History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1, Part 29

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 29


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MILFORD. This name does not appear on the minutes of esbytery during this decade. The same is true of the ffey Town congregation on Cuffey Town Creek in the per part of Edgefield District.


The GERMAN CHURCH on Hard Labor Creek is once men- ned in the minutes of Presbytery. August 28th, 1811, enry Reid, then a licentiate, was appointed to preach at he German Church." This was probably the continuation the Cuffey Town congregation made up of German emi- ants from the Palatinate who suffered such bitter persecu- ns in the preceding century and were settled in the old wnship of Hillsboro in 1760 and 1770. See Vol. I, p. 642. SMYRNA CHURCH, (Abbeville.) The Rev. Hugh Dickson still inistered to this church one-half of his time. "In their effort replenish their eldership, removed by death, the church ected Samuel Speece and Philip Stiefle who were inducted to office as their successors. They lived but a short time. wo others were appointed to take their places. They required me time for deliberation and before they had obtained their onsent, they both died suddenly without ordination. Two hers were appointed to fill their office, they died in like anner. This is mentioned as a singular providence. Robert edd was then appointed and continued to act through the llowing decade." (MSS. by Rev. Hugh Dickson.)


GREENVILLE CHURCH, (formerly SALUDA,) Abbeville. Rev. ugh Dickson continued the joint pastor of this and the last amed congregation. All things moved on in the even tenor f their way with few accessions until 1815, when 14 new hembers were added to the church. Prior to this, Edward Sharpe having died, Isaac Cowan was appointed Ruling Elder


19


290


ROCKY CREEK-CAMBRIDGE.


in his place. Shortly after this John Seawright and Samuel Agnew were added to the Session. (MSS. of Rev. Hugh Dickson.)


ROCKY CREEK now ROCK CHURCH. Supplies were ap- pointed for this church as follows : Wm. H. Barr, in 1810; Henry Reid, in 1811, 1812; Daniel Gray, John B. Kennedy and Hugh Dickson, in 1812, and John Harrison, in 1814. Most of these appointments were for a single Sabbath, some were for two or more. "The Rev. Henry Reid," says Rev. John McLees, now (in 1872) pastor of this church, "was li- censed by South Carolina Presbytery about the year 1810. He supplied the church occasionally until 1819." Another MSS. account says "We have no trace of its history left (i. e., after 1805) till 1810, when it was supplied by Rev. Henry Reid till :812." It was theu vacant for five years, when Mr. Reid returned and preached once a month during the years of 1818 and 1819. He left it and it was again vacant. John Blake, Thomas Weir, and John Caldwell were appointed Ruling Elders in 1818.


Old CAMBRIDGE, or NINETY-Six, is again without mention in the minutes of Presbytery during this decade. It still existed as a community of some importance. "The Cam- bridge Library Society " was chartered in 1816. About the time of the war of 1812 it rose again to some measure of prosperity. It was visited, too, by ministers of the gospel, among whom, according to the testimony of Mr. John Mc- Bryde, a resident of the place, and a merchant then engaged in business, were Rev. Mr. Dickson and Dr. Barr. It was visited, too, by Rev. Alfred Wright, afterwards missionary to the Choctaws, who was sent from the Missionary Society in Charleston as explorer,* who was followed by Rev. John Wheeler, afterwards President of Burlington College, Ver- mont, who came as a licentiate, in 1819, and preached both here and at "the Rocks," that is, Rocky Creek, or Rock


* "More than five years ago, Mr. Alfred Wright, while a student in the Theological Seminary at Andover, after serious and prayerful delib- eration, came to the resolution to devote himself to the missionary work, should Providence open to him the way ; but a failure of health has hindered him. After a residence, however, in North Carolina for two or three years, he found his health so far restored as to encourage him to commence preaching ; and for several months past he has been employed in missionary labors to good acceptance in South Carolina." [Report of the Prudential Committee of the A. B. C. F. M .. Sept., 1819.]


291


10-1820.]


HOPEWELL-WILLINGTON.


urch, from November to June. These men were sent by e Society of Domestic Missions, and the labors these and their successors resulted in the reorganizing of e church in this place early in the next decade.


