USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
339
LITTLE RIVER.
1760-1770.]
out by the synod of New York and Philadelphia in 1769, or by Messrs. Azel Roe and John Close, missionaries from the same body, in 1770. In all probability, to Mr. Richardson is to be ascribed the honor of organizing this ancient church. Among those who supplied its pulpit in the early time of its history may be named the Rev. Hezekiahlı James Balch and the Rev. (afterwards Dr.) Joseph Alexander of Bullock's Creek. The organization of the church is believed to have taken place in 1769. The first elders were - Neely, of whom no infor- mation has been obtained, save that he filled this honorable office; John Young, who served in this capacity till 1790, in which year he died, and Robert Fleming, who lived till the close of this century, when he died, leaving his mantle to fall upon his sons, of whom he had four. The sons of Robert Fleming were Elijah, also an elder in this church; Alexander, who died in Camden jail of small-pox during the Revolution ; Robert, who moved to Franklin county, Georgia, about 1803; and William, who also removed to Georgia, and was for a long time an elder in Hebron church, Franklin county. He sub- sequently removed to Texas, where he died. One of the daughters married William Ash in Franklin county, Georgia, and the other an Adrian, who assisted in founding and became an elder in New Lebanon church, Franklin county, Georgia .-- (MS. Hist. by Rev. John S. Harris.)
LITTLE RIVER CHURCH is situated near the boundary line of the district of Laurens and Newberry. It was first organized in 1764, by Rev. James Creswell. Its first elders were James Williams (who held a colonel's commission, and fell at King's Mountain, in the war of the Revolution), Angus Campbell, and James Burnside. Rev. James Creswell was a native of Ire- He land, who emigrated to this country in his youth. pursued his studies for the ministry while teaching school at Colonel Gordon's in Lancaster county, Virginia. He was introduced to the presbytery of Hanover at Cub Creek, October 6th, 1763, and licensed at Tinkling Spring, Virginia, May 2d, 1764. He was ordained at Lower Hico, in North Carolina, in October, 1764. He must have gathered this church soon after his ordination, in the beginning of his ministry. Yet this settlement petitioned the synod of New York and Philadelphia for supplies in 1766, as did also Long Canes, Indian Creek, and Fishing Creek. The "Statutes at Large," vol. viii., p. 117, give evidence of the interest he took in the subject of education. They record the incorporation of the " Salem Society," formed for the purpose of endowing and sup-
340
BULLOCK'S CREEK .- BEERSHEBA .- NAZARETH. [1760-1770.
porting a school and seminary of learning between the Catawba and Savannah rivers, near the Little River meeting-house. They were empowered to hold property to the amount of $10,000 per annum, for the endowment and support of the school and the maintenance and education of orphans or indigent children. Of this society the Rev. James Creswell was president, and John Williams (son of Daniel) and James Caffin were wardens, at the time of the incorporation, March 16th, 1768. They were empowered to hold funds for the maintenance of the school and the education of poor, helpless orphans and indi- gent children.
BULLOCK'S CREEK CHURCH is situated in the southwestern part of York district. It applied to the synod of New York and Philadelphia for supplies in 1766. It is said to have been organized by the Rev. Messrs. Azel Roe and John Close in 1769, who were sent as missionaries to the destitute settle- ments of the south by the synod of New York and Phila- delphia. It was by them called Dan. The congregation pre- ferred the name of Bullock's Creek, on the waters of which the church was located. Previous to the organization, Rev. Messrs. Richardson, Alexander, and others, had preached in the vicinity with a view to gathering a church and establishing the gospel ministry among them.
BEERSHEBA is situated in York district, on the waters of Bullock's Creek, and was organized nearly at the same time with the church last mentioned, viz., in the year 1769.
NAZARETH CHURCH is situated in the district of Spartanburg, on the waters of Tyger river, towards its source. Its first formation proceeded from a few families, eight or ten in num- ber, who obtained supplies in 1766, and were soon afterwards organized into a society .- (MS. Hist. of Second Presbytery of South Carolina.) The Rev. Robert H. Reid dates the first settlements on .Tyger river about the year 1761. They cer- tainly existed before the year 1765, for in that year the road that passes by the church between the North and Middle rivers was opened. The first settlers were Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania. When they left the north of Ireland and came into Pennsylvania we have at present no means of ascertain- ing. Some of the families were in Pennsylvania as early as 1732, for in that year Captain Barry was born in that State. The names of the first settlers were Barry, Moore, Anderson, Collins, Thompson, Vernon, Pearson, Jamison, Dodd, Ray, Penrey, McMahon, and Nichol. About the year 1767 or 1768 their numbers were increased by a colony which came directly
341
LONG CANES.
