Rapidan Baptist Church
Historical highway marker JE-12 · Madison County
Rapidan Baptist Church, formed by Elijah Craig, James Reed, Samuel Harriss, and John Waller, was constituted on 14 Jan. 1773. Members of this congregation, like other Dissenters, faced prosecution for refusing to comply with laws that privileged the Church of England, Virginia's established church. Craig was arrested while preaching, as were the other Rapidan organizers, and he continued to preach while jailed in Culpeper. James Madison won the support of many local Baptists in his 1789 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives after assuring George Eve, Rapidan's pastor, that he would support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing religious freedom.
Department of Historic Resources, 2021