Jeffersonton Baptist was constituted by Elijah Craig on December 11, 1773. The first meeting house was located near Kelly's Ford, the second near Freeman's Ford, and in 1819, the third was built on the current church yard. In 1848, work began on the present brick structure, and additional land was purchased for a cemetery. One Sunday morning in February 1877, the building caught fire from a chimne
y flue and burned. The church was rebuilt on the same walls. The portico was not added until 1921. The "Great Wagon Road" from Chester's Gap to Falmouth and the Piedmont Stage Route from Washington to Milledgeville, GA passed through Jeffersonton, then a bustling town, where the road which passes in front of the church is today. On August 23, 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, with former President Monroe and other Revolutionary War soldiers, paid a farewell to "ye ancient Towne of Jefferson". General Lafayette issued a "cordial and affectionate shake by the hand" to every person who desired to meet him. During the Civil War, skirmishes took place in and around the church, both sides making good use of the stone fence out front. The church was used as a hospital in 1862, as armies were moving up the Rappahannock to the Battle of Second Manassas (aka the 2nd Battle of Bull Run). We have over 30 Civil War soldiers buried in our cemetery-all are unknown to us but not to God. Before the war, elegant gentlemen and ladies in gorgeous array arrived at this church in fine carriages driven by well dressed coachmen. The carriages disappeared after the war due to the poverty that followed. People walked, rode horses or came on ox carts.
