as governor of the state. Accordingly, Harmon left office in January 1913, upon completion of this second term. He occasionally taught classes at the University of Cincinnati Law School in retirement. Judson Harmon died in 1927 at age 91.

Harmon County, in the southwestern corner of Oklahoma, is named for Judson Harmon.

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[1] Judson Harmon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judson_Harmon

[2] National Governors Association. https://www.nga.org/governor/judson-harmon/

1847-1924

Adoniram Judson Hopkins

Baptist Pastor     Maine/Vermont ME/VT

Adoniram Judson Hopkins was born May 24, 1847, in Jefferson, ME, and graduated from Harvard University in 1874. The next year he began a four-year term as minister at the Baptist Church, Dunbarton, Merrimack County, NH, where he was ordained in 1876. From 1879 to 1883 he pastored the Baptist Church in Hopkinton, NH. Hopkins married Mary Cheney Martin and they had three children.

While pastor of the Baptist Church at Franklin Falls, NH, A. J. Hopkins delivered the annual sermon of the New Hampshire Baptist Convention. His next pulpit was 1887-91 at Georgetown in Essex County, Massachusetts, followed by a 15-year tenure as pastor with the Baptist congregation at North Uxbridge, MA.

His final calling was to the Baptist Church in 1906 at Perkinsville, VT, where he was also moderator of the Woodstock Association. The Perkinsville church had only 5 pastors in 40 years and A. J. Hopkins was one of those leaders. “The territory from which the church draws its members is not thickly populated….  It has been exceptionally free from occasions of discipline and has maintained a good degree of harmony.”[1]

Adoniram Judson Hopkins died in 1924 and is buried in Perkinsville, VT.

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[1] Henry Crocker, History of the Baptists in Vermont (Bellows Falls, VT: P.H. Goble Press, 1913), p 276.

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

1847-Present 

Judson Baptist Association 

VA when founded, but now WV.

Before there was ever a West Virginia, the Judson Baptist Association was organized in Virginia at Barracksville in Marion County on 26 November 1847. It consisted of ten churches as follows: Hopewell, Harmony, St. Paul, Union, Bethesda, Lebanon, Bethany, West Fork, Morgantown, and Goshen. Rev. Anthony J. Garrett was the first Moderator and Austin Merrill was the first Clerk.[1] Judson was the sixth of twenty-six associations founded in what is now West Virginia.

The first annual session was held in August 1848 with Goshen Church in Monongalia County, Virginia. Fourteen churches gathered from Wetzel, Marion, Harrison, Tyler, and Monongalia Counties reporting a total membership of 615 which was a net gain of 32 since the founding one year prior.

Eld. Wm. Wood preached on the Lord’s Day from the stand to a large and attentive congregation, And Eld. C. Kayes presented the claims of the missionary cause in Western Virginia. The congregation being waited on and $17.46 was contributed.[2]

Located in the north-central section of the state, Judson Baptist Association currently consists of 18 churches in the towns of Bridgeport, Clarksburg, Shinnston, Hepzibah, Mannington, Salem, Nutter Fort, Reynoldsville, Lumberport, and Wallace. West Virginia now sports 22 Baptist Associations and over 360 churches.

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[1] Leonard J. Priestley, Record of the Organization of the Baptist District Associations and the West Virginia Baptist Convention (Parkersburg, West Virginia: West Virginia Baptist Historical Society, 1964) p. 14.

[2] Minutes of the First Annual Session of the Judson Baptist Association Held with the Goshen Church, Monongalia County, Virginia, August 12, 13, 14, 1848, Pp. 12-13.

1848-1880

Adoniram Judson Stevens

Baptist Pastor     Canada          NS/NB

When James Stevens was 44 and his wife Grace was 42, they had a son in South Rawdon, Nova Scotia, Canada, and named him Adoniram Judson Stevens. This lad graduated in 1875 from Acadia College, NS, and became the pastor of the Baptist Church in Kentville, Kings County, NS, 1875-76.

Adoniram Judson Stevens married Mary Lovett on September 11, 1878, when he was 29 years old. He served for two years (1878-80) as minister at the Baptist Church in Fredericton, York County, New Brunswick, before his untimely death at age 31 on 15 March 1880.[1]

The following Baptist and Congregationalist ministers have been reared in King’s County, or have had an immediate King’s County ancestry:  Adoniram Judson Davidson….  Adoniram Judson Stevens….[2]  While in Canada we should mention that Historical Record Lists of 1883 identifies Adoniram Judson Denton as a professor at a high school in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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[1] Adoniram Judson Stevens, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/?name=Adoniram+Judson_Stevens&event=_canada_3243&birth=1848&name_x=1_1

[2] Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, The History of King’s County, Nova Scotia, Heart of the Acadian Land (Salem, MA: Salem Press Company, 1910, p. 320.

1848-1908

Adoniram Judson Burt

Railroad Auditor     Michigan     MI

The page 3 headline of the Detroit Times for 12 June 1908, announced that “Judson Burt is Called Suddenly by Death.” After describing his demise of the previous day, the newspaper reviewed his career and importance to the community:

Mr. Burt had been associated with the Michigan Central railroad since 1875, when he entered the company’s accounting department in a clerical capacity. He displayed such aptitude that he was promoted, soon afterwards, to the position of general bookkeeper. Subsequently he was made chief clerk, then assistant auditor and finally, in 1893, became auditor, a position he retained to his death.

Descendant of the well-known Michigan pioneer family, Mr. Burt was born in Mt. Vernon, Macomb county, Mich., in 1847, attended Kalamazoo college, and when the family moved to Marquette, worked in his father’s general store there for a short time, then came to Detroit to attend a business college. Returning to Marquette he was again associated with this father until the business went to smash in the panic of ’73. For four years previous to his entering the employ of the Michigan Central, he was collector of customs at Marquette, receiving his appointment from President Grant.

Deceased is survived by his widow and three daughters….  His mother, Mrs. Caroline Burt, is the widow of William A. Burt, whose father was conspicuous in the early history of northern Michigan and who is remembered as the inventor of the solar compass.[1]

Besides his long-time career with Michigan Central, Adoniram Judson Burt was also involved with 10 other Michigan-related railroads as secretary, treasurer or director. Since Adoniram Judson Burt did not name himself, the back story of his parents is always of interest. That back story led us to his father, William A. Burt who died on December 23, 1898, and to this news report.

William Burt died at Marquette, Monday morning, age 73. He was the youngest son of Judge Burt, inventor of the solar compass and of the typograph, the first typewriter ever made. William Burt was one of the very earliest upper peninsula pioneers. He came to this region with his father and brothers in 1846. In 1847 he was appointed United States deputy surveyor, and in 1856, surveyed the territory at the end of Lake Superior where the city of Duluth now stands, fixing the meridians, base lines, township boundaries and shore line. Mr. Burt has been engaged in mining, quarrying and milling in the upper peninsula for nearly fifty years….[2]

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[1] “Judson Burt is Called Suddenly by Death,” The Detroit Times (Detroit, Michigan), June 12, 1908, p. 3.

[2] “U. P. Pioneer Dead,” Ironwood News-Record (Ironwood, Michigan), December 24, 1898, p. 1.

1848-Present

Judson Association of Baptist Churches          

North Central Indiana IN

The Judson Association of Baptist churches in northwestern Indiana was organized in 1848 at the Camden Baptist Church and comprised about 454 Baptist Christians at its founding. Franklin College President William Taylor Scott describes the scene as a struggle between missionary and anti-missionary churches:

At a meeting of the Tippecanoe Association in 1848 it was considered wise to divide that body on account of the large number of churches then belonging, Accordingly a committee was appointed which, after, deliberation, presented the following resolution: “That the churches in White, Carroll, Boone, Clinton and Howard counties be advised to form themselves into a new Association.” When the naming of the new organization came up there was afforded a test of the missionary spirit present; the Rev. T. P. Hedge proposed the name Judson—he was then the brightest star in the missionary constellation among the Baptists; the anti-mission brethren opposed it and suggested the name Kokomo; and so evenly balanced was the preference when the matter came to a vote that the moderator was obliged to decide; he decided in favor of the name Judson. But from that time to this the Association has been missionary in both theory and practice.[1]

But it was not long until the body had grown so large that another division was voted creating the Monticello Association from churches at Burnett’s Creek, Liberty, Monticello, New Lancaster and Rensselaer.[2]  In 1859 Judson Baptist Church was founded (see entry 1859-Present) taking the name of the missionary and the local association. Judson Baptist Association was a loyal ally of the Union cause during the Civil War and in 1863 “only those who were loyal to the government at Washington were invited to participate in their annual meeting.”[3] “From the first the Association has fostered education and few Associations have sent as many young men and young women to Franklin College…”[4] Judson Association continues to do ministry due north of Indianapolis combining the energies and vision of 14 American Baptist churches under the direction of Dr. Bruce Cochran.[5]

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[1] William Taylor Stott, Indiana Baptist History, 1798-1908 (Copyright, 1908, by W. T. Stott.) p. 239-240.

[2] Ibid., p. 240.

[3] John F. Cady, The Origin and Development of the Missionary Baptist Church in Indiana (Berne, Indiana: Berne Witness Company for Franklin College, 1942), p. 205.

[4] William Taylor Stott, p. 241.

[5] https://abc-indiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SortedByAssociation-AllChurches1-31-2022.pdf

1849-1900 

Adoniram Judson Rue

Attorney/Public Servant     NJ/PA

Matthew and Mary Rue of Dutch Neck, NJ, had a son on November 20, 1849, and named him Adoniram Judson Rue. In 1875 he graduated from Madison University (now Colgate University) and was listed as an attorney in Trenton, NJ, 1878-1900.

The Trenton Times reported in 1883, “They will not call him deputy-sheriff Rue a week hence. He will then be known as Assemblyman Judson A. Rue.”[1] And he did serve in the New Jersey State House of Assembly 1884-85 from Mercer County, NJ. He married Anna A. Serviss on January 9,1889, and to that marriage was born one son, Matthew Lawrence Rue. 

During the Spanish-American War a Harold Swann was called up to serve as a second lieutenant. “Mr. Swan is a step-son of A. Judson Rue and is still quite a young man. He has a wide circle of acquaintances, however, and his selection is being generally commended.”[2]

Adoniram Judson Rue died on January 24, 1900, in Philadelphia.

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[1] The Trenton Times, October 31, 1883, p. 2.

[2] Harry M. Dey, “Will go to Manila,” Jersey Journal, August 25, 1899, p. 1.

1849-1910

Adoniram Judson Gridley

Farmer/Father                     IL/MI

Selah Gridley and Catherine Skinner Gridley birthed a son on 18 December 1849 in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, and named the lad Adoniram Judson Gridley. He had one brother and 3 sisters.  In the 1870 census he was living with his parents in Big Grove township, Illinois.

On 20 January 1875, at age 26, Adoniram Judson Gridley married Cynthia Almira Stanley in St. Joseph, MI. In like order, he and Cynthia had 3 daughters and one son.

• Their oldest daughter, Emma, was born (1875) in Illinois.
• Their second and third children, Delaska (1879) and Ada (1883), were born in Beaver Township, Hamilton County, Nebraska, where A. J.’s parents had come to live with them by 1880.
• Son, Cyril was born in Michigan where they made their home and farmed in Benton Township.[1]

Adoniram Judson Gridley died at age 60 on 26 September 1910 in Berrien, MI.

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[1] “Adoniram Judson Gridley,” Wikitree .com.

1849-1916

Adoniram Judson Cushing

Attorney/Public Servant             MA/RI

Adoniram Judson Cushing was noted at his passing in 1916 as “one of the most prominent attorneys in Providence, Rhode Island.”[1] He was born in 1849 (the year the Adoniram Judson’s health began to fail), in North Attleboro, MA, to Alpheus Nelson Cushing and Charlotte Everett Foster. He received an A. B. degree in 1870 from Brown University and studied law in the office of Thurston & Ripley, prominent attorneys of Providence. Brown University later conferred upon him the honorary degree Master of Arts on account of his brilliant scholarship.

On June 19, 1879, at Providence, RI, Adoniram Judson Cushing and Mary E. Becker were married. They had one daughter, Alice May.

Mr. Cushing made for himself an enviable reputation not only among his professional colleagues, but in the community-at-large, where he was respected and esteemed for the high standards which he always maintained.

In the year 1899 he was elected a member of the Providence Common Council, serving in that capacity until 1902, when he was elected a member of the Board of Alderman… acting as mayor on several occasions with his usual dignity and exercising the performance of his difficult and responsible duties with the utmost tact and justice so characteristics in all his rulings.[2]

Mr. Cushing was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Redwood Lodge of Masons and the Rhode Island Historical Society. He was prominently connected with the Rhode Island militia where he was given the honorary rank of colonel and had that title carved on his grave marker.

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[1]“Cushing, Adoniram J.: Lawyer, Public Official,” American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Volume 4 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1919), p. 59.

[2] Ibid., p. 60.

1849-1928

Judson Hinkle Browning

Farmer/Carpenter              KY/AR

Robert Covington Browning (1820-1906) and his wife Mary Eliza welcomed their first son to their old Kentucky home on 1849. This solid Baptist couple were so enamored with the work of Adoniram Judson, they named this new baby boy Judson Hinkle Browning. In fact, Robert and Mary Browning were so captivated by the ministry of Adoniram Judson, they moved from Kentucky to Arkansas in 1871 to enroll their 22-year-old son (and eventually his siblings) in the new Judson University at Judsonia, Arkansas. 

Mr. Robert C. Browning was one of the original members of the Board of Trustees of this first Judson University and one of the charter members of the First Baptist Church in Judsonia. He served as postmaster for Judsonia 1873-1878.[1] When the university folded in 1883, members of the Browning family stayed in the vicinity of Judsonia for the next seven generations. Four of those generations would bear the Judson imprimatur.

The servant-leadership of Judson Hinkle Browning is acknowledged through a stained-glass window in the First Baptist Church of Judsonia, Arkansas, that is marked “In Memory of Deacon Judson H. Browning” who served the congregation from 1909 until his death on March 11, 1928. He built the first church house for the First Baptist Church of Judsonia in 1884 that had previously met in the facilities of Judson University. He was the first Judson namesake in this congregation but he would be followed by Judsons in the next three generations.

• +Judson Hinkle Browning and his wife, Mary Ella Marsh, had four children and named their first son Roy Judson Browning who lived only 33 years, October 31,1880 to August 28 1913. He married Claudia Giles and had a son who was born in 1913 just a few months after his father died.
• +Named after his deceased father, Roy Judson Browning (1913-1996) married Lorene Ranes (1905-1977) and they named his first son Judson Browning.
• +Judson Browning, commonly called Jud, was born in 1948 and now lives in Searcy, Arkansas, but like the members of his family for 150 years, he is still active in First Baptist Church, Judsonia. Judson Browning is the great grandson of Robert Covington Browning, one of the founders of Judson University in Judsonia, Arkansas.

Robert C. Browning and many of his descendants named for Adoniram Judson, Jr., are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Judsonia, AR, which was a gift to the community from the short-lived original Judson University.[2]

+++++++++++++++

[1] W. E. Orr, That’s Judsonia: An informal history of a small town in Arkansas (Judsonia: White County Printing, 1957), p. 317.

[2] Short, Elizabeth. So Great a Cloud of Witnesses: A History of First Baptist Church, Judsonia, Arkansas (Winona, Minnesota: Apollo Books, 107 Lafayette Street, 1985) pp. 91, 121, 122, 155.

1849-Present          

Judson’s Burmese Dictionary     

Dictionary Burma/Myanmar

This compiler grew up having to tote a Merriam-Webster dictionary to school every day and then haul it to class as a part of my physical development and training—it was big and heavy.  The book also accompanied me to college and now sits on my desk only to be used 3 or 4 times each year. It is probably 60 years old.

In modern Myanmar today, students at all levels must learn out of the Judson Dictionary compiled and first edited by Adoniram Judson, Jr.  This important educational publication spans all religious, gender, ethnic, economic and tribal boundaries. I have an 1893 edition in my library as well as the ninth edition published in 1956.  In a fit of nationalism last century, the words “Burma” and “Burmese” have been replaced by the word Myanmar but the preface is still clear for the modern reader and/or writer.

Dr. Adoniram Judson began the work of preparing the present dictionary in May 1842 after having completed the translation of the Bible into Myanmar. He had long resolved never to undertake such a task as the dictionary, but he was repeatedly requested to do so. Despite his aversion to starting such an exacting task, he soon came to consider it very important; he compared it to the build of a causeway, designed to facilitate the transmission of all knowledge, religious and scientific from one people to another. His first intention was to prepare a single dictionary, Myanmar and English, but as he proceeded, he discovered many reasons for preparing a double work, in two parts, the first English and Myanmar and the second Myanmar and English. He hoped to finish the whole in a period of three years, but actually the English and Myanmar part of the dictionary was not completed until the end of 1848.[i]  

+++++++++++++++

[i] Adoniram Judson, Jr., Judson’s English-Myanmar Dictionary (Yangon, Myanmar: Baptist Board of Publications, 1956), p. Preface.

1850-1911

Adoniram Judson Ives

Methodist Minister     Illinois         IL

The Reverend Adoniram Judson Ives was born on July 16, 1850, to Titus and Hannah B. Ives in Canada and received his education at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

While there he met Miss Kenedy of Hull, Ill., who was also a student there, and after his graduation they were married. He has filled [Methodist] pastorates at Concord, Chatham, Edinburg, Neoga, Humboldt, Charleston, Rosemond, Heyworth, Weedman and Versailles [Illinois]. He took a supernumary relation with the [Methodist] conference in 1906 and moved on a farm in Arkansas on account of ill health.  He leaves a wife, one son and one daughter.[1]

Adoniram Judson Ives at one point was in charge of the Charleston Methodist Episcopal circuit. He died on January 9, 1911, in Arkansas, and is buried at Akers Chapel Cemetery, Hull, IL. An oddity occurred at the passing of Rev. Ives:

Word was received in this city yesterday that a brother of the late Rev. A. J. Ives is at the point of death in Kansas. Rev. Mr. Ives died suddenly at his home in this city [Stuttgart, AR] Monday afternoon, just one week after the death of an elder brother in Massachusetts….  Ten days ago all of the brothers, six in number, were alive. Two are now dead and two are not expected to live long, the death of the one in Kansas being momentarily expected. Rev. Mr. Ives was the youngest brother, being slightly past 60 years of age at the time of this death.[2]

And the influence of Rev. Adoniram Judson Ives went beyond those involved in his Methodist ministry.

State Holiness Association Hold Appropriate Exercises for Dead of the Past Year. At 10 o’clock yesterday morning the annual memorial services were held by the Illinois Holiness association at the state fair grounds in Machinery hall. The service was dedicated to the members of the association who have died during the past year. They are the Rev. A. J. Ives, a Methodist minister,…[3]

+++++++++++++++

[1] “Rev. A. J. Ives Dies at Stuttgart, Ark.,” Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), January 12, 1911, p. 2.

[2] “Strange Fatality Follows,” Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR), January 12, 1911, p. 2.

[3] “Memorial Services at Fair Grounds,” Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL), August 6, 1911, p. 3.

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 37^th 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.

+++++++++++++++

[1] William Russell Pankey, History of the Churches of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1939), pp. 27,44,56.

1850-1933

Adoniram Judson Brooks

Baptist Pastor                      AL/AL

Adoniram Judson Brooks was one of eleven children born to Rev. Middleton Brooks, the first missionary appointed by the Judson Missionary Baptist Association (see entry 1859-Present) of southeastern Alabama. Of those eleven children, 4 were boys and all 4 became Baptist pastors.  Adoniram was born August 28, 1850, in Elba in Coffee County, AL, and died July 28, 1933, in Black, Geneva County, AL. He was married to Emma A. Flemming (1850-1924) in 1871 and together they had five children. At one point, Adoniram Judson Brooks, served as pastor of the Adoniram Baptist Church in Judson Missionary Baptist Association.

Adoniram Brooks served in the confederate army during the Civil War as did his 3 brothers and all four of these circuit-riding Baptist pastors survived the carnage.

The four sons began coming home. One was missing a little toe, shot off at Shiloh. The family would hear a yell (rebel yell) and they’d know another son was home, safe and sound, half starved and louse ridden. The poor soldier would wait in the barn and someone would take hot water and homemade lye soap and some kind of clothes to cover his nakedness, then his old clothes would be burned. Only then would the soldier go into the house for his joyful and prayerful welcome home.[1]

+++++++++++++++

[1] https://usgenwebsites.org/flgenweb/FLHolmes/families/dscbrooksjonathan1-3.html, p. 3.

1850-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Abbeville, Alabama       AL

There were baptisms in the creek near the site of Judson Baptist Church back in 1848 before the congregation was formally established in 1850, the year that Adoniram Judson, Jr., died off the coast of Burma. This congregation would be the host church for the founding of Judson Missionary Baptist Association (see entry 1850-Present) in 1850 so the church had to be organized before that date. With 166 members, Judson was the largest of the nine churches which made up the new association. Its pastor, Edwin Cody, was the second moderator of the association beginning his term in 1857 but after 1861 Cody’s name no longer appears in the records leaving the hint that he died during the Civil War.[1] By 1875 Judson Church had a Sabbath School.[2]

Currently the pastor of Judson Baptist Church in Henry County, Alabama, is Brandon Turner who served the church for a quarter of a century and now also serves as director of missions for the Judson Missionary Baptist Association headquartered in Abbeville.

+++++++++++++++

[1] R. J. Lee and Larry Smith, History of Judson Missionary Baptist Association, unpublished manuscript available from 532 Ozark Road, Abbeville, Alabama 36310, p. 1.

[2] Ibid., p. 5.

1850-Present

Judson Missionary Baptist Association

Abbeville, Alabama   AL

On April 12, 1850, Adoniram Judson died on board the Aristide Marie and was buried at sea just northwest of the Andaman Islands.  It took four months for the news to reach his wife Emily in Burma but the news got to America before it arrived in Burma.

That fall, October, 1850, nine churches in southeastern Alabama, met to form an association and named their newly formed group Judson Missionary Baptist Association. Two of those nine churches however had already honored their missionary icon by selecting his name to identify their congregations. Adoniram Baptist Church had organized in 1844 (see entry 1844-Present) and was pastored by W. B. Lacey. The Judson Baptist Church had organized in 1850 (see entry 1850-Present) and was pastored by Edwin Cody. Both pastors and congregations remained strong leaders in the Judson Missionary Baptist Association (JMBA).[1] 

Middleton Brooks was appointed missionary of the Judson Association in 1857 and “took to the field about the first of March.” In his first report to the association he gave the following information of his activities. “Baptized forty-six people, constituted two churches, ordained three deacons, and sold two hundred and eighty-nine volumes….” His report for 1860 shows the following service, “Worked two hundred and fifteen days, received twenty-eight by baptism, and eight by letter. Assisted in the ordination of two ministers, and re-organized one church, and preached one hundred and fifty-nine sermons.”[2]

The association had its ups and downs like any living organism does.

+By 1872 the JMBA could report that “every Baptist family has a church in his community in reasonable traveling distance where he could be exposed to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”[3]

+A year later the fellowship was divided over a circular letter sent out on Election and Predestination.[4]

+In 1875, “The association urged the Mission Committee to work among the Colored people of the community.”[5]

+By 1880 the women had organized to take an offering for “their suffering sisters” in China but by 1884 a majority of the churches withdrew from JMBA to form the Columbia Association leaving the old Judson Association with a “lax spirit”.[6]

+“It was in 1912 at the Headland Church that Mrs. Stokes made her own report. (Prior to this, women would write up the report and it would be handed to a man to read the report.)”[7]

+On the 100^th anniversary of the death of Adoniram Judson and the formation of JMBA, 1950, the JMBA reported that “for the first time missionaries were using airplanes for transportation. When it formerly took days to go by boat or donkey in foreign fields, it then took only a matter of hours by plane.”[8]

Today the Judson Baptist Association serves the 17,000 people in Henry County, Alabama, through 21 churches and two ministry centers while serving the wider world through the Alabama Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention. Rev. Brandon Turner serves these churches as Director of Missions and also serves the Judson Baptist Church as pastor. “It is a challenging job to fill both roles but one that identifies me as ‘one of them’ even though I cannot visit and support all those 21 congregations on Sunday mornings.”[9]

+++++++++++++++

[1] R. J. Lee and Larry Smith, History of Judson Missionary Baptist Association, unpublished manuscript available from 532 Ozark Road, Abbeville, Alabama 36310, p. 1.

[2] https://usgenwebsites.org/flgenweb/FLHolmes/families/dscbrooksjonathan1-3.html, pp. 1-2.

[3] Ibid., p. 4.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., p. 5.

[6] Ibid., pp. 8-9.

[7] Ibid., p. 9.

[8] Ibid., p. 11.

[9] Telephone conversation with Brandon Turner, October 18, 2022.

1851-1880

Adoniram Judson Marshall

Two entries.                PA/OH

(Compiler’s Note: Though material is sketchy on both, we have discovered two individuals named Adoniram Judson Marshall.)

First. Our first Adoniram Judson Marshall was born on 31 August 1851, in Smicksburg, Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Wilson Marshall, was 23 and his mother, Jane Davis, was 26 when he was born. Adoniram married Clara Frances Irwin on 20 September 1871, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 1 daughter. In the 1860 census, they lived in South Mahoning Township, Indiana, Pennsylvania. Ten years later, 1870, they are listed in Mahoning Township, Indiana, Pennsylvania. He died before 1880, at the age of 28.[1]

Second.  We do not know the birthdate of our second Adoniram Judson Marshall so we will include him here with the other Marshall. This lad graduated from Harvard University in 1898 and spent the next two years of his career (1898-1901) tutoring at Oberlin Academy in Ohio.[2]

+++++++++++++++

[1] “Adoniram Judson Marshall,” https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/274Q-GKS/adoniram-judson-marshall-1851-1880.

[2] “Adoniram Judson Marshall,” https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list?cqs=adoniram+judson+marshall

1851-1884

Adoniram Judson Jones

Husband/Father         Kentucky      KY

There is a non-traditional message on a tombstone in the Fairview Cemetery in Liberty, Missouri about 10 miles from my house.  The stone is rather audacious and reads:

Judson Waldo Jones

Psychologist

Feb. 2, 1883-July 7, 1962

Son of

Adoniram Judson Jones

And

Mary Elizabeth Bryant

Gt. Gt. Grandson of

John Bryant

Soldier of the

American Revolution

Records reveal that Judson Waldo Jones was born in Columbia, KY, in 1883 and that he graduated of William Jewell College. His tombstone says he was a psychologist though his obituary describes him as a chemist.[1] In 1958 Judson Jones was living in a hospital managed by the International Order of Odd Fellows in Liberty, MO. By 1959 he was judged non compos mentis (NCM) or too “mentally incompetent because of age and illness senility to transact any business for himself”[2] and attorney John Pasley was assigned to act on behalf of Judson Jones.

Pasley fulfilled the wishes of his client and had the tombstone carved as Mr. Jones requested. Judson Waldo Jones was proud of his mother who was descended from a Revolutionary War soldier and had that fact boldly recorded on his tombstone. He was equally proud of his father who was named for missionary Adoniram Judson, Jr.

The father, Mr. Adoniram Judson Jones, was born in Columbia, Kentucky in 1851, the year after the missionary died at sea off the coast of Burma. Mr. Jones married Mary Bryant in 1877 and they had two children, Bertha Jones (1879-1883) and Judson Waldo Jones (1883-1962). Adoniram Judson Jones died in 1884 at age 33 when his son was only one year old. We had discovered nothing more about this Judson namesake other than he was a husband and a father.

Widow Mary Elizabeth Bryant Jones married William Kelsey in Clay County, MO, five years later when she was 31 years old. She moved to Liberty, MO, and resided at 824 W. Third Street. Her brother, Dr. J. W. Bryant came to visit in July 1907 and died of typhoid fever while stopped in Liberty. Mary Elizabeth Bryant Jones died in 1937 and is buried in Liberty, MO.

Attorney John Pasley finished his obligations on April 30, 1963, by sending the residue of Judson Waldo Jones’ estate, $6,430.97 to his son, Graham Starr Jones in White Plains, New York.

+++++++++++++++

[1] “Judson W. Jones,” Liberty Tribune, July 9, 1962, p. 2.

[2] Petition for Appointment of Guardian of the Person and Estate, Clay County, Missouri, Estate No. 3285, August 28, 1959.

1851-1897

Adoniram Judson Walrath

Baptist Minister        New York          NY

Adoniram Judson Walrath was born April 7, 1851, to Henry Walrath and Katherine Hoover Walrath. In 1870 he married Ida Lillian Skinner in his hometown of Evans Mills, NY. They had six children, 4 girls and 2 boys.[1] Walrath graduated from Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, in 1877 and began a successful ministry in Baptist churches throughout the state.

• 1878-79. Minister, Baptist Church, LaFargeville, NY
• 1879-86. Minister, Baptist Church, Madison, NY
• 1886-91. Minister, Baptist Church, Homer, NY
• 1891-92. Minister, Baptist Church, Troy, NY
• 1892-98. Minister, Baptist Church Penn Yan, NY[2]

He died April 21, 1897, at age 46 in Penn Yan, NY. Ida his wife lived another 33 years and died in Erie, PA, in 1931.

+++++++++++++++

[1] “Mrs. Walrath, 76 Dies in Erie, PA,” (Watertown, NY: Watertown Daily Times), March 23, 1931, p. 9.

[2] “Adoniram Judson Walrath,” https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list?cqs=adoniram+judson

1851-1910

Adoniram Judson Barrett

Career Unknown         New York       NY

Adoniram Judson Barrett was born on 29 March 1851 in Putnam County, New York, the son of Dr. Isaac Barrett and Mary Ann Cole Barrett. He was the seventh of eight children born to this couple.  Adoniram Judson Barrett died at age 59 on 23 November 1910 and is buried in Hillside Cemetery Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, NY.[1]

(This is the second of two people bearing the same name. Also see: 1832-1889, Adoniram Judson Barrett, Pastor/Professor, OH/NY.)

1853-1902

Adoniram Judson Holmes

Attorney/Public Servant                   OH/IA

The Wikipedia account of the life of Adoniram Judson Holmes is both thorough and clear.

Adoniram Judson Holmes was born in Wooster, Ohio, in 1853 and moved with his parents to Palmyra, Wisconsin. He attended the common schools, and entered Milton College of Milton, Wisconsin, but left in 1862 to enter the Union Army. He enlisted as a Private in Company D, 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of Company F on March 7, 1864, to 1st Lieutenant of Company K on May 12, 1865, and was honorably mustered out on July 27, 1865. He married Emma Folsom Holmes, and they had three children, Lulu Emma, Judson Harold, and Clarence Folsom.

After the war Holmes completed his studies in Milton College. Returning to Janesville he studied law and was admitted to the bar, but afterwards took the full course from the University of Michigan Law School, graduating in 1867. He commenced practice in Boone, Iowa, in 1868…. In 1880 and 1881, he was the mayor of Boone. He also served as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives in 1882 and 1883.

In 1882, Holmes won the Republican nomination and was elected to the 48th United States Congress. Twice he was re-elected, serving in the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses. He held the seat from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1889. However, when running for a fourth term in 1888, he was challenged in the district convention by future U.S. Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver. After 110 ballots in the district nominating convention, Dolliver won.

