USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 35
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proceed to New England. He came into this province with great expectations and assurance of settling at Wiltown, but has met with great disappointments, great and repeated afflic- tions in sickness, and is now returning through the wilderness lone and desolate enough." On the 31st of May he finds Mr. Potter in Charleston at Mr. Legare's, " he had been prevented from going to Long Canes by the heavy rains. He went to North Carolina, and was invited to BI[a]ck Creek in the north- western part of the province."
This extract from Mr. Simpson's diary is discriminating and instructive. It describes the character of many scholastic in- experienced young ministers of the present day. It presents before our view the great superiority of a thorough education in religious things, both doctrinal by human diligence, and spiritual by a thorough work of experimental religion, before entering on studies for the ministry. A clear inculcation of the doctrines of the Assembly's catechism and confession from youth up, and a hearty adoption of the same, will serve as a sheet-anchor against being driven about by the winds of doc-
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330
WAXHAW.
[1760-1770.
trine, and as a guide amidst the speculations of a deceitful philosophy.
This Mr. Potter, we doubt not, was the same minister who preached to the people of Salem, Black River. Mr. Simpson saw him in the years of his inexperience, but in all probability he possessed valuable qualities, and certainly an observing and inquiring mind, which we shall have occasion to show hereafter.
During this period, from 1760-1770, the Rev. James Camp- bell, who was a member of the presbytery known by tlie names of the presbytery of South Carolina and the presby- tery of the Province, was exercising his ministerial office at the BLUFF CHURCH on the Cape Fear. "His preaching," says his grandson (the Rev. D. A. Campbell, quoted by James Banks, Esq., Centennial address at the Bluff Church, North Carolina, p. 15), "was not so much of the didactic and polemic as the exegetical and practical-expounding and explaining chapters or portions of Scripture. In this he imitated White- field, to whom he felt much indebted."
The WAXHAW Church enjoyed the faithful labors still of the Rev. William Richardson. His labors were not confined to that particular congregation. Indeed, for seventy miles around, he seems to have extended his evangelistic labors, visiting the people, and gathering them, in many instances, into regular congregations and churches. His preaching tours would continue for a month, during which he preached daily from place to place. Mr. Robert Carr, who lived in Mr. Richardson's family, said that messengers were frequently arriving to obtain his services as a preacher at different
places. The churches in Chester and York, and Pacolet Church and Fairforest, are said to have been founded by him. Though not permitted to labor according to his original inten- tion, as a missionary among the Cherokees, he belonged to the equally worthy army of domestic missionaries, and per- formed the labors of a true evangelist. It is said too to have been the spirit of those times, that those who ministered at the altar should live of the altar, and Mr. Carr testified that on Mr. Richardson's return from these itinerant tours he would bring with him a great deal (?) of money. We hope it was even so.
After Mr. Richardson was settled in America, he was thoughtful of his kindred whom he had left behind in Britain. His sister Mary, six years older than himself, had married Mr. Archibald Davie, and had called her first-born son after
331
WAXHAW.
1760-1770.]
her absent brother, William Richardson Davie. By frequent correspondence, he had prevailed on Mr. Davie, her hus- band, to remove to America, had sent them the pecuniary means to do so, and about the year 1764 they arrived at his house. Little William, the son, had been sent over before in 1761,* when only five years old, in company with Robert Carr, the nephew of Mr. Archibald Davie. Mr. Richardson settled his sister and brother-in-law but a few hundred yards from his own dwelling, and having no children of his own, regarded his nephew and namesake with peculiar fondness. The house of the uncle was the home of the child, who was a lovely boy, of uncommon beauty, sprightliness, and intelligence. In Mr. Richardson's frequent absences from home, Robt. Carr stayed at the house as the guardian of Mrs. Richardson and the child; and when her husband was at home, he took especial pains to guide him aright, to direct his studies, and implant within him those noble principles which in after life produced such noble fruits. William Richardson Davie, under this training, became "a great man in the age of great men." His life and character belongs to his country. He was a patriot, a soldier, a jurist, a statesman, and a diplomatist, whose abili- ties were admitted and whose services were acknowledged.