1760-1770.]
from the north of Ireland. They were each entitled to one hundred acres of land by a grant from his majesty George II., and the old titles bear date in 176S. The families of Caldwell, Coan, Snoddy, Pedan, Alexander, Gaston, Morton, and perhaps some others, came at that time. These first settlers on Tyger river, like all of the same descent, were full of reverence for God's word and for the institutions of religion; and no sooner had they established their homes in the forest of the New World than they made the best arrangements in their power for the public worship of the God of their fathers.
LONG CANES .- Abbeville district embraced the extensive settlement known formerly far and wide as Long Canes. It is the upper portion of what was originally called Granville county and afterwards Ninety-Six district. The first important settlement was made in February, 1756, by about eight fami- lies, Presbyterians in faith, who emigrated from Pennsylvania to the upper parts of Virginia and North Carolina, and thence to this place. The majority of these settlers being of the name Calhoun, the particular settlement took its name from them. Previous to the settlement of Patrick Calhoun and his friends at Long Cane Creek, there were only two families of white settlers in the northwestern extremity of the province ; one by the name of Gowdy, another by the name of Edwards. Gowdy was born in Ireland, and settled in that distant por- tion of the province about 1750. By the year 1759 the num- ber of Presbyterian families had increased to between twenty and thirty, and would probably have been many more had not Governor Glen for some years discouraged settlers by the encouragement he gave the Indians.
The views and expectations of these settlers were to form a Presbyterian church. As far as they could do so they set up their altar and commenced their worship in the wilderness in a more private way until February Ist, 1760, when the Cherokee Indians broke in upon them, killed twenty-two per- sons, carried fourteen into captivity, and dispersed the sur- vivors. Of the flight of these persons, some to the Waxhaw settlement, and others to the low country and the bounds of the Stoney Creek congregation, and the honorable testimony borne to them there, we have before spoken.
In this state of dispersion they remained for wo years, and in 1763, after the expeditions of Col. Montgomery and Col. Grant, they returned with considerable addition to their num- bers. About the end of 1763 the Creek Indians broke in and committed some deeds of barbarity. In the South Carolina
Pec
342
LONG CANES.
[1760-1770.
Gazette of December 22d, 1763, a letter from Patrick Calhoun speaks of the murder of Mrs. Dyer and the families of Pawlet and Lawson. There were fourteen persons in the two last who were killed in one house on the Savannah river. The people took refuge in such fortified places as they were able to reach. Under date of Dec. 26th, it is said, "There are twenty-seven men and one hundred and three women and children in Fort Boone (Calhoun's); thirty-four men and one hundred and five women and children at Arthur Patten's (Long Canes); about the same number at Dr. Murray's, on Hard Labor Creek." Jan. 28th, 1764, the Irish settlers between Ninety-Six and Long Canes complain of their deserted and exposed con- dition. These notices from a contemporary journal, and the only one in the province, show that these early settlers were environed with dangers. Still this calamity did not dishearten nor disperse the people. In their strongholds these virtuous and hardy men watched over their wives and children with sleepless vigilance till the danger was passed, and then re- turned to their accustomed employments.
Thus were they situated and circumstanced until the year 1764, when Rev. William Richardson, a member of the pres- bytery of Charleston, visited them as a preacher of the gospel. Though his visit was short, he contributed something towards the organization of the church. In a few days he baptized about sixty children in the settlement, and about two hundred and sixty from the time he left home, in the Waxhaw settle- ment, till he returned, a space of four or five weeks. About this time they made strenuous efforts to secure a visit from Rev. Archibald Simpson, of Stoney Creek, near Pocotaligo. In his journal, Sept. 27th, 1764, he writes, " At the same time read a letter from Long Canes, earnestly. requesting I would " make them a visit and preach some Sabbathis,-same people who were driven away by the Indians some four years ago and came to this place. Have been desirous ever since I would visit them. Were attacked last winter by the Creek Indians; one man killed, another wounded. Have now a great com- pany of negroes among them and new lands settled-are two hundred miles back from this place, in the high lands, but very much exposed to both the Creek and Cherokee Indians. Their case I Vhow is very distressing, their letter very affect- ing, and their messenger resolved and pleading earnestly. But when he saw my weak and low state he was silent. My heart bleeds for them. I would think it a great happiness to be able to visit them. I wrote them an affectionate letter,
343
LONG CANES.