HOPEWELL. (Abbeville) .- Dr. Waddell continued to preach this church in connection with Willington, at which place resided. In the midst of his successful career at the latter ice as an instructor of youth, and both here and there as a eacher of the gospel, he was called to the Presidency of janklin College, at Athens, Georgia. A door of wider useful- ss seemed open before him, and he requested a dismission om the Presbytery of South Carolina to the Presbytery of opewell, within whose bounds he had removed, which was anted him on the 17th of October, 1819, and the Hopewell hurch was again vacant. " The organization of a church at illington drew off some of the members of the Hopewell urch. The stream of emigration which set from this region the new countries in the West would have had a still more rious effect, had it not been for a counter-current which wed in from the lower part of the State. About this time, essrs. Stephen Lee, Andrew Norris, the Saxons, Pelots. stells, Wilsons, Parkers, Caters and Reids, moved in and led the vacant places.


WILLINGTON .- The circumstances under which the church aring this name was founded have been rehearsed already. was organized about the year 1813, and was composed ainly of members from Hopewell. Though useful here in e ministry of the gospel, the reputation of Dr. Waddell niefly rested on his success as an educator of youth. It was is which led to his election to the Presidency of Franklin ollege, a name by which the University of Georgia has been hown. His removal from this portion of his pastoral charge ok place, as has already been intimated, in 1819. "The hool was left," says the authority to which we have before een indebted, " in the hands of his nephew, Mr. Dobbins, ho sustained it but a short time. This Academy had been operation at this place nearly fifteen years, and its success as without a parallel in the country. How much this was wing to circumstances, or to that 'tide in the affairs of men,' hich being ' taken at the flood leads on to fortune,' we leave gicians to determine ; but its influence for good upon the ge is a self-evident proposition. The germs of lawyers, phy-


292


DR. WADDEL.


[1810-1820.


sicians, statesmen, ministers, &c., tented around that simple academic building ; and wayward indeed, even reprobate, must have been the youth who retained in after-life no im- pression of the genuine faith. the honest probity, and the sterling energy of his amiable perceptor. He was amiable notwithstanding the rigidity of his discipline. A vein of pleasantry ran through the rich, heavy quarry of his brain ; and flashes of wit not seldom illuminated the thunder of his brow ; yet though the luckless culprit might find in this a precedent for a smile, woefully deceived was he if he deemed that the rod of strict justice would be thus averted.


There was a manliness and boldness in his dealings which compelled the respect of even the worst ; and his warm appre- ciation of good conduct could not fail to secure the interest of the wise and studious.


Of the ministers who came forth from this school may be mentioned Richard B. Cater, D. D., J. B. Hillhouse, D. Hum- phries. James Gamble, Henry Reid, John Wilson ( Baptist), Rev. Daniel Campbell (Episcopalian), Rev. Thomas D Baird, D. D., of Cincinnati, and others not now remembered." [Mrs. M. E. D.]


There were times, too, when the Spirit from heaven moved upon the hearts of the students who resorted to him. He wrote on one occasion that nearly half of the members of the seminary, which contained at that time more than a hundred students, had been under serious impressions, and that up- wards of twenty were hopefully converted. [Panoplist for May, 1812.]


As a teacher, Dr. Waddel had been eminently successful. Dr. Smith, the learned President of Nassau Hall, in New Jersey, has repeatedly said, says Dr. Ramsay, that he re- ceives no scholars from any section of the United States who stand a better examination than the pupils of Dr. Waddel. Hist. II., p. 369. "Posts of honor and profit in this and the neighboring States are so common to Dr. Waddel's pupils," says Judge A. B. Longstreet, "that they might almost be considered their legitimate inheritance." But there were new responsibilities about to be imposed upon him. In 1818 he was elected to the Presidency of the University of Geor- gia. In 1819 he published the " Memoirs of Miss Catharine Elizabeth Smelt," a highly interesting and popular work, which soon reached a third edition in this country and at least


293


0-1820.] LOWER LONG CANE.


in Great Britain. He remained at Willington until May, 9. when he removed to Athens and entered upon the du- > of the Presidency.


' Dr. Waddel's accesion to the Presidency of the Univer- ," says Judge Longstreet, " was magical. It rose instantly a rank it had never held before, and which, we are happy add it has maintained ever since."


