Toleration and Liberty

There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty. Toleration implies that somebody falsely claims the right to tolerate. Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God. It is the consistent and insistent contention of our Baptist people, always and everywhere, that religion must be forever voluntary and uncoerced, and that it is not the prerogative of any power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, to compel men to conform to any religious creed or form of worship, or to pay taxes for the support of a religious organization to which they do not believe.

George Washington Truett, Baptists and Religious Liberty, an address

Great God! thy glories

Isaac Watts wrote this common meter hymn on God’s divine perfections circa 1707. It has been paired with Edward Collier’s Marchfield, as well as other tunes.

1. Great God! thy glories shall employ

My holy fear, my humble joy;

My lips in songs of honor bring

Their tribute to th’ eternal King.

2. Earth, and the stars, and worlds unknown,

Depend precarious on his throne;

All nature hangs upon his word,

And grace and glory own their Lord.

3. His sovereign power what mortal knows?

If be command, who dares oppose?

With strength he girds himself around,

And treads the rebels to the ground.

4. Who shall pretend to teach him skill,

Or guide the counsels of his will?

His wisdom, like a sea divine,

Flows deep and high beyond our line.

5. His name is holy, and his eye

Burns with immortal jealousy

He hates the sons of pride, and sheds

His fiery vengeance on their heads.

6. The beamings of his piercing sight

Bring dark hypocrisy to light;

Death and destruction naked lie,

And hell uncovered to his eye.

7. Th’ eternal law before him stands;

His justice, with impartial hands,

Divides to all their due reward,

Or by the sceptre or the sword.

8. His mercy, like a boundless sea,

Washes our load of guilt away;

While his own Son came down and died

T’ engage his justice on our side.

9. Each of his words demands my faith;

My soul can rest on all he saith;

His truth inviolably keeps

The largest promise of his lips.

10. O tell me, with a gentle voice,

“Thou art my God,” and I’ll rejoice!

Filled with thy love, I dare proclaim

The brightest honors of thy name.

Alamo Survivor, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Alamo Survivor? -- "In the 1880s and 1890s, the venerable Madam Candelaria recounted her dramatic story of attending to the deathly ill Jim Bowie as Mexican soldados besieged the mission-turned-fort."
• Can Women Be Pastors? -- "Sam Storms...argues that pastoring is a gift not an authoritative office in the church."
• Died: Phillip E. Johnson, Lawyer Who Put Darwin on Trial -- "Johnson’s landmark book, Darwin on Trial, argued that Darwinian evolution didn’t have real evidence or good arguments, but was instead “another kind of fundamentalism”."
• Evangelical women superstars: power, celebrity and influence within the façade of submission -- "While their lives are constrained within the language of submission, most of these women have developed a knack for getting what they want."
• Finders Weepers -- "Treasure discovered in 1885 led to trouble for a Bell County ranch hand."
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Christian and a Democrat -- "Franklin Delano Roosevelt was influenced by the Episcopal Church, by the Social Gospel movement, by polio, by poverty and war, and, of course, by Democratic politics. A new religious biography examines these influences closely."
• I Was a Misunderstood Muslim -- "I want to shed light on some common misconceptions that hinder Christians from reaching out to Muslims with the saving truth of Christ."
• In the Making -- "I went in search of distinctive makers and found diverse artisans with deep thoughts about the act of creation."
• Losing the Trail - Trammel’s Trace and William’s Settlement -- "All along the route from Fulton, Arkansas down toward Nacogdoches there are surveyor notes that tell us where Trammel’s Trace was during the early years of the Republic."
• Mr. Loyd Awalt: a Boy’s Friend and a Man’s Friend -- "For years, he drove the Steward Mill school bus and kept law and order over a bunch of green broke kids, and he did it in such a way that he was successful and also gained the love and respect of 99.9 percent of the kids."
• Stopping by the Stagecoach -- "In 1943, Dion and Ruth Van Bibber purchased the property and renamed it the Stagecoach Inn, using delicious food and Southern hospitality to attract travelers."
• Suicide – Do People Go To Heaven If They Commit Suicide? -- "I wonder where this idea comes from. Is it a residue of a belief that those who die with unconfessed sin are not forgiven?"
• The Origin of Alabama’s Oldest Baptist Church -- "Their first pastor was Elder John Nicholson, reportedly from the Boiling Fork Baptist Church in Franklin County, Tennessee. Nicholson would serve Flint River Church as Pastor until around 1830."
• We have set our names upon your waters -- "The French Broad is a river and a watershed and a way of life where day-before-yesterday and day-after-tomorrow exist in odd and fascinating harmony.
• Woodstock & the “Fundamental Conflict of Our Age” -- "Rand’s interest in analyzing Woodstock was not merely journalistic. As a philosopher, she was a staunch advocate of reason and its practical value in guiding one’s life."
• 6 Members Who Build Up the Church -- "Dear church member, pursue these qualities in your own life and encourage them in others."

