Biography of Gustavus Adolphus Chunn

Gustavus Adolphus Chunn was born of English descent in Falkville, Blount County, Alabama, on July 23, 1838, to Lancelot Chunn IV and Lucenda Ann H. Yeager. Attending Blount College in Blountsville, Alabama, G. A. was a very distinquished-looking young man and was short in stature. In Cullman County, Alabama, on December 1, 1878, he married Martha Ann Oaks, daughter of Joshua and Mary E. A. J. Holmes of the Morgan and Cullman County areas of Alabama. Gustavus and Martha had a large family of children including James Lawson, Alvis Walker, Charles Walter, Dora, Benjamin, Mary R., Frederick, George Washington, Mary Alice, Claude E., Hattie, Crawford Alex, Floyd Hebron, Allen, and Horace E. Rev. Chunn was an ordained Baptist minister whose ministry included several area churches. He ministered in Trion, Georgia, in 1905. Then in 1908, he took the part-time pastorate of the newly organized East Lake Baptist Church. G. A.'s picture hung in the library at East Lake Baptist for many years along with it's various other pastors who served over the years. In 1910 he added a second part-time pastorate, Ridgedale Baptist Church, which was located further down Dodds Avenue near the McCallie campus. During this time Ridgedale had 52 members, and Rev. Chunn's salary there was $360 a year. In the following year, the well-respected pastor left East Lake to lead Ridgedale full-time. In 1911 the church had 82 members, and his annual salary of $760 was partially paid by the Home Mission Board. In 1912 Rev. Chunn took a pastorate in Rockwood, Tennessee. Two years later, he pastored in Monterey, Tennessee, and in 1916 he retired from active church work. The Rev. Chunn died on December 29, 1928, and he and Martha are buried in Chattanooga Memorial Park on Memorial Drive in White Oak. Several of their descendants remain in the Chattanooga area.