This Day in Baptist History Past
April 04, 1848 – Pablo Beeson was born in the village of Nods, Switzerland. His father was the local evangelical pastor, and his mother came from Waldensian stock. Preparing for the Presbyterian ministry he studied in the Latin College, in the University at Stuttgart, and at the University of Leipzig. Upon graduation Pablo assumed a Presbyterian pastorate. He fought with Dr. Frederic Godet, his former instructor, to disestablish the state church in Switzerland. When their efforts failed, Beeson was one of 25 pastors who separated from the Presbyterian Denomination to found the Free Church of Neuchậtel, however his fidelity to the New Testament surpassed the others and he found himself alone. Pablo traveled to France and ministered to a small church there for several years but his evangelism was too aggressive and he found himself in a narrow dungeon and fined 100 francs for distributing tracts and preaching in public. Persecution drove him to search for truth and in Lyons, France he met a Baptist missionary, and came to adopt Baptist convictions and was immersed by Rev. I.B. Cretin, a French Baptist pastor. This cost him his pastorate as well as his friends, and his father disinherited him. His dear mother wrote, “You will be a wanderer in the world without friends, and will be called a Baptist!” For the next six years he preached in France and started a church. Some of his members migrated to Argentina, South America. Pablo got steerage on a ship and joined them, now known as Don Pablo, he became pastor of the little flock. He fought the Papists to be able to marry and bury his people, and founded a church in Buenos Aires. Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 184-86. [C.F: J.N. Prestridge, Modern Baptist Heroes and Martyrs (Louisville, Ky.: World Press, 1911), p. 281.
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