History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1, Part 25

Author: Howe, George, 1802-1883
Publication date: 1870
Publisher: Columbia, Duffie & Chapman
Number of Pages: 774


USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1 > Part 25


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The history of the Presbyterian Church of INDIAN TOWN was much interwoven with that of Bethel through the ten years of which we write. They were united under the same pastors, and supplies, Daniel Brown, 1810-1815 ; John Covert, 1817, and Robert W. James, 1818. Of the two the Church of Indian Town was the largest. In 1812 Bethel reported to Presbytery 56 as the total number of communicants and In- dian Town 94. Afterwards their reports were joint reports and the total number of communicants was 164 in the united churches.


The united Churches of HOPEWELL and AIMWELL ON PEE- DEE were left vacant by the removal of Rev. Duncan Brown to Tennessee. See Vol. I, p. 118. Daniel Brown was appointed to supply Hopewell in 1811. On the 9th of April 1812, Daniel Smith a licentiate of the Presbytery of Concord was received under the care of the Presbytery of Harmony, and at the same meeting a call for two-thirds of his ministerial labors was received by Presbytery, and being tendered to him


*Thomas Witherspoon was the father of Rev. Thos. A. Witherspoon of Alabama.


249


1810-1820.] RLACK RIVER WINYAH-SALEM, B. R.


was accepted. He was ordained and installed at Hopewell Church on the 7th of January, 1813, the Rev. Daniel Brown preaching the ordination sermon from I Tim., iv: 16, and the Rev. George G. McWhorter, presiding and giving the charge. The remainder of his time he preached at the Aimwell church On the 26th of December. 1819. "the Rev. George Reid in behalf of the Rev. Daniel Smith applied to Presbytery for the dissolution of the pastoral relation between him and the con- gregration of Hopewell, in consequence of the continuance of his ill health whereby he was altogather incapable of discharg- ing his ministerial duties toward; them, and had but little prospect of recovering his health sufficiently to do so. `The application was granted and the pastoral relation was dis- solved. [Minutes, 283.] At the end of this decade the Aim- well church became extinct. The house of worship passed into the hands of the Baptists, who put it in repair about the the year 1850 to 52, and have preached in it occasionally since as a missionary chapel. John Witherspoon had left in his last will and testament the Lower Ferry on Lynches Creek to the church as long as it continued of the Presbyterian faith and order. Since the church organization has become extinct his family has sold the ferry to other parties. The communicants in the two churches in ISII were 67, in 1815, 77 in number.


The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BLACK MINGO, named in 1808 by Dr. Ramsay ( Hist., Vol. II, p. 25), as being one of the churches of the old Presbytery, and of which Rev. William Knox was pastor, must have been in existence during this decade, but we have been unable to find any items of history respecting it.


The minutes of the Presbytery make no allusion to the Church of BLACK RIVER, WINYAH, in Georgetown District during this decade. It probably had but a transitory ex- istence. The Rev. Murdoch Murphy, its former pastor, applied to Presbytery. December 27th, 1811, to be received again from Orange Presbytery, to which he had been dis- missed three years before. But he was now pastor of Midway Church, Georgia (p. 492).


The Church of SALEM, BLACK RIVER, by the removal of Rev. George G. McWhorter, became vacant, and on the 4th of March, 1811, petitioned Presbytery for supplies. The Rev. John Cousar, Rev. David Brown, Rev. John Brown, and Rev.


250


MOUNT ZION.


[1810-1820.


Andrew Flinn were appointed from time to time to visit it, preach, catechise, and administer the communion. On the 19th of May, 1814, the Rev. Robert Anderson, who had been licensed on the 10th of April. 1813, and had been sent to the church as a supply, was ordained and installed as their pastor, the Rev. Geo. Reid preaching the sermon from 2d Cor., iv 5 : " For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord," Rev. Daniel Brown proposing the questions and giving the charge to the pastor and people. He was a minister greatly beloved, and while he remained, discharged with great faith - fulness and zeal, all the duties of his sacred office ; but from motives of health he was forced to leave them. On the 9th of November. 1815, he was released from his pastoral charg: and dismissed to the Presbytery of Lexington, Va. The church was supplied by the two Messrs. Hillhouse, in the winter of 1816, and by Rev. John Joyce, in the winter of 1816 and 1817. In January, 1817, the Rev. Thomas Alex- ander, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Concord, visited Salem and preached to them till the April following. The people resolved on extending to him a regular call to the pastoral office. In April, 1818, he was received as a member of Har- mony Presbytery, a united call for the two Churches of Salem and Mount Zion was presented to him, and he was ordained (the first appointment having failed), concurrently with Rev. R. W. James, on the II of February, 1819, at the Bethel Church, representatives of both Salem and Mount Zion being present. Two elders, William Bradley and John Shaw* . were ordained in May following.