When the settlements on Long Cane were broken up in 1761, by the incursion of the Cherokees and the murders com- mitted by them at Long Cane Bridge, near " the Calhoun set- tlement," a portion of the fugitives took refuge in the Wax- haw congregation. Ezekiel Calhoun escaped thither, bringing with him his interesting family. Andrew Pickens was also for a time a resident there, and became acquainted there with Rebecca Calhoun, whom he afterwards married. Patrick Cal- houn was also betrothed to Miss Jane Craighead, the sister of Mrs. Richardson and daughter of Rev. Alexander Craig- head, of Rocky River, N. C., an ardent preacher and a Whig in politics anterior to the Revolution, and who did much in disseminating those principles which culminated afterwards in the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Declaration of American Independence. She was the first wife of Patrick Calhoun.t
* Jared Sparks (Am. Biog., New Series, vol. xv., p. 2), says: " His father, Mr. Archibald Davie, brought him to America in 1763, and placed him under the care of the Rev. William Richardson, his maternal uncle." Mrs. Davie's death occurred in 1767.
+ After her death, says Mr. Stinson, Mr. Calhoun, while locating lands in Abbeville District, fell in with Mr. Caldwell, engaged in the same business, went home with him, and subsequently married his daughter, the mother of Hon. J. C. Calhoun. The other sisters of Mrs. Richardson were married,
332
FAIRFOREST.
[1760-1770.
The settlements on the Catawba now received an accession to their population from the Presbyterians of Ireland who were disfranchised in their own country. The parents of Andrew Jackson are said to have migrated to the Waxhaws in 1764.
FAIRFOREST CHURCH. "From the insolent and unfriendly treatment of the Cherokee Indians, the inhabitants of this settlement were obliged to abandon their habitations in the early part of this period, and fly into the interior parts of the country, where they remained until the peace of 1763 between Great Britain and France. To the sufferings and perils of this period we will again recur.
" In the year 1765 the Rev. Mr. Richardson from Waxhaws visited their neighborhood. In the year 1766 visits were made and the gospel preached by the Rev. Messrs. Duffield and McMordie. Towards the close of the same year Rev., after- wards Dr., Joseph Alexander, being then a licentiate, visited and preached to them; and it is with a grateful pleasure that he is still acknowledged to have been a father and guardian to that people. In the same and the year following they were visited and supplied occasionally by the Rev. Mr. McCreery [McCreary] from Pennsylvania, and by Messrs. Roe and Close when missionaries, as also by Mr. Holmes and Mr. Tate before mentioned." "The Rev. Josepli Alexander had at one time . made arrangements to settle within the bounds of this con- gregation with the view of supplying them and the Nazareth people, but for some reason abandoned this purpose and settled in the congregation of Bullock's Creek."-(MS. Hist. of Churches in second Presbytery of South Carolina ; and J. H. Saye, MS. Hist.)
INDIAN CREEK AND GRASSY SPRING. In the early part of this period, these settlements, in common with the whole frontier, were greatly annoyed by their savage neighbors. Some of the people called Quakers had settled in these parts. In the year 1760 the Cherokee Indians murdered several of the inhabitants. This compelled the others to collect and build a stockade-fort at the house of a Mr. Otterson, the signs of which are still visible. Into this the Quakers, as well as others, fled for refuge, but would not take up arms. While here the Presbyterians assembled generally evey evening to read and join in social prayer. Their place of refuge
Rachel to Rev. David Caldwell, of Guilford, N. C., Margaret to Mr. Carouth, Mary to Samuel Dunlap, son of the old elder of that name, Elizabeth to Alex- ander Crawford, the two last mentioned living in Waxhaw congregation.
333
UNION, OR BROWN'S CREEK.
1760-1770.]
became thus a temple to the living God. The incursions of the savages became at length so frequent and alarming that the people in the fort determined to evacuate it, and fled for shelter to different interior parts. After returning from exile, in the year 1763, they were visited by the Rev. Mr. Richard- son, who continued to preach occasionally among them, through the period of which we now treat. About the year 1768 the people on Indian Creek formed a society and built a meeting-house, of which body the church of Grassy Spring, subsequently organized, was a branch.
UNION CHURCH, known also as the BROWN's CREEK Church .- Of the beginning of this church we have before spoken (p. 299). Besides the families we have mentioned as the first settlers, we now add, from a competent authority (Rev. James H. Saye), the names of Young, Savage, Hughes, Vance, and Wilson. Scarcely had they got out rights for their land, and cleared a little ground, when the Indians of the Cherokee tribe made a hostile attack, in their savage manner, on this defenceless frontier settlement, and the inhabitants were obliged to betake themselves to Otterson's fort as an asylum.
