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| Our History Boyd on the Christian Baptists |
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| The following history was written by the late Judge Ernest Huston Boyd Sr. as part of a series of historical articles in the Putnam County Herald. It was published November 19,1953. The articles were compiled by Christine Spivey Jones into a book called Nuggets of Putnam County History. Some of the facts in this article may not be exact, but it does present a short history of our association that is corroborated by other historians and seems to be backed up in large part by the various records on hand. A note to help understanding: we were previously called Christian Baptists, not Freewill Christian Baptists or simply Free Will Baptists, as it is today. The Christian Baptist Church In two of the sketches in this article, reference is made to the Christian Baptist denomination. It is highly proper that this article should contain a brief statement concerning this denomination, one reason being that it was founded by Putnam County ministers in Putnam County. About the year 1850, a number of ministers and churches of the Caney Fork Baptist Association withdrew from that Association as the result of doctrinal controversies. The leaders of this group were Elders Corder Stone, and his son, Elder Thomas Stone. Among the Putnam County Baptist congregations which so withdrew from the Caney Fork Association was the Caney Fork (Brown’s Mill) Baptist Church, the ministers and congregations so withdrawing do not seem, according to their minutes, to have organized themselves into an Association and independent denomination until after the close of the Civil War in 1865, when they did organize themselves into a new denomination and named it the Christian Baptist Church. From the best information obtainable, this denomination was organized and named at a meeting held for that purpose at the Caney Fork Baptist Church in the summer of 1865. At the same time and place, they organized the Stone Association of the Christian Baptist Church naming it in honor of their leaders, Elders Corder Stone and son, Thomas Stone. The Christian Baptist Church grew rapidly in this section, taking over many of the then Baptist congregations in Putnam County and some of the adjoining counties, and organizing new congregations. The Stone Association soon included congregations located in Putnam, White, Overton, Jackson, DeKalb, Cumberland, Van Buren, Rhea and Bledsoe counties. After 22 years, during which new congregations were organized and other Baptist congregations became affiliated with it, and the field of operations of the Stone Association were extended, the stone Association of Christian Baptists was divided, in 1887, into the Eastern and Western Division, dating its beginning as an Association to its organization in 1887. The Western Division of The stone Association of the Christian Baptist retained its independent denominational identity until 1897, when it united with the Free Will Baptist denomination. Among the well known ministers of the Christian Baptist Church were Corder Stone, Nathan Judd, Thomas J. Clouse, Benjamin Clouse, M. Judd, W. S. Clouse, G. W. Pennington, G. B. Brown, Henry Johnson, L. F. Smith, Joseph A. Moyers, J. W. Stone, E. W. Stone, W. B. Gentry, F. M. Flatt, W. N. Selby, D. E. Smith, J. L Kinnaird, J. N. Cantrell, and J. L. Myers. These ministers and numerous other Christian Baptist ministers, rendered many years of faithful, devoted and untiring service, preaching the Gospel and conducting revivals throughout this section. They received very meager financial remuneration, but the good that they accomplished can never be computed until the day of final accounting, and their memory will long be cherished. |