Louisiana AHGP

Part of the American History and Genealogy Project

Henry Zubley Ardis

Henry Z. Ardis (brother of well-known preacher Mathias Ardis) was born in Edgefield district, South Carolina on August 8, 1811. He served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Homer from 1872 to 1873. His family were strong Presbyterians and his maternal grand uncle was considered to be the father of Presbyterianism in Georgia. He became a Christian when sixteen and united with the Presbyterian Church on Beech Island, South Carolina in August 1827. According to his great granddaughter, Virginia Yardley, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister around this time.

He married on Christmas Day, 1832 to Anna Biggs and the following year his daughter was born. He was urged to have the child baptized, but postponed the ceremony and eventually refused, convinced the New Testament did not teach infant baptism.

He joined the Baptist Church and was baptized September 26, 1834. This caused a huge fight in the family, but he immediately began to conduct prayer meetings and to witness to others.

By the next year, he had convinced his mother, his aunt and John Gill Shorter (later distinguished in Alabama) to join the Baptist faith. He did not, however, convince his wife. In January of 1835, he was ordained by Union Church, South Carolina and served as pastor for nine years. He also served as pastor for Steel Creek, Beach Island and Matlock churches, all of South Carolina.

In 1845, because of ill health, he and his family moved to Madison County, Florida. He remained at this pastorate for twenty-one years. Sixteen years as the Presbyterian wife of a Baptist preacher must have proved enough and in 1850 his wife joined the Baptist church. He was pastor of Monticello, Jefferson County and Bellville Churches in Florida.

In 1870, his wife Anna (and mother of his ten children) died and he soon left to be with his brother, Mathias. In 1872 he met and married a Miss Elizabeth Cooksey and became pastor of Mt. Lebanon, Homer and Minden Baptist Churches.

In 1874 Rev. Ardis called a meeting of the women of the Baptist Church at Mt. Lebanon and formed the first Woman's Missionary Society in Louisiana. His wife served as the first president of this organization. Brother Ardis died July 11, 1881 while pastoring in Athens. He, along with many of his family, is buried in Mt. Lebanon cemetery. Elizabeth Ardis died in Texas in 1884.16

Biographical Sketches| Claiborne Parish | AHGP

Source: Author's Notice: I hereby give permission for the free dissemination of any and all material included within the book and permit any non profit use of that material. Should any agency wish to use the material in a profit context, permission must be secured from the church body of First Baptist Church, Homer, LA 71040.  By Barbara Smith, Homer, Louisiana.