The Stockton Valley Association of Baptists:  1814-1856

A Timeline of Known Events Related to the Stockton Valley Association During the Time that the Big Fork Baptist Church Was a Member of the Caney Fork Association 

• Town Creek Church of White County, TN was still in this Association.

• Caney Fork Association again was refused fellowship. 

• The 1821 meeting was scheduled to be held at Town Creek Meeting House in White County, TN.

• “John Mulkey has denied that he ever was excommunicated from the Baptist union this association therefore thinks it her duty to publish to the Brethren and friends at large that he has been ___ dealt with and excommunicated from the Baptist union for heresy and treating the church to which he belongs with contempt which may be seen by refusing the records of the Mill Creek Church of which he was a member and our minutes of 1810 and 1812.”

• “This association agrees to drop her correspondence with the Baptist board of foreign missions for the united states.”

• Could not find 1821 minutes, but no pages (as per original page numbers) were missing.  (see 1822 minutes)

• 1822 minutes say “the minutes of last year…were not printed.”  But, there appears to be a brief “extract” of those 1821 minutes in the 1822 minutes.

• This “extract” from the 1821 minutes says “the difficulties previously existing being removed a correspondence is opened with the Caney Fork Association.”

• Daniel Heasten was a messenger from McFarland Creek (formerly Pleasant Run) Church.  
  Note:  This was probably the son of Abraham Hiestend and he was the Daniel who was in the Cocke County, TN Big Pigeon Church in the 1790s. 

• Town Creek Church of White County, TN was still in the association.

• No messenger or letter was received from the Caney Fork Association.

• Daniel Hestand was a messenger from McFarland’s Creek Church.

• A letter was prepared for and to be delivered to the Caney Fork Association.

• Town Creek Church (of White County, TN) “is dismissed to join the Caney Fork Association.”  This was 10 years after the other churches down in that area pulled out of Stockton Valley Association to start the Caney Fork Association.

• Original pages 123-128 of the minutes were missing and I could find no minutes for the 1824 meeting.

• Daniel Hestand was a messenger from McFarland Creek.

• Messenger Ozias Denton (from the Caney Fork Association) carried a letter of correspondence from that association to the Stockton Valley Association.

• Original pages 131-133 of the minutes are missing.

• Daniel Hestand was a McFarland Creek Church messenger.

• Jesse Stewart and James Walker brought a letter from the Caney Fork Association.  Daniel Hestand (with two other men) was appointed to deliver a letter to the Caney Fork Association.  This means that Daniel Hestand was in the White Co. – Warren County, TN area in 1827, for the Caney Fork Association meeting.

• Daniel Hestend was a messenger from the McFarland Creek Church.

• Ozias Denton brought a letter from the Caney Fork Association.

• Daniel Hestend was appointed (with other men) to bear a letter to the Green River Association.

• Daniel Hestend was a messenger from McFarland Creek.

• Ozias Denton (from Caney Fork Association) was appointed to preach during this meeting.  He brought a letter from the Caney Fork Association.

• Daniel Hesten (with others) was appointed to take a letter to the Green River Association.

• Daniel Hestend was a McFarland Creek Church messenger.

• Ozias Denton brought a letter from the Caney Fork Association and some men were appointed to take a letter to the Caney Fork Association meeting.

• Daniel Hestend was a McFarland Creek Church messenger.

• Ozias Denton was present from the Caney Fork Association.

• Caney Ridge Church was dismissed to join the Caney Fork Association “on account of convenience.”

• Ozias Denton was present from the Caney Fork Association.

• Daniel Hestend was a McFarland Creek Church messenger.  
  Note:  Daniel Hestend was never indicated in these minutes to be a licensed or ordained minister.

• Daniel Hestend was appointed, along with a couple of other men, to bear a letter from this association to the Barren River Association.

• Also, Daniel Hestend was appointed, along with four other men, to bear a letter to the Caney Fork Association.  That would have taken him down into White County, TN or somewhere near there.

