USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 2
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CHAPTER VI.
FAIRFOREST CHURCH. Colonel Thomas. Mrs. Thomas. Samuel Clowney, Ann Hamilton, 532-535-Beaver Creek and Hanging Rock, 536-Waxhaw. Bu- ford's defeat. The wounded in Waxhaw church. Andrew Jackson a prisoner. Mrs. Jackson. Rev. Robert Finley, 536-540-First meeting of Presbytery of South Carolina. Academy at Waxhaw. Removal of Mr. Finley, 541.
CHAPTER VII.
NAZARETH CHURCH. Major David Anderson, 542-Andrew Barry. Death of
£
xii
CONTENTS.
Mr. Crawford 544-Captain Collins. New house of worship, 545-Rev. William C. Davis. North and South Pacolet. Fairview. Rev. Samuel Edmundson, 546- Letter of William Alcxander, 547-Upper Long Canc. Formation of congrega- tions, 548-Rev. Robert Hall and Robert Meeklin, 549-Lower Long Cane, or Hopewell. Greenville Congregation, 550-Bull Town, or Roeky River. Ordina- tion of Robert Mecklin. His death and character, 551-554-New house of wor- ship. Rocky Creek (now Roek) church, 554-Rev. Thomas Clark. Rev. Peter McMullin, 556.
CHAPTER VIII.
NINETY-SIX (or Cambridge), 556-Rev. James Creswell. Siege of Ninety-Six. French Protestants of New Bordcanx, 557-Bradaway. Good Hope and Roberts, 558-Rev. John Simpson. Generals Pickens and Anderson, 559-Carmel, 560- New preaching stations, 561-Activity of the Presbytery, 562-Formation of the Synod of the Carolinas, 563.
BOOK XIII .- 1790-1800.
CHAPTER I.
INDEPENDENT CHURCH, Charleston. Dr. Hollingshead and Dr.Keith, 564-Inde- pendent elinrch of Wappetaw, and Rev. Dr. MeCalla, 565 -- Dorchester. Restora- tion of their church edifice, 566-Petition to be taken under the care of Presbytery. Call Dr. Cummins. Call James Adams. His ordination, 567-568-Church at Stoney Creek, 569-French Calvinistic church, Charleston. Rev. Messrs. Coste and Bourdillon, 570-Church at Cainhoy, 571-James' Island, John's Island, and Wadmalaw. Rev. James McIlhenny, 572-Organization of the Presbytery of Charleston. Its provision for disabled ministers, 573-Edisto Island and Rev. Messrs. Cooley, Speer, and Donald McLeod, 574-First Presbyterian church, Charleston. Rev. James Wilson, Junior. Rev. Dr. Buist, 574-Wilton church. Rev. Mr. Taylor. Rev. Andrew Steele, 576. Presbyterian church, Purysburg. Saltketeher. Williamsburg, 578-Dr. Witherspoon on the schism, 578-Rev. James Maleomson, M. D. His removal to Charleston, 581-Rev. James White Stephenson, D. D., 581-587-Black Mingo, 588.
CHAPTER II.
HOPEWELL and Aimwell (P. D.). Rev. Humphrey Hunter, 589-593-Salem (B. R.). Rev. Thomas Reese, D. D. Rcv. John Foster, 593-Waccamaw. Missionary labor. Orangeburg and Turkey Hill, 594-Settlement of Columbia, 594-Its first Presbyterian pastor, Rev. David E. Dunlap, 595-Colonel Thomas Taylor. Camden, 597-Beginnings of Horeb, Aimwell, and Concord, in Fairfield. Zion church, Winnsboro. Mount Zion College, 598-Lebanon (Jackson's Crcek) and Mount Olivet. Rev. Samuel W. Yonguc. Rev. T. H. MeCanle. Concord church, 599-Beaver's Creek, Hanging Rock, and Miller's, 600-Edgefield. Catholic, 601-Rev. Robert MeCulloch. Fishing Creck, 602-Rev. John Bowman. Rev. William Rosborongh. Rev. John B. Davies. Bullock's Creek. Rev. Joseph Alexander, D. D., 603-Beersheba. Bethcl (York). Rev. Dr. Cummins, 604- Olney. Rev. George G. Me Whorter. Rev. Samuel Wilson, D. D., S. T. P., 605- Rev. James Gilleland. Rev. John Howe. Rev. John MeElroy Diekcy, D. D., 607.
