A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769 to 1885, Including More Than 
800 Biographical Sketches, J. H. Spencer, Manuscript Revised and 
Corrected by Mrs. Burilla B. Spencer, In Two Volumes.  Printed For the 
Author.  1886.  Republished By Church History Research & Archives 1976 
Lafayette, Tennessee. Vol. 2, pp 376-381.  [Logan County]

WILLIAM WARDER was the third son of Joseph and Esther Warder, and was 
born in Fauquier Co., Va., Jan. 8, 1786.  He was brought up on his 
father's farm, and received a limited knowledge of the primary branches 
of an English education.  In his 19th year, he came with his brother 
John to Barren county, Ky.  In the following year, he sought and 
obtained hope in Christ.  He was not confident in the evidence of his 
conversion, and delayed his baptism.  After remaining in the new 
country, about two years, he went back to Virginia, whence he 
immediately returned with his family's family, and they all settled 
about six miles east of the present site of Glasgow, in Barren county, 
in 1807.  In April of that year, William and his brother Walter were 
baptized on the same day, into the fellowship of Dripping Springs 
church, by Robert Stockton.  Walter began to preach almost immediately; 
but William, naturally more timid, held back for a time.  Meanwhile, he 
improved his education very much by teaching school and applying himself 
to close study.
     In 1809, he was licensed to preach by the church at Mt. Pisgah, in 
Barren county, into the constitution of which he had recently entered.  
His improvement in preaching was very rapid, and, on the 24th of March, 
1811, he was ordained to the ministry, by Jacob Lock, Ralph Petty and 
Zachariah Emerson.  For about eight years after his ordination, he 
devoted himself to the work of an evangelist, with great zeal and 
activity.  In company with, first one and then another, of Hodgen, 
Vardeman, Warfield, R. T. Anderson, Philip Fall and others, he traveled 
and preached almost incessantly, from Franklin, Tennessee, to Maysville, 
Ky.  There were no pratracted [sic] meetings in those days.  'A three 
days meeting," was sometimes held; but Mr. Warder and his colaborers 
usually preached one or two sermons at a place, and then went on to the 
next appointment.  He reached in school houses, meeting houses, court 
houses and, in warm weather, at "stages" erected in the woods, but still 
oftener, in the cabins of the settlers.  He preached at all the 
principal towns in Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.  In going from one of 
these to another, he would preach almost every day and night.  Immense 
crowds often attended on his preaching, and great numbers were brought 
trembling to the cross of Christ.  After his brother Walter located at 
Mayslick, the strong and tender affection existing between these two 
brother induced William to visit him two or three times a year, when 
they would spend some weeks preaching together.  Sometimes they would 
cross the river, and make a tour into the State of Ohio.  When the time 
came for William to return home, Walter would travel some distance with 
him, and then take an affectionate leave.
     In 1817, William Warder and Isaac Hodgen were sent as messengers 
from the Kentucky Missionary Society, to the Baptist Triennial 
Convention, in Philadelphia.  They made the journey on horse-back, in 
order that they might preach on the way.  The distance was more than a 
thousand miles.  But so much were these godly men in love with the 
cross, that the journey, during which they preached almost every night, 
seemed to them as nothing.  From the Convention, they returned through 
Virginia.  The effect of their preaching at Waller's, an old church in 
Spottsylvania [sic] county, was truly wonderful.  The church was in so 
lifeless and hopeless a condition, that Absalom Waller, the pastor, was 
looking for a new field of labor.  They preached five or six sermons.  A 
most wonderful revival began.  A few months afterwards, Mr. Waller 
published a pamphlet, titled Drops of Mercy from a Bright Cloud, in 
which he stated that near six hundred had professed to obtain the pardon 
of sin, since the visit of Warder and Hodgen.
     In 1818, Mr. Warder visited Russellville to preach a funeral 
sermon in commemoration of Mrs. Grubbs.  After this, he made frequent 
visits to that portion of the State, sometimes extending his tours as 
far as Hopkinsville, Clarksville, Nashville, and even farther.  In 
February, 1819, he induced Isaac Hodgen to go with him on a tour to the 
"lower counties."  An extensive revival followed their labors.  Twenty-
seven persons were baptized at Russellville.  During the same year, he 
and Vardeman made a tour through these counties, and, again, their 
labors were successful at Russellville, as they were also at other 
points.
     In the fall of 1819, Mr. Warder and several other gentleman made 
an excursion to the north-western territory, and spent several weeks in 
the neighborhood of Council Bluff and other points on the frontier.  
They made the journey on horseback, and Mr. Warder preached at St. Louis 
and other points, where he could collect a congregation.  He describes 
St. Louis as "a flourishing, business town of about 5,000 inhabitants," 
the beauty of which was much marred "by the narrowness of the streets in 
the centre of the town."
     After his return from the north-west, Mr. Warder continued his 
labors as an itinerant, with his accustomed activity and success.  On 
the 8th of January, 1821, he made the following entry in his diary:  
"To-day, I am 35 years old - half way to three score years and ten.  In 
my 20th year, I obtained a hope of religion, in the month of July  .... 
