USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 21
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" He was born in the State of Pennsylvania, on the 25th of August, 1741. His parents were originally from Scotland. When they emigrated to the North American Colonies, they settled first in Pennsylvania, and lived there for many years till their children were grown. From Pennsylvania they moved to the Waxhaw settlement; thence to South River, in the present dis- trict of Laurens; and then to the south fork of Tyger river, Spartanburg district.
" He received a liberal English education, but when and where, I have no means of ascertaining at this time.
"He married Maria Mason, an English lady, in the city of Charleston, in the year 1772. Her father, Colonel Mason, emigrated to the province of Carolina a few years before the marriage of his daughter, and settled near the Island Ford, in the present distriet of Edgefield. He took an active part in the war.
" Major Anderson was engaged, for a long time before the Revolutionary war, surveying public lands for the colonial government. When the war commenced, fearing that his house might be burnt by the Tories or Indians, he prepared a niee buckskin and sewed up his plats, surveys, and claims against the government, and suspended them in a hollow tree in the woods, where he thought they would be secure. At the close of the war he went to hunt for his buckskin, when, to his great surprise and mortification, he found skin and papers cut and torn into innumerable fragments, lying at the root of the tree. In his great anxiety and care to secure from the Tories and Indians, he had forgotten the flying-squirrels. Thus was the labor of years lost. The government, afterwards, offered him thirty or forty negroes as a compensation for his services. Negroes then were not worth more than one hundred and fifty dollars on an average. He did not think such property valuable, much preferring the gold eagles, which he never obtained.
543
NAZARETH .- MAJOR ANDERSON.
1780-1790.]
" He held both a civil and military office under the colonial government. He received his commission as major of the militia at Newbern, North Caro- lina, the 6th of December, 1770. A large portion of the district of Spartan- burg, at that time, belonged to the province of North Carolina. After the Declaration of Independence, he resigned his office as major under the Eng- lish colonial government, and engaged actively in the war, sometimes acting in the capacity of a private soldier, at others, of captain and major. He was at the battle of Ninety-Six, and acted in the capacity of captain. During the action he planned and executed a manœuvre which gained him great applause, and terminated in chagrin and loss to the British. A portion of the British, at one stage of the action, were fortified behind a brick wall. He was ordered
to attack it, and did so, but without any success. The British, safe behind the wall, received no injury from their bullets. He ordered his company to cease firing at the top of the wall, and to shoot at its base. This soon had the desired effect. The enemy not only raised their heads above the wall, but got upon it, thinking that the Whigs were unable to reach them with their rifles, and frequently pointed with their fingers significantly to the base-as much as to say, you can't quite reach us. As soon as he thought the British were beginning to feel secure in their position on the wall, he ordered his company each to select their man, beginning at one end of the company and at the opposite end of British on the wall. At the command to fire, some fell inside and some outside of the wall, finding, to their surprise and grief, when it was too late, that they were not out of reach of the American rifles. He was at the siege of Charleston, Eutaw Springs, and at the taking of two forts at Augusta.
"He considered his life in more danger during the war when at home, than when in the army. The headquarters of the Tories in this section were near his house. He frequently pointed out to his children, after the war, a large oak on the river, in the thick branches of which he had lain concealed for days, and from which he had several times seen the Tories hunting him. His greatest bereavement during the war was the loss of his father, whose age and infirmities he thought would shield him from the Tories.
"Just at the close of the war, after the treaty of peace had been signed, they murdered Mr. Anderson, the father of Major Anderson. They shot him in his bed at night. They permitted his wife to escape, allowing her nothing but her night-dress to protect her from the cold. . She, that night, waded two rivers and came to the house of Mr. Crawford, the father of the late senator from this district, a distance of five or six miles. Janes Sillman, a lad of twelve'or thirteen years of age, was at the house of Mr. Anderson that night. They stabbed him in two or three places, scalped him, and threw him into a brush-heap, supposing him to be dead. He recovered, and lived in this com- munity to a good old age.
"They took Mr. Anderson out of the house, split his head with a tomahawk, and scalped him. They also burnt his house. The same gang also murdered another old man and his son near by, and fired the house of Major Anderson, who, with his family, was that night at Fort Prince. This was said at the time to have been done by Indians, but the community generally believed that Tories were at the bottom of it, if not the real actors, painted like Indians, and that Major Anderson was the principal one aimed at by the expedition. Mr. Anderson was quite an old man, who, because of his age and palsy, took little or no part in the war, but was a stanch Whig, and contributed in every way he could to help on the cause of liberty.