LOWER LONG CANE .- At the meeting of the Presbytery of uth Carolina at Fairforest, September 25th, 1812, a peti- n from Lower Long Cane congregation, formerly attached the Seceders or Associate Reformed, praying to be taken der its care was laid before that body. This church had ferred a request to Presbytery at a previous meeting held Duncan's Creek, 1812, for the ordination of Mr. Henry id, who, probably, had been preaching to them as a licen - te. The Presbytery regarded itself constitutionally barred m attending "to the spirit of the petition." perhaps because it church was not under its jurisdiction. "After mature iberation had thereon, the prayer of the supplication was anted and their elder Robert McCulloch was invited to a it in Presbytery." [Minutes of second Presbytery of South rolina, September 26, 1812.] The Presbytery seems to ve proceeded with some measure of caution. It "could not w the petition of Lower Long Cane in the light of a call m that people for the ordination of Mr. Reid as their pastor. t it appeared to be their desire that the ordination should ke place for that purpose. Upon the whole, taking into nsideration the peculiar situation of that congregation, they solved that should a regular call for Mr. Reid be brought om that people to Presbytery at their next stated sessions Ir. Reid having intimated that he would accept it) they buld proceed to his examination." A call was regularly esented at their next meeting and Mr. Reid's trials were tered upon. The Committee, Messrs. Andrew Brown, ugh Dickson and Wm. H. Barr. to whom his lecture and rmon were submitted, reported unfavorably upon them at a o re nata meeting at Varennes, April 30, 1813, as advancing octrines at variance with our standards, the symbols of our ith, and the word of God. I. As maintaining that the active bedience of Christ is no part of the righteousness by which sinner is justified. 2d. That justification appears to be xtended only to the pardon of sin. 3d. That temporal death


294


REV. HENRY REID.


[1810-1820.


constituted no part of the penalty of the covenant of works, and that eternal death is not included in the breach of the covenant. 4th. An universal purchase of redemption appears to be inculcated. 5th. That there is no absolute necessity of hearing the gospel in order to salvation. 6th. That the penalty of the covenant of works consisted wholly in spiritual death. 7th. That a fear of punishment and hope of escape will bring a sinner to Christ, though the enmity of his heart remains unsubdued. 8th. That a holy disposition of heart is a consequence of being sealed to God in the exercise of faith. 9th. The beginning of holiness is regeneration and follows faith ; faith consequently is not holy in its first exercise. From the whole the Committee perceived "the pieces to be in perfect unison with the " Gospel Plan" by W. C. Davis, which has excited and still continues to excites o much uneas- iness in our churches and which we believe to be fraught with injury to precious and immortal souls."


After the presentation of this report and its formidable array of divergencies from our standards of doctrine, " Mr. Reid was called forward, and after a lengthy and amicable conference, with some explanations, he disavowed" (as he had done previously at his licensure,") " the sentiments which were considered exceptionable." At a pro re uata meeting at Lower Long Creek Church, May 12th, 1813, Mr. Reid was ordained and installed, Doctor Waddel, presiding. Wm. H. Barr, preaching the ordination sermon, from Ezek. iii, 17. and a suitable charge being given to the newly ordained minister and the congregation. At the meeting the Rev. Alexander Porter, of the Associate Reformed Church, was present as a corresponding member.


In the minutes of the General Assembly, of May. 1814, Lower Long Cane was reported among the churches of the Presbytery of South Carolina, and Henry Reid as its pastor.


At the October sessions, Mr. Reid obtained leave to spend three-fourths of his time, till the next stated sessions, without the bounds of the Presbytery, it being understood that it was with the concurrence of the congregation over which he had been installed. On November 4th, 1814, Mr. Reid was dismissed from the pastoral charge of Lower Long Cane, and from the Presbytery, to join the Presbytery of Hopewell, and Lower Long Cane became vacant, and was so reported in the Assembly's minutes of 1819.


295


SARDIS-ROCKY RIVER.


0-1820.]


At the same time that this church applied to be received der the care of Presbytery, a neighborhood on the waters of ng Cane Creek applied to be received also as a congregation, d to be known by the name of SARDIS CHURCH, and was so ceived and entered upon the records. (Minutes Second esbytery South Carolina, pp. 176, 179.)


ROCKY RIVER .- The Rev. Dr. Waddell preached to this urch one-fourth of his time until near the close of 1814. the 29th of October, in this year, the congregation pre- red to Presbytery a call for three-fourths of the ministerial bors of Rev. James Gamble, who was a native of Virginia. t came into that neighborhood when young, and had been ensed and ordained sine titulo as we have before described. r Gamble continued in this relation through the remainder this decade. For about five years, from about 1816 to 21, Mr. Gamble had the Superintendence of a large school here several young men were educated who afterwards came ministers of the Gospel in connection with the Pres- terian Church, and some who attached themselves to urches of other denominations. About 1810, an addition is made to the session by the removal into the congrega- on of Josiah Patterson. who is believed to have been an elder Lower Long Cane In 1816, John Spear was elected to fill e vacancy caused by the death of John Caldwell. A. Giles d Thomas Cunningham were afterwards added to the elder- ip, but at what particular date is not known. During the st fifteen or twenty years of the present century, the congre- ations which assembled were large and crowded. After this eriod, from deaths and emigration to the West, the member- lip was greatly diminished .* The congregation has been mitful in ministers of the Gospel, and this has been the case


those congregations where piety has the most abounded hid where literary tastes have been formed or cultivated by pod schools and classical studies. Academic institutions nder religious influences have contributed largely to the apply of ministers of the gospel. (Letters of John Speer d A. Giles, Esq., of October and November, 1852.)


