History :

Baptists had early roots in the Paint Lick area beginning with the Traveling Church led by Lewis Craig. Courageous Baptist Families, wishing to settle in a place where "men and women of good will can worship as they choose," migrated to Kentucky, and on the second Sunday in December, 1781, met in a worship service at Gilber's Creek in what is now Garrard County. By 1784 there were eight Baptist churches in Kentucky and sixteen Baptist preachers.

A hundred years later, on September 17, 1884, Mt. Tabor Baptist church was constituted. Prior to this, Baptists had worshipped in the Community Church in the Manse Cemetery, as allowed by the Kennedy family. We have no records about those meetings--how often, or for how many years they were held. There were other earlier organized Baptist churches in the Paint Lick area where the first members of Mt. Tabor may have worshipped, two of which are Freedom 1800, and Kirksville, 1838.

When Mt. Tabor was constituted in 1884, it was called Walnutta, no doubt named for its meeting place in Walnutta College. The first deacons were Lytle R. Schooler, W.A. Todd, A.C. Hammond, and William Tudor. The first clerk was Louis Eads, but was soon succedded by W.A. Todd.

Walnutta College would neither sell nor rent its building to the new church, so a committee was instructed to buy a suitable plot of land for a future building. In the meantime, the church met alternately at Lowell and Paint Lick schoolhouses. In 1885, the name was changed to Mt. Tabor and in August 1886, the church met in its new building, which is the present building, and voted to enter the Tate's Creek Association.