Andrew Tribble Monument

A pioneer among the Baptists, Andrew Tribble moved from Virginia to Kentucky in 1784. He settled in what is now Madison County, gathered the Tates Creek Baptist Church in 1786, and pastored here until shortly before his death. Faithfulness to the Saviour marked his life.

He gathered several churches in Kentucky and while pastoring at Tates Creek, the church licensed Squire Boone, Jr. to preach the gospel. Tribble baptized over 2,000 converts during his ministry. Kentucky Baptist historian, J.H. Spencer, described Tribble as, “A preacher of good ability and of commendable zeal. His early labours were performed in Virginia, where he endured the persecutions that were the common lot of Baptist preachers at that period. Like the Craigs and Shackleford and a host of others, he endured his term in a Virginia jail for preaching the gospel contrary to law. He was a very active and successful labourer in Kentucky for about thirty- five years.”

Andrew Tribble was converted during the Separate Baptist revival in Virginia, and often said that he was the fifty- third Baptist on the north side of the James River. He was baptized by James Read and began preaching soon afterwards. A member of the Goldmine Baptist Church in Louisa County, Virginia, Tribble was the assistant of elder David Thompson. He was present at the imprisonment of Lewis Craig and John Waller in 1768, and heard these men preaching from the Spotsylvania county jail.

May 25, 1769, Tribble was arrested in Orange County, Virginia and presented to the grand jury for “preaching from place to place contrary to the law and without license within twelve months past.”

Beginning in 1773, Andrew Tribble preached to a congregation of baptized believers at “Lewises meeting house,” near Charlottesville, Virginia. This gathering of saints, known then as the Albemarle Baptist Church and today as Chestnut Grove Baptist Church, called Tribble as their first pastor in 1777. In June of the same year, he was ordained to the gospel ministry by elder Lewis Craig.

The persecution of the Baptists in Virginia by the standing order, brought the sufferers to the attention of such men as George Washington, Patrick Henry, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. It has been well documented, that these founding fathers were influenced by the petitions, persecution and patriotism of the Baptists. The trials of the Baptists led to the Virginia statute for religious liberty, which was authored by Jefferson and enacted in 1786. Jefferson corresponded with the Baptists, and a letter from him to the Albemarle Baptist Church speaks of their mutual friendship and association.

The following story, concerning Andrew Tribble and Thomas Jefferson, is found in the July, 1826 edition of the Christian Watchman and further illustrates the influence that the Baptists had upon our form of government in the United States of America.

“Andrew Tribble was the parson of a small Baptist church which held monthly meetings at a short distance from the Jefferson home nine or ten years before the American Revolution. Mr. Jefferson attended the meeting of the church several months in succession and after one of them asked elder Tribble to go home and dine with him, with which he complied. Mr. Tribble asked Mr. Jefferson how he was pleased with their church government. Mr. Jefferson replied that it struck him with great force and had interested him much, that he considered it the only form of pure democracy that then existed in the world and had concluded that it would be the best plan of government for the American colonies. This was several years before the Declaration of Independence.”

Andrew Tribble supplied the American forces with provisions and is listed in the patriot index of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Andrew was the son of George and Anne Tribble. He was born March 22, 1741 in Caroline County, Virginia and married Sarah Ann Burrus in 1768. Their children were: Frances, Samuel, Peter, Thomas, Nancy, Sally, Silas, Andrew, Mary, John, Patsey and Dudley. Tribble died December 30, 1822 and was buried on the family farm located a few miles south.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. – Daniel 12:3

Marker placed by the Baptist History Preservation Society

 

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Andrew Tribble was born in March, 1741. He was among the first converts to the Baptist faith in his part of the State; and was often heard to remark that he was the fifty-third Baptist on the north side of James river. He commenced preaching soon after he was converted, and about the same time that the Craigs, Waller, Childs and others began their meetings in Elijah Craig’s tobacco barn. He was probably baptized by James Read, and at the time that Elijah Craig and others went to North Carolina and induced him to come to Orange and some of the neighboring counties to baptize the first converts to the Baptist faith in that part of Virginia. He was, for a time, a member of Goldmine church in Louisa county, from which he was sent as a messenger to the first Meeting of the General Association of Virginia, in May, 1771. After this he accepted the pastoral care of a church in Albemarle county. It being near the residence of Thomas Jefferson, that statesman frequently came to Mr. Tribble’s meetings. The Virginians, and especially the able and learned R.B.C. Howell, assert that Mr. Jefferson conceived the idea of a popular government for the American States, while observing the business transactions of the little Baptist church, of which Mr. Tribble was pastor.

Mr. Tribble moved to Kentucky, and settled on Dix river, in 1783, but soon afterwards moved to what is now Clark county. Here, in January, 1786, he united with Howard Creek (now Providence) church, of which Robert Elkin was pastor. During this year Mr. Tribble gathered Tates Creek, and became its pastor. Some three years after this, a personal difficulty occurred between him and his pastor, at Howard Creek, which resulted in nearly an equal division of the church. Helps were called from the neighboring churches, and the difficulty adjusted. Mr. Tribble’s party was constituted a new church, called Unity. The Elkin party, at Howard’s Creek, according to the terms of adjustment, retained the old constitution and the church property, but changed its name to Providence.

Mr. Tribble was constituted a member, and chosen pastor, of Unity church. He soon became entangled in a law suit with one of the members, of the name of Haggard, which difficulty was settled by Mr. Tribble’s making satisfactory acknowledgments.

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This seems to have resulted in severing his pastoral relation to that church. He, however, continued to serve Tates Creek till the infirmities of old age made it necessary for him to retire. He died in great peace, December 22, 1822.

Mr. Tribble was a preacher of good ability, and of commendable zeal. His early labors were performed in Virginia, where he endured the persecutions that were the common lot of Baptist preachers, at that period. Like the Craigs, Shackleford and a host of others, he endured his term in a Virginia jail, for preaching the gospel contrary to law. He was a very active and successful laborer, in Kentucky, for about thirty-five years. His son, to whom the author is indebted for the principal facts of his life, supposes that he must have baptized 2,000 persons, in Kentucky.

He married a Miss Sally Burrus in early life, by whom he raised a large and respectable family, of whom, his son Peter became a Baptist preacher.

His last illness, caused by stricture of the bladder, was protracted and very painful. But his death was most triumphant. A few hours before his departure he said to his son Peter and another young preacher, standing at his bedside: “Boys, you see me here now. In a few days I shall be gone. I give you this charge. Play the man for your God.”

========[From John Henderson Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists, 1885, Volume I; reprint, CHR&A, 1984. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

 

Image Credit: Andrew Tribble (1741-1822) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree. 22 Mar. 1741, www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tribble-275.