MOUNT ZION, IN SUMTER DISTRICT, owes its foundation to the efforts of three benevolent individuals, Capt. Thomas Gordon, Capt. John DuBose, and Thomas Wilson, Esq., in the year 1809. By an arrangement among themselves, Capt. Thomas Gordon furnished the whole of the Lumber for the


#On the 9th of June, 1810, the Presbyterian Churches of Medway, Salem and Mount Zion, met according to previous notice at Salem Church and organized the "Salem Auxiliary Union Society," whose object shall be to co-operate with the Bible Society of Charleston, also to aid the funds of the Missionary and Education Societies and the Theological Seminary at Princeton, each of the three last being inder the care of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States Of this Society Rey John Cousar was elected the President, Robert Witherspoon Ist, and Robert Wilson 2d Vice-Presi- dent, and Rev. Thomas Alexander Corresponding Secretary. ( Evan- gelical Intelligencer, September 11, 1819. )


251


CONCORD -- NEW HOPE.


1810-1820.]


house of worship free of charge, John DuBose gave the land. and Thomas Wilson raised a subscription of $400, for which Mr. Samuel DuBose agreed to build the church. In the year 1810. Rev. Geo. G. McWhorter accepted an invitation to preach to the congregation, and during that year preached from a stand erected for that purpose. Near the close of this year the church was completed During the years 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814, Mr. Mcwhorter preached to them one- half of his time in the new church. It receives its first men- tion, so far as we have discovered in the minutes of Presby- tery, on the 8th of April, 1813, when it was represented in the Presbytery of Harmony by William Carter, an elder. What was the precise date of its organization we are not able to say. The statistical table which is appended to this, the Seventh Stated Sessions of the Presbytery, gives Rev. Geo. G. McWhorter as the pastor of Concord, Mount Zion and Beaver Creek, and the number of communicants in this united charge as 102. The same report of the same united charge is made at the April sessions of 1814; the same at April sessions of 1815. Mr. WcWhorter left this charge about the beginning of 1815. It was dependent now upon such occasional supplies as it could obtain. As Rev. George Reid was appointed to supply Mount Zion, both in the year 1816 and 1817, it remained vacant during those years and until in 1818. it was united with Salem, under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Thomas Alexander. The three persons so active in the erection of the house of worship, Thomas Wil- son, Thomas Gordon and John DuBose, all left before the church was organized. Messrs. Robert Wilson, William Carter and John Fleming were the first elders.


Of CONCORD CHURCH, in Sumter District, we know as little. The same tables show us that it was under the pastoral case of Rev. Mr. McWhorter in 1813, 1814. 1815 ; that it continued so till May, 1819, is established by the Minutes of the As- sembly, which show that Mr. McWhorter was the joint pastor of Beaver Creek and Concord B. R. at that time.


NEWHOPE, was served still by Rev. Mr. Cousar. The total number of communicants, January II, 1811, was 28.


MOUNT HOPE, is mentioned as one of his churches in April, 1813. It may be another name for the same organization. Neither of these names appear after this latter date.


.


252


MIDWAY-CHESTERFIELD C. II.


[1810-1820.


MIDWAY CHURCH, which is on the N. E. side of the eastern branch of Black River or in what is now called Clarendon District or County, and BRUINGTON, which is south of the south western Branch continued to be the charge of Rev. John Cousar, Midway in January 1811, reported twenty members in communion, an increase of eight since the report in 1809. In the Spring of 1812, the membership was twenty-seven in number, eleven having been added and four dismissed. Bru- ington, which is now mentioned for the first time, is said to have been established in 1811 or 1812, during which year a house of worship was built and the Rev. John Cousar con- stituted its pastor. The same authority says it consisted at first of but five members, viz : Jane Nelson, James Nelson, Isabella Nelson, and Samuel Pendergrast. In the statistical report to the Assembly, under date of April 13, 1812, it had eleven members. In the two churches, thirty-eight. In the Spring of 1813, the united membership of Mid way, Bruington and Mt. Hope, is fifty-nine, of whom twenty-three were added during the preceding year. In the Spring of 1815, the total of communicants in Midway and Bruington was eighty-five, fourteen having been added. Neither New Hope nor Mount Hope appear any more.


