David Barrow was born on this day in 1753. He was raised on a Virginia farm and was not privileged to have much formal education. But the Lord saved him at the age of sixteen. He was baptized and immediately started exhorting his friends to come to Christ. After the Lord called him to preach, he began studying grammar and theology under his pastor Elder Jeremiah Walker, becoming proficient in both.
In 1774, Bro. Barrow became the pastor of the Isle of Wight church near the mouth of the James River, as well as the Mill Swamp, Black Creek and South Quay Baptist churches. In 1778, Pastor Barrow and Edward Mintz received an invitation to preach at the house of a gentleman who lived by the Nasemond River. According to historian Robert Semple, “A gang of [twenty] men came up to the stage, which had been erected under some trees, as soon as the hymn was given out, and [they] sung one of their obscene songs. [They then dragged the two preachers a half mile to the river.] There they undertook to plunge [baptize] them both. Mr. Barrow they plunged twice, pressed him into the mud, and held him long under water, and came near drowning him. Before Barrow and Mintz could change their clothes, they were driven off. Sadly, within a few weeks of the event, either three or four of those persecuting men died from various causes.
Bro. Barrow disregarded the threatening orders of the mob, the state church and the local government, and continued to preach without further molestation. Over time, many of the people living near the preaching site on the Nasemond, believed on Christ, were baptized and were organized into the Western Branch Baptist Church at Shoulders Hill.
