A History of Columbus Baptist Association (OH) From its Organization
to 1837, With a Brief Sketch of Ministers and Churches
By Rev. Jacob Drake, 1859
Chapter IVSketch of Early Ministers
Of the preachers whose names are found in the preceding history, WM. BRUNDIGE, I think, was senior. He removed, with his son-in-law, Nathaniel Wyatt, from the state of New York into Ohio about the year 1805 or 1806. After a short time, they located themselves in a part of Franklin, now Delaware county. Elder Brundige was a large portly looking man, which added to his hoary hair, gave him a very venerable appearance. Naturally loquacious, he was full of anecdote and story-telling, which rendered him a very pleasing companion to the young. This propensity was often carried to an extent that some of his friends thought unbecoming in a minister. He enjoyed no advantages over his brethren except what age and experience furnished. He had a peculiar aversion to reading anything except his Bible and hymn-book; yet, with a good mind and strong memory, he was sound in the faith, and, what was then termed, quite an acceptable preacher. Eld. B. was what would now be called a Gillite of the first water.
ELDER WYATT comes next in age. First taught in the school of his father-in-law, but doubting, after laboring a few years in the ministry, the correctness of some of the positions assumed by the old gentleman, in trying to find a middle passage between Gillism and Armenianism [sic], he stumbled more or less on both. Still the Baptists in the Association have good cause to respect his memory, for his labors in trying to build up the denomination in this, then a wilderness. Br. Wyatt labored but a few years in the Lord's vineyard, when he left it to others, and entered exclusively into the business of the world, where he accumulated a good fortune, and died.
ELDER THRIFT was a native of Virginia. He was a student of the Philadelphia Confession of Faith; quite an eccentric character, but withal calculated to do good in a new settlement, destitute of any other. He died, like Father Brudige, in a good old age, respected wherever known.
HENRY GEORGE was a native of Wales. He came to this country in the beginning of the present century. His family resided awhile in Beulah, on the Alleghany Mountains. He came to this State as a missionary, in the service of the Philadelphia Missionary Society. Being pleased with the country, and the prospect of usefulness as a preacher, and of providing for a young and growing family, he removed and settled in Knox county, sometime in 1809-10. Brother George was probably the best educated, in his mother tongue, of any preacher belonging to the Association.
It will be seen by the minutes, that he soon collected a few Baptists in the settlement, and formed them into a church, of which he became the pastor. This church grew rapidly. In 1815 it contained twenty members; in 1816, ninety-eight; in 1817, one hundred and two. These facts are better than volumes of eulogium in favor of his piety and talents. He labored and traveled considerably in this State, in the service of the Massachusetts Missionary Society. He died in Radnor, Delaware county, in 1822, to which place he had removed a short time before.
AMOS MIX. -- Of this brother very little is known, or whether he is yet alive. He fell in with and adopted the views of Elder Thrift, and like him, was little known beyond the bounds of his own neighborhood.
JOHN W. PATTERSON came to this State a short time before the formation of the Columbus Association, and settled in Licking county. He was for several years considered the most popular preacher in this connection. His labors were blessed in the regions he occupied, and converts were added to the churches to which he ministered. But his days of prosperity and usefulness were soon numbered. The churches which he gathered , and to whom he had broken the bread of life, were called to put on sack-cloth, and to weep between the porch and the altar; to say in bitterness of spirit, "Spare thy people, O Lord! And give not thy heritage to reproach."
THOMAS RIGDON was the first and only preacher in those days, connected with this Association, who claimed to have any advantages over his less favored brethren, in point of education. His qualifications, both natural and acquired, placed him in the front rank in the denomination. But the churches in the western part of the Association knew but little of him as a preacher. Popularity, or at least an effort to obtain it -- for he sought the honor of men, and not of God only -- destroyed his usefulness. By striving to serve God and mammon, he lost the favor of both. His first departure from the regular Baptist faith was in embracing the errors of Alexander Campbell. From this he became an active leader in the Mormon delusion.
___________________[From Jacob Drake, A History of Columbus Baptist Association (OH) From its Organization to 1837, With a Brief Sketch of Ministers and Churches, 1859. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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