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, pp 86-87 [Garrard County]

JAMES SMITH, an early minister of this old fraternity, was a native of 
Virginia, in which State he was raised up and inducted into the 
ministry, among the Separate Baptists.  He emigrated at a very early 
period, to what is now Garrard county, Ky., was very active in the 
ministry, and aided in gathering some of the earliest churches in the 
new country.  He assisted John Whitaker in constituting Beargrass 
church, in Jefferson county, in 1784.  He was early a member of Forks of 
Dix River church, in Garrard county, and was probably in the 
constitution of that organization.  He visited Illinois in the summer of 
1787, and so far as is now known, was the first minister to preach to 
the early settlers of that now great and populous State.  He visited 
that territory again, in 1790, and, as on the former occasion, preached 
with success, in what is now Monroe county.  A number of persons were 
converted under his ministry.  But in the midst of his labors, he was 
captured by the Indians, near the site of Waterloo, and carried to the 
Kickapoo town, on the Wabash river.  But so much was he esteemed by the 
few poor settlers, among whom he had preached, that they raised $170, 
with which they ransomed him, and returned him to his friends in 
Kentucky. He subsequently visited Illinois, but with what success is not 
known.
	Mr. Smith was a prominent member of South Kentucky Association 
from its constitution till 1793.  But, although among the Separate 
Baptists, he does not appear to have harmonized with them in doctrine; 
for, while they were generally Arminian in sentiment, he believed in a 
limited atonement, and was willing to adopt the Philadelphia Confession 
of Faith.  In 1793, he, with four other ministers and four churches, 
seceded from South Kentucky, and entered into the consisitution of Tates 
Creek Association, of which he remained a member until his death. Among 
his numerous and highly respectable descendants, one of his sons was 
Governor of the State of Texas, and the well known Elder John L. Smith, 
of Fayette county, Ky., is his grandson.

Smith Whitaker
=
VA Jefferson-KY Monroe-IL PA TX Fayette-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/garrard/smith.j.txt