John Taylor (1752–1833) was a pioneer Baptist preacher, religious writer, frontier historian and planter in north and central Kentucky. His two histories of early Baptist churches in Kentucky provide insight into the frontier society of the early decades of the 19th century. His 1820 pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on Missions" put him at the center of the controversy within frontier Baptist congregations about supporting mission societies. In buying and selling land on the frontier, Taylor acquired 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) and 20 African-American slaves by the end of the first decade of the 19th century, thus entering the planter class.
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Early life and education
Taylor was born in 1752 in Fauquier County, Virginia to a farming family. He was taught at home to read, write and do his numbers. Although christened in the Church of England, he was strongly influenced by the preaching of the Baptist William Marshall, whom he first heard at age 17. Taylor united with the Baptists when he was 20 years old and began preaching on the frontier while living in Virginia.
In his History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed (1830), Taylor provided material about his origins:
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. ...
Marriage and family
Taylor married Elizabeth Cavanaugh, daughter of Philemon and Nancy (Cave) Kavanaugh. They had several children together. Their son Ben was born a month after their arrival in Kentucky in December 1783, after a difficult three-month trip from Virginia through the mountains. Their daughter Jane married Jeconiah Singleton, another early Baptist pioneer and son of Manoah and Sally (Craig) Singleton, members of the early Forks of Elkhorn Church. The Singletons had migrated to Kentucky in 1781 with The Travelling Church, led by Sally's brother, the Rev. Lewis Craig, pastor of the notable congregation.
Career
While Taylor was in his 20s, he organized and served churches in the Virginia frontier settlements. At age 29, he took his young family to Kentucky in late 1783, two years after the historic migration of "The Traveling Church" of Baptists from Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Later he wrote about the trip: "... 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." He was soon called as the first pastor in Clear Creek Baptist Church, Woodford County, Kentucky.
In 1795 Taylor moved with his family to Boone County, where he was the stated preacher at Bullittsburg Baptist Church (1795–1802), the first church in northern Kentucky. Seven of his slaves were also members of the church. He was ministering there when the church experienced a revival in 1800–01 (during the period referred to in the South as the "Second Great Awakening"). A total of 113 people converted and were baptized into Taylor's church. Never financially supported by a church, he pursued independent farming and other vocations, as did most frontier preachers.
In addition to acting as a pastor, Taylor was part of organizing local Baptist associations in Kentucky. In 1785 Taylor attended the organizing conference of the Elkhorn Baptist Association (Lexington, Kentucky area). He also was part of organizing the Long Run Baptist Association (Louisville, Kentucky area) in 1803. There he preached the Introductory Sermon and was on the committee of organization. He became one of the early leaders of that association.
In 1802 he moved his family to Gallatin County (a portion now in Trimble County) near Mount Byrd along the Ohio River, where he had already bought nearly 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land in various tracts. There he entered the planter class, for he eventually held 20 enslaved African Americans and owned 2,000 acres (8.1 km2), selling some of his former land to other settlers to create a community. Historians of the antebellum South define planters as those people who held 20 or more slaves to work their land. While not all Baptists held as many slaves as Taylor, by this time most members had accommodated to the Southern institution and stopped calling for its abolition. "Far more than their Northern counterparts, Southern evangelical Protestants stressed the importance of individual piety rather than social regeneration."
Works
A History of Ten Baptist Churches, Frankfort, KY: (np), 1823; reprint, Cincinnati, OH: Art Guild Reprints, Inc., 1968; reprint with ed. Chester R. Young, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press: 1995, as Baptist Churches on the American Frontier.
A History of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed, Frankfort, KY, Printed by A. G. Hodges, Commentator Office, 1830