After his defeat, Holmes went to work for Congress and was chosen as Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives in the Fifty-first Congress. He then resumed the practice of law in Boone, where he served as county attorney from 1896 to 1899.  Holmes died in Clarinda, Page County, Iowa, on January 21, 1902 (age 59 years, 325 days). He is interred at Linwood Park Cemetery, Boone, Iowa.[1]

+++++++++++++++

[1] Adoniram Judson Holmes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoniram_J._Holmes

1853-1916

Adoniram Judson Wharton

Baptist Pastor    Arkansas/Texas       AR/TX

When Adoniram Judson Wharton was born on 8 March 1853, in Bradley, Arkansas, his father, James Campbell Wharton, was 44 and his mother, Amanda Jane Lunsford, was 29. He was child number 9 of 13. His sister, number 6, was named Nancy Ann Wharton thus carrying both names used for Ann Hasseltine Judson, the wife of Adoniram the missionary.

Wharton was licensed to the gospel ministry in October 1873 and ordained three years later at the New Hope Church in Arkansas. He held pastorates in Atlanta, AR, and in Texas at Weatherford, Dawson, Comanche, Longview, Smithville, Bremond, and Groesbeck.[1]

Wharton married Martha Letitia ‘Letty’ Eagar on 22 December 1870, in Bradley, Arkansas, and together they had six children, 2 sons and 4 daughters. In the 1900 census, he lived in Justice Precinct 5, Robertson, Texas, and 10 years later was registered in Arcadia, Bienville Parish, Louisiana. He died on 20 January 1916, in Red River, Texas, at the age of 62, and was buried there in the Bogata Cemetery.[2]

+++++++++++++++

[1] Lasher, The Ministerial Directory of the Baptist Churches…, p. 777.

[2] Adoniram Judson Wharton, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LCRX-ZQS/rev-adroniram-judson-wharton-1853-1916

1853-1935

Adoniram Judson Reamy

Baptist Pastor/Lecturer        VA/SC

In 1853, a two-volume work entitled A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D. was published. Compiled by Judson’s widow, Emily Chubbuck Judson and written by Francis Wayland, president of Brown University, this book became a national best-seller.

But also that same year, Adoniram Judson Reamy was born on April 19 in Foneswood, VA, to Robert Neale Reamy and his wife, Virginia Jane Owens. He eventually married Mattie Ramsdell and together they had five children. Apart for short stays in South Carolina and Florida, Rev. Reamy spent most of his life in Virginia. He studied chemistry at Richmond College (now University of Richmond).

As a pastor he was respected and useful with over 400 newspaper notations about weddings, funerals, dedications, conferences and other services he provided for the community.  But he was especially good as a public speaker.

Monday night, Rev. A. J. Reamy delivered one of the most humorous lectures ever heard here. The audience was in an uproar of laughter from first to last. His subject was “Love and Matrimony.” As a lecturer he is a man of extraordinary ability.[1]

Rev. A. J. Reamy, of Onancock, lectured in Atlantic Baptist Church, Monday, February 26^th, on “The World’s Fair.” Those who could not see this wonderful exhibition of the nations, treasures, arts, soldiers, religions of the earth, should certainly hear Mr. Reamy.[2]

Rev. A. J. Reamy is in Florida holding a protracted service. The fame of Mr. Reamy as an evangelist is spreading to the four corners and he always receives souls for his hire.[3]

Adoniram Judson Reamy died on October 21, 1935, at age 82 and is buried in the Warsaw Baptist Church cemetery in Warsaw, VA.

The death of Rev. Adoniram Judson Reamy, 83, which occurred suddenly at his home near Edwardsville, Northumberland County, Va., Monday at nine o’clock, brought universal sorrow through the Northern Neck, where he spent most of his fifty-five years of active service in the ministry.

A man of brilliant mind, a great student, he ably and fearlessly proclaimed the unsearchable riches of the Scriptures, and thousands were converted under this able ministry.

Few men possessed the love and esteem to a greater degree than the deceased, and in his death the Northern Neck has lost one of its foremost and outstanding citizens, beloved not only for his Christlike spirit, but his ability to interpret and explain the scriptures and his love and consideration for his fellowman.

He is survived by his widow and five children….[4]

One of these surviving children was named Adoniram Judson Reamy, Jr., was born in Centralia, VA (11-30-1883) and died in Hickory Head, GA (5-31-1955). At one point this father-son combination co-pastored a group of churches together.

The Rev. Adoniram Judson Reamy and his son, the Rev. A. J. Reamy, Jr., have accepted a call to the joint pastorate of Fairport, Fairfield, Smithfield and Coan Baptist churches, in Northumberland county. The younger Mr. Reamy will fill his first appointment on the 1^st of October, and his father will join him one month later.[5]

This junior Adoniram Judson Reamy also had a son whom he named Adoniram Judson Reamy born on Christmas Eve, 1909, in Tifton, Georgia, and died in January, 1985.

+++++++++++++++

[1] Peninsula Enterprise (Accomac, VA), Volume 13, January 6, 1894, p. 4.

[2] “Modestown,” Peninsula Enterprise (Accomac, VA), Volume 13, March 3, 1894, p. 4.

[3] “South Carolina Johnston,” Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), January 17, 1900, p. 6.

[4] Uncited obituary at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9757220/adoniram-judson-reamy

[5] The Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, VA), September 19, 1911, p. 9.

1854-???? 

Adoniram Judson Buchanan

Musician/Composer MO/??

Adoniram Judson Buchanan was born in 1854 in Linn County, Missouri, the son of Joseph Buchanan and Sarah Elizabeth McComb, both natives of Kingston, TN. 

In 1867, short­ly af­ter the Am­er­i­can ci­vil war, the Bu­chan­ans moved to a com­mu­ni­ty near Sher­man in Gray­son Coun­ty, Texas, pur­chas­ing se­ver­al acres of land and set­tling near the El­mont Com­mu­ni­ty, a few miles west of Van Al­styne, Tex­as. They moved to be near Mrs. Bu­chan­an’s bro­ther, min­is­ter Tho­mas Ben­ton Mc­Comb, who had moved to the area in the 1850’s to get the Bap­tist church es­tab­lished in Tex­as.

Buchanan was a hymn writer and composer. Hymnary.org credits him with 23 texts and 28 tunes.[1]  

Some his more famous lyrics and tunes were published in hymns named “Beautiful Home of the Blest,” “The Beautiful Pearly Gate,” “Only a Little While,” “Seeking the Lost” (a hymn he wrote after hearing a sermon by J. H. Boyet on James 5:20 in 1889), “Sinner, Come to Jesus,” “Death is Only a Dream,” in 1892, “On the Silent River,” “Shall We Meet?” “The Beautiful Eden Above,” “The Dead in Christ Shall Rise,” “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” “Seeking the Lord,” and many more.

A search of Dallas, Texas, city directories reveals these facts about Mr. Buchanan.

In 1893 he is described as a traveling salesman for Alcott and Maynor while boarding with Mrs. V. DeGrazia.

The next year he is listed in the books and stationery business at 374 1/2 Elm and residing at 852 Live Oak.

In 1896 no career is listed but his residence remains the same at 852 Live Oak

In 1897 Buchanan is working for C. H. Edwards Music Company and living at the NE corner of Elm and Hill Avenue.

Adoniram Judson Buchanan was in Co­lo­ra­do Ci­ty, Tex­as, in 1889, and Kan­sas City, Mis­sou­ri, in Jan­u­a­ry 1931.[2]

We found no further information on his domestic life or about his passing.

+++++++++++++++

[1] A. J. Buchanan, Hymnary.org.

[2] Adoniram Judson Buchanan, http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/u/c/h/buchanan_aj.htm

1855-1930 

Joseph Judson Taylor

Baptist Pastor/Pacifist                 VA/GA

Joseph Judson Taylor was born May 1, 1855, in Henry County, Virginia, to Daniel Gray Taylor and Martha King Taylor.[1] J. J. was named for his material grandfather and missionary Adoniram Judson who had died five years before J. J. was born. He attended Richmond College (now University of Richmond) and graduated as valedictorian in 1880. During his career, he pastored 7 churches and even served as president of Georgetown College in Kentucky, 1903-1907. Theologically conservative, Taylor affirmed a literal interpretation of the Bible and opposed both evolution and Harry Emerson Fosdick.[2]

But Joseph Judson Taylor stood out as the leading Baptist pacifist at the turn of the twentieth century. John Finley tells the story well.

Baptist pacifists have often been an endangered species. No better example can be found than that of Joseph Judson Taylor, pastor of First Baptist Church, Savannah, Ga., as America prepared to enter World War I.

Taylor had moved to Savannah in 1915 from the pastorate of First Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tenn. The pulpit committee glowingly described the new minister in its recommendation to the congregation: “He stands among the foremost of our preachers in a Southern pulpit. In doctrine he is sound, clear, and conservative. As a man he is scholarly, yet genial; aggressive, but prudent; commanding the respect of the world as he wins the hearts of all.”

The committee did not state, but should have known after three days of discussion in Knoxville, that Taylor was an avowed pacifist. As did the earliest Christians, Taylor took a literalist position on the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” and it determined his attitudes toward war and peace. Moreover, he had published his pacifist views earlier in his ministerial career. The first two years in Savannah were relatively uneventful, but the calm was soon to end.

The 1917 Southern Baptist Convention met in New Orleans shortly after Congress had declared war.  Taylor attended the convention as a registered messenger and cast the lone vote against the report of the Committee on the World Crisis. He observed that the convention had “too much of Caesar and too little of Christ.” The following day, he offered three articles in a counter-resolution on peace which was overwhelmingly defeated.

Never one to hide his pacifist leanings, Taylor returned to Savannah and preached a sermon in which he reported on the SBC meeting and explained his views on war and peace. Controversy erupted as the pastor’s pacifism sharply contrasted with the congregation’s strong support of the war effort.

At the deacons’ meeting on Nov. 3, a motion was approved which declared: “… he tender his resignation to the church, believing that by so doing he will save both himself and the church further embarrassment and will strengthen the work of the church in this community.”

Two days later, Taylor responded to the deacons by stating: “I in no wise admit that a pacifist is not a patriot. As our country is in war, I am absolutely loyal to the country’s interest in every fibre of my being; and I am confident that the pacifist will be more popular later than he is today.” Taylor resigned immediately, and the deacons took out a loan with the Savannah Bank and Trust Company in order to pay him three months severance.

Following the horrors of World War I, Taylor’s pacifism was viewed altogether differently. At the 1922 SBC meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., he was elected a vice president of the convention. The following year, he introduced an anti-war resolution at the meeting in Kansas City, and messengers were so taken by his words that they approved the resolution. Joseph Judson Taylor also influenced the article on “Peace and War” which was incorporated into the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message statement.[3]

The 1925 Baptist Faith and Message, section 19, generally attributed to Joseph Judson Taylor, reads like this:

XIX. Peace and War. It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ they should do all in their power to put an end to war.

The true remedy for the war spirit is the pure gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of his teachings in all the affairs of men and nations, and the practical application of his law of love.

We urge Christian people throughout the world to pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace, and to oppose everything likely to provoke war.[4]

The current 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith and Message includes this statement on Peace and War in section 16 but omits the last phrase in opposition to “everything likely to provoke war.”

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[1] This couple had one son named for Adoniram Judson, Jr., (Thomas Judson Taylor, entry 1821-1890) and two grandchildren named for Adoniram Judson, Jr., (Joseph Judson Taylor, entry 1855-1930 and Eugene Judson Taylor, entry 1879-1881).

[2] Laurence Vance, “Joseph Judson Taylor, Man of Peace,” Libertarian Christian Institute, March 18, 2015.

[3] John Finley, “Joseph Judson Taylor: Baptist Pacifist in a Time of War,” Good Faith Media, May 1, 2022.

[4] https://www.utm.edu/staff/caldwell/bfm/1925/19.html

1855-1939 

Judson Wheeler van DeVenter

Composer/Evangelist                     MI/FL

[Compiler’s Note: No, I cannot document the Judson Wheeler van DeVenter was named for Ann and/or Adoniram Judson but I will make the guess that he was.  His father was named for the founder of Methodism, John Wesley (van DeVenter).  His sister who only lived six years was named for the great hymnologist, Fanny (Crosby) L. VanDeVenter. Judson’s mother’s family name was Wheeler so I will guess that Judson Wheeler VanDeVenter carried his father’s name, his mother’s name and the legacy of Adoniram Judson.]

Let us rely on an article written by Breana Noble and published in The Hillsdale Collegian, April 13, 2017, for the story of this Judson namesake.

Judson Wheeler van DeVenter, a student in Hillsdale’s commercial and telegraph department from 1874-1876, wrote the hymn “I Surrender All” as he struggled between continuing a career in art or moving into full-time ministry.

In 1891, van DeVenter found himself arguing with God. He wanted to continue as a public high school art teacher and supervisor in Pennsylvania. Despite being an active member in his Methodist Episcopal church and participating in evangelistic meetings, van DeVenter felt God was calling him to do more. His friends encouraged him to pursue a career in ministry. But he resisted.

Van DeVenter grew up on a small farm in Dundee, Michigan. Although born in a Christian household on Dec. 5, 1855, he did not become a follower of Jesus Christ until he was 17.

He attended Hillsdale with his older brother, Virgil, who graduated in 1879 with a degree in literature, but Judson van DeVenter did not obtain a diploma. He did take art and music classes, however, and could play 13 instruments by the end of his life.

In 1880, he married and had two sons and a daughter who died at the age of 20. After his wife died in 1924, he married a pianist and music teacher in 1925.

Van DeVenter’s own musical talents would end his struggle with God after five years, as he began full-time ministry, sources said. While leading a meeting at the Ohio home of national evangelist George Sebring, he wrote the words of “I Surrender All.”

“For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work,” van DeVenter said, according to hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck in “101 More Hymn Stories.” “At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing.”

In 1896, evangelist song leader and vocalist Winfield S. Weeden put the words to music and the song was published in a book of hymns called “Gospel Songs of Grace and Glory.” Since then, van DeVenter’s song has appeared in hundreds of other hymnals, and its title is on Weeden’s epitaph.

Van DeVenter evangelized throughout the United States, England, and Scotland, visiting art museums along the way. He also had his own radio program called “The Gospel in Song and Story.” Van DeVenter published 60 more hymns, but “I Surrender All” remains the most well-known. His sermons to young people were often done as chalk talks.  In the 1920s, van DeVenter taught as a professor of hymnology for four years at the Florida Bible Institute, now Trinity Bible College.

Evangelist Billy Graham said van DeVenter was influential on his earlier preaching and was present at the time of his death on July 17, 1939, in Tampa, Florida.

“And I’ll never forget just before he went to be with God, barely audible but we could hear it, he sang, ‘All to Jesus I surrender,’” Graham said in May 1958, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. “He went to be with Christ with a smile on his face, looking forward to seeing Christ.”

Van DeVenter returned home for burial in Dundee’s Maple Grove Cemetery, and Graham carried on van DeVenter’s story by popularizing “I Surrender All” at his revivals.

Recorded by many artists since then, the song earned pop singer Deniece Williams a Grammy Award for Best Female Soul Gospel Performance in 1986 after she did her own rendition of it.

Country singer Faith Hill performed “I Surrender All” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” prompting Winfrey to share how the song had brought her comfort when she believed she lost an audition to play a role in the 1985 film “The Color Purple.” After running around a track singing “I Surrender All,” she received a call from director Steven Spielberg, who told her that she had gotten the part, which earned her nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1986.[1]

Judson Wheeler van DeVenter died in Florida in 1939 and is buried in Dundee, MI.

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[1] Breana Noble, “How one former Hillsdale student surrendered it all,” The Hillsdale Collegian, April 13, 2027. https://hillsdalecollegian.com/2017/04/one-former-hillsdale-student-surrendered/

1856-1930

Adoniram Judson Hughes

Baptist Pastor              Canada/PA

Adoniram Judson Hughes was born in Canada on June 27, 1856.  Census records report that he immigrated to the United States in 1881 and that he claimed his calling as a Baptist Clergyman, the only person I have discovered to use such a moniker. In the 1910 census he is 54 years old, living in Massachusetts with his wife, Annabell, and his 16-year-old son, Merritt Y. Hughes.

His career as a clergyman followed this course:

• 1884-87. Minister, Baptist Church, Chester, Middlesex Co., CT
• 1887-90. Minister, Baptist Church, Eastport, Washington, Co., ME
• 1890-93. Minister, Baptist Church, North Grafton, Worcester Co., ME
• 1893-99. Minister, Phoenixville Baptist Church, Phoenix, Chester Co., PA
• 1899. Minister, Central Square Baptist Church, East Boston, Suffolk Co., MA
• 1899-1906. Minister, Baptist Church, East Boston, Suffolk Co., MA
• 1906. Minister, Baptist Church, Everett, Middlesex Co., MA[1]

The next time Rev. Adoniram Judson Hughes appears is November 24, 1930, and the scene is reported in the local newspaper under the heading “Retired Clergyman, 75, Falls Dead at Grave of Wife in Phila. Cemetery:”

As he stood by the side of his wife’s grave in Lawnside Cemetery, Philadelphia, yesterday, Rev. A. Judson Hughes, 75, a former pastor at the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church, fell dead.

With Rev. Hughes at the time was his sister-in-law, Mrs. Maryemma Rogers, of 4957 Rubican avenue, Germantown, in whose car the clergyman had been driven to the grave.  Rev. Hughes’ death was caused by heart disease.

He had resigned his pastorate in Everett, Mass., October 1, and had planned to spend the rest of his life with his son, Professor Merritt Y. Hughes, of the University of Southern California.

Mrs. Rogers said the former pastor would be buried beside the grave of his wife.[2]

[Compiler’s Note: Adoniram Judson Hughes’ son, Merritt Yerkes Hughes (May 24, 1893 – May 12, 1971) was an expert in the literature of France, England and Italy. He was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1925, the first year the award was given. He subsequently served on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin from 1936 until his retirement in 1963. Among other works, he edited a compilation of the complete works of John Milton. Hughes died in Madison, Wisconsin on May 12, 1971.[3]]

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[1] Lasher, The Ministerial Directory of the Baptist Churches…, p. 371.

[2] “Retired Clergyman, 75, Falls Dead at Grave of Wife in Phila. Cemetery,” The Morning Post (Camden, NJ), November 24, 1930, p. 1.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merritt_Yerkes_Hughes

1856-1934

Adoniram Judson Watkins

Farmer/Rancher       Missouri     MO

Sometimes the story of the Judson namesake pales in relationship to the story of their parents or off-spring. Let’s begin with the story of the parents of Adoniram Judson Watkins of Missouri before we review his place in the plot.

Altus Watkins and Mary Ann Holloway were married on March 4, 1834, in Kentucky but soon moved to Clay County, Missouri, where they spent the rest of their lives creating “the factory on the farm”.[1] Today their nineteenth century farm and woolen factory are maintained as the Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site and Park between Lawson, Kearney and Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Thousands visit the site annually but might miss the religious and personal details of a farm family running a woolen mill–flour mill–saw mill in the midst of a rural community fraught with the Mexican War, the California gold rush, border war bushwhackers, the Civil War, reconstruction and related desperados.

Mary Ann Watkins would give birth to eleven children, with two of them passing away during childhood…. She appears to have been very loving. She was a notable needle woman and made fine lace, some of which is still in the collection at Watkins Woolen Mill State Park and State Historic Site. She was renowned for her cooking and also wrote poetry. Her duties as the wife of Waltus Watkins included raising her 11 children and two foster children, caring for boarders and taking care of the garden and poultry, as well of all aspects of running the household.

(Photo of Adoniram Judson Watkins from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19188218/adoniram-judson-watkins)

Mary Ann Watkins seemed to have remained in decent health until just shortly before her death. She passed away on September 24, 1896, at the age of 79 years old. As a charter member of the Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Mary Ann was well loved and referred to in her obituary as “one of God’s noble people.” She was laid to rest beside her husband in the Watkins Family Cemetery, just behind the current day visitor center, at Watkins Woolen Mill State Park and State Historic Site.[2]

Altus Watkins would fit the modern definition of an entrepreneur and was on the cutting edge of the industrial revolution but out in the country rather than in the city. He would develop “a reputation not surpassed by any in the west”[3] during the last half of the nineteenth century but much of his success would be driven by his Christian conversion in August of 1849.

Due to the prayers and constant encouragement of his three sisters who had moved from Kentucky to live at Bethany, the plantation farm in northern Clay County, Waltus attended the revival services in August at New Hope Baptist Church about five miles from his home. Pastor Robert James[4] led the evangelistic services and Waltus Watkins’ sister, Elizabeth Carter related that she witnessed on August 7, 1849,

Waltus’ deep conviction…his clear and bright conversion while at the mourner’s bench, and then in the course of a half hour, when the invitation was given, to see him come out so humbly—though boldly—and relate his experience…. He is regenerated and born again. His whole theme is to talk about religion, go to meetings and read the Bible.[5]

But that conversion also impacted the way he named his children. In March of 1852, as son was born to Althus and Mary Ann receiving the name of Althus Jewell as a legacy to his father and to Dr. William Jewell, Missouri Baptist physician, who gave the original $10,000 to start the college in Clay County that now bears his name. Altus Watkins would serve on the board of the Baptist-related college for 20 years beginning in 1850. Then on Christmas Eve, 1856, a son was born who inherited the name of Adoniram Judson Watkins.

The lad would be known as Judson Watkins or A. J. Watkins and worked with his father and brothers on the Bethany farm and woolen factory until his sixteenth year.  A. J. spent some time in college in Alabama and maybe in St. Louis studying business before returning to Bethany and the family businesses. He eventually married and started a dairy with a Lawson, MO, address. His FAMOUS WATKINS BRAND OF BEST CREAMERY BUTTER won first place at the St. Louis fair 3 years in a row. Though not as famous, influential nor as religious as his father, the obituary of Adoniram Judson Watkins tells his story well.

A.J. Watkins of Lawson, for many years one of the well known citizens of that section, died, Friday, July 20, at his home in that city. His death followed an illness of a year or more. He was born and reared near Lawson and his entire life was lived in Clay and Ray counties. He was a son of the late Waltus L. Watkins, an early day pioneer who came to Missouri in the early 1840’s and bought a large tract of land near where Lawson and Excelsior Springs are located. He established the Watkins wool mills and was one of the foremost citizens of the state for many years. A.J. Watkins assisted his father in managing the woolen mills and after his death engaged in farming and stockraising. Some years ago he moved to Lawson where he resided until his death. He was married to Miss Margaret Jane Smith, a daughter of the late W.W. Smith of Lawson. His widow and four children, daughters, survive him. He is also survived by one sister, Miss Carried Watkins, who resides on the old Watkins home place. Funeral services were held at his late home Sunday morning, conducted by Rev. McClintic of Liberty. Burial was in Lawson cemetery. Mr. Watkins, or “A.J.” as he was familiarly called by his friends, was a man possessing great will power and no one anywhere thought more of his friends than he. His loyalty at no time knew any bounds and he really appreciated them. He was a great neighbor and when once his sympathies were aroused his kind heart knew no bounds in his desire to comfort and be of assistance. Those who knew him as he really was will verify this statement by citing many instances. He will be missed in this community where he had lived so long. Many friends send genuine sympathy to the bereaved family in their great hour of sorrow and loss.[6]

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[1] Louis W. Potts and Ann M. Sligar, Watkins Mill: The Factory on the Farm (Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University, 2004), a great read on the life work of Altus Watkins.

[2] https://www.facebook.com/mostateparks/photos/a.117731414243/10158465270829244/?type=3

[3] Potts and Sligar, pp. 87-112.

[4] The Rev. Robert James was the father of outlaws Frank and Jesse James. He founded and pastored the New Hope Baptist Church and was one of the organizing trustees of William Jewell College before he went to California in 1851 for the gold rush where he died of a fever.

[5] Potts and Sligar, p. 34-35.

[6] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19188218/adoniram-judson-watkins

1857-1917

Adoniram Judson Morgan

Three entries.                         Five states.

We have discovered three people wearing the name of Adoniram Judson Morgan all living about the same time.  Their information is sketchy so I will list them together in this entry.

FIRST. We know the dates of this Adoniram Judson Morgan (1857-1917) but do not know anything about his career. He was born June 15, 1857, in Tennessee and died in Nashville on December 18, 1917, at age 60. He was survived by eight children, two of whom were serving in the armed forces during WWI. Adoniram Judson Morgan was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville with Rev. T. C. Ragsdale conducting the services.[1]2387999 ·

SECOND. But there is another Adoniram Judson Morgan whose career we know but whose dates we do not know. His career in the ministry is reported in The Baptist Ministerial Directory (p. 513) but we can find nothing about the time of his birth and death nor the impact of his work.

He was born in Villa Rica, GA, and went to high school in Powder Springs, GA. Rev. Morgan was licensed to preach in August,1880, and ordained two months later by the Chapel Hill Church in Georgia. We will leave the rest of the story in the hands of God.

• 1881-84. Minister, Baptist Church, County Line, Meriwether Co., GA
• 1882-85. Minister, Baptist Church, Sweet Water, Gwinnett Co., GA
• 1885-89. Minister, Baptist Church, Powder Springs, Cobb Co., GA
• 1886. Minister, Baptist Churches, Beulah and Pleasant Hill, Douglas Co., GA
• 1886-98. Minister, Baptist Church, Lost Mountain, Cobb Co., GA[2]

THIRD.  The third of five children, Adoniram Judson Morgan (1856-1935) was born on 15 July 1856, in Mississippi to Henry H. Morgan and Caroline Parmelia Sawyer. In 1870, when he was 14 years old, he was living with his parents in Carroll, Mississippi. He married Mary (Mamie) Zenas Smith in 1883 and together they had two sons. One son was named Arthur Judson Morgan (1884-1936). A. J. Morgan lived in Ward One, Caddo, Louisiana, in 1900. He died on 30 May 1935, in Warren, Bradley County, Arkansas, at the age of 78, and was buried in Old Warren Cemetery in a grave that no longer has a headstone.[3]

A FOURTH Adoniram Judson Morgan gets his own entry later in this list: 1884-1950, Adoniram Judson Morgan, Baptist Pastor/Mayor/Judge in TX/TX.

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[1] “Morgan,” The Tennessean (Nashville, TN), Thursday, December 29, 1917, p. 9.

[2] Adoniram Judson Morgan, https://archive.org/details/ministerialdirec00lash/page/512/mode/2up

[3] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~arbradle/cemeteries/old_warren.html

1858-1899

Judson College

Hendersonville, North Carolina        NC

Judson College in North Carolina is number three of the eight institutions of higher learning named for Ann and/or Adoniram Judson.

Judson College was a nineteenth-century academy located in the mountain town of Hendersonville, North Carolina. The school was conceived by the Western Carolina Baptist Association in 1858 and originally named the Western North Carolina Female College. Construction of the college’s main building was begun in 1860 under the direction of a board of trustees….  The Civil War halted the building process, however, and the incomplete structure housed a variety of ventures until 1879, when a high school was opened on the site.

The Judson College catalog for the academic year 1887-88 shows the curriculum to have included mathematics, English grammar, natural science, “language lessons,” North Carolina history, geography, Latin, and Greek. A six-year “common school” course of study was available to students, preparing them for “entrance to high school or academic work.” The Preparatory Department was a three-year course for individuals interested in attending the University of North Carolina or another college in the state. Finally, the Normal Department offered its graduates either a teaching certificate or a Bachelor of Divinity degree, depending on the length of the course. Tuition for these courses ranged during the 1890s from 24 cents to $1.00 per week; for students boarding at the school, an additional $2.50 per week was charged.

While Judson College never established itself as an influential academy on a state level, it was an important part of its local educational environment…. The school also produced many influential teachers and educational administrators before it was closed in 1899, a victim of two decades of financial struggles.[1]

[Compiler’s Note: There once was a small town named Judson in Swain County, NC, on the far western edge of the state near the Tennessee border. Judson was evacuated for construction of the Fontana Dam on the Little Tennessee River which was completed in 1944 creating the Fontana Lake reservoir. Numerous historic towns and prehistoric sites were inundated by the lake. Some structures can be visited when the lake is at its yearly low. And there was once another small unincorporated community named Judson in Cumberland County, NC, near Fayetteville.] 

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[1] Jay Mazzocchi, “Judson College”, Encyclopedia of North Carolina, William S. Powell, Editor (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 2006), p. 643.

1858-Present

Judson Township

Blue Earth County, Minnesota     MN

Judson Township was organized in 1858, and named for Adoniram Judson, an American missionary.[1] Blue Earth County became the home for many different ethnic immigrants and Yankee settlers. The most concentrated were the Welsh in Judson and Cambria Townships, the Scots in Mapleton, Germans, and Norwegians in several areas through the county.[2] Of the 70 churches in the county in 1942, 5 were Baptist and all related to the Northern Baptist Convention but none of them were located in the township named for Adoniram Judson.[3]

Stretching 38 square miles, Judson Township was the largest township until 1895 when South Bend provided some of its township to Mankato. The luscious timber snagged the attention of many incoming immigrants. The majority of settlers were Welsh people. The first to claim territory were Chester Hill, John Randolf, and Rev. John Tidland, who settled in the summer of 1853. Three short years after their arrival, Judson was administrated as a town.

When the Indian Outbreak occurred in 1863, volunteers were taken from Judson to help protect the state. A regiment was formed at Fort Snelling where the men prepped for conflict. For a while, Company E, was stationed at the town.  The spring of that year it was decided that a small fort was to be out there. Originally, the plan had been to use limestone, but that quickly went awry. Instead, they built the fort using thick slabs of sod. Piling them carefully, they soon formed a structure that reached ten feet. Small windows were formed in the base that allowed soldiers to aim their weapons. The fort was never used and through the years it slowly withered away. Grass began to materialize from the crumbling exterior until it finally overtook it. To a passerby, it would have appeared to be just a pile of earth and it remained this way until a member of a local Boy Scout group discovered it and had a marker erected there.

Judson was established in 1853 and was named after Adoniram Judson who translated the Bible to Burmese. This religious name often rubbed off on its’ inhabits who didn’t even allow a saloon in town. The town was successful for many years but decreased in population around 1862 due to economic hardship. Many people moved to neighboring town Mankato seeking new jobs and opportunities. One of the reasons for this was transportation. Judson relied on a river flowing through it for its method of transport while Mankato had numerous roads and unrestricted access to the Minnesota River. Things came around for Judson when a railroad was built through town. This brought more opportunities to Judson. Stores, schools, and churches arose. This influx of people and stores gave Judson what it needed to resume its former glory.

Judson is now considered a “sleeper community” as most of the people who live in Judson work in neighboring communities and not in Judson.[4]

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[1] Upham, Warren (1920). Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance. Minnesota Historical Society. p. 60.

[2] Blue Earth County, Minnesota, website: https://www.blueearthcountymn.gov/164/History

[3] http://genealogytrails.com/minn/blueearth/church_1942.html

[4] https://blueearthcountyhistory.com/2016/03/28/a-brief-history-of-judson-township/

1859-1886

Adoniram Judson Liverman

Student/Farmer     North Carolina NC

Hartwell Liverman (sometimes spelled Livermon) and Martha Ann Vick Liverman welcomed a son on April 2, 1859, and named him Adoniram Judson Liverman. He was the fifth of six children born to this couple. All we have been able to learn thus far come from census records. In 1870 he was 10 years old and his occupation was student. Ten years later he was a single farmer living with his brother. Next he was a student at Wake Forest College 1882-83, in Wake County, NC, but he died young at age 26 on January 5, 1886 and is buried at the Liverman Cemetery in Powellsville, NC.

