John Taylor (1752–1833) was a pioneer Baptistpreacher, religious writer, frontier historian and planter in north and central Kentucky. His two histories of early Baptist churches in Kentucky provide insight into the frontier society of the early decades of the 19th century. His 1820 pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on Missions" put him at the center of the controversy within frontier Baptist congregations about supporting mission societies. In buying and selling land on the frontier, Taylor acquired 2,000 acres (8.1km2) and 20 African-Americanslaves by the end of the first decade of the 19th century, thus entering the planter class.
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a moral or social worldview or philosophy.
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts on another country.
Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Although styled as the "State of Kentucky" in the law creating it, (because in Kentucky's first constitution, the name state was used) Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth. Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.
Taylor was born in 1752 in Fauquier County, Virginia to a farming family. He was taught at home to read, write and do his numbers. Although christened in the Church of England, he was strongly influenced by the preaching of the Baptist William Marshall, whom he first heard at age 17. Taylor united with the Baptists when he was 20 years old and began preaching on the frontier while living in Virginia.
Fauquier is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 65,203. The county seat is Warrenton.
The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.
Baptists are Christians distinguished by baptizing professing believers only, and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the tenets of soul competency/liberty, salvation through faith alone, scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local congregation. Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's supper.
In his History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed (1830), Taylor provided material about his origins:
The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the United States frontier during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840) of the early 19th century. The pioneers of this movement were seeking to reform the church from within and sought "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the church of the New Testament." Especially since the mid-20th century, members of these churches do not identify as Protestant but simply as Christian.
At my birth, and in the early part of my life, my lot was cast in the backwoods of Virginia, where Indians often killed people, not far from where I was. My parents, who were of the church of England, told me, I had been christened when young. Being taught in all the rules of the old prayer book, I had my partialities that way; but we lived so frontier, I never heard any man preach, till about 17 years old; this was a baptist, (William Marshall). My awakening that day, was so striking, that I was won over to Marshall, and the religion he taught. A little more than two years after this, by the conviction I had from the New Testament, I was baptised [sic], and became a baptist from principle. To this way, and cause, I have had warm and decided attachments ever since. I would not be hard or unfriendly to other christian societies; but I am a decided, full bred baptist. ...
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the Pre-Columbian peoples of North, Central and South America and their descendants.
Baptism is a Christian rite of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into Christianity. The synoptic gospels recount that John the Baptist baptised Jesus. Baptism is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. Baptism is also called christening, although some reserve the word "christening" for the baptism of infants. It has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations.
The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English. It contained Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion and also the occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service. It also set out in full the "propers" : the introits, collects, and epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday service of Holy Communion. Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer were specified in tabular format as were the Psalms; and canticles, mostly biblical, that were provided to be said or sung between the readings.
Marriage and family
Taylor married Elizabeth Cavanaugh, daughter of Philemon and Nancy (Cave) Kavanaugh. They had several children together.[1] Their son Ben was born a month after their arrival in Kentucky in December 1783, after a difficult three-month trip from Virginia through the mountains.[2] Their daughter Jane married Jeconiah Singleton, another early Baptist pioneer and son of Manoah and Sally (Craig) Singleton, members of the early Forks of Elkhorn Church.[3] The Singletons had migrated to Kentucky in 1781 with The Travelling Church, led by Sally's brother, the Rev. Lewis Craig, pastor of the notable congregation.
The Travelling Church was a large group of pioneering settlers in the late 1700s that emigrated from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, to the Kentucky District of Virginia. It was the largest group that migrated to the area in a single movement. The group was led by the Reverend Lewis Craig, one of three pastor sons of Toliver Craig Sr., and its core was his Baptist congregation. The group of about 600 people arrived at Gilbert's Creek, Kentucky, in December 1781. Other preachers in the Travelling Church were Lewis Craig's younger brother Rev. Joseph Craig and his beloved slave Peter Durrett, who later became a pioneering black minister in Lexington, Kentucky. Lewis Craig's other brother who was a minister, Rev. Elijah Craig, did not come with the rest of the Church, as he remained for a while in Virginia to help James Madison establish constitutional religious liberty assurances before joining the group later. The group's pioneering members were to found many churches, settlements, and other institutions that continue to this day.
Career
While Taylor was in his 20s, he organized and served churches in the Virginia frontier settlements. At age 29, he took his young family to Kentucky in late 1783, two years after the historic migration of "The Traveling Church" of Baptists from Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Later he wrote about the trip: "... We arrived at Craig's Station, a little before Christmas (1783), and about three months after our start from Virginia. Through all this rugged travel my wife was in a very helpless state; about one month after our arrival, my son Ben was born."[4][5] He was soon called as the first pastor in Clear Creek Baptist Church, Woodford County, Kentucky.
