USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 26
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590
REV. HUMPHREY HUNTER.
[1790-1800.
Wilson, Henry Futhey, G. Bigham, Alexander Pettigrew, William Muldrow, junior, James Cole, John McRee, John Witherspoon, Thomas Canady, Robert Gregg.
The salary promised was £120 sterling per annum, or about $533.331 cents.
The Rev. Humphrey Hunter was born May 14, 1755, near Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, the native place of his father. His paternal grandmother was from Glasgow; and his maternal from Brest, in France, so that the blood of the Scot and the Huguenot mingled in his veins. His father died when he was in his fourth year, and he embarked at London- derry with his mother, on board the ship Helena, on the 3d of May, 1759, for Charleston, South Carolina, where they arrived on the 27th of August, a passage of three months and twenty- two days, a contrast quite to those which are now made by steamers between Europe and America. The family pro- ceeded in a few days to Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, where his mother purchased lands in the Poplar Tent congre- gation and remained for life. When about twenty years of age, he attended as a spectator the convention in Mecklen- burg, May 20th, 1775. In his account of the meeting pre- fixed to his copy of the Declaration of Independence, he speaks of the effect the report of the battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April, produced. "Intelligence of the affair speed- ily spread abroad, yea, flew, as if on the wings of the wind. No sooner had it reached Mecklenburg than an ardent, patri- otic fire glowed almost in every breast. It was not to be con- fined ; it burst into a flame ; it blazed through every corner of the country. Committees were held in various neighborhoods ; every man was a politician. Death, rather than slavery, was the voice, comparatively, of all."
Mr. Hunter went as a private in the company of Captain Charles Polk, nephew of Colonel Thomas Polk, who, with Colonel Adam Alexander, raised a regiment to march against the Tories embodied in the lower part of the State. After this, he commenced his classical studies at Clio's Nursery, un- der Rev. James Hall, where he remained for two years. His studies were interrupted for a short time by the campaign of General Rutherford against the Cherokee Indians. He col- lected a brigade to march against them. In one of the three companies of cavalry forming a part of the corps, young Hunter was a lieutenant under Captain Robert Mayben. The campaign was successful, the Indians were scattered, and their chiefs taken. He then resumed his studies at Queen's Mu-
591
REV. HUMPHREY HUNTER.
1790-1800.]
seum, or Liberty Hall academy, as it was afterwards named. But in the summer of 1780, this was broken up by the ap- proach of the British army under Cornwallis, after the sur- render of Charleston, and the massacre of Buford's regiment on the Waxhaw, and Dr. McWhorter, who presided over the institution, returned to New Jersey. Young Hunter again took up arms in defence of his country. A brigade was assembled at Salisbury under General Rutherford. For the first three weeks Hunter acted as commissary, and then as lieutenant in the company of Captain Thomas Givens. Hav- ing scoured the Tory settlements on the northeast side of the Yadkin, the forces of General Rutherford joined General Gates at Cheraw.
On the morning of August 16th, the disastrous battle of Camden took place, and the forces of Gates were routed. Gen. Rutherford was wounded and taken prisoner with many of his men. Here Mr. Hunter, soon after his surrender as a prisoner of war, witnessed the death of the noble and much- lamemted Baron de Kalb, the circumstances of which are described from his lips by Dr. Foote, in his Sketches of North Carolina, from whose pages we compile these notices .- (See Foote's Sketches, p. 424.) After seven days' confinement in the prison-yard at Camden, Mr. Hunter was taken, with about fifty officers, to Orangeburg, South Carolina, where he remained without coat or hat till Friday, the 13th of November. A kind lady offering to supply him with the garment so much needed, tempted him to pass beyond the lines, when he was met by a horseman, who ordered him back and goaded him on with the point of his sword. Passing a large fallen pine, he suddenly leaped the trunk. The horseman fired one of his pistols, missed his aim, and leaped his horse after him. Hunter adroitly leaped to the other side, and began throwing at the horseman the pine-knots that lay thick around. The second pistol was discharged without effect. The horseman was brought to the ground by another well-aimed knot, and dis- armed. Hunter returned the Tory his sword, on condition he should not make known that any prisoner had passed the line, promising himself to keep the whole affair a secret. The horse, however, galloped off to the station, with empty saddle and holsters, and his rider returned in due time with the marks and bruises of the conflict upon him. This led to the report that the prisoners had broken parole and attacked an officer, and orders were issued for investigating the matter. On Sun- day night, Hunter and others effected their escape by seizing
592
REV. HUMPHREY HUNTER.
