USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 16
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We have expressed our conviction on pp. 216, 217, that a portion of the original settlers of ORANGEBURG, those namely from certain cantons of Switzerland (and it may be true also of others), were of the Calvinistic or Reformed church, and Presbyterians. This is confirmed in part by the fact that " there was a Presbyterian meeting-house erected on Cattle's Creek, in 1778, and called the Frederician church, after Andrew Frederick, who was its principal founder. Another of the same denomination was built at Turkey Hill. There are," say Drs. Jamieson and Shecut, writing in 1808, " two others of the same denomination in Lewisburgh." "The Presbyterians have supplies only from the upper country and the North Carolina presbytery. From the want of preachers of their own denomination, the descendants of the old stock are falling in either with the Baptists or Methodists, according to the neighborhood in which they live."-(Statistical acct. of Orangeburg .- Ramsay, vol. ii., Appendix.)
In the present district of Richland there was a PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON CEDAR CREEK previous to the Revolution. It must have been of the German Reformed connection, and was min- istered to by Rev. William Dubard, who died of the small-pox in the city of Charleston near the close of the Revolutionary
495
CAMDEN.
1780-1790.]
war. The Presbyterians, therefore, were truly, as Mills, in his Statistics, says, (p. 722), "the first religious society estab- lished in the district ;" but they were not of that order which is represented in the General Assembly of the United States. It is probably the church alluded to in the act of incorporation in 1788 as "the German Protestant church of Appii Forum on Cedar Creek."-(Statutes at Large, vol. viii., p. 144.) As we shall not probably recur to the history of this church again, the traditions of the neighborhood speak of it as having con- tinued in existence into the next century, the successors of Mr. Dubard being a clergyman by the name of Penegar, another by the name of Houck, and another by the name of Loutz. The house of worship was built of logs, with an earth floor.
Our informant speaks of Mr. Loutz as a man of education and influence, who visited this church from North Carolina, where his residence was. The communion seasons were to his mind, in his youth, scenes of great solemnity. The communi- cants, approaching the table one after another, received the elements of bread and wine in a standing posture, and passed away from the table with clasped hands and uplifted eyes. This church had occasional preaching by others, but became extinct as a Presbyterian church of the German Reformed order, and the neighborhood became the seat of a Methodist church and congregation .- (Memoranda furnished by A. F. Duhard, of Cedar Creek, Richland.)
The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF CAMDEN .- In treating the history of this church we will first speak of "the early settle- ment of Camden." About the year 1755, three brothers, Joseph, William, and Eli Kershaw, came out from Great Brit- ain to South Carolina, bringing with them considerable funds or property. They were sons of Josepli Kershaw, and were born at Sowerby, Yorkshire, England. In the year 1758, Joseph Kershaw removed to a village then called "Pine Tree," on the east side of Wateree, at the head of navigation.
Here he continued many years, carrying on an extensive country trade. Colonel John Chesnut was first his apprentice, then his clerk, and finally his partner, in this extensive country store, with branches at Granby and Cheraw.
Duncan McRa and Zack Cantey were both in the employ of Colonel Joseph Kershaw, and tradition reports that when speaking of the three gentlemen above named, he said "that he was raising up chickens to pick out his own eyes."
A colony of Quakers from Ireland, among whom were Robert Millhouse and Samuel Wiley, two very sensible and respectable
496
CAMDEN.
[1780-1790.
men, had settled in Pine Tree village about 1750; there they also built stores, mills, and meeting-house, and formed a very thriving settlement. The Quaker burying-ground is now the only place of sepulture in Camden.
Some time after Joseph Kershaw's settlement in the village, he married Miss Sophia Mathis, one of the Quaker settlers. He soon became one of the most extensive and influential pro- prietors. He prevailed on the other settlers to unite in lay- ing out their town in streets and lots, and in changing its homely name to that of Camden, in honor of Lord Camden, the favorite English statesman of the day. Camden was laid out in 1760, and chartered in 1762.
