The religious evolution of the
county, in its intimate phases, carries an absorbing interest. The
Kentuckians were originally Old School Baptists or Presbyterians,
occasionally Methodists, but early fell under the spell of the Campbell
movement which swept tile central valley states in the early years of
the last century. Barton Stone, ‘‘Raccoon John’’ Smith and other
great pioneer preachers of the Disciples movement came to Missouri in
the thirties, swaying the thought and intelligence here as they did in
Kentucky, and Alexander Campbell himself was twice a visitor at Paris,
the last time in 1848. As a result the county is preponderantly
of this faith in its religious ideals, or rather the Disciples
predominating. The Old School Baptists once the most powerful and
numerous sect in the county, have gradually vanished, and only three or
four of their church edifices, some of these, like Berea in South
Fork having no congregation remain. They furnished the county with some
of its most militant and heroic figures, such men as Wm. Priest, Elder
Sutton and Epaphroditus Smith, known in person and tradition. but save
for Cedar Bluff, Stoutsville, Berea and Old Baptist, there remains not a
vestige of them. Every other denomination has grown and in a measure
kept pace, but the faith of the pioneer is evidently no more. Monroe has
one Catholic community, Indian Creek.
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