USA > South Carolina > Williamsburg County > History of Williamsburg; something about the people of Williamsburg County, South Carolina, from the first settlement by Europeans about 1705 until 1923. > Part 22
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The Session Records of the Williamsburg Church from the beginning of the minstry of the Reverend A. G. Peden in 1839, have been preserved. Mr. Peden's Session
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of Elders was composed of the following men : Isaac Nel- son, Daniel Frierson, H. D. Shaw, James E. Fulton, E. W. Greene, W. Camlin, Joseph Chandler, and John A. Gordon.
During the ministry of Mr. Peden, the Session of El- ders had one trial of considerable interest. On May 24, 1844, the Reverend Philip Pearson preferred charges of slander and defamation against Elder Daniel Frierson. The Moderator charged the members of the Session "re- garding their characters as Judges of the Court of Jesus Christ and the solemn duty in which they were about to come."
The specifications were these: "Mr. Frierson had in a written communication to Reverend P. Pearson, ac- cused said Pearson; first, with the crime of removing his neighbor's land mark; and, second, with having re- sisted the civil law." Elder Frierson plead not guilty. The witnesses were then called and sworn and the testi- mony heard on both sides. The parties discussed their cases. Elder Frierson was found guilty and excommuni- cated. Some time after this, Mr. Frierson wrote a re- markable letter to this Session applying for reinstate- ment in church membership. He confessed repentance and declared to the Session that he had from his youth up walked in the straight and narrow way, that he had diligently studied many of the prescribed theological works of that period, and that he had an earnest desire to enjoy communion with the Church. Mr. Frierson was again received into the Church.
The Reverend James A. Wallace became minister of the Williamsburg Church on May 20, 1848. Mr. Wallace came here from Cabarrus County, North Carolina, where he was born a son of the Reverend Jedekiah Wallace, himself a Presbyterian preacher. When Mr. Wallace took charge of the Williamsburg Church, it had renewed its youth and had become a leading factor in the social,
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political, and religious life of Williamsburg District. Soon after his arrival, he married Miss Mary Flagler, a daughter of one of the most prominent families in the district. When he began his ministry here, he firmly be- lieved that Calvinism was the Key to the Kingdom of Heaven, and that the Presbyterian Church held this Key by the election of Almighty God.
Mr. Wallace knew that Cleland Belin had built the beautiful Black Mingo Baptist Church in 1843. This church, still standing near where Willtown once was, abandoned and open, is almost as beautiful and entire and clean as when Mr. Belin had it dedicated to God. It is a wonderful piece of workmanship, a fit place for God to dwell. But when one now looks above its sacred altar expecting to see the Burning Bush, his eye will fall on leather winged bats clinging to its frescoed walls. Mr. Wallace knew that Cleland Belin wore a black silk gown whenever he attended this church on official duty as its Senior Deacon; that he was "faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly swell;" that his personality dominated the Church and the Black Mingo people regarded him with superstitious awe; and that the Presbyterians need not fear the "Belin Church." Mr. Wallace did not see that the same cancerous Calvinism with which he was about to revaccinate his Williamsburg Congregation was that very same virus out of which came the bats and owls to the Belin Black Mingo Baptist Church.
Mr. Wallace learned soon after he came to Williams- burg that Francis Asbury, Lemuel Andrews, John Bunch, William Capers, John Dix, Henry Hill Durant, John Gamewell, Hope Hull, George Huggins, William Ken- nedy, Cornelius McLeod, Hugh Ogburn, John R. Pickett, Frederick Rush, Isaac Smith, Alexander Walker, Henry Willis, and other Methodist circuit riders had been com- ing this way for more than half a century and had been preaching the Fatherhood of God and the Fellowship of
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Man; that Love fulfilled the Law; that Jesus Christ came to show Man his part in the Way to Life. The two little Methodist Churches, one at Ebenezer and the other at Suttons, did not disturb Mr. Wallace. It was the Arminian spirit that was touching the Rock of Calvinism in Williamsburg and making Healing Waters to flow.