1760-1770.]
giving account of my weak and sickly condition and of my de- sire to visit them if the Lord should restore my health and the heat of the weather were over."
In the year 1765 the Rev. George Duffield, from Pennsyl- vania, a member of the Carlisle presbytery, visited this church, and tarried perhaps about three or four weeks, at which time the bounds of the congregation had become so large, it was neces- sary that public worship should be at different places. The church, or rather churches, now underwent a further and more perfect organization by the visit and assistance of Mr. Duffield. It would thus seem from the narrative* from which we draw the chief part of this present relation, that the germs of the several churches, which were afterwards more distinctly or- ganized, were already in existence. "There is good reason to believe," says the narrator, "that the blessing of God at- tended the visits of the aforesaid rev. gentleman, to the quick- ening of religion and to the comfort and edification of at least numbers of the people, and some spirit seemed to be given to ecclesiastical affairs."
In the year 1766 these charges were again visited for about three or four weeks by the Rev. Robert McMordie, from Pennsylvania, a member of Donegal presbytery, and a mis- sionary from the synod of New York and Philadelphia, by whose visit the church profited. Nothing more worthy of remark happened until the years 1767 and 1768, when, in an- swer to ardent petitions sent to the synod of New York and Philadelphia, several ministers-Mr. McCreary, a probationer from Pennsylvania, the Rev. Andrew Bay t of Maryland, and the Rev. Thomas Lewis of Rhode Island-visited these churches, all of whom were received with gladness and with
* "Materials for the History of the Presbyterian Church in Abbeville county, State of South Carolina," in the hands of the Stated Clerk of the General As- sembly. The Rev. Dr. Cummins was appointed by the presbytery of South Carolina, 1793, to collect these materials,-(Minutes, pp. 62-65). On September 24th Rev. Mr. Cummins had complied with the order. As the collections were imperfect, the order was continued and strict attention enjoined. April 8th, 1794, the materials for a church history were brought in and sent on, p. 69. These materials were collected under an order of the General Assembly, ad -. dressed to the presbyteries, and received the approval of presbytery. "Some of these first settlers yet living, and viva voce as well as by papers, assisting in compiling these materials, they are the more credible."-(Materials, etc., p. 1.) + Rev. Andrew Bay married a daughter of Elihu Hall, +Nottingham, Md., and Hon. Elihu Hall Bay, one of the associate justices of South Carolina, was his son .- (Materials, etc., p. 3.) Judge Bay studied for the ministry, but was deterred from entering it by an impediment in his speech, which troubled him also on the bench. Judge O'Neall's " Bench and Bar of South Carolina," i., p. 57, relates an amusing instance.
344
COLONY OF NEW BORDEAUX.
[1760-1770.
advantage to many souls. In the year 1768 Mr. Tate, from Donegal presbytery, preached in this and the adjacent neigh- borhoods. In the spring of 1769 Mr. Fuller, a Congregation- alist from New England, visited this people, and was greatly esteemed in the several congregations. In the summer fol- lowing they were visited by Mr. Balch .- (" Materials," etc. History of the Second Presbytery of South Carolina, by Rev. John B. Kennedy and Dr. Waddel, committee.)
Mr. McCreary, before mentioned, after this received a unani- mous call from the congregations-two hundred and forty-nine persons setting their names to it as subscribers. These numbers indicate not only the unanimity and zeal of the church for the gospel, but also its rapid increase. This call was sent by Mr. Bay to the synod of New York and Philadelphia, at their meeting in May, 1768, accompanied with a supplication to the rev. synod to concur in presenting said call, and a supplication for " a stated supply for six months of some skillful minister," should Mr. McCreary decline the call. The call was put into his hands by synod directly; but as he required time for delibera- tion, he was directed to give his answer to the presbytery of Newcastle, under whose care he was as a probationer, who were desired to ordain him, should he accept .- (Minutes of Synod of New York and Philadelphia, p. 387. Petitions for supplies had been preferred in 1764, 1766, and 1767; Minutes, pp. 346, 360, 374.) In this call the church was unsuccessful. It is evident that the community was increasing and becom- ing more prosperous. Mr. Simpson incidentally mentions a company that came over from Ireland with Rev. Mr. Knox who settled in Williamsburg, the destination of whom was the Long Canes settlement.
CHAPTER IV.
