John Mulkey (1773-1844)
John Mulkey was born on January 14, 1773 in South Carolina. He began to preach the gospel at an early age, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Phillip Mulkey and his father Jonathon. He was twenty years old when he began to preach in East Tennessee and became a very popular Baptist preacher. He was ordained to the ministry by the Holston Association at some point before the year 1796. This ordination also made him a delegate to represent the Mill Creek congregation at the annual meeting of the Mero District of churches in the year 1798. He was married to Elizabeth Hayes the same year that he received his ordination. They raised a family of ten children while they were at Mill Creek. He was proud that all of his sons, save one went into preaching like their forebearers. At Mill Creek he became the minister. Unfortunately, the building burned in 1803 so the church met to approve the construction of another building. The second building was built in 1804. The May 11, 1804 minutes state “that the meetinghouse is to be 50 feet long and 30 feet wide, shingled with joint shingles, 5 windows and 3 doors. A man to be hired to build it and paid in trade by subscription.” The job was completed and the building still exists today. In 1799 John made an application in his home county, Barren County, Kentucky, for a license to perform marriage ceremonies. He was granted the license, which said: “On motion of John Mulkey licens (sic) is granted to him to Solemnize the rites of Marriage agreeable to Law he having produced credentials of his Ordination and of his being in regular Communication with the United Baptist Church and made Oath according to law.” The Mill Creek church followed New Testament pattern in having elders. John Wood was appointed in 1799 and in 1800 Benjamin Gist was called to the office. There were two men, Philip Mulkey and Joshua Gist, appointed as deacons. John Mulkey labored to build up the congregation and according to the records, there were a few over three hundred attending the services of the church. In the minutes for December 12, 1801, it states: “The church agrees to make up some provision such as corn and pork for the support of Brother John Mulkey.” In the years 1800 and 1801, two great revivals affected the people of Kentucky. A change was brought as a result of these events and initially, John Mulkey was in opposition to these changes of doctrine. The Calvinistic doctrine held by the Baptists came under fire and many rejected the established tradition that they need adhere to the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. Although he was opposed, over some time, he began to look anew at what was being taught and the reason why such was the change being made. The doctrine of using the Bible alone, as promoted by Barton W. Stone had reached the Stockton Valley Baptist Association. John had been invited to come to the Baptist Church on Big Barron River to turn Lewis Byrum from following Stone’s view and bring him back to the Baptist fold. John was preaching one Lord’s day on John 10. His intention was to support the doctrine of Calvinism but all the effort did for him was to convince himself that in fact the doctrine could not be true. He began to question why he should preach if the number of saved and unsaved is fixed.
This brought the wrath of the people at Mill Valley as well as the Stockton Valley Baptist Association and he was labeled as a heretic and was notified that he would stand trial for heresy at the August meeting of the Association. At that meeting they could not get a “guilty” verdict so another trial was scheduled for October. Again, the same verdict so another trial was set for November. Mulkey proposed that they drop all disputes and bear with one another. When a negative response was given, Mulkey proposed dissolving the Mill Creek Church, which was unanimously accepted. The minutes of the church business meeting, dated the second Saturday October 1809, stated: “Church met agreeably to appointment with the helps and proceeded to hear the charges again constituted against Brother John (Mulkey) with other charges of like nature and when again hearing the charges debated and debated, we then concluded that he denied the essential doctrine of the Gospel such as denying in our esteem that Jesus Christ satisfied the demands of Law and Justice for his people and died as our surety or that any man is saved by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to them, also finely (finally) for treating the church with contempt and going away and leaving us in our unpleasant situation.” On Saturday, November 18,1809, another meeting was held and the fate of the church was held up for a division. The part favoring John followed him out the west door and those in favor of Baptist teaching left by the east door. The vast majority followed Mulkey. In 1825, John Mulkey moved his family to McMinn County, Southeast Tennessee. His success in refuting denominational doctrines often infuriated his sectarian neighbors. One of them put a sign up stating “twenty dollars reward for any man or set of men that will whip old John Mulkey and Rees Jones.” Apparently, Mulkey was unconcerned by such a threat and he continued as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Another preacher, Isaac Newton Jones said of him: “Old John Mulkey, as he was then called, was of medium height and slightly corpulent, weighing, I suppose, one hundred and eighty to two hundred pounds. He was a graceful horseback rider…Though he was not a rigid logician, his musical voice, aided by ideality, sublimity, and an easy-flow of language, readily fixed the attention of an audience; and when desirable, he could carry away his hearers by a whirlwind of natural eloquence.” John returned to Kentucky and lived there in his later years, dying at his farm near Tompkinsville, on December 13, 1844 after a long and fruitful life preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. His large family of preachers, not to mention all of the people that he had affected for the truth, are a grand witness to his many talents.