Daniel Abraham Gaddie (May 21, 1836 – November 13, 1911) was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

preacher in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He was known for his leadership in state and national Baptist organizations.

Biography

Gaddie was born May 21, 1836.Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. ''Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising''. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p647–650 At birth, he had the last name "Jamison", the name of his father and slave owner. When freed, he changed his name to Gaddie. He was born in

Hart County, Kentucky Hart County is a county located in the south central portion of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,288. Its county seat is Munfordville. Hart County is a prohibition or dry county. History Hart County w ...

.Smith, Gerald L., and Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin, eds. ''The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia''. University Press of Kentucky, 2015. p197 He was ordained in 1865 by a committee including Rev.

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...

, Rev. Richard Sneethen, Charles Edwards, and Solomon Patterson. He was pastor in several cities in Kentucky. After Rev. Sneethen died on April 11, 1872, Gaddie was elected pastor of Glendale and Green Street Baptist church in October 1872. He served at Green Street until 1911. In that role, he became a prominent leader among Kentucky Baptists and Kentucky African Americans. He was a leading participant of the 1869 Kentucky Colored Education Convention. Starting in the 1870s, he was a delegate and eventually an officer of the General Association of Kentucky Baptists. He was treasurer at the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

National

American Baptist Convention The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a mainline/evangelical Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainli ...

August 25, 1886. He was also elected vice president at the American Consolidated Baptist convention and a member of the board of trustees and the executive board at the Simmons College of Kentucky. He received an honorary doctorate of divinity from

Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts * Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky * Ha ...

on May 17, 1887. Gaddie was a fiery and imposing figure. Before becoming a preacher, he had worked as a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

, and he was called an "

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

in bravery, a

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

in strength." In 1898, Gaddie gave a controversial sermon opposing the coming

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...

, basing his argument on the lack of legal protection afforded blacks in America. Gaddie died on Monday, November 13, 1911. He preached at Sunday services the day before when he took ill. Physicians pronounced his trouble to be acute indigestion."Oldest Negro Preacher in the City Passes Away"
''The Courier-Journal'' (Louisville, Kentucky) November 14, 1911, page 2, accessed November 14, 2016. Gaddie was buried in

Eastern Cemetery Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site, and has more than 4,000 marked ...

in Louisville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaddie, Daniel Abraham 1836 births 1911 deaths People from Hart County, Kentucky Religious leaders from Louisville, Kentucky African-American Baptist ministers Baptist ministers from the United States Activists for African-American civil rights American blacksmiths Baptists from Kentucky 20th-century African-American people