Rev. Jeremiah Ballard


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"Free Baptist Cyclopaedia"  Historical & Biographical  
Rev G. A. Burgess. A. M. & Rev. J. T. Ward, A.M.   
Free Baptist Cyclopaedia Co. 1889 
page 26

Ballard,   Rev. Jeremiah, preached considerably among the Methodists along the Connecticut 
River, but becoming dissatisfied with his baptism, he applied to our people for admission.
In May, 1798, he quite captured the sympatily of the New Hampshire Q. M.- by the fervor of 
his eloquence.  He was baptized at New Durham the next month, June, at the Yearly Meeting, 
and July 2, after relinquishing all claim to the ministerial land in the town of Unity, as 
opposition had arisen on account of his creed, he was ordained on imountains just outside the 
town; Randall preached in the house, then they sought the hills.  This yar Ballards's converts 
that sprang from his preaching united in a church of fifteen members, at Corinth, (Orange Co) 
VT, being the second church of our denomination in the state.  He almost alone gathered the 
churches of the Unity Q. M. and for two or three years stood side by side with his brethren.  
But his unbalanced mind soon led him to gross improprieties and strange heterodoxy.  He 
vehemently opposed the authority of Randall and of the denomination and declared his 
independence.  As personal work with him and repeated committees accomplished nothing, he 
was publicly excluded in 1802.  Soon after he removed to Ohio, where he saw his error and 
became an exemplary mail.  John Colby met him a few miles from Cincinnati in 1810, and 
pronounced him a consistent minister of the gospel, though not calling himself a Freewill 
Baptist.