J. M. Pendleton was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1811. He was named in honor of the then current President of the United States, James Madison. When J.M. was a baby his family moved to Kentucky. It was there that the Lord saved him and where he was baptized. At the age of 18 he went to seminary at Hopkinsville and immediately began preaching the gospel. For twenty years after he graduated, he pastored at Bowling Green, Kentucky. While J. R. Graves preached a meeting at the church, the two became good friends. They shared similar opinions about the fallen state of many Baptist Churches.

On January 1, 1857, Brother Pendleton left Kentucky and moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to teach university. But in sympathy with the North, he left Tennessee in 1862 to become pastor in Hamilton, Ohio, before moving to the Upland Baptist Church in Pennsylvania where he assisted in founding Crozer Theological Seminary.

One of the saddest aspects of his life, was that his son, John Malcom Pendleton, disagreed with him on the subject of slavery and the war. John joined the Confederate army and lost his life in battle.

I have two books written by J.M. Pendleton – An Ancient Landmark Reset and Pendleton’s Church Manuel.

He died on this day in 1891. His funeral was conducted by another famous Baptist of the period, T.T. Eaton of Louisville, Kentucky. He was buried in the cemetery at Bowling Green.