Part of the members of the Baptist church at Mud Lick who lived in the Oak Woods settlement having taken into consideration the propriety of forming themselves into a new church for the Glory of God and their own convenience obtained the consent of Mud Lick church and applied to the neighboring churches for aid and council to examine into their situation and to constitute them if it should be thought advisable. Be it, therefore, remembered that on Saturday, 26th of March in the year of our Lord 1825 at the house of Bro. James Finnell's agreeable to appointment the council from the churches attended as follows, to, wit:

From Cruises Creek; Geo F. Northcutt, Elijah Williams, Edw. Stephans, Elijah Vise, Philip Roberts,
From Bank Lick; George Vise, Lewis Kleet, Joseph Stephans, Elim Grizzle.
From Mud Lick; Lewis Cooper, Daniel Robersts, Joe Emiott, Edward Adkins.
From Bethel; Matthew Adams.
From Forks of Gunpowder; Lewis Conner, Wm Conner, Thos Cushman, Chris Wilson.
From Bullittsburg; James Dicken, Absalom Graves.

     The council then, after praise and prayer, proceeded to business. Bro Lewis Conner was chosen moderator and Absalom Graves, Clerk.
     (from Historical Edition, Boone County Recorder, Sept. 1930).

     The next record is found in Deed Book G, page 73 of Boone County records. On 27 Feb 1827 an indenture was made between Wm. Routt of Campbell Co., Ky. and, John Case, James Finnell, Samuel Johnson, and John Fullilove; Trustees of the Baptist Salem Church of Boone County. For $6, forty acres and 24 poles were purchased on McCoys branch of Mud Lick Creek. This parcel of land bordered land owned by a man named Florence with a small branch being the property line. There was no mention of a church building on the property at that time. However a log church was built and replaced in 1873 with a brick building.

     James Finnell was probably the prime mover in this church as it was at his home in 1825 that the church was constituted.

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[p. 2]
His name is also found in the cemetery. The inscription on the stone reads: Elder James Finnell, died March 28, 1850 aged 61 years and 6 days.

     Salem church was a member of the North Bend Baptist Association until 1840. Her membership was composed of Old School Baptists and being anti-missionary, they found that they, as well as some of the other churches and members of still other churches could not control the North Bend Association. Finding that they were unable to convert the majority to their view they resolved to withdraw from North Bend and organize their own body.

     In 1840 messengers from Forks of Gunpowder, Crew's Creek, Salem, Mud Lick, Bethel, and Four Mile with some factions from other churches formed the Salem Association of Predestinarian Baptists.

     The Salem Association continued for some years but by 1884 the Predestinarian faith had diminished in numbers significantly.

     The Salem Association of Predestinarian Baptists usually met on the 4th Friday and two succeeding days of each year. In 1870 they met with Mud-Lick and in 1871 with Gunpowder. The record for Salem was as follows:

Church meetings were the first Saturday, of each month.

Messengers names in 1870     Messengers names in 1871 
  
J W Rogers  J Florence*      J W Rogers  J W H Rogers 

J S Ransom  W Florence+      J S Ransom B S Johnson 

Total Number of Members 14   Total Number of Members 19 

No increase for year         Five received by exp or bap

                             Two  received by letter  

                             One  deceased and one excl'd
              
Total members in Assoc. 102  Total members in Assoc. 104   

* Absent + Clerk for Assoc.  + Clerk for Assoc. also 1871 

Other churches in the Association and membership were:

                                    1870        1871

Mud Lick met 2nd Sat each month      23          22
	
Forks of Gunpowder   3rd Sat         29          28

Dry Creek            4th  "          20          2O

Little Hope          3rd  "          16          15    

     Ordained Ministers of the Salem Association of Predestinarian Baptists in those years appear to have been Elders John Underhill of Gunpowder and Wm. Winston of Dry Creek.

     The building is gone, but the cemetery is 1 1/2 miles from Walton on the Verona Pike. Turn right at the bridge, and it is a short distance to the cemetery.

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     Cemetery records by Wm. & Ann Fitzgerald are available in Boone County Public Library.

[These church records were compiled by William Conrad and are from the Boone County (KY) Public Library. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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