* " Forty-five years ago, I have no doubt,' says Mr. Giles, " there were least two hundred members. From removals and deaths, small rms have been bought up by large planters-who generally are a curse any community-[we suppose this to be said without any bitterness] e have dwindled down to thirty-five."


-


296


UPPER LONG CANE.


[1810-1820.


LONG CANE (Upper Long Cane), The Rev. Wm. H. Barr ministered to this people, serving them, to their great satis- faction, three-fourths of his time through this period. The old church building having become much dilapidated and decayed, subscriptions were opened in December 1813 for building a new house of worship. The subscriptions were made payable to Wm. Lesly, Hugh Reid, George Bowie, Matthew Wilson and James Wardlaw, trustees of the congre- gation or their successors in office. On these subscriptions a considerable sum was raised which enabled the trustees to contract for building the house, which was finished to their satisfaction. ("It was not finished, I think," says Robert H. Wardlaw, who furnishes these facts, "till about 1818, and is the same now, [June, 1852,] occupied by the congregation.")


Thus was business conducted with great harmony and to the general satisfaction of the members, by trustees appointed from time to time, without any by-laws, rules or regulations defining their powers or limiting their privileges till Septem- ber 20th, 1819, when the before mentioned trustees, after en- during all the fatigues and surmounting all the difficulties and bearing all the losses and privations attendant on the erection of the new building, became desirous of retiring, and called a meeting of the congregation on that day to elect another board of trustees ; but previous to going into the election they proposed to the congregation a set of rules and regulations which were unanimously adopted. The secular affairs of the congregation are still (1832) managed by a board of trustees, a regular succession being kept up by election every four years.


Between 1818 and 1824 the congregation purchased the church lands, containing acres from Patrick Duncan of Charleston, it being a part of what is commonly called "the Jew's land," raising the necessary amount by voluntary sub- scription. (MS. by Robert H. Wardlaw.)


It is due to the memory of one who from early life was an influential member of this church, that some memorial of one who was so distin- guished in war and honored in civil life should be here preserved. We allude to General Andrew Pickens, who departed this life at Tomassee, his residence, August 11th, 1817, in his 80th year.


The following interesting sketch, published many years ago in the Keowee Courier, will be read with especial interest :


A correspondent of the Unionville Times, under the signature of .'Up- Country." suggests that in filling up the niches of the capitol with busts


297


GEN'L ANDREW PICKENS.


10-1820.]


distinguished Carolinians, as is proposed, the claims of Gen Andrew ekens should not be disregarded. He says while "Gen. Marion and unter should have a place in the capitol, so should Gen Pickens, an -countryman, have one assigned him also." We agree with "Up- buntry" that the important services which Gen. Pickens rendered tring the revolution fully entitle him to this distinction. We make e following extract, giving information in reference to the life and rvices of Gen. Pickens, which will prove interesting to our readers:


"I beg leave to bring to the view of the good people of South Carolina, en. Andrew Pickens and some of his military services during our evolutionary struggle. He was of Irish descent, born in Pennsylvania d emigrated to South Carolina with his parents when a boy, and set- ed first in the Waxhaws. In 1760, before he was twenty-one years of 'e, he volunteered in Grant's expedition against the Cherokee Indians, here he received his first lessons in military discipline, with Laurens arion, Moultrie and Huger. He, carly in the revolutionary contest. ok sides with the Whigs and became a leader of the patriots