Several Quakers were their associates in this distress, yet, notwithstanding repeated attacks were made on the fort by the savages, those non-resisting sufferers refused to take up arms in its defence.
During this season of calamity numbers of the inhabitants fell victims to Indian barbarity ; yet amidst these melancholy scenes of skirmishing, wounds, and death, in the intervals of military duty, this little band of Presbyterians would join in reading, prayer, and other devotional exercises.
After being thus invested and painfully harrassed for sev- eral months, it was unanimously concluded to abandon that fort. The majority of the Presbyterians retired into Penning- ton's fort on the Enoree. Here they found none of their own religious sentiments. There were one or two pious Baptists ; the rest were generally indifferent or dissolute in their morals. Yet there these refugees still endeavored to maintain and manifest their attachment to the principles of piety in which they had been educated, by observance of the Lord's-day, reading the Scriptures, family and social prayer, etc.
In this manner, enduring the difficulties arising from fatigue, fear, and watching, more than two years elapsed, to which inconvenience the apprehension of famine was super- added.
After the peace of 1763 they returned to their homes. For
334
FISHING CREEK.
[1760-1770.
the first time since they left Pennsylvania they hoard a gospel sermon from the Rev. William Richardson, from Waxhaw, who on that and several succeeding visits preached among them and baptized several persons. He was succeeded by two ministers at different times, both named Lewis.
About 1765 Mr. Joseph Alexander began to preach occa- sionally here. A house of worship by this time was erected and trustees were now chosen, and the congregation was organized by the name of Union. The site of this church was on Brown's Creek, about four miles from the present site of Unionville, near the road now leading from that place to Pinckneyville. It was intended to be used in common by Presbyterians and Episcopalians. Hence its name. It seems to have been a noted place, as its name was transferred to the county in which it was situated when county courts were first introduced into the State .- (MS. of Jas. H. Saye.)
From this time visits were received successively from the Rev. Mr. Bay of Pennsylvania, Messrs. Roe and Close from New England, Mr. Campbell of Scotland, and in 1769 from Mr. Edmonds of Charleston .- (MS. History of Churches in Second Presbytery of South Carolina.)
Of the FISHING CREEK Church, afterwards called Richard- son, and Lower Fishing Creek, we can obtain no certain infor- mation from the year 1760 to 1770 ; but as it had presented a call to the presbytery of Charleston, with which Mr. Richard- son was connected, and obtained his services in 1758, it is prob- able that he continued through these years to hold this con- gregation under his charge as well as that of Waxhaw, besides performing a large amount of itinerant labor for the benefit of other Presbyterian communities. He well deserves the name of the evangelist and apostle of this frontier country. As we have had occasion frequently to mention the sufferings of these churches and congregations from the Cherokee Indians, from 1760 to 1763, we would be glad to introduce here the his- tory of Katharine Steel, the heroine of "Steel's Fort ;" of the capture of Mrs. McKenny by the Indians, who struck her to the ground with their tomahawks, scalped her, and left her in- sensible, but who recovered from her frightful wounds and be- came the mother of a family; of the gallant defence of her house by Melbury; of the killing of John McDaniel and his wife, the capture of their seven children, and their rescue. But we must refer our readers to the narrative of these and other thrilling events in Mrs. E. F. Ellet's " Women of the Revolution," iii., 85-97, who has gracefully wrought up these
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335
DUNCAN'S CREEK.
1760-1770.]
incidents from materials furnished to her hand by Daniel G. Stinson, Esq., of Cedar Shoal, a descendant from these early settlers, whose opportunities and tastes have enabled him to perpetuate so many of these early traditions.
DUNCAN'S CREEK Church is situated in Laurens district, on the waters of Enoree, a branch of Broad river. It was prin- cipally composed of emigrants from Ireland and Pennsylvania with their descendants, some of whom settled here as early as 1758. The original settlement was made three years before Braddock's defeat, by Mr. John Duncan, of Aberdeen, Scot- land, who first emigrated to Pennsylvania, and thence removed here and settled on the creek which bears his name. He was the highest settler by ten miles in the fork between the Saluda and Broad rivers, and the only man at this time who had either negro, wagon, or still, in this part of the world. His nearest neighbor was Jacob Pennington, living on the Enoree below.
