Just when you think you know all about Baptist
history, you learn something new!
The only distilled beverage native to the United States is bourbon. A Baptist preacher from Kentucky, Elijah Craig (1738–1808), is credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey. He and his brother Lewis and the “Traveling Church” came from Virginia and arrived in central Kentucky circa 1781. Apparently, a number of Kentucky churches trace their lineage to this beginning.
According to Wikipedia, “He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1771, and was imprisoned briefly in South Carolina, apparently for disturbing the peace with his sermons. He then moved to what was then Bourbon County, Kentucky and settled in the area of Frankfort, Kentucky in 1785. In 1777, he became pastor of Blue Run Church.”
The first Baptist college founded west of the Allegheny mountains – Georgetown College (in Georgetown, KY) – has a connection back to Elijah Craig. He founded the Rittenhouse Academy in 1798. Silas Noel, a Frankfort, KY lawyer and minister, helped persuade the Kentucky legislature to charter the Kentucky Baptist Education Society in 1829. Citizens of Georgetown offered to raise $20,000 and donate the assets of Rittenhouse Academy for a new college. Therefore, Georgetown’s roots are fed from Craig’s school.
I ran across the bourbon info in “The excommunication of wine” in the Searcy, Arkansas Daily Citizen (Thursday, February 8, 2007 6:38 PM CST) That article carried this interesting paragraph:
The only distilled beverage native to the United States is bourbon. A Baptist preacher from Kentucky, Elijah Craig (1738–1808), is credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey. He and his brother Lewis and the “Traveling Church” came from Virginia and arrived in central Kentucky circa 1781. Apparently, a number of Kentucky churches trace their lineage to this beginning.
According to Wikipedia, “He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1771, and was imprisoned briefly in South Carolina, apparently for disturbing the peace with his sermons. He then moved to what was then Bourbon County, Kentucky and settled in the area of Frankfort, Kentucky in 1785. In 1777, he became pastor of Blue Run Church.”
The first Baptist college founded west of the Allegheny mountains – Georgetown College (in Georgetown, KY) – has a connection back to Elijah Craig. He founded the Rittenhouse Academy in 1798. Silas Noel, a Frankfort, KY lawyer and minister, helped persuade the Kentucky legislature to charter the Kentucky Baptist Education Society in 1829. Citizens of Georgetown offered to raise $20,000 and donate the assets of Rittenhouse Academy for a new college. Therefore, Georgetown’s roots are fed from Craig’s school.
I ran across the bourbon info in “The excommunication of wine” in the Searcy, Arkansas Daily Citizen (Thursday, February 8, 2007 6:38 PM CST) That article carried this interesting paragraph:
“It took less than one hundred years for the majority of American Churches to end eighteen centuries of the virtually universal use of wine and begin serving grape juice at communion services. This swift change in public perception is akin to the drop in sales of orange juice and bread caused by the recent Atkin’s Diet brouhaha. In this sense, Prohibition can be viewed as one of history’s most successful marketing campaigns.”
