John Taylor (1752-1833)

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For other persons named John Taylor, see John Taylor (disambiguation).

John Taylor (1752-1833) was a pioneer Baptist preacher and frontier historian in Kentucky.

Taylor was born in Fauquier County, Virginia. He united with the Baptists when he was 20 years old, and began preaching while in Virginia where he organized and served churches in the Virginia frontier settlements. He moved to Kentucky in 1783. He was soon called as the first pastor in Clear Creek Baptist Church, Woodford County, Kentucky. He moved to Boone County, Kentucky in 1795 and was the stated preacher at Bullittsburg Baptist Church, the first church in northern Kentucky, for seven years. He was ministering there during the time the church experienced revival in 1800-01 (often referred to as the "Second Great Awakening in America"); there were 113 people converted and baptized into the Bullittsburg Baptist Church. He never officially pastored another church after Clear Creek, but did regularly preach for three other Baptist churches during his lifetime. He was never financially supported by a church so he pursued farming and other vocations along with his preaching, as did most frontier preachers.

John Taylor gives personal glimpses of his early life and religious experience in his History of Clear Creek Church, "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...."

Concerning his trip to Kentucky, he wrote: ". . . 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."

John Taylor attended when the Elkhorn Baptist Association (Lexington Kentucky area) was constituted in 1785. When Long Run Baptist Association (Louisville Kentucky area) was constituted in 1803, he was there and he preached the Introductory Sermon and was on the committee of organization. He became one of the early leaders of that association.

Many have said Taylor had a leading role in the Missionary / Anti-missionary movement that erupted in the United States in the 1820s, because of a booklet he wrote in 1820. In Thoughts on Missions he criticized mission societies and their methods in soliciting money from the local churches on the frontier. Taylor late in life said he probably made a mistake in writing the twenty-page pamphlet. Larry D. Smith ("John Taylor and Missions: A New Interpretation," Quarterly Review, April-June, 1982, 54-61.) has pointed out that Taylor was opposed only to "mission societies;" he was never opposed to missions. John Taylor, though not formally educated, was an expressive and strongly opinioned writer. His A History of Ten Baptist 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."

James E. Welch, a frontier Baptist missionary described John Taylor: "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 eye brows, 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." Welch continued, "His death was peaceful and tranquil, and he has left behind him a name worthy of enduring remembrance."

When John Taylor left Boone County, he did not remove himself from contact with the churches and pastors of the area. He attended associational meetings of North Bend beginning in 1805 through 1834, a total of twenty-five times, and was invited to preach virtually each time he attended. Fourteen of these visits were at Boone County churches, as they hosted the associational meetings.

Because of his pamphlet Thoughts on Missions, in which Taylor criticized missionary societies and their methods, John Taylor's name is associated with the anti-missionary movement among Baptists. Yet most of his ministry predates the missionary/anti-missionary division, and he appears to have never "divided" with his brethren over the issue. In his Baptist Encyclopedia, William Cathcart says, "He traveled and preached extensively and probably performed more labor, and was more successful than any other pioneer Baptist preacher in Kentucky."

When he wrote his "Missions" pamphlet in 1820, he gave a copy to the local (Northbend) association, which they "received for the purpose of examining the same," but they made no further comment, neither that year nor in any following year. He was invited to preach for the association that year and at later times when he attended. The Elkhorn Association meeting in 1820 reported in their Minutes, "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."

Mr. Taylor presented this booklet to the Long Run Association with virtually the same response. He conducted the funeral of Absalom Graves of Boone County, KY - the leading advocate of Missions in northern Kentucky.

There have been two master's theses written about John Taylor and three essays in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, by Dorothy Brown Thompson, a descendant of Taylor. He died in 1833 near Forks of Elkhorn Creek in Franklin County, Kentucky.

References:

Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 9

A History of Ten Baptist Churches - edited by Chester R. Young and reprinted by Mercer University Press in 1995 as Baptist Churches on the American Frontier