First Baptist Church
On Sunday, February 2, 1908, every church congregation in Paintsville came together as
the Missionary Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church) held the formal dedication of its
new church building at the corner of College and Fourth Streets. It was the culmination of
five years of dreaming, planning, praying and hard work.
The church had been organized in November 1903 by 18 charter members under the
leadership of a State Mission Worker from Kentucky’s Southern Baptist Convention,the
Reverend Charles Martin.
Some of the first families enrolled as charter members were the Blair, Rice, Conley,
Chandler, Price and Wiley families. Many of these first members came from Liberty Baptist
Church, one of the oldest Missionary Baptist churches in Johnson County.
At the time of the church’s formation, its members joined with congregations of
the Paintsville Freewill Baptist and United Baptist churches in owning and sharing a
church building at the corner of Second and Church Streets. (See Paintsville United
Baptist Church for more details.)
In May 1906, the Missionary Baptists sold their interest in the Second Street property
and purchased the lot on Fourth Street from W. H. Vaughan. By December of 1906, the men of
the church had purchased a block molding machine and the foundation and walls of the
church had begun to take shape. The exterior was completed the following April.
During the period of construction, the congregation met in the Paintsville school
building with the Reverend Martin as its pastor until October 1908.
With the coming of the railroad and the coal mining industry, many new families moved
into Paintsville between 1904 and 1910. A number of these were Missionary Baptists who
contributed much to the growth of the Paintsville church. Pastors from 1908 until 1937
were: Amerson, Partee, Petit, L. F. Caudill, Grumbles, Wright, Bell, A. H. Webb, and R.
Lee James.
The church’s first parsonage, purchased in 1922, was the two story house adjacent
to the church on College Street. Later parsonages were located behind the church on Fourth
Street, at the east end of Fourth Street and, the current parsonage, on Court Street.
In December 1951, the First Baptist Church purchased property in Bridgeford Addition
which was used for the Bridgeford Mission.
The present church site, at the corner of College and Third, was purchased from South
East Coal Company in 1956. On October 1, 1967, the congregation moved into its magnificent
new church building which it occupies today.
Pastors since 1937 were: Sam Slone, C. F. Smith, Ralph Webb, Roy Hamilton, C. H.
Hockensmith, M. R. Thomason, James Wallace, Charles Milam, Don Yeager, Drew Martin and
Donnie Patrick.
