J. D. Black, "Old Uncle Jimmy" he was called, and he by Rev. Joseph Redding, in Scott Co., Ky., 1809, at Dry Run Church. Joseph Redding was raised an Episcopalian, and was baptized in Fauquier Co., Va., by Rev. Wm. Marshall, 1771. Wm. Marshall was a Virginian and uncle to the distinguished Chief Justice Marshall, and brother to Col. Thomas Marshall, a distinguished Kentucky pioneer. Wm. Marshall was baptized in 1768, in Virginia, by Rev. John Pickett, his brother-in-law. My relatives manifested no opposition to my being a Baptist, but it seemed to me that they did not feel as worm towards me as they would had I joined the church with them, and that blessed old song, "Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee," seemed particularly mine and was constantly in my mind. I took membership at Silas, in Bourbon Co., some five miles distant, the nearest church to me, and at once actively engaged in church and Sunday-school work, refusing nothing that I was called on to do.

Aug., 1854, I attended the Elkhorn Association at old Clear Creek Church, in Woodford, Co., and was greatly interested in all its proceedings and services. That venerable man of God, Rev. Dr. Ryland T. Dillard, was the moderator, who very touchingly spoke of the long ago there, with the old church and people; it was this church of which Henry Clay's mother lived and died a member, and Dr. Dillard told of a precious meeting which he had held, when, in one of the testimony and experience meetings, Mrs. Watkins, the mother of Mr. Clay, with the tears running down her cheeks, arose and asked the prayers of God's people for Henry, her boy, whose father, a Baptist preacher among "The Hanover Slashes" in Virginia, had often prayed. Dr. Dillard met Mr. Clay on the streets in Lexington, on his return home from Washington, during a recess of the U. S. Senate, and told him of his mother's request. Mr. Clay was deeply moved, and said, "My mother is a godly woman." Mr. Clay's son, James B. Clay, who was a statesman as well as a patriot, told me that the religious impressions he received from this dear old grandmother, he would carry with him to the grave, and that the training she gave him, made him a Baptist. Although he never united with the church, he was a subscriber to Baptist periodicals all his life. Henry Clay's

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Thanks to Candy Hearn for transcribing this page.