William Keele’s Jubile Sermon

I recently purchased Life of Rev. William Keele: a Noted Preacher of the Baptist Church for Fifty-five Years (John D. Ewell, Noah, TN: W. J. Stephenson, 1884). I hoped to find some historical gems concerning the Duck River Baptists. Keele, with other preachers, led in forming the Duck River Association of Baptists in 1826. I was very disappointed on that count. His biography contains very little of a specific nature about how the Duck River Association was formed. However, it does contain interesting stories of his life. Here is one.

When he [William Keele] had procured his license from the Primitive Baptist Church, he preached his first sermon in the open air, on a rock that is about six or seven miles southward from Murfreesboro. This sermon was delivered in the year 1806, the text being appropriately selected; and just fifty years from the date of the first sermon, he preached a second sermon from this same rock, from the same text. This rock is situated near the place now called Norman’s Camp-ground. When he preached the first sermon he belonged to the Primitive Baptist Church; but when he preached the second, he was the leading minister of the Separate Baptist Church, which Church he himself had founded, from causes and reasons which will now be stated. (Life of Rev. William Keele, pp. 53-54)

Republican Banner (Nashville, Tennessee), Friday, August 01, 1856, page 3

At the request of Elder J. M. Honeycut, we would state that the text from which the Rev. William Keele preached the two sermons on the rock in Rutherford county was Matthew xvi. 18: “And upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Life of Rev. William Keele, p.242)

[Note: Ewell’s use of “Primitive Baptist Church” is somewhat anachronistic, in that Baptists did not commonly use that adjective at the time William Keele began to preach. Concerning Separate Baptists, he also writes, “We may find it convenient to speak of the Rev. William Keele as the founder of an organization of Baptists; but this can only mean that he was a conspicuous leader in such organization. Both he and his co-workers were Baptists before they began such organization. The Churches organized by the assistance of the Rev. William Keele and his co-workers, in 1826 and thereafter, recognize no name except Baptist; but for the sake of distinction among the several branches of Baptist organizations, we are forced to use such improper terms as Primitive Baptist, Separate Baptist, Missionary Baptist, etc., for which we would apologize.” He also explains the use of “Reverend” as his choice as “an appellation of respect” while the “Baptists usually call their ministers elder.” (Life of Rev. William Keele, p. 3)]

Missions and Anti-missions

This excerpt from the Black Rock Address (1832) seems, in my opinion, to agree with the observations made by Zachariah Rose and Albert Moore on missions and anti-missions.

Previous to stating our objections to the mission plans, we will meet some of the false charges brought against us relative to this subject, by a simple and unequivocal declaration, that we do regard as of the first importance the command given of Christ, primarily to His apostles, and through them to his ministers in every age, to “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” and do feel an earnest desire to be found acting in obedience thereunto, as the providence of God directs our way, and opens a door of utterance for us. We also believe it to be the duty of individuals and churches to contribute according to their abilities, for the support, not only of their pastors, but also of those who go preaching the gospel of Christ among the destitute. But we at the same time contend, that we have no right to depart from the order which the Master himself has seen fit to lay down, relative to the ministration of the word.

No Anti-mission Baptists in Tennessee

A letter to J. R. Graves and The Tennessee Baptist, in 1857.

No Anti-mission Baptists in Tennessee.

            Brother Graves.—In the “Tennessee Baptist” of the 7th March, I notice the following question propounded, viz: “How many anti-missionary Baptists in Tennessee?” Answer—not one. Notwithstanding there are many to whom that cognomen has been applied, I apprehend there are no Baptists, according to their best light and the teaching of the New Testament, that will feel themselves implicated by the unguarded use of the term. But that there exists radical differences amongst the Baptists, about what the true missionary spirit of the New Testament is, no one will deny. The question then will assume another form, viz:

            How many Baptists in Tennessee oppose the affiliation of our membership with the institutions which have been associated with our churches in modern days, and which have been instrumental in corrupting Baptist polity and destroying the peace of Zion? I answer, very many. And as an honest enquirer for truth, I again ask you as a brother in Christ, to define what the Baptists held and taught in the twelfth century, as that is the time you refer to as the age in which purity of faith and practice was held and taught by the Baptists, (see your article in the ‘Baptist.’) I am for union, and desire to see the great Baptist family harmonized again.