[1790-1800.
and disarming the guard. He was nine nights in making his way back to Mecklenburg, travelling by night and lying con- cealed by day, and satisfying the cravings of hunger with green corn, gathered from the fields. Shortly after, he joined the army as a lieutenant of cavalry, under Col. Henry Hampton, and was wounded in the battle at the Eutaw Springs.
. He resumed his classical studies near Poplar Tent, in the school of the Rev. Robert Archibald, with whom he spent some years, and entered Mount Zion college, at Winnsboro, South Carolina, in the summer of 1785, which had taken the place of Liberty Hall, or the Queen's Museum at Charlotte. He graduated at this institution under its president, Thomas H. McCaule, on the 4th of July, 1787. Mr. Hunter appeared before the presbytery as a candidate on the 21st of March, 1788, and was licensed on the 15th of October, 1789 .- (Minutes, pp. 24, 35.)
Mr. Hunter was moderator of the presbytery at its meeting at Bethesda, in York, in September, 1795, and during the same meeting was released from his pastoral charge.
In the latter part of 1795 he removed to Lincoln county, North Carolina, and joined the presbytery of Orange, Decem- ber 24th. He became pastor of Goshen church and Unity, west of the Catawba, March 30th, 1796. He was released from Goshen in 1804, and became pastor of Steele Creek and New Hope churches in 1805.
Mr. Hunter, seeing the necessity which his neighbors were under of medical advice, and the death of good physicians, devoted some attention to medicine and prescribed remedies in cases of necessity ; and so successful did he become in these services, gratuitously rendered, that at one time the calls be- came burdensome and threatened materially to interfere with his ministerial duties. As a theologian he was orthodox and evangelical; as a preacher he was earnest, unassuming, and often eloquent. He possessed in a high degree a talent for refined sarcasm ; and his answers to triflers were as shafts from this quiver that pierced to the marrow. His benevolence as a minister and his tenderness as a neighbor forbade its use in his social intercourse.
His preparations for the pulpit were reading, prayerful meditation, and short notes. Though he never wrote his ser- mons in full, he was a close reasoner, classic in his style, and systematic in his method. His death was that of a Christian, full of comfort and with an unshaken faith. He died on the 27th of August, 1827, in the seventy-fourth year of his age ;
1790-1800.] SALEM (B. R.)-DR. REESE, REV. JOHN FOSTER. 593
and a suitable monument was erected to his memory by the people of Steele Creek church, among whom he died. Al- though his labors and his life extended through the first quar- ter of the nineteenth century, yet as his connection with the churches of South Carolina terminated in this, we have thought it proper to give this view of his life and labors, that his character and worth might be fully understood. We give all credit to Dr. Foote, from whose valuable sketches we have drawn, in an abridged form, the most of these facts, and in whose hands the needful documents were placed. Their truth, how- ever, is confirmed to us by his son, Major G. R. Hunter, who is a ruling elder in Aimwell church, Cedar Creek, Fairfield county.
The churches of Hopewell and Aimwell on Pedee, looked to presbytery for supplies from the early part of 1796, through the remainder of this decade; and J. W. Stephenson, John Foster, and John Couser were appointed from time to time to visit them.
SALEM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, on BLACK RIVER, enjoyed the ministerial services of Rev. Thomas Reese until the winter of 1792 and 1793, when he removed to Pendleton district. He was formally released from this charge, however, on May 26, 1792, at the intermediate session of presbytery at Hopewell (Pee Dee), when Mr. Hunter was ordained. A difficulty arose in the church, says Dr. John Douglas, on the introduction of Dr. Watts's Hymns. This was enhanced by a certain sarcastic jeu d'esprit in which Dr. Reese indulged ; and these may have been among the reasons of his removal, though his fail- ing health itself required a change of location. After him, a Rev. Mr. Snell, and Rev. Robert McCulloch, a licentiate of South Carolina presbytery, were occasional supplies, though the latter received a formal call from the congregation, which was declined. J. W. Stephenson and John Foster afterwards supplied them by presbyterial appointment. The latter, who was a native of " the Waxhaws," and who married the daugh- ter of Colonel Bratton, of York district, was the favorite can- didate of the disaffected, says Dr. Douglas in a letter, October 15, 1852, and preached often at their houses. But in Septem- ber, 1796, a call was forwarded to presbytery for Mr. Foster's. pastoral labors. His ordination and installation took place at an intermediate session, held at Salem, on the 4th of Febru- ary, at which Rev. J. W. Stephenson presided, and Rev. John Brown preached the ordination sermon. The Rev. Samuel W. Yongue was ordained at the same time and place, the ordi-
38
594
WACCAMAW .- MISSIONARY LABORS.