• Again, Daniel Hestend was a McFarland Creek Church messenger.  
• Arnold Moss was a messenger from the Caney Fork Association.  He was also appointed to preach during the associational meeting.
• Daniel Hestend and others were appointed to visit the Concord Association.
• Messengers were sent to the Caney Fork Association.

• Daniel Hestend was not a messenger this year from the McFarland Creek Church, although the church was represented by others.
• The Caney Fork Association sent these messengers:  Arnold Moss, Jesse Stewart, Ozias Denton, James Walling, James Herd, William Dodson, and John W. Dearing.  Ozias Denton and Moss were "requested to occupy the stand" during the meeting.  (i.e. to preach)
• Messengers were appointed to attend the Caney Fork Association meeting at Cane Creek in Jackson County, TN on the 4th Saturday of September, 1833 (two weeks after this meeting).

• Daniel Hestend was one of the messengers from the McFarland Creek Church.  He was appointed to a committee to look into something questionable about the Green River Association.
• Arnold Moss represented the Caney Fork Association.  He was "requested to preach" during the meeting.
• Messengers were appointed to attend the upcoming Caney Fork Association meeting at the Caney Fork Meeting House in Warren County, TN.

• Daniel Hestend was not a McFarland Creek Church messenger, although the church was represented by others.
• Ozias Denton represented the Caney Fork Association.
• Messengers were appointed to attend the upcoming Caney Fork Association meeting at the Head of Collins River Meeting House in Warren County, TN on the 4th Saturday of September, two weeks following this meeting.
• "Unfellowship" was declared with "the Baptist Convention and all other societies moved by money under the garb of religion."  

• Daniel Hestend was one of the messengers from the McFarland Creek Church.  He was one of the men appointed to be a messenger to the Barren River Association.
• Arnold Moss represented the Caney Fork Association.  He was "requested to preach at the stand" during the meeting.
• Messengers were appointed to attend the upcoming Caney Fork Association meeting (no location was stated).
• "The association reconsiders and recinds [sic] the Eleventh Article in the minutes of last year declaring nonfellowship with the Baptist State Convention as having been untimely adopted but a majority of the churches having heretofore acted upon the subject and have declared nonfellowship with the said State Convention and all like institutions founded upon and moved by money under the garb of religion this association does now concur with said churches."

• D. Hestend was one of the McFarland Creek messengers.  He was one of the men appointed to bear a letter to the Barren River Association.
  Note:  This appears to have been the last time that Daniel Hestend appeared at the Stockton Valley Association meeting as a messenger from the McFarland Creek Church.  In 1843 a Daniel Hestend is a messenger from the Mill Creek Church.
• Elder Ozias Denton was a messenger from the Caney Fork Association.  He was one of the men requested to preach.
• Messengers were appointed to go to the Caney Fork Association, but no location is stated.

• Arnold Moss represented the Caney Fork Association.  He was "requested to preach at the stand" during the meeting.
• A messenger was appointed to bear a letter to the Caney Fork Association, that is, to represent this association at their upcoming meeting.

• Ozias Denton represented the Caney Fork Association.  He was "requested to occupy the stand" during the meeting.
• Corresponding letter was to be written and delivered to the Caney Fork Association.  The upcoming (4th Saturday in September 1839) Caney Fork Association meeting was to be held at Concord in Warren County, TN.

• Caney Fork Association was represented by Elders A. Moss and Jesse Stewart, along with "Brethren" Isaac Denton, Jr., J.C. Webb, and James Herd.  Elder Moss was requested to "occupy the stand."
• "Agreed that under existing circumstances this Association do discontinue her correspondence with all sister associations for the present and we desire it to be understood by our brethren abroad with whom we are in fellowship that we do no withdraw our fellowship or communion nor our individual correspondence from them but on the contrary we invite our brethren of the United Baptist Churches in good order at home to visit us at our Churches and Associations as often as convenient."
• At this meeting, the association was divided into a west and east division.