But we did find his will and that may tell us something about this young adult who carried the legacy of Adoniram Judson:

I, A. J. Liverman of the State of North Carolina and Bertie County being of sound mind and memory do declare this to be my last will and testament:–

First–I commend my soul to the keeping of God forever.

Second—I desire my body to be buried in a Christian like manner with Masonic ceremonies.

Third—I give and bequest to my beloved mother (Martha Ann Liverman) my interest in our //// or power of //// lying and being in Watrom Posesson with all appurtenances /// being, also all my notes, monies, goods, chattels, possessions or //// hold //// her (Martha Ann Liverman) her heirs and assigns forever.

Fourth—I do appoint my mother my sole executris of this my last will and testament. Nor shall she be required //// for the performances of same ////////////////

In testimony of which I A. J. Liverman have herewith set my hand and sign.

December 3, 1885.[1]

From this one document we can determine that Adoniram Judson Liverman was a Christian and a Mason and he loved his mother and gave her all his earthly possessions. A goodly heritage.

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[1]North Carolina, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, for A. J. Liverman, Bertie, Wills, Vol. 1, 1886-1909.

1859-1943

Adoniram Judson Leach

Methodist Pastor/Life Saver              MA/MA

When Adoniram Judson Leach was born on 4 May 1859, in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, his father, Dr William Leach, was 37 and his mother, Abby Alice Marshall, was 38. He was number 9 of 12 children born to this couple.  A. J. Leach graduated from Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, NJ, in 1882 and married Mary Foster Lewis on 24 December 1883, in Washington D.C. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 1 daughter.

For ten years, 1885-1895, Leach served as pastor to Methodist congregations in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 1896 he became the state agent for the Humane Society of Massachusetts. In 21st century parlance we would imagine the Humane Society as being the organization interested in the welfare of dogs, cats and other domestic pets. Not so in the 19th century.  The Massachusetts Humane Society was founded in 1786 by a group of Boston citizens who were concerned about the needless deaths resulting from shipwrecks and drownings and wanted to find ways to save lives. This Society became the model for the United States Life-Saving Service funded by Congress in 1848 and operated as the United States Coast Guard since 1915.

This news article appeared in 1914 to shed some light on the life of Adoniram Judson Leach.

A very pretty home wedding took place yesterday at 2 o’clock at the home of Mr. and Mr. John H. Bryans, when Miss Mary Kennedy became the bride of Adoniram Judson Leach of Reading. The house was prettily decorated with laurel, peonies and roses, all the decorations being pink and white…  Mr. Leach is state agent for the Massachusetts Humane Society.[1]

Thus at age 55, Adoniram Judson Leach married and the next year watched his Massachusetts Humane Society become the United States Coast Guard. He died on 14 January 1943, in Worcester, Massachusetts, at the age of 83.

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[1] “Hampshire County, Enfield, Kennedy-Leach Wedding,” Springfield Republican, Springfield, MA, June 25, 1914, p. 19.

1859-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Kokomo, Indiana            IN

By request of Brothers and Sisters in Ervin Township, Howard County, Indiana, in Ecclesiastical Council convened at the Stetler schoolhouse May 21, 1859 for the purpose of consulting the propriety of recognizing them as a Regular Baptist Church…. The Articles of Faith were read and adopted. After due deliberation, the Council resolved to recognize them as a Regular Baptist Church.[1]

Thus begins the story of the first 5 members of Judson Baptist Church which was blessed by 3 neighboring congregations and birthed in 1859. The present church building is located at the intersection of West Road and Judson Road northwest of Kokomo, Indiana, where the unincorporated neighborhood also bears the name of the Baptist missionary.

The first pastor was Price Odell who started on the path to become a veterinarian but eventually responded to a call to preach.  Upon telling his mother about this calling, she went into the Indiana woods and dug out ginseng roots and took them to town to sell for cash. With $1.00 from that cash, she bought Rev. Odell his first Bible which he used the rest of his ministry.[2] “His services in the church for the first few years were paid for with articles of food such as a small sack of meal, maple syrup, or a piece of wild meat they happened to have and wanted to share with him.”[3]

The first building for the Judson Baptist Church was shared with the local school in 1869 after the Civil War.  It was a walnut log structure approximately 16×24 feet, roofed with clap-boards, a door in one end, two windows on each side and furnished with puncheon seats and desks.  By 1873 the congregation had a parking problem and had to install additional posts to tie horses and buggies to.

The pulpit was originally on the west end of the building but when a pump organ was acquired in the 1880’s the pulpit was shifted to the south.  In the late 1890’s the pulpit was again in the west but in 1903 was moved to the north.  The peripatetic pulpit was moved in 1908 again to the south side to allow for the construction of the North Annex.[4]  A Sunday School was begun in 1893 while this pulpit was finding a permanent place in the worship center.

In 1934 at the height of the Great Depression, the Ann Judson Missionary Society was formed to work closely with Baptist women’s ministry in Indiana and nation-wide.  The guest speaker at the centennial celebration of the church in 1959 was Dr. Dallas J. West, who was Executive Secretary of the Indiana Baptist Convention and would eventually become a founding trustee of Judson College (now University) in Elgin, Illinois. In 1968 the church called Rev. Chuck DeRolf and his wife, Judy, to serve as pastor.  Graduates of Judson College, this missionary couple would eventually depart Judson Baptist Church to go to Tokyo, Japan, where they served as missionaries for over 40 years.[5]

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[1] Ethel M. Stetler, Judson Baptist Church: The First One Hundred and Fifty Years, 1859-2009. Printed by the church, 2009, p. 7.

[2] Ibid., p. 4.

[3] Ibid., p. 5.

[4] Ibid., p. 41.

[5] Ibid., p. 51.

1861-1904

Adoniram Judson Colby

Businessman/Broom Maker                        IA/KS/AR

Adoniram Judson Colby was born August 20, 1861, in Mitchell, Iowa, where his father, also named Adoniram Judson Colby, was pastor of the Baptist Church (see entry 1835?-1910). He married Alma Margaret (King) Abernathy on Sept. 14, 1881 in Phillips County, Kansas, and their children are unknown. He is listed as a Broom Manufacturer in an 1883 edition of the Phillipsburg (KS) Herald.  The A. J. Colby son cared for his father when the elderly Baptist pastor retired to Phillipsburg, KS, in 1890. Businessman and broom maker, Adoniram Judson Colby died July 10, 1904 at age 42 in Hoxie, Lawrence Co., Arkansas.[1]

[Compiler’s Note: While researching the story of A. J. Colby in Iowa, Kansas and Arkansas, I stumbled on this sad story of an A. J. Colby from Minneapolis. We do not know if he was named for Adoniram Judson so he did not make the final cut.  The story involves a railroad wreck between two freight trains where two were killed. Listed among the injured is “A. J. Colby, Minneapolis, brakeman, perhaps fatally.… Brakeman Colby was throwed a long distance into Vermillion slough and so seriously injured that he may die…”[2]]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Colby, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Colby-1416

[2] “Milwaukee Wreck,” Grand Forks Daily Herald (Grand Forks, ND) Volume 20, Issue 271, Tues, September 17, 1901, p. 1.

1861-1945 

Adoniram Judson James

Physician         Wisconsin/Texas        WI/TX

Adoniram Judson James was born on January 21, 1861, in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, to Reverend William Eynon James (1830-1906) and Hannah Edmund James (1831-1904), who were recent immigrants to America from Wales. The family had pastoral stops in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois but eventually migrated to Texas where Judson graduated from high school. His father pastored in Caldwell, Texas, and was a strong supporter of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and the Baylor Seminary in Fort Worth which eventually became Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.[1]

W. E. and Hannah James had a total of 10 children with 8 living into adulthood. Three children were named for missionaries to Burma: Adoniram Judson James (1861-1945), Claudia “Calista” Vinton James (1865-1894), and Johnathan Wade James (1870-1953). A fourth child was named Francis Wayland James (1868-1949) in honor of the president of Brown University and author who scribed A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson in 1853, just three years after the missionary Judson died. Additionally, Judson James’ great niece, Carla (James) Gonyo, served as a missionary to Burma for 8 years in the early part of the 21^st century.[2]

Adoniram Judson James married Annie C. Moore in 1893 and they had 4 children. He taught at Dallas, TX, High School 1890-96 while working on his medical degree and was one of the first graduates of Baylor Medical School. He and served his career as a physician in the Houston area.  He was the family historian and passed away on August 25, 1945. Judson James is buried in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.

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[1] Wings of a Dove: A History of First Baptist Church, Caldwell, Texas, p. 26.

[2] Email from Carla (James) Gonyo to the compiler, 11-14-82.

1862-1945

Adoniram Judson Arrick

Presbyterian Pastor/Composer    IN/KY

Adoniram Judson Arrick was born June 26, 1862 the son of John Harry Arrick and Sarah Ann Moore. He graduated from Wabash College in Indiana in 1888 and McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, before being ordained by the Presbytery of Muncie, Indiana in 1890. His wife was Martha Isabell Snider.

He served pastorates in: Rankin, Vermillion Co., IL (1889-90); Hartford City, Blackford Co., IN (1890-92); Mt. Sterling, Montgomery Co., KY (1892-98); Louisville, KY (1898-1904); Dayton, Tippecanoe Co. IN (1904-07); Kendallville, Noble Co., IN (1907).

But beyond traditional pastoral leadership, Arrick also wrote poetry and hymns including He is Knocking; One by One, We’re Passing Over; Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord; and ‘Tis Promised to Those Who Are Faithful to Christ.[1]  His ministry followed in the steps of Luther and Wesley and others where the pastor was the musician presenting the gospel message in both song and sermon.

Arrick had several interests that are reported in over 240 newspaper articles that record his name. Besides the usual weddings, funerals and presbytery meetings, he was involved with Christian Endeavor, pulpit exchanges and church union services, Lake Winona Conferences and the temperance movement.

The pastor, Rev. A. J. Arrick, preached on the subject of the Resurrection. His sermons were highly commended. The extra attraction at night was a solo written by Mr. Arrick and sung by Miss Ayers.[2]

Rev. A. J. Arrick, of Kendalville, Ind., delivered a splendid sermon Sunday morning in the First Presbyterian church. He exchanged pulpits with Rev. A.C. Ormond of this city. Mr. Ormond had promised to preach in Kendalville when that city went dry. As it voted dry he fulfilled his agreement.[3]

“I commend to you this old book, the bible; study it diligently, thoughtfully, earnestly, carefully, but above all I beseech that you study it conscientiously as that when the last great commencement shall come, you can receive your diploma—a crown of everlasting life.”

With the above words, Pastor A. J. Arrick brought to close one of the best baccalaureate sermons ever preached to a graduating class of the Aledo high school.”[4]

Adoniram Judson Arrick died March 18, 1945 in Florida and is buried in the Spring Vale Cemetery, Lafayette, Indiana

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[1] “Adoniram Judson Arrick,” http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/a/r/r/i/arrick_aj.htm

[2] Mt. Sterling Advocate (Mount Sterling, KY), April 16, 1895, Volume 5, p. 6.

[3] “Delivered Splendid Sermon,” South Bend Tribune (South Bend, IN), July 19, 1909, p. 10.

[4] “Urged to Keep Bible on Hand,” Rock Island Argus and Daily Union (Rock Island, IL), Volume: 69^th year, May 24, 1920, p. 13

1865-1925

Adoniram Judson Benton

Congregational Pastor           IA/MN

A peer of Adoniram Judson Benton, Mr. Truman Orville (T.O.) Douglass, wrote a series of sketches on early Congregational church leaders in Iowa. He included Rev. Benton in his book of over 800 pages entitled Builders of a Commonwealth which is now digitized from the carbon paper of that book. We are grateful for his review of Pastor Benton written in the 1920’s and will make a few edits therein to update this story.

Adcniram Judson Benton, son of James and Amelia Benton, was born in a log cabin near Grand Rapids, Michigan, November 26, 1865.  He attended a country school near his home, and a private school in the city, and in his young manhood taught in country schools for three years.  Later, he took the scientific course in the institution at Valparaiso, Indiana.

As a special preparation for the ministry, he took the course in theology prescribed by the United Brethren Conference, and also a course in the U.  B. Seminary at Dayton, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1893. He was ordained March 31 of the same year. While still in the Seminary, in August, 1891, he was married to Miss Edith Crowell of Ottumwa. She became the mother of five children.

His association with the United Brethren people after graduation from the Seminary was of short duration.  In May of 1894, he came into our fellowship, and took charge of our work at Quasqueton and Pleasant Prairie.  He was in service on that field until May of 1897, at which time he accepted a call to the church at Dickens, in Clay County. His commission for this field was renewed in 1898 and 1899. The church made rapid progress under his administration. 

In May of 1900, he closed his work at Dickens, and began at Edgewood, in Northeastern Iowa. This was a self-supporting field. His first year is reported as one of great prosperity for the church.  Pastor Tuttle, of Manchester, assisted him in special meetings. In June of 1901, the pastor and his family took possession of a new parsonage which had been provided for them.  However, in July, he resigned and moved to Wittenberg, near Newton.   There also a parsonage was provided for him, but he left the field at the end of the second year.

In 1903, he went down into Arkansas, and was pastor at Gentry for a short time. He also spent a little time in San Francisco in the YMCA-work, and then was for a time pastor at Cole Camp, Missouri. But in 1906, he was back in Iowa, and in March of this year, was commissioned for Larchwood. The commission was renewed in 1907.

In 1908, he took charge of Fayette.  “Congregational Iowa” for March reports: “The church has called Rev. A. J.  Benton, of Larchwood, and with the opening of his ministry the church passes from despondency to self-support.” This pastorate covered a period of four years.

“Congregational Iowa” for September, 1911, reports: “The Rev. A. J. Benton has accepted a call to Wadena, Minnesota…” In 1912, Mr. Benton came back to Iowa, and took up the work of the Children’s Home Society, as superintendent for the State, with headquarters in Oskaloosa. He is still engaged in this service.

While I was superintendent of Home Missions and closely associated with Brother Benton, I used to scold him for running about so much. He did not need to change so often. The people, nearly all of them, always liked him. He was a good preacher, the only drawback “being a bad throat and a weak voice.” He was one of the kindest of men, and made hosts of friends. Probably he is in his element now, working for the children.[1]

Rev. Adoniram Judson Benton died in 1925.

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[1] Truman Orville Douglass, Builders of a Commonwealth, pp. 314-316. Digitizing sponsor: Congregational Library of the American Congregational Association.

1866-1908

Adoniram Judson Kempton

Baptist Pastor          Nova Scotia/Iowa

Adoniram Judson Kempton was born December 11, 1866, in North East Margaree, Nova Scotia.  He graduated from Arcadia College in Nova Scotia in 1889 and became pastor of Stony Creek Baptist Church in NY the next year. He finished Rochester Theological Seminary in 1892 and then spent five years (1894-99) as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Madison, WI. Two incidents during this time in Madison are of interest.

During his third football season as a fan of the Wisconsin Badgers a riot started between the freshmen and sophomores and was reported in the media coast to coast.

The amazing spectacle of 300 fighting college students, all more or less denuded of their clothing and several of them absolutely naked, edified citizens and upper classmen at 4:30 yesterday afternoon….

The affair was witnessed by President C. K. Adams, several professors and a large number of citizens and students who had gathered to watch the foot ball practice.

Rev. A. J. Kempton, of the Baptist church, in this city, who was a spectator at foot ball practice and who crossed the street when the fighting began was caught in the crowd and roughly handled…

The result of the affray was inglorious defeat to the sophomore class, and at the conclusion of the battle several of its members were ducked in the lake…. The arrival of the police turned the minds of the fighters from their mutual strife to combat the officers, …  The officers were threatened with a ducking in Lake Mendota…should they attempt to make any arrests.[1]

Besides being caught in a campus riot at football practice in Madison, Adoniram Judson Kempton, met and married Annie Elizabeth Main on St. Valentine’s Day 1899.

It was a charming bit of genuine sentiment that led Miss Annie Elizabeth Main and the Rev. Adoniram Judson Kempton to select St. Valentine’s day as the date of their marriage… She is a young lady of scholarly tastes, profound earnestness of purpose, and exceedingly attractive personality… From childhood up she has been a devoted worker in the First Baptist church of her home city, of which she is a zealous member.  Mr. Kempton is a man of strong, manly character, a brilliant, orator, fearless and outspoken on all grave questions of moral and social import and exercises great influence on those about him for so young a man.[2]

Adoniram and Annie began their life together by leaving Madison to assume a pastorate in Mt. Carroll, IL, which was the location of a women’s seminary attached to the University of Chicago. Their first two of his children were born in Mr. Carroll. Adoniram Judson Kempton next led the Baptist congregation in Muscatine, IA, where his third child was born and named Adoniram Judson Kempton (1907-1980).

After several weeks’ illness with typhoid fever, Rev. A. J. Kempton, pastor of the First Baptist church here, passed away this morning at Madison, Wis., where he went several weeks ago to spend his vacation. He was one of the city’s most prominent clergymen, and had been a prime factor in the saloon war. The burial will be Wednesday, at Madison.[3]

Adoniram Judson Kempton died at age 41 on August 30, 1908, in Muscatine, IA, and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, WI.

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[1] “Badgers Again Riot,” Saint Paul Globe (Saint Paul, MN), Volume 19, October 16, 1896, p. 8.

[2] “A Madison Clergyman and His Bride-Elect,” Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee, WI), February 11, 1899, p. 4.

[3] “Rev. Kempton Dead,” Evening Times-Republican (Marshalltown, IA), August 31, 1908, p. 2

1866-1955

Ann Judson Fogle Wells

Mother and Grandmother of

Missionaries to China     South Carolina SC

Missionary author Rosalie Hall Hunt was a part of the second generation impacted by a godly grandmother named for Ann Judson and describes her mother’s mother, Ann Judson Fogle Wells, in a personal email:

She is my grandmother on Mama’s side and was born in Orangeburg, SC, and, yes, she was born in the late 1860’s [February 8, 1866] and given the name of that hero, Ann Judson. She was Ann Judson Fogle Wells, backbone of the WMU [Woman’s Missionary Union] in Bethel Baptist Church [close to Tindal— near Sumter], which was Mama’s and Aunt Grace’s home church. I did not get to see her often and she was one of the unusual Wells’ family members: she didn’t talk much! Ann [Hasseltine Judson] would have been proud that Grandmama bore her name. I was![1]

In her biography entitled Six Yellow Balloons, Dr. Hunt describes her grandmother:

Born in 1866, Ann’s firmly Baptist parents named her for America’s first woman missionary—the renowned Ann Hasseltine Judson—who was known as Woman of the Century in nineteenth-century America. Ann Judson Fogle was a restful person to be around, with her gentle, serene nature. That said, her intelligence and depth of faith ran deep and bore abundant fruit in the lives of her five children, producing one minister and two international missionaries. A fourth daughter became a schoolteacher and longtime Sunbeam Band director, and the fifth remained at home to care for the older family members while still managing to give an astounding number of dollars to missions, especially to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.

Ann poured herself into her brood of five and learned to read each of her little ones and understand their particular needs and skills.[2]

Ann Judson Fogle Wells passed away on July 10, 1955, in Sumter, SC, at age 89. Her husband, though 4 years younger than Ann, died only five months after his wife’s passing in December of 1955.

Ms. Wells’ grand-daughter, Rosalie Hall Hunt, established the Ann Judson Missionary Scholarship fund at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois. Proceeds from Dr. Hunt’s publication, The Extraordinary Story of Ann Hasseltine Judson: A Life Beyond Boundaries (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2018), formed the nucleus of this endowment. Earnings from the corpus is used to assist students committed to a career in Christian ministry or for students on mission trips. This fund is very alive if readers wish to contribute.

[Compiler’s note: Here is a sad snippet from another Ann Judson Wells who lost a daughter after 10 weeks:

Feb. 2d, 1868, Grace, infant daughter of Rev. J. M. and Ann Judson Wells, age 10 weeks

             She died to sin; she died to care,

            But for a moment felt the rod;

            Then rising to the viewless air,

            Spread her wings and soared to God.[3]]

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[1] Email from Rosalie Hall Hunt, March 27, 2023.

[2] Rosalie Hall Hunt, Six Yellow Balloons: An MK’s China Story (Greenville, SC: Courier Publishing, 2021), p. 29.

[3] Standard (Chicago, Illinois) February 27, 1868, p. 6.

1872-1883

Judson University

Judsonia, Arkansas           AR

As noted above, the history of Judsonia, Arkansas, and the first Judson University are inextricably intertwined. Dr. Martin Forey brought the Baptist College Colony of some 40 persons to Arkansas to begin the fourth effort at a Baptist school using the Judson legacy. Judson College, a school for women, had been established in Alabama in 1838 and named for Ann Judson. Eight years later a Judson College had been established in Illinois as an entrepreneurial and capitalist effort that lasted only until 1859. The Judson name was used in North Carolina for a school 1858-1899. Now Dr. Forey would use the Illinois model in the South and try to establish a university.

The first building was constructed 30 by 45 feet and opened with students of all ages and levels of learning. On March 1, 1872, The Arkansas Republican published this interview with Dr. Forey.

We were favored yesterday by a call from Professor Forey of the Judson University near Searcy. From him we learned that the Cairo and Fulton railroad has proposed to the trustees of the Judsonia institution to place all their land in the vicinity of the colony in the hands of the trustees to sell to actual residents and colonists of other states.  The C. and F. gave them a liberal commission, and gave the deed direct to the purchaser. Not only this, but the company has expressed a desire to help the university by a gift of a few thousand acres of land near the colony. This gift will place the university on a good financial basis, and secure its future prosperity.

We call the attention of our northern exchanges to the fact that this colony is the very best in the state. It is within 45 miles of the capitol; rich soil, excellent water, with the best educational institution in the state. Any young man with honesty and industry, and especially a young man with a small family, can not find a home on the continent more desirable—for a comfortable, happy home, and one with all the facilities, for educating his children—than in this colony at Judsonia.  We say, and believe it is easily verified, that it is at present the place offering more inducement to the newcomer than any other place in the state of Arkansas, or in the southwest.[1]

Forey lasted two years and was replaced by Rev. Benjamin Thomas of Little Rock who would later serve as editor of The Arkansas Baptist newspaper. His daughter, Idella, was head of the music department at Judson University and a son later became postmaster at Judsonia. “…the entire social life of Judsonia centered in the college because of the musical, dramatic and literary facilities.”[2] A stone first floor was constructed and the original frame 30×45 structure was lifted up to become the second floor of the university building. Then a bell tower was added creating a third floor.

(Photos courtesy First Baptist Church, Judsonia, AR.)

The faculty and curriculum were strong for the times. Biology and geology were taught by Professor Reynolds. His wife taught English. Professor Slater was head of the mathematics department. Herbert Skinner taught foreign languages. Professor James Jones taught theology and Miss Mattie Briggs was in charge of the junior department. At the heyday of Judson University, a rumor was circulated that a Negro was teaching on the faculty resulting in public fights in the streets and division in the community. The dark-skinned teacher was from Italy and soon departed the university but the wounds did not quickly heal. Entrepreneurial real estate projects did not produce well and the university closed in 1883. A final attempt to revive Judson University in 1888 did not work as intended and the school was finally shuttered.

The legacy of the school can be seen in the Baptist Church she fostered and is now vibrant after 150 years of ministry. The Baptist College Colony organized a Baptist congregation and met in the university building with the first three presidents of the university also serving as pastor of the Baptist church—Martin Forey, Benjamin Thomas and R. S. James. Though in most examples on the frontier, the church started and fostered the college, at Judsonia it was different. The college started and fostered the church.[3]

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[1] Orr, That’s Judsonia., pp. 46-47.

[2] Ibid., p. 50.

[3] Liz Tate, “Celebrating 150 Years: First Baptist Church of Judsonia” (Your Hometown Magazine: Searcy Living.com. Spring, 2022), pp.70-73.

1872-1956

Adoniram Judson Weeks

Missionary                   Michigan/Burma

Adoniram Judson Weeks was a native of Leslie, Michigan, born January 18, 1872 to Stephen Weeks and Laura Edwina Reynolds. He received a B.A. in 1902 from Kalamazoo College and then attended Newton Theological Institute 1902-1905. Weeks later studied at Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University).

Four milestones were completed in 1905: graduated from seminary; ordination to the Baptist ministry; married Louise Scrimger (1876-1950); and accepted missionary appointment with the American Baptists to Burma. A. J. Weeks worked faithfully with the Karens in Tavoy and Moulmein for 34 years, 1905-1939.[1]  

He and Louise had 3 children including a son they named George Dana Weeks in appreciation of the pioneer missionary to the Karens. After his wife, Louise, died in 1950, Weeks married Gertrude Kooney in 1953.

We discovered several newspaper accounts about Adoniram Judson Weeks and his wife, Louise, while they were on home assignment.  This might provide some instruction on what a missionary does in that rare time away from their overseas assignment:

The coming state meeting of the Baptists of Wyoming will bring with it an opportunity for Casper’s people to hear some splendid addresses, says the Casper Tribune. The following men are expected from a distance:… and Foreign Missionary A. J. Weeks of Burma. These men are real live wires and it will pay any one to go and hear them. [2]

First Baptist Church. There will be an all-day missionary meeting Wednesday at 10 a.m., 2:30 and 8 p.m.  The Rev. A. J. Weeks of Burma, Miss Carrie O. Millspaugh of Portland, Ore., and the Rev. Dr. C. A. Cook of Spokane will be the speakers of the day. Special music at both services….  All made welcome.[3]

Immanuel Baptist, corner Pine and Woody streets…Rev. A. J. Weeks, Tavoy, Burma, will preach. Mr. Weeks is one of our earnest and wide awake missionaries….curios from heathen lands; Burmese song and band music on the gramophone; maps, books and literature will be among the features of each session….The public is cordially invited to attend anyone or all of these services.[4]

Mother’s Day will be observed at the Baptist Church next Sunday with inspiring music and hymns that mother loved. Mrs. A. J. Weeks will give an address on “Mothers on India and the Orient.” This will be the last opportunity to hear Mrs. Weeks before she leaves for the East, preparatory to sailing for Burma.[5]

Rev. A. J. Weeks, Baptist missionary to Burma, lectured Wednesday evening at the Baptist Church on the Philippine Islands. Rev. Netherly, Ferndale Baptist pastor, illustrated the talk with stereopticon views. The lecture was well attended.[6]

Rev. and Mrs. A. J. Weeks, missionaries from Burma under the Baptist Foreign Missionary Society will be among the speakers at the 1925 Seabeck Missionary Conference rally to be held Tuesday evening, January, 20, at the First Baptist church at Harvard and Seneca.[7]

A series of Sunday evening services to be dedicated to the rural schools of this vicinity will be held in the Baptist church starting this Sunday…. Pictures of the teacher, Miss Celia Ridley, the school house and pupils will be thrown on the screen. The work of A. J. Weeks, a former pupil of the district, but who is now a resident of Burma, will be featured. Special music will be rendered by the Aurelius quartette.[8]

Adoniram Judson Weeks died November 3, 1956, at Everett, Washington, age 84. He is buried in the Lynden Cemetery, Whatcom County, WA.

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[1] Maung Shwe Wa, Burma Baptist Chronicle, edited by Genevieve and Erville Sowards (Rangoon: Board of Publication, Burma Baptist Convention, 1963), p. 433.

[2] “Prominent Men at Baptist Convention,” Laramie Republican (Laramie, WY), September 15, 1911, Volume 22, Issue 30, p. 8.

[3] “In Butte Churches,”  Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, MT), October 21, 1911, Volume XXIII, Issue 48, p. 12.

[4] “Immanuel Baptist,” Daily Missoulian (Missoula, MT), October 29, 1911, Volume 38, p. 5.

[5] “Baptist Church to Observe Mother’s Day on Sunday,” Lynden Tribune (Lynden, WA), Mary 8, 1919, Volume 11, p. 2.

[6] “Gives Fine Illustrated Talk About Philippine Islands,” Lynden Tribune (Lynden, WA), September 4, 1919, Volume 12, p. 2.

[7] “Burma Missionaries Will Address Rally,” Seattle Star (Seattle, WA), Volume 26, Issue 279, January 17, 1925, p. 2.

[8] “Leslie Will Honor Nearby Rural Schools.” Jackson Citizen Patriot (Jackson, MI), October 9, 1930, p. 13.

1872-1965 

Judson College[1]

Rangoon, Burma            Yangon, Myanmar

Responding to the requests of Karens in Burma, American missionaries stepped forward in 1869 to suggest the creation of an institution of higher learning especially for the Karens. The proposal was discussed at the meeting of the Baptist Union in Chicago in 1870 and approved thus paving the way for a fifth academic venture that would use the Judson name.  In 1872 Rangoon Baptist College was opened with instruction in English and 17 promising young Karen men as students. The original campus was on property purchased from missionary Cephas Bennett and across the street from the Karen Theological Seminary formed in Moulmein but transferred to Rangoon in 1853.

The interracial Burma Baptist Convention, formed in 1870, declared in 1874 that the new college would be open to all constituent groups including Burmese, Kachins, Mon, Shans, Chin and all others. By 1877 there were 106 students enrolled with 76 being Karens. By 1882 the University of Calcutta recognized the quality of the graduates of Rangoon Baptist College and allowed them to sit for matriculation examinations

Ten years later (1892) the Rangoon Baptist College Church (see entry 1892-present) was organized on the college campus with David Gilmore as the first pastor. He accepted the challenge of teaching the Pali language at the college while holding pastoral responsibilities at the church. That same year the University of Calcutta recognized Rangoon Baptist College as a First Arts College and authorized its freshman and sophomore students to take their examinations in English, History, Mathematics, Pali Language, Chemistry, Physics and Logic. In 1909 Rangoon Baptist College became a full-fledged degree institution receiving approval to add junior and senior level courses and offer a Bachelor of Arts degree.

In 1919 with full accreditation through the University of Calcutta, Rangoon Baptist College changed its name to Judson College recognizing “the intellectual relation of the institution to the first western scholar who made a large contribution to Burma’s welfare.”[2] The next year Judson College withdrew from the University of Calcutta and joined with Rangoon College to establish the University of Rangoon. In 1925-26 there were 337 students enrolled at Judson College.

American Baptists conducted a Judson Fund Drive from 1927 to 1930 and with the help of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., raised enough money to build a new campus at the University of Rangoon which was completed in the midst of the Great Depression in 1934. The Burmese government paid half the cost of the buildings, excluding the chapel and pastor’s residence, with the understanding that if it should every need to take over the Judson buildings, it could do so by paying compensation to the amount of the Baptist investment, or half of the value of the buildings at the time of the take-over.

Required to close during World War II, Judson College resumed operation under government control in 1950 when separate colleges were discontinued and the University of Rangoon assumed responsibility for all teaching. Most of the Judson College buildings were taken over by the government who paid compensation as previously agreed. The Burma Baptist Convention used those funds to erect a Student Christian Center and provide scholarships for Baptist students through a program called Judson Aid. When the military took over the government to establish a socialist state in 1965 all Christian schools ceased to exist along with other private schools in Burma.

With the political changes in Burma, the end had come for the Christian college in Burma. However, many Judsonians carried on the Christian educational legacy. The institution that was initially intended only for the Karen, had in reality set no boundary for uplifting the intellectual culture of all the people in Burma.[3]

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[1] Angelene Naw, The History of the Karen People of Burma (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 2023), pp. 71-83. All material for this section comes from Dr. Naw’s research.

[2] Ibid., p. 76.

[3] Ibid., p. 80.