The most of my time has been spent in the ministry, and I have reason to 
hope my labors have not been altogether in vain.  Indeed, the Lord has 
blessed me altogether beyond my most sanguine expectations, and has laid 
me under infinite obligations to bless and adore him.  I grieve and am 
ashamed, when I look back and see the great lack of fervent piety and 
zeal, which marks the most of my life.  Indeed, when recollection causes 
the whole scene to pass before me, I find much to lament, and little to 
rejoice in, at least, so far as it relates to myself; and were it left 
to my choice to recall it and pass over the same scenes again, I feel as 
though there would be no hesitancy in letting it pass."
     In March, 1820, he was called to the pastoral care of Russellville 
church, and soon afterwards accepted like calls to churches at Glasgow 
and Bowling Green.  The field of his labors now became, of necessity, 
more circumscribed; but he was none the less zealous, earnest and 
laborious.  He preached from house to house within the bounds of his 
pastoral charges, and still made many tours outside of his pastoral 
field.  On the 25th of December, 1821, he was married to Margaret A., 
daughter of Charles Morehead of Logan county, and sister to the late 
Governor Charles S. Morehead.  The day after his marriage, he wrote in 
his diary: - "I have entered the married estate under the banner of 
judgment and unhesitating affection, and feel all the sweet contentment 
arising from the assurance of meeting the approbation of our Creator, 
and securing my happiness."
     He now settled near Russellville, where he continued to devote 
himself to his holy calling.  Everything appeared to move on smoothly in 
his charges, until 1823, when an ominous cloud hung over the church at 
Russellville.  William I. Morton, a respectable lawyer of the town, had 
recently joined the church.  Having been raised a Pedobaptist, he 
believed in open communion, and had privately disseminated his 
sentiments among the brethren.  Having led some of the members of 
embrace his views, a private caucus was held, and it was determined to 
present a resolution to the church, directing a petition to be sent to 
the Red River Association, asking that body to endorse the practice of 
open communion.  Mr. Warder discovered the plot in time to prevent its 
success.  The resolution was presented to the church, but after a 
spirited debate, chiefly between Mr. Morton and the pastor, the vote was 
taken, as to whether the resolution should lie over till next meeting.  
The church refused to consider it further, by so large a majority, that 
it was never again brought up.  In the spring of 1828, Mr. Warder moved 
to Nashville, Tenn., and engaged with Philip S. Fall, in teaching 
school.  But he was unhappy in that position, and, after remaining there 
one year, returned to his farm near Russellville.  He was soon called to 
the care of the churches at Bowling Green, Russellville and Union. With 
these churches, he continued to labor during the remainder of his 
earthly pilgrimage.
     The influence of Mr. Warder, in Red River Association, was 
extensive and very salutary.  He was poorly educated in his youth, but 
having a strong native intellect, and applying himself to study with 
great zeal, he became a good general scholar.  he was a man of large 
views and practical enterprise, and devoted himself earnestly to the 
good of his race.  When he came into the territory of the Red River 
Association in 1818, he found the Baptists of that region strongly 
Antinomian, and opposed to all benevolent enterprises.  He immediately 
lent his energies to correcting these evils.  His first move, after 
preaching among the people himself, was to introduce to the churches, 
those noble and enterprising men of God, Warfield, Hodgen, Vardeman and 
Walter Warder.  The effect was immediate and powerful.  The contrast 
between the preaching of those men, and the stupid, ignorant harangues of 
the Antinomian preachers, was so striking that the more intelligent 
brethren began to discuss the matter, and the need of a better educated 
ministry was soon felt.  The Antinomian preachers claimed that every word 
they uttered from the pulpit was dictated by the Holy spirit.  They 
themselves, and many of their hearers believed this.  Of course this 
superseded the need of study, on the part of the preachers.  But many of 
the more enlightened brethren, began to doubt God's being the author of 
their silly sermons; and their doubts soon ripened into a positive 
rejection of the claim.  The Association had been somewhat divided on 
these subjects, but the breach now widened rapidly.  Ross, Fort, Wilson, 
Warfield, Warder and a few others advocated the education and support of 
the ministry, and the cause of missions, while a larger party opposed 
them with great vehemence.  Meanwhile, Warder organized an "Educating 
Society," with a view to educating young preachers.  All these things 
widened the breach; but a reformation was necessary, even if it cost a 
revolution.  The time was rapidly approaching when a separation must 
take place.  At a meeting of Red River Association, Mr. Warder preached 
a sermon on the subject of missions, to an immense audience.  In his 
introduction, he said:
     "This subject demands a sacrifice, and I may as well be the victim 
as any one else."  In 1825, a portion of the missionary party separated 
themselves from Red River, and formed Bethel Association.  Mr. Warder 
and his charges chose to remain in the old fraternity, with the hope of 
reforming it.  But a few years proved the fruitlessness of the effort, 
and they united with Bethel Association.
     About 1830, Mr. Warder was thrown from a gig, and his ankle was so 
crushed that he had to preach, sitting on a chair, the remainder of his 
life.  He died of a congestive chill, August 9, 1836.  He left one son, 
Joseph W. Warder, who is now widely known in Kentucky, as an able, 
eloquent and devoted minister of the gospel.

Warder Stockton Lock Petty Emerson Hodgen Vardeman Warfield Anderson 
Fall Waller Grubbs Morehead Morton Ross Fort Wilson
=
Fauquier-VA Glasgow-Barren-KY TN Maysville-Mason-KY TN OH PA 
Spotsylvania-VA Hopkinsville-Christian-KY Nashville-Davidson-TN 
St._Louis-St._Louis-MO Bowling Green-Warren-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/logan/warder.w.txt