USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1 > Part 8
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MIDWAY is another church over which Rev. Mr. Cousar presided. It is named in the Assembly's Minutes in 1808, and had twelve communing members in 1809, when the Lord's Supper was administered among them for the first time. An account which we have received of it is as follows : "Sometime in September, 1801, the following named gentle- men, John Witherspoon, John Witherspoon, Jr., R. Archibald Knox, William McIntosh, Thomas Rose, Sr., Daniel Epps, John McFaddin, Thomas McFaddin, and Samuel Fleming, met at the house of Mrs. Mary Conyers to deliberate as to the propriety of organizing a Presbyterian Church in the com- munity. The result was favorable to such an organization. No documents are accessible informing us who organized the church. We only know that a church was organized, and
77
COLUMBIA.
1800-1810.]
1
that the two Witherspoons, aboved named, and Archibald Knox were its first elders. A plain building, costing no more than $180, was first erected On November 10th, 1802, the building was completed, and called Midway, because it was half-way between Salem (Black River) and Williamsburg Churches. The Rev. G. G. Mc Whorter, pastor of the Salem Church, on invitation, gave one-fourth of his time to the new church. He preached his first sermon in Midway October 22d, 1803, and continued to supply the church till January 1, 1809. The Rev. John Cousar, in March, 1809, gave to this church one-half his time, and to Bruington the other half.
[EPHESUS] CHURCH OR CONGREGATION .- On the 18th of March, 1803, " a supplication " was received " from a people on Tomb's (Tom's) Creek, in Richland District, requesting that they may be enrolled on our minutes and be known by the name of Ephesus, and be appointed supplies." [Minutes of First Presbytery, p. 48.] This request was doubtless attend- ed to by the Committee on Supplies. The appointments for general supplies are recorded but five times during this de- cade. Samuel W. Yongue supplied it by appointment three of these times. The neighborhood is about twenty or twenty- five miles from Columbia, in " the Fork " of the Wateree and Congaree, where now a different denomination prevails.
CHAPTER IV.
COLUMBIA-MR. DUNLAP. 1800-1810.
COLUMBIA CHURCH .- The death of the Rev. David Ellison Dunlap occurred, as we have seen (Vol. I, p. 596), on the Ioth of September, 1804, his wife and he dying on the same day, and being interred in the same grave.f We learn
+ Mr. Dunlap was licensed April 16th, 1793. was appointed, Sep- tember 25th, to preach at James' Island, John's Island and Wadmalaw, Fishing Creek, Ebenezer, Bethel, N. Pacolet, Milford and Nazareth, each one Sabbath, and at Lebanon, two. From Lebanon he received a call. In April, 1794, he was ordered to preach at John's Island and Wadma- law, Dorchester, Bethel, Lebanon, Fishing Creek and Nazareth, each one Sabbath, at Columbia four, and the rest at discretion. He was called to Columbia September 23d, 1794, and was ordained and installed June 4th, 1795, the Presbytery meeting in the State House, where his ordina- tion took place. (See Vol. I, p. 595.)
78
REV. JOHN BROWN, D. D.
[1800-1810.
nothing more of the congregation to which he ministered until 1810. It is not mentioned among the churches of the first Presbytery (either as vacant or otherwise), in the report made by this Presbytery to the General Assembly in 1808. There are two conjectures : one that it was never fully organ- ized under Mr. Dunlap ; another, that it had become wholly disintegrated as a church after his death. In the Act of the Legislature, passed December 19th, 1801, Rev. D. E. Dunlap, Rev. John Brown, and Rev. Samuel W. Yongue, and Thomas Taylor, one of the first elders of the Columbia Church, were named among the Trustees of the College of South Carolina, at that time founded. There were no other clerical members named. It may be that this denomination was, at this time, and had been before, more than any other, devoted to the education of our youth. Mr. Dunlap was present at the first meeting of the Trustees, at the house of the Governor. on the 12th of February, in the City of Charleston. At this meeting. the Rev. Jonathan Maxy, former President of Brown Uni- versity, and then President of Union College, was elected President of the College of the State, and the Rev. Robert Wilson, then Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Long Cane, was chosen the first Professor of Languages, an office which he did not accept, though afterwards he became Presi- dent of the University of Ohio. Rev. Joseph Caldwell was elected Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1805,but declined the appointment. The election of the Rev. John Brown to the Professorship of Logic and Moral Philoso- phy in South Carolina College, April 25th, 1809, was con- nected with the renaissance, or with the regular ecclesiastical organization of the Church in Columbia. The early history of Rev. (afterwards Dr.) John Brown we have briefly given in our first volume, p. 616. He removed to Columbia in the early fall of the same year, and the religious interests of the Presbyterians in this community, and those favorable to their doctrines and discipline, engaged his attention.