Camden continued to prosper until the year 1780, when after the fall of Charleston the British troops overran the State. During the two years subsequent to the fall of Charleston Camden became the centre of almost all the military opera- tions of that eventful period ; the battle-field for contending hostile armies, fifteen or sixteen actions having been fought in its vicinity. Camden was occupied by the Commander-in-chief, Lord Cornwallis, for nearly two years, whose headquarters were at the fine old mansion of Col. Kershaw, still standing as a relic of the Revolution. When the British could no longer retain Camden as a military post, they set fire to the court- house and jail, to their barracks, and to their store-houses, containing an immense amount of arms, provisions, baggage, and military stores of every description. In the progress of the flames, many private buildings were destroyed in the gen- eral conflagration. The fortifications were left entire by the British, hoping that they might return and occupy them ; but these the Americans destroyed, and Camden was left in ruins.
The descendants of Col. Joseph Kershaw, now living of his grand-children, are Charles and Benjamin Perkins, Mrs. A. Johnson, all of Camden ; Mrs. Powers of Virginia ; S. Wilds Dubose of Darlington; Mrs. Mary R. Young of Jackson county, Florida, and Joseph Bernard Kershaw, who acquired honorable distinction in the Mexican war, as first lieutenant of the Kershaw Volunteers in the Palmetto regiment. He is now, 1852, a member of the legislature from Kershaw dis- trict.
Of the other early settlers, Samuel Mathis was the first male child born in Camden. There are several descendants : two of the name of Drs. Reynolds, and Rev. S. M. Green, grand-children of the said S. Mathis, and children of Joseph Reynolds and H. D. Green.
.
497
1780-1790.] REV. JOHN LOGUE .- REV. THOMAS ADAMS.
Of the family of Col. John Chesnut, there are his son, Col. James Chesnut, and Col. James Chesnut, jr., two gentlemen of the highest respectability. The younger James Chesnut is senator in the State legislature, from Kershaw district.
Of the descendants of the Wiley family, there are the fami- lies of James, William, and Thomas Lang, whose father mar- ried Miss Sarah Wiley, and whose name is enrolled as one of the first elders of the church; and his son, Thomas Lang, has long been a member of said church. Another of the Quaker families is that of Abram Belton, whose descendants are James B. Cureton, James and Joseph Doby and their sisters, Mrs. Dunlap, Mrs. Anthony and Mrs. Robert Kennedy, grand- children of Mr. Belton.
The only tradition as to the establishment of a Presbyterian church is, that John Logue, an aged Presbyterian minister from Ireland, preached statedly a part of his time in Camden for several years after the war." But as there is no record of any organization, we have nothing to state officially in the matter.
The other is that found on a tombstone in the Quaker burying-ground, that a lady, a Mrs. Smith, had made a dona- tion of one thousand dollars towards the erection of a Presby- terian church, but she died long before a church was built, and no part of the gift was received .- (MS. History by I. K. Douglas, Esq., written in 1852.) Yet it is mentioned in Allen's Biographical Dictionary, that Thomas Adams, son of Rev. Amos Adams, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, was ordained in Boston as minister for Camden, South Carolina, where, after a residence of eight years, he died August 16th, 1797. If this was the case, his ministry in this place must have begun in the last year of this decade, in 1789. He graduated at Harvard University, in the year 1788. " Mr. Adams, a young gentleman of the Con- gregational church, from Massachusets," says Dr. Furman, "preached there, and also had charge of the Orphan Society's academy."-(Appendix to Ramsay's Hist.)
* He preached occasionally at Jackson's Creek, Fairfield, and was a corre- spondent of Rev. Robert Mcclintock in 1787. His name occurs also in the list of Irish clergy preaching in South Carolina, given in a letter addressed to Dr. Thornwell by Dr. J. R. Witherspoon, of Brookland, Alabama, in October, 1848. There is a note before us, written by him, and addressed to Robert McClintock, to the care of William McClintock, of Rocky Creek, requesting Mr. McClintock to assist him at a communion season and at the fast-day on Thursday before. The note is dated February 17th, 1789, but the residence of Mr. Logue is not indicated.
32
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LEBANON .- JACKSON'S CR .- MRS. MARY BARKLEY. [1780-1790.
CHAPTER IV.
