William Smoot

Who is William Smoot?

Elder William M. Smoot William M. Smoot was a resident of Occoquan, Virginia and briefly a leading Primitive Baptist preacher in Prince William County. He was the preacher of Occoquan and Quantico Baptist churches from 1888 to 1938. A charismatic preacher, Smoot, whose followers were known locally as "Smootites," engaged in a heated rivalry for followers with the reverend Thomas D.D. Clark, whose Union Baptist Church was located across the road from the Quantico Baptist Church in the village of Independent Hill.

Smoot was a prolific writer of religious tracts, including several books and pamphlets, and a monthly newsletter he printed himself on a press set up in his home in Occoquan. This newsletter, The Sectarian Devoted to the Cause of the Anti-Means, Old School, Predestination, or Bible Baptists appeared in monthly installments from 1890 until Smoot's death in 1939. In 1904 Smoot also published a collection of 698 hymns, called The Sectarian.

Before his death in 1939, Elder Smoot told his followers not to let anyone preach in his churches because, like Christ, he would return to continue leading them to salvation. Obeying their pastor, the "Smootites" boarded up the doors to his churches and awaited his return. Smoot's failure to cheat death left his two congregations leaderless and his followers eventually gave up and joined other churches. Neglected and unused, Smoot's two churches eventually collapsed, leaving only their cemeteries behind. Smoot was buried at Bacon Race cemetery.