DURING this period an interesting colony was brought over from France, by the way of England, by the Rev. Jean Louis Gibert, and settled in the immediate vicinity of the Long Canes people. They came to America as a refuge from the most bitter and inexorable persecutions.
We have described in earlier pages of this history the extreme hardships to which the French Protestants were reduced. The people were at length deprived of all their
345
WAR OF THE CAMISARDS.
1760-1770.]
ministers and all the means of education. It was not won- derful if, under these circumstances and under the irritation of terrible persecutions, there should spring up, in the absence of a clergy who had always inculcated submission to the government, the spirit of resistance. This especially mani- fested itself in the most southern portion of France. De Baville, who was the supreme administrator of the province, became known-in the language of the populace-as " the King of Languedoc," and he was the terror and horror of that unhappy people. Exasperated at their obstinacy, he would ferret out their places of secret convocation, surround them with his troops, charge upon them sabre in hand, or fire into their crowded assemblies with a discharge of mus- ketry. The most notable of the prisoners were hung on the nearest trees, and others sent to the galleys, where they were chained to oar-benches in perpetual bondage. At the com- mencement of the eighteenth century there had been two thousand of these convicts, and among them men of gentle blood and ministers of Christ, who were more severely treated than highway robbers.
The war of the Camisards was different, wholly, from the struggles which had preceded it. In those the gentlemen of France were engaged-under experienced leaders-on tented fields and in regular battles. This was a war of peasants, ignorant of the art of war, without arms-except such as they wrested from their enemies-and obliged to sell their lives dearly behind the rocks and thickets of their mountains. In the Vivarais, in the high and lower Cevennes, amid their naked peaks-their bristling crests -- their horrid precipices- "the image of a world tumbling to ruins and perishing with old age"-they found their strongholds. The caverns of the mountains served them for granaries, magazines, stables, hos- pitals, powder-mills, arsenals, and armories. Their govern- ment was a military theocracy. For purposes of military dis- cipline, there were captains of tens, of fifties, and hundreds. Their chiefs were prophets, acting, as they believed, under a divine inspiration. Their God was Jehovali; their temple, Mount Zion; their camp, the camp of the Eternal; their people, the children of God. Religion was their solace ; desert and lonely places, sanctified by their tears, and often by their blood, were their temples of worship. Their captain, Cav- alier, sword in hand, was everywhere present on the field of death, encouraging, animating his brethren, giving forth the most surprising orders, which were executed with unquestion-
346
PASTORS OF THE DESERT.
[1760-1770.
ing confidence, and crowned with surprising success. They be- lieved themselves to hear the word of God, and went into con- flict as if clad with iron. Boys of twelve or fourteen years of age fought like veterans. Those who had neither sabre nor mus- ket, did execution with clubs and slings, and the hail of bullets which whistled around their ears, and pierced their hats and sleeves, was not regarded. Their number was never more than ten thousand, but they had a good understanding with many who did not join their ranks, who, by preconcerted sig- nals, warned them of the approach of their enemies, and gave them time for concealment in their impenetrable fastnesses.
There arose then a new order of pastors, who took the place of those whom cruel death or foreign exile had removed from them, the "pasteurs sous la croix," or "pasteurs du désert ;" "pastors beneath the Cross," or "pastors of the desert." The desert was a vague term which they used to conceal the true places from which they wrote, or to designate, in general, their persecuted church. An attempt was made, by a man of intrepid courage, wonderful vigor of mind and body, consummate prudence and tact, incorruptible integrity, and surprising knowledge of human nature, united with an agreeable amenity of manners, to reorganize the Huguenot
church. Antony Court deserves the name of restorer of Protestantism in France. At the age of seventeen years he began to preach to the churches of the desert. He was endowed by nature with remarkable gifts of eloquence, and, without the advantages of early education, he acquired, dur- ing a life of constant study and toil, rare erudition on the many topics to which his attention was directed. Even at this early age he conceived the plan of reorganizing the churches. To four points did he direct his efforts-to repress the disorders of those who pretended to be inspired; to col- lect regular religious assemblies ; to restore the government of consistories, colloquies, and synods; to raise up young ministers, who should- undertake the work of preaching the gospel amid scaffolds and gibbets, in the spirit of martyrs. In all these things he was wonderfully successful. He travelled through the country, gathering the adherents of the truth to- gether in desolate and hidden places. At first he was able to collect but six, ten, or twelve persons, in some gap in the rocks, in some remote barn or open meadow ; but at last he had the pleasure of meeting, sometimes, ten thousand souls for the worship of God. Their assemblies were held at night, under the shadow of rocks, or in caves and dens of the earth.
