A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769 to 1885, Including More Than 800 Biographical Sketches, J. H. Spencer, Manuscript Revised and Corrected by Mrs. Burilla B. Spencer, In Two Volumes. Printed For the Author. 1886. Republished By Church History Research & Archives 1976 Lafayette, Tennessee. Vol. 2, pages 28-30. [Fayette County] JAMES FISHBACK was a native of Virginia, but the exact time of his birth has not been ascertained. His mother being an Episcopalian, he was christened by a minister of her church, in his infancy. When yet a small child, he was brought by his parents to Fayette county, Kentucky. Here, after receiving the rudiments of an education, he was sent to Transylvania, in 1793, where he finished his literary course, under Henry Toulmin, a Unitarian minister of superior ability. He then went abroad to obtain a medical education. Returning home, in the fall of 1801, he commenced the practice of medicine at Lexington. Although he had been raised by pious parents, and had been the subject of strong religious impressions, from his youth, he now became skeptical. He entered into an extended investigation of the Bible, which ended in a firm conviction of its truth. In 1809, he published a pamphlet, in support of the views he had arrived at. Something more than a year after this, he professed conversion and united with the Presbyterian church, of which his parents had previously become members. After a few years, he fell into doubt about the vailidity of his baptism. An investigation of the subject resulted in his uniting with the Baptist church at Bryant's Station, where he was baptized, by the renowned Jeremiah Vardeman, the fourth Saturday in November, 1816. He was licensed to preach the following month, and was ordained to the pastorage of the newly constituted church at Lexington, by Jeremiah Vardeman, Jacob Creath and James E Welsh, August 22, 1817. The church at Lexington prospered under his ministry, till 1825, when it numbered 153 members. About this time, he began to advocate some of the doctrines of Barton W. Stone - especially the rejection of "Sectarian names" for the Churches of Christ. Being unable to bring his charge to accept his new views, he drew off about 40 members, in 1827, and organized them, under the style of the church of Christ, on Mill Street. Alexander Campbell had numerous adherents in the Baptist churches around Lexington, at this period. By means of these, together with his own personal influence, Dr. Fishback hoped to have his church received into Elkhorn Association. He had miscalculated, however, and his application was rejected. He now ministered to the little "church of Christ on Mill Street," about nine years. Finding that it was not prospering, and become weary of isolation from the general brotherhood, the little band, with its discouraged pastor, returned to the body from which it had seceded, and a happy union was effected, in 1836. This year, Dr. Fishback was a messenger to Elkhorn Association, for the last time. He was soon afterwards called to give an account of his stewardship. Dr. Fishback was a fine scholar, an excellent speaker, and an easy, fluent writer. But he was unstable in all his ways, ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Otherwise, he bore a good character for piety and morality. Campbell Creath Fishback Stone Toulmin Vardeman Welsh = VA http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/fayette/fishback.j.txt