Hurricane Baptist Church was founded on May 26, 1860, near the old Hurricane Bridge, with F. H. Reynolds as first clerk and James Mitchell as first moderator. Its log meeting-house was burned in 1863 by soldiers during the Civil War, and although the congregation was scattered, it reassembled in 1871. On April 2, 1877, it received a deed from C.P. Huntington, president of the Central Land Company, for the site of the present Baptist structure. Here, Federal troops of the 13th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel W. R. Brown and encamped at this place, fought a five-hour skirmish on March 28, 1863, with a Confederate force commanded by General Albert G. Jenkins. After being defeated, the Confederates withdrew and continued their march toward Point Pleasant, their objective, where it was rumored that a vast quantity of Federal stores was deposited.