" When Major Anderson returned home from the fort, he lived for some time under his wagon-shed. His son, James Anderson, was born under the wagon-shed.
" He was a tall man, six feet two inches high, with black eyes and hair, of pleasing manners, hospitable, and very fond of company. During his stay at
544
NAZARETH .- CAPTAIN BARRY.
[1780-1790.
Ninety-Six, he associated with the families of the Britishi offieers. He was often heard to speak in terms of great respect of the wife of Col. Cregen- that she was a 'lady of the true English stamp, and although the wife of a British officer, a stanch Whig in principle.
"Capt. Andrew Barry was born in the State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1732. His parents were Seotch-Irish. His family were in good cireum- stances. A part of the company stopped in, now, York district, but Andrew Barry, Richard Barry, and John Barry, who were brothers, with Charles Moore, came to the Tyger river and settled above tlie confluence of South, and below the confluence of the North and Middle rivers. They all settled near to each other. This was between 1760 and 1765.
" Capt. Barry received a liberal English education, was six feet and one ineli high, and of powerful muscular strength. In his social intercourse he was a man of few words. When he was reached by the grace and mercy of God, and attached himself to the church of Christ, I have not been able to ascer- tain ; but his religious character is fully cvinced by the fact that he was ordained one of the first elders of Nazareth church. Such was the veneration of the congregation at this time for the office of elder, that they could scarcely find any they thought fit to fill it.
" About 1767, or'68, Capt. Barry married the daughter of Charles Moore, who became the mother of ten children.
" Soon after he removed to this place, he was appointed a Magistrate by George II., and discharged the duties of this office till the beginning of the war. He also held the office of captain of the militia from the same power. The principal battles in which he was engaged were the Musgroves and the Cowpens, but it is probable from the facts in my possession that he was in several skirmishes with the Tories.
"One of these skirmishes was that of Cedar Springs, where the Whigs were forewarned by the bold horsemanship and mother's heart of Mrs. Thomas, as we have before rehearsed, who had the satisfaction of saving, by her bold ride of fifty miles, her children from death, and her neighbors from defeat and surprisal.
" At another time, Capt. Barry raised a company to proceed against what was regarded as the headquarters of the Tories in his section. Some of those who had agreed to go with him lived in the middle and upper part of the con- gregation. They fixed their place of meeting somewhere near to Cashville. Each party, as they proceeded, were on the lookout for Tories, and expecting to meet with them. By some mistake they came together near where Mr. Andrew Pedan now lives, sooner than they each were anticipating. Each thought the other to be Tories and commenced firing. They were not unde- ceived, till Mr. Crawford, father of the late senator from this district, was shot. Mr. Crawford was killed by Mr. Moore, afterward Gen. Moore. Hc expired soon after he was shot-was brought back immediately to the church- carried by one of the party before him on his horse-and buried without coffin or shroud, liis grave being seareely two fect deep. Mr. Crawford was the third person buried in the graveyard at the church, the church being some few years older than the cemetery. Thic party to which Mr. Crawford be- longed first discovered their error and ceased firing by the trotting up to them of a large black dog belonging to Capt. Barry. This sad Providence remained as a thorn in the side of Gen. Moore as long as he lived. He never could think of it or hear it spoken of without shedding tears. Mr. Crawford left a ' widow and four children, the eldest of whom by perseverance and unremit- ting industry rose to a prominent position in society, having been twice a member of the legislature, and an elder also in the church .- R. H. R.
" Capt. John Collins was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1754. His father moved from that place to Rockingham, North Carolina, about 1760, where lie remained but one year ; thencc to the Tyger rivers, in this District, two and a
1780-1790.]
NAZARETH .- CAPTAIN COLLINS. 545
half miles above the church, where he resided till his death. He was among the first that came to this place. The schooling which he received he obtained, after his father emigrated to this place, from Mr. Wade Hampton, who taught for several years in the community.
" He was six feet two inches in height, well proportioned, fond of company, and especially of a good joke. He was one of the trustees of the congrega- tion for many years, but did not make a profession of his faith in Christ till after he had passed the meridian of his life.