Spotsylvania County is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2016 estimate, the population was 132,010. Its county seat is Spotsylvania Courthouse. Spotsylvania County is 66 miles (106 km) south of Washington, D.C. and 55 miles (89 km) north of Richmond, VA. Despite being tied a lot closer to Richmond, VA mileage and culturally wise, it is statistically a part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area.
Woodford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 24,939. Its county seat is Versailles.
In 1795 Taylor moved with his family to Boone County, where he was the stated preacher at Bullittsburg Baptist Church (1795–1802), the first church in northern Kentucky. Seven of his slaves were also members of the church. He was ministering there when the church experienced a revival in 1800–01 (during the period referred to in the South as the "Second Great Awakening"). A total of 113 people converted and were baptized into Taylor's church. Never financially supported by a church, he pursued independent farming and other vocations, as did most frontier preachers.
In addition to acting as a pastor, Taylor was part of organizing local Baptist associations in Kentucky. In 1785 Taylor attended the organizing conference of the Elkhorn Baptist Association (Lexington, Kentucky area). He also was part of organizing the Long Run Baptist Association (Louisville, Kentucky area) in 1803. There he preached the Introductory Sermon and was on the committee of organization. He became one of the early leaders of that association.
In 1802 he moved his family to Gallatin County (a portion now in Trimble County) near Mount Byrd along the Ohio River, where he had already bought nearly 3,000 acres (12km2) of land in various tracts.[6] There he entered the planter class, for he eventually held 20 enslavedAfrican Americans and owned 2,000 acres (8.1km2), selling some of his former land to other settlers to create a community.[4] Historians of the antebellum South define planters as those people who held 20 or more slaves to work their land.[7] While not all Baptists held as many slaves as Taylor, by this time most members had accommodated to the Southern institution and stopped calling for its abolition. "Far more than their Northern counterparts, Southern evangelical Protestants stressed the importance of individual piety rather than social regeneration."[8]
Ministering in Gallatin County for 13 years, Taylor also stayed in contact with the churches and pastors of the Boone County area. He attended a total of 25 North Bend Association meetings from 1805 through 1834. He was invited to preach virtually each time he attended. Fourteen of the visits were at Boone County churches, which hosted the association meetings.[9]
In 1815 Taylor moved his family and slaves to Franklin County to be further from the free state of Indiana, which proximity across the Ohio River from Gallatin County he had believed threatened his slave holdings.[4] The missionary James E. Welch, who knew him, wrote a biography of the preacher, saying Taylor had left Gallatin because of differences with his congregation.[6] He helped found a Baptist church in Frankfort. Next he helped establish one at Buck Run in 1818, where he was invited to pastor.[9] Instead, he chose to preach there regularly for several years.[6]
Many religious historians have identified Taylor's leading role in the disputes over the Missionary/Anti-missionary movement that arose among Protestant churches in the United States in the 1820s. In his booklet, "Thoughts on Missions" (1820), Taylor criticized mission societies and their methods of soliciting money from frontier churches. Later in life, he expressed regret over writing the 36-page pamphlet.[10] The historian Larry D. Smith noted that Taylor was opposed only to "mission societies;" he was never opposed to missions.[11]
Most of Taylor's ministry preceded the controversy associated with the anti-missionary movement among Baptists, and he did not appear to have "divided" with his brethren over the issue. In 1820 Taylor gave a copy of his "Missions" pamphlet to the local (North Bend) Association, but they made no comment on it. He was still invited to preach for the association that year and at later times when he attended their meetings. In 1820 the Elkhorn Association reported, "Bro. John Taylor presented to the Association a pamphlet, written by himself, on the subject of missions, which was referred to the committee on arrangement." At a later session of the body, "after much discussion it was agreed to strike out that item from the arrangement, and return the pamphlet to the author."[12] Similarly, Taylor gave the booklet to the Long Run Association; there was no surviving record of any response. He was honored by being one of two preachers asked to conduct the funeral of Absalom Graves, who was then the leading advocate of missions in the northern part of the state.
