James Garrard - Religious Leadership

Religious Leadership

As early as June 25, 1785, Garrard and his friend Augustine Eastin attended meetings of the Elkhorn Baptist Association. In 1787, he helped organize the Cooper's Run Baptist Church near his estate. He was chosen as one of the church's elders and served the congregation there for ten years. Soon after its formation, the church joined the Elkhorn Baptist Association, and in 1789, it issued Garrard a license to preach. Although he owned as many as 23 slaves to work on his vast agricultural and industrial works, Garrard condemned slavery from the pulpit, calling it a "horrid evil". Whites and blacks participated equally in worship at Cooper's Run.

Garrard and the other elders of the church started numerous congregations in the state, including one as far away as Mason County. In 1789, Garrard and Eastin began working to reunite the more orthodox Regular Baptists in the area with the more liberal Separatist Baptists. Garrard's former church in Virginia had been a Regular Baptist congregation, and Garrard was considered a Regular Baptist despite his clear advocacy for religious toleration and his open expression of liberal views. Although he never succeeded in uniting the two factions, he was chosen moderator of the Elkhorn Baptist Association's annual meetings in 1790, 1791, and 1795 in recognition of his efforts.

From 1785 to 1799, Garrard served as a trustee of Transylvania Seminary (now Transylvania University). In 1794, the Baptist and more liberal trustees united against the orthodox Presbyterian members of the board to elect the seminary's first non-Presbyterian president. That president was Harry Toulmin, a Unitarian minister from England. Toulmin's daughter Lucinda would later marry Garrard's son Daniel. As a result of Garrard's relationship with Toulmin, he began to accept some tenets of Unitarianism, specifically the doctrines of Socinianism. By 1802, Garrard and Augustine Eastin had not only adopted these beliefs, but had indoctrinated their Baptist congregations with them. The Elkhorn Baptist Association condemned these beliefs as heretical and encouraged Garrard and Eastin to abandon them. When that effort failed, the Association ceased correspondence and association with both men. This event ended Garrard's ministry and his association with the Baptist church.