"He acted as captain before the war, and as a magistrate, for many years, after the war. As a magistrate, he did a great deal of business, for which he did not collect as much cost as paid for the ink and paper which he used.
" He died on the 4th April, 1841, and lies buried in the churchyard.
" The following brief sketch of the service which he rendered during the Revolutionary war was taken down from his own lips :
"A MINUTE ACCOUNT OR STATEMENT OF " SEVENTY-FIVE," BY JOHN COLLINS, A SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTION :- .
"First-I served at the Snow Camps, under Col. Thomas and Capt. Andrew Barry ; Col. Richardson was chief in command, being a six weeks' campaign. " Secondly-I served in the Cherokee war, under General Williamson ; John McElheney was Captain, being a six weeks' campaign.
" In seventy-eight I served in the Florida expedition, under Col. Brannan ; Capt. Palmer being in the service three months.
"I next served in March, 1780, as Captain, under Col. Jolin Thomas ; marched off to Georgia, and came under Gen. Williamson ; then sent by Gen. Williamson to Cubbert Creek; there commanded by Col. Purvis; then sent with a detachment by Col. Purvis as a picket guard to Spirit Creek ; remained there until Charleston was taken, in May. In June following, I joined General Sumter on the Catawba, near the old nation. I then returned home and raised more men; joined Col. Shelby and Clark, fought at the old Iron Works, or near that place ; next took Thicketty Fort, and next fought at Musgrove's mill. Carried our prisoners to North Carolina; returned again and joined General Sumter ; fought again at Blackstock's ford ; left that and joined Gen. Morgan, at Grindals' shoals; sent home to raise more men ; returned with twenty-four men the night before the battle of the Cowpens. The next engage- ment was at Watkins', at Endree, being a skirmish at night; met the same party next morning, killed part and rescued our own prisoners. Next at Bush river, under Col. Roebuck. I then joined Gen. Fickens and went to Augusta, to the siege of Greason's Fort ; had several skirmishes there. I next joined Gen. Twiggs, in Georgia; was sent under Maj. Car over the Altamaha ; there had two small skirmishes between Whites and Indians. Returned home in June, 1782."-(Sketches. by Rev. R. II. Reid, Pastor of Nazareth Church.)
After the Revolution the congregation erected a new house of worship in place of the small log-house in which they formerly assembled. It was a framed building, and was built between the years 1785 and 1790. Supplies were ordered for this church by the newly formed presbytery of South Caro- Jina, in 1785, '86, '87. Under these appointments Francis Cummins, Joseph Alexander, W. C. Davis, and Robert McCul- loch filled their pulpit from time to time.
Mr. Templeton was appointed to supply one Sabbath "at Tyger," in 1785. "Tyger River congregation" petitions for supplies, April 14, 1789. These may be different names for the
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546
NORTH PACOLET .- FAIRVIEW.
[1780 -- 1790.
same people. October, 1788, "Milford, a people in Laurens county, petition to be taken under the care of presbytery." Again they petition for one-fourth the time of Wm. C. Davis, Oct. 17th, 1788. Nazareth Church called, in connection with Milford, the Rev. Wm. C. Davis to be their pastor, and their call was accepted. Both he and Mr. McCulloch were gradu- ates of Mount Zion College, and were ordained at Bethesda, April 15, 1789. At this time the congregation had increased to thirty or thirty-five families .- (Minutes of Presbytery, and MS. History of Second Presbytery of South Carolina.)
NORTH PACOLET church was an offshoot from Nazareth and Fairforest. Of its original formation we have obtained no information. North and South Pacolet petitioned the pres- bytery of South Carolina for supplies in October, 1785. Joseph Alexander was appointed, April 12, 1786, to preach at Pacolet-James Edmonds, April 12, 1787. South Pacolet petitioned for supplies, October 9. W. C. Davis is appointed April 17, to preach one Sabbath at North Pacolet ; and James Wallis, in October, 1789. These notices indicate one or more congregations more or less organized in those localities and hungry for the gospel.
