From the pulpit –
Ancient Words: Heroes of Renown, Raccoon John Smith
“Raccoon” John Smith (1784 – 1868) was an early leader in the Restoration Movement. His father, George Smith was of German ancestry, while his mother, Rebecca Bowen Smith, was Irish ancestry. He played a critical role uniting the movement led by Thomas and Alexander Campbell with the similar movement led by Barton W. Stone and in spreading the message of the movement over much of Kentucky.
Smith was born in Tennessee in 1784 to a family of Regular Baptists. His nickname, “Raccoon”, reportedly resulted from him saying he lived in such a remote location that his only neighbors were raccoons. Smith moved with his family to Kentucky where he was self-educated, with no more than six months of formal schooling. Baptized in 1804, and ordained as a minister in 1808, Smith married Anna Townsend in 1806. After losing two children to a cabin fire, and Anna dying from shock shortly afterward in 1815, Smith remarried in December of the same year to Nancy Hurt.
After meeting Alexander Campbell, Smith became a leader in the Restoration Movement, working primarily among the Baptists in Kentucky. Because preachers of the time were typically unpaid, he worked as a farmer for most of his life.
The Stone-Campbell Movement was formalized at the High Street Meeting House in Lexington, Kentucky, with a handshake between Barton Stone and Smith. Smith had been chosen by those present to speak on behalf of the followers of the Campbells. A preliminary meeting of the two groups was held in late December 1831, culminating with the merger on January 1, 1832. Two representatives of those assembled were appointed to carry the news of the union to all the churches: John Rogers, for those associated with Stone; and Smith for those associated with the Campbells. They spent three years reporting the news to the associated churches. Despite some challenges, the merger succeeded. Many believed the union held great promise for the future success of the combined movement and greeted the news enthusiastically. Smith spent three years traveling through Kentucky with Rogers encouraging congregations with the Stone and Campbell movements to unite.
The Disciples of Christ/ Churches of Christ, one of the first Christian faiths to have originated in America, was established in 1832 in Lexington, Kentucky, by the union of two groups led by Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone. The modern churches resulting from the union are known collectively to religious scholars as part of the Stone-Campbell movement. If Stone and Campbell are considered the architects of the Disciples of Christ/Church of Christ and America’s first nondenominational movement, then Kentucky’s Raccoon John Smith is their builder and mason. Raccoon John Smith is the biography of a man whose work among the early settlers of Kentucky carries an important legacy that continues in our own time. The son of a Revolutionary War soldier, Smith spent his childhood and adolescence in the untamed frontier country of Tennessee and southern Kentucky. A quick-witted, thoughtful, and humorous youth, Smith was shaped by the unlikely combination of his dangerous, feral surroundings and his Calvinist religious indoctrination. The dangers of frontier life made an even greater impression on John Smith as a young man, when several instances of personal tragedy forced him to question the philosophy of predeterminism. From these crises of faith, Smith emerged a changed man with a new vocation: to spread a Christian faith wherein salvation was available to all people. Thus began the long, ecclesiastical career of Raccoon John Smith and the germination of a religious revolution (Info from Wikipedia and Amazon). Thank you, Raccoon Smith, Hero of Renown!