                                                             Yours in Christ.

                                                             Z. Rose.[i]

In reaction to Rose’s letter, Albert Moore of Grenada, Mississippi wrote to The Tennessee Baptist, “I am also one of those commonly denominated ‘Anti-missionary Baptists,’ but I repudiate the title as unjust and inapplicable.”[ii]

As one who is “anti-missionary” and “missionary,” I have long thought the terminology is imprecise and even pejorative. In a journal article, Rufus B. Spain made an effort to distinguish between “anti-missionism” and “anti-effortism.”

Anti-missionism, strictly speaking, was opposition to missions on doctrinal grounds. “Anti-effortism” was opposition to missions conducted by any agency other than the local church. Anti-missionary Baptists opposed home missions as well as foreign missions, but for different reasons. After about 1825, anti-missionism declined, but anti-effortism continued to increase.[iii]

That is helpful, at least distinguishing between two distinct approaches. However, even Spain struggled to apply it in his own article. Ultimately, I think Zachariah Rose is correct. There really is very little actual “anti-missionism.”

In the referenced article, Spain explained the “anti-effort” “anti-missionary” position as follows:

Other anti-missionary Baptists [i.e., those who were not “hyper-Calvinistic” or didn’t see missions as an “infringement of the divine prerogative and an insult to the Almighty.” rlv] found three principle objections to missions. First, they objected to mission boards because they tended toward centralization of authority. Self-government by each local church was a cherished principle among all Baptists. Second, anti-missionary Baptists objected to mission societies on the grounds that they were man-made, moneyed institutions and, therefore, without scriptural support. This objection was perhaps the most widely circulated. Their third objection was directed chiefly against home missionaries. Many uneducated and democratic-spirited frontiersmen resented the presence among them of learned ministers who received their support from Eastern missionary societies. They also resented the inference that their frontier communities were inferior to eastern society and consequently that they were in need of evangelization. Some frontier preachers also had the practical reason for objecting to home missionaries. They feared that their congregations would attend the services of the better preachers and leave them without hearers.[iv]

Again, I think this is helpful, as far as it goes. There may be “hyper-Calvinistic” Baptists that do not believe in spreading the gospel. So-called “anti-missions,” for the most part, is an ecclesiological issue rather than a soteriological issue. Even Daniel Parker rooted most, if not all, of his objections to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions in the Baptist doctrine of the church.

---

[i] The Tennessee Baptist (Nashville, Tennessee), Saturday, May 2, 1857, p. 2.

[ii] The Tennessee Baptist, Saturday, May 23, 1857, p. 2.

[iii] “R. B. C. Howell: Virginia Baptist Tradition Comes to the Old Southwest,” Rufus B. Spain, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June, 1955), Nashville, TN: Tennessee Historical Society, pp. 99-119 (114).

[iv] Ibid, p. 114.

Duck River Association

Below is a condensation of an article that I wrote for Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, with additions, changes, and corrections.[i] Since I have written about Isaac Reed and James L. Bryant, who had connections to these associations, I feel some readers might be interested in the following facts.

The annual meeting of this group is denominated the General Association of Baptists. However, they are most widely known as the Duck River and Kindred Associations of Baptists.[ii] Other names associated with these churches are the Baptist Church of Christ, The Baptists, and Separate Baptists.[iii] The primary location of the churches is middle Tennessee and northern Alabama.[iv] In the 1800s, the Duck River Association corresponded with the Mt. Moriah Association in western Tennessee.

The history of the General Association of Baptists begins with the formation of the Duck River Association in 1826, led by William Keele, William Martin, Hezekiah Lasater, Isaac Reed, and others.[v] Kentucky ministers Ambrose Dudley and John Taylor constituted the earliest church in the region circa 1790.[vi] The Elk River Association was formed in south-central Tennessee in 1808. As most of the Baptists of middle Tennessee, the churches of the Elk River Association were strongly Calvinistic in theology. Early in the 19th century, Alexander Campbell connected himself to the Baptists for a time, and began to preach Arminian doctrine among them. Some Baptists of the region found this modification of theology appealing, and began to preach that Christ died for all mankind, in distinction from limited atonement and unconditional election. It should be remembered, however, that earlier Separate and Regular Baptists had agreed to unite including an agreement that preaching “Christ tasted death for every man, shall be no bar to communion.”[vii] Whatever the sources, the new sentiment became so strong in the Elk River Association that it led to division, and the Duck River Association of Separate Baptists was formed. The original name appears to have been “Duck River Baptist Association of Christ.”

