George Dana Boardman (February 8, 1801 – February 11, 1831) was born in Livermore, Maine

Livermore, Maine

Livermore is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,106 at the 2000 census. It is included in both the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan New England City and Town Area. High schools students from...

, the son of the Rev. Sylvanus Boardman. He attended Colby College

Colby College

Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...

, and was the school's first graduate in 1822. He served as tutor for a year at Colby, then continued his education at Andover Theological Seminary. On February 16, 1825, he was ordained a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister in West Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, located approximately ten to fifteen miles north of Portland. Its population was 8,349 at the 2010 census....

. Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin

Jeremiah Chaplin

Jeremiah Chaplin was a Reformed Baptist theologian who served as the first president of Colby College in Maine....

, President of Colby College, spoke at his ordination. Boardman married Sarah Hall on July 4, 1825.

On July 16, the couple sailed for Calcutta, where they arrived 2 December 1825. After acquiring the Burmese language

Burmese language

The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...

, he entered upon his labors at Maulmain in May 1827, and founded a mission which became the central point of all the Baptist missions in Burma. In April 1828, he established a mission at Tavoy

Dawei

-Transport:Only recently Dawei was connected to the rest of Myanmar by road and rail. There are plans to construct a deepwater port in Dawei. In November 2010, the Myanmar Port Authority signed a USD $8.6 billion deal with Italian-Thai Development to develop a deep sea port at Dawei...

, where he soon afterward baptized Ko-mah-byn, a Karen

Karen people

The Karen or Kayin people , are a Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic group which resides primarily in southern and southeastern Burma . The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of approximately 50 million people...

 convert, whose labors were very successful among his countrymen. On 5 February 1828, Boardman set out on a tour among the Karen villages, and met with such success that he determined on a systematic course of itinerary labor. On these trips, he was usually accompanied by Ko-mah-byn or some other convert.

His exertions occasioned the loss of his health and brought on his early death by consumption. His widow married the Rev. Adoniram Judson

Adoniram Judson

Adoniram Judson, Jr. was an American Baptist missionary, who served in Burma for almost forty years. At the age of 25, Adoniram Judson became the first Protestant missionary sent from North America to preach in Burma...

, also a missionary. He and Sarah had a son also named George Dana Boardman

George Boardman the Younger

George Dana Boardman the Younger was born in Burma, the son of the Baptist missionaries George Dana Boardman and Sarah Hall Boardman. He returned to the United States as a boy and attended first Worcester Academy from which he graduated in 1846, then Brown University, where he graduated in 1852...

, often referred to as "the Younger".

Further reading

King, Alonzo (1834) Memoir of George Dana Boardman : late missionary to Burmah, containing much intelligence relative to the Burman mission. Boston : Lincoln, Edmands & Co.

Chaplin, Jeremiah (1825) A Sermon Preached at North Yarmouth, February 16, 1825 : at the ordination of the Rev. George D. Boardman, as a missionary to the heathen. Waterville : W. Hastings.