A Remarkable New Year's Day On New Year's Day 1832, something remarkable happened in Lexington, Kentucky. Two preachers stood in a crowded brick building on Hill Street and clasped hands. That single handshake accomplished something unprecedented in American religious history: the first voluntary church merger across theological lines. Barton W. Stone and "Raccoon" John Smith represented two independent movements that had been circling each other for years. Stone had hosted t