The story of the division of the Elk River Association has emphasized the theology of the atonement – probably right so – there were other issues as well. An overemphasis on associational authority particularly chaffed the independent spirit of Baptists. John Rushing, a preacher in the Elk River Association at the time of the split, wrote to Matthew Lyon and The Baptist,

The reason why we call ourselves Separates is, we separated from doctrines set forth in a circular letter and published in the minutes of the Elk River Association in 1821 or 2, wherein the ministers were represented as holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and also charging all those that did not believe the doctrine of eternal, unconditional and personal election, with wretched infidelity: which was alarming to us, who believe the first to be popery and the whole unscriptural.

The predestinarians in the Elk River Association probably wished to salvage soteriological doctrinal purity. Their attempt to do so, however, violated church sovereignty and autonomy on the other end. Rushing continued,

In this time of distress the Association met at Sugar Creek meeting house in Bedford county, Ten.; and there a motion was made that no church should be at liberty to license their young ministers without the aid of a presbytery, which (presbytery) was to be appointed by the Association, and they were to officiate in the above business, and constitute churches, and to ordain bishops and deacons in all the churches in our Association.[viii]

Others were soon embroiled in dispute over the new ideas, and other associations divided or had members withdraw from them. Some ministers and churches moved on into the Stone-Campbell restoration movement. The Duck River Association maintained a Baptist course. Some of the Duck River Baptists eventually found their way into the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.[ix] However, a mind of independence, coupled with opposition to the Calvinistic stance (at least in 1843) of the State Convention and other organizations, caused the Duck River Association and other Separate Baptists to continue as separate bodies. The “Separate” side of the 1843 Duck River division maintained, “we cannot quit our position, we cannot unite with you while you retain your Calvinistic doctrine, your resolves and pledges to do everything in your power to sustain the Baptist Publishing and Sunday School Society, and pledges to support the Seminary of learning…”[x]

The Duck River Baptists stayed their course and sought fellowship with like-minded Baptists. Through the years, they developed correspondence with other Baptist associations – Mount Zion Association, Indian Creek, Union, Mount Moriah, Mount Pleasant, East Union, Ebenezer, Mount Olive, Liberty, New Liberty, and Mount Pleasant No. 2. Many of these fellowships are still maintained. In October of 1939, delegates from Duck River, Mount Zion, Union, Mount Pleasant, Liberty, New Liberty, and Ebenezer Associations, and the Pleasant Hill church of Kentucky, met at Garrison Fork Church, Bedford County, Tennessee, and organized the General Association of Baptists. The stated purpose of this association is to “perpetuate a closer union and communion among us and to preserve and maintain a correspondence with each other.”[xi]

This “Duck River and Kindred” association is one of the “primitivistic” sects among Baptists, though they do not share the strong Calvinism of some of those bodies.[xii] They are moderately Calvinistic, retaining the teachings of total depravity and eternal security, while asserting that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. Most of the churches have Sunday Schools, but no organized support of missionary or benevolent institutions. Most of the churches use musical instruments, though some do not. In addition to baptism and the Lord’s supper, they observe the rite of feet washing as an ordinance. “Pastors are bivocational and are often addressed as ‘elder’.”[xiii]

The General Association is currently made up of seven associations - Duck River Association of Baptists (TN); Mt. Zion Association of Baptist (TN), org. 1834; Mt. Pleasant Association of Baptists [“No. 1”] (AL); Mt. Pleasant Association [“No. 2”] of the Baptists (AL), org. 1910; New Liberty Association of United Baptists of the Primitive Order (TN); East Union Association of The Baptist (TN); Union Association of The Baptist (TN) – and one independent church – Pleasant Hill Church of Marion, Kentucky.

In 1999, the Duck River and Kindred Associations of Baptists reflected a total membership of 10,212 in 99 churches. In his 2007 book, The Twelve Baptist Tribes in the United States: a Historical and Statistical Analysis, Albert W. Wardin recorded 10,188 members in 99 churches.[xiv]

In addition to participation in the General Association, the local associations maintain correspondence with one another at their own annual meetings. Each association is free to correspond with other like-minded associations that are not participating in the General Association, though there in no such correspondence at this time.

Articles of Faith of the Duck River Baptist Association[xv]

---

[i] I’m sure the Wikipedia article itself has been edited many times since what I wrote.

[ii] This name seems to derive from the “Religious Bodies” studies conducted by the U. S. Department of Commerce. See, for example, Religious Bodies, 1906 and Religious Bodies, 1936. I have not yet found as earlier use.

