Smith Creek Baptist Church was constituted on August 6, 1756, before the United States was a country (1776) and before New Market was incorporated as a town (1796). The area was originally known as the Cross Roads, as two well-known Indian trails crossed here. It is the third “regular” Baptist church started in Virginia.

Three well-known men (Samuel Eaton, Benjamin Griffith, and the Preacher/Revolutionary War Chaplain, John Gano) were known to have preached here on occasion at least 11 years prior to our constitution. The charter members were the Aldersons, Newmans, and Harrisons. John Alderson had purchased approximately 200 acres from Samuel Newman northeast of Cross Roads and bordering Smith Creek. The saints established their assembly on a portion of land donated by the first pastor, John Alderson, Sr. (1699-1781), and a portion of which was donated by Samuel Newman. The church was named after the nearby creek where they baptized converts. This early church was in the wilderness then, and withstood Indian raids and imprisoned ministers. Pastor Alderson was registered as “a dissenting minister,” and pastored here for a few years, doing double duty, as he was also the pastor of the Linville Creek Church over near the current town of Broadway. The record book of the Smith Creek Church and Linville Creek Church “is the oldest such volume found among the Baptists west of the Blue Ridge.” The minutes can be viewed at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society at the University of Richmond. Pastor Alderson left the area in 1773, died in 1781, and is buried in Fincastle, VA. 

Smith Creek Baptist Church is a member of the Ketocton Association of Regular Baptist Churches. They applied for membership in the Philadelphia Association (est. 1707) and were accepted on October 12, 1762. 

As Philadelphia was too far away for convenient attendance, Smith Creek met with the Baptist churches of Ketoctin (Loudoun County, VA) est. 1751, Mill Creek (Frederick County, VA, now Berkeley County, WV) est. 1752, and Broad Run (Fauquier County, VA) est. 1761, for mutual encouragement. The churches requested permission from the Philadelphia Association to begin a new association, which was granted in 1765. On August 19, 1766, the Ketocton Association of Regular Baptists was begun with these four churches as charter members. The Ketocton Association still meets for preaching, fellowship, and business in August.

A schoolteacher, James “Jamie” Ireland (1745-1806), came to Cross Roads to teach in 1768. Through the consistent preaching of the Word by two friends, he came under great conviction of sin, and after struggling with the Lord, was converted by faith in Christ. After he was baptized in 1769, God called him to preach. Ireland was an itinerant preacher here and in many churches in this area for a few years and eventually spent time in Culpeper Jail (1769-1770) for preaching without licensure by the “Established Church.”

John Alderson, Jr. pastored Smith Creek from 1775 – 1777. He left the area and founded Alderson, WV, and eventually started the Greenbrier Baptist Church in 1781. He and his family are buried in the Greenbrier Cemetery behind the church. 

Around 1778, there was a division among the members, splitting the church into two assemblies. Edwin Young donated three acres in Cross Roads on the west side of the Pike, and one assembly built a new meeting house on this property. 

Anderson Moffett, the third pastor, was born in Fauquier on August 28, 1746. He is best-known here because he began preaching at 17 years of age and preached for 70 years, of which 50 were as Pastor at Smith Creek. The stained glass window in the front foyer of the church is in memory of him. It is documented that he began preaching in the Valley in 1781.

Moffett also spent some time in the Culpeper jail. He died May 14, 1835. Pastor Moffett is buried in the family cemetery on Plains Mill Road, approximately 1.9 miles west of I-81 (West Hwy 211 .6 miles to Plains Mill Road. Turn right on Plains Mill Road and then turn left before the river at .3 miles to follow Plains Mill along the river. The residential driveway is .6 miles on the left, and the cemetery is off the southwest corner of the resident’s property.) The Baptist History Preservation Society has restored Moffett’s headstone with a beautiful piece of marble. The cemetery headstones can be seen from Highway 211 (when the field is clean) as you leave Shenandoah County, looking across the field to the north between Plains Mill Road and Water Wheel Road.

The church built a new brick building in 1833 on Abram Street (now Seminary Lane) on land donated by Abram Savage. This building gained notoriety as it was used as a hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers during the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. That building was torn down in 1918, and the original foundation is still visible under the garage that now sits on that site.