1872-Present 

Town of Judsonia

White County, Arkansas      AR

Judsonia, Arkansas, is the only incorporated town in America named for our missionary champion, Adoniram Judson, and it may be the only town in America named for any missionary. The community was founded by Martin R. Forey (also spelled Fory) and incorporated in 1872. Forey was a Baptist educator, entrepreneur, preacher and probably even a carpet bagger. “Professor Forey was unquestionably a dreamer but he was gifted with powers of salesmanship and organization that are seldom found in men of such vision.” [1]Born in New York he led several schools in Virginia and South Carolina before arriving at the University of Chicago. He came to Arkansas as the leader of the Baptist College Colony of about 40 northerners who moved to the Natural State only 6 years after the end of the Civil War. They purchased over 250 acres on the northern edge of unincorporated Prospect Bluff.

To anyone but a dreamer the Prospect Bluff of that day would have been difficult to fit into plans for a great Baptist university. Log cabins, whiskey, gambling—and above all a still existing prejudice against anything from the North, made his chances of success seem very unlikely.[2]

Behold then, the miracle! Within five short years these few, outnumbered and in a strange land, made a conquest more remarkable than those of Grant and Sherman. So strong were their characters, so masterful their personalities, that in those five years they had closed the saloons and actually changed the name of the town. More than that they had… pushed (detractors) under the surface of the Little Red (River) and made good Baptists out of them.[3]

Though streets in the original Prospect Bluff were named for presidents, the streets in the new Judsonia were named after people in the Judson legacy:

• Haseltine Street (for Ann Hasseltine, first wife of Adoniram);
• Judson Avenue (for Adoniram Judson, the missionary, though it is an extension of Van Buren Avenue, the main street in Prospect Bluff),
• Wade Street (for Deborah and Jonathan Wade who codified the Karen language and created the Karen dictionary in Burma),
• Boardman Street, (for Sarah and George who baptized the first Karen evangelist, Ko Tha Byu),
• Wayland Street, (for Francis Wayland who penned the first biography of Adoniram Judson[4]);
• And Fory Street (for Martin Fory the founder of Judsonia and the first president of Judson University).

After two years of coexistence, Prospect Bluff and Judsonia merged in 1874 taking the name of the latter. The university survived for only 12 years but Judsonia has lived on for over 150 years and now sports over 1800 residents.  Because Martin Forey imported Yankees to populate the university, there has always been a covey of northern sympathizers in Judsonia where the first chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in Arkansas was organized. Sixteen veterans from the Union Army are buried in Judsonia’s Evergreen Cemetery. Church historian Elizabeth Short reports

…problems of prejudice against the northerners, who, already hated for their Civil War stand, had brought their silver, crystal, china and fine household furnishings, more eloquent possessions to flaunt before their poorer southern neighbors. However, some witnesses give testimony that conditions between the two groups were friendly from the first.[5]

The town became a center for raising strawberries in the late 1800’s and White County became the strawberry capital of the world. Tornadoes swept through Arkansas on March 21, 1952, leaving over 50 people dead in Judsonia. But true to its namesake, the town rebounded and was named a year later by Grit Magazine, “The Most Community Centered Small Town in America.”[6] The village retains pride in its founding and its namesake as the only incorporated town in the U.S. named for a missionary, Adoniram Judson.

[Compiler’s note: Just outside Judsonia in White County is Judson Memorial Missionary Baptist Church with an address of Griffithville, AR, population 262.  It is a part of American Baptist Association with headquarters in Texarkana, TX.]

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[1] W. E. Orr, That’s Judsonia: An Informal History of a Small Town in Arkansas (Judsonia, AR: White County Printing Company, 1957), p. 42.

[2] Ibid., p. 43.

[3] Ibid., p. 44.

[4] Francis Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D. in two volumes (Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1853.)

[5] Elizabeth Short, So Great a Cloud of Witnesses: A History of First Baptist Church, Judsonia, Arkansas (Winona, MN: Apollo Books, 1985), p. 10.

[6] Orr, That’s Judsonia, p. 217-218.

1872-Present

Village of Judson

Parke County, Indiana          IN

Little Raccoon Creek runs through Judson, Indiana, which was platted by Alexander Buchanan on May 4, 1872. In recognition of her founder, the village of Judson was occasionally called Buchanan or Buchanan’s Springs. Judson is an unincorporated community in Washington Township, Parke County, Indiana, northeast of Rockville. It was christened by Mr. Buchanan in honor of Adoniram Judson, the pioneer Baptist missionary to Burma.

Buchanan platted four streets to run north and south with an equal number running east and west. Guinon Road (570E) provides access from the east while Nyesville Road (160E) enters from the west.  Judson Road approaches the village from the north where it passes Goshen Baptist Church. Both a Masonic lodge and an Odd Fellows lodge were formed in 1874.  In 1910 when the railroad was completed and the first store was opened by Glover & Milligan, the village had less than 200 inhabitants. Presbyterian and Methodist congregations were soon organized and churches constructed in which to worship.[1] The community of Judson originally had a U.S. Post Office but it has now been closed and incorporated into the Rockville, Indiana, postal region. Judson Road runs north out of Judson, Indiana, for about 10 miles and thus also bears the name of Adoniram Judson. 

[Compiler’s Note: There is another village named Judson in Indiana, an unincorporated community in Ervin Township of Howard County and part of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. This Judson, Indiana, is also known as Poplar Grove and is marked on maps at the intersection of County Road West 200N and N 750 W. On the southwest corner of this location is the Judson Baptist Church founded in 1859 and thus the namesake of the community and the Judson Road that passes this location (see entry 1859-present). The Judson church became the moniker for the road and the community that grew up in the neighborhood.

There is yet a third Judson, Indiana, that was established September 24, 1860, but named for railroad magnate, William D. Judson. The descriptor “North” was added to eliminate confusion with the downstate Judson, Indiana, platted by Alexander Buchanan and named for Adoniram Judson. The town of North Judson proper is in Starke County, Indiana, and was laid out in 1866 and incorporated in 1888.[2]]

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[1]  History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana. B.F. Bowen & Cos. 1913. p. 225.

[2] Baker, Ronald L.; Marvin Carmony (1995). Indiana Place Names. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 119. ISBN 0-253-28340-X.

1874-1964    

Adoniram Judson Archibald

Baptist Pastor              Nova Scotia/MA

Adoniram Judson Archibald was born July 10, 1874, in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Eliakin Archibald and Cynthia Anne Bradshaw.  Judson attended Clementsport High School and Horton Academy in Nova Scotia through 1891. In 1896 he received a BA from Acadia University followed four years later with an MA.  Between the BA and MA, Archibald graduated from Newton Theological Institute in Massachusetts. He earned a BD in 1915 from Rochester Theological Seminary.  The People’s National University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1924.

He married Clara Blanche Oxner on August 8, 1899, and together they had a daughter name Kathleen on April 12, 1901. His wife, Clara, died in Florida on July 6, 1949. Judson Archibald, age 76, married a second time on August 29, 1950, to his first cousin Dorothy Bradshaw.

Judson Archibald was ordained in Shirley, MA, in 1899 and became pastor in Glace Bay, NS. His ministry career then followed this path:

• 1903-1910 Pastor of the Baptist Church in Digby, NS;
• 1910-1915 Pastor at the Charlotte Street United Baptist Church in Saint John, New Brunswick;
• 1915-1920 Pastor in New Glasgow;
• 1920-1928 (or 1935) Pastor at the Baptist Church in Brookline, Massachusetts;
• Secretary of the Maritime Baptist Convention for 9 years.

In 1944 Adoniram Judson Archibald retired to Penney Farms, Florida, where he served as interim pastor for 13 Baptist churches. He created this addendum to hIn 1944 Adoniram Judson Archibald retired to Penney Farms, Florida, where he served as interim pastor in 13 Baptist churches. He created this addendum to his 20 years of retirement in Florida:

In the Memorial Home Community, I have been preacher on 35 occasions. As Chairman of the Literary Committee, I staged about 40 shows, writing the plays as well as staging them. For 5 years I continually sold sermon illustrations and sermons to Preacher’s Publications. In Penney Farms, have served as President of the following organization: The Memorial Home Community Association, the Berean Bible Class and the Symposium Club.[1]

He died at age 89 on June 28, 1964, in Clay County, Florida. His body is buried in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

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[1] Adoniram Judson Archibald, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Archibald-1049#Ancestors.

1875-1928

Adoniram Judson Hanna

Journalist                NY/PA

This is a good place to pause and do a review on the life and chapters of Adoniram Judson, Jr., the focus of this collection. Judson had 13 total children but only 6 lived to adulthood. His third wife was Emily Chubbuck, also known as popular writer Fanny Forester.  They met on his one trip back to America in 1845 and married in June 1846. Emily Frances Judson was born to this marriage in 1847 and lived until 1911. When Adoniram died in 1850, mother Emily and little Emily Frances returned to America where the child grew to adulthood.

Emily Frances eventually married Irish immigrant, Thomas H. T. Hanna in 1870, and produced 8 grandchildren that Adoniram would have adored. Though grandfathers love all their grandchildren equally, three get special attention.

• The first grandchild, Emily Margaret (1871-1911), was a missionary to Burma following her grandfather’s legacy.
• The eighth grandchild from this daughter, was named Alexander Carson (A.C.) Hannah (1888-1942) was also a missionary to Burma where he was involved in education and publishing work.
• The third grandchild was named fully in honor of his grandfather and proudly carried the name of Adoniram Judson Hannah (1875-1928). This lad was born on July 16, 1875, in Brooklyn and eventually had one sister and one brother who became missionaries to Burma. In the 1910 census, Judson is 34 years old, living with his parents in Bucks, PA, and employed as a journalist. Ten years later his mother has died and Judson is still living in Bucks, PA, with his father and working as a waiter. He died on April 10, 1928, and is buried in Bucks County, PA.

1875-1943

Adoniram Judson Tuttle

Baptist Missionary               Ohio/India

Adoniram Judson Tuttle was born May 18, 1875 near Springfield, Ohio, and was baptized twelve years later at Sinking Creek Baptist Church. He graduated from Denison University 1896, attended the University of Chicago the next year, and finished his professional degree at Crozer Seminary in 1900. Later that same year, the Washington Court House Baptist Church in Ohio ordained him to the gospel ministry. In 1926 Tuttle was honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree from Denison. He married Frances Kemble Davidson (1876-1946) on July 29, 1901, and together they had a daughter and a son.

Rev. and Mrs. A. J. Tuttle sailed for India on September 18, 1901, to begin a missionary career that would last 40 years in the northeastern state of Assam. In 1913 the mission tried an experiment by uniting all their language missionaries under one unit and selecting a Mission Secretary who would be responsible for coordination, communication, and management. The first Mission Secretary for the Assam Mission was Adoniram Judson Tuttle. A review of his 1915 report will reveal how he worked in managing this first-of-its-kind system.

Your Secretary has not by any means come to the conclusion that he knows all about the Assam Mission and he feels sure that you will not debate this position. In the course of his visits to the stations he feels that he has learned some things, but does not feel that he knows all about them or that he is infallible in what he thinks he knows.

1. I. Year’s Work: Since the time that the Board of Managers indicated their approval of the new office, your Secretary has traveled some 3, 754 miles in visiting stations in our mission, although all have not yet been seen, while others have been visited more than once. Of these 3,754 miles, 2625 have been by rail; 519 by cart road, bridle path, and foot path; 318 by steamer and motor boat; 252 by motor car, and 40 by native boat….

VII.       Evangelistic Campaign. The attention of the Conference members is called to this and we hope that all may do as much as possible in this special effort. The time may come when we should set apart one of our number for itinerary evangelistic work as has been done in Burma….

IX.        We cannot well spare missionaries to prepare literatures in the many languages in which we work. My own hope at present is that we may use Assamese in the whole of the Valley from the Goalpara District up and also for the hills surrounding—excepting the Garo Hills—and soon set apart one of our number to devote a large part of his time to the preparation of this literature. We should give this matter the earliest possible attention….

XI.        Reinforcements…. The men missionaries on the field for the period from 1914 to 1920 gradually decreases from 26 in 1914 to 21 ½ in 1920, and one year drop as low as 20 ¾. The Woman’s Society workers vary from 6 ½ in 1914 to 8 in 1920, dropping during 1916, 1917, and 1918 to 5 ¾….  the differences in language makes it impossible to transfer workers readily from one field to another….

XIII.       Educational Scheme for our Mission, especially for all sections outside of the Garo Hills…. (c) As a general scheme may it not be possible to have all our education in the Naga Hills and all of the Plains lead up to Jorhat? Let us have village schools and in some cases the station schools, either as evangelistic schools or for training primary teachers; then the Middle, High, Industrial, and Bible Schools at Jorhat. For those wishing to pursue their literary work further we have the splendid Government College at Gauhati with five European professors, and hope to have arrangement whereby our Christian students can pursue their college course while living in the wholesome surroundings provided in the Hostel on the Mission Compound at Gauhati.[1]

One hundred years after Adoniram Judson, Jr. arrived in Burma, Adoniram Judson Tuttle was elected to be the first Mission Secretary of the Assam Mission in Northeast India. A century later this author visited the compound in Gauhati on the banks of the Brahmaputra River and stayed “in the wholesome surroundings provided in the Hostel on the Mission Compound.” Many of the projects Tuttle envisioned have become reality. The American Baptist missionaries have deeded the compound to the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India (CBCNEI) and these ministries are ably led by Dr. Akheto Sema. The CBCNEI continues to dream of new ministries even launching North East Christian University in 2018.

Twice in Tuttle’s first report of 1915, he harkened back to how the work was done in Burma acknowledging the influence of his namesake. In colonial India “the Kaiser-i-Hind medal might be earned by any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex … who shall have distinguished himself (or herself) by important and useful service in the advancement of the public interest in British Raj.”[2] Dr. Adoniram Judson Tuttle received this award in 1928 from the government of Great Britain and India for his distinguished service in education.

Dr. Adoniram Judson Tuttle died in 1943 in Arlington, Massachusetts.

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[1] Assam Baptist Missionary Conference of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society REPORT on the Thirteenth Session Held in Golaghat, January 9-18, 1915 (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1915), pp. 56, 63, 64-65, 67.

[2] Kaisar-i-Hind Medal – Wikipedia

1875-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Atmore, Alabama         AL

Historian and Pastor Brett Chancery has reviewed an undated and unpublished history of this Alabama congregation in this summary.

In a history of Judson Baptist Church compiled by Mrs. Florence A. Crane (undated) the congregation was organized in 1875. It was originally called Baptist Church but later the name Judson was added in honor of Adoniram Judson, the first Baptist missionary to the Far East.  The land for the church was donated by Dr. Charles Moore and the original structure was “a small wood building.” The area is home to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the only federally recognized tribe in Alabama.

Mrs. Crane states that there were a “few Indians and two Negro slaves who worshipped there identified as Uncle Joe and Serene Coley.” (Since the church was founded around 1875, slavery would have been abolished by that point.)

Close by the church building is the Judson Cemetery though it is not actually owned by the congregation. The cemetery is private property owned by a family in the church.  The cemetery has a unique history as well. The adjoining property to the Judson Cemetery is owned by the Poarch Creek Indians and is also a cemetery. The two properties essentially form one cemetery.

The report by Mrs. Crane continues to explain that the minister came only one Sunday of every month, “However, everyone looked forward to ‘Preaching Day’ and they came in wagons, buggies, on horseback and some walked many miles.” She also writes, “In the earlier years some pastors came to Atmore on the train and were met by one of the Deacons of the church. He would stay from Saturday until Monday morning, others came in horse and buggy.” She notes that the church joined the Baptist Association November 7, 1912.

The church “went half time with Rev. Dennis Howell” as pastor on July 8, 1948. Mrs. Crane notes that in September 1953, “it was voted to go on full time bases [sic] with Rev. Ernest Rockwell of Mobile as pastor.” Later, a pastorium was built, and Rev. David Strebeck was the first pastor to live in the pastorium. The author writes that the old church was torn down and sold in 1966. A new brick educational building was built first and was used as an “Auditorium” until the new church could be constructed at a later time.[1] 

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[1] March 6, 2024, email to compiler Jerry Cain from Rev. Brett Chancery, Pastor of Judson Baptist Church, Atmore, Alabama, and instructor in history at Coastal Alabama Community College.

1879-1881

Eugene Judson Taylor

Child               Kentucky              KY

Little Eugene Judson Taylor lived a short life (August 24, 1879, to July 14, 1881) but his story is revelatory about the domestic conditions of the nineteenth century. Rev. Sam Frank Taylor was his father and the pastor of the Baptist Church in Paris, Kentucky, during the lad’s abbreviated life. Sam Frank Taylor (1851-1936) would eventually have a long and productive ministry in Missouri serving as pastor of Second Baptist Church in Liberty (1891-1893), and as president of Stephens College in Columbia (1894-1904).

Entries in the journal of Pastor Sam Frank Taylor in 1881 tell the sad story of his son, Eugene Judson Taylor.

Wed. July 13. Today the shadow of the shadow of the greatest sorrow of our lives fell upon us. Our dear, bright, beautiful little boy Eugene Judson climbed up to the mantle and got a bottle of “carbolic acid”, and swallowed a considerable portion of it. And there was from the first no hope for him. He rallied in the afternoon after being unconscious for about three hours: but though every effort was made to save him it availed nothing.

July 14. This afternoon at 5:20 o’clock, Eugene, after suffering horribly since taking the poison yesterday, at about 10:30 o’clock, a.m., peacefully passed away. He died easily; and though our hearts are all but breaking, you can say sincerely, “our Lord’s will be done in this and in all things else concerning us.” At the time of his death the dear fellow was one year, ten months, and nineteen days old. Brief but bright and beautiful and lovely, was his life; and the only thing to regret about it is not so much the time as the horrible manner of its ending. But he did not live in vain. We will all be the better for having known and loved him.

July 15. Today, after a brief funeral service here in the Parsonage, conducted by Bro. J. S. Swinney of the Reformed, or Christian Ch., we set the little body to Charleston, W.Va. for burial.[1]

(Other notations about the Taylor family can be reviewed at entries 1821-1890 and 1855-1930.)

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[1] Journal of Rev. Sam Frank Taylor, pp. 86-87. In the possession of the compiler and provided by descendants Floyd E. Adams and Jeanette Adams.

1879-1936

Judson Coleman King

Physician/Missionary              MA/Congo

Judson Coleman King was born to Sylvester Monroe and Marilda Coleman King on May 9, 1879 in Malden, Massachusetts. His father was City Missionary for Tremont Street Baptist Church before moving to Beacon Hill where young Judson started to school.

When the boy was 10 years old the family moved to Melbourne Beach, FL, where the lad worked on a ferry boat delivering mail, freight and passengers across the river back and forth over two miles each way to Melbourne, Florida. His mother died in Florida when Judson was but 11 years old. Judson King’s annual education consisted of 4 months instruction if his father could collect enough money to augment that given by the state of Florida and if someone could find a teacher. Miss Sue Hopkins from Ypsilanti, Michigan, was one of those teachers and through her interest in missions, Judson became interested in missions.

In 1895, at age 16, Judson returned to Boston to seek his fortune and soon became a pastry chef. While thus employed and when spending a vacation at the home of his aunt at North Marshfield, MA, Judson became a Christian and was baptized in the Marshfield Hills Baptist Church. Encouraged by his aunt, Angie C. Damon, and with her tutoring and financial help, together with money he earned baking at the Hotel Northfield, Northfield, MA, Judson was able to graduate from Dwight L. Moody’s Mount Hermon Prep School in 1909 when he was 20 years old. At Mount Hermon, Judson excelled in cross-country running, hockey, debate and YMCA district work.

Judson Coleman King entered the University of Michigan Medical School and graduated four years later in 1913. At Michigan he was captain of the hockey team, served in Christian ministry through the Baptist Guild Evangelistic Band and graduated vice president of his class. He married the secretary of the Baptist Guild, Cora Emma Wolff, in 1913 and accepted a missionary appointment with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society.

After an academic year studying at the London School of Tropical Medicine and a time in Bruxelles, Belgium, learning French, Dr. and Mrs. Judson King arrived in the Belgian Congo. Here they worked developing a general medical practice, which included major surgery and research in sleeping sickness under the direction of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. His vast and effective ministry proved to be too much for this body and exhausted he was returned to the U.S. on January 1, 1928. Dr. Judson assumed the role of Medical Advisor to the Foreign Missionary Society and often spent his summers volunteering at youth camps and telling missionary stories. He died in 1936 though his wife, Cora, lived another 30 years after his passing.[1]

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[1] Mr. and Mrs. Clarence V. Bosworth, Judson Coleman King, M.D., an unpublished three-page paper available from the American Baptist Home Mission Society. The Bosworth’s were from Auburn, Rhode Island, and worked with Dr. King in summer camps.

1879-1959

Adoniram Judson Warlow

Engineer             Pennsylvania          PA

Adoniram Judson Warlow was born June 28, 1879, in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, to William Warlow, a day laborer from Wales, and Margaret Price Warlow. Besides carrying the name of our missionary focus, Adoniram had brothers named William Carey Warlow and Frances Wayland Warlow.

The 1910 census reveals that he married Mathilde in 1906, was renting a house and was employed as a civil engineer. Episcopal Church records show that he and Mathilde had a son named Ernest Judson Warlow on November 25, 1907 and had him baptized on February 8, 1908.

Adoniram Judson Warlow had at least one other son who shared his name with his uncle, Frances Wayland Warlow, and lived 1909-2002. Frances earned a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Fulbright Scholar in France, 1961-62. He taught English at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, from 1947 until his retirement in 1975. He was a social activist and member of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Carlisle.[1]

Adoniram Judson Warlow registered for the draft in WWI and was described as medium build, tall, black hair, hazel eyes. By 1930, during the Great Depression when jobs were rare, Warlow was living in Harrisburg with two other laborers in a rooming house owned by Elizabeth L. Schlepfer and working for a building contractor. Ten years later he is 60 years old, owns his own house valued at $12,000 in Harrisburg, PA, and is an executive in government work making $5000 per year.  Wife, Mathilde, died in 1954.

From his final census in 1950, we learn that Warlow is 70 years old and still working in government construction related to sheet metal.  He died in 1959 and is buried in the East Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, PA.[2] .

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[1] “Dr. Warlow,” The Sentinel (Carlisle, PA), June 29, 2002).

[2] Adoniram Judson Warlow, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/127916052/adoniram-judson-warlow

1883-Present 

Village of Judson

Gregg County, Texas 75660          TX

Today Judson, Texas, is an unincorporated community in Gregg County just north of Longview and connected to Longview by Spur 502 or Judson Road. The Judson community has its own zip code (75660) and their children attend the Longview Independent School District.

But historically the town developed around a Missionary Baptist Church (today First Baptist Church of Judson, TX, member of Baptist Missionary Association of America) which was established by 13 local Baptists in 1883 at a school known as Lawrenceville.

Founding member Georgia Whatley suggested the name Judson Missionary Baptist Church for a church she had attended in Lawrenceville, Alabama,[1] which was named in honor of Adoniram Judson (1788-1850), America’s first foreign missionary. In 1886, the Judson Missionary Baptist Church began to support mission work. Members began to plan for their own house of worship in 1891. Georgia and Hiram Whatley donated a plot of land, and the structure was erected in 1894. Baptismal services were conducted in the creek east of the church after the yearly summer revival had taken place. In the late 1890s H. A. Whatley gave one acre for a cemetery. Sunday School began in 1901, a ladies’ auxiliary was formed in 1902, and the Baptist Young People’s Union was organized at the Judson Church in 1924. A new church building was erected in 1935, and the church was able to hire its first full-time pastor in 1941. In 1952, a U. S. Post Office opened in the community, taking the name Judson. The membership, many of them descendants of the pioneers of this part of Gregg County, numbered more than 260 in 1998. The congregation continues to be active in mission work and in service to the community of Judson.[2]

By 1900 Public School District No. 2, Gregg County, was known as Judson. A post office operated at the community from 1890 until 1906. By 1896 the community had Methodist and Baptist churches, two sawmills, a cotton gin, a school, a shingle mill, a blacksmith, and an estimated population of 300. In the mid-1930’s Judson boasted two schools, two cemeteries, several stores and a sawmill. By the 1980s the community’s population had begun to grow again, spurred by the development of nearby Longview. In both 1990 and 2000 Judson, Texas had an estimated population of 650 and seven businesses.[3]

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[1] This is Henry County, Alabama, where there is an Adoniram Baptist Church (entry 1844-Present) and a Judson Baptist Church (1859-Present) still in existence today.

[2] https://fbcjudson.com/about/

[3] Christopher Long, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/judson-tx, 1952, 1995.

1884-1950

Adoniram Judson Morgan

Baptist Pastor/Mayor/Judge Texas TX

Adoniram Judson Morgan was born in Mississippi in 1884. Rev. Mr. Morgan moved with his family to Parker County, Texas in 1891. He and Mrs. Morgan (died 10/48) were married in 1902 in Weatherford, and he served as YMCA chaplain in France during World War I before coming here [Breckenridge] in 1919.

Besides serving as mayor of Breckenridge and county judge of Stephens County, the well-known minister was voted most worthy citizen by the city several years ago and this year was awarded a certificate of merit by the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, the first such award the post has made.

While pastor of the church here, Morgan organized the Roughneck Bible Class and was elected its life-time teacher. He was also a member of the board of the Southern Baptist State Convention. He graduated from Simmons University, now Hardin-Simons, in 1914, and in his work traveled for both Simmons University and [Southwestern Seminary].[1]

The announcement by President L. R. Scarborough of A. J. Morgan’s appointment as Southwestern Seminary evangelist, is revelatory of his status in the Baptist ministry in Texas:

It gives me pleasure to announce that Rev. A. J. Morgan, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Breckenridge, Texas, becomes an evangelist of the Southwestern Seminary and begins his work September 1^st.

He is a graduate of Simmons College and had some studies in the Southwestern Seminary, has been the successful pastor of a number of strong churches, has done a monumental work as pastor of the church in Breckenridge for now around five years. He has built a great meeting house, baptized hundreds and hundreds of people, has built a great, constructive, wide-visioned church with a large membership and has saved the Baptist situation in that great old center. He is a preacher of great spiritual power, a successful evangelist; he loves all the Kingdom work, is a man of consecration, knows the pastor’s situation, and will do a constructive, evangelistic work.

I commend him without reservation to the brotherhood. He will hold meetings anywhere in the Unites States. I would not hesitate to recommend him to any church in the land as a constructive, soul-winning preacher of ability and power.

Rev. J. W. Hickerson and Rev. Ray N. York are the other two seminary evangelists. They are doing a great work; and Brother Morgan will be a fine addition to this team. I hope the brethren will keep him busy.[2]

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[1] “Breckenridge Rites Friday for Ex-Pastor,” Fort Worth Star Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), November 8, 1950, p. 3.

[2] L. R. Scarborough, “Pastor Morgan Becomes Seminary Evangelist,” Undated letter send to pastors in Texas, LA, AR, NM, OK, MS, MO, TN. (Fort Worth, TX: File folder 71 Southwestern Seminary Archives.)

1887-Present 

Judson Baptist Church

Omaha area  Nebraska  NE

This story should begin in 1887 with the founding of Trinity Baptist Church in Omaha, Nebraska. The congregation met in two locations before merging with the McKinley Park Baptist Church to become Judson Baptist Church in 1967.  These first 80 years were marked by missions and ministry and worship and teaching as is most American Baptist congregations.

In appreciation of its namesake, the new Judson Baptist Church (sometimes called North Judson) began a South Judson Baptist Church in Bellevue, NE. This mission, which was birthed because of the expansion of Offutt Air Base and the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, grew into its own and became New Life Baptist Church. 

Early in 2001 Judson Baptist Church built a new building in La Vista, another Omaha suburb, and moved into its new location. Soon thereafter, the influx of Kachin refugees from Burma began with a large number coming to the Omaha area where they could get jobs in the meat packing industry. To continue the missions emphasis of Adoniram Judson, the congregation sold their La Vista building to the Kachins in 2022 thus providing a worship center for people from Burma with whom Adoniram Judson had ministered 200 years previously.[1]

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[1] Phone call with Greg Mamula, Executive Minister, American Baptist Churches of Nebraska, June 22, 2023

1888-1958

Adoniram Judson Johnson

Farmer/Postman                NY/CO

The “Find-a-Grave” search feature on the web discovered Adoniram Judson Johnson who was born September 4, 1888, and died after 69 years on January 4, 1958. He is buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Sterling, Colorado.[1] His oldest son, Melvin, carried the middle name Judson. The Find-a-Grave site also posts an obituary that is not dated.

Judson Johnson, 69, of 1113 N. Seventh St., died Saturday at a local hospital after a long illness. He had been a resident of Sterling since 1944.

Funeral services are set for 2 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 8 at the Evangelical United Brethren Church, according to Radford’s mortuary. Rev. Douglas Clem will officiate. Burial will be at Sunset Memorial Gardens.

Mr. Johnson was born Sept. 4, 1888 at Staten Island, N.Y. He was married to Elsie L. Marks, April 8, 1914 at Leroy. Mr. Johnson came to the Leroy community in 1912 where he farmed until 1944. He then moved to Sterling to carry mail on Rt. 1.

Mr. Johnson is survived by his wife; five sons, Melvin, Denver; Walter, Idaho Falls, Idaho; Arthur, Pixley, Calif.; L. Calvert, Sterling and Rev. Benjamin, Whittier, Calif; two daughters, Mrs. Marion Lynch, Vernal, Utah, and Mrs. Clarice Rohr, Pasadena, Calif; three brothers, Rev. Benjamin, New York City; Cal, Allentown, Pa.; Ed, Peekskill, N.Y.; a sister, Mrs. Essie Williams, Staten Island, N. Y. Mr. Johnson is also survived by 12 grandchildren.

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[1] Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45080135/adoniram-judson-johnson

1888-1970 

William Judson Holloway

Educator/Governor      Oklahoma      OK

Holloway was at home when informed that he had become governor of Oklahoma upon Gov. Henry S. Johnston’s removal from office on March 20, 1929. Calling for “an era of goodwill,” Holloway reassured Oklahomans who had lost faith in their government during weeks and months of the impeachment process.

Holloway was born December 15, 1888, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the only son of Stephen Lee Holloway, a Baptist minister, and Molly Horne Holloway. The future governor was educated at Ouachita College and upon graduation became school principal in Hugo, Oklahoma, elementary school. Holloway studied at the University of Chicago and received a law degree from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1914 and opened a law office in Hugo. He was elected Choctaw County prosecuting attorney in 1916.

On June 16, 1917, Holloway married another Hugo schoolteacher, Amy Arnold, of Texarkana, Arkansas. In 1920 he was elected to the Oklahoma Senate from Choctaw, McCurtain, and Pushmataha counties. In a second term he was chosen as president pro tempore.

In 1926 Holloway, a Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor. He served in Gov. Henry S. Johnston’s shadow until the governor’s battle with the legislature ended in his impeachment and removal from office. Holloway pushed legislation to improve the state highway commission and eliminated toll bridges and toll roads. During his term, Oklahoma’s child labor laws were expanded, a new mining code was adopted, the State Highway Commission was reorganized, and a runoff primary election system was established. Holloway was governor when the Great Depression struck the country and its severe impact on Oklahoma led to the out-migration of its citizens to escape “dust bowl” conditions.[1]

Holloway never sought public office again after leaving the Governor’s Mansion in January 1931. He established a successful law practice in Oklahoma City and served under three governors as Oklahoma’s representative on the Interstate Oil Compact Commission. His son, William J. Holloway, Jr., also became a lawyer and was appointed as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. William J. Holloway died at age eighty-one on January 28, 1970, in Oklahoma City.[2]

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[1] National Governors Association, https://www.nga.org/governor/william-judson-holloway/

[2] Bob Burke, “The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture,” https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=HO017.

