A Sesquicentennial History of the Green River Missionary Baptist Church
1836 - 1986, Written and Compiled by Wendell Holmes Rone, Sr., For the One
Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Church, 1987. By
permission of author. Ohio County.

ALLISON BRYAN GARDNER was the Eighteenth pastor to serve the Green River
Church, serving in the office first from June, 1902 through December, 1906,
and again from January, 1908 through December, 1911.  Only one year
intervened between his two pastorates - that of 1907 - when Pastor G. H.
Lawrence served.
   Brother Gardner was born at Townsville, Butler County, Kentucky, on May
19, 1865; and was the son of Ganderson D. Gardner and Harriett (McCoy)
Gardner.  In his early youth he was converted and united with the Union
Baptist Church, Butler County, Kentucky, being baptized by Pastor James
Pendleton Taylor.
   Having received a fair English education in the schools of his native
County, and in the private schools at that time; he was licensed to preach
the Gospel of Christ by his home Church in February, 1887.  By this same
Church he was ordained to the Baptist Ministry on June 6, 1889 by Pastors
James P. Taylor, B. T. Mayhugh and J. F. Gardner, who served as the
Presbytery.  He immediately took charge of the Union Church as Pastor, and
served some other nearby Churches in the period 1889-1896.  From 1896 to
1899 he served the following Churches, located in Logan County, Kentucky: 
Mt. Pleasant (Lewisburg), Beechland, Dunmor, Friendship, Whitaker's Grove,
Gupton's Grove, Clear Fork and Cave Spring.  From 1899 to 1906 he served
Morgantown and Salem in Butler County; Green River, in Ohio County;
Livermore, in McLean County and White Stone Quarry and Providence Knob, in
Warren County.  From 1906 to 1915 he served Hartford, Beaver Dam, Green
River, Slaty Creek, Rockport and Bell's Run, in Ohio County; and Sugar
Grove and Pleasant Ridge, in Daviess County.
   For many years Brother Gardner had been interested in seeing another
Orphan's Home established by Kentucky Baptists outside the Louisville area.
Largely through his vision and labors, the Kentucky Baptist Children's
Home was established at Glendale, Hardin County, Kentucky, near
Elizabethtown.  He was selected as the first Superintendent of it and
remained in the office from 1915 until the latter part of the year 1917. 
He then returned to the pastorate and served the Churches at Morgantown,
Dawson Springs, Sugar Grove and Pleasant Ridge.  He died at his home in
Morgantown, Kentucky, on October 9, 1918.  The present House of Worship at
Morgantown was erected during his last pastorate there, and was dedicated
the Sunday before he died, becoming definitely a monument to his faithful
labors for the Lord.  We note, too, that he served the Gasper River
Association on four occasions as the Moderator, and served the Ohio County
Association in the same office for six years.  He preached the Annual
Sermon before the Gasper River Association five times, and before the Ohio
County fraternity two times.  He also served on several committees of thse
General Association of Baptists in Kentucky (now the Kentucky Baptist
Convention).  For a number of years he was a member of the Kentucky
Baptist State Mission Board.
   Brother Gardner was married to Miss Ida Dabbs, the daughter of Brother 
and Mrs. J. R. Dabbs, in 1889.  To this union five children were born - two
sons and three daughters.  The widow and children survived him.  Brother
Gardner's religious training was under favorable circumstances encouraging
to true piety.  He was closely related, through his father's people, to
Rev. Joseph Dabbs, the first Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Nashville,
Tennessee, founded in 1820.  Through his mother, he was related to the
famous Taylor family of the Green River Country, which has produced by
God's grace not less than twenty-five preachers.
   Brother Gardner was a clear and rapid-fire thinker, a bold and fearless
preacher, uncompromising in his convictions for the truth.  Indeed, he was
a man with a message, and was in constant demand, both as a pastor and as
an Evangelist.  Contemporaries thought of him as a lovable man and a
faithful preacher of the Gospel of Christ.  His pastorates at Green River
Church were most successful as 162 united with the Church by baptism and 15
by letter.  Total membership increased from 142 to 269, after losses are
taken into consideration.  The Pastor's Salary increased from $100.00 per
year to $400.00 in that time, the highest to that time it had ever been.

Gardner Lawrence Taylor Mayhugh Gardner Dabbs
=
Townsville-Butler-KY Logan-KY McLean-KY Warren-KY Daviess-KY
Louisville-Jefferson-KY Hardin-KY Nashville-Davidson-TN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/ohio/gardner.ab.txt