CHAPTER III.
BETHESDA (York), 608-Rev. Robert B. Walker, 609-Elders, 610-Ministers from the congregation. Rev. James McIlhenny, 611-Rev. John McIlhenny, D.D., 612-Rev. Francis H. Porter. Rev. John Williamson. Rev. Samnel Williamson, D. D., 614-Ebenczer (York). Unity, 614-Shiloh. Olney. Waxhaw. Rev. John Brown, D. D., 615-Duncan's Creek. Little River. Rev. John B. Kennedy 617-Grassy Spring, 618-Rocky Spring. Liberty Spring. Rev. John McCo.h.
xiii
CONTENTS.
619-Union, or Brown's Creek. Fairforest, and Rev. William Williamson, 621-Dr. Thomas Williamson. Elders, 622-Edneation. The mother of churches, 624- Nazareth. Milford. Rev. W. C. Davis. Rev. James Templeton. Rev. James Gil- leland, Junior. The Philanthropie Society, note, 625-North Pacolet. Rev. Thomas Newton. Fairview, 626.
CHAPTER IV.
UPPER LONG CANE, 626. Long Cane Society. Rev. Robert G. Wilson, D. D., 627-630-Greenville church (formerly Saluda), 630-Hopewell. French Protestants. Rev. John Springer. Liberty meeting-house, 631-Rocky River. Rev. Francis Cummins, D. D., 632-Rev. Daniel Bleim, 633-Roeky Creek (now Roek) church. Ninety-Six (Cambridge). Smyrna, 633-Bradaway. Rev. James Gilleland, 634- Roberts and Good Hope. Rev. John Simpson, 635-Hopewell (Keowee), 636 -- Rev. Thomas Reese, D. D., 638.
CHAPTER V.
BETHLEHEM and Philadelphia (or Ebenezer), on Cane Creek. Bethel, 640- Rev. Andrew Brown, 641-" Vacancies," 643-Upper Georgia. Rev. John Newton, 644-Rev. John Springer. Providence, Smyrna, and Washington, Wilkes county, 645-Bethany. Ebenezer. Rev. Robert M. Cunningham, D. D., Rev. William Montgomery and Siloam and Little Britain, 649.
CHAPTER VI.
REY. MOSES WADDEL, D. D., 650-Rev. Daniel Thatcher, 655-Report as to the churches in upper Georgia. John Newton's report, 657-Statistics of Hopewell Presbytery at its organization, 658.
BOOK XIV.
CHAPTER I.
REPORT OF PRESBYTERY of South Carolina in 1791, 660-Exhibit of the same in 1799, 661-Rev. Thomas Hill. Rev. James Edmonds, 663-Roll of the ministers raised up immediately after the War of the Revolution, 667-Their character and influence, 670-The old Presbytery of South Carolina, 672-The old Presbytery of Charleston, 674-The Presbytery of Orange, 676.
CHAPTER II.
SUPERIOR JUDICATORIES. THE SYNODS. The Synod of Philadelphia, 678- Of New York. Of New York and Philadelphia, 679-Synod of the Carolinas, 681- Pastoral Letter. Ou Popular Amusements, on various questions, 683-Commission of Synod. Case of Mr. Cossan, 684-Of Hezekiah Baleh, 685-6-Case of John Bowman. Memorial of James Gilleland. Missions, 687-Report of Robt. Wilson, 689-Materials for history. Roll of members, 694-Reformed Presbyterians, 696- Their ministers, 697-Their principles, 698-The Associate Reformed, 700.