Mr. Wallace was a rigorous Calvinist. He proclaimed with a Crusader's zeal the infallibility of the Philadel- phia Confession of Faith and honestly believed it the most perfect theological statement in existence. Some quotations from this Confession of Faith show its nature : "God hath decreed in Himself from all Eternity, by the most wise and holy Councel of his own will, all things whatsoever comes to passe," Chapter III, Section 1; again in Section III: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and Angels are predestinated, or foreordained, to Eternal Life, through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice." Section IV : "These Angels and Men thus predestinated, and forcordained, are particularly, and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain, and definite, that it cannot be either increased, or diminished." Again in Chapter X, it said, "Those whom God has predestinated unto Life, He is pleased, in His appointed, and acceptable time, effectually to call by his word, and Spirit .... This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power, or agency in the creature, co-working with his special grace, the crea- ture being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses .... Elect infants dying in infancy, are regen- erated and saved by Christ through the Spirit .... So also are other elect persons, who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the Ministry of the Word." This was the doctrine on which nearly all of the people of
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Williamsburg had been brought up and this was the foundation on which Mr. Wallace planned to circumscribe and include the District of Williamsburg.
No knight under the banner of the Cross ever charged the Moslem guarded walls about the Holy Sepulchre more valiantly than did Mr. Wallace that silent growing Ar- minianism in Williamsburg. He preached Calvinism more eloquently than Williamsburg had theretofore heard. He was a strong man. Somehow, Arminianism kept grow- ing. The more furious the onslaughts of Mr. Wallace the stronger Arminianism grew. Mr. Wallace, one time, almost lost faith in himself. It seemed that the more fervently he preached and the more earnestly his congre. gation listened the larger Arminianism loomed. So, in 1852, after great effort, he secured the Reverend Daniel Baker, D. D., probably the most powerful Presbyterian evangelist of his age, to conduct a series of meetings at the Williamsburg Church.
"The meeting commenced on the 2nd Sabbath, the 8th of August, and continued nine days; the fruits of which were fifty-nine additions, and the conversion of some of the old members, one of whom is now a Ruling Elder. A few of these persons have apostatized; but in justice to the character of the work, not a greater proportion than of those who have been received from time to time. The character of our congregation is somewhat peculiar-par- taking more than is usual of the feelings and habits of the old country. And those who have proved unworthy were mostly such as had been but little impressed, if at all, by Dr. Baker's preaching. They came to the meeting near the close, and united, I fear, only for the purpose of obtaining baptism for their children, and other church privileges. But not the least of the benefits arising from Dr. Baker's visit was the healing of the old schism in the Indiantown Church. Though a few families left, never to return, in consequence of Mr. McPherson's departure,
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those who had been worshipping with us returned, and the Church is now prospering. We have still received some valuable members from time to time." (Letter of Reverend James A. Wallace, of December 26, 1855.)
The members who united with the Church were as follows: John Armstrong, James Tisdale, N. G. Rich, D. M. Mason, S. C. Murphy, T. J. China, J. C. Matthews, John Murphy, Robert W. Fluitt, Sam Strong, William Kinder, Samuel M. Matthews, John P. Bradley, P. O. Fulton, T. J. Strong, Asa E. Brown, M. F. McCottry, S. E. Fulton, Thomas M. Fulton, J. N. Matthews, John Wheeler, S. J. Montgomery, D. Dukes, William McCul- lough, S. McBride Scott, Theodore M. Lifrage, Calvin Mc- Clary, James S. Brockinton, Mrs. E. S. Armstrong, Leonora McClary, Mary S. Fulton, Agnes Strong, Susan Strong, Rebecca Matthews, Eleanor Fluitt, Mary J. China, Mary McClary, Margaret Fluitt, Adelaide Dukes, Virginia Brockinton, Sarah S. Boyd, Mrs. Daniel Jones, Miss Margaret Tisdale, Miss Elizabeth Tisdale, Elizabeth Staggers, Isabella Dukes, Agnes Murphy, Mary Patter- son, Jannet E. Murphy, Adeline S. E. Graham, Sarah C. McClary, Mary Lifrage, Jane McClary, Margaret Strong, Martha Mccutchen, Franklin Boyd, Duncan M. Mouzon, and Robert McCants. Most of these members were heads of families and leading citizens in this community. After this meeting and the one at Indiantown held by Dr. Baker, which had similar results in that community, Mr. Wallace realized that the Presbyterian Church had as communing members nearly all of the influential people in the district. He looked on the field and called it fair.
That same year the Harmony Presbytery met in Sum- ter. Mr. Wallace attended. He was full of his conquest of Williamsburg. He told the other Presbyterian minis- ters how complete it was and they congratulated him. He was a shining light in that Presbytery. The Modera- tor called on him to lead in prayer. In this prayer, he
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thanked God that he had been instrumental in prevent- ing the organization of a Methodist Church in the town of Kingstree. A. Isaac McKnight, one of the members of the Williamsburg Church, was present and heard that prayer.