LEBANON CHURCH, JACKSON'S CREEK, FAIRFIELD .- A brief account of the origin of this church has been given on pp. 415, 416. This account left them occupying their second house of worship, on lands belonging to Joseph Chapman. Rev. Mr. Thatcher, from the North, perhaps previous to this, preached for some time alternately at Jackson's Creek and in " the Wolf Pit (or Wolf Pen) meeting-house," on the Wateree. While assembled for worship at the church on Jackson's Creek, in those troublous times, men were stationed as videttes, and sentinels walked their rounds to apprise the worshippers of any approaching foe. Bands of Tories were lurking around, and late in the year 1780, Lord Cornwallis established his headquarters at Winnsboro, at the junction of Walnut and Washington streets, where he remained till between the 5th and 8th of January, 1781. From the lips of Mrs. Mary Barkley we have received a few interesting facts, of her own recollection, belonging to the period of the Revo- lution. Mrs. Barkley was the daughter of Samuel and Jane Grey, and was born in Ballybreak, near Ballymoney, county Antrim, Ireland, in 1758. Her father died when she was an infant of three months, leaving her mother with four children, Margaret, William, Robert, and Mary. Her mother afterwards married John Dunlap, by whom she had a daughter, named Anne. In 1773, her parents sold their farm in Ireland and migrated to America, arriving in Charleston in December of that year. In March, 1774, they removed by wagon to Jack- son's Creek, a tedious journey, as performed by them, of three weeks' duration. Here they settled themselves comfortably in a log cabin, as was the wont of the new-comers. . Soon after their settlement one of the daughters, Margaret, married James McCreight, who fixed his abode about one mile from Winnsboro. In the year 1776, William and Robert, her brothers, and Dunlap and McCreight, entered the American army. This year also they were engaged in the snow campaign against the Cherokee Indians. The whole labor of the farm thus fell upon the female members of the family, for they had as yet no servants. There were frequent alarms too that the Cherokees were advancing upon the defenceless settlements. On one occasion they left the house and lay out in a thicket a long and dreary night. Mary assumed the principal care of the household, plying the spindle and the
499
MRS. MARY BARKLEY.
1780-1790.]
loom with ceaseless industry, a type of many others of her sex of that early day. The care of the farm greatly devolved upon her, for after three months' service in the snow cam- paign, her step-father, Dunlap, came back an invalid unable to yield much assistance. Under these circumstances her heart became attached and affianced to a brave young lieu- tenant, Alexander Gaston. . The Greys first entered the ser- vice under Captain James Philips, who afterwards deserted the cause of the colonies and joined the British. Robert then entered the continental army as an artillerist, and was orderly sergeant of his company. At the battle of Fort Moultrie he was disabled for life by the bursting of a cannon. William
joined the company of Captain Robert Ellison as first lieuten- ant. He had been in the Indian war under General Pickens, was in the battle at Fort Moultrie, in the ill-starred campaign against St. Augustine, and was in almost every battle in the South, from beginning to end. His friend Gaston and him- self were both lieutenants in the regular army. When the regulars made their gallant charge on the British works at Savannah, Gaston was wounded. The two young lieutenants were in the field during the campaign of 1780. After the battle at Monk's Corner and the fall of Charleston, they were driven back with their companions as refugees to North Carolina, whence they returned to renew the strife. In the month of June, 1780, their camp was pitched on Clem's Branch, in the upper edge of Lancaster district. Here they were found by Sumter, who, like them, was a refugee, having left his family exposed to the tender mercies of the enemy, who plundered his goods, destroyed his property, burned his house, and left his wife and family without a shelter. He now selected a few chosen men to accompany him, that he might punish his ene- mies and bring his family away, among whom were William Grey and Alexander Gaston. At Wright's Bluff, on Black river, Sumter encountered a body of British and Tories, too numer- ous for his chosen band, and was forced to retreat beyond the river. Gaston had taken the small-pox, and getting wet while crossing, his disease became very violent, and being left at the house of a Mr. McConnell, he died in a few days. Mary Grey was inconsolable at his loss, and though she subsequently had many offers of marriage, twelve years elapsed ere she could give her heart to another. Even in her old age, seventy years after, she would heave a sigh at the mention of his name, and with moistened eye would repeat the words, "Yes, we were to have been married after the war."
500
REV. WILLIAM MARTIN.
[1780-1790.
Some time in the summer of 1780 her brother, William Grey, was taken prisoner and lodged in Camden jail, whence he was afterwards paroled, and permitted to return on con- dition that he should never go to a greater distance from Winnsboro than three miles. He and his sister Mary stayed for the most part, while the British were at Winnsboro, at their brother-in-law, Mr. Creight's. At this time the family of her stepfather and brother-in-law was frequently robbed by the Tories.