1
HISTORY
OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
BOOK FIRST.
PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
"THE parts of human learning," says Lord Bacon, " have reference to the three parts of man's understanding, which is the seat of learning: History to his memory, Poesy to his imagination, and Philosophy to his reason." Our own indi- vidual history is invested with the deepest interest to each of us ; and to retrace the path by which God has led us, that we may remember His faithfulness, and profit by our own success and failures, is rewarded with the richest fruits of knowledge. If the Church could be regarded as a person, possessing one unbroken life and one uninterrupted consciousness, whose memory did not fail with growing years, how rich would the stores of her experience become ; how wise would she be ; how circumspect and strong with each revolving century ! In- stead of this, she is a community of persons, themselves dwell- ing here but for a little season, no small portion of their lives spent in becoming men, and no small portion waning away in the decay which at last is completed in the grave. Yet is it instructive to them, instructive to us, to survey and perpetuate her history ;-- whether, to use the words of Bacon again, " she be fluctuant as the ark of Noah ; or moveable as the ark in the wilderness; or at rest as the ark in the temple: the state of
16
WITNESSING AND WRESTLING.
the Church in preparation, in remove, and in peace." And because there is one and the same God, whose plan spans all duration, and the laws of whose working are constant, like his own nature, in the past we may often behold, as in a mirror, that future which is hastening to meet us. For all our present purposes the Church of God is a person ; she is incorporated, not by the acts of any human legislation, but by her holy and divine vocation, into the fellowship of Jesus, as the body of Christ, as his chosen bride. History is her memory. Let her explore its treasures, revive the scenes through which she has passed, and adore that Angel of the Covenant who has been her cloudy and fiery pillar, through the sea and the desert, to every land of rest she has ever occupied.
Our own has been pre-eminently a witnessing and a wrest- ling Church. She was so in the Apostolic period, and has been, from the time of her restoration among the Alpine Mountains by the Lake of Geneva, on the sunny plains of France, in Holland wrested from the sea, among the hills and glens of Scotland, and in the northern provinces of Ireland. She has wrestled with flesh and blood, with the principalities and powers of earth, and with spiritual wickedness in high places. She has borne aloft the banner of the Covenant, and raised her voice of testimony for God's truth and Christ's kingly crown, both as witness and martyr, and has watered the soil of many lands with the blood of her sons and daugh- ters. In her struggles for the supreme headship of Christ over his own body, the Church, she has wrought out, to a large extent, in connection with those who held her truth, the prob- lem of individual freedom and civil liberty. Her traducers are indebted to her, more than they know, for constitutional law, representative government, and freedom from oppression.
The Presbyterians of France, of Switzerland, of Germany, of Holland, of Scotland, England, and Ireland, disciplined in the fires of persecution and tossed by the waves of innumera- ble calamities, guided by Christ their King to these savage wilds, have built here their altars and planted their institu- tions of religion and learning, and we their descendants are bound to cherish their memories, and to strengthen ourselves in our love of truth and hatred of wrong by their example. Our own history cannot be truly understood till we understand theirs. This is true of our Church at large, especially true of every portion of it planted in those thirteen States occupying the Atlantic coast-themselves settled by direct emigration from Europe-which wrought out the problem of American
17
THREE POTENT EVENTS.
independence. And we propose to consider now those streams of Presbyterian emigration which flowed into one of these States, that of South Carolina, within whose bounds the lot of most who will read these pages is or has been cast.
