Bethuel Riggs
Early Campbell County (KY) Preacher
By N. C. Pettit, 1855Rev. Bethuel Riggs was the first Baptist Minister that was ordained in the bounds of Campbell, Kenton, and Pendleton Counties. Of his early history, we have had no means of getting any information.
He was ordained in the Four Mile church, about the year 1800. For several years he preached in various places, in the bounds of the Campbell County Association. And his preaching was greatly blessed, for he preached as if he believed what he said. He was truly a man of God; he lived in close communion with him; he lived by faith and not by sight. His manner of address was easy and graceful, accompanied with peculiar earnestness. His style, though not strictly polished, was solemn and impressive. His voice was melodious, and his appeals to the ungodly were strong and pathetic. His most favorite themes were Experimental and Practical Religion; on these he delighted to dwell. As a minister, he was well suited to the age in which he lived. Some years after he was ordained, he moved to Missouri, and labored until about 1832, when he returned to Campbell County, and joined the church at Alexandria, where he died soon after. Elder Riggs lived and died like a [C]hristian, and is now enjoying the [C]hristan's Heaven with many other soldiers of the cross, who have gone from the Campbell County Association.
=============== [From Campbell County (KY) Association Minutes, 1855. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
More Baptist Bios
Baptist History Homepage