James A. Ranaldson

Who was James A. Ranaldson?

James A. Ranaldson was a Baptist missionary who was active in the Mississippi Baptist Association and one of the founders of the Alabama Baptist Convention.

Ranaldson was born in Brunswick County, North Carolina in 1789. He became a Baptist minister around 1812. Moving to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1817, he worked for several months as a missionary in the Indian territories of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Later that year he founded Shiloh Church in Feliciana, Mississippi, and became a teacher to cover his expenses, establishing the Society Hill Academy in 1818. In October 1817 the Mississippi Baptist Association appointed him to a committee to create a plan for an educational fund for pious young men, and to prepare an address to churches on the subject. In October 1818 the report was received and he was made Secretary of the Mississippi Baptist Education Society for three years. He was an active member of the Mississippi Baptist Association until 1829, preaching in different churches and serving at different times as a messenger, clerk and secretary.

Ranaldson founded a Baptist church in St. Francisville, Louisiana in 1823.