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 66-67.  [Nelson County]

ENOS KEITH. Alexander Keith, the father of this brilliant young 
preacher, was born in Virginia, but was of Scotch extraction.  He united 
with the Baptists, in the time of their fiery persecutions.  Soon after 
the Revolutionary war, he emigrated to Nelson county, Kentucky.  He was 
in the constitution of White Oak Run church, in 1790.
	Enos Keith was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, in 1788.  His 
father moved to a new settlement on Vertrees Creek, in Hardin county, 
while Enos was a small boy; so that he was raised up in the frontier 
setlements, and consequently received very little education.  In early 
childhood he became much interested on the subject of religion, and as 
soon as he learned to read, became a constant reader of the Bible, and 
was known to be often engaged in secret prayer.  He professed faith in 
Christ, in his sixteenth year.  There being no church in the settlement, 
he was not baptized till four years afterwards; but he immediately 
obtained permission, and set up family worship in his father's house.  
He also led in prayer, and engaged in exhortation, at the prayer 
meetings, held around in the settlers' cabins.  His young heart seemed 
so much taken up with communion with God, that he appeared literally to 
"pray always."  "We never went into the woods together," said his younger 
brother, Benjamin, "but Enos would kneel down and pray before we 
returned to the house.  Sometimes he would wait till we came back in 
sight of the house, and I hoped he would forget it; but he never did.  
He would invaribly say, before we left the woods: "Ben, we must pray, 
before we go to the house." 
	During this time, Warren Cash began to preach in the Vertrees 
Creek settlement, and, in 1808, a church, called "Union," was 
constituted there.  Soon after the constitution of this church, Enos 
Keith and his brother Benjamin were baptized by Mr. Cash, and became 
members of it.  Enos was shortly afterward licensed to exercise his 
gift.  This, however, he had been doing almost from the time of his 
conversion, four years before.
	He was ordained at Union church, 1811, by Warren Cash and others 
and soon afterwards succeeded to the pastoral care of that congregation.  
He commenced preaching on Otter Creek, in what is now Mead [sic] county, 
and Otter Creek church was soon raised up.  Brush Creek church, in 
Breckinridge county, was raised up through his labors.  He also visited 
the new settlements in Grayson and Hart counties, and laid the 
foundation for other churches. Concord, in Grayson, originated under his 
ministry, in 1813.  Of this, and Lost Run, in Breckinridge, he was 
pastor.
	Probably no man in Kentucky, in his day, was more wholly absorbed 
in the great work of preaching the gospel, than Enos Keith.  From his 
youth, he was filled with that wisdom which is from above.  He kept so 
close to God, and communed with him so constantly, that heavenly things 
became as familiar to his heart and mind as the sensible objects around 
him, and he spoke of being to Heaven, or going to see Jesus, as a man 
talks about visiting his neighbors.  His motive in preaching the gospel 
seemed to be to persuade sinners to come to Christ.  He never impressed 
his congregation with the feeling that he was trying to preach a sermon; 
he talked to dying men and women as if Jesus were present, filled with 
love and pity, and yearning for them to come to him and be saved from 
the fearful doom that threatened them.
	His manner, like that of John S. Wilson, Thomas Smith and a few 
other young men, whom God has raised up in Kentucky, is difficult to 
describe.  His voice was clear and strong, yet very tender and 
impressive.  His love and confidence towards Jesus Christ was real and 
manifest, and his love for the souls of men was so apparent that his 
hearers saw and felt it.  He often wept profusely while speaking, and 
his whole soul seemed to run out after his dying fellows.
	He never married, but consecrated himself wholly to the gospel, 
preaching day and night, and from house to house.  But his work on earth 
was not of long duration.  In the sumer of 1824, he was violently 
attacked with flux, of which he died in a few days, in the fullest 
assurance of a blessed immortality.  A few hours before his death, Elder 
Simeon Buchanan called to see him.  When he entered the room, the dying 
christian said to him:  "Brother Buchanan, when I saw you last, I 
thought you would see Jesus before I should; but now I shall see him 
first."  Thus passed away this godly man in the noontide of life.
	His brother Benjamin entered the ministry soon after he did, and 
labored in the gospel more than fifty years.

Keith Cash Wilson Smith Buchanan 
=
VA Hardin-KY Meade-KY Breckinridge-KY Grayson-KY Hart-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/nelson/keith.e.txt