Kentucky Baptist history, 1770...1922

Front matter

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COFHRIGHT DEPOSifc

1770 — 1922

Introduction

ACCORDING to the canons of enlightened criticism the man behind the book needs interpretation as well as the book itself. In order to reach this result one must take into consideration the factors that make up character. These are admitted by all Christians to be heredity, environment, choice and the grace of God.

A brief sketch of the life and career of William Dudley Nowlin is therefore appropriate if not absolutely essential in this Introduction. The Nowlin Genealogy, prepared by Professor James Edmund Nowlin of the University of Utah, a large volume of more than five hundred pages, traces the descent of our author through the centuries back to Irish royalty. His American forbears began life in Virginia. From the Old Dominion they emigrated to Tennessee. In Weakley county of that state William Dudley Nowlin was born March 10, 1864. The home into which he was introduced was surcharged with a Christian atmosphere. His parents, William David Nowlin and his mother, nee Caroline Glass, were both righteous before God and reared their son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Like the overwhelming numbers of the Baptist ministry he was brought up on a farm and enjoyed unusual physical development in God's great out of doors. He is the second of nine children.

To become a Baptist, one has said in harmony with the teachings of Jesus, one must be born again. This new experience came to our author in his sixteenth year and was followed by baptism and union with the church.

At the time he received his call to the work of the Gospel ministry Nowlin was conducting successfully

10 Introduction

a large drug business. His response to that call involved financial sacrifices. Realizing his need of more thorough training for his most responsible vocation he went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and there completed his course in three years. Added to this training was special study in the University of Chicago. Because of his studious habits, wide reading, varied experience and philosophic temper united to pastoral efficiency and unsullied devotion to duty Georgetown college conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and Union University the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Few among his contemporaries have disclosed a greater variety of gifts and accomplishments than are exhibited in the ministry of Dr. Nowlin. His pastorates have been held in several states, Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky, and far beyond their borders his influence has extended through his contributions to the press and his evangelistic preaching. Especially is his name a household word in Kentucky in which state his leadership in denominational affairs has given him an enviable preeminence.

Limited space forbids an enumeration of all the details of Dr. Nowlin 's multitudinous services to the kingdom of God as orator, executive officer, preacher, pastor, editor, author, and sane, sound, safe counsellor in the assemblies of his brethren. Quite recently his pen has given to the denomination a book entitled "Fundamentals of the Faith," which, in the judgment of the most competent critics among us, is destined to be a text book in our Southern Baptist schools and colleges.

Dr. Nowlin is at this time vice president of the S. B. Convention.

The Kentucky Baptist General Association with a due regard for character, culture and disinterested devotion to truth, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and fairness chose Dr. Nowlin as the one man capable of writing a History of Kentucky Baptists. After careful, painstaking, laborious and tireless effort in this

Introduction 11

direction running through several years he presents his work to the judgment of his brethren and to all others interested in the annals of the largest group of Christians in this commonwealth. These pages which follow may not be free from imperfections, to which all historians are liable, but it is believed that on the whole the subject matter comes up to all the requirements of a clear, candid and impartial presentation of the facts as known to the writer. If history be philosophy teaching by example it befits all Baptists to read this work for an intelligent understanding of how God, through our people, has worked out his purposes in the spiritual activities of Kentucky Baptists.

W. W. Landrum.

Bethel College, June, 1922.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Period of Preparation 17

Daniel Boone and his brother Squire exploring Kentucky.