[1790-1800.
nation services at Lebanon, appointed for January 15th, hav- ing failed through stress of weather and swollen streams. The following elders were ordained by Rev. Mr. Foster, viz. : John Gamble, John Anderson, John Tomlinson, William Mills, John Shaw, Roger Bradley, Thomas Wilson, and George Cooper. .
Of the CHURCH ON WACCAMAW, see p. 282, we can find only the following notice in Bishop Asbury's Journal : "Thursday, - 24th, 1795. We came to Kingston, where we preached in an old Presbyterian meeting-house, now repaired for the use of the Methodists. I spent the evening with W. Rogers, for- merly of Bristol."
In 1794, one of the places at which Mr. Stephenson was appointed to supply was Bull Savannah, the neighborhood in which Midway church was afterwards organized, which was so long a part of the charge of Mr. Couser.
The central portions of the State seem to have attracted, about this time, the attention of the presbytery and synod. On the 1st of January, 1794, and again on the 23d of March, Robert Wilson, as missionary of the synod of the Carolinas,. preached at Orangeburg to "pretty large assemblies," and on the last occasion was the bearer of a petition to the presby- tery for supplies, " signed by a respectable number of gentle- men." On the 5th of January he preached at Turkey Hill, five miles from Orangeburg, to a considerable assembly, mostly of German extraction, who professed themselves' to be " Cal- vinistic Presbyterians." The request of Orangeburg and Turkey Hill to be taken under the care of presbytery and receive supplies, is recorded on p. 69 of the minutes of pres- bytery, and William Montgomery and Andrew Brown are appointed to preach for them. Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Dunlap were appointed to supply them in 1794; Mr. Kennedy in 1795, Mr. Dunlap in 1797; while the indefinite order " to supply vacancies," is given to other licentiates.
In 1786 measures were taken to locate a capital of the State as near as possible to its geographical centre. Commis- sioners were appointed by the legislature to lay off a tract of land near Friday's (or Granby) ferry, in lots of a half acre each, and to be divided into squares by streets of a prescribed width, for the establishment of a capital of the State equally convenient to all its citizens. The beauty of the site, and its superior salubrity, induced the selection of the spot on which Columbia is situated in preference to the town of Granby, three miles lower, on the Congaree, which, before and during the war of the Revolution, was a place of considerable busi-
595
1790-1800.]
COLUMBIA .- REV. DAVID E. DUNLAP.
ness. The State records were removed from Charleston to COLUMBIA in 1789, and the legislature met in the State-house, then newly erected, in 1790. In 1791 the State College was established by legislative enactment, and the central position of the infant capital, the advantages it held out as a place of education, the fact that it was at the head of navigation on the river, and the commerce which was attracted toward it, gave it a sure, though by no means a very rapid growth. A letter addressed to David E. Dunlap, recently licensed by the pres- bytery of South Carolina, from a number, of the inhabitants of the place, intended as a call to him to accept the charge of a church lately established there, was laid before the pres- bytery in April, 1794, but was sent back that it might be more fully conformed to the order prescribed in the form of government adopted by our church .* The place had been visited by Robert Wilson, of Long Cane, on his missionary tour. He preached in Columbia to a large concourse of peo- ple, on the 15th of December, 1793, and refers to the effort they were making to secure the services of Mr. Dunlap. They rightly said in their letter to Mr. Dunlap, that it was " greatly contrary to the interests of a young town to be growing up without the Sabbath day's observation." And that this was a prevailing evil at that time in this newly-settled place, is what the testimony of others leads us to believe. Mr. Dunlap was not ordained and installed till June 4th, 1795. The public service of ordination was held in the State-house. Robert McCulloch acting as moderator, and John Brown (afterwards D.D.), as clerk of presbytery ; the Rev. Francis Cummins (afterwards D.D.), preaching the ordination sermon from 2 Corinthians, v. 20; after which Mr. Dunlap was solemnly or- dained to the whole of the gospel ministry by fasting, prayer, and the imposition of the hands of the presbytery, and a charge was given to the young pastor and his flock by the moderator. In the call presented to Mr. Dunlap, one hundred and eleven pounds were named as having been subscribed to his salary, and more was expected. Mr. Dunlap divided his time for a season between Columbia and Granby, preaching at Columbia two-thirds and at Granby one-third of his time. He supported himself in a good measure from his own private resources, and the salary he received as clerk of the Senate .- (MS. History of the Columbia church, by Rev. Dr. Palmer. Minutes of presbytery, p. 81.) He was employed thus for three
* This letter was signed by Thomas Taylor and Benjamin Waring, and is dated March 20th, 1794.