In 1779 ol Pickens, who then commanded a regiment of about three hundred id sixty men, pursued Col. Boyd. who had under him eight hundred bries. He overtook them at Kettle Creek, where a severe battle en- Med. Boyd was mortally wounded, seven of his men killed, and about. venty-five made prisoners, the remainder scattered to the winds. This as the first great reverse of fortune which the Tories met with, and of urse proved to be of great service in the cause of the patriots. Gen. ckens was wounded in the breast by a musket ball, while at the head his men at the battle of Entaw, and knocked off his horse-a wound carried with him in its effects, to the grave, in 1817. He captured ugusta from the British after they had held it two years, as "Lee's emoirs of the Southern Campaign" will prove. He fought at the ege of Ninety-six, and lost two brothers there." He fought at Granby. e ent Pile's men all to pieces one night, on Haw River N. C., and was ected in that State a brigadier-genera! to succeed Gen. Davidson, (who as killed at Cowan's Ford, on the Catawba) and was thus actually a igadier-general in both the Carolinas at the same time. Gen. Pickens ith his men, stood the onset of the British at the great battle of Cow- ens. In fourteen days he conquered the great Cherokee nation with- it the loss of a man, and made the celebrated treaty of Hopewell, in endleton, by which Anderson. Pickens and Greenville were obtained. e also fought the great ring fight, which perfectly subdued the Indians 'er afterwards.


"Gen. Pickens is one of the few officers who never drew a cent of pay r his Revolutionary services, as the roll of the comptroller's office will rove. After the war, Gen. Pickens held the first county court that sat nder the new laws, near Abbeville Courthouse. at the old Block House, id his son, Grovernor Pickens, then a boy of five years old, drew the rst jury. He was appointed by President Washington, with Gen. Jayne, to conquer the great northwestern tribes of Indians but declined ie honor. He ran the line between North Carolina and Tennessee, y an appointment from President Jefferson. He was also appointed > hold the Treaty of Milledgeville, likewise at Natchez, and indeed Imost all the treaties held with the Southern Indians, and was con- antly in service until 1794, when he was elected to Congress, which ien sat in Philadelphia At that time there were neither railroads nor tage-coaches-all traveling was done on horseback. Picture then, to ourselves, a man who is approaching his threescore years, of martial


298


LITTLE MOUNTAIN-BRADAWAY.


[1810-1820.


figure and dignified demeanor, mounted on a spirited milk-white steed, of pure Andalusian breed, whip in hand and holsters filled with a brace of pistols, the silver mounting of which glittered in the sunlight. A three-cornered hat, from beneath which grows the silvery-gray hair, put smoothly back and tied in a quene, an undress military coat, ruflled shirt, and small clothes and fair top boots, with massive silver spurs. Following at a little distance, on a stout draft horse, is his African atten- dant, Pompey, in livery of blue, with scarlet facings, carrying a ponder- ous portmanteau with a consequential and dignified air, showing in every movement the pride of a body servant in his revered master. Paint this in your mind's eye, and you have before you a gentleman of the eighteenth century, with his servant, on his way to Congress. Such was Gen. Andrew Pickens as he passed through our village in 1794.


"Congress, on the 9th of February, 1781, passed a vote of thanks to the officers and men who fought in the battle of the Cowpens, and voted Gen. Andrew Pickens a sword. The Legislature of South Carolina, in 1816, unanimously offered him the gubernatorial chair, which he re- spectfully declined from age and infirmities."


LITTLE MOUNTAIN CONGREGATION. On the 2nd of April. 1811, at the 23d stated sessions of the Second Presbytery of South Carolina, held at Bradaway Church, a neighborhood on the water of Spur Creek in Abbeville District applied to be received under Presbyterial supervision and to be known un- der the name and address of Little Mountain Congregation .* Minutes 2nd Presbytery, p. 158. On the 7th of April, 1812, they called Rev. William H. Barr for one-fourth of his time. which call was accepted by him at the next stated meeting of Presbytery, and he continued to minister to their spiritual wants as a portion of his pastoral charge through this period of our history.


BRADAWAY .- We have very few traces of this church and congregation in anything before us for the first two or three years of this decade. The Presbytery of South Carolina (down to that date the Second Presbytery of South Carolina) held its 23d stated sessions at that church the 2d of April, 1811, and


*It cannot now be ascertained whether the church had been regularly organized or not prior to 1811. It may be inferred that it was. Apart from anything authentic, the commonly accepted version states "that Dr. Barr preached under a post-oak tree, by the side of the General's Road," (which is still standing) "in the year 1806 or 1807." Notwith- standing it was an immoral neighborhood, and a regular "race ground" was kept, beginning at this tree, great crowds gathered under its branches to hear Dr. Barr tell "the story of the cross." It was not long, however, before a general desire pervaded the community to have a house of worship, which was built of logs and placed on the top of a very high hill, from which the church took its name as LITTLE MOUNTAIN CHURCH. [MISS. of Wesley A. Black. ]




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