CHAPTER I Period of Preparation

"0 memory, thou choicest blessing, on thy speedy wing bear us back to the time when our country was young; and thou, Description, show us the scenes which met the vision of our heroic ancestors. ' '

In the year 1770 we find Squire Boone, a Baptist preacher on Kentucky soil; and so far as records show the only Baptist in that, then vast wilderness, now known as Kentucky. The first settlers of Kentucky beheld at the base of the great forests and rich herbage a soil as fertile as that of the Nile valley of Egypt, and in marked contrast with the sterile country of the settlements in the East from which they had come. Amid these scenes of natural beauty roamed the fleet-footed deer, the stately elk, the surly bear, the cunning wolf, the sly fox, the crafty panther, the majestic buffalo, the graceful swan, the shy turkey, the timid goose, the clumsy duck, and other game without number. The flowing springs, cool and refreshing, sprang out of the ground, and coursed their way amid banks of grass and flowers, or under hanging vines, to the creeks and rivers. No wonder that Daniel Boone said that he had "found a paradise in the great wilds beyond the mountains.' ' Roosevelt says ("The Winning of the West," Vol. II, p. 37) "Lord Dunmore's war waged by Americans for the good of America was the opening act in the drama whereof the closing scene was played at Yorktown. It made possible the two-fold character of the Revolutionary War, wherein on the one hand the Americans won by conquest and colonization new lands for their children, and on the other wrought out their national independence of the British king. Save for Lord Dunmore 's war we could not have settled beyond the mountains until after we had ended our quarrel with our kinsfolk across the sea. It so cowed the northern Indians that for two or three years they made no further organized effort to check the white advance. In consequence, the Kentucky pioneers had only to contend with small parties of enemies until time had been given them to become so firmly rooted in the land that it proved impossible to oust them."

The population, at the close of the third decade of the nineteenth century, of all that portion of the United States lying between the Alleghany Mountains and Mississippi River was estimated at three millions.

But sixty years before this we find Daniel Boone and his brother Squire exploring the wilderness of Kentucky. About the year 1778-9 a young Virginian, George Rogers Clark, hearing of an attempt on the part of Colonel Hamilton then in command of the British forces at Detroit, to stir up all the western tribes of Indians to a concerted attack upon the frontier, undertook to prevent the frightful consequences which such an attack, should it be successful, would produce. Clark in two short and brilliant campaigns conquered and captured Hamilton at Vincennes and concluded his enterprise by capturing and holding all the territory north of the Ohio River and extending from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. The restless pioneers yearning for the Great West inspired by the daring of such champions as Boone and Robertson, and encouraged by the victories of Clark to hope for reasonable exemption from Indian attacks now began the westward march. Long wagon trains and strings of pack-horses could frequently be seen dragging their

Period of Preparation 19

tedious lengths across the mountain passes, and ere long the rude log cabins and the well-tilled farms gave unmistakable evidence of the presence of the hardy and prosperous pioneer. Soon, however, the second war with England engaged the attention of all on both sides of the mountains, and in consequence, the Indian depredations in the Northwest and Southwest were poor inducements with which to lure would-be emigrants from the other side. The conflict between America and the mother country happily proved of short duration, the latter acquiescing in all the demands which the victorious nation imposed upon her, thereby strengthening the American feeling of nationality and showing her power. Moreover during the War General Harrison completely annihilated the combined British and Indian forces in the battle of the Thames and so presently recovered the Northwest territory, while Andrew Jackson at the head of a few United States regulars in a bloody campaign of six or seven months, which was brought to a successful termination by the battle of Tallapoosa in March, 1814, delivered a crushing blow to the Indian forces in the Southwest. Thus from the mountains to the Mississippi the settlers were again relieved of the fear of attack from the cruel red man. Shortly before the breaking out of the war a steamboat was launched on the Ohio at Pittsburgh and it was not long thereafter until the Ohio, with its tributaries, was provided with many such vessels bearing a constantly increasing stream of emigrants to their western homes. The successful termination of the war which begat a feeling of safety, and the introduction of steamboat travel, which greatly facilitated means of communication, undoubtedly had much to do with the westward expansion which now is only necessary to recall the fact that each year for four consecutive years, a new state in the Mississippi valley was added to the Union. This was a marvelous growth. The integrity of our possessions being now assured, and immunity from the aggressions of Indians guaranteed, the tide of population temporarily held back, now set in again from the East with increased volume and momentum, and there was accordingly ushered in for "the next fifty years a material growth without a parallel in history/ ' The people who came West were inclined to be religious. Theodore Roosevelt ("Winning of the West," Vol. I, p. 69) says in speaking of the character of these pioneers, "At the bottom they were deeply religious in their tendencies; and although ministers and meeting houses were rare, yet the backwoods cabins often contained Bibles and the mothers used to instill into the minds of their children reverence for Sunday."

