The Old Baptist Church on the Dry Ridge

The Old Baptist Church on the Dry Ridge was constituted on this date, August 28th, 1791, near Campbell’s Block House in what is now Grant County, Kentucky.

Two years earlier, on May 4th, 1789, residents of Culpepper, Virginia made a covenant with themselves and others that they were going to form a Baptist Church “of the Old Faith & Order on the Dry Ridge between the Licking and the Kentucke.” The families, some pf whose names you may still recognize today, moved to the what is now known as Grant County, Kentucky, in hopes to start the new church. Thus, on the fourth Sunday in August, 1791, after the families from Culpepper, Virginia moved to what is now Grant County, the Old Baptist Church on the Dry Ridge was constituted.

Their founding document reads: “ We, the old Baptist, church of Christ, on the Dry Ridge near Campbell’s block house, and 33 miles south of the mouth of the licking, was organized the fourth Sunday in August, 1791 – our number nine by Elder Lewis Corbin and John Conyers, on the leaving the word of God contained in the Old and New Testament is the only infallible rule of faith and practice on believe in god's Elect shall be regenerated, sanctified, and converted, in time, unbelieving in the final perseverance of saints through Grace to glory, and in believing in baptism by immersion.”

The early church met at what was known as Campbell's Block House, which was used as shelter and trading post with Native Americans. This Block House, and the church building that was eventually built on the site, was located at the entrance of today's Conrad Lane in Williamstown, Kentucky. After the church was further established and their members were firmly settled into the area, the community around the church began to grow as well.

Though the church removed themselves from that site in the early days after Grant County was formed, many Baptist Churches in Grant County can trace their heritage back to this very church. Furthermore, though the Church was named after the “Dry Ridge” that is in between the Kentucky River and the Licking River, many historians believe that the City of Dry Ridge was named after this famous church. Many cities and communities today sit on the “Dry Ridge” and could have named themselves as such, but only one community bears its name: largely in part to the famous Old Church.

from a Facebook post by the Grant County Historical Society