The minutes begin with the entry of 20 August 1809, when the Lower Fairforest Baptist Church was established as an arm of Padgett’s Creek Baptist Church, which had been established in 1784. Some families who belonged to the Fairforest Meeting prior to the Revolution were members of the Padgett’s Creek church and later of the Lower Fairforest Church.

The author has included the church minutes for 1809-1875 and membership lists from the earliest list to the year 1906. Even the list of 1906 includes later entries concerning deaths and dismissions of members. These minutes cover the usual matters of church membership and discipline. Some dates of death are included within the membership lists. Occasionally, maiden names of married women are indicated. However, Baptist church minutes do not, as a rule, provide records of births, marriages, and deaths. The names of slave members, often noting the names of their owners, are interwoven in the records and are included in membership lists of the Lower Fairforest Baptist Church, providing valuable African-American historical and genealogical information. This compilation will be helpful to historians, genealogists, and descendants of members of this early Union County church.

(1997), 2021, 6x9, paper, index, 126 pp