Rev. William Baxter Ragsdale

GEDCOM Note

[NewMaster.FTW] From "Preachers of Yesterday - He Prepared Himself to Serve" - by Lloyd L. Smith; "In 1901, when W.B. was 12 years old, the family moved to Rogers, Arkansas [from Texas County, MO] and bought a farm west of that place. Here He grew up, working on the farm and getting such education as the community provided. When he was seventeen years old he began working for the Benton County Produce Company in Rogers. He continued with them for several years, later becoming Assistant Manager and Bookkeeper for them. About a year after the Ragsdales moved to Rogers a family by the name of Morris moved there. They had a daughter, Lorene. She and W.B. came to love one another and on December 10, 1909, his twenty first birthday, they were married. A son was born to them, ut he died at about age six weeks. No more children came." from typewritten notes by Mrs. W. B. Ragsdale (Lorene Morris) "William Baxter Ragsdale, son of John Baxter and Martha Jane [Arnold] Ragsdale, was born December 10, 1888 in Texas County, Missouri. In August 1901 the family moved to Rogers, Arkansas and bought a farm west of town where W. B., as he liked to be called, grew up, working on the farm and going to school. When he was seventeen years old he started working for the Benton County Produce Company in Rogers. He later bacame assistant manager and bookkeeper for the company. On December 15, 1909 he was married to a neighbor girl, Lorene Morris, who was a member of the Church of Christ in Rogers. That was soon after the division that came in the church over the bringing in of the organ into the church worship. The "antis" as they were sometimes called, were having a difficult time. They had lost their house of worship and they did not rate very high in the little town. W. B. had been taught, and he believed, that in religion one thing is a s good as another if one is honest and sincere in the thing that he does, so he bought a New Testament and started reading it. He was going to prove that his wife was wrong in the things she believed. [Note: this account is written by his wife] The trouble with that was he went to the wrong source for his proof. He soon learned that in religion one thing is not as good as another but that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation - God's power for saving those who would believe it. He kept reading, and being the honest person that he was, he had to accept it. On August 12, 1912 the late John T. Hinds baptized him into Christ. He kept studying the Bible and was soon teaching a class and going to small congregations and conducting services for them on Sunday. His first meeting was conducted in a one-room school house built about seven miles east of Rogers. Five people were baptized during the meeting and that made him very happy. He conducted several such meetings and baptized a number of people while he still worked for the produce company. From "Northwest Arkansas Morning News" newspaper interview with Lorene Morris (at age 100) "They built a house about 1912 on North 8th St. It is still standing today (7/24/1989)... Was minister at the Matthewson and first Church in Wichita, KS for 7 years. Returned to Rogers, AR and then returned to Wichita in 1948 and served the church another8.5 years. From there to Branson, then back to Benton Co. Had a light stroke in 1975 On Sept. 21, 1923 and Jan. 18, 1924, received a letter from his father (John B. Ragsdale) at 501 N. Oak St., Morrilton, AR