[iii] “...the 1828 Minutes listed letters from 13 churches and stated that, during the annual session, held at Boiling Fork, Franklin County, 10 more churches were received into the membership. The 23 churches were located in Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, Franklin, Rutherford and Warren Counties.  The combined membership was 880...” History: Duck River Association of Missionary Baptists.

[iv] There is one church in Kentucky. In 1884, the Elm Grove Baptist Church of Valley Creek, Fannin County, Texas, united with the Mt. Zion Association of Baptists in Tennessee. This was probably due to westward migration of Separate Baptists from this Association. The current status of this Texas church is unknown, other than it is not connected to the Mt. Zion Association.

[v] The Baptist (Nashville, Tennessee), Saturday, July 01, 1837, page 4/100.

[vi] This Tennessee church met near the mouth of the Sulphur Fork River, and united with the Elkhorn Association.

[vii] In Kentucky, Ambrose Dudley served on the committee from the Elkhorn Baptist Association that agreed to this union. A Primitive Baptist writer suggests the Campbell influence (or at least separation) post-dated the departure of the Separate Baptists from the Elk River Association. “We will now leave the Separates — what next? On comes the Campbell system. We yet had some graceless preachers amongst us, they took up with Campbell, made some confusion in some of the churches, and carried off some more that we had no use for.” Joshua Yeats to the editors of The Primitive Baptist, Vol. 8, No. 2, Saturday, January 28, 1843, pp. 24-25. On the other hand, Barton W. Stone indicates direct influence on the split in 1826. See The Christian Messenger, Volume 1, Number 1 (November 25, 1826).

[viii] “For the Baptist, Letter III,” John Rushing, The Baptist, Saturday, July 1, 1837, p. 4/100.

[ix] Today there are two Duck River Associations. In 1953, the Convention group officially changed their name to “Duck River Association of Missionary Baptists.”

[x] History: Duck River Association of Missionary Baptists.

[xi] “A History of the Duck River Baptists,” Forrest Shelton Clark, The Quarterly Review, January-March 1973, pp. 42-52.

[xii] Primitive Baptists are a specific sub-group of Baptists. “Primitivistic Baptists” are those churches and associations that continually attempt to preserve, practice, and propagate primitive Christianity – exhibiting their desire to follow the pattern of New Testament order, faith, and practice. In The Twelve Baptist Tribes, Wardin moved the Duck River and Kindred Associations into a category termed “Old Time Baptists.”

[xiii] “Duck River and Kindred Associations (General Association of Baptists),” Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Tennessee Baptist History, Vol. IV, No. 1, James Taulman, editor, Brentwood, TN: Tennessee Baptist Historical Society, pp. 23-25.

[xiv] Seven associations with 98 churches, and one independent church not in a local association, based on statistics gathered in the 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership study and/or association minutes. The Twelve Baptist Tribes in the United States, Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Atlanta, GA: Baptist History and Heritage Society/ Nashville, TN: Fields Publishing, Inc. 2007, p. 87.

[xv] This is the Duck River local association, rather than the General Association.

Isaac traveling west

Early Life and Family

Isaac Reed – also known as Isaac Hines Reed[1] – was born June 6, 1776 in Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina, the son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Reed.[2] On September 17, 1797, while still living in South Carolina, Isaac married Elizabeth Harper. This couple sired at least eight children: William B. (1798 – 1863, m. Sarah Wright), John H. (d. before 6 Nov 1848, m. Nancy Louise Hines),[3] Samuel A. (b. ca. 1806 – d. ca. 1876, m. Hannah Hines), Margarete (1808 – 1856, m. William Roark), Elizabeth Reed (1812 – 1850, m. Hugh Shepherd), Isaac, Jr. (1814 – 1837, m. Pricilla Herrin), Frances “Frankie” (1821-1861, m. John Morris), and Mary (m. Awalt?, Sweatt?).[4] Isaac’s “Last Will and Testament” mentions all eight of these children.[5]

Two Isaac Reeds (spelled Read) are in Pendleton District, South Carolina in 1800. Isaac Read # 420 was enumerated in Pendleton District, South Carolina in 1800. His family consisted of one white male under 10, one white male 16 thru 25, one white female under 10, and one white female 16 thru 25, a total of four household members. Isaac Read #931 was also enumerated in Pendleton District, South Carolina in 1800. His family consisted of two white males under 10, one white male 16 thru 25, and one white female 16 thru 25, a total of four household members.