It is a great error, however, to suppose that representatives of the other Christian faiths were not found among the great numbers that now poured into the Middle West. There were many of all denominations, especially Presbyterians, who were second to the Baptists in establishing churches in Kentucky, and quite valiantly did they bear themselves in the struggle to improve not only their material, but the moral conditions in their new homes. It is not our purpose nor desire to derogate a tithe from the praise due to other denominations for their contribution to the moral enlightenment of the new territory, and yet to the Baptists is due the credit of first proclaiming the story of the cross in this great western wilderness.

It appears that Daniel Boone was not a Baptist, but several members of his family were, and a brother, Squire Boone, was a Baptist preacher before coming to Kentucky. Many of the first settlers in Kentucky were Baptists.

"As in Kentucky so in Ohio. The first church organized in the Northwest territory was the Columbia Baptist, whose date is January 20, 1790. The Columbia Township was then about five miles from what is now the site of Cincinnati — the growth of the latter city having brought Columbia within her corporate limits. In 1889 a monument commemorative of this event was erected on the site of the first house of wor-

Period of Preparation 21

ship built by the church. Two inscriptions recite the date of the coming of the Baptist pioneers, the date of organization, the name of the constituent members and the purchase of two acres of ground as a building lot from Maj. Benjamin Stites, who was at the head of the first band of pioneers that settled on Ohio soil and who later became a prominent member of this church. ' '

The same is true of Illinois. In Illinois territory in 1786, thirty-two years before its admission as a state, the Lemen family had founded the first church, organized the first association and were the leaders in the anti-slavery movement before the days of Parker, Phillips and Garrison who led the later " abolition ' ' crusade.

In the region beyond the Mississippi the word of the Lord sounded forth, and here again, according to Newman, the Baptists were the first to proclaim it, and so the above facts would seem to indicate that it would not be difficult to prove that the Baptists were the first to preach the Gospel in the valley of the Mississippi; and in reading the record of those days of toil and privation it is interesting indeed to meet with the names of those who became the noble progenitors of sons and daughters who today in secular and religious pursuits are bearing themselves worthily and, by their devotion to the cause for which their fathers suffered, and for which many of them died, show that they are not insensible to the high source from which they sprang. The period of preparation for our Baptist hosts of Kentucky was a period of heroic struggle and grand achievements.

CHAPTER II The First Preaching in Kentucky

There has been much misunderstanding and difference of opinion as to who did the first preaching in Kentucky. It was maintained for quite a while by the Baptists and some others, that Thomas Tinsley and William Hickman, Baptist ministers, did the first preaching in Kentucky at Harrodsburg in 1776, but this is an error, for Collins in his "History of Kentucky" says (page 501, Vol. 2) "Sunday 28, May, divine service for the first time in Kentucky was performed by the Rev. John Lythe." And again (Vol. I, page 441) Collins says: "The Rev. John Lythe of the Episcopal Church, or the Church of England, came early to Kentucky. When Col. Henderson established his proprietary government in 1775 Mr. Lythe was a delegate from the Harrodsburg station, or settlement, to the legislative assembly. The delegates met on the 23d of May, 1775, and the assembly having organized, divine service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Lythe, one of the delegates from Harrodsburg." Again in this same volume (page 515) "The first clergyman ever in Kentucky was the Rev. John Lythe of the Church of England who came to Harrodsburg April, 1775. This same preacher held the first preaching, or divine service, at Boonesborough on Sunday, May 28, 1775, under the shade of a magnificent elm tree." This was the Sunday following Henderson's convention. Yet on page 416 of this volume (I) in speaking of William Hickman, Sr., Collins says, "He was the first to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ in the valley of the Kentucky. ' ' Collins thus contradicts himself. Z. F. Smith in his History of Kentucky (Youth's edition, p. 89) says "Rev. John Lythe, of the Church of England, conducted the first

