LIMESTONE CHURCH (now Washington) was another body of the kind organized on the soil of Kentucky in 1785. It was gathered by William Wood. It was constituted of nine members whose names were as follows: "William Wood, Sarah Wood, James Turner, John Smith, Luther Calvin, Priscilla Calvin, Sarah Starks, Charles Tuel, and Sarah Tuel."1 The church was located at or near the present town of Washington in Mason county. This was the oldest settlement in this region of the State. It is claimed that Simon Kenton raised a crop of corn here, in 1775, the same year that Boonesboro and Harrodsburg were settled, and the town of Washington was laid off ten years later, by Elder William Wood and a man of the name of Arthur Fox.At the constitution of Limestone church, William Wood became its pastor, and represented it at the formation of Elkhorn Association, in the Fall of 1785. The first general Revival that occurred in Kentucky, and which commenced on Clear creek, as related in the preceding chapter, reached Limestone in the Summer of 1788. The first baptism that occurred in Mason county, was administered in the Ohio river, in front of the present city of Maysville, in August of that year, by William Wood. A large number of people was present, and a crowd of Indians gathered on the opposite shore. The following persons were baptized: Elizabeth Wood, John Wilcox, Ann Turner, Mary Rose, and Elizabeth Washburne.2 When Washington became the county seat of Mason, the church changed its name to Washington church. Mr. Wood continued to serve it as pastor till 1788, when he became enangled in land speculation, and was excluded from the church.
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The Washington church has had a continuous existence from its constitution to the present time. It is now quite weak. In 1875, it reported a total membership of only 21.WILLIAM WOOD appears to have been a man of culture and considerable ability. He was among the early settlers of Mason county, and was probably from New York. He purchased a thousand acres of land on which the town of Washington in Mason county now stands, and, in 1785, he and Arthur Fox laid off that town. The same year, he gathered Washington church, to which he ministered as pastor till 1798. In this year complaint was made against him in the church, on account of some business transactions. Failing to give satisfaction to the church, he was excluded from its fellowship. After this we hear no more of him.
___________________ Notes
1Martin H. Smith's History of Maysville Baptist Church, 1875, pp. 3, 4.
2 Ibid., p. 4.============== [John Henderson Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists, Volume, I, Chapter 7, pp. 67-68, 1885; reprint, 1984. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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