CHESTERFIELD C. H. among the supplies appointed on the 13th of April, 1812, were those of Daniel Smith, who was di- rected to preach two Sabbaths in the Districts of Darlington and Chesterefild. On the 9th of April. 1813, Mr. McNeil Crawford, an elder from the congregation of Chesterfield, appeared in Presbytery and made known the desire of that congregation to place themselves under presbyterial care ; the application was acceded to, and Mr. Crawford took his seat as a member. At the same meeting, Rev. Colin McIver was released from the pastoral at charge of Saltcatcher congre ga- tion and was appointed to supply at least one Sabbath at Chesterfield C. H. On the 19th of May, 1814, Mr McIver was dismissed at his own request to the Presbytery of Fayette- ville into whose bounds he had removed, and on the 28th of October, a letter was received from him praying the Presby- tery to give permission to the churches of Chesterfield, Pine Tree and Sandy Run, to make their reports to the Presbytery of Fayetteville and to request that Presbytery to receive those reports and attend to the interests of those churches so long as a member of their body shall minister to them as their


253


LITTLE PEEDEE-RED BLUFF.


1810-1820.]


pastor. The prayer was granted. Before 1819, as appeared from the reports made to the General Assembly in that year, the Rev. John McFarland, also of the Presbyteryof Fayette- ville, had succeeded to the pastoral care of these churches, though Chesterville and Pine Tree are reported in the same minutes, as of the Presbytery of Harmony, and as being vacant.


Changes were also taking place which led not yet, but in the next decade, to the establishment of a Church known as the LITTLE PEEDEE.


This was found in what was originally a colony from Ash- pole Church in N. C. In their new home they did not neglect the assembling of themselves together, but met on Sabbath days at the house of Mr. John Murphy, one of their members, for religious worship ; sermons were read by Dugald and Duncan Carmichael, Esgrs., and by Mr. Murphy himself. Rev. Mr. Lindsay of North Carolina had occasionally visited them at their request. Afterwards, and during their religious services, the Rev. Mr. McDiarmid preached occasionally at private houses. These ministerial visits were between the years of 1805 and 1820. About the year 1815, the Rev. Mr. Caldwell of Concord Presbytery, preached in the house of Mr. Peter Campbell, while he, Mr. Caldwell, was employed as a teacher at Marion Court House. These religious exercises prepared the way for what supervened in the next decade.


RED BLUFF .- This church still belonged to the Synod of North Carolina, though in Marlboro' County, South Caro- lina. " The first meeting of Fayetteville Presbytery was held . at Centre Church, Robeson County, N. C., on the 21st of Oc- tober, 1813. The roll of churches is not given, but simply the roll of ministers. Red Bluff was doubtless one of the original churches, for soon afterward we find it supplied by the Rev. Malcom McNair, in connection with Centre, Ashpole and Laurel Hill. This date gives us a clue as to the length of time that Sharon existed as a separate congregation. It could not have been more than ten or twelve years.


THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, IN COLUMBIA, so far as our historical researches have yet discovered, although existing in some form in 1795, (see Vol. I, 595,) received its first and complete organization as a Presbyterian Church under Rev. John Brown, afterwards D. D., who had re- cently become a Professor in the South Carolina College. A


254


COLUMBIA.


[1310-1 320.


meeting was held early in the year 1810, at the house of Mr. Daniel Grey, at which were present Rev. Mr. Brown, Mr. Thomas Lind, Mr. - Becket, Mr. James Young, Mr. James Douglas, Mr. Daniel Gray and Mr. John Murphy. Having agreed to associate themselves together as a Presbyterian Congregation, they proceeded to the nomination of Ruling Elders ; and after consultation and conference on the subject, Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Murphy being nominated were elected by the suffrages of the members present at the meeting.


At a meeting held on the 15th of May, 1810, at the house of the Rev. Mr. Brown, the members entered into and sub- scribed a more formal agreement, and appointed the Saturday next ensuing as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer for the Divine blessing on the Church in general, and the newly formed society in particular, and especially for His blessing to await them in the celebration of the Holy Sacramental Supper of our Lord, which it was agreed should be administered in the College Chapel on the next Sabbath."


