Just as many churches owe their existence to a division in a parent church, so Duck River Association can trace its founding to the fact that groups of people called Baptists could not agree on matters of doctrine and programs of service.

In 1826, the membership of the Elk River Association of Primitive Baptists divided over the Arminian theory and the doctrines expounded by Alexander Campbell. More than a third of the member churches left to form the Duck River Association of Christ.