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- REV. NATHAN WARDNER, pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist
- Church at Milton Junction, was born in Wheatland, Monroe
Co., N.Y., on the 12th day of April, 1820, and is the ninth and
youngest child of Philip and Polly (WISE) WARDNER who were natives
of Vermont. The family on the father's side is of German descent.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Jacob WARDNER, was born
on the Atlantic Ocean, while his parents were en route from Germany
to America. After attaining to mature years he settled on a farm
in Roxbury, Vt., where Philip was born and reared to manhood.
He married Polly WISE, who was probably of English descent. He
was a carpenter by trade, but resolved to secure some land for
his children, and with that end in view removed to the unsettled
portion of Western New
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- York, where in the midst of the forest he developed a farm.
He was ordained a Deacon in the regular Baptist Church in 1827,
and continued to fill that position until his death in 1852.
While laying the foundation for the material welfare of his children,
he was unable to afford them many advantages, but his youngest
son, our subject, resolved to secure an education.
- Determining to carry out his resolution, on reaching his
majority, with only eighteen pence in his
- pocket, Nathan WARDNER left his home for the school room.
By perseverance and the closest frugality, he secured the benefit
of a course at Alfred University, in Allegany County, N.Y. His
cash outlay for a year was not allowed to exceed $75, a sum which
would seem very meager indeed to the youth of the present day.
In 1842 he became convinced that the seventh day of the week
was the true Sabbath, and associated himself with the Seventh
Day Baptist Church. In the latter part of 1846, that church determined
to send missionaries abroad, and Mr. WARDNER was solicited as
one of them, although his university course was not quite completed.
He was therefore ordained as a regular minister of the church.
He was married Oct. 6, 1846, to Miss Olive B. FORBES, who was
born at Lock, Cayuga Co., N.Y. On the 5th day of January, 1847,
he sailed form New York for China, accompanied by his wife and
a fellow-missionary. Mr. WARDNER was one of the first sent out
by the Seventh Day Baptist Church to make converts in the eastern
countries. While in China, he so far mastered the language of
the people as to be able to preach to them in their native tongue,
and was doing a grand work, when he was compelled to return home
on account of his wife's failing health. Mrs. WARDNER returned
to America at the end of nine years, and finding, a year later,
that she would never again be able to go to the field of their
labors abroad, Mr. WARDNER also came home. Their three children
were born in China, where one died; another child died at the
age of nine years, and after their return to America. The living
son, Morton Smith, is now a successful physician and pharmacist
in Chicago. Although never fully recovering her health, Mrs.
WARDNER survived until Oct. 5, 1888, when she was called to her
final rest.
- In consideration of his distinguished services and his success
in mastering the Chinese language,
- Mr. WARDNER was awarded a diploma by the university at Alfred,
N.Y., on his return to this country. For eight years he was pastor
of the Church at Alfred, Allegany Co., N.Y., and for a year and
a half had charge of the church at Westerly, R.I., when he received
a call from the church at West Halleck, Peoria Co., Ill., where
he remained for seven years. The two succeeding years were spent
in missionary work in Scotland, and after his return, in the
autumn of 1877, he became pastor of the church at Milton Junction,
where he has since remained. Since adopting the seventh day as
the Sabbath, Mr. WARDNER has been very zealous in spreading the
doctrines of the Seventh Day Baptist Church. In 1867 the American
Sabbath Tract Society, published a series of four powerful sermons
prepared by him on the subject of the Sabbath, which were revised
and published in 1875. Having become involved in a discussion
with the editor of the Battle Creek Review and Herald, and being
shut out of the columns of that journal, Mr. WARDNER published
in 1882 a review of the whole discussion, which had a wide circulation.
He has also published numerous tracts, reviewing the fallacies
of the American Reform Association, and on other subjects which
concern the public mind. He has taken an active part in the abolition
and temperance movements, and by delivering lectures and in other
ways has shown by his deep interest in the vital issues of the
day affecting the welfare of mankind. In 1877, Milton College
conferred upon Mr. WARDNER the degree of D.D.
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- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 849-850; lithograph from
same book.
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- Courtesy of Carol
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