He was born on February 28, 1757 in Wilbraham, Massachussets. He was the son of Henry and Mary (Langdon) Badger and a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Giles Badger, who came from England about the year 1635 and settled in Newbury, Massachussets.
Born in Wilbraham, Massachussets, he was brought up in rural remote Peru, Massachussets, without educational advantages.
To improve his limited education he became a boarder in the family of Rev. Jeremiah Day, the Congregational pastor, father of President Day of Yale College, then a six-year-old boy and as advanced as Badger was in his twenty-second year. He prepared for Yale, supporting himself during his course by manual labor, teaching day and singing schools and doing college chores. He graduated creditably in 1785.
Three weeks after the battle of Lexington, when eighteen years old, he enlisted. He engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill and later was with the expedition to Canada. His versatility is evidenced by his being called to act as nurse, physician, and cook, in addition to making mechanical comforts for the sick and wounded. Honorable discharge was granted after two years' service and he came to Connecticut just at the time the British burned Danbury, only to reenlist and serve a year as orderly sergeant.
In 1787 he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Blandford, Massachussets, and served with success for thirteen years. In 1800 he was appointed by the Missionary Society of Connecticut as one of the earliest missionaries to Ohio. For a year he labored as itinerant preacher to the sparse wilderness settlements and even to the Indians through an interpreter. He founded the first church on the Western Reserve at Austinburg. Convinced of the future development and importance of this territory he returned to Massachusetts and placing wife, six children, and a few necessary articles of household furniture in a covered wagon he started westward. The trip took over two months, as they encountered snow, mud, streams, and forests.
The next twenty-five years were spent in arduous, often perilous, missionary pilgrimages, and the peace and prosperity of the churches in those new settlements during that period were largely due to his indefatigable toil, wise counsel, and earnest preaching. During the War of 1812 he was invited to visit the forces sent to guard the frontier and without consent or consultation was appointed by Gen. Harrison as brigade chaplain. In his seventieth year, when the task of travel and toil became too great, he received a pension of ninety-six dollars as a Revolutionary soldier and planned retirement.
The ruling spirit, still strong, however, could not refuse an invitation from a small group of immigrants in Gustavus, Ohio. He organized a church, became the settled pastor, and served eight years. His long and constantly used voice grew feeble and he was dismissed at his own request on June 26, 1835. His declining days he spent with his only surviving daughter at Perrysburg, Ohio, where he died in his ninetieth year.
He was twice married: in October 1784 to Lois Noble, who died August 4, 1818; and in April 1819 to Abigail Ely of North Wilbraham, Massachussets.
