WORDEN, HOWARD D. (1863-1936)

WORDEN, HOWARD D., Baptist minister, Whitneyville and Little Southwest, 1908-12; b. Westfield, Kings Co., 1863, s/o George Albert Worden and Mary Jane Wightman; m. 1890, Martha A. Dickenson, a native of Canterbury, N.B.; d. Bayswater, Kings Co., 1 Jun 1936.

Howard D. Worden was raised as a Baptist but did his first ministerial work with the Salvation Army. He also preached for a time under Methodist auspices in the United States. The Rev. Isaiah Wallace was instrumental in bringing him back into the Baptist fold. He was preaching as a licentiate at Milkish in Kings County at the time of his marriage in 1890. In 1892, while still a licentiate, he became minister of the Baptist church at Hartland. He was ordained in 1894 and had pastorates at four different places in New Brunswick prior to the summer of 1908, when he was called to Whitneyville and the Little Southwest, as successor to the Rev. I. Newton Thorne.

A fervently evangelical man, and "a great preacher and singer," Worden remained on the field for three and a half years. In January 1912 he went to Dawson in Albert County. He was subsequently the Baptist minister in the New Brunswick communities of Debec, Pennfield, and Meductic. In 1921 he took a church at Littleton, Me. A year later he was back in the province and had a pastorate at Penobsquis. He retired at Meductic in 1924 and made his home there until his death, which occurred suddenly while he was visiting his brother in Kings County. He was survived by his wife, Martha A. Dickenson, and a son.