Jeremiah Vardeman, born July 8, 1775, in Wythe County, Virginia, became one of the most prominent Baptist ministers associated with Kentucky and Missouri. After his family moved to Crab Orchard, Kentucky, in 1779, he was converted there in 1792, later married, and settled in Pulaski County, Kentucky. Following a period of personal declension, he was stirred by the preaching of Thomas Hansford, forsook the world, and resolved to preach the gospel. Ordained in 1801, he was known from the beginning for vivid illustrations, strong and simple language, and an ability to bring the leading truths of the gospel powerfully to his hearers. For nearly thirty years he laboured among Kentucky churches while also traveling extensively to preach, baptize converts, and organize churches, and he was remembered as Kentucky’s most effective pulpit orator and most successful preacher. In 1830 he emigrated to Missouri and settled in Ralls County, where he continued evangelistic work with unabated zeal, helped plant several churches including Bethel, Mt. Pleasant, and Salem in his home county, figured prominently in the early history of First Baptist Palmyra, and in 1834 became the first moderator of the group later known as the General Association of Missouri Baptists. He also helped Missouri Baptists establish William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where the School of Theology was named in his honor. He continued his ministerial labours until his death, by which time he had baptized not less than 8,000 converts, more Christian professors than any other man in the United States according to the account given, and his gospel ministry was regarded as perhaps unequalled west of the Alleghany Mountains. Vardeman first married Elizabeth James, with whom he had eleven children, then Elizabeth Bryan, who bore one child before her death, and finally Lucy Bullock, with whom he had four children. He died May 28, 1842, in the 67th year of his age, and one son, William H. Vardeman, followed him in the ministry.