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The Ghent Church, located in Carroll County, on the bank of the Ohio,
eight miles above the mouth of the Kentucky River, is know as the
migratory church, having changed its location four times. This church had
its origin in a "Union Meeting," held by the Baptists and Methodists at
Port William, now called Carrollton, during the winter and spring of 1800,
by William Hickman, and Joshua L. Morris, "on the doctrine and discipline
of the Holy Scriptures." Not adopting any Baptist Confession of Faith,
when the Port William church applied for membership in the Salem
association the following fall, its petition was rejected. But after
adopting the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, application was made to the
Elkhorn Association in 1801, which was accepted, and the church with a
membership of about one hundred was received into that body. In 1804, the
church united with the Long Run Association, and in 1814 the name was
changed from Port William to McCool's Bottom, and it joined the Concord
Association. The last move made by the church was to the village of Ghent
from which it derived its present name. Joshua L.
Morris was the first pastor and served about three years. John Scott, who
was born in Virginia, came to Kentucky in 1786 and accepted the call of
the church in 1803. A record of the Ghent Church says, "Brother Scott
served the church more or less through life, without compensation, and
gave to it the lot of ground, on which the house stands in the town of
Ghent." Lewis D. Alexander became pastor in 1837, and served twelve
years. The Ghent Church probably went into the organization of the White
Run Association in 1900, to which it reported in 1947, three hundred and
ten members, and J. T. Williams, pastor.
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