from Steve Kemp, Huntingdon. >No, Old School Baptist is or was the name of a Christian denomination, just as Southern Baptist, etc. Such designations are group names and then there are the individual congregations, as member churches, as you already were told, several were here in this county in the 19th century. Browns belonged at Springfield Township. A reference library would have an encyclopedia or reference work on Christian sects and that might help you understand the beliefs and practices of the Old School Baptists. One of my father's first cousins (born 1909, still living) is or was the last member at Trough Creek Baptist. Her doctrine as I got it from her was to read the Bible and let the Spirit lead you. Elders or brothers did their preaching, not formally educated people. They forbade the use of revivals, Sunday School, active evangelism, because they believed that only God should lead people to faith with kind of a one-on-one conversion, just you and God. Clearly it was too radical a position for the denomination to take and survive in the 20th century, for all the churches in the county changed to a more standard type of Baptist or just ceased to exist. Other names I have heard them called are Primitive Baptist and Hard-Shell Baptist, but these may be distinct groups that exist elsewhere. I believe that part of their primitive Christian culture was an aversion to anything not commanded in the New Testament so that they never maintained any church records apart from membership lists and financial records. No records of baptisms, marriages and deaths were ever made by this denomination so far as I know. If anyone has heard different, put up a message. Steve Kemp