Due to construction, the American Baptist Historical Society Archives will be closed to research requests and in-person research from December 1, 2026, through February 1, 2027.
During this time, we will be unable to accommodate in-person research visits or process research requests. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we work to improve our facilities. Research services and in-person appointments are expected to resume February 1, 2027
Rev. Elizabeth Caudill
James O Wolfe, ABHS Board of Managers
I have a business-size card that I carry from time-to-time which is a record of the ordination of my home pastor. Although yellowed with age and hard to read, the words are vitally important to my life. It declares that on the 21st day of October 1941, Elizabeth Caudill was ordained to the Gospel Ministry. As well as being a story of a remarkable ministry, it is also a very personal story. Miss Caudill never married and she shared a home with my widowed paternal grandmother. This meant that she was part of every holiday, birthday, and countless Sunday lunches. She was family in every meaningful sense of the word. This was a unique experience which shaped my early life and is a lasting influence on my ministry. In fact, I was in seminary before I had the experience of being nurtured by a male pastor.
The Bethel Baptist Church of South Charleston, West Virginia was organized April 17, 1946, with 33 members. Soon after that first meeting the decision was made to call the Rev. Elizabeth Caudill to be the first pastor of the fledgling church. To the best of my knowledge there were no other female pastors in West Virginia at that time. Ill health forced Rev. Caudill to retire in 1985, after nearly 40 years of pastoral ministry.
Many of the records I have come from my grandmother’s handwritten notes of Bethel Baptist Church’s history. Miss Caudill’s ministry was significant, not only for Bethel, but for the community at large and for American Baptist women. By May of 1950, only four years after its birth, the church boasted 249 members and had received 101 of those members by baptism. Ten years later, on the fourteenth anniversary of the church, church records indicate 666 members and 383 baptisms during that time.
In 1960 Rev. Caudill was the driving force in establishing a volunteer chaplaincy program at a local hospital. In 1974 Miss Caudill was honored by Alderson-Broaddus College as a distinguished American Baptist woman and in 1981 was the first recipient of the prestigious “President’s Award”at the Biennial Meeting of the American Baptist Churches USA in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During her career she received many civic and humanitarian honors, including recognition by Governor John D. Rockefeller IV, as an Outstanding West Virginian.
Perhaps the greatest measure of her ministry was the number of individuals who experienced the call to ministry under her leadership. Personal and church records indicate that during the years she pastored Bethel Baptist Church, at least twenty-two persons accepted the call to pastoral ministry, and I am one of them. Others, who did not feel called to pastoral ministry, were licensed by Bethel to preach and ministered as vital lay leaders. Many of those pastors and lay leaders still serve in active ministry.
Today there are voices who declare that women do not belong in pastoral ministry and behind a pulpit. Rev. Caudill never pushed a feminist agenda, nor defended her call to ministry. If she experienced resistance to her ministry, she did not make an issue of it. She was secure in her call and with grace, humor, and humility lived into that commitment.
Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). The fruits of Rev. Caudill’s ministry prove that ministry is not about gender, ethnicity, or any other external factor. She had only one agenda and that was to
do the work of a pastor. The fruits of her ministry confirm and affirm God’s call on her life.
Rev. Dr. James O. Wolfe serves on the ABHS Board of Managers. He is a past president of American Baptist Churches, USA and serves as pastor of Minonk Baptist Church in Minonk,IL
JACS IS GOING ON THE ROAD
“A Resilient Faith: Japanese American Baptists in World War II” is now available as a traveling exhibit. You can host the exhibit in your space as part of a special event, as an focus for an educational program, or simply as a way for your audience to learn more about this defining experience for the Japanese American community and American Baptists’ role.
For more information contact Jenny Manasco, Digital Collections Specialist, J.Manasco@ABHSarchives.org