The First Preaching in Kentucky 23

religious services known to have been held at Boonesborough May 28, 1775." He adds, however, " There may have been other religious services, and in other places, even earlier than this of which history does not give account." Now this last clause, I am sure, contains the truth. According to history Squire Boone, a Baptist preacher, was in Kentucky five years before the Rev. John Lythe came. Cathcart in his " Baptist Encyclopedia" says (Vol. I, p. 113) in speaking of Squire Boone, "It is not known at what period he united with the church or when he began to preach, but it was previous to his removal to the West," the date of which he gives as ' ' 1770. ' '

According to Collins' History of Kentucky (Vol. II, p. 56) on "the 22d December, 1769" Daniel Boone and Stuart were captured by the Indians and held by their captors "seven days, after which they escaped and returned to their camp which they found dismantled and deserted." This would put the date of 1 ' their return to their camp ' ' probably December 30th or 31st. Collins then adds, "A few days after this, they were joined by Squire Boone, a brother of the great pioneer." This would make the date of the meeting of the brothers some time in January, 1770, which is in perfect accord with other statements concerning Squire Boone's arrival in Kentucky.

Dr. Spencer is in error when he, in his "Preface" to his "History of Kentucky Baptists" (page 9) speaks of giving "the history of the Baptists in Kentucky, from the time that Elder Squire Boone first set his foot on the soil of the unexplored wilderness, in the spring of 1769, down to the year 1885," for Collins' "History of Kentucky" (Vol. II, p. 711) says "Late in the fall of 1769, Squire Boone and another adventurer (name unknown) left the Yadkin in search of his brother Daniel," who "had gone to the wilds of Kentucky on the 1st of May preceding." Squire Boone was probably on Kentucky soil in the winter of 1769, but history does not record the fact.

In Daniel Boone 's autobiography, dictated to John Filson in 1784, as quoted by Collins (Vol. II, p. 711) Daniel Boone says ' ' On May 1, 1770, Squire returned home to the settlement by himself — for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving Daniel by himself, without bread, salt or sugar, without company of his fellow creatures, or even a horse or dog. On July 27, 1770, Squire met him, according to appointment, at the old camp, ' ' with the supplies. So there is no question about Squire Boone being in Kentucky in 1770. John Lythe arrived in Kentucky "April, 1775." On page 87 Smith's History in giving an account of the marriage of Sam Henderson and Elizabeth Calloway (one of the girls captured by the Indians and later rescued) says "Squire Boone, then an ordained minister of the Baptist Church, performed the first ceremony in Kentucky. ' ' The marriage was one month after the rescue. Collins gives the date of this marriage as 1776 (Vol. I, p. 511) and says it was "performed by Squire Boone a preacher of the Calvinistic Baptist Church. ' ' This shows that Squire Boone was an active minister of the gospel.

Now, if Squire Boone was a Baptist "Preacher before his removal to the West, ' ' as Cathcart says, and if he was active as a minister in Kentucky, marrying people, as history shows, and if there were ' ' 309 Baptists in Kentucky in 1774" as Asplund's Register records (quoted by Dr. W. P. Harvey in "Life and Times of William Hickman," p. 3) one year before Henderson's Convention, it stands to reason that there had been some Baptist preaching done in Kentucky before Henderson's Convention of May, 1775. The preaching of Mr. Lythe in May, 1775, is the first of which we have any record, and we would have had no record of this had it not taken place in connection with this convention, of which a record was kept. Dr. W. C. James in his "Western Baptist Theological Institute" of Covington, Kentucky, says "Squire Boone, a Baptist preacher, was the first man to preach the gospel in Kentucky and perhaps in the whole

The First Preaching in Kentucky 25

West." It is quite clear that the Rev. Squire Boone was the first preacher in Kentucky, and as he was here several years prior to Henderson's Convention active as a minister we think Dr. James is eminently correct in saying he "was the first to preach the gospel in Kentucky." This is peculiarly true since Baptists have always been a preaching people.