1889-1945

Adoniram Judson Choplin

Farmer            Missouri                  MO

Adoniram Judson Choplin was born on 9 November 1889, in La Monte, Missouri, the eighth child with a total of 10 siblings. His father, William E. Choplin, was from North Carolina and 38 when this son was born. A native of Missouri, Judson’s mother, Eliza Gwen Ramey, was 32 at this birth. Judson married Flora Emma Rissler on August 8, 1914, and their only child, Emma Lee, was born the next year.

Judson Choplin was a farmer and we learn something about him from Bert Means who registered Judson for military service in WWI describing him as being tall and slender with blue eyes and red hair. For some undeclared reason, Judson did not serve in this war but continued to farm in in Blackwater Township, Pettis County, Missouri, for about 20 years.

At the time of the 1930 census, Adoniram Judson Choplin is 40 years old, his wife, Flora is 36 and their daughter, Emma is 15. We learn from that census that the Choplin family had moved into Independence, MO, (1521 S. Dodgeon, SE Independence, Jackson County, MO) where they pay $15 per month rent and do not own a radio. This census reports that neither of the Choplins attended college but both could read and write.

Five years later, Adoniram Judson Choplin died April 22, 1945, in Independence, at the age of 55, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Choplin. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KFYK-ZM9/adoniram-judson-choplin-1889-1945

1890-Present

Judson Baptist Association

(now Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge)

Baton Rouge, Louisiana         LA

On November 19, 1890, Beulah Baptist Association was chosen as the name for the new association. On November 7, 1891, the Association (Beulah Assoc.) voted to change its name from Beulah Baptist Association to Judson Baptist Association. The name was chosen in memory of Missionary Adoniram Judson, Jr.

At the 116^th Annual Meeting (October 18, 2005 at Parkview Baptist Church), the messengers voted to change the name of Judson Baptist Association to Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge….[1]

The Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge is housed in a building named the Adoniram Judson Missions and Ministry Center. They also maintained for over 30 years the Judson Baptist Retreat Center in St. Francisville, LA (see entry 1979-2022).

Over 100 Southern Baptist Churches have banded togethehr to work in unison in the Baton Rouge area. They share this vision:

The Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge will be a Network of Churches and Missions cooperating together as agents for positive change in the spiritual, social, and cultural fabric of their communities through Christian redemption and Christian life values. This vision will be accomplished by penetrating the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ through family and community orientation, and social involvement that exemplifies the caring and sharing nature of Jesus Christ in order to effect life transformtion in individuals, families and communities. Actions developing from this vision will be relationship based, evangelism centered, service oriented and training focused. .[2]

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[1] Jan Terral in an email to the compiler on February 26, 2015.

[2] http://bagbr.org/index.htm

1890-Present 

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

Mandalay Burma (Myanmar)

The construction and dedication of the Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Mandalay, Burma, is reported by Maung Shwe Wa in the Burma Baptist Chronicle:

To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Adoniram Judson (August 9, 1788) it was decided to build a Judson Memorial Church in Mandalay.  The first Rs 3,600 (rupees) of the total cost of Rs. 31,000 was given by an aged Burmese woman of Tavoy, one of the few persons surviving who had been baptized by Dr. Judson.  The completed church was dedicated on November 2, 1890, at the time of the annual meeting of the Burma Baptist Mission Convention.[1] 

During World War II much of Mandalay was destroyed. The Judson Memorial Church and the adjoining Kelly High School were bombed and burned but are still open and active today.[2]

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[1] Maung Shwe Wa, Burma Baptist Chronicle, edited by Genevieve and Erville Sowards (Rangoon: Board of Publications, Burma Baptist Convention, 1963) pp. 277-278, 292.

[2] Ibid., p. 278. See picture on right on p. 262.

1890-Present

Judson Memorial Church 

 New York, New York NY/NY

I have cherry-picked sentences and paragraphs from the historical section of the Judson Memorial Church website and appreciate this good congregation for sharing their history so thoroughly and so liberally.

In 1890, distinguished preacher and church leader Edward Judson initiated construction of Judson Church as a memorial to his father, Adoniram Judson, Jr.  The church was affiliated with the Northern (now American) Baptist Churches denomination. In the 1950s, it became dually-aligned with the ABC and the denomination now known as the United Church of Christ. Edward envisioned the Judson Memorial as an institution to serve the growing population of Italian immigrants in Lower Manhattan through health, nutrition, education, and recreational programs, as well as vibrant worship and religious instruction.

Backed by John D. Rockefeller and other prominent Northern Baptists of the time, Edward Judson commissioned the leading artisans of the day to create a splendid edifice where the immigrants of the South Village and the aristocrats of Washington Square North could meet on common ground. It soon became apparent that the established rich were none too keen on rubbing shoulders with the immigrant poor.

Edward did foresee that financial troubles would follow when he was no longer able to raise money from his rich friends; therefore in 1912, Edward persuaded the New York Baptist City Society (the local denominational organization) to assume responsibility for Judson’s finances, property, and program leadership. It was not until 1973 that the church incorporated itself and resumed ownership of its property and responsibility for all its finances and program.

Although it declined in membership after Edward’s death in 1914, the church continued to offer distinctive healthcare and outreach ministries throughout the 1920s and ’30s including the Judson Health Center which became one of the largest health care facilities in the nation.

After the Second World War the Judson Church redefined the role of the church to be a faith-based institution that responds to the societal issues of its time and place by working and advocating for progressive change. This approach led the church in the 1940s-‘60s to sponsor an interracial, international residence for students, and to open the first drug-treatment clinic in Greenwich Village. Judson participated actively in the local and national movements for civil rights, peace, women’s rights, and gay rights.

Also starting during the late 1950s and continuing to the present, Judson has become known as a home for innovative, often avant-garde, artists in many genres – dance, painting, theater. Judson became one of the three founding venues of “Off-Off Broadway” theater, and later housed the Judson Dance Theater collective that is now recognized as the creators of post-modern dance.

Worship styles at Judson have also evolved over time. Starting with a standard Baptist service,…the congregation adopted a service order modeled on the Scottish Presbyterian ritual. But in the mid-1960s, Judson relaxed a lot of the formalities, while keeping the basic outline on most Sundays. An “agape” service replaced the formal communion on first Sundays, with an informal bread and cheese brunch around tables and the ritual of communion using the food and drink already at hand.

Moving into the 21^st century, the church had to deal with issues of deferred maintenance created by Judson’s aging buildings. Current minister Donna Schaper is dedicated to providing “spiritual nurture for public capacity” for Judson’s growing congregation, which now numbers approximately 250. Judson is proud of its history, but much more interested these days in shaping the present and looking to the future.

(See the Judson Memorial Church website for additional details.)[1]

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[1] http://classic.judson.org/Historical-Overview

1892-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Prescott, Michigan              MI

The founding pastor of this congregation in southeastern Michigan was Rev. Adoniram Judson Waterbury who began pastoring in nearby Tawas, MI, in 1892. There must have been an early church planting program to encourage him to begin this congregation that same year. He is credited with leading the construction on both the first church building and parsonage in 1892 (see entry 1831-1910 and accompanying picture).

The congregation took down their original building in 2007 to construct a more modern facility where they continue to meet at 201 Harrison Road.  The congregation uses the King James Version of the Bible and describes itself as an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church led by pastor Doug Kennedy.[1]

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[1] Judsonbaptistprescott.com

1892-Present

Judson Chapel Church

Rangoon, Burma Yangon, Myanmar

As Rangoon Baptist College (Judson College) came to maturity in Rangoon (see entry 1872-1965), the Burma Baptist Convention determined a church should be planted in the midst of this growing corpus of Christian students and thus organized the Rangoon Baptist College Church on July 29, 1892. David C. Gilmore, recently arrived missionary who could not yet speak Karen, was ordained as the first pastor (it would be an English-speaking congregation) in addition to his duties as instructor in the Pali language and creator of a new teacher education department. From 1905 to 1909, 75 students were baptized into the Christian faith.[1]

As Rangoon Baptist College became Judson College in 1919, Rangoon Baptist College Church was rebranded as Judson Chapel. By that time the ministry had grown beyond students and five Sunday schools were offered each week.[2] Adoniram Judson had envisioned that each church would support a pastor and a missionary and the Judson Chapel accepted the challenge. Not only did they support their pastor financially but also a missionary, Saya Myat Min, an alumnus of the college who was working in the Shan states. Additionally, the Rangoon Baptist City Mission headquartered with the Judson Chapel.[3]

When the college moved to its new University Estate on Kokine Lake in 1929 the church moved with it. As the new college campus was constructed, a new pastoral manse and impressive chapel were built in 1932 with a major gift from John D. Rockefeller. The chapel and pastor’s home still remain in Baptist hands though the rest of the campus as been absorbed by the Burmese government and its military junta.

Today the tallest building at the University of Rangoon is Judson Tower, a part of the Judson Chapel. Although Judson College no longer exists and restrictions abound, Judson Chapel is allowed to open for worship each Sunday with capacity crowds. It remains a witness for the Christian message in the midst of academia and political unrest.

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[1] Maung Shwe Wa, Burma Baptist Chronicle (Rangoon: Board of Publications, Burma Baptist Convention, 1963), p. 298.

[2] Naw, p. 103.

[3] Ibid.

1896-1963

Earnest Judson Wilson

Professional Baseball Player VA/VA

As compiler and czar of The Judson Legacy Project, I have chosen on only four occasions to allow someone into this listing who did not meet the standard of being verifiably named for Ann or Adoniram Judson.  I choose to do this with Earnest Judson Wilson who is the only Black person thus far included in The Judson Legacy. I see him playing second base every time I visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Records were scanty at the end of the 19th century on Black Americans and thus we do not know why his parents named him Judson. He served nobly in WWI and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Therefore, I choose to declare his parents named him in honor of Adoniram Judson, Jr., whom they learned about in church. His story is best told by the Society for American Baseball Research.

Jud Wilson was one of the greatest hitters in the history of Negro League baseball, known for his fierce hitting style as well as his explosive temper and his penchant for brawling with both players and umpires. He stood only 5-feet-8 inches tall but weighed a solid 195 pounds, with broad shoulders, a small waist and tiny calves that left him bowlegged and pigeon-toed. He was a slashing left-handed hitter who often drove the ball to the opposite field. Wilson played for 23 seasons, from 1922 through 1945, beginning with the Baltimore Black Sox before moving on to the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and Philadelphia Stars. He finished with a lifetime batting average of .351 that was the fifth highest in Negro league history, and batted over .300 in 16 seasons and over .400 four times.1 He spent six seasons in the Cuban Winter League and compiled an average there of .372. On July 30, 2006, Wilson was posthumously elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.[i]

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[i] https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jud-wilson/

1898-1978

Judson Palmer Watson, Sr.

Attorney      Ohio/Wyoming    OH/WY

Judson Palmer “Jud” Watson was born October 1, 1898 to Josiah and Ella Sheldon Watson in Ohio but moved to Wyoming in 1908 when his mother took a homestead a mile west to Keeling.[1] He served as a private in the U.S. Army during World War I.
Judson graduated from Jireh College, took some courses at the University of Wyoming, and received his law degree in January 1925.  Jud married Minerva Church who was raised on an adjoining homestead on May 18, 1924. In 1930 they moved to Lusk, WY, where he opened his law office.

In 1933 he lost his hearing, so Minerva began working as his legal secretary. She kept the office opened after his death, working until she was 81. They were members of the First Baptist Church in Lusk where Minerva served as pianist from 1930 and later as organist into the early 1990’s. The couple had three children: Rev. Judson Palmer Watson, Jr. (see entry 1926-2013), Minette Watson Gregory and Justine Watson who were all accomplished musicians and vocalists.

Judson P. Watson, 79, died February 2, 1978, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. His remains were transported to Wyoming for a funeral at the Niobrara County High School Auditorium in Lusk. In spite of the stormy weather some 300 people paid tribute to Jud Watson. Besides being a tribute to an unusual man, the service was unusual because Mr. Watson’s son, the Rev. Palmer Watson, longtime pastor of MacArthur Community Baptist Church of San Pablo, CA., conducted it. The music was led by Jane Bardo and the soloist was the pastor of the Church of Christ, Mark Lohr, who sang “Lead Kindly Light” and “The Lord’s Prayer.” Burial was in the Lusk Cemetery with memorials designated to the Niobrara County Nursing Home. Interment was in the Lusk Cemetery, and in its winter coat of frost and ice was probably never more beautiful, but the snow was so deep that mourners were discouraged from trying to attend the burial. Instead, many gathered at the St. George’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall to greet the family and talk over old times. Minerva was buried beside Judson on September 24, 2002, in the Lusk, Wyoming, cemetery.[2]

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[1] The Lusk Herald, February 9 and 16, 1978. This information is from Niobrara County Library, www.niobraracountylibrary.org

[2] https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Wyoming/Palmer-Watson_53151b

1900-Present

An Interlude: Adoniram Judson Feast Day

of the Episcopal Church in America

Judson University’s iconic professor, Dr. Stuart Ryder, first alerted me that the Episcopal Church of America annually honors Adoniram Judson, Jr., and as self-appointed compiler of people, places and things named for Ann and/or Adoniram Judson, I choose to insert that litany at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

The Judson name is also seen in some unexpected places. There is an Adoniram Judson feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church, where others such as Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are honored….[1]

I have been unable to find the date that The Episcopal Church named a feast day for Adoniram Judson thus I insert it here at the turn of the century as an arbitrary decision. It is nice to notice that the influence of Adoniram Judson transcends not only Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Unitarians as noted in these first 80 years, but also the Episcopal Church.[2]  We take an interlude to review their worship guide for the Lesser Feast of Adoniram Judson observed each year on April 12, the day of his death in 1850.

The Collect:  Eternal God, we thank you for the ministry of Adoniram Judson, who out of love for you and your people translated the Scriptures into Burmese. Move us, inspired by his example, to support the presentation of your Good News in every language, for the glory of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Old Testament Text: Jeremiah 9:23–24. Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

Psalm 93:  Dominus regnavit

1 The Lord is King;
he has put on splendid apparel; *
the Lord has put on his apparel
and girded himself with strength.

2 He has made the whole world so sure *
that it cannot be moved;

3 Ever since the world began, your throne has been established; *
you are from everlasting.

4 The waters have lifted up, O Lord,
the waters have lifted up their voice; *
the waters have lifted up their pounding waves.

5 Mightier than the sound of many waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea, *
mightier is the Lord who dwells on high.

6 Your testimonies are very sure, *
and holiness adorns your house, O Lord,
for ever and for evermore.

The Epistle:  1 Corinthians 14:6–15

Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? It is the same way with lifeless instruments that produce sound, such as the flute or the harp. If they do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves; if in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound. If then I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.

Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.

The Gospel: Matthew 18:10–14

Jesus said, “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.”[3]

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[1] Stuart Ryder, Adventures in Faith: Adoniram Judson, Benjamin P. Browne, and Judson University (Self published, 2017), p. 89.

[2] The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, A Great Crowd of Witnesses: A Calendar of Commemorations (New York: Church Publishing, Inc., 2016), pp. 201-202.

[3] “Feast Day of Adoniram Judson,” https://www.lectionarypage.net/LesserFF/Apr/Judson.html

1900-Present

Another Interlude: Judson Day

July 13 Arrival in Burma The World

Nor can I find a specific point in history when Judson Day began, thus we will put it here as another interlude in The Judson Legacy Project.  Ann and Adoniram Judson first saw Burma on 12 July 1813 as their ship, Georgiana, pulled into the harbor at Rangoon near sunset and

…the prospect of Rangoon, as we approached, was quite disheartening. I went on, just at night, to take a view of the place, and the mission house; but so dark, and cheerless, and unpromising did all things appear, that the evening of that day, after my return to the ship, we have marked as the most gloomy and distressing that we ever passed…  But if ever we commended ourselves sincerely, and without reserve, to the disposal of our heavenly Father, it was on this evening. And after some recollections and prayer, we experienced something of the presence of Him who cleaveth closer than a brother; something of that peace which our Saviour bequeathed to his followers….[i]

The next day was 13 July 1813 and Ann was carried on a palanquin through Rangoon with Adoniram walking at her side.

The streets swarmed with humanity, talking, arguing, laughing and yelling in what was a perfect jargon to Adoniram and Nancy. Children, smoking cigars like their elders, naked as Adam and Eve except for the bright bracelets and necklaces and bangles they wore on arms, necks and ankles, were underfoot everywhere.

Seeing brown face after face peering up at her under her bonnet, Nancy suddenly lifted her head, looked up at the women and smiled. As once the whole multitude burst into loud laughter. Nancy and Adoniram glanced at each other, amused. Rangoon might not be prepossessing, but they were already beginning to like the frankness of its people.[ii]

Two hundred years later thousands of Christian churches will celebrate Judson Day on the Sunday closest to July 13 as a reminder of the arrival of these first protestant missionaries to Burma. Pictures of Ann and Adoniram will be prominently displayed. Stories of their work will be recalled, recited and remembered. They will be honored for their sacrifice through the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824-26; the translation of the Bible into Burmese; the creation of the Judson Burmese Dictionary; and the formation of the first protestant institutions in the nation.  Judson Day should be a tie that binds American Christians to the rest of the world. Let’s celebrate!!!

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[i] Francis Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson (Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1853), pp. 120-121.

[ii] Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956) pp. 170-171.

1901-1976

National Hall of Fame for Great Americans

New York University, New York NY

At this point, let’s break our legacy system and spend some time with the National Hall of Fame for Great Americans that was originally built in 1901 as a part of New York University but stopped naming these great Americans in 1976. One hundred two persons are recognized in this colonnade and Adoniram Judson is not one of them.  The National Hall of Fame was opened as “a window on early 20^th century idea of greatness” or as the American Westminster Abbey.[1]

Nominees were received in 17 categories including “Missionaries and Explorers.” And in over 75 years of voting only one person in this category, Daniel Boone, made it into the National Hall of Fame for Great Americans. Adoniram Judson, Jr., was the only other person in this category who was nominated more than once but did not get the final tally.[2] That puts him in the same listing as Francis Scott Key, Martha Washington, George Caleb Bingham, Louisa May Alcott, William James, Amelia Earhart, Noah Webster, Henry Ford and Dorthea Dix. All were nominated more than once but never made it into the final Hall of Fame.

Adoniram Judson was nominated a second time in 1925 along with these other illuminaries: Dorothy Lyndedix, philanthropist; Samuel Adams, revolutionary statesman; Horace Bushnell, preacher; George Rogers Clark, soldier and explorer; John Singleton Copley, painter; William Lloyd Garrison, editor and reformer; John Jay, statesman and jurist; Adoniram Judson, missionary; William Penn: John Paul Jones: Nathaniel Greene, revolutionary general; Gen. Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson of the Confederacy; Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan; Matthew Fontaine Maury, surveyor of sea routes; Benjam Thompson (Count Rumford;) Wendell Phillips, orator; Henry Hobson Richardson, architect; Benjamin Rush, physician; Noah Webster, lexicographer and author; Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, authors; Charles Bulfinch, architect; Cyrus West Field, business man; Sydney Lanier, southern poet; Parul Revere; and James Otis, statesman.[3]

Adoniram Judson had an aversion toward fame and in a period of despondency after the death of Ann, rejected the honorary doctorate given to him by Brown University in 1823.  He would rather sit with those who never achieved fame yet served their God and fellow humans with consistency and modesty.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_of_Fame_for_Great_Americans

[2] “Hall of Fame List for University Told,” Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1925, p. 6

[3] Ibid..

1901-Present

Central Seminary and the Judson Legacy

Overland Park Kansas KS

There are at least two Judson namesakes in the history of Central Baptist Theological Seminary–one in the past and the other in the present. At the beginning of the 20th century there was no Baptist seminary west of the Mississippi River. Rev. Evan B. Meredith of the Kansas Baptist State Convention and committed Baptist Joanna Barber Lovelace merged their energies to birth the Kansas City Baptist Theological Seminary in 1901 and the school formally opened classes on 21 October 1902 with 4 faculty and 6 students. (The name was formally changed to Central Seminary in 1941.)

By 1913 the Women’s Training School was fully operational with 31 women enrolled. They created the Ann Hasseltine Missionary Society as seen in this 1928 photo of their membership.

From its beginning the seminary had an international vision and by 1920 students from eleven nations ere enrolled in classes. Today Judson Communities at Central Seminary serves pastors and church leaders from Burma that have been resettled in America. These ministers, mainly trained in Burma and Thailand, find themselves making dramatic cultural and lifestyle changes in the USA while leading congregations of people making similar adjustments. They have not been prepared for all the situations they face in the US so additional training is needed in the heart-language they can fully comprehend.

FOUNDATIONS Judson Communities was originally organized and implemented by Duane & Marcia Binkley, jointly appointed missionaries by International Ministries of the ABC-USA and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The first session was launched in 2012 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Upon the Binkley’s retirement, the responsibility for directing the program was transferred to Marlene Po at Central Seminary.

Judson Communities includes the following seminars:

• Pastoral Arts
• New Testament Overview         
• Old Testament Overview
• Baptist Heritage Overview
• Church Administration
• Ministry Contextualization
• Ministry Ethics
• Missional Church
• Proclamation
• Theology      

Monthly or bi-monthly classes are scheduled at a strategic location to attract as many students as possible in each area. Students arrive on Friday for a 2-3 hour session on Friday evening and return on Saturday for another eight hour training session. Students completing all ten sessions receive a Certificate of Ministry Studies from CBTS. Thus far classes have been conducted at 14 different locations in 11 different states.[1]

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[1] https://www.cbts.edu/global-partnerships/

1906-Present

Judson Manor 

Cleveland, Ohio       OH

The website of Judson Manor best tells the history and this present ministry through its webpage which lists this chronological timetable. It is a wonderful example of bottom-up ministry which is so prevalent in Baptist life.

• 1906.  In 1906 John D. Rockefeller donates $5,000 to a capital campaign started by the Women’s Social Bible class at the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church. The money goes toward the purchase of a home at 3334 Prospect Ave. It became known as the Baptist Home of Northern Ohio.  Its mission: “To accommodate the aged of whom half a score have found it as restful as the ‘shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’”
• 1919.  Baptist Home of Northern Ohio outgrows Prospect Ave. home and moves to 8903 Cedar Ave. This home provides 27 women with a place to live.1939.  The Baptist Home of Northern Ohio purchases the Bicknell Mansion on Cedar Hill, previously home to Warren Bicknell, president of Cleveland Construction.  The former master suite and the third-floor ballroom are converted into apartments.
• 1972.  The entire community is renamed Judson Park in honor of Adoniram Judson, an American Baptist missionary working in Burma from 1812-1850.
• 1983.  Judson assumes ownership of the Wade Park Manor, from the Christian Residences Foundation.
• 1985.  Judson Home Care is founded, helping the organization to begin realizing a continuum “without walls”.
• 1991.  Judson opened the state-of-the-art Bruening Health Center, completing its continuum.
• 1994.  Judson is named one of the best Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC) in America by New Choices for Retirement Living.
• 2006.  Judson launches the membership program, Judson at Home, allowing members access to a variety of Judson’s programs and services while living in their own homes.
• 2006.  Judson expands further, opening South Franklin Circle, a 90-acre, active retirement community in the Chagrin Valley.[1]

Judson Services is now the umbrella organization that operates Judson Manor, Judson Park and Judson at Home.

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[1] https://www.judsonsmartliving.org/about/timeline/

1908-Present

Judson Tower

Green Lake, Wisconsin         WI

The Green Lake Conference Center website offers this overview of Judson Tower and its surroundings.

Judson Tower is the center piece of Green Lake Conference Center, a year-round Christian conference center set on the deepest lake in Wisconsin with a rich and interesting history dating back to the early 1800s. The first people to walk these grounds were Winnebago Indians and in the early 1800s as many as 500 Indians camped around Green Lake. Believing the Water Spirit lived in Green Lake, every Winnebago had to come here once in their lifetime to worship.

Victor Lawson, a “printer’s devil” in Chicago, was the successful publisher of the Chicago Daily News. He met his eccentric wife Jessie in the church choir and after their wedding, they honeymooned in Green Lake. In 1888 the Lawsons purchased 10 acres on the waterfront and began adding farm to farm until the estate included more than 1,100 acres.

As the primary developer, Jessie spent several million dollars building a spacious home, 12 miles of paved roads, two sets of farm buildings, a boat house, two greenhouses, a powerhouse, seven water towers, a small golf course, and homes for her workers. The Guernsey barn (1916) with its two silos is the largest barn in Wisconsin. She maintained horses, pigs, sheep, and herds of both Guernsey and Jersey cattle. The large water tower was constructed in 1908 to irrigate the Lawson farms and has dominated the landscape for over 120 years. Water from the tower irrigated fields and roads with horse-drawn sprinklers. Its 75,000-gallon tank was filled from a 400 foot well near the present boat house.American Baptists purchased the property in 1944 and named the tower in honor of pioneer Baptist missionaries Ann and Adoniram Judson. Its observation platform is 140 feet above the lake. Kansas Baptist Youth organized a drive to place the lighted cross on top of the tower today. Judson Tower continues today as a beacon to Green Lake guests and local residents around the lake. Carillons play every hour.[1]

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[1] https://glcc.org/history.html

1909-Present 

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

  Minneapolis, Minnesota           MN

Pastor G. Travis Norvell succinctly summarizes the history of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in his rollicking book by Judson Press entitled Church on the Move:

Originally Judson Church was an expression of movement, a mission/chapel founded by Calvary Baptist in 1909 on what was then prairie with undeveloped lots, dirt roads, and a trolley line. In 1909 there were only two churches in the neighborhood: Incarnation Roman Catholic Church and Judson Memorial Baptist Church. That’s right, the Baptist and the Catholics predated the Lutherans to south Minneapolis. The church quickly grew to 500, peaked at 1,200 in the 1940’s and early ‘50’s, then began its gradual decline to today’s membership of 225…[1] In 1914 when the cornerstone for Judson Church was laid, it was remarked that the church’s leading characteristics were “freedom of thought, democratic brotherliness, and high spiritual purpose.” Those characteristics still guide the church today, along with our three core values: creative, relational, and inclusive.[2]

An interesting sidebar to this story concerns the architect who drew the plans and led the construction of Judson Memorial Baptist Church. Harry Wild Jones was born in Schoolcraft, MI, June 9, 1859, the son of a Baptist missionary/pastor who was born in Bangkok, Thailand. Harry Wild Jones is credited with introducing Shingle Style architectural design to the midwest. His career was focused in Minneapolis where he was an active member of Calvary Baptist Church. “The Jones family gathered each Sunday morning at the Nicollet Avenue streetcar stop near their home in Washburn Park for the short trip to Calvary Baptist Church. Their presence could be counted on.”[3]

In 1907 Harry Wild Jones suffered a near fatal automobile accident which left him in a coma for 10 weeks. To regain his strength, he took a four-month world cruise where he visited his cousins who were missionaries in Burma. “We steamed up the river and soon came in sight of the jetty where we spied Harry Marshall and Emma, our cousins, and Anna Gooch, and Uncle Dan all waving their hats, hands and kerchiefs to us. We speedily were ashore where we found ourselves once more after two months, in the arms of those next to our children our dearest ones.”[4]

Upon returning to Minneapolis, Jones assisted Calvary Baptist Church to start their new mission on the corner of 38^th Street and Harriett Avenue in the growing south section of town. Jones is credited with designing and then naming this first building Judson Chapel.  He then designed the award winning 1915 building for the new church complex still in use today three blocks south of the original Judson Chapel at 41^st Street and Harriett Avenue. In appreciation for his professional services, Harry Wild Jones was allowed to name his new church home Judson Memorial Baptist Church in honor of his father’s ministry as a missionary and his personal recovery trip to Burma.

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[1] G. Travis Norvell, Church on the Move: A Practical Guide for Ministry in the Community (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2022), p. 8.

[2] Ibid., p. 9.

[3] Elizabeth A. Vandam, Harry Wild Jones: American Architect (Minneapolis, MN: Nodin Press, 2008), p. 71.

[4] Ibid., p. 118.

1911-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Nashville, Tennessee        TN

The beginning of the Judson Memorial Baptist Church was a stop-and-start affair centered around a new housing addition in Nashville named Waverly Place. “In its formation, strong lay leadership made the church possible.”[1]

• On January 22, 1911, members of the Centennial Baptist Church met and voted to relocate to this new neighborhood. Rev. Jasper N. Booth was pastor of the Centennial congregation and approved this decision.
• On February 21, 1911, a letter was read from members dissatisfied with this decision and by a vote of 32 to 9 the January decision was reconsidered.
• On March 12, 1911, 33 people met in a home in Waverly Place to consider the organization of a new church and cooperation with the Centennial congregation.
• On March 17, 1911, an arbitration committee resolved that “it favored the formation of a new church at Waverly Place so long as its site was of sufficient distance as not to injure the Centennial Church.”[2] Two days later Rev. Booth resigned from the Centennial Church.
• On March 23, 1911, meeting again in a home in the Waverly Place, somewhere between 74 and 83 persons submitted letters to be members of the new congregation, with 59 coming from Centennial.
• On April 16, 1911, Jasper N. Booth was called to be pastor, the Sunday School had its first meeting and the Baptist Young People’s Union gathered for the first time.

And now came the task of naming this new congregation. For a few weeks the congregation was called “Glen Leven” for the street that ran next to the proposed site for the new church building but there was already a Glen Leven Presbyterian Church and confusion might develop in the community. The committee met in prayer asking that any name which came to mind would be considered for discussion. Deacon Henry D. Jamison suggested “Judson Memorial” and, after discussion, the committee considered this suggestion as the answer to prayer. The church unanimously accepted the name.[3]

If the church continues to cultivate a spirit of dedication to Christ as exemplified by Adoniram Judson, who devoted his entire life to the gospel, Judson Baptist Church can expect within God’s providence even greater spiritual victories than ever before. May it be so.[4]

The Waverly Place housing addition became a mecca for country musicians who were flocking to Nashville at that time.  The guided tours of the area used to note the Judson Baptist Church and described the parsonage as the place where Hank Williams, Jr. was born.

[Compiler’s note: There is a hymn tune called Judson named for this Nashville congregation. The tune was written in 1988 for a hymn, Worthy of Worship, which was part of an Easter musical composed by two members of the congregation, Mark Blankenship (music) and Terry York (words). Worthy of Worship was first published by GENEVOX in 1989 and first included in The Baptist Hymnal of 1991.[5]]

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[1] Albert W. Wardin, Jr., A History of Judson Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee, 1911-1986 (Judson Baptist Church, Nashville, TN, 1986), p. 20.

[2] Ibid., p. 14.

[3] Ibid., p. 19.

[4] Ibid., p. 117.

[5] Jere V. Adams, editor, Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, TN: Convention Press, 1992), p. 279.

1919-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Winfield, West Virginia           WV

Text at bottom of photo reads: Founding members of Judson Baptist Church from ca. 1940-photo courtesy of Terry McCallister.

Two women were the moving force that caused Judson Baptist Church to be constructed on Bills Creek Road near Winfield, W.Va. The congregation had organized in June 20, 1919, with 38 members and received into the Teays Valley Association that same year. Recognizing the need for a new congregation, Alice and Anne Rose, members of the Siloam Church in Mason County and had saved several hundred dollars to help start a church at the mouth of Bills Creek. 