Note:  There is no clear indication in the minutes what these "existing circumstances" were that resulted in this discontinuation of correspondence with sister associations.  However, it may have had something to do with a problem involving Isaac Denton of the Mill Creek Church.  In the 1839 minutes there was a discussion about some controversy in the Mill Creek Church involving Isaac Denton, who was a messenger from that church in the 1836, 1837, 1838 associational meetings.  It appears that the Stockton Valley Association was censuring Isaac Denton for some conduct deemed to be improper.  Then, in this 1840 meeting the Caney Fork Association sent seven men to the meeting, one of whom is "Isaac Denton, Jr."  Perhaps the Caney Fork Association was taking sides with Isaac Denton and this action to discontinue fellowship with the Caney Fork Association was a political move to neutralize this opposition to their censure of Isaac Denton.  In the 1841 meeting of the association, an entry in the minutes states that: "At the request of Mill Church this Association informs the churches at large that Elder Isaac Denton of said church is excluded from her an that his credentials have been regularly demanded and that he has refused to give them up."

In the middle of the 1800s (1849, 1851, 1853, 1854, 1856 records are the earliest existing records for the Caney Fork Association) a Rev/Elder Isaac Denton was a leader in the White County, TN Sinking Creek Baptist Church of the Caney Fork Association.  "The Rev. Isaac Denton listed in the Sinking Creek Church appears to be the Rev. Isaac Denton that was excluded from Mill Creek Baptist Church in Monroe County, KY in December 1840.  He had been ordained by Mill Creek in September 1837."
Source:  Page 521 of Pioneer Baptist Church Records of South-Central Kentucky and the Upper Cumberland of Tennessee, 1799-1899.

This (1840) was the last time that the Caney Fork Association was represented at the meetings of the Stockton Valley Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association, due to the fact that the Stockton Valley Association discontinued correspondence with sister associations, based upon action taken in the 1840 meeting.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association, due to the fact that the Stockton Valley Association discontinued correspondence with sister associations, based upon action taken in the 1840 meeting.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association, due to the fact that the Stockton Valley Association discontinued correspondence with sister associations, based upon action taken in the 1840 meeting.
• Daniel Hestand was a messenger from the Mill Creek Church.
• "An explanation of the 6th article of the minutes of 1836 it never was designed by this association to prohibit our brethren from disposing of their personal rights in distributing for the support of the gospel according to the dictates of their own consciences but to let the world know that we did no intend going into the missionary oppearation [sic] in its present standing."
• "This association thinks it not expedient to attempt a correspondence with adjacent sister associations at this time under existing circumstances."

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association, due to the fact that the Stockton Valley Association discontinued correspondence with sister associations, based upon action taken in the 1840 meeting.
• However, the Stockton Valley Association does begin to correspond with other associations (South Concord, Green River, and Original Barren River Associations) at this meeting.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.
• D. Hestend was a messenger from the Mill Creek Church.  He was one of the messengers appointed to visit the Barren River Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.
• John Hestend was a messenger from the Mill Creek Church.

• "Livingston Valley Church formerly of Caney Fork Association came forward by petition to join the Stockton Valley Association and was received into fellowship with us she having renounced the conduct of that association..."

Note:  See the 1840 minutes.  Was this the conduct of the Caney Fork Association that alienated them from this association?

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.
• Sent a circular letter to the churches of "Missori" [sic].

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

• No mention is made of the Caney Fork Association.

The Stockton Valley Association continued beyond this date, but by this point it is clear that this association has discontinued fellowship with the Caney Fork Association, of which the Big Fork Baptist Church was a member.  Also, it appears (from the known existing minutes of the Caney Fork Association) that the Big Fork Baptist Church probably either ceased to exist by the mid-1850s or ceased to fellowship with the Caney Fork Association.  However, due to a lack of known existing Caney Fork Association minutes for the period 1857 to 1876, and the lack of any other documented evidence for the existence of the Big Fork Baptist Church later than 1853, we do not know for sure when the Big Fork Church ceased to meet.