 1820 - 1894 (73 years)
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| Name |
Nathan B. Wardner |
| Born |
12 Apr 1820 |
Wheatland, New York, USA  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
6 Apr 1894 |
Milton Junction, Wisconsin, USA |
| Buried |
Milton Junction Cemetery, Milton Junction, Rock County, Wisconsin, United States |
| Person ID |
I15695 |
Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
10 Nov 2013 |
| Father |
Philip Wardner, b. 16 Apr 1777, Alstead, New Hampshire, USA , d. 7 Jul 1852, Andover, New York, USA (Age 75 years) |
| Mother |
Mary Wise, b. 25 May 1783, Westminster, Vermont, USA , d. 22 Aug 1822 (Age 39 years) |
| Married |
27 Jan 1803 |
Grafton, Vermont, USA |
| Family ID |
F15116 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 1 |
Olive Brown Forbes, b. 22 May 1822, Locke, New York, USA , d. 8 Oct 1888, Milton Junction, Wisconsin, USA (Age 66 years) |
| Children |
| + | 1. Morton Smith Wardner, b. 14 Jan 1850, Shanghai, Zhonghua , d. 20 Dec 1943, Chicago, Illinois, USA (Age 93 years) |
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| Last Modified |
9 Nov 2013 |
| Family ID |
F15219 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 2 |
Martha S. Harvey, b. 6 May 1856, Milton Junction, Wisconsin, USA , d. 5 Dec 1925, Battle Creek, Michigan, USA (Age 69 years) |
| Married |
Dec 1889 |
| Last Modified |
10 Nov 2013 |
| Family ID |
F15220 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
- Nathan Wardner was born in Wheatland, Monroe Co., N. Y., April 6, 1820, and died at Milton Junction, Wis., April 6, 1894. His father, Phillip Wardner, was a Baptist deacon, and his mother an earnest Christian worker, zealous in the cause of missions, who dying when he was about two and a half years of age, consecrated him, it is supposed, in his infancy to the gospel ministry and especially to missionary work among the heathen.
When he was about five years of age his father with his family moved to Andover, Allegany Co., N. Y., where the limited resources of the family and the toil and struggle, incident to a comparatively new and undeveloped section of the country, rendered his early life, as a farmer boy, one of busy, yet healthful toil, and one affording very little opportunity for attaining the education which it was his early ambition to acquire.
The influence of a well ordered Christian home early laid the foundation of an upright, truth-loving and morally steadfast life. In the spring of 1839 he became the subject of saving grace and in the following June was baptized into the Baptist Church of Andover, N. Y. After his conversion and baptism came the conviction of duty to preach the gospel and with it the increased sense of his need of education as a preparation for a work of so much importance and responsibility. In the way of effort for the attainment of the needed culture he spent the winters of 1839 and '40, 1840 and '41 in study at Alfred Academy. After the summer of 1841, having attained his majority, with an occasional term out, to earn the means to meet his expenses, he continued his studies at Alfred until 1846.
At Alfred he commenced the investigation of the Sabbath question in the confident expectation that he should find abundant Bible authority for Sunday-keeping and having little, if any, thought of the possibility that he would himself be led to accept, instead of the Sunday, God's sanctified seventh-day Sabbath. The struggle through which he passed was that of the devoutly, loyal Christian man, honestly endeavoring to lay the foundations of a Christian life upon the sure word of God. It ended when at last he surrendered himself of the divine will and authority and conscientiously committed himself to God in the keeping of his holy day. This change of sentiment and corresponding change in his practice of Sabbath-keeping occurred about the middle of January, 1843. About two months later, March 18, 1843, he united with the First Alfred Church. The joy of this second and more complete giving of himself to God, he himself describes as 'exceeding even the ardor of his first love,' and as 'rewarding him a thousand fold for all the sacrifices he had made.'
In September, 1846, he accepted the call of the Seventh-day Baptist Missionary Society to become a missionary on the foreign field. On the 6th day of the following month of October, at a missionary meeting held with the first church of Alfred, he was united in marriage with Miss Olive Brown Forbes, who was also a convert to the Sabbath, and both willing and ready to share with him the self-denial, cares, labors and responsibilities incident to missionary labor on a foreign field.
At Plainfield, N. J., Dec. 31, 1846, he was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry. At the same time himself and wife, Solomon Carpenter and wife were, by prayerful consecration, set apart to the China Mission. Five days later, Jan. 5, 1847, this company of Seventh-day Baptist missionaries set sail from New York harbor for their future field of labor. In the autumn of 1857 Missionary Wardner returned to his native land expecting to go back to the China field within a few months at the longest. From this he was deterred by the condition of Mrs. Wardner's health, who had been in this country for a year or more, seeking the restoration of impaired health and strength, but was not sufficiently restored to go back and take up again the duties of the missionary on the China field.
Since his return to this country Mr. Wardner has spent most of his life in meeting the active and responsible duties of the pastor, and has served with efficiency and acceptance the following churches: Second Alfred, N. Y., 1858-1866; Pawcatuck, R. I., 1866 to 1868; West Hallock, Ill., 1868 to 1875. From 1875 to 1877 he was in the employ of the American Sabbath Tract Society as Sabbath Reform missionary to Great Britain with his headquarters at Edinburg, Scotland. The Haarlem, Holland, Seventh-day Baptist Church and Mission came into existence through the publication and distribution of Sabbath Reform literature at Edinburg by Missionary Wardner. In 1877 he again became pastor, settling with the church at Milton Junction, Wis., in which relation he continued until 1890. From 1890 to 1982 he was busy with certain lines of literary work and frequent preaching. From 1892 until the time of his death he was the pastor of the church at Utica, Wis., thus being permitted, with a good degree of mental and physical vigor, to work up to the margin of an active and useful life.
The companion of his early life and toil in the Master's vineyard, Olive Forbes Wardner, died at Milton Junction, Oct. 5, 1888. There were born unto them two sons, one of whom died in childhood, the other, Dr. M. S. Wardner, is now a practicing physician at Garwin, Iowa. Dec. 4, 1889, he was married to Miss Mattie Harvey, a worthy and devout Christian, who, after a brief and happy married life, is left to mourn him, whose loving ministry in sickness and suffering had brought to her the fuller appreciation of the loss sustained by his death.
He was conscientious and steadfast in his devotion to truth and duty, upright in life and character, incisive and logical in his methods of thought and discourse, and leaves behind him the influence and benediction of a life sincerely earnest in its purpose and effort to walk with God and lead his fellowmen to the knowledge of that truth which makes men wise unto salvation.
"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 50, No 16, p 243, Apr. 19, 1894.
and "The Seventh Day Baptist Yearbook", 1894, p 45.
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