596
REV. DAVID E. DUNLAP.
[1790-1800.
years preceding August, 1799. In October, 1799, a call was presented to presbytery by the people of GRANBY for the pas- toral services of Rev. George Reid, after which Mr. Dunlap devoted his whole labors to the congregation in Columbia. There being no church edifice, and but few public buildings in the place at this early period, he preached in the legislative hall; and there are persons yet living who speak of his gen- tlemanly manners and his gifts as a preacher.
In a letter to presbytery, dated October 22, 1799, Mr. Dun- lap excuses himself for his non-attendance upon its meetings, in part by his connection with the academy, whether as teacher or trustee does not appear. Thomas Taylor, James Taylor, George Wade, and Benjamin Waring were incorporated as trustees of the Columbia academy in 1795. A square of land had been granted to them in 1792, in lieu of which two squares of four acres each, to be selected by them, were now granted, in addition to the one on which they had erected their acad- emy building .- (Statutes, viii., 193.)
Mr. Dunlap died in September, 1804, and lies buried in the southeastern angle of the Presbyterian churchyard; the rec- ord upon his tombstone stating the remarkable fact of his wife's death on the same day with himself. "In death they were not divided."
IN Memory of the REV. DAVID E. DUNLAP, Aged 33 years and 5 months. Also of SUSANNAH, HIS WIFE, ·
Aged 30 years and 8 months. They both died on the 10th of September, 1804.
" O Death, insatiate archer, Could not one suffice ?"
Dr. Palmer seems to have regarded Mr. Dunlap's labors as " of a missionary character, the results not embodied by the organization of a church holding the views he inculcated ; but that they did bear indirectly upon the interests of the Presby- terian church as afterwards to arise. He stood forth as the representative of the church, and his ministrations, doubtless, served to rally those, who, in the utter destitution of Presby- terian preaching, might have been absorbed into the churches already organized."-(MS. History, by Dr. Palmer.)
Mr. Dunlap was the son of Samuel Dunlap, a worthy and much respected elder of the Waxhaw church; was a graduate
597
COL. THOMAS TAYLOR.
1790-1800.]
of Mount Zion college, Winnsboro; was received as a candi- date, under the care of South Carolina presbytery, in April, 1791, and was licensed to preach in April, 1793.
Of the Thomas Taylor, whose name appears conspicuously in the efforts to establish a Presbyterian church and settle a Presbyterian minister in Columbia, and who subsequently became an elder in that church (as did also his son, Governor Taylor, before his death), some mention ought to be made, though his religious history pertains chiefly to the following century. We first meet with his name in the journal of Wil- liam Tennent, during that memorable tour through the up- country, in 1775, which we have referred to, page 369. The deep interest he then took in the objects of Mr. Tennent's mission, the energy and wisdom he then displayed, and his fearless courage, marked him out, in Mr. Tennent's judgment and determination, for a military commission in the impend- ing conflict. The judicious arrangements he made, contributed not a little to the success of General Sumter over Wemyss, at Fishdam ford, November 11, 1780; the important services he rendered when left by Sumter to prosecute the siege of Fort Granby, which surrendered at last ostensibly to General Lee, the superior officer; the share he had in the engagement at Quinby's bridge, near Biggin church ; and other similar deeds, endeared him to the heart of the patriot. But more interesting to the Christian was the scene, when, trembling all over with emotion, of his own accord he arose, without having appeared before any meeting of the session, and took his seat at the Lord's table, and when the hand of the elder was held out to him for the " token," then required of communicants, not knowing the usages of the church, he placed in the elder's hand a piece of money,-thus casting in his lot, with such childlike frankness, with the Lord's people, was more touching than all. Whether this occurred in this decade or the next, it was the way in which "the patriarch of Columbia" united himself, under the effectual calling of the Holy Spirit, with the Presbyterian church, of which he was so honored and useful a member. To the last he loved that country for whose liberties he fought, and his heart sung praises to redeeming grace, when the " daughters of music were brought low" through increasing age.
In relation to CAMDEN and its religious condition we can add nothing to what we said on pages 495, 497. The name of Thomas Adams, there mentioned as a minister of the gospel, who died in that town in 1797, still lingers in the memory of one or two aged persons.
598
HOREB, AIMWELL, (CEDAR CR.) SION.