347
SEMINARY AT LAUSANNE.
1760-1770.]
A system of secret intelligence prevailed. Letters were ad- dressed to third persons of approved fidelity, and the names of those for whom they were destined concealed in anagrams hard to decipher. Notices of meetings were sent by chosen messengers from place to place, and whispered from one to another. Experienced guides conducted the ministers, at night, by adventurous and secret routes, concealed often under ingenious disguises, to the place of convocation. Sentinels placed upon the heights, at different distances, watched the approach of troops, upon whom Protestants in the towns and cities continually kept their eye, that they might convey to their brethren information of their movements. The ministers changed their abode each night, and no sufferings to which their adherents were exposed could prevail for their betrayal.
For the education of ministers for the scattered flock, he established an institution at Lausanne, in Switzerland, which became one of unspeakable importance to the persecuted church. To sustain it he raised subscriptions in Switzerland, England, Holland, and Germany. He searched out young men who were willing to take upon themselves the vocation of martyrdom. From the plough, the shops of artisans and merchants, and from any source whence he could draw de- voted and talented youth, he gathered them, sent them to Lau- sanne, and provided for their support till they were prepared for their work, and were initiated into their arduous, dan- gerous vocation as " pastors of the desert." It was this acad- emy at Lausanne which saved the Protestants of France. It continued in existence for three-quarters of a century, and was closed by Napoleon in 1809, who transferred its theologi- cal faculty to Montauban. In 1740 this seminary sent into Saintonge several of its young proposans, or candidates, who reorganized, secretly, several churches, and were followed in 1744 by regular ministers of the gospel. In 1745 they re- ceived from the same institution three others, Du Besse, Gounon, called also Pradon, and Jean Louis Gibert,* . who
* M. Jean Louis Gibert, pasteur, et M. Louis Figuière, candidate, with two elders, were members of the National Synod in " the desert," which sat from May 4-10, 1756, of which Pierre Peyrot was moderator, and Paul Rabaut as- sistant moderator." Coquerel says, " This remarkable term, 'moderator,' to designate the presiding officer of a synod, was invented by the Calvinistic discipline to avoid the term president, which might indicate a superiority of rank. The absolute equality of all ministers, the presence of laics voting in the synod, and the perfect competency of laics to judge in doctrinal matters equally with the clergy, form the essential basis of the Calvinist-Presbyterian discipline .- (Hist. des Églises du Désert, i., p. 545.)
348
JEAN LOUIS GIBERT.
[1760-1770.
founded the French Protestant colony in Abbeville district, South Carolina, and who was born near Alais, Languedoc, July 22d, 1722. Both he and Etienne [Steplien] Gibert were students at Lausanne. These last three pastors had no per- manent abode. Always on horseback, they itinerated through the cities, towns, and villages. After the fatigues of the day they would claim the hospitality of Protestant families known by their zeal, and it was always accorded to them with the liveliest alacrity.
The Protestants of Pons, who had survived the persecutions, were animated with new courage by the presence of these faithful servants of God. At the suggestion of Louis Gibert, who did not cease to visit and electrify them by his warm ex- hortations, they constituted themselves secretly into a church. But already the attention of their infuriated enemies had been attracted to this religious revival, and they hastened to take measures for arresting its progress. The three zealous pastors, and above all Gibert, who seemed the most formidable, were denounced to the magistrates. A price was set upon the head of this eminent pastor, and the bishop of Saintes neglected no means of securing his apprehension. The following scheme was adopted : a man by the name of Syntier established himself at Pons, who appeared to be a person of some pre- tension. He assumed to be a zealous Protestant, avoiding the Catholics, and obtaining the articles of merchandise lie needed from Protestants alone. The Protestants of Pons gave him their confidence. He applied to M. Gibert to baptize his infant child, which he did accordingly. He also invited the minister to dine with him the following day ; but Gibert being warned by his friends, who had begun to suspect Mr. Syntier, declined the invitation. Syntier had given information to the soldiers the night before, who took a position near which he was expected to pass. No sooner was this done than Mr. Gibert rode by, accompanied by two other per- sons. The cavaliers mounted promptly and charged upon them in pursuit. They captured one of the party, who was a deacon in the church, fired upon and killed another ; but the minister escaped by the fleetness of the horse he rode. The whole was planned by the chief of the diocese for the capture of the faithful pastor. The facts are recorded in the bap- tismal register of the parisli of St. Martin de Pons, over the signature of the curate.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.