Mr. McKnight was a lawyer and one of the leading citizens of Williamsburg District. Mr. Wallace's prayer set him to thinking. Mr. McKnight had heard the circuit riders preach and realized that they proclaimed a doc- trine that worked in making good citizens in this world as well as sanctified saints for that which is to come. Some time thereafter, Mr. McKnight talked over this matter with some of the influential men of Kingstree and of the surrounding country and they agreed that a Methodist Church in Kingstree would prove a progressive factor in the community.
On January 31, 1853, the following deed was given and recorded at Book G, page 410, Williamsburg County Registry: Alexander Isaac McKnight "for and in con- sideration of the regard which I have and bear towards the Christian religion and also for and in consideration of the sum of $1.00 to me in hand paid by Thomas R. . Mouzon, Samuel E. Graham, James H. Stone, William G. McCallister, and Thomas S. Lesesne, trustees of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church of the village of Kingstree, one town lot consisting of one-half acre of land bounded on the North by the lands of the said Alexander McKnight and running seventy yards or two hundred ten feet on said lands; on the East by the street leading to Broad Swamp bridges; on the South by the street which was parallel with the Main and Broad Street of the said Village of Kingstree; on the West by the lands of the said Alexander McKnight and running thirty-five yards or one hundred five feet on said land. Said land being in the shape of a parallelogram whose North and South lines are parallel and each one hundred five feet in
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length, all of whose angles are right angles; said half- acre of land or lot is known and designated in the town plat of the King's Tree by No. 159, according to the survey made of the said town of Williamsburg on the 25th day of August, A. D. 1737, by Anthony Williams, D. S., in obedience to an order of the Honorable Thomas Broughton, then Lieutenant Governor, bearing the date of the 8th day of August, 1735."
The Methodist Episcopal Church in Kingstree was built on the lot donated by Mr. McKnight that same year. B. P. Pendergrass had a sawmill near Kingstree and supplied the lumber; John Ervin Scott of Cedar Swamp had a force of carpenters on his plantation and they built the church. That same year, under the leadership of John Ervin Scott, Joseph B. Chandler, and Dr. John C. Williams, the Cedar Swamp Methodist Church was organized and built. Messrs. Newsom and Price erected at the same time the Methodist Church on the Green road about four miles west of the present town of Cades. The Rough Branch Methodist Church, several miles to- ward Indiantown from Cades, was built by John Frierson and others. A great many substantial men in Williams- burg, whose ancestors had been Presbyterians for gen. erations, united with these churches and supported them.
Very soon after this time, William Staggers donated to John L. Rollins, James M. Staggers, John G. Pressley, and William Bradham, lot No. 401 in the Village of Kingstree, bounded "on the South by Main Street lead- ing from the bridge across Black River; West by Black River; and on all other sides by lands owned by said William Staggers" and containing one-half acre of land "in trust to permit and allow the Baptist denomination to which the said John L. Rollins, James M. Staggers, John G. Pressley, and William Bradham now belong to enter upon and build a Church or meeting house for the use of the said denomination and to permit the members
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of the Baptist Church, which shall at the said meeting house regularly worship, and for the exclusive control of the said meeting house according to the usages and customs of the Baptist denomination." It is also pro- vided in this deed that should the Kingstree Baptist Con- gregation desire at any time thereafter to change the location of its house of worship, that the congregation might sell this land donated by Mr. Staggers and use the proceeds in building another church. This deed was dated October 25, 1856.
The Baptists of Kingstree immediately erected a church on this lot and there worshipped until the church was moved to its present site on Academy Street. The lot on the river whereon the first Baptist Church was built was used as a burying ground for a great many years, and is now known as the old Baptist Cemetery. Twenty-one Confederate soldiers, who died here during the War between the Sections, are buried in one plot there and a modest monument stands to their memory.
Some other Baptist Churches were organized and built in the district about this time. Ebenezer Cockfield gave an acre of land on the west side of Lynch's Creek on the road to Indiantown in 1855 to the Baptist Church which was there erected. Aaron F. Graham conveyed on May 11, 1856, "one acre of ground lying on the public road leading to the Williamsburg Court House in the fork of two branches including the new Baptist Church or meet- ing house near the said Aaron Graham's present resi- dence." Charles McCallister and S. C. McCutchen deeded to M. S. Feagin, Deacon, in behalf of the Midway Baptist Church "one piece of land containing one acre, a part of the Fullwood survey, lying in the Kingstree Swamp on the waters of Black River, one side being on the public road known as the Green road at or about Brown's Avenue." This was in October, 1860.
