(b. Crawfordsville, Indiana, May 17, 1866; d. Dallas, Texas, Oct. 21, 1938). Pioneer fieldworker of the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was the son of S. A. and Jennie (Bland) Beauchamp. His youth was spent in Texas, where his parents moved when he was 10 years of age. At the age of 17, he entered William Jewell College. In 1889 he went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to do mission work, and very shortly thereafter was called as pastor of the First Baptist Church. There he married Laura W. English. Later he served the church at Springdale.
From this pastorate he was called to the secretaryship of the state mission board of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. In 1905 he was elected as field secretary of the Sunday School Board. In this position he became a vigorous proponent of standards and of full age grading. In 1908 he outlined the Standard of Excellence, which became the accepted standard of direction and objectives for Southern Baptist Sunday schools. Later, Beauchamp designed the Advanced Standard of Excellence. He also developed Standards of Excellence for Sunday school classes and departments. In 1911 he wrote the book The Graded Sunday School. His leadership in this area led to his being called the “father of the graded Sunday school.” Graded Sunday schools required graded buildings. This led him to advocate graded buildings for Sunday school work. To Beauchamp must be given much credit for initiating the movement for improved church buildings as a means to an improved teaching program. As a pioneer in Baptist Sunday school work, he helped to lay foundations and establish directions that account for modern Sunday school growth.
Biographical sources:
Price, J. M. Baptist Leaders in Religious Education, 1943.
Archival sources in Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives:
Frost, James Marion. Papers. AR. 795-109.
Van Ness, Isaac Jacobus. Papers. AR. 795-112.