About the year 1763 or 1764, Messrs. Joseph Adair, Thomas Erving, William Hanna, Andrew McCrory and his brothers, united in building a house of worship. In 1766 they were visited by Mr. Duffield, Mr. Fuller, and Mr. Campbell. Mr. Duffield was probably George D. D., who was licensed by the presbytery of Newcastle in 1756, and was sent by the synod of New York to Carolina in 1765, and was afterwards settled in Carlisle and Philadelphia. Campbell was James Campbell, who joined the South Carolina presbytery in 1758, and became pastor of the Bluff church in North Carolina. Afterwards they were visited by Rev. Hezekiah Balch, licensed by the - presbytery of Newcastle in 1768-9, and whose name will occur again in these pages. Mr. Balch advised the people to choose elders. This was done. Andrew McCrory, Joseph Adair, and Robert Hanna, were elected, and ordained by Mr. Balch. James Pollock and Thomas Logan having come into the bounds of the congregation a short time before, the former from Pennsylvania and the latter from Ireland, on producing certificates of their membership and ordination, were chosen elders of this church. The communion was also administered, the number of communicants at that time being about sixty. -("Materials," etc., furnished Genl. Ass. by Rev. J. B. Ken- nedy and Dr. Waddel in 1808-9.)
The manners and dress of these first settlers must have been quite primitive. Their dress was as follows : hunting- shirt, leggings, and moccasins, adorned with buckles and beads. The hair was clubbed and tied up in a little deer-
336
CATHOLIC .- BETHEL.
[1760-1770.
skin or silk bag. At another time they wore their hair cued and rolled up in a black ribbon or bear's-gut dressed and dyed black. Again it became a custom to shave off the hair and wear white linen caps with ruffles around. The women's dress was long-eared caps, Virginia bonnets, short gowns, long gowns, stays, stomachers, quilted petticoats, high wooden heels. There was little market for produce except to the new settlers. Trade was carried on in skins and furs. Deer and beaver skins were a lawful tender in payment of debts. Sum- mer skins were 1s. 11d. sterling, winter skins 18 pence ster- ling, Indian-dressed skins $1 per pound .- (Testimony of James Duncan, son of the first settler, in Mills' Statistics.) In the early settlement of the country he followed hunting for seven years. He was in the whole of Col. Grant's war with the Indians, and was afterwards a soldier of the Revolution.
CATHOLIC CONGREGATION is situated about fifteen miles southeast from Chester Courthouse, near the dividing ridge between the Great and Little Rocky Creek. The emigration into the bounds of this congregation continued to increase by the way of Charleston until the year 1768, which was called the great emigration from Ireland. The emigrants were en- titled to receive what were called " bounty lands." Each man was entitled to one hundred acres as "a head right," and fifty acres each for every member of his family. Upon these lands, when laid out, they erected houses, generally near a spring, and cleared small plantations. Some of the immigrants having sufficient means, bought lands from the earlier settlers which were already improved. With this emigration came James Harbison, Esq., long a ruling elder in the congregation, but at that time a child of six years of age. There is a state- ment drawn up by him in 1830, in which he says that at that time, 1768, there was neither a common teacher nor a preacher of the gospel in this part of the country, nor is it known that it had ever been visited by one. His statement does not allow of the existence of a church and the institution of public wor- ship before 1770. But Rev. Mr. Richardson was not far off, and the date we have before given (1759) is a possible one.
BETHEL CONGREGATION .- The house of worship is located ten miles northeast from Yorkville, on Crowder's Creek, within four miles of the North Carolina line. The migration of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians continued on from Pennsyl- vania, their first American home, through the valleys of Vir- ginia and North Carolina, extending through what was then Tryon county, across the Catawba into this region of country.
L
337
BETHESDA.
1760-1770.]
Mr. Richardson was probably the first minister who visited them, and this church affords another proof of the extent and value of his labors in that new and forming country. In 1764 he preached the first sermon heard by them in their new home, and organized them into a church, which he called Bethel. They had come thus far in their migrations, and here, like the patriarch Jacob, they set up their altar in what was then a vast wilderness. They held a season of reli- gious worship, wrestling, with that earnest, devoted evangelist at their head, with the angel of the covenant. The wild woods rang with their " songs of praise" and "hymns of lofty cheer." They lifted up their eyes upon the forests and wilderness around them, and said, "This is none other than the house of God and the gate of Heaven." And we do not doubt that they adopted the name with deep emotion, and felt and hoped that not only the house which they should erect for worship would be the house of God, but that they themselves, in their religious community, would also be the temple of the Living God, in which he should continually reside. "After this," the first sermon of Mr. Richardson in 1764, says one ac- count before us, "they became a congregated people, built themselves a house of worship, and were supplied by various ministers from the synod of New York and Philadelphia."- (MS. Hist. of York county, South Carolina, archives of Gen- eral Assembly.) They greatly increased in numbers and strength, and soon became a very respectable congregation, well organized, and able to support the gospel. Their first elders were David Watson, John Jordan, George Denney, John Gullick, Thomas Neel, and James Campbell. The resi- dence of these elders, as far as it can be ascertained, shows that the congregation covered a region of country more than twenty miles square, from the present site of Beersheba church to the Catawba, and from beyond Olney and the South Fork to what is now known as the Indian Land .- (Hist. of Bethel Church, by Rev. Samuel L. Watson, Yorkville Enquirer, November, 1855.)