An Isaac Reed of Lincoln County, Tennessee bought land on Farris Creek of Elk River in Lincoln County, from William Polk of Wake County, North Carolina, May 29, 1811.[6]

An Isaac Reed was enumerated in Franklin County, Tennessee, August 7, 1820. This family consisted of one white male 26 to 44, one white female 26 to 44, one white female over 45, two white females 10 to 15, one white female under 10, two white males 18 to 25, one white male 16 to 18, and 2 two white males under 10. At this time, Isaac and Elizabeth had five sons and three daughters and owned two slaves, for a total in the census of eleven white persons and two slaves.

Isaac moved west in Tennessee before turning toward the old Southwest and Texas. Several sources suggest this, and the 1830 Henderson County, Tennessee census agrees.

A Mrs. Luttrell believed that Isaac Reed was in the western district when he started the Clear Creek Baptist Church in McNairy County, Tennessee.

The Clear Creek Church of Christ was constituted about the year 1827 or 1828 by Isaac Reed and Silas Grinder, a deacon in the church. Both of these men came from Williamson or Henderson County, Tenn, with about 11 charter members.[7]

Z. N. Morrell relates knowing him in the western district of Tennessee.

With Elder Reed I was personally acquainted, and labored with him in the western district of Tennessee. He there served as moderator of an association; many baptisms and large success attended his ministry there.[8]

Joseph Bodkin Link, probably depending on Z. N. Morrell as his source, wrote,

REV. ISAAC REED came from the western district of Tennessee and located nine miles north of Nacogdoches in 1834.[9]

William and Margaret Roark (Isaac’s son-in-law and daughter) were members of “The Baptist Church of Christ at Hurricane” in Henderson County, Tennessee, when they called for a letter of dismission in the fall of 1834. Samuel A. Reed was church clerk.

State of Tennessee Henderson County

The Baptist Church of Christ at Hurricane

To all to whome these presents may come Greeting

   Where as our beloved Brother and Sister William Roark and Margaret Roark his wife being about to remove from this place has applied to use for a Letter of Dismission – Therefore this is to certify that they are Members with us in full fellow Ship and good Standing and at their request is dismiss^d from us in order to Join any other Church of our faith and order

   Done in Church conference on Saturday before the first Lords day in September 1834.

Samuel A. Reed, C. clk.[10]

An Isaac Read was enumerated in Henderson County, Tennessee, in 1830. This family consisted of one white male 50 to 60, one white female 50 to 60, one white female 5 to 10, and one white male 15 to 20. At this time, Isaac and Elizabeth owned seven slaves, for a total in the census of eleven persons – four white persons and two slaves.[11] Another Isaac Read was enumerated in Henderson County that year, which may or may not be Isaac, Jr. This household consisted of one white male 30 to 40, one white female 20 to 30, three white females under 5, one white female 5 to 10, one white male under 5, one white male 10 to 15, and no slaves.[12] A John Read is on the same page with the senior Isaac, whose household consisted of one white male 20 to 30, one white female 20 to 30, one white female under 5, one white male under 5, one white male 15 to 20, and no slaves.[13] The other John Read is in the 40 to under 50 years age category, which would seem too old to be Isaac’s son.[14] The names William Read, Samuel Read, William Roark and Hugh Shepherd – sons and sons-in-law of Isaac – also show up in the 1830 Henderson County Census.[15]

Early Ministry

In 1808, Isaac Reed was ordained to the ministry. The Hopewell Baptist Church of Franklin County, Tennessee set apart Isaac Reed for the work of the ministry on March 19, 1808.  Beneath is the text of his ordination certificate (which has been preserved by one of his descendants in Texas):[16]

The State of Tennessee.

Franklin County.

Hopewell Baptist Church.

These are to certify that we being duly called as a Presbytery have examined into the character and call and qualifications of our Beloved Brother Isaac Read and with the consent of the Church to which he belongs have by prayer and imposition of hands set him apart of the work of the Ministry and he is hereby authorized to exercise himself in the several parts of the Ministerial function where he in the Providence of God may be called whether stately or occasionly.

Given under our hands this nineteenth day of March one thousand eight hundred and eight.

John Davis

Abraham Hargis

George Foster

Wm. Jennings[17]

Reed helped form the Boiling Fork Church on August 19, 1808, and apparently participated in constituting the Elk River Baptist Association. The Homecoming ’86 History of the Elk River Valley records the following item from an article by Betty A. Bridgewater in the Coffee County Historical Quarterly, Vol. XI, No. 2, 1980, pp. 1-3 and p. 12 – which in turn was taken from the history of the Elk River Association of Baptists that was printed in the Minutes of the 101st Annual Session of the Elk River Association (held at Elk River Church in Coffee County on September 11-12 1908).