[1790-1800.
Mills tells us, in his statistics, what had escaped our recol- lection while writing what precedes, that there was a Presby- terian house of worship in Camden before the Revolution. It is the oldest inland town in the State, and may have had the occasional services of ministers of our church.
We find Presbyterian neighborhoods in Fairfield district, not before known on presbyterial records, petitioning for sup- plies. Crooked Run is first mentioned September, 1793. There was," says Mrs. Camak, now (in 1850), seventy-seven years old, " an old school-house, on Crooked run, in which Mr, McCaule preached. A house of worship was afterwards erected, which was a log-house and was eight miles eastward of the present site." This is recognized as a church and con- gregation in 1800, under the name of HOREB, called also Ros- borough's church, after the name of its first pastor. In October, 1799, a society on Cedar creek petitions for supplies, and prays that it may be known on the minutes of presbytery by the name of AIMWELL. In April, 1796, a people near the head of Wateree and Little river, petition to be taken under the care of presbytery, and to be known by the name of CON- CORD, and to have some portion of Mr. Rosborough's labors. We have seen, too, that the Mount Sion (now called Zion), congregation, in Winnsboro', was incorporated by the legisla- ture in 1787. In 1794 Winnsboro' asks for supplies, and Mr. Yongue is appointed. In October, 1798, Mr. Yongue is appointed to supply two Sabbaths at Sion church, and "ex- amine." A supplication from Winnsboro', praying to be noticed on the minutes by the name of Sion church, and to receive supplies, was read before presbytery, and the prayer granted, October, 1799. No house of worship was as yet erected by this congregation, but its religious services were probably held at the Mount Zion College. This institution was yielding noble fruits to the church during this period, and fulfilling the fondest wishes of its founders. William C. Davis and Robert McCulloch had been received under the care of presbytery in October, 1786, fresh from the walls of the col- lege ; James White Stephenson in April, 1787; Humphrey Hunter and James Wallis in March, 1788; Samuel W. Yongue, Joseph Howe, and David E. Dunlap were received in April, 1791 ; Robert B. Walker, William Montgomery, and John Foster in September of the same year ; William G. Ros- borough in April, 1793; John Couser in September, 1794. These gentlemen were in due course licensed to preach the
599
LEBANON .- MOUNT OLIVET .- CONCORD.
1790-1800.]
gospel, ordained to the whole ministry, and installed over the various churches to which they were called.
In September, 1792, Rev. Thomas H. McCaule was released from his charge at Jackson's Creek and Mount Olivet, and these churches appear on the records of presbytery for some time as vacant. JACKSON'S CREEK, OR LEBANON, was supplied as a vacant church by Mr. McCaule, Gilleland, and others. In April, 1795, it called Mr. Samuel W. Yongue as its pastor, and a meeting of presbytery was appointed to be held on the 13th of January, 1796, for his ordination. This meeting fail- ing, the ordination of Mr. Yongue took place, as we have seen, at Salem, B. R., in connection with that of Mr. Foster, on the 4th of February in that year. MOUNT OLIVET was united with Jackson's Creek in the pastorate of Mr. Yongue. Mr. McCaule, their former minister, received calls from his old charge, Centre congregation, Iredell county, North Carolina, and also from Savannah, neither of which was accepted. He was appointed, however, to preach at Sapelo, Maine, and at Savannah. He died previous to October, 1796 .- (Minutes, p. 92.)
CONCORD CHURCH, in the upper part of Fairfield, is situated on the main road leading from Winnsboro' to Chesterville, and is nearly equi-distant from the two places. Its site is an eligible one, standing directly on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Catawba and the Broad rivers. Concord was organized by the Rev. Robert B. Walker, and was taken under the care of presbytery in April, 1796. "A people, near the head of Wateree and Little river, petitioned to be taken under our care-to be known by the name of Concord church, and to have some part of Mr. Rosborough's labors till our next."-(Minutes, p. 87.) Prior to this date, the congregation had been accustomed to assemble at a " stand" or house of worship, some five or six miles southeast of the present site of the church, on the plantation belonging now to Edward B. Mobley, on the waters of Wateree creek. There were then no organization and no regular supplies. The congregation was occasionally and chiefly ministered to by Rev. Messrs. A. Morrison and Robert McClintock, ministers from Ireland, from the year 1790 to 1793. Mr. McClintock was the minister in charge, as appears from his own register of his preaching, which was regularly kept. He seems to have preached at Concord from November, 1785, to April, 1796, if not later. One of his sermons is marked as delivered there, October 26,
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