John Filson in his history of Kentucky, the date of which is 1784, says on page 301 in speaking of the "manners and customs" of the people of Kentucky, "they have a diversity of manners, customs, and religions, which may in time perhaps be modified to one uniform." He then adds "The Anabaptists were the first that promoted public worship in Kentucky. " It is worth noticing that the Baptists as late as 1784 were called "Anabaptists" by this historian. This shows that the people now called Baptists were once called Anabaptists.

To "promote public worship" evidently meant "held preaching services," as this is the way Baptists promoted public worship. One can hardly reach any other conclusion. Daniel Boone, Levi Todd and James Harrod, according to a signed statement, read and revised Filson 's history, and they declare it to be "as accurate as can possibly be made." (page 271 — Date, May, 1784). Here is a statement by the earliest historian in Kentucky, that the Baptists first promoted public worship in Kentucky, and this statement has the endorsement of three of the earliest settlers, who were, as they say, "well acquainted with the country from its first settlement." Davidson in his history of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, page 86, referring to the pioneer Baptists of Kentucky says : "To them belongs the credit of having been the first to inaugurate the regular public worship of God and the organization of churches. ' ' This should settle the question beyond any doubt that the Baptists were the first to conduct public worship in Kentucky, or did the first preaching in the state, and established the first churches.

X

The first record we have of Baptists preaching in Kentucky is the preaching of the Revs. Thomas Tinsley and William Hickman, which was in April, 1776, at Harrodsburg. In "The Life and Travels of William Hickman" he writes "We got to Harrodsburg the first day of April, 1776. Myself, Brother Thomas Tinsley, my old friend, Mr. Morton, took our lodging at Mr. John Gordon 's, four miles from town.

"Mr. Tinsley was a good old preacher, Mr. Morton a good pious Presbyterian and love and friendship abounded among us. We went nearly every Sunday to town to hear Mr. Tinsley preach. I generally concluded his meetings. One Sunday morning sitting at the head of a spring at this place, he laid his Bible on my thigh and said, 'You must preach today.' He said if I did not he would not. It set me in a tremor. I knew he would not draw back. I took the book and turned to the 23d chapter of Numbers and tenth verse: 'Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.' " The above is from "The Life and Times of William Hickman" as quoted in Publication No. 1 of the Kentucky Baptist Historical Society (page 6) by W. J. McGlothlin, D.D.

Elder John Taylor in his "History of Ten Churches" (page 48) says of William Hickman: "In '76 he paid a visit to Kentucky and here the same year he first began to preach." From this date we have no trouble finding records of Baptist preaching in the State, though as yet there is no Baptist organization on Kentucky soil.

Benedict in his History of the Baptists, (page 811) says of Kentucky: "Many of the early settlers of this state were Baptists. Some came as early as 1775, and several Baptist ministers, among whom were the late John Taylor, and Lewis Lunsford, (known in Virginia as THE WONDERFUL BOY), made a visit to this land of promise. They returned to Virginia for a period, without constituting any churches. The few brethren they found in the coun-

The First Preaching in Kentucky 27

try were in an unpleasant state, cold and neglectful in religion, constantly exposed to Indian depredations, and destitute of provisions in a great measure, except what the wild game furnished. The soil was luxuriant, and the country enriched with all the beauties of uncultivated nature. The people lived in * stations' or forts. These ministers preached a few times, and gave the people such advice as suited their circumstances.

" About 1781, several Baptist preachers and many brethren migrated to this new country. At that period, removal from Virginia to Kentucky was a slow and hazardous business. Two modes were adopted, one by land, the other by water. The first was performed on horseback, with a few bare necessaries of life on pack horses, over a vast tract of mountainous wilderness. Exposure to attacks from the Indians compelled them to perform their journeyings in caravans, with sentries stationed round their camps at night. The other mode was to embark on the Ohio river in a flat boat, and float down with the current to Limestone, or to Bear-grass Creek, (now Maysville and Louisville) the two principal landings

"The Baptist emigration into this State was, in a great degree, from Virginia. A few families came from the Red Stone Country in Western Pennsylva nia, and a few more from New Jersey. This denomi nation was not only the earliest in preaching the gospel and forming churches, but for numbers and influence held the ascendency for many years. It is still the most numerous, influential and wealthy denomination in the state."