Several Boone County Baptists moved into the area and were likewise determined to being such a work but had no money.  At that point Alice and Mary Rose gave the money they had saved for a church and after borrowing and additional $1000 the Judson Baptist Church was constructed in 1923.  The lumber for the church was sawed on-the-spot at Bill’s Creek. The joists were cut full-length and all from pine logs. At the dedication of the first building there were “3 cars present but the place of full of buggies, horses and wagons.”[1] This building was used until a new brick sanctuary was dedicated June 23, 1974.[2]

• In 1932 Judson Baptist Church hosted the Teays Valley Association for the first time and has continued that hospitality many times in the past 90 years.
• In 1936 the church reported over 100 members (106).
• In 1954 they reported paying their pastor $2080 per year.
• In 1965 the church surpassed the 200 member mark (217).
• In 1984 they reached their highest membership with 449 and broke ground for a new educational facility.[3]

[Compiler’s note: There is a settlement named Judson, an unincorporated community in Summers County, West Virginia. It is located in southern West Virginia west of Alderson and northeast of Hinton.]

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[1] “Early Days at Judson Church,” published manuscript but with no documentation, p. 4.

[2] Michael Montgomery Watts, The Teays Valley Baptist Association: a brief history (The Teays Valley Baptists Association, 1995), p. 158.

[3] Ibid., pp. 158-159.

1921-2022

Judson Lodge at Camp Tippecanoe

North Webster Indiana     IN

Camp Tippecanoe served Indiana Baptists for 101 years before closing in 2022. The facilities included a Judson Lodge for housing both boys and girls—boys in Adoniram Judson Hall and girls in Ann Judson Hall.

1921-Present

Adoniram Judson Window

First Baptist Church Oak Park, Illinois     IL

The First Baptist Church of Oak Park formally begun with a service in the home of its members on April 25, 1873. Rapid growth during the early years led to a move to a rental hall until the congregation occupied its first church building in 1883. The present church was dedicated on April 22, 1923, with the addition of the education and community building later in the decade.[1]

Designed by E. E. Roberts and constructed in 1921, our church building is notable for its size, beauty, and functionality. It has 110 rooms, including a large and beautiful Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall (equipped as a gymnasium and containing a full stage), a chapel, a dining room, and many more. The worship center is noted for its stained-glass windows which “are a memorial to John and Cora Meier. They were designed and created by Charles J. Connick Associates of Boston, under the supervision of Mr. Orin E. Skinner.”[2]

The Great West Windows in the sanctuary features vocations of the Christian ministry. One of those exampled in the west window is

Adoniram Judson, first American Baptist foreign missionary, and forerunner of the whole modern missionary movement. The radiant book toward which he gazes symbolizes the Bible; and the barred background suggests his imprisonment during which he worked on his translation of the Bible into Burmese.[3]

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[1] https://fbcoakpark.org/

[2] First Baptist Church of Oak Park, Illinois, “Sanctuary Windows and Organ,” three-fold brochure available from the church.

[3] Ibid.

1921-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Belle, West Virginia            WV

A Baptist Sunday School was organized at Belle on the last Sunday in March, 1916, in the old school house on Simmons Creek. It continued through 1920 when it was determined that a Baptist Church was needed in Belle. An organizational meeting was held on May 5, 1920, at the home of J. K. Nelson where actions were implemented to raise money and proceed in an orderly manner.

That plan culminated with a protracted meeting which was held January 4-19, 1921. As a result of this meeting 26 persons were converted and baptized on January 19 by Rev. B. F. Howell. There were also 18 who were received on experience and two by letter as a result of this protracted meeting. Thirty-nine people made the initial membership role of the Judson Baptist Church of Belle when it was formally organized on January 19, 1921, at the end of the protracted meeting and baptism. An associational council of recognition affirmed the new congregation on February 25. Representatives from Baptist congregations in Kanawha City, Witcher Creek, East Bank and Brownstown extended the right hand of fellowship to the new congregation at Belle. Rev. B. F. Howell was selected as the first pastor.

On November 19, 1922, the first service was held in the new church building but this original facility served as home for only 14 years and was turned over to the Dupont Corporation to allow for expansion of their chemical plant. The congregation acquired land on Eighth Street in Belle in 1935 and moved into their second worship center on August 16, 1936. This new building was formally dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1937, while W. B. Miller was pastor.

The education building was completed in 1948 and dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1949. A new parsonage was constructed that same year and first occupied by pastor G. R. Pauley. The third sanctuary was constructed in 1963 and dedicated on November 3 of that same year when the church membership was about 600.[1]

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[1] History of Judson Baptist Church, unpublished 3 page manuscript, May 21, 1954.

1921-Present

Judson Training Manuals and Judson Graded Series by Judson Press

        King of Prussia, Pennsylvania         PA

The Baptist Publication Society (now Judson Press) began in 1824 as an agency to produce Christian literature for the public and has never lost that commitment. In 1920-21, “the publication of a series to be known as Judson Training Manuals was authorized”[1] thus capitalizing on the good name of the great missionary vital to American Baptist life. In 1945 it reported that the Society was publishing 38 different units of graded and other materials just in the children’s division.[2]

Benjamin P. Browne became editor-in-chief of the American Baptist Publication Society, a man remarkably suited to the task. In his first full report to the constituency, he made his position crystal clear:

While our materials have always been definitely pointed to the winning of boys and girls to Christ and his Kingdom, evangelism will be given an even larger place in our materials…  Our materials will remain true to our historic Baptist faith and principles—infused with the missionary message and passion….

Under Dr. Browne’s direction, the staff launched a new curriculum. The Judson Graded Series, in 1947.  By 1955, Browne could write that

“this new Judson curriculum for American Baptist churches is surpassing expectations, and we are happy to learn that American Baptist teaching materials for the Sunday church schools are now enjoying a wider use than at any time in the last twenty-five years.”[3]

The full title of this curriculum is now “Journeys Judson Bible Lessons” and is listed on the Judson Press website as “Journeys.”

[Compiler’s Note: Neal Davis recalls, “…when I was nine years old, my parents moved off the farm to West Plains, Missouri. This is where I first came across the name of Adoniram Judson (circa 1945); my junior-age Training Union group in the First Baptist Church of West Plains was name the ‘Judson Union,’ so, my awareness of Judson as a man and missionary goes back some 70 years.”][4]

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[1] Daniel Gurden Stevens, The First Hundred Years of The American Baptist Publication Society (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1924), p. 106.

[2] Slaght, p. 178.

[3] Ibid., pp. 178-179

[4] Neal Davis in an email to Jerry Cain, June 28, 2022.

1922-1999

Travis Judson Edwards

Agriculturalist/Baptist Deacon         TX/TX

The son of a grist miller in San Antonio, TX, Rev. Stephen Thorney Edwards died in 1934 leaving behind a church named for him plus 10 daughters and two sons. The Edwards-Byron Church near Rossville, TX, was finished in January 1934 and while preaching the dedication sermon, Rev. Edwards had a stroke which eventually resulted in his death in November of that year. One son, S. Glenn Edwards, served as a pastor in Beeville and Medina, TX, and the other, J. D. (Jefferson Davis) Edwards, lived in Somerset managing a career in agriculture and ranching.

On July 20, 1922, Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Edwards had a son whom they named Travis Judson Edwards. He carried the legacy of two heroes, William B. Travis of the Alamo and Adoniram Judson of Burma. Travis Judson Edwards served as a corporal in WWII and married Irene True in 1946 in Corpus Christi.  His gravestone identifies him as “A Man of God” while the gravestone of his wife identifies her as “Truly Good.” His son identifies Travis Judson Edwards as “a lifelong Baptist — a deacon and Sunday School teacher.” Much like his father, Edwards spent his life working for the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Travis Judson Edwards had two sons and one daughter. The next generations are described thusly, “Then there was me — Judson Bodie Edwards, my son Randel Judson Edwards, and my grandson, Anthony Judson Edwards. All at least indirectly named for Adoniram.”[1] 

If Texans recorded their genealogy like patriarchs of the Old Testament, we could create a heritage of Adoniram Judson that might read like this: In 1922, J. D. Edwards begat Travis Judson Edwards who begat Judson Brodie Edwards who begat Randal Judson Edwards who begat Anthony Judson Edwards. That is over a century of Judson legacy from one Baptist family in Texas.

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[1] Judson Brodie Edwards email to the compiler, April 3, 2023.

1924-Present

Judson Center

Royal Oaks Michigan        MI

In the 1920’s Detroit Baptists were made aware of the needs of children and decided to do something to help. Dr. Henry C. Gleiss of the Detroit Baptist Union brought churches together and in 1924 founded the Detroit Baptist Children’s Home in Royal Oaks.  This new ministry created a home-like environment for children who were abandoned or had been placed into care when their parents could not provide for them. The original goal was always to reunite children with their parents.

In the early 1930s a new home was built to accommodate 30 children. The home provided each child with an individual bed, wholesome food, and a well-equipped playground all of which contributed to the physical, intellectual and social growth of each child. Gifts from the Baptist community provided ongoing financial support.[1] In the 1940s members of the Frist Baptist Church of Birmingham became stocking the food pantry every fall. This group became known as the Apple Sauce Gang. They picked apples from local farms what had gone unattended due to WWII and turned the apples into apple sauce a favorite on the menu at the Baptist Children’s Home dining hall.

During the 50s and 60s, research revealed that children were better served through foster homes than through orphanages. The Detroit Baptist Children’s home morphed into the foster home ministry using the orphanage buildings only when needed to temporarily house unplaced children.

The 1970s marked the closing of state institutions for the developmentally disabled which allowed Detroit Baptist Children’s Home to step up and offer care for this population.  Unique care programs and intensive residential treatment options became the base of ministry for the Detroit Baptist Children’s Home. It was decided in 1984 to change the name of the operation to something that would be more inclusive of the total ministry throughout wider Michigan. The name Judson was selected to honor the Baptist missionary to Burma who had a special interest in the educational needs of children.

Today Judson Center is a non-profit human service agency that provides compassionate, comprehensive services to children and families throughout southeast Michigan. The ministry has grown to provide services to over 12,000 children, adults, and families each year. Judson Center continues to change fates and restore childhoods for children who have been abused and neglected, and others who are challenged by developmental disabilities, severe emotional impairments and autism spectrum disorder.[2]

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[1] George H. Waid, Centennial History Michigan Baptist Convention (Lansing, MI: Hallenbeck Printing Company, 1936), p. 178

[2] Judson Center. https://www.judsoncenter.org/about-us/

1925-Present

Camp Judson

Keystone, South Dakota    SD

Two of the founders of Baptist life in South Dakota were named Judson but neither can be tied to Adoniram or Ann Judson. “The first known religious organization in any of these settlements was a Baptist church established at Yankton, in the summer of 1864, by Rev. L. P. Judson. Its existence continued until the end of the 1865…”[1]  “Rev. T. H. Judson became pastor at Elk Point October 23, 1872, and a year later settled at Vermillion.”[2] But South Dakota Baptists named their camp for Adoniram Judson rather than these two founding pastors.

In 1922 the Black Hills Association voted to begin a summer youth assembly and secured a lease from the US Forest Service in Bear Gulch east of the small village of Silver City. In the winter of 1925-26 basic facilities were constructed for a total sum of $200 and Camp Judson began in South Dakota. The original location for Camp Judson is now under the water impounded by Pactola Dan near Rapid City, South Dakota.

In the early 1950’s with the coming of the lake, plans were made for a new Camp Judson. the original plot was sold and new property was purchased near Keystone, South Dakota. On May 16, 1954, ground was broken for the new camp at the new site. The camp now consists[JC1]  of 160 acres of mountain terrain on the border of the Black Hills National Forest with hiking trails that lead to Mount Rushmore, Mount Baldy and Horsethief Lake.

A uniqueness of Camp Judson is a financing scheme explained by David Gnirk, a rancher in South Dakota who was one of the founders of the Holy Cow Project.[3]  It was decided in about 1992 that the camp should stand on its own financially, receiving no more subsidies from the Baptist Convention of South Dakota. With this new budgetary system adopted, the camp would lose about $35,000 over the next five years. A group of ranchers and denominational leaders met and conceived a plan whereby participants would designate a “Holy Cow” in their herd with the calves from that cow being given as income for Camp Judson.  Thus, if a cow cost $2000 the first year’s calf would bring in about $1000. By the second year the second calf had paid for the cow and thus all future offspring would be revenue toward the operations and upkeep of Camp Judson. The Holy Cow Project raises $35,000 to $50,000 per year for Camp Judson.

Camp Judson has been able to buy a quarter section of land across the road from the camp where the Black Hills Central Railroad runs the 1880’s tourist train from Keystone to Hill City. This acreage provides pasture for cattle and signage to announce the Holy Cow program to visitors riding the train. The original goal of 100 cows producing 100 calves annually has been reached creating a live endowment like none other in Baptist life.

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[1] T. M. Shanafelt, The Baptist History of South Dakota (Sioux Falls, South Dakota: South Dakota Baptist Convention, 1899), p. 34.

[2] Ibid., p. 41.

[3] Phone conversation with David Gnirk, October 20, 2022.

1926-2013

Judson Palmer Watson, Jr.

Baptist Pastor           WY/CA

On April 22, 1926, on the humble family homestead in Keeline, Niobrara County, Wyoming, Judson Palmer Watson Jr. was born to attorney Judson P. Watson (see entry 1898-1978) and Minerva Church. He was the oldest of three children and would later be joined by two sisters, Minette and Justine. Each of these family members would develop into excellent musicians.

This lad would be known as Palmer Watson because his father was known as Judson or “Jud” Palmer. High expectations were placed upon this young child from his grandmother, Ella Sheldon Watson in Ohio, who frequently wrote challenges to him such as:

Your ancestors have died to make not only this country but England and Bohemia and all the long roster of countries where your ancestors live, great and splendid—just for you. You can’t let them down. When ever you see a few brave men battling for some good cause, help them. Don’t let them fail for lack of the support you could give.[1]

He graduated from the Lusk High School in 1944, was active in the Boy Scouts and Baptist Youth Fellowship activities and served with the US Navy during World War II, joining as soon as he was 18. On January 7, on a five-day leave, he returned home to marry Beulah Mathewson of Lusk, a constant co-worker in his preparation for the ministry as well as in his student pastorates. The young couple moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to attend the Sioux Falls Baptist College. During his time of study until he graduated in 1949. Palmer was the student pastor of the Sioux falls Riverside Presbyterian Church.[2]

Palmer and Beulah finished seminary in Berkley and eventually settled into a lengthy pastorate at the McArthur Community Baptist Church in San Pablo, CA, where he received many denominational and civic citations. Upon being named Man of the Year in California in 1955, Palmer said,

If I have contributed something in a small way, if I have aided one single person, if I have given the message that I believe in a moral code for individuals in our city, it has been because I had the encouragement and love of my wife.[3]

Forty-five years later, on June 8, 2000, Rev. Judson Palmer Watson was named citizen of the year by the San Pablo Police Department Police Association. Watson responded with,

The ideal man is a man who is not a worrier, but a worker; not a master of men, but a servant of God, not possessive, but progressive, is a man of vision and vim, who will venture for Christ and His kingdom until victory. I thank you for this honor, but the honor does not belong to me but belongs to my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ.[4]

Judson Palmer Watson, Jr., passed away on March 5, 2013, with funeral services held in the sanctuary of the San Pablo Community Baptist Church, a structure he helped build in 1958.  He and Beulah were married for 68 years.[5]

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[1] Eulogy presented by Watson’s daughter. https://www.missionbellschapel.com/tributes/J-Watson

[2] The Lusk Herald, June 6, 1951.

[3] Independent Gazette, November 12, 1955. Historical Contra Costa County Newspapers: Holdings by City.

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://www.missionbellschapel.com/tributes/J-Watson

1926-Present

Judson Hall

Guest Housing Southern Seminary Louisville KY

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary moved from downtown Louisville, Kentucky, to its present location in 1926 with Frederick Low Olmstead, the nation’s best, employed as the landscape architect. This new campus involved the construction of Judson Hall and Rice Hall to serve as housing for seminarians.  The top three floors were residential with the basement reserved for storage.

Former residents fondly remember the apartments consisting of a small bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom. The neighborhood stores appreciated seminarian business and occasionally sold milk below cost so it would fit into a student’s budget. Former students who lived in Judson and Rice have been known to return to their former apartment and leave a bag of groceries at the door as a token of their memories of living there.[1] While other buildings are named for personalities in the heritage of Southern Seminary, Judson and Rice Halls were intentionally named for missionaries to serve as a reminder of the mission heritage of Baptists in America.

In 2003 these twin structures were remodeled and connected to create the Legacy Hotel and Conference Center boasting 39 rooms and amenities that Ann and Adoniram would enjoy should they visit Southern Seminary today.[2] Rooms now feature plush mattresses, refrigerators, arm chairs, iron and ironing board, hair dryer, coffee maker, internet connections, cable TV and other accessories.

Though no longer officially called Judson Hall, the north wing encapsulates that building and the south wing is the old Rice Hall. The facilities are used for guests related to Southern Seminary or the Southern Baptist Convention.

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[1] Interview with Pam and Andy Pratt, residents of Southern Seminary’s Judson Hall in the 1980’s, November 2, 2022.

[2] Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. https://archives.sbts.edu/the-history-of-the-sbts/our-buildings/rice-and-judson-halls/

1931-Present

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

Lansing, Michigan          MI

The webpage of this congregation tells the historical highlights of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in succinct fashion.[1]

In the 1920’s a group of missionary-minded Christians started what would become Judson Memorial Baptist Church in South Lansing, Michigan.  Their goals were to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people and to demonstrate His love to the needy in practical ways.

Judson began as a Sunday school which first met in a small brick building at Everett School.  On January 11, 1931, the church was officially incorporated and, in June of that year, the congregation broke ground.

Despite the intense economic hardship of the Great Depression, “penny suppers” were served by the church women to help finance a building program.  During the 90+ years that have followed, the people of Judson have maintained their original mission of reaching people with the Gospel and adorning that Gospel with works of love and compassion.

The church is blessed with a great heritage.  Especially important to this congregation is the missionary vision of the American Baptist Churches, as demonstrated by Adoniram and Ann Judson, two American Baptist missionaries to Burma (among the very first foreign missionaries form America).  The church’s founders were inspired by the Judsons’ example and the congregation has maintained a strong history of providing financial and prayer support for American Baptist mission efforts.

The founders organized Judson Memorial Baptist Church and began its first building project in the midst of the Great Depression because no churches existed in South Lansing and the existing space for Sunday school participants was bursting at the seams. It says a lot for Judson’s commitment that over the past 85 years, the church has been served by only seven pastors.

In 2005, Judson Memorial Baptist Church called, Rev. Zachary Bartels as their minister. He has brought a deep love for traditional Christian service and worship, as well as an energetic commitment to innovation. He has focused on expository preaching, education, visitation, and efforts to welcome more visitors and new members into the congregation.

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[1] Judson Memorial Baptist Church, Lansing, MI. http://www.churchlansing.com/about/history.html

1933-Present

Adoniram Joseph King

Music Educator, SWBTS, Fort Worth, Texas    OK/TX

Adoniram Joseph King is one of the few living people thus far discovered who bear the Adoniram appellation today.  Born in 1933 he is the son of a Southern Baptist Director of Missions and graduated from high school in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. His mother was very active in Women’s Missionary Union and, upon hearing the story of Adoniram Judson during a missions study, decided to name her son for this iconic missionary. 

Since pronouncing the word Adoniram is a modern stumbling block, the boy eventually became known as A. Joseph King, a sobriquet that carried him through a career in church music.  Joe graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where he taught from 1976 to 2005.  His specialty was conducting and his love was leading the Southwestern Singers.  Though he seldom uses his first name, Adoniram Joseph King, lives in retirement with his wife in Fort Worth and sings each week in the Broadway Baptist Church choir.

1940-2015

R. Judson Carlberg

Christian Higher Education      MA/MA

The website of Gordon College reports on the life of this significant leader in Christian education in America:

R. Judson Carlberg grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, steeped in his family’s evangelical roots. His father was a pastor, part of a long line of church leaders, and he chose his son’s middle name in memory of the famous missionary Adoniram Judson––an honor Dr. Carlberg shared with Gordon College’s founder, Adoniram Judson Gordon President Carlberg completed his undergraduate degree at Wheaton College, where he met future wife, Jan. The couple moved on to Denver Seminary, where Carlberg completed a Master of Divinity; and then to Michigan State University, where he earned a master’s degree in student development and a doctorate in higher education administration. Following 10 years as an administrator at MSU and John Wesley College, Dr. Carlberg joined Gordon in 1976 as dean of faculty. His fourteen-year tenure in this office saw a tremendous expansion in Gordon’s academic, global and faculty development initiatives. Then in 1990, Carlberg was appointed senior vice president for development. His support to then-President Richard Gross in key fundraising efforts enabled the successful construction of the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel.

Recognizing in Dr. Carlberg a rich understanding of the core identity of Gordon College, coupled with the administrative talent to turn this vision into new programs and exciting strategies, the presidential search committee appointed him the new president in May of 1992. President Carlberg would remain the College’s chief administrator for nearly two decades, guiding the Gordon community through times of intense and drastic change—“culture wars,” technological advances, unstable economic conditions—all the while building up the institution’s infrastructure and facilities, expanding its enrollment and academic prestige, and holding firm to the framework of faith that has always sustained Gordon.

Dr. Carlberg retired in 2011 as the longest serving administrator in the long history of the institution. In recognition of his years of outstanding leadership, he was appointed president emeritus.[1]

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[1] https://www.gordon.edu/carlberg/bio/  

1943-1974

SS Adoniram Judson

  Philippines/USA

The Liberty ship SS Adoniram Judson was built by Permanente Metals Corporation at Richmond, California. The keel was laid on January 13, 1943 and the completed ship was launched February 19, 1943. Delivered on March 3, 1943, the vessel was immediately placed in operation remaining active through 1946 before being placed in the reserve fleet in the Hudson River until finally scrapped in 1974.

During WWII, Liberty ships could be named by any group that raised $2,000,000 in war bonds. There was an “SS Billy Sunday” and an “SS Dwight Moody” but the “SS Adoniram Judson” was one of only 9 Liberty ships of the 2710 launched during WWII to be awarded the “Gallant Ship” citation. That gallant story runs like this:

Operating in the Pacific, Adoniram Judson took part in the Philippines campaign in the Fall of 1944. Adoniram Judson arrived at San Pedro Bay, offshore of the city of Tacloban on the island of Leyte, on October 23; just two days after the Allies invaded the Philippines. The vessel was carrying, among other cargo, metal landing mats to construct a temporary air strip on the island.

Early in the afternoon of October 24, Adoniram Judson was ordered to dock in Tacloban, becoming the first merchant vessel to arrive there after American forces liberated the port. In fact, for that first day, Adoniram Judson was the only U.S. vessel at Tacloban’s docks. Alongside two 40-milimeter gun emplacements and guns from several small landing craft Adoniram Judson‘s gun batteries provided the primary anti-aircraft defense for the area.

Japanese fighters and bombers continued to attack Adoniram Judson as it unloaded its cargo while the Naval Armed Guard and the ship’s merchant crew heroically defended the ship from enemy air strikes. As night fell, to conceal its position, the ship went dark whenever the crew heard more enemy bombers approaching while they continued to unload their cargo.

Air raids continued day and night for several more days as the ship continued to unload. By October 25, Adoniram Judson was one of three Liberty ships in port. On October 28, it had unloaded all of its cargo, including the vital landing mats.

According to the vessel’s master, Adoniram Judson repelled the 56 bombing and strafing runs made on the ship over the course of its three days in port. The ship’s Naval Armed Guard, with assistance from its merchant crew, shot down at least two, and possibly up to six enemy aircraft, and used over 8,000 rounds of ammunition.[1]

SS Adoniram Judson Gallant Ship Award Citation for actions October 24-29, 1944:

In October 1944, the SS ADONIRAM JUDSON, first United States merchant ship to dock at Tacloban, Island of Leyte, during the initial invasion of the Philippines, provided the principal air cover for the landing area for two days until joined by other ships of the expedition. Her guns, manned by a skillful and courageous crew, defeated vigorous and continuous attacks by enemy planes in a series of heroic actions. During this period she unloaded steel airfield landing mats and other military material vital to the success of the operation.

The stark courage of her stalwart crew against overpowering odds caused her name to be perpetuated as a Gallant Ship.[2]

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[1] SS Adoniram Judson. https://www.maritime.dot.gov/history/gallant-ship-award/ss-adoniram-judson

[2] Ibid.

1946-2024

  Judson Village Retirement Community

Cincinnati, Ohio      OH

The building which housed the Judson Village Retirement Community in Cincinnati for over 75 years was originally constructed in 1896 as the home for William S. P. Oskamp and his new bride Adele Werk. They named their new home “Willadel” as a blending of their first names. “Among the men prominently identified with the commercial interests of Cincinnati none is better known or stand higher in business circles than Will S. P. Oskamp, head of the Oskamp Jewelry Company.”[1]

William passed away June 21, 1933 and Adele on January 1, 1936. There were talks about making the home into a private school in 1938, but the home, along with a three-story barn and two separate houses for servants, were sold in 1946 to the Baptist Home for the Aged. It has remained a retirement home since, now called Judson Village Retirement Community.[2]

The name eventually morphed to Judson Care Center located at 2373 Harrison Avenue which provided skilled nursing in this Cincinnati suburban neighborhood. In this “mansion that became a ministry,” residents stayed in furnished private rooms with kitchenettes and private bathrooms. Staff members cleaned rooms and cared for the laundry needs of residents who could eat in a community dining room or have their meals served in their room.  Shared spaces included a living room, library and outdoor patio.

According to Pro Seniors who had been managing the program, Judson Care Center closed in July, 2024, due to the rising cost of food and staffing, lack of workers and low state Medicaid reimbursement.

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[1] http://www.diggingcincinnati.com/2012/10/westwood-home-to-retirement-community.html

[2] Ibid.

1947-Present 

Judson Cabin, Camp Bentley

Drake North Dakota           ND

In the mid-20^th century, Mrs. Anna Bentley owned a ranch near Drake, ND, and wanted her legacy to include “a religious youth camp for posterity.” A delegation of North Dakota Baptists met with her for the first time in November 1946 and by March 1947 a deed for land was procured. That same spring the unused Bethania Lutheran Church was purchased and moved to the shores of Lake Bentley to serve as the chapel. Three additional buildings were procured for $3900 from an abandoned CCC Camp at Trenton, ND, and moved to the campsite. The facility opened in July 1947 with 152 campers, turnaround of only 9 months.[i]

One of those three buildings from the CCC Camp was named for the Judsons and now serves a cabin for girls. Other structures at Camp Bentley are named for churches that provided financing or for missionary heroes who serve as models for Dakota youth. The Judsons were one of the missionaries selected as exemplars for North Dakota youth and the story of their ministry to Burma is displayed in the Judson Cabin.[ii] The camp bell tolls loudly each summer day to remind the Bentley heirs across the lake that their wish is being accomplished on the north side of the water at Judson Cabin.

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[i] JoAnne and Don Shoemaker, North Dakota Baptist State Convention, 1884-1984 (published by American Baptists of North Dakota and in the possession of Deborah Greenup at the office of American Baptist Churches of the Dakotas in Sioux Falls, SD), pp. 28-29.

[ii] Email to the compiler from Lori Dvirnak Lundblad, November 18, 2024.

1948-Present

Judson Baptist Church

San Bernardino, California      CA

From the website of Judson Baptist Church, San Bernardino, California:

JUDSON CHURCH EXISTS FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES AND ETHNICITIES IN THE INLAND EMPIRE TO HEAR AND ACCEPT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, STUDY THE WORD OF GOD, ENGAGE IN AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS, AND SERVE THE HEART OF SAN BERNARDINO.[1]

In 1948 Judson Baptist Church was established to introduce people to Jesus and help them grow spiritually. We will celebrate 75 years of ministry in San Bernardino in 2023. Times have changed but our purpose has not. Judson Church is still for San Bernardino! Judson Church outreach is committed to helping people meet Jesus and experience Life Transformation. Some of the ways we achieve our mission include:

• Family worship every Sunday at 10:30 AM where we connect, worship, and are instructed from God’s word.
• Judson Kids for children each Sunday and Wednesday at the church campus.
• Weekly small group clusters where believers relate, learn, and grow spiritually together.
• Celebrate Recovery meets each week to help those recover from habits and hang-ups.
• Special high-energy weekly events for middle school and high school students.
• Sidewalk adventure—traveling each week in the big yellow truck to help kids deal with their life issues in their neighborhoods.
• Weekly prayer time where we do nothing but pray for the needs of others.
• Partnering with over 20 mission initiatives worldwide through regular giving, praying and periodic mission trips.
• Special events related to men, women, youth, and children.[2]

[1] Judson Baptist Church, https://www.judsonsb.org/

[2] Judson Baptist Church, https://www.judsonsb.org/our-beliefs.html

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.

1952-Present

Judson Fellowship, Illinois State University

Normal, Illinois    IL

The University Baptist Foundation at Illinois State University was organized in 1952 and by the early 1960’s was operating as the Judson Fellowship. This enduring ministry is currently housed in the Campus Religious Center built in 1969 and shared with the Lutheran Student Ministries and the New Covenant Community. The Board which runs this building is made up of five representatives from each of the three groups that own the building.

This stack pole ministry event was originally held on Sunday evening with the help of local congregations and American Baptist Women’s Ministries providing a meal before a time of worship. But student habits changed and fewer and fewer were on campus early on Sunday evening. Currently the community meal is enjoyed on Monday evenings with a Thursday Dinner Church, worship and discussion held around the tables after the meal.

The Judson Fellowship has grown to the point the Baptist students are now a minority with “nones” and curious Catholics making the majority of participants. There is also a strong group of international students and Black students involved in the Sunday and Thursday programming. They are attracted to the Monday night worship event because that service is billed across campus as Agape Judson Fellowship and students who know not Judson probably do know Agape. Mission trips have long been a part of the ministry of Judson Fellowship with notable involvements in New Orleans, Memphis, Washington, DC and with Habitat for Humanity.

The present campus minister is Dr. Phil Grizzard, a graduate of the Judson Fellowship at ISU, assumed this role from veteran Jan Hazecamp upon her retirement in 2009. The Board is mainly made up of regional church members with an interest in campus ministry. Funding for Judson Fellowship at ISU comes from the Shurtleff Foundation and local congregations all channeling their gifts through the ABC Great Rivers Region.[1]

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[1] Phone conversation with Philip Grizzard, ISU campus minister, November 17, 2022.

1953-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Carson, California           CA

This history of Judson Baptist Church in Carson, California, can best be reviewed from their own website.

The beginning of Judson Baptist Church in Carson, California, can be traced in the early 1950’s to a small group of citizens who had a desire to establish a ministry that worships the Lord Jesus Christ. The group began meeting in homes to fellowship and worship led by Minister D. S. Bennett and under the auspices of the American Baptist Los Angeles City Mission Society (LACMS). The church moved its worship services to the Towne Avenue Elementary School where it received an encouraging personal visit from Evangelist Billy Graham!

With the guidance of LACMS, a new building was erected at 18101 South Avalon Boulevard, Carson, CA, which became Judson’s first home. On June 26, 1953, the church was officially incorporated and named in honor of the great missionary Adoniram Judson. Dr. Paul Garrison, along with his wife Jeannine, served as the first pastor of Judson Baptist Church for approximately four and one-half years. Dr. Garrison was graduate of Eastern Baptist Seminary and Redlands University.

