DEERFIELD BAPTIST CHURCH
1874
Kennerly Craig came to live in Deerfield inFebruary, 1854. For fourteen years he was the only Baptist in the valley. He organized a Sunday School
that met in the Methodist church on Sunday afternoons. Finally, his wife and others "joined the Baptist denomination and were baptized at Goshen.
When the Methodist church was given to the blacks in the community, the Baptist congregation began meeting in a one-room school. On May 31,
1874, 17 charter members organized as the Deerfield Baptist Church and planned the present building. The next day Kennerly Craig died of a heart attack. But his widow and nineteen-year-old son took the lead and carried on the work. They donated the land, and the church was built in 1898.
The church has grown steadily since that first year when it was constituted. In fact, the next year alone saw 21 members added by baptism •
Today, membership has increased to 208. For its first seventy-three years, the church was without a full-time pastor. That goal was reached on November 1, 1947. Faithfulness to its mission is the heart of Deerfield Baptist Church.