BETHESDA CHURCH and Congregation .- This church is located in York district, eight miles a little east of south from Yorkville, thirteen miles a little east from Chesterville, twenty miles from Broad river on the west, and seventeen miles from the Catawba river on the east. It is between two public roads leading north and south and less than a mile from either. The church gave name to a region of country about sixteen miles square, occupied by the members of the congregation.
22
338
BETHESDA.
[1760-1770.
The commencement of the church is assigned to the same period with that of Bethel. The original population of the neighborhood was chiefly composed of immigrants from the north of Ireland, and the great body of them were Presby- terians by education and choice. A few, less than six families, were Roman Catholics. The most came directly from their native Ireland ; others from different parts of the United States, but chiefly from Pennsylvania, and a few from the lower parts of South Carolina. About one hundred and forty families became located in the settlement of Bethesda in this and the following decade, or more strictly from the years 1765 to 1780 .* Most of these families, if not all, lived within the bounds of the congregation, or were accustomed to worship at the church, and buried their dead in the common cemetery.
At a central point in the settlement they erected, about the year 1760, a plain but substantial wooden building as a house of worship, about a mile eastward from the present edifice, and around it were deposited their dead, the traces of whose tombstones are visible to this day (1863). At this house missionaries traversing the country occasionally preached. The church was organized either by Rev. William Richard- son of Waxhaw, or Rev. Hezekiah Balch, a missionary sent
* Their names are as follows :- Adair (John and William), Adams, Akins, Ash (Robert,) Adrian, Arthur ; Baird, Barry, Berry (William), Black (Thomas), Boggs (Thomas), Bratton (Colonel William, Hugh, Thomas, Samuel, and Robert), Burriss (William), Brown (Robert), Byers (Edward); Carroll (John and Thomas), Carson (John, William, and Thomas), Chambers (Captain John), Clendenin (Thomas), Curry (Charles), Cooper (John) ; Davidson (William), Dickey, Drewry, Dennis (John); Erwin (William); Fleming (Robert and Elijah), Fonderon (Jolin); Gallaher, Gibson, Gill (Robert, James, Thomas. and Arthur), Givens (Daniel), Guy (William), Glover, Giver (James), Gaston (Joseph), Gordon (David); Hanna (William and James), Hemphill (James and John), Hillhouse, Howie (Robert), Hetherington, Harris (John), Henry (William and four sons, William, Maleom, John, and Alexander); Keenan, Kelsey (Samuel), . Kidd (John), Kirkpatrick, Kuykandale (Matthew and Samuel); Latham, Lacy (General Edmond), Leach (David), Love (Colonel Andrew), Lewis (William); McElwee (James), Manahan (William), Martin (Jolin, Captain James, and Edward), MeLain, McCaw (John), McCrory, Meek (James and Edward), Mitehel (Captain James), Miller (John), McElhenry (James), Murphy (Jolin), Mills (Charles), Marley, MeNeel (James), McConnell (Captain John and Reuben), McLure (James) Moore (three families, Major James two, Alexander and William three, John and his sons, Jolin, Samuel, Nathan, and William) ; Norman, Neely (Samuel and Thomas) ; Pagan, Palmer, Porter ; Qwinn; Ratchford (George), Robeson, Ross (James and Wil- liam), Rainey (Thomas, Samuel, and Benjamin), Ray (Henry); Sadler (David and Richard), Silliman, Steele (Josepli), Straight (Christopher), Swann (Jolin), Starr (Arthur), Smith, Stallions ; Trail ; Wallace (Captain James, John, and Thomas), 'Waters, Williams, Williamson (James and five sons, viz., John, Adam, Samuel, George, and James), Wiley; Young.
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