Origins of the Free Will Baptist Church of North Carolina By Rufus K. Hearn Rufus K. Hearn was one of the leading ministers of the Free Will Baptist General Conference of North Carolina in the mid- to late-1800s. Elder hearn was born on October 20, 1819 and lived to the age of 75. He united with Gum Swamp Church, one of our oldest Free Will Baptist churches, in 1850, and remained a member there until his death in 1894. He was ordained to the Christian ministry on August 1, 1853. He not only served Gum Swamp Church, but also served other Free Will Baptist churches as pastor while he earned the bulk of his living as a farmer. Elder Hearn was not only an illustrious farmer-preacher, but was also a journalist and publisher, having served as editor and publisher of the Free Will Baptist, a weekly magazine, and as executive director of the Free Will Baptist Press from 1880-1889. Hearn was an articulate and persuasive writer as well as an able historian, as the following article shows. As Thad F. Harrison and J. M. Barfield said in their History of the Free Will Baptists of North Carolina, “He did his … Continue reading Origins in North Carolina