Mrs. Barkley was wont to relate many incidents of the local history of the Revolution. The small-pox prevailed to a con- siderable extent in the British army, especially among the Tories under Bryant's command. The sick were quartered upon the inhabitants ; two in the family of Dunlap, her step- father. She gave up to them the house and lived in the kitchen, waiting faithfully on them. From their conversation she judged them to have been ministers of the gospel. They spoke of the flocks they had left, now deprived of the preaching of the gospel. God was now visiting them with his chastisements, and they were much affected, not only by the judgments that were on them, but by the kind attentions they received, not- withstanding the loathsome disease with which they were visited.
On Christmas morning her attention was attracted by the firing of cannon immediately after the morning gun. She .. asked the wife of a British soldier what it meant. She . answered, "They are keeping Christmas, as they always do in a friend's country." Mary asked her if they really thought they were in a friend's country. " Yes," she replied, "South Carolina is a conquered country, and belongs to the king.". She replied, " Does it indeed ? well, we shall see." Mrs. Bark- ley also relates that a project was on foot among the heroic men in the upper districts for an attack on Cornwallis's camp ; that Robert Carr, orderly sergeant in Col. Davie's dragoons, came by stealth to McCreight's, had an interview with William Grey, who went the next day to the borough, counted the troops on parade, noted the means of defence, and everything necessary to be known, and reported the same to Carr. Grey anxiously awaited the attack, but the British position and force were too strong for any force the men of Chester could raise.
The Rev. William Martin, a Covenanter, preached occa- sionally at the Jackson's Creek church. He was a warm Whig, and did not scruple to use his influence in the cause of the colonists. The hand of power was laid on him, and he
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REMINISCENCES OF MRS. MARY BARKLEY.
1780-1790.]
had been confined in prison at Rocky Mount and Camden since early in June. He was now brought before Lord Corn- wallis at Winnsboro. He stood before him erect, with his gray locks uncovered, his eyes fixed on liis lordship, and liis coun- tenance marked with frankness and benevolence. "You are charged, " says his lordship, "with preaching rebellion from the pulpit -- you, an old man, and a minister of the gospel of peace, with advocating rebellion against your lawful sover- eign, King George the III. ! What have you to say in your defence ?" Nothing daunted, he is reported to have replied, "I am happy to appear before you. For many months I have been held in chains for preaching what I believe to be the truth. As to King George, I owe him nothing but good will. I am not unacquainted with his private character. I was raised in Scotland ; educated in its literary and theologi- cal schools ; was settled in Ireland, where I spent the prime of my days, and .emigrated to this country seven years ago. As a king, he was bound to protect his subjects in the enjoy- ment of their rights. Protection and allegiance go together, and where the one fails, the other cannot be exacted. The Declaration of Independence is but a reiteration of what our Covenanting fathers have always maintained. I am thank- ful you have given me liberty to speak, and will abide your pleasure, whatever it may be.".
Meanwhile other scenes were enacted. Lord Cornwallis was accustomed to take a morning and evening ride down the road. Colonel Winn, Minor Winn, and one other whose name is not recollected, concealed themselves in a thicket where Woodward's gin-house now stands, rifle in hand, in- tending to cut him off. They were discovered and appre- hended by a party of Tories, and were condemned to be hung (on a certain day) at twelve o'clock. Minor Winn took the sentence greatly to heart, and sent for the minister, Mr. Martin, to pray with him. He was under guard at the spot where Mrs. Barkley subsequently resided in Winnsboro, then in the woods. The British soldiers had cut down some of the trees for firewood, and had piled up the brush in heaps, behind which Minor kneeled in prayer, and was joined by the min- ister, and their exercises were continued, the gallows full in view, till the fatal hour. Mary Grey (Mrs. Barkley) stood in the door, expecting to hear the drum and fife, as the min- ister and lier political friends were marched to the gallows. Instead of this they were marched to Lord Cornwallis's head- quarters, and pardoned. Minor Winn was persuaded that this
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REMINISCENCES OF MRS. MARY BARKLEY. [1780-1790.
was an express answer to prayer, and was subsequently often taunted, in his days of frolic, with this forced repentance. Mrs. Barkley was persuaded that the act of pardon was due to the friendly offices of Col. Philips, whose life Col. Winn had spared, who in the old country had kept the race-horses of the father of Lord Cornwallis, and who assured his lordship that if these men were executed, a hundred of his majesty's subjects would be hung forthwith by the indignant people in retaliation. Philips was a man of wealth and abilities and of a compassionate heart. He was ever engaged in acts of kindness to his Whig friends and neighbors. He protected their property and interceded for their lives. He had known Mr. Martin in Ireland, and respected him. His Tory principles were the result of his education and his connection with the aristocracy of his native land.