Though not formally educated, Taylor was an expressive writer with strong opinions.[9] His A History of Ten Churches was first printed in 1823, and A History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed in 1830. He also wrote several brief biographies, as well as many articles that were published in religious periodicals. The Concise Dictionary of American Biography describes A History of Ten Baptist Churches as "a fine picture of religion on the frontier."[citation needed]
When asked to tell about Taylor's life, James E. Welch, a frontier Baptist missionary, wrote:
I saw this aged brother at the meeting of the Elkhorn Association, at the Big Spring Church, near Frankfort, in 1832. He was a member of the Body; and yet he took his place on the front seat of the gallery. The Moderator, observing him, said, — 'Come down, Brother Taylor, and sit with us;' but he promptly replied, — 'I am a free man, Brother Moderator,' and kept his seat. (The gallery was a balcony where the slave members and attendees of the church were seated during worship services.) He was low of stature, muscular, had broad shoulders and a broad face, high cheek bones and heavy eyebrows, over-hanging a pair of light and small, but expressive, eyes. He was plain, and by no means particular, in his apparel, and rather reserved in conversation, though, at times, he seemed to enjoy a dry joke upon his brethren.[1]
Taylor died in 1833 in Franklin County, Kentucky near Forks of Elkhorn Creek, the year of a major choleraepidemic in the region. Welch wrote: "His death was peaceful and tranquil, and he has left behind him a name worthy of enduring remembrance."[1] The 19th-century historian William Cathcart wrote, "He [Taylor] traveled and preached extensively and probably performed more labor, and was more successful than any other pioneer Baptist preacher in Kentucky."[13]
Works
A History of Ten Baptist Churches, Frankfort, KY: (np), 1823; reprint, Cincinnati, OH: Art Guild Reprints, Inc., 1968; reprint with ed. Chester R. Young, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press: 1995, as Baptist Churches on the American Frontier.
A History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed, Frankfort, KY, Printed by A. G. Hodges, Commentator Office, 1830
Related Research Articles
Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city in Kentucky; the population was 25,527 at the 2010 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the principal city of the Frankfort, Kentucky Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Franklin and Anderson counties.
Gallatin County, is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,589. Its county seat is Warsaw.
Elijah Craig was a Baptist preacher in Virginia, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky. He has sometimes, although rather dubiously, been credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey.
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists are part of a larger sub-group of Baptists that is commonly referred to as "anti-mission" Baptists. This sub-group includes the Duck River and Kindred Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, some Regular Baptists and some United Baptists. Only a minuscule minority of Primitive Baptists adhere to the Two-Seed doctrine. The primary centers of Two-Seedism were in Northern Alabama, Arkansas, Eastern Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas. As of 2002, five churches or congregations of this faith and order still existed in Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas.
John Mason Peck (1789–1858) was an American Baptist missionary to the western frontier of the United States, especially in Missouri and Illinois. A prominent anti-slavery advocate of his day, Peck also founded many educational institutions and wrote prolifically.
James Ford, born James N. Ford, also known as James N. Ford, Sr. the "N" possibly for Neal, was an American civic leader and business owner in western Kentucky and southern Illinois, late 1790s to mid-1830s. Despite his clean public image as a "Pillar of the Community", Ford was secretly a river pirate and the leader of a gang that would come to be known as the "Ford's Ferry Gang". His gang was the river equivalent of highway robbers; they would hijack flatboats and Ford's "own river ferry" for tradable goods from local farms, coming down the Ohio River. Ford was an Illinois associate of Isaiah L. Potts and the Potts Hill Gang, highway robbers, of the infamous Potts Inn. James Ford also had an association with illegal slaver trader and kidnapper of free blacks, John Hart Crenshaw, and may have taken part in the Illinois version of the Reverse Underground Railroad. At one point, they used the "Cave-in-Rock" as their headquarters, on the Illinois side of the lower Ohio River, which is approximately 85 miles below Evansville, Indiana.
Isaac McCoy was a Baptist missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. He also played an instrumental role in the founding of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri.
Clear Creek Baptist Bible College (CCBBC), formerly named Clear Creek Mountain Springs, Inc., Clear Creek Mountain Preacher School and Clear Creek Baptist School, is a Southern Baptist institution of higher education affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention located in Pineville, Kentucky. CCBBC provides a Bible-based education focusing on Christian service. The college is accredited with the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Association for Biblical Higher Education. CCBBC was founded by Dr. Lloyd Caswell Kelly in 1926. Dr. Donnie Fox has been the President of Clear Creek Baptist Bible College since April 25, 2007.
Shubal Stearns, was a colonial evangelist and preacher during the Great Awakening. He converted after hearing George Whitefield and planted a Baptist Church in Sandy Creek, Guilford County, North Carolina. Stearns' highly successful ministry was related to the rise and expansion of the Separate Baptists — especially in much the American South.
