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The root of origins of Oak Hill Baptist Church can be traced back to Old Virginia.  In 1829, Charles and Elizabeth Gatewood-Bibb left Virginia and settled at the mouth of Mann's Creek on the New River where they bought the ferry at the place from Peter Bowyer, who lived there since 1798.  After operating the ferry for eight years, Charles Bibb bought a three hundred acre tract on the plateau to the south of his river crossing and names it Gatewood in honor of his wife's maiden name.  They were the first Baptists in this section but not the first Baptists to locate in Fayette County, WV.  

Af`ter the Bibb family settled in Gatewood, other families migrated to West Virginia.  John Duncan, Philip Thurmond, Llewwllyn W Jones, his wife and four children reached the lands of Meadow Fork atwhat is now known as SAnger.  All these families -Bibbs, Duncans, Thurmonds, and Jones, were dyed-in-the -wool Baptists.  It was the distinction of Mrs. Martha Jones wife of Llewellyn Jones, and one of the charter members of Oak Hill Baptist Church, that she was baptized by Luther Rice, and celebrated missionary.  In the year of 1820, William Blake, Jr.  built his log cabin on the  site of the Jones mansion which now stands opposite of the Oak Hill Baptist Church in Oak Hill.  This was the start of the Blake lineage in Oak Hill and they turned out to be Baptists.

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Information derived from the history of Oak Hill Baptist written by,  Rev. Shirley Donnelly,  D.D.1950

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