FAIRVIEW CHURCH is situated in the district of Greenville, on the waters of Reedy river, which is a branch of the Saluda. It is two hundred miles from Charleston, nineteen miles from Greenville court-house, and three miles east from Fork Shoal. It was formed in the year 1786. Five families -those, namely, of John Peden, James Alexander, Samuel Peden, David Peden, and James Nesbit-migrated from the bounds of Nazareth and settled in this neighborhood. In that year they formed their first association, and April 10, 1787, were taken under the care of presbytery. One of their earliest acts had been to erect a house for divine worship. This year, 1787, their numbers were increased by the addi- tion of three other families-those of John Alexander, David Morton, and James Alexander, senior, the father of John and James Alexander, all from Nazareth. They were about this time organized as a church, and the first sermon was preached by Rev. Samuel Edmundson.
" Mr. Samuel Edmundson was received on trial for licensure by Hanover presbytery, October 15, 1772, and was licensed, October 14, 1773, at Rockfish meeting-house. He soon re- moved to South Carolina, where he spent a useful life."- (Foote's Sketches of Virginia, second series, page 105.)
After this they were supplied for one year by Rev. John
547
1780-1790.]
LETTER OF WILLIAM ALEXANDER.
McCosh. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was first administered by Rev. Messrs. McCosh and Robert McClin- tock, and it was a season of great interest and solemnity. These gentlemen, however, were suspected of pelagianism, and the church for a season became divided into parties, but this division was of short continuance. The sacrament above mentioned is probably the one at which Thomas Peden, an elder in the Nazareth church, communicated, and for which he was censured by presbytery, as has been mentioned on a preceding page. James Alexander, senior, John Peden, John Alexander, and Samuel Peden were the first ruling elders in the Fairview church.
Greenville and Pendleton districts had been obtained from the Indians, and the inhabitants in that vicinity were few. Being near the Laurens line, several persons in that district assisted in the erection of the church edifice, and some few united with the church. The Pedens above named were the offspring of John Peden and Peggy McDill, who emigrated from the county of Antrim, in Ireland, in 1773. Mr. Peden had been a ruling elder in his own country, and was exceed- ingly attached to the Presbyterian faith. He first settled in Spartanburg. He had seven sons and three daughters. These last intermarried, one with an Alexander, another with William Gaston ; the third was twice married, first to a Morton, and upon his death, to one of the name of Morrow. Their families as they grew up became connected with the Nazareth church. At the opening of the Revolutionary war, the Tories broke in upon the citizens, and several, as we have before seen, were put to death. The survivors fled for a season to a place of greater safety, but were molested again by the same enemies after their return. Old Mr. Peden, with the younger members of the family, sought. a refuge in Chester district, where the aged patriarch and his wife departed this life with the bright hope of their heavenly inheritance. In the course of a few years all their children gathered around Fairview church, where they settled, with the exception of Thomas, who lived . and died in the bounds of Nazareth. Their large families com- posed no small portion of the church and congregation.
The following extracts from a letter of William Alexander to Rev. J. H. Saye, dated May, 1849, reveals something of the history and troubles of those times. He was brought up within the bounds of the Nazareth and Fairview congregations :-- "The church (Fairview), was made up almost entirely of Pedens and Alexanders. On the South Tyger and Ferguson's
548
LONG CANE .- FORMATION OF CONGREGATIONS. [1780-1790.
Creek were Tories. The colonel of Nazareth regiment was Colonel Thomas, I think ; Majors, Roddie and Smith, in the town part of Spartanburg ; Captains, Hughes and John Collins. These two went out after the ' Bloody Scout' on Ferguson's Creek. My uncles and my brothers, one of whom was a cap- tain, and the other a lieutenant, were in the battles of Cowpens, King's Mountain, Eutaw, Musgrove's Mill, and perhaps in others, besides some little skirmishes with the Tories. They (the Tories), plundered my father's house of everything, even of the clean flax that was found. The women suffered much from abuse. They were reviled, persecuted, and stripped of every comfort. They manifested as much fortitude in suffer- ing as the males did in fighting. There was a company of Tories that used to rendezvous mostly on Ferguson's Creek, and between that and the Enoree River, called ' the Bloody Scout.' My brothers John, James, and Joseph were in active service during the whole war. Joseph was Lieutenant at Cowpens and King's Mountain, and John was Captain at King's Mountain."