The Brush Run Church was one of the earliest congregations associated with the Restoration Movement that arose during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. In 1811, a congregation of Christian reformers known as the Christian Association of Washington (Pennsylvania) reconstituted itself as a church and constructed a new building to replace the temporary log building where they began. Because it was built on the farm of William Gilchrist, near a stream called Brush Run, both the building and the congregation became known as Brush Run Church. It was the center of activity for Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son respectively, in their movement for Christian reform on the American frontier. The meeting house was later used as a blacksmith shop, then as a post office and finally it was moved to Bethany, Virginia.
Coxs Creek is an unincorporated community along U.S. Routes 31E/150 in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States, 4½ miles north of the county seat of Bardstown. It is named for Colonel Isaac Cox of Pennsylvania, who built a "fort" at the site in April 1775 before he fought in the American Revolutionary War, with the help of his brother James. The land had actually been his father's, but David moved back to Virginia before he developed it. More of a station, Cox's 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) was said to be the first pioneer station in Nelson County. Isaac Cox would later be the last white man to be killed by Indians during the time of the great Indian wars in what later became Kentucky.
First African Baptist Church is a historic church at 264-272 E. Short Street in Lexington, Kentucky. The congregation was founded c. 1790 by Peter Durrett and his wife, slaves who came to Kentucky with their master, Rev. Joseph Craig, in 1781 with "The Travelling Church" of Baptists from Spotsylvania, Virginia.
The history of the Baptist movement in the United States state of Kentucky begins around 1775, when a few Baptist preachers visited from Virginia. Virginians John Taylor, Joseph Reading, and Lewis Lunsford all visited in 1779, but returned to Virginia. Baptists began to settle around 1781, the first Baptist congregation of 18 people being left by John Garrard. Rev. Lewis Craig led several hundred people of "The Travelling Church", including several preachers, to Gilbert's Creek from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, arriving the first week of December 1781. Cedar Fork Church was founded in 1782.
Peter Durrett was a Baptist preacher and slave, who with his wife founded the First African Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky by 1790. By his death, the congregation totaled nearly 300 persons. It is the first black congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains, the first black Baptist congregation in Kentucky, and the third oldest black congregation in the United States. Its historic church was built in 1856, under the third pastor, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
George Washington Dupee was a former slave who became a Baptist leader in Kentucky, United States.
London Ferrill, also spelled Ferrell, was a former slave and carpenter from Virginia who became the second preacher of the First African Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, serving from 1823 to 1854. During his 31 years of service, Ferrill attracted and baptized many new members in the growing region; by 1850 the church had 1,820 members and was the largest of any congregation in the state, black or white.
Flippin is an unincorporated community located in Monroe County, Kentucky, United States. A small residential village is located on Highway 249, approximately 3.6 miles south of the Monroe-Barren County line. The village and community surround the intersection of Highway 249, Highway 678, and Highway 100. Flippin is situated northwest of Gamaliel, west of Tompkinsville, and east of Fountain Run.
William Calmes Buck (1790–1872) was an American Baptist minister, author and editor, and commentator on slavery.
Salem Baptist Church is a Baptist church located in Logansport, Butler County, Kentucky, and is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Since 2011, Salem's pastor has been Rev. Derek A. Cain.
↑ John Taylor, History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed, Frankfort, KY: 1830
↑ Ermina Jett Darnell, Forks of Elkhorn Church: With Genealogies of Early Members (on-line), Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD: 1946, p. 229. Note: Manoah Singleton m. Sally Craig; their children were 1) Jeconiah (1776–1834), m. Jane Taylor (dau. of Rev. John Taylor) and settled in Woodford. (Other children were listed on the page.)
1 2 3 John Taylor, History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed, Frankfort, KY, A. G. Hodges, Commentator Office, 1830
↑ "Capt. John Craig's Station (1783)", Kentucky Forts: North Central Kentucky, North American Forts, accessed 12 August 2010. Note: This was likely Capt. John Craig's Station on Clear Creek, 5 miles south of present-day Versailles in Woodford County. Highway markers identify the site at KY 33 and KY 169.
↑ William Cathcart, ed. Baptist Encyclopedia, Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881, 2 vol.
Further reading
Dorothy Brown Thompson, "John Taylor of the Ten Churches," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 46, No. 156, July, 1948, pp.239–25. Thompson is a descendant of Taylor.
____________________, "John Taylor and the Day of Controversy," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 53, No. 184, July, 1955, pp.196–233.
____________________, "Additional Notes on the John Taylor Family," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 53, No. 185, October, 1955, pp.348–354.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
