Andrew Tribble was one of the first Baptists in Virginia. He often declared that he was the fifty-third Baptist on the north side of the James River. Some of the people with whom he fellowshipped were Lewis and Elijah Craig, John Waller and James Childs. Bro. Tribble was most likely baptized by James Reed who rode down from North Carolina for that purpose.
Bro. Tribble began the itinerant preaching the gospel of Christ and was one of the forty-four Baptists imprisoned in Virginia for serving his Saviour without a license. He was incarcerated in the Fredericksburg gaol for forty-eight days.
His first pastorate was at the Baptist church in Albemarle County. It was near the home of Thomas Jefferson. Years later, Tribble, testified that after Jefferson had visited the Albemarle church for several months, the preacher asked him what he thought about the government and management of the church. Jefferson replied that it struck him with great force and had interested him much. He considered it to be the only pure form of democracy that then existed in the world and had concluded that it would be the best plan of government for the American colonies. Nothing was said about Jefferson’s conversion to Christ.
In 1783 the Tribbles followed the example of the Craigs and others by moving to Kentucky. There he organized the Tates Creek Baptist Church, serving that congregation until his death on this day in 1822.
