1962
The George Washington Bouldin Papers are located at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, diaries, Chinese and Japanese dictionaries, sermons, teaching records, notes, information about Japan, information about Bouldin’s pastorates, writings, and a history of the Tennessee River Baptist Association (Alabama).
George Washington Bouldin was born September 28, 1881, in Larkin, Alabama. He was one of 14 children of John (a carpenter) and Mary Ann (Collins) Bouldin. George was converted in 1895 and baptized in 1896 into the fellowship of Freedom Baptist Church. He attended Tri-State Institute in Scottsboro, Alabama, Winchester Normal College in Winchester, Tennessee, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and thought of being a lawyer. He soon knew that he ought to preach. He attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, earning the Th.B. and Th.M. degrees. George was appointed as a Southern Baptist Convention missionary to Japan in 1906. He married Margaret Alice (Maggie) Lee in Winchester, Tennessee, on June 14, 1906. They had one daughter, Mary Janette, who was born May 3, 1909, and died August 11, 1909. George was ordained to the ministry in July 1906 and sailed from San Francisco to Japan in September. He was a Southern Baptist Missionary to Japan from 1906 to 1933. Most of time the family lived in Fukuoka, Tokyo, and Yokohama, and George’s main work was that of teaching in Baptist Seminaries in Japan. When the family came to the U. S. on furlough in 1913, George earned an A.B. from Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1915, the Bouldins, along with Mrs. Bouldin’s mother, Mrs. Lee, sailed back to Japan. George earned his D.D. from Howard College in 1919. He was Dean of Seinan Seminary in Fukuoka, Japan, from 1919 until 1933. In 1921, George took health leave to the U. S. for part of the year. In 1926, he was the first foreigner to broadcast an address in Japanese over station JOAK in Tokyo. George did post-graduate work at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1927-1928 when he was home on furlough. He went back to Japan in 1928 and became President of Seinan Gakuin, in Fukuoka. He was pastor of Seinan Gakuin Baptist Church, interpreter for the Charles Lindberghs, and promoted self-support of Christian groups among rural groups in Japan. While on a trip to the U. S., George pastored a Baptist church in Tracy City, Tennessee. Back in Japan, he was pastor of the English-speaking Union Church in Yokohama from 1937 to 1941. He returned to the U. S. in 1941 to stay. He was missionary-pastor of the Ashland City, Tennessee, Baptist Church, taught Japanese and worked in the Military Intelligence Division of the U. S. War Department, pastored the Ballston Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, and was pastor of Central Baptist Church in Skyline, Alabama. He and his wife taught in public schools in Alabama, and, in 1954, retired and moved to Summerville, Georgia, where agriculture was of great interest to him. The family moved back to Scottsboro, Alabama in 1966, where George died February 13, 1967.