On December 6, 1970, Dr. James Luther Ford, Jr., was installed as the second pastor of Judson Baptist Church of Carson. Dr. Ford had been trained at Moody Bible Institute, Pacific Christian College, and Fuller Theological Seminary. Over the next twenty years, the church outgrew its capacity and plans were made to acquire a larger space became necessary. In early 1983, Avalon Village Baptist Church (formerly known as Carson First Baptist Church) became available and negotiations began to purchase the site. On June 26, 1983, Judson relocated to her new home! The cornerstone was set on Sunday, September 29, 1985, with the unveiling of the dedicatory plaque. Our new campus included a Christian Day School and enough space to share our building with Hispanic and Filipino Ministries.

On December 24, 1996, after 27 years of service, Dr. James Ford, was called home to be with the LORD and in May 1998, Dr. Johnny V. Baylor became the third pastor of Judson Baptist Church of Carson. His preaching and teaching ministry was known over the world! The Judson church family grew spiritually and numerically under Dr. Baylor’s leadership with many outreach, teaching, worship ministries and facility enhancements. Dr. Baylor was partnered in ministry by his capable companion Dr. Sarai Baylor who served in various leadership capacities. The Judson family was saddened on Resurrection Sunday, April 5, 2020, when pastor Johnny Verne Baylor went home to be with his Lord, Jesus Christ. Congregational grief was further exasperated by the worldwide Pandemic of 2020 which prevented them from gathering in mass to celebrate his life and legacy.

On Friday, April 3, 2020, while on his deathbed, Dr. Baylor laid hands on the head of Rev. Terry Lovell Brown, Sr. and bestowed upon him the Pastoral Mantle to lead Judson Baptist Church of Carson as her fourth Pastor.  Pastor Brown had been asked of Baylor to do much of the preaching during Dr. Baylor’s most critical time of illness. Pastor Brown and his wife, Lady Karen Annette were officially installed on Sunday, October 25, 2020. Finally, after over 13 months of quarantine and absence from the sanctuary, Pastor Brown led the people back into the church edifices on Resurrection Sunday with a Spirit-Filled worship service! And the best is yet to come![1]

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[1] https://judsonbc.net/our-church-history/

1954-Present

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

(now Higher Ground Christian Center)

Beloit, Wisconsin            WI

Judson Memorial Baptist Church started as a man’s dream to form a Sunday School for the children of Burrwood Park. With the cooperation of First Baptist of Beloit, his dream came true and in 1954 the Burwood Park Sunday School was born with services held above the Community Club. The dream grew and moved into the Powers Community Room becoming the Burrwood Baptist Chapel. The dream didn’t die there.

On August 24, 1957, Judson Memorial Baptist Church became a reality. Land was purchased in 1959 with the official ground breaking ceremony held on June 25, 1960. The present building was dedicated on September 17, 1961, and with the continued support of First Baptist, Beloit, the spiritual guidance of several excellent pastors, and the perseverance of the membership and friends the church celebrated their mortgage burning on May 5, 1985.[1]

Located in a residential area of Beloit, Judson Memorial Baptist Church is now Higher Ground Christian Center and continues to tell the story of Jesus as has been done since the founding in 1954.

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[1] Judson Memorial Baptist Church, Building Our Dream 1996 Beloit, Wisconsin. Unpublished paper on file with Wisconsin American Baptist Churches, Madison, WI.

1955-Present

Judson Fellowship, Northern Illinois University

DeKalb, Illinois IL

The Baptist Campus Ministry at Northern Illinois University is known to the university by its organizational name, Judson Fellowship. It was begun in the mid-fifties as a Sunday School class and supper club at First Baptist Church in DeKalb but in 1962 John and Ruth Peterson were called as campus ministers to lead the program located in a house at 433 Normal Road.  The current facility for Judson Fellowship was built in 1981 and is located at 449 Normal Road in DeKalb.  The Petersons served for 37 years as campus ministers and at the program’s peak, “we were reaching a couple hundred students a week when you counted everything we were doing—two services on Sunday, coffee houses, midweek Judson, classes, graduate fellowship monthly dinners, special Judson events, etc.”[1]

Judson Fellowship programming is “church-based but not a church”.[2] Worship is currently held as “Dinner Church” on Sunday evening at 5:30 consisting of a meal and worship around the tables. American Baptist Women from the Great Rivers Region graciously provide the paper goods for the meal. There is a Wednesday Bible study at 7 pm and a popular game night on Fridays. The African-American Bible study begun by Judson Fellowship resulted in the formation of the New Hope Baptist Church in DeKalb.

For decades there has been a Bible study in Chinese that continues each week with 40-50 Chinese students attending each session.  Network of Nations hosts a weekly dinner for international students in the Baptist campus ministry building. Mission trips to such places as Puerto Rico, Washington, DC, Oklahoma and work with Habitat for Humanity are a part of the annual calendar. Judson Fellowship continues to help with Welcome Week each August as new students move into the residence halls.

Unique moments in the history of Judson Fellowship include a period when the men’s basketball coach for NIU was named Rob Judson and the coach and the Fellowship received emails from persons trying to contact the other.  After graduating from Judson University, Jamaican pianist Huntley Brown did his graduate work at NIU and helped position the Judson Fellowship as a central player in Christian music. In 1986, Northern Illinois University was selected by the Burma Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies to be the national Center for Burma Studies thus creating a unique opportunity for the Judson Fellowship to reconnect the Judson heritage to Burma.

The Board which directs the work of Judson Fellowship is made up of an NIU faculty member, NIU student, NIU alum, a representative of New Hope Baptist Church and the First Baptist Church of DeKalb plus other interested Christians. The campus minister, Zach Dyrda, began in that role in 2014 and also serves as pastor of the Faith Connection congregation in Wilton Center, Illinois. Many of the students participating in the Judson Fellowship ministry are the “church-hurt” who want another chance to deepen their faith.[3]

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[1] Quote from John Peterson email, March 25, 2015. 

[2] Phone conversation with Rick Gibbons, NIU campus minister, 1998-2003, November 11, 2022.

[3] Phone conversation with Zach Dyrda, NIU campus minister, 2014-2016, 2018 to present, November 16, 2022.

1955-Present

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

Joliet, Illinois         IL

Let’s let the published history of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Joliet, Illinois, and a previous long-time pastor speak for the congregation.

Following a survey and careful study, the American Baptist Convention purchased two acres on Midland Avenue in Joliet for a new church. Seven interested families and a total of nineteen persons gathered at Pershing School on March 6, 1955, for the first worship service. Organization came quickly. Rev. Ivan Estle was called as the first pastor and forty-seven people signed the founding charter on October 20, 1955. They named the church Judson Memorial Baptist Church in honor of Adoniram Judson, the first foreign Baptist missionary from the United States. Ground breaking took place on April 8,1956, and by October of the same year worship was held in a new building….

In early 1994, the city informed the congregation that the new street taking shape made it possible for us to consider building our new edifice. Costs had escalated during the delay, but we were led by the Lord to sell our old property and to break ground at 2800 Black Road in March 1996… .A grand celebration combined a fortieth year anniversary and a dedication of the new facilities in September 1997.[1] 

Officially the church is still called Judson Memorial Baptist Church per the constitution but can operate under other assumed names.  As long as I was pastor, we felt Judson actually instructed us as to our ministry focus and style and I often talked about that publicly and so Judson was the key part of the name.  After so many people stopped by asking if the church was the funeral home, we felt the “memorial” part of the name was not helpful.  After researching we also found that the “Baptist” part of the church name kept people from walking in the doors, as Baptists do not have a good name in our highly Catholic area.  So the church is now called Judson Church, although Judson Memorial Baptist Church is still the official name.[2]

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[1] Richard H. Clossman, Coordinating Editor, Heritage and Horizons: Historical Sketches of American Baptist Churches in Illinois and Missouri (Springfield, Illinois: Historical Commission, Great Rivers Region ABC, 2000), p. 41.

[2] Rev. Kevin Comfort in an email to Jerry Cain, January 17, 2023.

1955-Present

Judson window

First Baptist Church, Washington DC

In 1955 the First Baptist Church of Washington, DC, opened a new building under the leadership of Dr. Edward Pruden who served as pastor 1936 to1969. The stained-glass windows in the new structure were by Henry Lee Willet of the Willet-Hauser Architectural Glass Company of Philadelphia. 

Pruden and Willett planned the 30 inch round windows around the nave to focus on famous Baptists. The two Baptist missionaries selected were William Carey and Adoniram Judson. Envisioning the face of a clock, Judson is pictured wearing western garb in the 1:00 position teaching three turbaned Burmans at 9:00 to 12:00.  An open Bible is in the foreground at the 6:00 position. The identifier “Judson” scrolls through the center of the glass.[1]

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[1] Emails from Ellen Parkhurst, Paul and Gini Nelson, July 10, 2023.

1956-1985 

Judson Baptist College

Portland & The Dalles Oregon OR

Judson Baptist College in Oregon was the result of theologically conservative churches splitting away from the Northern Baptist Convention (now American Baptist Churches) in the 1940’s. A group of conservative pastors met in Chicago in 1943 to found the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society (now called World Venture).  They had no intention of forming an entire denomination. Soon thereafter came the Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society (now known as Missions Door). With two mission societies already in place the table was set for the creation of the Conservative Baptist Association of America which launched in 1947. Today this group of churches remains by far the dominate expression of Baptist Christianity in the state of Oregon.[1] “For several years, Mark O. Hatfield, a leading Conservative Baptist layman who served as governor of the State of Oregon from 1959 to 1967, and U. S. Senator [1967-1997], presented the Sunday school lesson at the annual men’s Round-up.”[2]

Working through this division, the Northern Baptists retained control of Camp Arrah Wanna and relinquished Western Seminary into the hands of the Conservatives. In 1951, the Board of the seminary voted to become self-perpetuating and added a word to the title of the institution to become Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary.[3] The Northern Baptists kept control of Linfield College in McMinnville where “smoking and dancing were already allowed on campus”.[4]

This division and decision left the Conservative Baptists freedom to start a new college and through a competition the name Judson Baptist College, as submitted by Miss Cathy Owens of the First Baptist Church in Junction City, was selected.[5] “The name chosen for the school, the name of a famous Baptist missionary, was intended to ‘exemplify what we were trying to do…trying to become a lighthouse for the Lord.’”[6] Thus the sixth effort at higher education named for the Judsons was launched. The original motto touted “Education Through Encounter”.

The first few years Judson Baptist College met in churches until she was able to purchase her first campus in 1959. Hill Military Academy (the Bluffs Campus) had enjoyed a storied career in Portland on its 33-acre campus but enrollment declined after World War II. In August 1959, the Academy closed and the campus at 9150 NE Fremont with its 13 buildings was purchased by the nascent Judson Baptist College.

Birthed in theological rancor, Judson Baptist College had a problem from day one with philosophy and finances. Should this college be a Bible College or a Liberal Arts College? It is hard to put conservative Christian and liberal arts in the same mission statement. The liberal arts crowd won this first battle but others in the denomination continued to nibble away at the struggling school. Wounds were opened afresh when the board decided to become self-perpetuating in 1975 thus usurping the control that the denomination previously had in appointing board members.

The College was “a non-selective accredited non-public two-year junior college” through its first 25 years. Its program was designed to provide “adequate lower division courses to transfer to a four year institution.”[7]  But in 1978 decisions were made to move the academic program from delivering Associates degrees to Bachelor’s degrees. The strategic plan hoped to triple the size of the student body to about 600 scholars.

At the same time, it was determined that the Bluffs Campus had reached its physical limit and it would be cheaper to move than to try to build in Portland, the population hub of Oregon. The state-owned Columbia Park Hospital and Training School was vacant and available 85 miles east of Portland so Judson Baptist College moved to 400 E. Scenic Drive, The Dalles, Oregon, for the last five years of its existence (1980-1985).

But all this change was too much and the school declared bankruptcy in January 1985 and closed all operations at the end of the spring semester. There was a debt of over $2,000,000 and the new programs, new degrees and new location did not attract new students. The majority of the faculty did not move to The Dalles but resigned and stayed in Portland. Enrollment dropped from 310 in 1980 to less than 100 in the final year. Judson Baptist College closed in 1985 and its records are now available at Southwestern College, Phoenix, AZ. 

The longest serving president of Judson Baptist College, Neal Davis, reports proudly on the success of the small Baptist school:

• A student beginning at JBC was more likely to earn a bachelors degree than a student entering any other private college or university in Oregon;
• Although we were small, our library contained more “books per student” than any other higher education institution in Oregon;
• We had the highest percentage of resident students of any college in Oregon;
• We had the highest percentage of Conservative Baptist students of any college, Bible college or seminary anywhere;
• We took international trips during my last four years in Portland, and, so, had the highest percentage of student with passports of any college in Oregon.[8]

The Conservative Baptist Association of America now does business as Venture Church Network with headquarters in Arizona. They are the coordinating body that works with Western Seminary in Portland as well as the original home and foreign mission societies formed in the 1940’s.  With the demise of Judson Baptist College, the Venture Church Network has identified with Corban University in Salem, Oregon.[9]

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[1] Neal Davis, President of Judson Baptist College, 1973-1981, email to Jerry Cain, June 28, 2022.

[2] Albert J. Wardin, Jr., Baptists in Oregon (Portland, Oregon: Judson Baptist College, 1969), p. 534.

[3] Ibid., p. 471.

[4] Ibid., p. 530.

[5] Ibid., p. 537.

[6] Thomas Paul Wolbrecht, Why Did This One Fail? A Case Study of the Demise of a Small Christian College. Unpublished EdD dissertation, Portland State University, 1990, p. 51, 43. 

[8] Neal Davis email to Jerry Cain, June 28, 2022.

[9] https://venturechurches.org/connect/partners/

1957-2005

Judson Hills Camp

Loudonville Ohio        OH

The Ohio Baptist Convention purchased property for Judson Hills camp in 1957 and held their first camp the next summer in 1958. Chuck Armstrong was a volunteer camp counselor there in 1969 but the next summer was promoted to being a paid camp counselor along with his friend, Laura Klemo. In the fall of 1970 Chuck went away to Judson College (now University) in Elgin, Illinois, to prepare for a career in church-related ministries and earned a teaching certificate in secondary math and science. From then on Chuck with involved with Judson Hills and supplied many of these memories about the camp.[1] 

Development of the camp began quickly after the 1957 purchase. A dining hall was constructed with eating facilities on the second floor and the camp store and meeting room on the lower floor.  This construction project created a small pond in front of the dining hall which was often a temptation for the boys at camp.

In 1961 Mr. and Mrs. Burt Gilmore who began service as camp managers. They were responsible for building the driveway into the camp to service the dining hall, storage shed and the camp manager’s home. In the late 60’s five sleeping cabins were constructed for girls that could sleep 10 people. The two rooms were separated by bathrooms and showers. The boys slept in tents and tipis until their three-sided housing units were constructed with central baths and showers.

In 1972 the Gilmores retired and the management of Judson Hills went to Clay and Naomi Peasley. Clay also pastored a church at Attica, Ohio, but was felled with a heart attack at the camp in the early 90’s. The Peasleys were followed by Rorke and Jinni Warande and then by Jamie Carmone who spent the winter months as a custodian at Northern Seminary in Chicagoland. During this time Jack Klemo, a Licking County gravel hauler and contractor, built the Nehemiah Center with 9 sleeping rooms and one dining and meeting room adding another dimension to the campus facilities.

Chuck Armstrong had a tradition of leading two camps per year at Judson Hills and remembers them with joy. The first week of the summer schedule was senior high leadership training where he focused on passages from Nehemiah. This camp was not only to prepare for the summer camping season but also have these teens consider Christian ministry as a life-time vocation. He remembers some of his students being Jeff Cooper[2] who is a pastor at Ashland Baptist Church in Oregon, Ohio; Ken Atchison who pastored the Washington Avenue Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio; Mark Dieselberg who is a missionary in Thailand; and Roger Alber now pastor of First Baptist Church in Massillon, Ohio.

The second camp of the summer was for fifth and sixth graders and was generally the evangelistic event of the summer.  Chuck recalls that one summer they had 72 registered campers and 38 of them made first-time commitments to follow Jesus.

But in 2005, when it was time to close Judson Hills Camp, Chuck Armstrong was called to preach the final sermon under the picnic shelter that served as the registration area.  One former camper, disappointed at the decision to sell Judson Hills, reported that event in these words:

I went to a funeral yesterday. People told stories about good times, and shed tears in recognition of a relationship that had ended. A eulogy was rendered, and we were sent off with a sense of closure. The deceased wasn’t a friend, but rather a place — the Judson Hills Camp in Loudenville OH.

Judson Hills had been owned by the Ohio Region of the American Baptist Churches USA since some time in the 1950s. The main lodge building is nearly 50 years old. All you have to do is look around at many photos in the composite pictures that hung in the lodge to know that this camp has provided a safe, fun and meaningful experience for two whole generations of kids.

Like many of the structures and facilities we enjoy today, Judson Hills was purchased and built by the folks who fought and won World War II. I regret to say that my generation — the children of the WWII veterans — grew up to be consumers and not builders. We’ve consumed the legacy of our parents, and have yet to stand up and take their place as stewards of this great country. But that’s another rant for another time.[3]

+++++++++++++++

[1] Chuck Armstrong phone conversation with Jerry Cain, November 30, 2022

[2] Jeff Cooper recalls that in February 1981, he had to find Kim Gamble, a friend from Judson College (now University) where they both attended. He drove to Judson Hills where Kim was working a singles retreat to tell her that God wanted them to be married. Kim eventually accepted that proposal and has been married to Jeff for over 40 years. “God knew that she was the ONLY one for me and Judson Hills had a large part in our story.”

[3] http://hilliardchronicles.blogspot.com/2005/09/in-memorium-judson-hills-camp.html

1957-Present

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Kansas City Missouri     MO

Founded in 1957 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City has two daily reminders of the life and ministry of Adoniram Judson.  One of the streets in the residential area of campus is named Judson Court reminding students of the venerable missionary who is often called the Father of the Modern Missionary Movement.  Housing on Judson Court consists of four-plexes with 4 students in each pod.

The other touchpoint is a painting in the president’s conference room that is signed by Adoniram Judson Jr. The painting is about 4 feet by 3 feet and depicts a winter scene probably in New England, Judson’s birthplace. A sled pulled by one horse is coming across the snow toward a bridge that crosses a frozen creek. It is a good painting and might be a scene that Judson would envision during the hot and rainy season in Burma. In the lower right-hand corner, the painting is signed Adoniram Judson, Jr.

A date on the plaque attached to the frame suggests 1811 as the year of composition though that date and the attribution are sometimes questioned. Judson left Boston in January 1811 for a trip to England to engage the London Missionary Society as this missionary sponsor. His ship was hijacked by a French privateer and Judson was taken to France as a captive until he was mysteriously released and whisked off to England. In May 1811 he was in London making his case for missionary appointment arriving back in America by mid-summer 1811. The first half of that year allowed no time for creative painting.

The second half of 1811 may have provided time to paint though there is no evidence in any of the massive materials about Judson that describes him as an artist. There is no evidence that he painted as a hobby or that he ever purchased painting supplies.  July 1811 through January 1812 were days given to preparation for his calling: organizing and packing for a missionary voyage; planning the service to commission the first Congregational missionaries from America on February 6, 1812; courting Ann Hasseltine and planning for a New England wedding on February 5, 1812. 1811 was a very busy year. Did he make time to paint a winter scene in New England?

But the painting reminds us that Judson was such a popular name in the 19^th century, people with less than noble intentions used his popularity to advance even unworthy causes.  Thanks to Midwestern Seminary for reminding us of the high status of the Judson name across American life.

1960-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Kansas City Kansas      KS

A new American Baptist Church on the western side of Kansas City, Kansas, was first conceived by members of the First Baptist Church of KCKS in 1957.  The Missouri River Baptist Association purchased and donated 4 acres to begin the church on State Avenue and 83^rd Street.  The first services were held in a home under the leadership of pastor Ralph Belnap until the new building was finished in May 1961. First services in the new building were held on March 19, 1961, with 73 in church school and 101 in worship. The charter membership list was closed on January 21, 1962, with exactly 100 Charter Members.[1]

In September 1965, Rev. George Snyder was called as pastor to replace Rev. Belnap who had resigned to move to Ohio. Two years later the church participated in the Heart of America Crusade led by Billy Graham. Rev. Snyder resigned in 1971 and Rev. James F. Rozmus was called to be the third pastor of Judson. Rev. Rozmus moved to Arizona in 1975 and Rev. John Clark, a student at Central Seminary, was called to be the pastor a role he has filled for 43 years. August 27, 1976, Pastor Clark married Ruth Heidner, a William Jewell College graduate and excellent pianist who had a calling to be a pastor’s wife.

Highlights over the past half century include:[2]

• 1978. A second Billy Graham Crusade with pastor John Clark serving on the counseling committee and wife, Ruth Clark, as chair of the children’s counselors.
• December 16, 1979. A new Sunday School attendance record with 203 present.
• December, 1986, church membership was 389 with 193 active members.
• December, 1992, reports that through the P.E.W.S. visitation program, 38 people have come into membership at Judson.
• March 20, 1994, a dedication service was held for the New Fellowship Hall and the Christian Education Wing. By the end of the year church membership had grown to 509 with 271 active members. Average Sunday School attendance was 172.
• October, 1996, the drama ministry of the congregation presented “The Life and Times of Adoniram Judson”. By the end of that year there were 525 members with 225 active members.
• 2012-2013 Pastor’s wife, Ruth Clark, served as President to American Baptist Churches, USA.

Judson Baptist Church in Kansas City, KS, continues to thrive with a full slate of worship, educational and missions ministries.

+++++++++++++++

[1] “The Chartering Service for the Judson Baptist Church (Mission)”, Church bulletin, July 1, 1962.

[2] A Brief History of Judson Baptist Church, unpublished manuscript available from the congregation, 1997. Pp. 4-17.

1960-Present 

Judson Strain

Lawyer-turned-Librarian   Illinois      IN/IL

Judson Strain was born in LaPorte, Indiana, June 5, 1960, and graduated from Judson College (now University) in 1982 where he was involved in theater and intramurals. Three years later finished his Juris Doctorate from Northern Illinois University and began a successful career in the legal profession. Judson finished a Masters in Library and Information Science (Dominican University, 2006) and took a position at Olivet Nazarene University in suburban Chicago where he is currently employed. His rollicking bio from the Olivet website tells an interesting story on yet another who carries the legacy of Adoniram Judson.

Working as Olivet’s reference librarian by day, competing in a pinball game league or playing guitar by night. All in a week’s excitement for Dr. Judson Strain.

In addition to being available for questions at the reference desk in Benner Library, Dr. Strain is also a guest lecturer for historiography, college writing and other classes. His areas of specialty include law, history, political science and research.

Before joining Olivet’s faculty in July 2010, he practiced law in Illinois for 16 years and taught American government as an adjunct professor at Judson University. Later in his career, he was the law librarian for Amalgamated Bank of Chicago. He is a member of the Chicago Association of Law Libraries.

In his leisure time, Dr. Strain enjoys long distance bicycling, playing guitar and bass for his church’s contemporary worship services, reading, playing in a pinball game league, playing Ultimate (Frisbee) in ONU’s intramural league, recreational reading and following the sad fortunes of the Chicago Cubs. In his younger days, he played guitar in a rock band and wore black leather pants. Fortunately, very few photos of those days still exist.

He is the father of three children — one in college and two in high school.[i]

+++++++++++++++

[i] Dr. Judson Strain, https://www.olivet.edu/judson-strain

1962-Present

Judson Chapel Baptist Church

Champaign Illinois        IL

In November, 1962, Judson Chapel Baptist Church was begun as a mission project by the First Baptist Church on Mahomet, Illinois. Located in Champaign, IL the congregation began in a wooden building moved to the location from Chanute Air Force Base near Rantoul, IL. Judson Chapel was conceived to serve an industrial neighborhood with dead-end streets near the Market Place Shopping Center and the Salvation Army headquarters in Champaign. March 24, 1970, the building was hit by lightning and burned requiring the construction of a new facility. Using insurance money, the congregation rebuilt and continues to serve its target neighborhood.

Judson Chapel has two points of uniqueness in its ministry. This small congregation has had the largest Christmas-help program in central Illinois outside their neighbors at the Salvation Army. In 2018 Judson Chapel helped 2130 families with average per household of $422 worth of clothing, toys and essentials. This required the generous contribution of five shopping sites and utilities in facilities equal to the square footage of a typical Walmart Store.

The other uniqueness is that pastor Rick Smith, who came to the congregation in 1984, tells a joke every Sunday which is often the highlight of the preaching hour. Judson Chapel Baptist Church identifies itself this way, “We are an Independent Baptist church. We believe in the Bible, the Trinity, and fellowship between the brethren. We’d love to see you at any service!”[1] Pastor Smith has the second longest tenure of any pastor participating in the ABC cluster in Area 3 of the Great Rivers Region.[2]

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[1] https://www.facebook.com/jcbc1962/

[2] Telephone interviews with Brian Romanowski, Area 2 of Great Rivers Region, ABC, and Rick Smith, pastor, Judson Chapel Baptist Church, Champaign, Il. January 13, 2023

1962-Present

Judson Hall

Acton Baptist Church Indianapolis IN

Acton Baptist Church in suburban Indianapolis, remodeled their facilities and added a fellowship hall in 1962 which they named for Ann and Adoniam Judson. Though the Acton congregation sold their building complex, including Judson Hall, to an immigrant group of Siyin Chin Christians, they continue to worship in their historic facility sharing Judson Hall with international and community groups. Ann and Adoniram would feel comfortable with the multi-cultural and multi-language use of the fellowship hall named in their honor.

1963-Present

Adoniram Judson Baptist Association

Boston Massachusetts           MA

Due to shifting demographics and advances in communication, 51 American Baptist Churches comprising the Salem Baptist Association and the Boston East Baptist Association, elected to merge and form the Adoniram Judson Baptist Association in 1963. Being the homebase where Adoniram Judson grew up, studied and was commissioned, it was only natural that his name be used to identify this new consolidation. The formal constitution was adopted in 1964.

In addition to traditional church support, this association is home base for Massachusetts Baptist Multicultural Ministries, a service of The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts (TABCOM) and led by Dr. Mar Imsong. The 38 churches now comprising the Adoniram Judson Baptist Association work cooperatively with Christian Youth Conference (CYC) for two weeks of summer camp naming their week for boys “Judson” and their week for girls “Hasseltine.”[1]

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[1] Email to compiler Jerry Cain from Rev. Diane Badger, June 19, 2023.

1963-Present

Judson University

Elgin Illinois           IL

It is hard to determine if the founding date for Judson University should be 1913 or 1963.  American Baptists had longed for an academic presence in Chicagoland founding the “old” University of Chicago in 1856 and supporting it minimally until its demise in 1886. By 1860 the Baptist Theological Union was begun as the first Baptist seminary in the region and was originally housed in the First Baptist Church of Chicago. The seminary eventually found property in the Morgan Park neighborhood, moved there and became casually known as “Morgan Park Seminary”. From day one the Baptist Theological Union had to provide training at the undergraduate level for persons wanting to attend seminary. Originally, these students studied at the “old” University of Chicago until it closed in 1886.

The new and present University of Chicago was born in 1890 with millions of dollars from John D. Rockefeller. The Baptist Theological Union moved from Morgan Park to become the divinity school at the new University of Chicago. The beginning embers of the modernist-fundamentalist movement were stoked into a raging flame by a book authored by professor George B. Foster at the University of Chicago entitled The Finality of the Christian Religion. Out of that controversy came the Illinois Baptist State Association (now aligned with Southern Baptists) and the call for a new and more conservative seminary.[1]

Thus, after many years and after many fits and starts Northern Baptist Theological Seminary was born in 1913, one hundred years after Adoniram Judson landed in Burma. From its beginning, the seminary had an undergraduate division because many of the students responding to a call to ministry, arrived at the seminary without an undergraduate education. At many points during its first 50 years, the undergraduate division and its correspondence school had a larger enrollment than did the seminary. “For the fall of 1962 there were 88 students in the graduate school and 93 in the college, for a total of 181 students.”[2]

Historian Lawrence T. Slaght reports the events like this:

By 1969, however, it was clear that the neighborhood surrounding the school [Northern Seminary] was so rapidly changing that the area was no longer satisfactory for a theological school. Furthermore, the pretheological department, still important for the training of students prior to their graduate divinity work, was proving to be a stumbling block in some academic circles. So with bold and sudden strokes, the trustees made several decisions….they would ask Benjamin P. Browne of the Publication Society to become administrator.

The coming of Dr. Browne was accomplished by vigorous activity. The old campus was sold and a new location was secured at Oak Brook, Illinois. The college department was given independent status with a separate administration and board of trustees. A home for this new liberal arts college to be knows as Judson, was found at Elgin, Illinois, and a new beautifully designed campus was built. In 1970 Northern Seminary listed an enrollment of forty-five occupied a lovely new campus valued at two million dollars, and had a current income of $367,000. In the same year Judson College had an enrollment of 360 students.[3]

Because of changing demographics, on the fiftieth anniversary of the seminary in 1963, it was decided to leave the Chicago inner-city campus and move to a safer environment in Oak Brook, Illinois. At the same time, because of pressures from accrediting agencies and denominational agencies, it was also determined to spin off the undergraduate division to Elgin, Illinois, to become Judson College. In 1963, the seminary got a new campus and Judson College became an entity on its own, the seventh school to claim the name of the iconic missionary.

But a serious problem arose with the Baptist Board of Education in Valley Forge, PA, whose representative traveled to Elgin, “demanding by what right a new Baptist college was being established without the permission of the Board.”[4]

The controversy centered on one issue: whether this was “a forty year old college which was simply moving to a new campus, in order to expand its curriculum and operate under a new name,” or whether it was an entirely new college. The terms of the charter by the state of Illinois indeed contribute to the ambiguity.[5]

The 2013 commemorative book about Judson University was entitled Golden Centennial to acknowledge 100 years dating from 1913 and 50 years dating from 1963.[6] With the advent of graduate programs and the redefinition of local community colleges, in 2007 the school became Judson University to more accurately describe its position in the pantheon on higher education.

Flagship programs at Judson University include one of the few architecture programs at a Christian college in the U.S. enrolling over 200 majors and offering a Master in Architecture degree among the eight master’s programs offered by Judson. Three doctoral programs are available through the education department committed to serve educators in the Chicago-Rockford area. A campus facility at the Swedish-American Riverfront YMCA in Rockford, Illinois, serves the adult degree completion market as does the campus in Elgin.

Presently Judson University reports over 1000 students enrolled from 41 states and 29 countries with 7% of the student body being internationals. The student-faculty ratio is 11:1 with 76% of classes enrolling less than 20 students and taught by a faculty where 86% have their terminal degree. The university offers over 60 programs of study in undergraduate, graduate and adult professional formats. Students can study in 25 off-campus and study-abroad options plus participate in 22 intercollegiate athletic teams competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA).[7]  The university has recently purchased a nursing school to expand its offerings in the health care arena.

Academic programs are fully accredited by:

Higher Learning Commission of North Central Association

National Architecture Accrediting Board

Illinois State Board of Education for teacher education

In the Best Colleges Survey of U.S. News and World Report, Judson University has been ranked as one of the Regional Best Universities in the Midwest every years since 2017.