THE UPPER LONG CANE CONGREGATION OF PRESBYTERIANS IN ABBEVILLE DISTRICT .- Anterior to the Revolutionary war, there was but one settled clergyman of the Presbyterian denomina- tion in Abbeville district. This was the Rev. John Harris, of whom we have before spoken (p. 439), who had charge of a small society near the court-house, and preached to some others in different parts of the county. Immediately after the distressing and difficult scenes of the war, those citizens who were of the Presbyterian persuasion turned their attention to the interests of religion, and in order to procure either regular supplies or a stated ministry, formed four congregations in the bounds of the district, viz .: Upper Long Cane, Lower Long Cane (now Hopewell), Bull Town (now Rocky River), and Salu- da (now Greenville), which appointed commissioners from each to define and fix the boundaries between them ; who agreed to, and signed the following arrangement, viz. : " At a full meeting of the inhabitants between Saluda and Savannah rivers, at General Pickens's plantation, Wednesday, the twen- tieth day of August, 1783." [In the original record from which these extracts are made, a blank is left for the inser- tion of the purpose thus commenced, and a note is ap- pended stating that it was handed to one of the trustees, and by him to his successor, and not since heard of.] The commissioners, according to the tradition preserved and re- corded by Father (Hugh) Dickson, in 1853, were Patrick Cal-
1780-1790.] REV. ROBERT HALL AND ROBERT MECKLIN. 549
houn, Andrew Pickens, John Irwin, - McAlpin, and one other whose name is not recollected. Father Dickson, how- ever, locates this transaction as far back as the visit of Azel Roe and John Close, in 1771.
The war being over, people having returned to domestic tranquillity and a happy degree of peace, and the minds of people once more relieved from the irritating antipathies com- mon to war, as well as probably somewhat humbled and weaned from the world by the late awful calamities, and so providentially prepared for it, the supper of the Lord was ad- ministered at Upper Long Cane after a considerably long in- termission of such ordinances. This happened in the fall of 1784. The ministers who labored together on this occasion were the Rev. Messrs. John Harris, James Templeton, James Hall, and Robert Mecklin, probationer. It was a time to be had in remembrance, remarkable for the powerful presence of the divine Spirit with the word and ordinances of the gospel. On the Sabbath, and particularly on Monday evening, the audience were generally attentive and much affected .- (" Ma- terials," &c., by Dr. Cummins.)
After forming these congregations, as before mentioned, in the early part of the year 1784, two persons, one from Upper Long Cane and Saluda, and the other from Long Cane and Rocky River, were sent to the presbytery of Orange to solicit supplies, and the result of the mission was that Robert Hall and Robert Mecklin, then licentiates of that presbytery, came the following summer or fall, after the happy solemnity above described, and preached to these congregations, and calls were sent to presbytery for their services.
Meanwhile the presbytery of Orange was divided, and the ministers residing south of the southern boundary of North Carolina were set off by the synod of the Carolinas and formed into the presbytery of South Carolina, which held its first meeting at Waxhaw, on the 12th of April, 1785. To this presbytery the probationers above mentioned were dismissed. Mr. Mecklin, previous to his dismission from Orange presby- tery, had received and accepted a call from Lower Long Cane (formerly Fort Boone and subsequently Hopewell) and Rocky River ; and a call from Upper Long Cane and Saluda (now Greenville), was presented to the presbytery of South Car- olina for the labors of Mr. Hall. Mr. Harris was yet alive and active, and a leader in this call to these young brethren to the occupancy of his former charge. Mr. Hall was ordained by the presbytery of South Carolina, on the 27th day of July,
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550
LOWER LONG CANE .- GREENVILLE.
[1780-1790.
1785, at a stand on the middle ground between the congrega- tions of Upper Long Cane and Saluda (now Greenville). Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Cummins presiding, preaching the sermon from Ezekiel xxxiii., 7, and delivering the charges to the min- ister and people. Mr. Hall's labors were greatly blessed to both congregations .* To what is now called Greenville church, twenty members were added at one communion season. The elders in Upper Long Cane were Andrew Pickens, Andrew Hamilton, John McCord, Hugh Reed, and Edward Pharr, perhaps others. The elders in Greenville congregation are be- lieved to have been George Reid, Hugh Wardlaw, James Dob- bins, James Watts, James Seawright, Samuel Lofton, and per- haps John Lowry. They have many years ago (says Father Dickson) gone to their long-home.
Among the names in these two congregations were those of Shain, Reid, Lesly, Bowie, Pickens, Campbell, Jones, Watts, Rosamond, Seawright, Wardlaw, &c., a considerable number of whom were settlers before the Indian war, and the greater part actively sustained the cause of American independence.
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