Church and Family History Research Assistance
for Daviess County, Kentucky
CHURCHES:
PANTHER CREEK (OWENSBORO/YELVINGTON)(1813)
Panther Creek Church was the first Baptist Church in Daviess County. The Church was organized in a private home on June 30, 1813, about two miles southwest of what was then known as the Rock Spring. Eleven persons went into the constitution of this Church. They were: Matthew Rogers, Henry White, Elizabeth Keith, Susan Calhoun, Samuel Bristow, Jacob Miller, Mary Rogers, Jane Wright, William P. Hudson, Elenor Rogers, and Elder John Weldon.
Elders Benjamin Tolbert and John Weldon composed the presbytery which organized the church. A Church Covenant was adopted along with nine Articles of Faith. One of the Articles of Faith recognized Feet Washing as a Church ordinance to be observed immediately after the observance of the Lords Supper. Another Article required the members to contribute to the support of the pastor according to his necessities and in accordance with their ability to give. A third Article on the action of baptism repudiated Alien Immersion.
The first regular meeting after the organization was held on July 11th, 1813. At the second meeting, in August, Elder John Weldon was called as the first pastor of the Church. William P. Hudson was chosen as the first clerk and Matthew Rogers was elected as the first deacon. He was ordained later by Elders John Weldon and Job Hobbs. What is known as Daviess County was then Ohio County and the Church assumed the name of the Panther Creek Church of Ohio County, near the Yellow Banks. The Church opened correspondence with the Wabash Association in Southern Indiana and sent messengers to that body with the Church letter, but the correspondence was soon discontinued. Samuel Bristow and Matthew Rogers were both licensed to preach by the Church near the end of the year 1813.
Obituary of Elder Matthew Rogers:
"A great man has fallen in Israel." Died, in January last, at the residence of his son-in-law, John Leman, Esq., near Owensboro, Daviess Co., Ky., in the 80th year of his age, ELDER MATTHEW ROGERS. The deceased was well known to the Baptists in this section of country as a preacher, for upwards of thirty years, during which time he maintained a high standing among them as an honest and upright man and a Christian. His hope in the Lord Jesus Christ remained firm and unshaken to the last.
Bury the dead and weep,
In silence o'er the loss;
Bury the dead, in Christ they sleep,
Who bore on earth his cross,
And from the dust they shall arise
In his own image to the skies.
NEW PROVIDENCE
A letter dated September 30, 1843, from Bathsheba McGehee, of Brownsbury, Daviess Co., Ky., states that the United Baptists in this region had so far departed from the ancient order of Baptists that I can no longer have fellowship with them, etc. But there are a few of the Old Fashioned Baptists in this county who have united themselves together into two churches called Sardis and New Providence, numbering about forty or fifty members. But they were so far from her that she had not yet joined them, hoping there might be a church constituted nearer to her.
SARDIS
Go Back to the Primitive Baptist Library Page
Go Back to the Family History Assistance Page
Copyright c. 2001-2023. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