It is hardly necessary to premise that the Presbyterian Church maintains that system of truth advocated by Augus- tine against Pelagius and his disciples, and more purely set forth by Zuingle and Calvin in the sixteenth century, and that discipline and order which reappeared in the post-Apostolic period among the Waldenses of Piedmont and the Hussites of Bohemia, and was more fully proclaimed by Calvin at Ge- neva, who, however, was not able to carry it forth in its perfec- tion in the Cantons of Switzerland. In his own native France, and, after a season, in Scotland, under the teachings of his disciple Knox, did it reach its highest existing perfection. It is the only form of polity, except the Papacy -- that invasion of the prerogatives of Christ-in which the Church can exhibit an outward unity answering to its real oneness. In Independ- ency it is separated into elemental particles without cohesion : in Prelacy, unity is only obtained in an earthly head, who pro- fesses to be the Vicegerent of Christ. In Presbyterianism the Church is a unit, its members are under a succession of courts rising one above another; and these, if the necessities of Christ's kingdom should ever so require, might be made amenable to a General Assembly of the National Synods of all countries, which should bind together, in a visible unity, the entire Church of Christ throughout the world.
Three great events occurring at no very distant intervals within the fifteenth century, and the early part of the sixteenth, have affected society throughout almost the whole world, and have contributed largely to the extension of Christianity. These three potent events were the invention of printing with moveable types in 1436, the discovery of America by Colum- bus, 56 years later, in 1492, and the Protestant Reformation, led on by Luther and Zuingle, 25 years later, in 1517. The first book printed was the Bible,* and religious motives, min- gled with others, prompted Christopher Columbus in his efforts to discover a new world. The earliest history of this remark- able man now extant, occurs in an edition of an octapla Psalter, printed in Genoa in 1516, ten years after his death, t
* The " Mazarin" Bible of 1455.
t'This Psalter was edited by Agostino Giustiniani, Bp. of Nebbio. It is a pentaglott, containing the Hebrew with a literal Latin version, the Latin Vulgate, the Greek, the Arabic, the Chaldec paraphrase, with a Latin transla-
18
REFORMATION IN FRANCE.
in which the editor, Augustine Justinian, commenting on the third verse of the nineteenth Psalm, "Their line is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world," affirms that Columbus frequently declared that he was elected of God to fulfil these words, which he regarded as a prediction of the universal spread of the true religion. The belief that he was predestined to discover a new world in fulfilment of prophecy, seems to have sustained him amidst neglect, oppo- sition, and danger, when the mere promptings of ambition and thirst for fame and power would have failed him.
South Carolina has been called " the Home of the Hugue- nots," and this leads us to speak of them first in the land of their origin. France was the first to embrace the Gospel at the period of the Reformation. Zuingle, in Switzerland, began to preach the truth in 1516. Luther had discovered the way of peace, and preached it, earlier than this; but his first public act, the nailing of his theses against indulgences to the door of the church at Wittemberg, was on the 31st of October, 1517. But before 1512, says D'Aubigne, Lefevre had pro- claimed the doctrine of justification by faith-Luther's " doc- trine of a standing or falling Church "-in the midst of the very Sorbonne itself. Farel and Olivetan had already embraced it before Zuingle commenced his first study of the Bible, and while Luther was on his journey to Rome, on the business of his monastic order : so that, as Beza claims, if there was priority among the nations embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, this priority is due to France .* Its doctrines took possession of many minds in the higher walks of life. They found adherents in the court of Francis the First : they won the gentle, truth-loving heart of Margaret of Valois, sister of the king, and subsequently Queen of Navarre, who exerted all her influence to promote their progress and protect their professors. Berquin, "the most learned of the nobles," Bri- connet, Bishop of Meaux, who, however, recanted ; Calvin, a young student of theology, even then exhibiting, in all he did, the superiority of his genius; Beza, who had devoted himself
tion of the same, with Glosses and Scholia. It is the first polyglott of any portion of the Scriptures ever printed, except a single page in 1498-1501. It was printed at Genoa, by Peter Paul Porrus (in Ædibus Nicholai Justiniani Pauli), Nov. 1516. The copy in our possession was brought by Hon. John Forsyth from Spain, in 1823.
* D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation, vol. iii., book xii. Theodore DeBèze, Histoire Ecclésiastique des Eglises Reformees au Royaume de France, tome i., pp. 1-42.
19
NUMBERS AND POLITY.
to the law, but became an eminent minister of Christ, were among those who embraced them.