"At a meeting held at the house of the Rev. Mr. Brown, Col. Thomas Taylor, Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Murphy were or- dained Ruling Elders in the manner prescribed in the . Forms for the Government and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.'" [Old Records of the Presbyterian Church of Columbia. ]


This is the first communion of the Presbyterian Church in Columbia of which we have any record. Those who were present and participated in it frequently referred to it as a season of peculiar interest. The number of communicants was precisely the number of those who first sat down at the Sacramental Supper when it was instituted by Christ. Their names have been traditionally preserved, and it may be proper to record them. They are as follows: Mr. and Mrs. James Young, Mr. and Mrs. James Douglass, Mr. and Mrs. Zebulon Rudolph, Mrs. W. C. Preston, Mrs Chancellor Harper, Mr. David Grey, Mrs. James Lewis, Mrs. Dr. Brown and Miss Clementine Brown, afterwards Mrs. Golding, to which list must be added," says Dr. Palmer, from whose MSS. we are culling most of these facts, ' Col. Thomas Taylor. the Patriarch of the settlement, who subsequently became an Elder in the Church, but who then communed for the first time under circumstances of peculiar interest. This venerable gentleman, so justly revered as one of the Fathers of the


255


COLUMBIA.


1816-1820.]


Town, and of the Presbyterian Church, appears to have been through life a man of strong religious sensibilities. By edu- cation he was an Episcopalian, that being the church of his father. For himself, however, he had not been sufficiently satisfied with any existing church to attach himself to it. When on this occasion he saw the table spread in the Chapel of the College, and heard the free invitation given to God's children to celebrate the Redeemer's Passover in the Supper, his mind was powerfully affected. He had found the people among whom he was willing to cast in his lot, and yielding to the strong impulse of his heart, he went forward. Speak- ing with the emotions which mastered him, he bowed his head upon the table among the communicants, who were all happy that the Lord's Tabernacle was established among them. When the Elders canie around to collect the tokens, (which were then used,) being ignorant of the usages of the Church, he slipped a piece of coin into the hand of the Elder, who with a smile returned it. But though not exactly qualified as to Church form, he was not disturbed; all recognized his pious emotion as the true token that he was the Lord's disci- ple. This circumstance he often referred to in later years, when he had become an officer in the Church, and is now fre- quently spoken of by his few surviving compeers, who dwell with affection upon his memory ; which is the memory of a pure life and virtuous deeds." MSS. Hist. by Dr. Palmer, pp. 8, 9.


We have referred to this circumstance in Vol. I. p. 597, not being perfectly satisfied as to whether it occurred under the Mr. Dunlap or Mr. Brown's ministry. That Mr. Dunlap should have preached in Columbia nine years after his ordination without ever administering the communion of the Lord's Supper seemed to us somewhat strange. Then the sequence in the " old records." The meeting at the house of Mr. Grey early in 1810, their agreeing to associate as a congrega- tion, electing Messrs. Lindsay and Murphy as elders, the more formal subscription and agreement May 18, 1810, at the house of Mr. Brown, and their having a day of fasting and prayer before the communion, their holding a meeting at the house of Mr. Brown, at which the two elders before men- tioned and Col. Taylor were ordained, does not give a natural sequence of events, unless the communion in question was administered by the two elders, when as yet their ordination


1


256


DR. BROWN-DR. MONTGOMERY. [1810-1820.


had not taken place. There is no doubt, however, that the tradition, at the time of the writing of the history of this church by Dr. Palmer, was in accordance with his statement. And his conclusion was that elders were induced to come from neighboring churches to assist in the communion when administered by Mr. Dunlap. " Dr. Brown's useful labors in Columbia were terminated by the resignation of his office as Professor in the South Carolina College, which was on the first of May, 1811. He soon afterwards removed and trans- ferred his relations to Hopewell Presbytery, having been elected as President of the University of Georgia, established at Athens. His short stay was, however, pre-eminently use- ful, as by him the church was fully organized and a spirit was infused which has continued to this day." The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by the College of New Jersey in 1811.


At the meeting of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, at Columbia, in 1831, Dr. Brown was present as a worshipper in the church for the last time, and overpowered with emotion. alluded to the circumstances and scene of their first communion, in which he participated. Some of the letters written from Columbia while he was resident here and addressed to his friend, Dr. Flinn, are marked by that easy and flowing style, that childlike simplicity and that language of affection for which he was always so remarkable. Did our limits allow we would be glad to follow this good man through the remainder of his career. He resigned the Presidency of the University of Georgia in 1816, was twelve years pastor of Mount Zion Church, in Hancock County. when he removed to Fort Gaines and entered into the eternal rest on the IIth of December, 1842, in the Soth year of his age. "Our Apostle John," he was sometimes called, a man of guileless simplicity and universally beloved. Sprague's Annals, vol. iii., LaBorde's Hist. S. C. College.


