While preaching at Bethel Baptist Church in Parmleysville, John began to question some of the tenets of his own church. The doctrine which expressed eternal damnation of infants disturbed him powerfully. He did not want to believe that his own two children after suffering a particularly painful death, would be condemned by a malevolent God to eternal suffering. When John was given a copy of The Christian Baptist by Alexander Campbell, his doubts multiplied. For several years, Campbell had been worried over the many divisions within the Protestant Church and wanted to restore Christianity to what it had been at Antioch. Campbell had acquired a reputation as a "reforming Baptist" as he sought to unite all Christians on scriptural grounds. Most hard-liners though looked upon Campbell with suspicion and sought to discredit his teachings. John Smith wisely kept his doubts to himself. But when he learned that Alexander Campbell would be conducting a revival at Crab Orchard, Kentucky, he had to attend. (Alexander Campbell, 1788-1866, founder of the Disciples of Christ or "Campbellites").

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John borrowed a horse, who had seen better days, and a suit of clothes that didn't fit well and were faded and course, but those were small matters for John Smith. He would have gone to Campbell's revival even if he had to walk. So, from Parmleysville, a ragamuffin preacher rode off into the pages of frontier history.

At Crab Orchard, John found an assemblage of hundreds of people who were gathered in and around a small church. He found a place on the doorstep and listened intently to the proceedings inside. It was apparent that Alexander Campbell was not at the revival and John was disappointed, but the old spirit of revival was rising within him. So many spectators arrived that there were more outside the church, straining to hear the messages being delivered, than there were inside the building. The crowd outside became irritated at not being able to hear the ministers. To placate the people in the church yard and to head off a possible religious riot, two divinity students were sent out to conduct a separate meeting in a nearby grove of trees. The two students took turns on the platform that was hastily erected, reciting verses from the Bible and long prayers to repent. The crowd sensing it was being preached to by amateurs, began to drift away.

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John Smith decided to seize this opportunity. He stood up, straightened his coat and stepped to the pulpit. Raising his hands, he shouted to the milling crowd: "Stay friends and hear what the great Augustine said. Augustine wished to see three things before he died: Rome in her glory and purity, Paul on Mars Hill, and Jesus in the flesh. Will you not stay and hear what the great Cato said? Cato repented of three things before his death: first, that he had ever spent an idle day; second, that he had ever gone on a voyage by water when he might have made the same journey by land; third, that he had ever told the secrets of his bosom to a woman..." By the time John had finished talking about Augustine, Cato and Thales, the milling crowd had settled down and the drifters were returning to the grove of trees. John continued: "And now friends, I know you are ready to ask: ‘Sir, who are you?" "I am John Smith from Stockton's Valley. In more recent years I have lived among the rocks and hills of the Cumberland. Down there,. saltpetre caves abound and raccoons make their homes. On that wild frontier we never had good schools nor many books; consequently, I stand before you today a man without an education. But, my brethren, even in that ill-favored region, the Lord, in good time, found me. He showed me his wondrous grace and called me to preach the ever-lasting gospel of the Son." (Comments from Raccoon John Smith, a fictionalized account of Smith's life, written by Louis Cochran, published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce of New York, 1963).

John Smith began to preach in his unique and captivating style and the crowd became quiet. As he continued, some who had remained at the church left that service and joined the worshipers under the trees. The power of the Holy Spirit had descended upon John and he composed sentences he did not know he was capable of doing and called forth from memory verses and parables that he had not used in months. From his lips echoed the warnings of Ezekiel, Elijah and Isaiah, the praises of the psalmist and the promises of the risen Christ, our Lord. With each passing hour, the crowd became larger, listening to the country preacher who said he lived among the coons on the Cumberland. As evening approached, John delivered a final plea of salvation and by the time he finished, there was not a dry eye in the audience. Exhausted, he stepped down into the arms of an overwhelmed audience, who showered him with embraces and professions of faith.

His reputation as a preacher spread as word of his marathon sermon at Crab Orchard was passed from town to town. When he casually made reference to his having lived among the coons on the Cumberland, he unwittingly became known as "Raccoon John Smith." Other ministers sought his friendship and advise and his presence at their own revivals. The name of Raccoon John became a guarantee of a large turn-out at camp meetings.

By 1820, Raccoon John had become a living legend in the state of Kentucky. Many regarded him as the greatest preacher of the day. As his fame grew, he found himself more and more frequently called away from his ministry in the South Fork country and spent much time in central Kentucky.

In the spring of 1824, Alexander Campbell visited Kentucky and met with Raccoon John Smith and Barton W. Stone at Flemingsburg. For John, this meeting was the realization of a long anticipated dream. Although none of the three ministers had met each other, the trio established a foundation which eventually led to the union of the three men of God under a common denomination. Stone was a leader in the Cane Ridge Revival and had become fascinated with Campbell's ideas. Following this meeting with Alexander Campbell, John openly disavowed the tenets of the Baptist faith. His announcement stunned the Baptist community and struck hard at his old friends in Wayne County. He continued to be their friend, but he was no longer welcome in their churches. Conventional Baptists rejected the Campbell-Smith-Stone doctrines and condemned Raccoon John as a traitor and apostate. The movement grew, culminating in the establishment of the new Christian Church in 1831. One of the first Christian Churches to be organized was in Wayne County. John Smith's teachings changed the hearts of some of the Hurt and Burnett families, who were loyal Baptists until the Christian Church was organized, when many changed to that church.