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In 1857, the Reverend James A. Wallace preached a sermon in his church at Kingstree which in reality was a powerful oration seeking to convince his auditors that Williamsburg had been predestined for Presbyterians from the foundation of the world, and that no other re- ligious denominations had any rights therein. In this sermon, he outlined the tradition of Williamsburg Town- ship, and purported to give quotations from grants of King George to the Presbyterian Church, and asserted that grants were made herein only to people who wor- shipped according to the tenets of the Church of Scotland. No such grants were made by King George, for that the Church of England was the only Church recognized by law in South Carolina until the Declaration of Indepen- dence had been signed. The advocate in Mr. Wallace overcame the scholar in preaching this sermon.
This sermon was the supreme effort of Mr. Wallace to hold Williamsburg to Calvinism. It was published as Wallace's History of Williamsburg Church, and is a most treasured volume in many public and private libra- ries. It is intensely interesting to students of psychology and of history.
This sermon did not stay the hand of Arminianism in Williamsburg. It made hundreds of militant Baptist and Methodists. Mr. Wallace could not see that the hand of God Almighty had written Upharsin over the tabernacles of Calvinism. He lost faith in himself. His mercurial temperament overcame him. One day, while "cleanly weeding his corn" and a slave was ploughing a mule in an adjoining row, Mr. Wallace, without warning, brained the mule with a hoe, cutting that beast off in the blossoms of his sins, "unshriven, unhouseled, un- aneled." His unconscious self saw Calvinism materi- alized in that hapless animal.
Mr. Wallace resigned as minister of the Williamsburg Church, a broken hearted man. One cannot help remem-
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bering Shakespeare's Cardinal Wolsey in connection with his resignation :
"Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my King, he, in mine age, Would not have left me naked to mine enemies."
And hear Mr. Wallace soliloquizing when departing for Arkansas:
"Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served John Calvin's god, I should not now Be leaving for unknown lands."
Saul began a journey to Damacus. Paul arrived. Wallace the Calvinist began the journey to Arkansas. Wallace the Christian reached those fertile fields. It was a long way, that half thousand leagues in 1858. Thirty miles was a good day's journey, and frequently stormy seasons and swollen streams impeded onward movement. Somewhere along this way, the Reverend James A. Wallace saw a strange Light. It showed him that Calvinism was the theological monstrosity of the ages; that John Calvin created the only god unapproach- able by man; that Hope hovers above a praying Igorrote, but Fear alone stalks and grins about a petitioning Cal- vinist. This Light showed Mr. Wallace that God is Love. He made a remarkable record in Arkansas preaching the Merciful Nazarene. It may be that Mr. Wallace never knew that he had been so wonderfully instrumental in saving a remnant of Williamsburg from Calvinism to the ancient Presbyterian faith, the same that grew out of the spirit of Abraham and Isaiah and Christ. It is pos- sible that he always remembered he came to Williams- burg and found it ninety-five per centum Presbyterian, remained nine years and left his denomination in the minority. It is to be hoped that he realized that he had come for just such a time as this, and that his almost superhuman efforts had made Williamsburg know more certainly than any Arminianist how to give a cup of cold
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water in Jesus' name. No Presbyterian minister who ever came to Williamsburg drew more Light into this Land. God rest him!
Union Presbyterian Church was organized in 1857. That year William Lifrage granted to J. A. Mccullough, W. J. J. Lifrage, and W. F. Rodgers, trustees of the Union Presbyterian Church, one acre of land on the Broom Straw road on which the church was built. Nearly all of the members of this Church had just withdrawn from the Williamsburg Church.
Elon Presbyterian Church was organized in 1856. Thomas China then granted to Henry Montgomery, S. J. Montgomery, and James Plowden, trustees, nine acres of land on the Coleman road on which the church was built. This congregation withdrew from the Brewington Congregation. The story is told that about this time a singing school master came into the Brewington com- munity and everybody in the congregation enrolled in his singing school. Some proved apt pupils and learned new music and wanted to sing it in the Brewington Church. Part of the congregation failed to improve on account of the singing master's efforts, and finally refused even to attempt to sing the new songs, but clung to the old songs and the ancient tunes which had been used by their people since "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." The faction that could sing the new songs and the faction that could not or would not became hostile to each other. The faction that clung to the old psal- mody organized the Elon Church. The Elon Church prospered for about twenty years, when its organization was discontinued.