Even thus early did this portion of the Church of our fathers receive her dreadful baptism of blood. There were many martyrdoms; and in the Canton de Vaud, two and twenty villages were levelled to the ground, 4,000 of the inhabitants massacred,* and many, whose lives were spared, condemned to the galleys. Calvin, Beza, and others, fled to Geneva for refuge. Still the doctrines of the Reformation spread. These persecutions themselves gave occasion to the noble Institutes of Calvin, written to make known tlie doc- trines of his persecuted brethren,t which, for its intrinsic excellence and its historic importance, has been restored in some of our schools to its place as a text-book in theology. Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, a noble of illustrious name, of exalted character and great abilities, became the active promoter of the Protestant cause; while Anthony, duke of Vendome and titular king of Navarre, and Louis, Prince of Condé, both of the royal house of France, lent their influence to this same holy cause,-the first with that wavering pur- pose which ever characterized him, and the other with that boldness, and daring, adventurous courage, which made him one of the most influential men in France. And thus did the Presbyterian faith rise and spread itself in France, so that from the year 1555, when the first Protestant Church was founded at Paris, in seven years' time, they had increased to 2,140 congregations. So great were their numbers in Paris, that 30,000 or 40,000 would assemble for worship in the meadows without that city,t returning within the walls in open day. At the VIIth National Synod at Rochelle, in 1671, at which Beza presided as moderator, they numbered 2,150 churches, some of them formed in the castles of the nobles, but others with 10,000 members, most having two ministers, and some of the largest five collegiate pastors.§ Their polity was, in all respects, the same as our own. The Anciens or Elders, and Deacons (Diacres), formed the Consistory or Ses- sion, or the Senate of the Church at which the pastor was to preside ; and their duties were ordered as in our own book of
* 3,000, Maimbourg, Histoire du Calvinisme, Livre 2. Vide Gerdesius, iv., p. 160, et seq. Béze, livre i., p. 28-42.
t See his dedication to Francis I., Anno 1536.
# The Pre aux Clercs, where now is the Faubourg Saint Germain. This was the rendezvous of the Protestants, where they would spend their sum- mer evenings in singing Marot's psalms, and in friendly conference.
§ Smedley, i., 183. Quick's Synodicon, vol. i., p. lix.
20
SPAIN ATTEMPTS A COLONY.
discipline. The Colloquy answered to our Presbytery, the Provincial Synod to our Synod, the National Synod to our General Assembly ; and the trials for proposants for the min- istry, and the efforts to establish and maintain schools and colleges, were much the same as have ever characterized the churches of our faith in all lands .* But Presbytery slept on no bed of roses in the kingdom of France. She was then bearing her testimony against Papal corruptions and wrestling for the truth. "I returned, and behold the tears of the oppressed; and on the side of the oppressor was power, and they had no comforter." Calvin had inculcated on them the doctrine of non-resistance to the powers that be, since they were ordained of God; even, says he in his Institutes, "if they were inhumanly harassed by a cruel prince; if they were rapaciously plundered by an avaricious or luxurious one."t But the tide of persecution was so cruelly turned against them in the last part of the reign of Francis I., and still more systematically under Henry II., that men accustomed to arms, and bold and unshrinking in danger, sought to wrest from the hands of power that liberty to worship God which had been so tyranically denied them. Frequent were the conflicts in arms with their cruel oppressors, and scanty the privileges they gained, even under the guidance of the brave Coligny and the Prince Conde.
The first attempt to found a State on the continent of North America was made by Spain, and by adherents of the Church of Rome, within the present territories of South Carolina. We say the first attempt, because that of the Icelanders, assigned to the year 1000 or 1003, belongs to the province of mythology rather than history. After the discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus, in 1512, a company was formed in St. Domingo which fitted out two slave-ships under Lucas Vasquez d'Ayllon, and despatched them for that coast in 1515 or 1516. The land they first made they called St. Helena ; the river they entered, now known by its Indian name, the Combahee, they called the Jordan ; the country was called by its inhabitants Chiquola or Chicora. The unsuspecting and hospitable natives were enticed on board, and when the holds were full, the hatches were closed upon them by the Spaniards, who weighed anchor and bore away for St. Domingo. Many of the natives on board the vessels
* Quick's Synodicon, i., p. vi .- Iviii. Aymon, Synodes Nationaux, tome i., Beza, i., p 109.