During a visit to Frankfort, Kentucky, John was unable to find a single Baptist church that would let him preach. Such treatment did not deter Smith for long. When the citizens of Frankfort learned that Raccoon John Smith was going to hold services in the court house, they filled the gallery and spilled out into the halls. Such was his power to draw a crowd. He was a preacher for all the people. While others identified themselves by denominational titles, Raccoon John carried only one label: Christian. Wherever he traveled, people came to him for guidance and blessing. He was well received in the largest of cities and the very smallest of rural areas.

Elder Smith's powerful preaching touched thousands all over Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Missouri, representing the Disciples or Reformers at the great meetings. He officiated at many marriages in Wayne County between 1811 to 1818 and again from 1826 to the 2nd of April 1832. The last marriage was between Payton Wheeler and Nancy VanHoozer and it was noted that his signature was very shaky as if by an elderly person, even though he was only 48 years of age at that time. He and his family moved to Montgomery County and then to Mt. Sterling and last to Georgetown, Kentucky.

John's wife, Nancy Hurt Smith died 4 November 1861 and was buried in the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. She was known as "a woman kindly, patient without ostentation, neat and orderly and was one who lived for her husband and children. To them under God, she consecrated her life." To this union, eleven children were born, but only four survived her. In 1868, while on a visit with his daughter, Reverend Raccoon John Smith died on February 28th in Mexico, Missouri. His body was returned to Lexington where he was buried next to his wife Nancy. Their graves are near the grave of Henry Clay, a man who was greatly influenced by Elder Smith.

The inscription on Elder Smith's monument in the Lexington Cemetery is concise, meaningful and worded so thoughtfully. 'In memory of John Smith, an elder of the Church of Christ. True, genial, and pious, the good loved and all respected him. Strong through affliction and wise by the study of the Word - he gave up the Creed of his fathers for the sake of the Word. By its power, he turned many from error; in its light he walked and in its consolations, he triumphantly died.'

Raccoon John Smith was one of the greatest evangelists of his day. He ministered not just to a community, but to an entire state and to the nation. He accumulated little wealth during his lifetime and most often, had only enough money to buy the essential of everyday living. But spiritually, he was a very wealthy man. From North Carolina, to Stockton's Valley, to the Little South Fork, to the homes of hundreds of unchurched citizens on the trans-Appalachian frontier, the journey of Raccoon John Smith was long and fruitful and tempered with torment and temptation. In spite of obstacles that few men have known, John never departed from his faith and he retained to his death humility and compassion. Reverend John Smith was simply a preacher man, who lived among the raccoons and owls down on the Cumberland.

(Sources for this article include The Life and Times of Elder John Smith by John Augustus Williams; Raccoon John Smith, by Louis Cochran; A Century of Wayne County, Kentucky 1800-1900 by Augusta Phillips Johnson, South Fork Country by Samuel D. Perry; History of Kentucky by Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, Historic Sullivan by Oliver Taylor; Deeds and Records Pertaining to Shearer Valley Church of Christ, Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, 1811-1974 by Ala Shearer Vickery and Elizabeth Simpson, 1975; Marriages of Wayne County, Kentucky, Vol. 1 & 2 by June Baldwin Bork; Deed Books of Wayne County by June Baldwin Bork; The Burnetts and Their Connections, Vol. 1 & 3 by June Baldwin Bork; Photographs, courtesy of Mrs. Donald Tabor (nee Kathryn Taylor) of Overland Park, Kansas).

The Pleasant Bend Meeting House, Church of Christ and the Shearer Valley Church of Church show in their church records (1852-1908) that Raccoon John Smith had preached there and was responsible for the establishment of the church in Wayne. He attempted to restore the original order of the church, one of humility and simplicity. The location of the Shearer Valley Church of Christ (Cooper) is eight miles south of Monticello in Wayne County and the Meeting House sits beside the highway just beyond where Kentucky 200 makes an almost ninety-degree bend. This building was an eight sided log affair. This establishment took place about 1828. In 1852 the building at Shearer Valley, which still stands, was built and the main congregation moved there. On the "3rd Saturday, August, 1856, Brethren met according to appointment. after preaching by Bro. Smith the brethren assembled..." The church ordered the treasurer to pay the sum of $10.00 to Bro. Smith whose home in Horse Hollow was not very far from the church and doubtless many of the members of the Pleasant Bend Church of Christ had known Bro. John Smith most of their lives (Deeds and Records Pertaining to Shearer Valley Church of Christ, Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, 1811-1974 by Ala Shearer Vickery and Elizabeth Simpson, 1975).