The Ann Judson Missionary Scholarship fund was established at Judson University by missionary and historian Rosalie Hall Hunt. Proceeds from Dr. Hunt’s biography The Extraordinary Story of Ann Hasseltine Judson: A Life Beyond Boundaries (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2018) formed the nucleus of this endowment. Earnings from the corpus is used to assist students committed to a career in Christian ministry or for students on mission trips. Dr. Hunt’s grandmother was Ann Judson Fogle Wells who is reported in entry 1866-1955.

++++++++++++++

[1] Warren Cameron Young, Commit What You Have Heard: A History of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1913-1988 (Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1988), pp. 1-6, 10-15.

[2] Ibid., p. 112.

[3] Lawrence T. Slaght, Multiplying the Witness: 150 Years of American Baptist Educational Ministries (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1974), pp. 115-116.

[4] Stuart A. Ryder, Adventures in Faith: Adoniram Judson, Benjamin P. Browne and Judson University (Elgin, Illinois: Copyright and published by Stuart A. Ryder, 2017), p. 138.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Robert Bittner, Judson University Golden Centennial: 1913-1963-2013 (Elgin, Illinois: Judson University, 2013), pp. 7-12.

[7] https://www.judsonu.edu

1970-Present

Judson Terrace Homes

San Luis Obispo, California      CA

American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW) was organized in 1949 to provide quality housing and health care for retired ministers and missionaries with its first property in Los Altos, CA. That mission, however, soon expanded to include older people regardless of occupation or religious affiliation. From one community serving nine residents in 1949, ABHOW expanded to 50 communities in six states.[1]

Judson Terrace Homes in San Luis Obispo, CA, was opened by ABHOW on 1970 at 3000 Augusta Street on three acres of land. Today Judson Terrace has 107 apartments a few miles from the beach and downtown San Luis Obispo and provides affordable housing for lower income seniors over 55 years of age.  

In 2016 ABHOW joined forces with a Presbyterian housing ministry in Southern California eventually adding a second Presbyterian housing ministry from Philadelphia in 2019. The union of these three nonprofit organizations is now known as Human Good. Judson Terrace Homes is one of these multiple properties. Each apartment comes with a patio or balcony and all kitchen appliances.  Other amenities include the community room, landscaped gardens, regularly scheduled activities and a bus stop at the street in front of Judson Terrace.

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[1] https://www.humangood.org/our-story

1974-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Burton, Michigan MI

Pastor Greg Rowan has been with the Judson Baptist Church of Burton, MI, for 28 of its 50-year history (writing from the perspective of 2024).  He began his ministry as assistant pastor on April Fool’s Day in 1996 and six years later became the senior pastor. The congregation remains involved in the American Baptist Churches, USA, and the Michigan ABC. Pastor Greg and his wife have raised all 6 of their children in this Judson congregation.

The first offering collected on the first meeting of the Judson Baptist Church was an offering for missions thus setting a precedent for the congregation for the next half century.  Dr. Claude Adams donated the real estate that the Burton church now uses but he also set the missions focus through his medical ministry in Haiti.  The Hospital Bon Samaritan was the focus of that calling and other families from Judson Baptist Church purchased land in Haiti for medical purposes.

Hôpital Bon Samaritan (HBS) was founded in 1953 as a very basic Christian outpatient clinic and grew to be one of Haiti’s principal health centers. The hospital is a project of the Foundation HBS which is a non-profit organization of Florida. The 130-bed facility of the hospital in Limbe has above 90% annual occupancy rate.

Soon a school cropped up in Limbe next to the hospital and Judson Baptist Church became the sole supporter of this educational enterprise paying salaries and providing supplies for this educational enterprise.  All of this was tied to a local university, (probably Hospital Universitaire Justinien at Cap Haitien) but much of the school property was lost due to recurring regime changes in Haiti.

The missionary heritage of Judson Baptist Church is seen in one of its products, Dr. Brick Cliff, who grew in in this congregation. He is president of World Impact Now (WIN) ministries and also founder of Nation-2-Nation Christian University.  Taking advantage of modern technology and teaching methods, N2NCU is a video-based ministerial school teaching church leaders in over 50 countries world-wide. He and his wife, Beth, also minister through a local congregation in the Houston, TX, area.

Judson Baptist Church has participated in mission trips around the world, specifically to Mexico and China. In the post-pandemic era, the congregation is working cooperatively with neighboring churches in Burton and Flint, MI, to do youth events. worship. evangelism and community service.[1]  Ann and Adoniram would be pleased that their name is used by a congregation with missions in its DNA.

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[1] Phone conversation between compiler Jerry Cain and Pastor Greg Rowan, April 12, 2023.

1979-2022

Judson Baptist Retreat Center

St. Francisville, Louisiana       LA

Judson Retreat Center was a Christian retreat center and summer camp, located in the rolling hills of the Felicianas near Jackson, Louisiana, just a short drive from Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette and Southwest Mississippi. Their mission was to raise up generations passionate for Jesus Christ by providing opportunities for life-changing experiences.[1]

The Retreat Center was a ministry of the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge (formerly Judson Baptist Association) and was dedicated on October 20, 1979. The name for the Judson Retreat Center came from the previous name of the association, Judson Baptist Association (see entry 1890-Present). The 25^th year report provides a chronology of ministry through the last portion of the twentieth century.[2]

+February 14, 1979, First Baptist Church, Zachary, was our first retreat!

+The facilities at this time consisted of the Camp Director’s residence….  The kitchen and dining hall served as a chapel, indoor recreation room, as well as for dining facilities. The two buildings, which would accommodate 40 persons each, served as dormitory and conference facilities. The 24×56’ swimming pool added the finishing touches to a lovely retreat center.

+In 1994, we had 4892 camperdays, while in 1995 we had 5,569 camperdays.

+The dedication of the chapel in 1997 was an awesome experience of celebration and praise for what God had done and was going to do at the Retreat Center.

+One of the most exciting miracles at JBRC in 1998 was the construction of a 12,000 square foot adult conference building and motel units.

+This year [2005] we have seen a 27% increase in number of groups using JBRC. Last year, which was a record-breaking year there were 6540 camper days, while this year we had 8666 camperdays! There were 123 recorded decisions this summer, which reflect lives changed for Jesus.

+After 36 years of ministry, in October 2022, the Baptist Association voted to cease operations and sell the property. Judson Retreat Center had suspended operations earlier in the year due to covid-19 related financial challenges. Camp director Justin Busby expressed these words upon the decision to close the camp.
+“…I want you to know that even with the Judson Retreat Center facility closing for good, the ministry of Judson Retreat will continue. It will continue because that ministry doesn’t belong to Judson, it belongs to the Lord. And those lives that were changed and those who were called, they carry that ministry with them. They carry it into their homes, into their churches, into their communities and around the world. Truly we can say, the sun will never set on the multi-generational impact that the Lord has made in the lives of people here at Judson. It is finished, yet it continues, may the Lord be glorified in His faithful work here through the years.”[3]

+++++++++++++++

[1] https://www.judsonretreat.org/

[2] Debi Morris, Where We’ve Been…Where We’re Going…Judson Baptist Retreat Center 1979-2005, Judson Baptist Association (now Baptist Association of Great Baton Rouge), Baton Rouge, LA, 2005.

[3] https://www.baptistmessage.com/judson-retreat-center-to-close/

1982-Present

Judson Park

Des Moines, Washington          WA

Opened in 1982 under the auspices of American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW), Judson Park provides an expansive view of Puget Sound near Seattle, WA. Six apartments were added in 2007 providing accommodations for four different levels of care for its residents. Judson Park is able to provide service through residential living, assisted living, long-term skilled nursing and memory support.[1] At one time Judson Park was allied with the American Baptist Homes of the West but is now under the management of Human Good, a merger of American Baptist Homes of the West and two Presbyterian-related senior living ministries.

+++++++++++++++  

[1] https://www.humangood.org/judson-park

1987-Present

Adoniram Judson Memorial Baptist Church of Los Angeles  

Covina, California CA

Rev. Samuel Saw was the founding pastor of the Adoniram Judson Memorial Baptist Church in suburban Los Angeles. He recalls that in October 1987 about 10 families from Burma were meeting at the Temple Baptist Church where worship was conducted in Burmese by Rev. Dr. James E. Conklin, pastor of the Temple Baptist congregation. Previously Conklin had served as a missionary in the Karen rural areas of Thailand where he had learned the languages and established relationships.

Among those earliest worshippers was a Kachin lady, Daw Nang Mai and her 5 children with their families; a Mon lady, Daw May Chit Thwin with her 4 children and their families; and a Karen lady Daw Haven Bate and her family. Daw Nang Mai led Bible study, Auntie Daw May Chit Thwin was responsible for recruiting members, and Auntie Haven was the treasurer. Because of these three ladies who worked tirelessly by giving all their time, more Burmese Christian families started to gather from all over the San Gabriel Valley. Little by little, the communal spirit started to grow and members became closer to one another. In 1987, these three matriarchs, Daw Nang Mai, Auntie Daw May Chit Thwin, and Auntie Haven were able to make Adoniram Judson Memorial Baptist Church a legally recognized faith-based organization.

Although most church members resided in the Alhambra and Covina areas, they faithfully participated and served in the Temple Baptist Church, which was located in Los Angeles. Through connections of members, more Burmese Christian families partook in church and the number of members slowly increased. To raise funds for the church, in 1996, nationally known Burmese guitarists and singers, New Yin Win, Sai Htee Sine, April Chit Khin, and Po Dali Thein Tan were invited to perform.  Also in 2001, a fashion show, designed by June Din took place. In 2002, AJMBC relocated for a short time to First Southern Baptist Church in Covina.

By the grace of God, in 2002, AJBC was able to buy a building and move to our current location. The church dedication service took place in 2003. In 2008, the building was expanded with extra room through the sacrificial support of members.

AJMBC, in association with American Baptist Churches USA (ABC USA), Alliance of Asian American Baptist Churches, Burmese Christian Association of North America (BCANA), along with International Myanmar Baptist Fellowship (IMBF), carried out the Great Commission.[1] They continue to be involved in national as well as international ministries.  The founding pastor, Rev. Samuel Saw, served the congregation 1987 to 2003 and his son, Rev. William Saw, is the current pastor guiding the congregation of some 120 members.[2]

+++++++++++++++

[1] “30 Year Long Journey of AJMBC,” Adoniram Judson Memorial Baptist Church, 1987-2017. 30^th Anniversary Celebration, October 21-22, 2017, np.

[2] Email from Dr. Angelene Naw to the compiler, June 23, 2023.

1989-Present

Judson Baptist Church

Republic of Singapore

In 1988, a few Christian families living in Singapore organized weekly worship services rotating from house to house. During this period Rev. Gam Shee from Chiangmai, Rev. Jeffery, Rev. Mawya (Bishop) and Rev. Labar visited to lead the worship services and provide regular preaching. After the 8-8-88 upheavals, more Christians from Burma immigrated to Singapore for work and security. As the congregation grew, so did discussions about the development of a Burmese Christian church. The formal search for the venue and pastor began late that same year. The Singapore Burmese Christian Fellowship came into existence in 1989 after Rev. Jeffery introduced Pastor Augustus to the Burmese Christian community as the first pastor. 

In 2004, the name Singapore Burmese Christian Fellowship was changed to Judson Baptist Church Singapore. Today JBCS has two pastors: Rev. Augustus and Rev. Myo Thu and some 300 church members. Traditional ministries in music, women, youth and Sunday school serve the constituents and the community.[1] 

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[1] Email from Angelene Naw to the compiler, April 27, 2023.

1989-2023

Judson American Baptist Church

Bella Vista,   Arkansas           AR

Roger Williams founded the first Baptist Church in America in 1638 and 350 years later, 25 charter members founded the first American Baptist Church in northwestern Arkansas. Judson American Baptist Church was formerly chartered in 1989 but was preceded since 1977 by the American Baptist Fellowship comprised mainly of northerners who had retired at Bella Vista but yearned for their ABC heritage.

After meeting in homes for dinner, prayer and fellowship, they formally constituted a church in 1989, bought a Catholic church building the next year and refurbished it two years later. They called Rev. Donald Cowell as their first pastor who led them through their first four years. He was followed by Donald L. Moor, Edward Baxter, Henry Hensley, Sue Metcalf, Mark Kirby and Kem Reeder.

The tradition of a major mission service project was established early involving the congregation in such projects as a battered women’s shelter in Bentonville, Central Seminary, Concordia Care Center, Bacone College, children in McDonald County, MO, Murrow Indian Children’s Home and several other ministries.[1]

Hoping to tie more closely to the local community, the name of the church was changed in 2012 to Forest Hills Church thus identifying with the road in front of the building. This congregation was the sole American Baptist Church in Arkansas. Church member, Rose Christensen suggests the church succeeded because of prayer and planning, committed workers, sense of identity, spirit of cooperation and outreach events.[2] Their website described the congregation thusly under their new name:

Forest Hills Church is a warm and welcoming place where Jesus shines as the light of the world. The nature of God’s word requires diligent study and accurate teaching. We do not add to the Scripture when it is silent, and we shout to the mountaintops when it speaks.[3]

The congregation of Forest Hills Church, formerly Judson American Baptist Church in Bella Vista, Arkansas, made the decision on 2023 June 25 at a congregational meeting to cease to be a worshiping congregation effective July 30 with a final gathering on that day. The vote was unanimous for that decision and interim pastor Tim Schwartz preached a sermon entitled “The Cross Lights the Way” on that final Sunday.

A reformed congregation named Legacy Baptist Church has purchased the building and continues regular worship and ministry in the Judson Baptist location.

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[1] “Highlights of Judson American Baptist Church History,” local summary printed by the church in 1989.

[2] Rose Christensen, “Judson’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration Signals Success,” A Newspaper for American Baptist Planters and Friends, Winter 2000, p. 1.

[3] https://www.foresthillschurch.info/

1995-Present

Judson Community Baptist Church

Judson, Texas         TX

Following a vision from God in 1995 Dr. Keith Rothra, pastor in Marshall, TX, and church planter for the Gregg Baptist Association inherited a defunct church building with a piano, some hymnals, and a worship center with 14 pews. Formerly the Hunter’s Creek Baptist Church, a mission started by Calvary Baptist in Longview, TX, the congregation had begun in 1988 but was unsuccessful in penetrating the Hunter’s Creek Community. The building sat vacant for 2 and a half years when Dr. Rothra resigned his church in Marshall accepting the call to begin Judson Community Baptist Church in the abandoned facilities.

Named for the community that was named for Adoniram Judson, Dr. Rothra began on December 3, 1995, as pastor of the Judson Community Baptist Church and has remained its pastor since the founding. The congregation was originally supported by Southern Baptist resources through the East Mountain Baptist Church (formerly Judson Road Baptist Church), however, they declared their viability in January 2000 and has operated as a self-sustaining church ever since.  In December of that year, the congregation opened a second building 40’ by 50’ which contains a fellowship hall, kitchen and 4 classrooms. In 2005 JCBC added its own baptistry and storage area to the original Hunter’s Creek building.

In the short history of this small congregation at JCBC, the congregation has seen nine members surrender to ministry [that] have been licensed and eight ordained. They have moved on to other ministry leading congregations or performing in another ministry.

The congregation has helped several visitors to overcome addictions and seen successful recoveries….  JCBC is also involved in a foreign ministry in Pakistan and holds Bible studies and music ministries in other locations.

Adoniram Judson would have great joy from the seeds he planted in East Texas. Two churches and the community are named for him and the kingdom of God is growing.[1]

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[1] Keith Rothra, The History of Judson Community Baptist Church, unpublished manuscript available from the author, p. 3.

1997-2023

Judson Lodge

Cross Wind Camp, Hesston, Kansas        KS

In the early 1980’s, Westminister Faith Chapel decided to purchase land for a conference center when they sold their building in California.  High land prices in California caused them to decide to look elsewhere and they determined they could purchase the land they needed to fulfill their dream in Kansas.  Merle and Marcella Unruh facilitated the purchase of 31 acres that surround the main conference center in Hesston.  Construction began in April of 1987.  A year later they had a ribbon cutting ceremony and at the end of May, 1988, the conference center hosted its first group.

On November 7, 1989, ownership of the center was transferred to the South Central Conference of the Mennonite Church.  On October 17, 1991, the American Baptist Churches of the Central Region purchased the 31-acre facility and acquired an additional 80 acres to the east.[1]

The American Baptist Churches of the Central Region began to develop the grounds and construction of Judson Lodge and Williams Lodge began in April of 1997. Judson Lodge contained a kitchen, living room and three separate wings that accommodated 9 people each.  Each wing had 2 showers, sinks, and restrooms. The living room serves as a meeting room for up to 27 people. The kitchen was equipped with a stove, sink, microwave, refrigerator and an assortment of cooking utensils.[2] 

In December 2022 Cross Winds, with its Judson Lodge, was sold to Camp David International as a ministry to the children of incarcerated persons.

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[1] https://www.crosswind.ws/about-us/

[2] https://www.crosswind.ws/facilities/

2003-Present

Judson Research Center

Myanmar Institute of Theology

Insein, Yangon, Myanmar

At the 190^th anniversary of the Judson’s arrival in Burma, the president of Myanmar Institute of Theology, Dr. Samuel Ling, announced the opening of the Judson Research Center to be housed at MIT. Their website best describes the purpose and the plans for this new venture.

Background: Judson Research Center was founded on July 13, 2003 under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Samuel Ling, who was founder and also present President of MIT with the purpose of striving for promotion of interfaith studies, interfaith dialogue and study of current issues in Myanmar. Working together with various religious leaders, scholars, students and young people of other faiths, the JRC convenes series of interfaith forums, seminars, workshops and trainings on various themes such as Religious Freedom Peace and Reconciliation, Ethnic Issues, Gender Equality and Environment Issues, in which Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim religious leaders come, discuss, reflect and find a common cause to build up friendship, mutual understanding, mutual trust and mutual cooperation.

Vision and Goal: To strive for mutual understand, mutual respect, and mutual trust among different faiths, and build up cooperation for the peaceful, just, participatory, responsible and sustainable society.

Mission:  Judson Research Center (JRC) is MIT-based non-profit research Center for Interfaith Studies, Dialogue and Current Issues.  The aim is to improve interfaith relations based on mutual understanding, mutual respect, and mutual trust.  JRC is serving not only as a resource center of education for interfaith studies, but also as platform for the scholars, religious leaders, theological students and young people from different faiths to develop dialogue, and actions to address the current issues for the betterment of our society.[1]

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[1] https://www.mit.edu.mm/judson-research-center/

2009-Present 

James Adoniram Greear

Student Raleigh, North Carolina    NC

He was only 8 years old in 2018 when I heard his name mentioned by this father who was being interviewed on the radio. It was winter and I was in Florida and learned the lad was frequently called Adon. He is the son of Veronica and James David (J. D.) Greear, currently pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Greear had previously served as a missionary in Southeast Asia before returning to the States to pastor Summit Church. He also served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the covid years of 2018-2021. (See Entry 2021-Present.) Beyond his pastoral ministries Dr. Greear is an author, blogger and daily podcaster.  Adon was born at Christmas in 2009 and named specifically for Adoniram Judson whom his parents greatly admired.

Now in his teens Adon is involved in traditional teenager activities.  He enjoys public speaking in school and thinks about being a pastor or a lawyer (he was recently exposed to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.) Adon admires and enjoys his parents.  As of this writing, he has two sisters in college and one at home.  His favorite scripture verse is from Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”[i]

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[i] Phone conversation between Jerry Cain and Adon Greear, October 12, 2023.

2011-Present 

Judson Breckenridge Merkle

Student               Myanmar/CO

On November 22, 2011, missionary Candice Merkle delivered her second child, her first son in Ching Mai, Thailand.  Based on long conversations with her husband, Breck Merkle, the lad was named for the iconic Baptist missionary, Adoniram Judson. This couple were serving as missionaries in Myanmar and working directly in the linage of Ann and Adoniram Judson. They had been motivated by the faithfulness in ministry shown by the Judsons in the 19^th century.

Breck Merkle had a fascination with Adoniram Judson from his earliest days in Colorado where he graduated from high school in 2001. This was heightened while at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, when he spent a summer in Myanmar as part of an intercultural internship in 2003. After completing SBU in 2005, Breck went east and earned a Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies from Southeastern Seminary (2014) and then went west to compete a doctorate from Gateway Seminary (2020). 

Breck and Candice served 10 years as missionaries in Myanmar where they were quick at grasping both the Burmese and Shan languages and where they have visited both locations at which Adoniram Judson was imprisoned. The couple continues their international ministry through The Glory Project whose “vision is to see the unreached reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ and Myanmar is where the harvest is most plentiful. It was the Judsons’ faithfulness that has kept us serving so faithfully.”[i]

Their son, Judson Merkle, now gets to travel with his father on missionary trips and is often referred to as “MIT” or missionary-in-training. Young Judson Merkle (and his parents) look forward to the day when the gospel of Jesus is received in Myanmar in the 21^st century thus fulfilling the 200-year-old vision of his namesake, Adoniram Judson, Jr.[ii]

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[i] Breckenridge Merkle email to compiler Jerry Cain, January 17, 2023.

[ii] Breckenridge Merkle phone conversation with compiler Jerry Cain, January 13, 2023.

2012-Present 

Judson Christian Schumacher

Student        Ames, Iowa              IA/IA

There are a pair of God-fearing parents in Iowa that has named their children for Biblical and Christian heroes.  The first-born is named Josiah (king of Judah) Martin (think Luther).  The next is Micah (prophet) John (think Bunyan), Then comes Elijah (think prophet) Ames (think John Ames, theologian). The fourth child is a girl named Ella Joy which has the ring of praise but might not be in your concordance of biblical names.

The fifth child is named Judson Christian Shumacher for the missionary to Burma who spent 37 years serving in southeast Asia.  When asked what was admirable about this missionary that you would want your son to emulate, the lad’s father responded quickly with “perseverance.” 

He persevered in his work learning several languages and translating the Bible from its original languages. Judson persevered through the passing of two wives and seven children. He persevered through 21 months in prison in squalid conditions. He kept on going through a strange culture with strange food, strange music, strange languages, strange religions and everything that was not like Massachusetts.[i]

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[i] Telephone interview with Eric Schumacher, February 17, 2023.

2014-Present 

Adoniram Judson Center of Christian Union

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island       RI

The Adoniram Judson Ministry Center at Brown University is used by Christian Union campus ministries for fellowship, meals, Bible studies, prayer, training, and administrative work.  The Judson Center was opened in 2014. The parent organization, Christian Union, was founded in 2002 at Princeton University but now has expanded to several Ivy League schools in the Northeast and even to Stanford on the west coast. The Judson Center at Brown recognizes the heritage of Adoniram Judson and is directed by a team led by Matthew Woodward. The founder of Christian Union, Matt Bennett, describes their ministry focus in this fashion.

Everything in our university ministry is tailored to the academically intense and secular environments of these schools. The ministry faculty we hire is of a caliber that can teach and train students who are bright and motivated, and who take readily to leadership development, yet often know very little about Scripture. The programs tested and refined at Princeton were rolled out to additional campuses in the years that followed.[1]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Ministry Center, https://www.christianunion.org/about/welcome

2016-Present

Judson Felix Roberts

Martinsburg, West Virginia WV

Rev. Arthur Joseph (A.J.) Roberts, father of young Judson Felix Roberts, told why he named his son for the iconic missionary.

I went to India in 2010 for the first time and read To the Golden Shore while there (was there for a month). God stirred me and changed my affections. I was just from a small town in WV that is primarily Caucasian—no real diversity there. I had no view of the nations and no real grasp on God’s love for all peoples. That book changed me—there was no turning back from there. 

We have four kids and have found naming them to be one of life’s greatest privileges. Knowing Judson’s story, we wanted to do two things in naming our own son Judson: (1) Create natural curiosity for our boy later in life to want to know who Adoniram Judson was.  (2) Honor the legacy of gospel work in Burma.”[i] 

Naming is important in the Roberts family.

+ The oldest son, Bera, is named for a national church leader in Orissa, India;

+ Eden carries the imprimatur of that original garden in the book of Genesis;

+ Haddon reminds us of the great English pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon; and

+ Nine-year-old Judson Felix represents the beginnings of the modern missionary movement and exudes the balance of unique and classical in the Latin name felix-happy and fortunate. “He finds a way to be happy in every situation.” Young Judson has an athletic physic and uses this size as a gentle giant to care for his younger sisters.

From the Church at Martinsburg, Pastor Roberts visits missionary projects in India annually and has taken Judson and Bera on these trips, the girls being too young to travel internationally. Dad looks forward to the day that Judson asks about his name and gets a copy of To the Golden Shore or some other Judson biography. “But it is most important that his name be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

Rev. A. J. Roberts is a trained physical therapist but now pastors the Church at Martinsburg, the congregation he grew up in. Birthed as a church plant in 2009, these 130 families have started two other churches and called-out four missionaries. His wife is a trained nurse but now invests her energy I homeschooling their four children.

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[i] A. J. Roberts email to compiler Jerry Cain, January 16, 2023.

2018-Present 

Ann Hasseltine Judson Giving Circle

American Baptist Historical Society Georgia     PA/GA

The giving levels for donors to the American Baptist History Society have been in place for over six years now and the legacy of Ann Judson is remembered therein. An annual gift of up to $50 places one in the Ann Hasseltine Judson Circle and provides a subscription to Primary Source publication. It is a good investment and I encourage everyone to be at least an Ann Hasseltine Judson donor to the Baptist Historical Society.

2021-Present

Adoniram Judson Gavel

of Southern Baptist Convention

Nashville, Tennessee        TN

This press release from Religion News Service on June 15, 2021, best tells this story though I have added an interesting caveat as a conclusion.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS). As outgoing Southern Baptist Convention President J. D. Greear prepared to open his final annual meeting in that role, he determined to follow through on his plans to change the way he officially got it started.

Traditionally, Southern Baptists open the two-day meeting…with the banging of a gavel. In most years, the meetings have featured the Broadus gavel, named for John A. Broadus, a founding faculty member of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who was also an enslaver and a believer in white superiority.

This year, Greear told Religion News Service prior to the meeting that would use a different gavel, name for a pioneering missionary.

“I’ll be using the Judson Gavel,“ he told RNS.

• That gavel is named for Adoniram Judson, the first Baptist missionary sent out “by the organization that would eventually become the Southern Baptist Convention,” Greear wrote. “Adoniram Judson has always been a personal hero of the faith to me, and I believe his life and testimony exemplify, in every way, the spirit of the Great Commission Baptists.”

“Great Commission Baptists” is a moniker adopted by some Southern Baptists that simultaneously deemphasizes their regional affiliation and focuses on the command of Jesus to his followers to spread his message worldwide.

In a 2020 statement, Greear had said that he thought “it is time to retire the Broadus gavel.” He added that “it is time for this gavel to go back into the display case at the Executive Committee offices.”

Broadus was the author books on homiletics, or the art of preaching, including “On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons.”

But he also was a promoter of the Confederacy in a denomination that has its origins in a defense of slavery.

“At the 1863 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia, Broadus drafted resolutions pledging Southern Baptist support of the Confederacy,” reads the SBC flagship seminary’s 2019 report on slavery and racism in its history.

Nine years later, Broadus presented the gavel to the SBC “for the use of the President, which he had brought from Jerusalem for that purpose,” according to a historical note about the gavel included in the denomination’s 1939 Annual….[1]

It is appropriate to recall that Adoniram Judson left his bed in Moulmein on Wednesday, April 3, 1850, to board the Aristide Marie hoping that sea air would restore is declining health. This last desperate effort did not work and on April 12, 1850, Judson died and was buried in the Andaman Sea. Dr. Greear writes, “The Judson gavel I used was made from the bed post of Judson’s final bed in Burma!”[2] Now every time that Great Commission Baptists gather, the sound of Adoniram Judson’s deathbed-made-gavel calls them back to the ministry of missions.

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[1] Adelle M. Banks, RNS, “Gavel Named for Enslaver Replaced with One Recalling Missionary at SBC Meeting,” Word and Way, June 15, 2021, p. 3.

[2] J.D. Greear email to Jerry Cain, November 30, 2024.

2024-Present

Judson College at Southeastern

Christian Education Wake Forest NC

News has arrived that Baptists have named their eighth educational institution over the past 200 years for either Ann or Adoniram Judson. This formal press report tells the story.

The undergraduate college at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has been officially renamed Judson College.

Southeastern trustees formalized the decision during their Oct. 14–15 meeting on the seminary’s campus in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary and its undergraduate division, said the renaming fits the seminary’s vision and mission.

“When we were considering names for the undergraduate program at Southeastern, we wanted a name that represents our Great Commission vision and mission as an institution and one that demonstrates what kind of school Southern Baptists would be sending their children to,” said Akin. “There is no one better to represent our mission and culture than the Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson, who gave his life for the cause of Christ in the church, among the nations and in every aspect of society.”

A spokesperson for Southeastern Seminary said leaders had often discussed the Judson name and returned to those discussions when Judson College in Marion, Alabama closed in 2021. 

“Our administration contacted the leadership of the Alabama Baptist State Convention and received their support and affirmation to preserve the Judson’s legacy on our campus,” said Chad Burchett, associate director of marketing and communications at Southeastern Seminary.

According to historian and Judson College alumna Elizabeth Wells, Alabama’s Judson College was actually named in honor of Ann Hasseltine Judson, Adoniram Judson’s wife and one of the first female American international missionaries. The college was founded in 1838 by Alabama Baptist leaders who wanted to offer educational opportunities for women. The college closed in 2021 due to financial pressures.

Daphne Robinson, president of Judson College in Marion, told The Alabama Baptist that she had not been in contact with Southeastern Seminary officials regarding the name change of The College at Southeastern but noted the significance of the Judson name’s legacy.

“It’s an honor to the Judsons that people continue to acknowledge their sacrifice and commitment to missions,” Robinson said.

Akin echoed those sentiments, calling the Judsons “Baptist royalty.”

“Southern Baptists and their missions work are heirs to what Adoniram, Ann, Sarah and Emily Judson did in the country of Burma (modern-day Myanmar),” said Akin. “Judson buried two wives on the missions field, but their legacy and love for the Burmese people drove Adoniram to continue in the ministry. The name Judson has been rightly honored at Judson College in Marion, Alabama, since 1838. Now Southeastern has the honor of carrying on that name and the missional spirit it represents. Our college is a Great Commission school. Judson is a Great Commission name. The two rightly belong together.”[1]

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“Southeastern Seminary renames its undergraduate school Judson College,” The Baptist Record: Journal of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, Jackson, Mississippi, October 27, 2024, p. 1.

2027 renaming (1827-Present)

Amherst Church becomes Judson Church

Kyaikkhami (Mon State) Myanmar

In 2027 Amherst Baptist Church in Kyaikkhami, Myanmar, will celebrate its 200^th birthday. The church was formed by American missionaries in 1827 after Adoniram was released from prison and soon after Ann Judson died at this location. This seaport and resort town was developed by the British at the end of the First Anglo-Burmese war, 1824-1826, and named for the governor general of India, Lord William Amherst. The name of the city was changed to Kyaikkhami toward the end of the 20th century. Pastor Moo Taw of the Amherst Baptist Church has announced that on the occasion of this 200th birthday, the congregation will change its name to Judson Baptist Church. The church is the caretaker of the memorial honoring Ann Judson and maintains a museum in her honor.[1]

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[1] Amherst Baptist Church brochure from Frederick Thetgyi, New Ringgold, PA.