Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Boardman, George Dana

BOARDMAN, George Dana, missionary, b. in Livermore, Me., 8 Feb., 1801; d. in Burmah, 11 Feb., 1831. He was the son of a clergyman, was graduated at Waterville in 1822, studied at Andover theological seminary, and was ordained in the Baptist church, with the intention of becoming a missionary, at West Yarmouth, Me., 16 Feb., 1825. He married Sarah Hall, 4 July, and on the 16th sailed for Calcutta, where he arrived 2 Dec., 1825. After acquiring the Burman language, he entered upon his labors at Maulmain in May, 1827, and planted a mission, which became the central point of all the Baptist missions in Burmah. In April, 1828, he established a mission at Tavoy, where he soon afterward baptized Ko-mah-byn, a Karen convert, whose labors were very successful among his countrymen. On 5 Feb., 1828, he set out on a tour among the Karen villages, and met with such success that he determined on a systematic course of itinerary labor. On these trips he was usually accompanied by Ko-mah-byn or some other convert. His exertions occasioned the loss of his health and brought on his early death by consumption. His widow married the Rev. Adoniram Judson, the missionary. See “Memoir of George Dana Boardman,” by the Rev. A. King (Boston), and “G. D. Boardman and the Burman Mission” (Boston, 1875). — His son, George Dana, clergyman, b. in Tavoy, Burmah, 18 Aug., 1828, was graduated at Brown in 1852, and at Newton theological institution in 1855, and in that year became pastor of the Baptist church in Barnwell, S. C. But his views on the slavery question impelled him to exchange his charge in 1856 for a church in the north. He was pastor of the 2d Baptist church in Rochester, N. Y., until 1864, and after that of the 1st church in Philadelphia. Besides review articles, sermons, and addresses, he has published “Studies in the Creative Week” (New York, 1878); “Studies in the Model Prayer” (1879); “Epiphanies of the Risen Lord” (1879); and “Studies in the Mountain Instruction” (1880).