Obadiah Dodson: Buried in Rusk County

...but ministered much elsewhere. Below are bits and pieces about Dodson that I have gleaned from books and the world wide web. In connection with Rusk County, Dodson wrote that when he came to Rusk County there was only one Missionary Baptist Church.

“...I found but one Baptist church in Rusk county, known as missionary, instead of Eastern Texas.”

See HERE and HERE.

“One of the early influences of the Baptist faith in this area of West Tennessee was a preacher named Obadiah Dodson. He preached throughout West Tennessee and helped to establish the Big Hatchie Association, and was instrumental in establishing churches at Middleburg and Clover Creek.”

Hardeman County, by Lisa C. Coleman, p. 37

“Clover Creek Church, United Baptist, situated in Hardeman County, Tennessee, was constituted Saturday preceeding the third Lord’s Day in March and the year of our Lord 1826 by Elders Obadiah Dodson and Cornelius McClolisc.”

Genealogy Trails, Hardeman County

“The Baptist Church at Middleburg was organized on June 17, 1836, when 11 men and women formed the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Obadiah Dodson was the first pastor.”

Hardeman County, Tennessee: Family History, Volume 2, p. 23

“In 1850, the name of Elder Obadiah Dodson appears among the list of ministers in this association. The first work performed by him, that I have any information of, was the organization of Harmony church, Rusk County, assisted by Elder Ray, in 1850, with fifteen members.

“With this brother I had an intimate acquaintance in Tennessee, in 1826, and labored much with him there up to 1835. He was always an active worker, and in charge of from two to four churches during all the time. When I first knew him he was much opposed to mission combinations, but in a few years became an active, thorough-going missionary, in theory and practice.

“He was a man of some ability and great zeal, mixed with many eccentricities. He appears, in 1851, among the active workers in the Soda Lake Association, as the pastor of five churches.”

Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness, p. 267

“Elder Obadiah Dodson.—Was born in North Carolina, or Tennessee, where his labors as a minister began. He was an active missionary, and seeking a new field about 1847, removed to Arkansas and thence to Louisiana, and became a missionary in the employ of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. He was the author of an excellent work called “Fifteen Reasons for the Proper Training of Children.” He died in DeSoto Parish in 1854.”

A History of the Baptists of Louisiana, p. 522

Obadiah Dodson wrote Moral Instructor and Guide to Youth, a Book containing Answers to Eleven Biblical Questions; also, Seventeen Propositions upon the Training of Children (Jackson, TN: Gates & Parker, printers, 1844), and Twelve Sermons presented for the Benefit of Saint and Sinner (Jackson, TN: Gates & Parker, printers, 1845).

With “Choctaw Bill” Robinson, organized the Holly Springs Church in Rusk County in 1851.

The Woodland Baptist Church (this name from 1870) was established by Obadiah Dodson in 1835, due to a split in the Brown’s Creek Baptist Church over the subject of missions. (Woodland Baptist Church historical marker)

“T. P. Crawford...was ordained and sent out by the Big Black Creek Baptist Church and the Big Hatchie Baptist Association, which was formed at the Big Black Creek Baptist Church by our friend Obadiah Dodson, who helped form the Louisiana Baptist Convention and a pastor of The Big Black Creek Baptist Church.”

Big Black Creek Historical Association

In 1849 Dodson a charter member and first pastor of the Maple Springs Baptist Church. See HERE.

Obituary of Elder Obadiah Dodson:

Whereas, The afflicting hand of Providence has visited us during the past associational year, bereaving us of our well beloved and highly esteemed Brother, Elder Obadiah Dodson, therefore

Be it Resolved, That this Association deeply sympathize with the bereaved family of our dear, departed Brother, and feel that the whole Association suffers in common with the family of the deceased an irreparable loss.

Bro: Dodson was a faithful soldier of Jesus; and although his last illness was short, and he was not sensible of the approach of death, yet we feel confident that he has fallen asleep in Christ.

He lived the life of the righteous and his last days were like His.

Minutes of the Grand Cane (La.) Baptist Association, 1854, page 6

Dodson and his wife are supposed to be buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Rusk County.