The Rehoboth Methodist Episcopal Church dates from 1857, when John W. Brogdon and wife, Mary B. Brogdon, conveyed to J. Warrington Oliver, W. J. R. Cantey, J. C. Strange, R. T. Lowder, T. J. M. Davis, R. J. Ragin,
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and M. M. Benbow, trustees, two acres of land whereupon this church was built.
The Bethel Presbyterian Church was built in 1858. Robert Epps gave the site and the building committee consisted of William H. McElveen, W. J. Burgess, and Daniel H. Smith. This Church was organized by the Burgess', McElveens, Smiths, Friersons, Fultons, Mouzons, and Kinders, who lived on the east side of Pudding Swamp and who heretofore had been members of the Mid- way Church Congregation. There were fifty-two mem- bers of this Church when organized. Samuel A. Burgess, William H. McElveen, W. S. Brand, were its first Ses- sion of Elders, and W. D. McFaddin and J. A. McElveen were its first deacons. The Reverend P. Pearson was its first minister. Samuel A. Burgess and William S. McElveen served the church as elders earnestly and faith- fully for more than fifty years.
During this period between the War of the Revolution and the War between the Sections, Williamsburg Dis- trict furnished many ministers of the Gospel. Among them may be mentioned, Robert W. James, William J. Wilson, E. O. Frierson, Elmo Kinder, Jeremiah Snow, R. G. Mccutchen, and W. S. Hemingway. The three first named have been mentioned in this text. Mr. Mccutchen migrated to the State of Indiana in 1856. Mr. Kinder was the son of Elder John M. Kinder, of Kingstree. The young man was graduated at the Columbia Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1855, and died in the month following the completion of his education. Some of his old library books in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin may now be found in the Kingstree Carnegie Library. The Rev- erend W. S. Hemingway was graduated at Wofford Col- lege and was a Methodist minister of considerable influ- ence and power. He preached the dedicatory sermon at Spring Street Church in the city of Charleston. He was a Chaplain in the Confederate Army.
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In 1860, there were in Williamsburg, the following churches: Presbyterian: Williamsburg, Union, Elon, Bethel, and Indiantown; Methodist: Ebenezer, Union, Suttons, Kingstree, Rehoboth, Rough Branch, and Cades; Baptist: Black Mingo, Kingstree, Lynch's Creek, Black River, Midway, and the Free Will Baptist Church at Pine Grove. Midway and Brewington, Presbyterian, and Saint Mark's Methodist, were near the Clarendon-Wil- liamsburg County line and served many of the people of the district.
From 1730 until 1860, probably no citizen of Williams- burg admitted being a member of the Roman Catholic Church. No person was permitted as an immigrant into the Williamsburg Colony until he had signed an oath that he was a Protestant. Even children from six years of age were required to subscribe to this solemn declara- tion regarding religious belief.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THINGS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL, 1830- 1860.
On the first day of December, 1922, there were a number of people living in Williamsburg who were born about 1830, and were, therefore, more than ninety years old. Several of these were of the highest types of citizen- ship, men and women whose minds were still keen and clear and strong and whose memories and judgments were remarkable. Among these were two physicians, Dr. James S. Cunningham and Dr. Isaac W. Graham. As an indication of the interest that these venerable men still held in things, each one read first in his family the news- paper as it came every morning.
These men and women who had lived in Williamsburg for more than ninety years seemed to regard the period between 1830 and 1860 as a wonderful epoch. While old men usually remember their youth as the greatest time in their lives, yet these old fellows had many reasons to give in arguing that from 1830 to 1860 was the halcyon period. There were no poor people in Williamsburg then except those willfully in want. Williamsburg's cupboards were full and its woodsheds overflowing. Kindly masters ruled from their mansion houses their large planta- tions, and in the evening negroes sang about the "great house" door. The only discord that marred this happy period grew out of arguments on religion and politics. Nobody then cared very much about the price of cotton or tobacco. If the world did not want to buy from Wil- liamsburg, Williamsburg did not care. It had all it wanted. When a man owned more than one hundred slaves, he seemed to lose interest in acquiring temporal things and to devote his special attention to religion and to politics.
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