An account of the Elk River Association of Baptists formed the 20th of August 1808:

On the 10th of October 1806, Bro. George Foster settled on the head of Elk River from the state of Kentucky. He formed the Hopewell Church in 1807. In the fall of 1807, Bethel Church on the south fork of Duck River was constituted by John Davis, James Walker, and George Foster; on 29 March 1808, Bethlahem Church was formed by the same men, and Boiling Fork Church on 19 August 1808 by Elder John Davis, Issac Reed, and George Foster. These four churches together with the Elk River Church met together by their delegates at Hopewell Meeting House on 19 August 1808. After services they were enrolled with George Foster and William Gotcher the delegates named from the Elk River Church. Other names noted which are familiar in pre-Coffee County records were Dutton Sweeten, John Lane, and Bro. William Keel. The following day the group of delegates agreed to unite and form an association, to be known as the “Elk River Association.”[18]

Elder Isaac Reed preached at Clear Creek Church in McNairy County circa 1831. Thomas Sanders, Sr. “united with God’s people at Clear Creek Baptist church, and was baptized by Elder Isaac Reed, when he was about fifty two years old.”[19]

Isaac Reed helped constitute at least the following Baptist Churches.[20]

Year     Date                 Name and Place

1808    August 19        Boiling Fork, Franklin County, Tennessee

1827    (circa)              Clear Creek, McNairy County, Tennessee

1838    May 6               Union (now Old North), Nacogdoches County, Texas

1839                            Buena Vista, Buena Vista near Timpson, Shelby County, Texas[21]

1843    Sept 23             Bethel, Reeds Settlement, Harrison (now Panola) County, Texas

                                                * Bethel Baptist Church (white) Clayton, Texas

                                                * Old Bethel Baptist Church (black) Clayton, Texas

1843                            Border, Harrison County, Texas perhaps in the Jonesville vicinity

1844                            Mount Olive (now Old Palestine), Cherokee County, Texas

1845    April 5             Macedonia, Harrison (now Panola) County, Texas

1845                            Eight-Mile (now Friendship) Harrison County, Texas

Isaac Reed participated in the constitution of at least three associations.

Year                             Name and Place

1821                            Mud Creek Association in Alabama[22]

1826                            Duck River Association in Tennessee

1843                            Sabine Association in Texas

Isaac Reed was ordained in March of 1808, and likely participated in the organization of the Elk River Association of Tennessee, but I have found no clear statement of that fact. It was formed August 20, 1808, one day after Isaac Reed helped found the Boiling Fork Church.[23]

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[1] All older records I found give only “Isaac Reed,” but family historians/genealogists give his full name as Isaac Hines Reed. Some spell his given name as “Issac” – e.g. Remembering Two Baptist Pioneer Preachers of Texas, Della Tyler Key, Sidney F. Alford, Lubbock, TX: Dennis Brothers, 2009

[2] Some genealogists give the name of the mother of Isaac as Elizabeth, others as Hephzibah. The latter claim seems to be incorrectly based on his parents being Nathan Reed and Hephzibah Bateman of New England.

[3] Isaac’s will mentions “the heirs of my son John H. Reed,” suggesting John is already deceased by November 23, 1848. A legal notice in the West Tennessee Whig (Friday, January 18, 1850, p. 3) indicates John was deceased by November 6, 1848. The Henderson County Court appointed an administrator for his estate at that time. Perhaps Isaac did not know whether John is still living, since John did not move to Texas – or just that he did not know how many heirs John had and so did not name them. In the case of Isaac, Jr., the will specifically mentions he is deceased. The children of Isaac, Jr. are mentioned in the will – Abner, Samuel, Lemuel, James, and Keziah. The children of John are not named. John is John Harper Reed, born perhaps March 12, 1806 in Franklin County, Tennessee (according to some Reed family genealogists). Some also assert that John died October 1835 at Winchester, Franklin, Tennessee, but this is incorrect. John H. Reed lived and pastored churches in Henderson County after 1835. This John Reed married Nancy Louisa Hines. Find-A-Grave lists John H. Reed, Jr. at Mt. Bethel Cemetery in Panola County as their child. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17859117/john-h_-reed

[4] An Edward Sweatt is listed on an 1850 Panola County agricultural schedule with many others in the Reed Settlement area – including John Morris, Elijah Allred, Stephen Allred, Samuel Pike, Purvince Williams, and Thomas Allison. “George Sweit” and “Edwin Sweit” are founding members of the Bethel Church in 1843 (Bethel Baptist Church, Church Bulletin, September 24, 1989).

