History of Baptism

For many, many years the ordinance of Baptism was administered in some nearby pond or the Kentucky River. The first baptistry was built under the platform in the Sunday school room between 1880 and 1890. Candidates remember dripping their way back through the congregation to dressing rooms behind the church kitchen. Other Versailles churches occasionally used the baptistry, especially if the weather was bad or cold. The baptistry was later moved into the sanctuary, next to the pulpit platform. Its present location is directly under the rose window, in the center of the chancel worship.

Form I. P. Haley's book "Dawn of the Reformation" is related: "In the year 1835 Jacob Creath, Jr. and Elder John I. Johnson held a remarkable meeting at Versailles, Kentucky. One hundred and forty persons confessed the Lord Jesus....I baptised them in the Kentucky River at Sublett's Ferry, six miles from Versailles. The day on which the baptism took place was bright and comfortable. The roads were excellent. The river was clear as crystal. The water was warm and the bottom was covered with sand and gravel. Its banks up and down for some distance were lined with deeply interested spectators. The roads leading to it were crowded with wagons, carts, carriages, horsemen and footmen pressing forward to witness the sublime spectacle."