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CEDAR CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH

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From the continuous outpour of smoke and the busy hum of the machinery of Sam Fryrear's mill denotes he is doing a lucrative business. Attached to his mill is a turn lathe where he manufactures furniture, also an emory stone that he sharpens all kinds of malleable plow points, a blacksmith shop where he does all kinds of blacksmithing, a grocery store where he keeps constantly on hand a fine assortment of fresh and up-to-date goods, repairs guns and all other kinds of firearms.'' (Kentucky Standard, April 29,1915)

This site where the Old Cedar Creek is located is a very interesting one. Peter Grayson of Cedar Creek was Minister to Texas in 1841. It is told that a member of the Cedar Creek Church, a Nathan Viers who was received at the age of ninety-four, remembered George Washington. (CEDAR CREEK CHURCH From Spencer's History)

This old church located about 4 miles west of Bardstown on the Bellwood Road, one mile off Highway 62, near the site of Rogers Station. John Barnett assisted by John Gerrard constituted the Cedar Creek Baptist Church. July 4, 1781 and was second in the state. This being five years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and while the Revolutionary War was still in progress. Just sixteen days after the organization of the Severn Valley Church.
The first meeting place was on the banks of Cedar Creek and Downs Run. The second Meeting place was a log building across the road from where the present brick church now stands.
In building the brick structure they dug the clay from the ground nearby and burned the brick on the site. The walls were plastered using hog hair to mat the plaster together. The roof was composed of white oak hewn beams. The walls are sixteen inches thick.
Pioneer settlers of nearby Rogers Station, 1780, Colonel James Rogers, first judge of Nelson County, Atkinson Hill, Judge James Slaughter, and Matthews William and Jonathan Rogers are among the founders of the church.
First pastor of Cedar Creek Church was Joseph Barnett who continued to minister the church until October 1785 and probably some years later. The Reverend Joseph Barnett preached the introductory sermon before the convention that formed the Salem Association at Cox's Creek Church in October 1785. Refer to Spencer's Book on Baptist and you will find they had a membership of forty one at that time
Second pastor was the Reverend Joshua Morris in 1785. While here, the Reverend Morris also preached at Mill Creek Church which is located four and a half miles east of Bardstown.
Rev. Morris was pastor for several years and the church prospered greatly under his leadership. He died at his home in Nelson County about the year 1837. After his death the church had changes of pastors.
John Gerrard who assisted in constituting Cedar Creek Church was the first pastor of Severn Valley Church. In the spring of 1752 he went hunting in the woods near his home and never returned. Se was supposed to have been murdered by the Indians.
In 1849 the Nelson Association was formed with eleven churches in the county: Cedar Creek was the oldest Church in the Association. An interesting story is told about a fighting Preacher near Cedar Creek. George W. Younger was a typical fighter that ranged through Nelson County and Bullitt County over half a century ago A thrilling episode illustrates his bellicose character.
The Reverend George L. Rogers. a local minister lived and ran a blacksmith shop on Cedar Creek, near Peter Smith's old mill. It had been voiced around that the Reverend Rogers was a man of Herculean strength and stood pat on his muscle. Younger had become annoyed at such notoriety of one within his bailiwick and determined to nip it before it grew into fixed renown. The Reverend Rogers never went about wordly public gatherings and was rarely seen away from his home, except on his missions as minister. This George Younger took to be his best chance to hear from the Reverend Rogers touching his manhood. It was somewhere about 1843, George Younger rode to Cedar Creek and heard the Reverend Rogers preach and sized him up. After the sermon George Younger waited until the Reverend Rogers mounted and followed his route of travel, overtaking him at a point where the roads forked. Riding up to the Reverend Rogers, George Younger spoke. and without undue ceremony broke the secret of his peculiar mission. saying to the Reverend Rogers that he had more notoriety as a disciple of Samson than was consistent with his feeling without a proof test of his merits. The Reverend Rogers insisted that he was taken by surprise and that the matter was unsuited for the day. But Younger was unyielding in his insistence that Reverend Rogers then and there dismounted, ''and on that green spot settled the matter." According to Queensbury rules, at the same time dismounting. saying that by the ''code of honor" he claimed the right to demand a showdown from all comers and goers, regardless of the day.
The Reverend Rogers was not built out of straw and disdained a bully. So, throwing his rein over a bush, the Reverend Rogers laid down his broad-cloth and they went at each other like lions. The Reverend Rogers was a powerfully muscular man, his right being next to irresistible. He came off without ruining his Sunday shirt. while one of his sledgehammer blows with his right put Younger sleep for an hour.
After this episode Younger and the Reverend Rogers served together in the Mexican War of 1845.

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