[5] “Book A, Panola County Final Records and Estates,” as printed in East Texas Family Records, Vol. 7, No. 3, Fall 1983, pages 27-29. Some sources say the Mary Reed who married Henry Awalt was a daughter of Isaac Reed. Awalt was a charter member of Bethel Church. Other sources say she was a daughter of William B. Reed, therefore granddaughter of Isaac. According to birth dating based on censuses, Mary Awalt would be too old to be the daughter of William B. Reed. Since Mary Awalt is not mentioned in Isaac’s will, the latter is probably correct. On the other hand, the will at East Texas Family Records is a transcription, and perhaps “Awalt” was incorrectly transcribed as “Sweatt.”

[6] “Middle Tennessee Connections,” compiled by Dorothy Williams Potter, in The Middle Tennessee Journal of Genealogy & History, Volume XV, Number 2, Fall 2001, p. 59 (Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Book B, p. 4.)

[7] Clear Creek Missionary Baptist Church Minutes, 1827-1874, Transcribed by Nancy Wardlow Kennedy, 2004, p. 17. Silas Grider (rather than Grinder) can be found in the 1830 and 1840 Henderson County, Tennessee censuses.

[8] Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness, Z. N. Morrell, Boston, MA: Gould and Lincoln, 1872, p. 185.

[9] Texas Historical and Biographical Magazine, J. B. Link, (Volume 1, 1891, as found in The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc. Version 1.0, 2005).

[10] Transcription of handwritten document in the Sabine Baptist Association file, “The Texas Collection,” Baylor University.

[11] U. S. Federal Census, Henderson County, Tennessee, 1830, p. 85, on Ancestry.com.

[12] Ibid, p. 90.

[13] Ibid, p. 85.

[14] Ibid, p. 89.

[15] Ibid, pp. 77, 81, 104.

[16] Owned by Mrs. J. A. Knight of Conroe, Texas, a great-granddaughter, in 1923; Carroll, p. 119. Mrs. Knight had a notarized transcription of this certificate made in 1936, which copy resides in “The Texas Collection” at Baylor University’s archives. J. M. Carroll writes, “The first definite record we have of him is found in his ordination papers. In the possession of Mrs. J. A. Knight, of Conroe, Texas, is an old book—a copy of the New Testament—given to Elder Reed by a Mrs. Bullard of Harrison County, back in the thirties or forties. Under the sheepskin cover of that book is the original copy of Reed’s ordination paper. Mrs. Knight is a great-granddaughter of that early pioneer preacher.” A History of Texas Baptists (Dallas, TX: Baptist Standard Publishing Company, 1923, p. 119).

[17] This transcription attempts to follow the one in “The Texas Collection.” Others have made adaptations of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and abbreviations.

[18] Homecoming ’86 History of the Elk River Valley (Pelham Valley) of Grundy County, TN, compiled by Arlene Partin Bean, Janelle Layne Coats, Manchester, TN: Beaver Press, 1986, pp. 100-101 | 

[19] Clear Creek was in McNairy County. The baptism occurred circa 1831, since Sanders died Sept 14 1848 at age 69 years. “Obituary Notices,” Tennessee Baptist (Nashville, Tennessee) Thursday, October 12, 1848, p. 3

[20] Bethel, Border, Macedonia, and Eight-Mile with Lemuel Herrin.

[21] This seems to be a traditional date passed down. I am not aware of any 19^th-century records that demonstrate it.

[22] “This Association was organized on the third Saturday in November, A. D. 1821. Delegates from nine churches convened at Mud Creek meeting-house, Jackson County, Ala., and after a sermon had been delivered by Elder Isaac Reed from Joel, second chapter and part of first verse (“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain”), they chose Elder Isaac Read Moderator, and brother Josiah Cann Clerk.” – History of the Church of God, Cushing Biggs Hassell, Sylvester Hassell, Middletown, NY: Gilbert Beebe’s Sons, 1886, p. 887. In contrast, David Benedict gives its organization as 1825. This appears to be a misunderstanding of what Hosea Holcombe wrote in A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Alabama (Philadelphia, PA: King and Baird, 1840, pp. 291-292). Holcombe did not give their date of organization, but only gave their number of churches and members in 1825.

[23] Benedict dates Elk River to 1806, but this must be in error. Elk River’s minutes of 1901 state that the Boiling Fork Church was in the organization of the Elk River Association, and Boiling Fork did not exist in 1806. See A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, David Benedict, New York, NY: Lewis Colby and Company, 1848, p. 803.