At the close of the American war a flood of Baptists poured into Kentucky, mostly from Virginia by >^ whom a number of churches were constituted.

It seems to be a well established fact that the first preaching in Kentucky was by the Baptists.

Mr. Roosevelt says: "By the time Kentucky was settled the Baptists had begun to make headway on the frontier, at the expense of the Presbyterians. The rough democracy of the border welcomed a sect which was itself essentially democratic. " (" The Winning of the West," Vol. II, p. 113).

We think the facts clearly warrant the statement that the Baptists did the first preaching in Kentucky.

CHAPTER III The First Churches Constituted — 1781

"It is a well established fact in history that the Baptists were the pioneers of religion in Kentucky. They came with the earliest permanent settlers, ' ' says Collins' history.

In the year 1780 many Baptists, chiefly from Virginia removed to this state but it was not until the summer of the following year that a church was constituted.

Severn's Valley — June 18, 1781

The first church of any denomination constituted on Kentucky soil, so far as history shows, was the Severn's Valley Baptist church which was constituted June 18, 1781. We learn from Spencer's History of Kentucky Baptists (Vol. I, p. 21) : "There are facts and circumstances connected with the early history of the Church with which the present generation is little acquainted. When this present widespread and favored country was but a wilderness; when not a human habitation was to be found between Louisville (then called the Falls of the Ohio) and Green river, save a few families, who had ventured to Severn's Valley — a dense forest, and unexplored — and commenced a rude settlement far from the haunts of civilized man ; there the lamented John Gerrard, a minister of God, came like John the Baptist, 'The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness/ and finding a few of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ like sheep without a shepherd, on the 18th day of June, 1781, they were collected together under a green sugar tree ; and in the fear of God, in church covenant gave themselves to the Lord and to one another, and were constituted a Baptist Church, named after Severn 's Val-

\t ley and the creek which flows through it. It has ever borne the same name, none having dared, and it is hoped never may, to lay impious hands upon it by changing its venerable and venerated name — 'Severn's Valley Church.' "

From "Haycraft's History of Elizabeth town, Kentucky, and Its Surroundings, ' ' which was written by Samuel Haycraft and published in the Elizabethtown News in 1869, and published in book form in 1921, we gather the following facts concerning the Severn 's Valley Baptist Church, which is now located in Elizabethtown.

"On the 17th (this should be the 18th) day of June, 1781, under the shadow of a green sugar tree, near Haynes Station, a Baptist Church was constituted with eighteen members, by Elder William Taylor and Joseph Barnett, preachers, with Elder John Gerrard, who was ordained first pastor. The church was called the Regular Baptist Church of Severn's Valley. The same church still exists in Elizabethtown and is known by the name of the United Baptist Church of Christ, called Severn's Valley, and is now the oldest Baptist church that maintains an existence in Kentucky. All of the members and the preacher emigrated from Virginia, and Elder Gerrard might have been emphatically styled 'the voice of one crying in the wilderness.'

' ' This man of God was only permitted to exercise the functions of his office for nine months." (Page 14). It is supposed that he was killed by the Indians, as he went out hunting one day and never returned, and as the wilderness was infested with hostile Indians at that time.

We say the date should be June 18, not 17, because the history of Salem Association written by its clerk, Spencer Clack, in 1826 says: "On Saturday, the 29th of October, 1785, four Eegular Baptist Churches met at Cox's Creek, Nelson County, Kentucky, by their delegates, in order to form an association, and, after a suitable sermon on the occasion, preached by

The First Churches Constituted—1781 31

our brother, Joseph Barnett, from the first chapter of John and 17th verse, proceded to business. Brother Joseph Barnett was made moderatio, and Brother Andrew Paul, clerk.