Primitive Baptist Church and Family History Research Assistance
for Marshall County, Kentucky
CHURCHES:
SOLDIER CREEK (BENTON)(1820)
Soldier Creek Church, which was originally Clark's River, was constituted May 13, 1820, at the home of William Owens (on Soldier Creek) with twelve members, viz., Leonard Kayler, William Baker, Selah Baker, Abraham Copeland, Sally Copeland, Mary Smith, Parker Harrell, Deliah Harrell, Anna Baland, Gabriel Washburn, Martha Henson and Henry Darnall. The presbytery was composed of Elders Fielding Wolfe, Henry Darnall and an Elder Payne. Sally Gilbert was the first person baptized in June 1820.
Soon after organization, the church received a land grant of eight acres from the Kentucky General Assembly and the first meeting house was built of round logs and had a dirt floor. Local oral history states that Indians watched in the nearby woods as the white settlers built the first church. A few years later the building was replaced with a hewed log structure with a wood floor and served the congregation until it was destroyed by fire in 1874. The present building was then built immediately after. In 1838, the name was changed from Clark's River to Soldier Creek. In 1830 the Church received a deed to the land signed by Governor Metcalf. There is a large cemetery at the site.
Some of the early pastors who were called to preach the gospel were Elders Hugh Gilbert, Benjamin Harrison, Granville Gibson, J. M. Perkins, and J. C. Chester. Born in 1779 in Virginia, Elder Henry Darnall is perhaps the pastor most associated with Soldier Creek Church. Darnall came to western Kentucky in the 1820's when the land in the Purchase area was first opened to settlers, and settled in northern Calloway County (later Marshall County). His body now rests in the Soldier Creek Cemetery.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Adams, Baker, Baland, Bell, Bowden, Chester, Copeland, Craft, Creason, Darnall, Free, Hamilton, Harrell, Henson, Kayler, Locke, Lyles, Mathis, Rudd, Smith, Vaughn, Washburn, Wiley (very incomplete list due to records not being located).
ORIGINAL MT. MORIAH (BENTON)
Original Mt. Moriah Church, on Mt. Moriah Road, west of Calvert City, was organized in 1844 under the leadership of Elder Isaiah King, who served as pastor for the first seven years of the church's history. The church met at first in a small log cabin. Later pastors have included Elders Thomas Harrison, J. N. Wallace, E. M. Brashear, J. D. Shain, R. N. Grave, Gordon Hearon, and Arlie Larimer, the present pastor. A frame building replaced the log structure in 1871, and another frame building was built in 1906. The present meeting house is a brick structure.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
NEW HOPE (IOLA)(1830)
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
UNION (WADESBORO)(1823)
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
BLOOD RIVER (1825)
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
SINKING SPRING (1831)
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
ROUGH CREEK (1831)
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
MIDDLE FORK (BENTON)
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
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