Broaddus, Wm. F., D.D., was born in Culpeper Co., Va., April 30, 1801.

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Admin  · 2h  · Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Post by Jim Curran Broaddus, Wm. F., D.D., was born in Culpeper Co., Va., April 30, 1801. His mind developed rapidly, and he soon secured and held a prominent position among his associates. He married at the early age of eighteen, and was converted at the age of twenty. In April, 1824, he was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry. He settled in Mid- dleburg, Loudoun Co., Va:, where he conducted with great success a large school for young ladies, serving at the same time as pastor, Mount Salem, “FE. ‘T.” Bethel, Upperville, Long Branch, and Middlebury churches. In this field he labored most successfully for sixteen years, serving the churches in some cases without compensation, and in others for merely a nominal salary. Antino- mianism at that period held sway over this entire region, and its advocates exerted themselves to the utmost to render futile his plain gospel teachings and faithful labors. But the truth gradually won its way, until a complete revolution was made in the views, feelings, and actions of individuals and churches, so that no more exemplary and fruitful churches can be found than those in the region where Dr. Broaddus began his ministerial career. The denomination at large knows but little of what they really owe to him for having been the means of driving out a “dead orthodoxy,” and planting in its stead a vital, active Christian life. In 1840 he removed to Lexington, Ky., where he engaged in teaching and preaching, serving, besides other churches, those at Versailles and Shelbyville. About the year 1851 he returned to Virginia ané accepted an agency for the Columbian College, Washington, D, C., to raise an endowment fund for that institution. In this he was quite successful, In 1835 he accepted an invitation to become pastor of the church in Fredericksburg, Va., where he was soon instrumental in building a handsome church edifice, and in gathering a large and efficient congregation. Still retaining his strong predilection for teaching, he opened here a school of a high grade for young ladies, which was conducted suc- cessfully for several years. In 1859 he undertook an agency for raising money in Virginia towards the endowment of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Returning to Fredericksburg on the successful accomplishment of this agency, he re- sumed his pastoral labors, and continued them until 1863, when the city was oceupied by U. S. troops and the inhabitants scattered over the State. Dr. Broaddus was held for a while by the U. S. authori- ties as prisoner in the ‘‘ Old Capitol” at Washing- ton, and by his gentlemanly bearing, genial humor, fund of anecdote, and straightforward, manly con- duct hé won the kindest regards of all who came in contact with him. Many a lonely hour did he lighten up in the old prison-house as he ‘narrated, in his peculiarly interesting way, to friends grouped around him, various adventures that he had’ met with in the diversified course of his eventful life. Dr. Broaddus, soon after his release, removed to Charlotteville, Va., and became pastor of the church in that place, which position he held until 1868, when he resigned and returned to Fredericks- burg to prosecute an agency under the appoint- ment of the General Association for the education of the children of deceased and disabled Confed- erate soldiers. This labor he carried on with great success until 1872, when the further prosecution of the work became unnecessary. Dr. Broaddus was enabled by his persevering efforts to keep at school for several years some thousands of poor children with the money raised for that purpose. For a brief period subsequent to this he devoted himself to the work of a voluntary and independent evan- gelist, preaching wherever invited, until blindness and increasing bodily infirmities prevented the fur- ther prosecution of these congenial labors. He died in Fredericksburg, Sept. 8, 1876, in the seventy- sixth year of his age. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon Mr. Broaddus by the ‘’olumbian College in 1854. As a man, Dr. Broaddus was genial, gentle, and courteous. His constant and varied intercourse with all classes of men gave him a shrewd insight into the more recondite workings of human nature. His companionship was as at- tractive to the young as it was to the middle-aged and the old. His home was open toall, and troops of friends have rested beneath his hospitable roof. As a peace-maker he was pre-eminent, and the blessings of many a household rested upon him for his judicious and kindly counsel. To every good work he gave his voice and his money, and fre- quently his personal labor, so that many now rise up to call him blessed. As a preacher, he was earnest, persuasive, practical. Obliged for years to combat the erroneous views of those who abused the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, and necessarily polemic in many of his earlier discourses, he never- theless held tenaciously to the fundamental doc- trines of grace, while he urged men everywhere to prove their new spiritual life by new spiritual works. A very large number, many hundreds per- haps, were converted through his instrumentality ; and as a consequence no name in the long list of faithful Virginia ministers is more earnestly loved and tenderly revered than that of William F. Broaddus.