+ Institutes, b. iv., ch. xx., p. 29.
21
D'AYLLON AND DE SOTO.
sickened and died, one of the vessels foundered at sea, and the captors and their prisoners perished together.
D'Ayllon visited Spain and obtained the title of Adelantado, or governor of Chicora, which he proposed to conquer for the Spanish crown. Returning to St. Domingo, he fitted out three vessels at his own expense, and putting one of them under the command of Miruelo, who had been on the Florida coast before, and whom he had engaged as pilot, embarked on his ill-fated enterprise. After various misadventures, for Miruelo had made no observations on his previous voyage, they entered the Combahee, where the largest of the vessels stranded. With the other two vessels he sailed further, found a harbor conven- ient and accessible, and a desirable, pleasant country, and resolv- ing to found there the capital of Chicora, he took possession of the whole domain in the name of liis sovereign Charles V. The natives, dissembling their resentment of his former treachery, treated him with distinguished honors. He was thrown off his guard, and permitted 200 of his men to visit their village, six miles distant. These the Indians feasted for three successive days. But on the third night they rose upon them and put them all to death. By the morning dawn they rushed upon D'Ayllon with that savage war-whoop which has so often brought dismay to the dwellings of the white man, and engaged with him and the remainder of his adherents in bloody strife. Whether he was killed on the spot, or suc- ceeded in reaching his ships, and there died of his wounds, is not recorded. But their ships were the only means of safety. The idea of founding a colony was abandoned, and the two vessels, with the residue of D'Ayllon's men, set sail from the shores where their perfidy had been so signally punished. It is probable that the spot where D'Ayllon attempted to found his colony is not far from the present site of Beaufort.
After this occurred the ill-fated expedition of Narvaez, who landed at Tampa Bay, April 13, 1528, and travelled along the low country of West Florida, and perished near the bay of Perdido, where he was last seen, contending against the strong waves with a miserable flotilla, which he and his men had constructed, in the vain hope of reaching the fleet which had brought him to those shores.
Hernando de Soto was the next to attempt the conquest of the southern portion of what is now the United States of North America. To his standard flocked the brave and adventurous sons of Spain. With 600 men, in the bloom and pride of life, augmented by an accession of followers from
22
COLIGNY'S FIRST ATTEMPT.
Cuba, he marched through the country, in quest of gold and splendid cities, finding a foe in every hammock, thicket, and winding stream. Although his force exceeded that with which Pizarro had conquered Mexico and Peru, it was quietly melt- ing away. Though they brought with them arms of every kind then known, chains for captives, blood-hounds to track the fugitive barbarians, a forge and armorer for the repair or manufacture of arms, all these availed little against the Indians of North America, whose life was that of a roaming hunter, inured to hardship. With these arrangements for the subjugation of Florida, were others for its conversion to the Romish faith. Twelve priests, with other ecclesiastics, accom- panied the march, the paraphernalia of Romish worship were provided, the festivals of the Church were punctually observed, and all processions and pomps celebrated amidst the dense forests and dreary wilderness through which they passed. The natives they had expected to conquer by force of arms, and to convert at the point of the sword and spear.
We shall not follow this remarkable man in his wanderings over the wilderness of what is now Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas, until his death and burial at midnight in the waters of the Mississippi, in May, 1542. The story is one of wonderful adventure, and of terrible cruel- ties practised upon the Indians. Relics recently unearthed from the burial mounds of these people have led some to the belief that they had obtained a knowledge of Christianity as professed at Rome, but we can hardly conceive it could have been taught them by these followers of De Soto.
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