The immediate fruits of his labors here were reaped by his successor, the Rev. Benjamin R. Montgomery, elected to the chair of Moral Philosopy and Logic, November 27th, 1811. " His ministration as Chaplain of the State Institution were attended by the people and he became as Dr. Brown, their quasi pastor." The members of the church being desirous of assuming a more regular form of connecting themselves more nearly with Dr. Montgomery as their pastor, held a meeting


257


COLUMBIA.


1:10-1820 ]


on the 19th of July, 1812, in the Court House, in the town of Columbia. Col. Taylor was appointed chairman of the meet- ing. At this time the following paper was drawn up : "We whose names are hereby subscribed, do hereby agree to asso- ciate ourselves into a congregation for religious worship, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Montgomery, and his suc- cessors, whom we may hereafter choose. Divine service to be performed according to the Presbyterian or Independent form of public worship. Signed by Thomas Taylor, Sr., Henry D. Ward, James Douglas, Thomas Lindsay, J. Smith, John Murphy, H. Richardson, Henry W. DeSaussure, D. Coattes, William Shaw, James Young, Abram Nott, Zebulon Rudolph, A. Mulder, James Davis and John Hooker. At the same meeting Col. Taylor, Judge Nott and Maj. Ward were appointed a committee to procure a proper place for building a church.


Thus far the members of the church and congregation had been accustomed to worship in the College Chapel, occupy- ing the galleries, while the body of the building was filled by the students. As the church grew in numbers this arrange- ment was no longer convenient.


When the town of Columbia was originally laid out by a Commission of the Legislature, a square of land containing four acres was reserved for a public burying ground in the southern portion of which interments were made.


At a later period, there being some dissatisfaction in the location of this public ground, an Act was passed in the year 1808, the same year in which the town itself was incor- porated, authorizing the sale of half this square as yet unoc- cupied by graves. The proceeds of this sale were to be ap- propriated to the purchase of another burial place. This was done and the surplus of money over and above the purchase was to be divided equally between the four denominations. The two remaining acres were appraised, were to be the property of the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians. It was not advisable that their houses of worship should be so near each other, and it was agreed that one of these denominations should buy out the rights of the other. Lots were cast to de- termine which of the two should buy out the other party and become the sole proprietor. The decision was that the Pres- byterians should hold the ground, extinguishing by purchase the just claims of the Episcopal Church. A contract was


17


258


COLUMBIA.


[1810-1820.


made on the 22d of June. 1813, for building a house of worship. The whole expenses of which, including what was spent in procuring the site, is estimated to amount to $8.000.


In the month of October, 1814, the Presbytery of Harmony met in Columbia and at this time the church was dedicated. We do not know what the services of dedication were. But the Presbytery was opened with a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Flinn from Revelation, 2:10. "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." The building at this time was in a miost incomplete state, being only enclosed and floored, but without pews and sashes. Rude seats were con- structed for the occasion, and the Methodist church was cour- teously tendered to the Presbytery for the services at night.


During the year 1815 the building was completed. In. October, 1817, a bell was added, the same indeed which now. calls us to worship. These first houses of worship in Colum- bia were not in the highest style of church architecture. which is now affected. The Presbyterian Church, like most of the others was of wood. It had two square towers sur- mounted by cupolas in front, and perhaps was rather more tasteful and aspiring than the other churches, though.it would appear not very imposing to the men of the generation. now coming on the stage of action.


Dr. Montgomery, though still the chaplain of the college. was permitted to officiate in the church, the students accom -. panying him from the Chapel. He continued to minister to. them, receiving from the people the stipend of $500; per an- num till the year, 1818. During the six years of his residence: and labors in Columbia, the leading incidents were the erec- tion of a house of worship with all its necessary furniture; the. gracious work of God's Spirit in the first year of his ministry' during which 36 persons were added to the church and the: election of a truly worthy and valuable elder. Mr. Thomas. Lindsay, one of the three original elders having removed to St. Charles, Missouri, Edward D. Smith, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy in South Carolina College was chosen to fill his place. About the first of the year 1818 Dr. Montgomery began to meditate a removal to Missouri, and the church having grown in size and importance, realized the want of a settled pastor whose whole time and talents might be devoted to their interests,




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