After the British army had retired from Winnsboro he was left sole commander of the Tories in his district. He formed a camp at Caldwell's, not far from the Wateree or Mt. Olivet church. This Tory camp was a great nuisance to the com- munity, as they carried themselves with a high and lordly hand over their neighbors. They were at length surprised by a party of Whigs, and routed. Several were killed. One poor fellow fled to the loft of a house, was ordered down, but refused to obey. He was killed where he lay. The heart of neighbor was steeled against neighbor, and human life was held of little account. Philips was taken, trem- bling like an aspen, a pistol in each hand. He was taken to Camden, charged with many crimes perpetrated by his band, and condemned to the gallows. The Whigs of Fairfield, without an exception, united in a petition for his life, in consideration of his many acts of kindness shown to them, . and his sentence was commuted to one of banishment.
Another camp of the Tories was near where White's Creek falls into the river. Believing that the country was sub- dued, they were careless, not taking the precaution of station- ing sentinels. On a certain night they caroused and frolick- ed till near midnight, and lay down in conscious security to: sleep. A small band of refugee Whigs had been watching their opportunity, and crept up stealthily and carried off the guns- from the spot where they were stacked. To kill them would only expose their families and those of their friends to retal- iation. They therefore aroused them by a terrific yell, hav- ing first posted themselves around the camp. They then dis- charged their rifles and the guns they had possessed themsolvos
503
THOS. H. M'CAULE .- MOUNT OLIVET.
1780-1790.]
of. The Tories made for the Creek and swam across. The Whigs, after their escape, took possession of the camp, threw the fire- arms into the deep water of the creek, and before sunrise were making their way to the upper country.
While the British troops were in Winnsboro they were on their good behavior. They regarded Carolina as a conquered province, her people as subjects of the crown, and they wished to win their good-will. They consequently protected the people, and professed to pay for all they took ; but it was in certificates promising payment by the British crown. After they left, the spirit of dissension was rife.
Rev. Mr. Simpson, from Fishing Creek, preached at Jack- son's Creek for two or three years subsequent to the war one week day in the month, his Sabbaths being otherwise occupied, and it was at his church that Mrs. Barkley made her first profession of religion .*
In 1784 or 1785 the Rev. Thomas Harris McCaule received a call from Jackson's Creek and Mt. Olivet for his ministerial services, he having been appointed principal of the Mount Zion College at Winnsboro. This call was presented to the presby- tery of Orange, and was by them reported to the newly-formed presbytery of South Carolina, which, at its first meeting at Waxhaw church in April, 1785, left the call in the hands of Mr. McCaule for his consideration, he having become a member of that presbytery at that meeting by dismission from the pres- bytery of Orange. Mr. McCaule continued to preach, it is supposed, to these churches ; but in April, 1786, he delivered up the united call to presbytery, and received one from Jack- son's Creek alone. He signified his acceptance of this call for half his time at the fall presbytery in the same year. His compensation was at the rate of eight dollars per Sabbath.
From the preceding.it will be perceived that the WATEREE, or MOUNT OLIVET CHURCH, on the waters of Wateree Creek, on the road from Winnsboro to Rocky Mount, was already organized and united in a call to Thomas H. McCaule in 1784-5. There is evidence that William Martin, a Cove- nanter, had preached at the Wolf Pen, or Wolf Pit meeting- house, in this vicinity, previously, and that Rev. Daniel
* In 1792, Mary Grey married Hugh Barkley, an emigrant from the neigh- borhood of her native place in Ireland. The fruits of their marriage were two sons and a daughter: the first-born died in infancy, Major Samuel Grey Barkley, and Margaret Barkley, the latter yet survives. The above facts were gained partly from the lips of Mrs. Barkley, and partly from a nar- rative drawn from the same source, written by D. G. Stinson, Esq., of Chester district.
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MOUNT ZION SOCIETY AND COLLEGE.
[1780-1790.
Thatcher, then a member of Orange presbytery, had for some time preached in this neighborhood and Jackson's Creek alternately. Mr. McCaule, in April, 1786, delivered up the united call, as has been mentioned.
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