We were greatly in error in saying, in our first volume, that he was born in "Chester District." It appears that he was born in Ireland, in Antrim Co., on the 15th of June, 1763. His father, who was not blessed with the wealth of this world, with many others, availed himself of the " King's bounty," as it was called, by which he obtained a free passage to America, and a title to 160 acres of land in one of the
79
1800-1810.]
BETHESDA, OF CAMDEN.
Carolinas. He chose his location in Chester District, S. C., and lived to see his son John a distinguished minister of the Gospel. We have there spoken of the limited period of his school education, in all, but eighteen months, during a part of which time he was a schoolmate of Andrew Jackson. At the age of sixteen, as we have there said, he exchanged the groves of the academy for the bustle of the camp, and fought, under General Sumter, the battles of his country. Having improved his mind by private study, he put himself under the instruction of Dr. S. E. McCorkle, of Salisbury, N. C., and was licensed by the Presbytery of Concord in 1788. After this he was engaged in teaching, became pastor of the Waxhaw Church,and remained as such for some ten years .. At the time of his election to the Professorship in South Carolina College, he had given up the pastorship of Waxhaw, and had resorted again to his favorite employment as a teacher.
BETHESDA, OF CAMDEN .- Of the settlement of the town of Camden we have written, Vol. I, pp. 495-497. We have mentioned (p. 598) the statement of Mills-that there was a Presbyterian house of worship there before the Revo- lution. We did not mention the statement of Rev. Dr. Fur- man (Appendix No. VII to Ramsay's History) that the Pres- byterian house of worship was burnt by the British. The in- scription on the tombstone of Miss Smith, referring to her legacy, is spoken of (p. 497), as is also the ordination of Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, for Camden, and the preaching of Mr. Logue. But whatever outward demonstration of Presby- terianism there may have been, it seems to have disappeared.
During the year 1804, a number of gentlemen united in the laudable effort of building a Presbyterian Church on the site assigned by the founder of Camden for that purpose, and having finished the undertaking by voluntary subscription, the first act on record is the following, dated 12th July, 1803, viz :
Ist. Resolved, That the Society, for the purpose of inducing the Rev. Andrew Flinn to settle in Camden as the regular pastor of the congregation, will guarantee to him the sum of eight hundred dollars a year during his continuance to discharge the duties of pastor.
2d. Resolved, That if the assessment on the pews should not be sufficient to raise the above sum of eight hundred dol- lars, a subscription be opened to make up the balance.
80
BETHESDA, OF CAMDEN.
[1800-1810.
3d. Resolved, That the persons whose names are hereunto subscribed agree to carry the above resolutions into effect, and secure the above guarantee.
Signed-Isaac Alexander, Isaac Dubose, Wm. Lang, Joseph Brevard, Zick Cintey, John Kershaw, Abram Blanding, John Adamson, Jas. Clark, John McCaa, Ben Carter, Wmn. Parker, Jas. Mickle, John Kirkpatrick, Francis S. Lee, Saml. Bread, Jonathan Eccles, Henry H. Dickinson, Danl. Rose, William Huthison, James Young, John Trent, J. D Deveaux, Thomas Wilson, James W. Ker, William Cloud, Jos. H. Howell, Reuben Arthur, Alexander Mathison, Wylie Dangham.
At a meeting held the 6th July, 1805 of the Presbyterian congregation, at the Court House, Camden, Dr. Isaac Alex- ander was appointed Chairman, and Abram Blanding, Secre- tary. The names above enrolled being all present.
Resolved, That the congregation for the purpose of secur- ing the services of the Rev. Andrew Flinn, do hereby guar- antee to him the sum of eight hundred dollars per annum during his continuance to discharge the duties of pastor.
The Rev. Andrew Flinn, having accepted the call from the Church, entered upon the duties of the office on the Ist of January, 1806.
At a meeting of the congregation held at the church on the 20th of February, 1806, an election for Ruling Elders was held, when the following persons were duly elected, viz :
Isaac Alexander, William Lang, John Kirkpatrick, William Ancrum, James S. Murray.
Mr. William Ancrum having declined to act as Elder, Mr. Zebulon Rudolph was elected in his room.
Meanwhile Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Flinn, at the meeting of the First Presbytery of South Carolina, held at Zion Church (Winnsboro') on the 1 1th of March, 1806, presented a certificate of dismission from the Presbytery of Orange, by which he was licensed and ordained and was received as a member in connection with that Presbytery. At the same time " the Rev. Duncan Brown in behalf of a people in the town of Camden and its vicinity, petitioned that the said people may be taken under the care of this Presbytery, be known by the name of Bethesda of Camden, and receive sup-
81
1800-1810.]
ANDREW FLINN, D. D.
plies." The prayer of their petitioner was granted. Presbytery on the next day appointed the Rev. Andrew Flinn "stated sup- ply at Bethesda of Camden until their next meeting, and that he attend to the organization of that society." At their next session at Bethel, York, September 30 and October I. Mr. Flinn re- ported that he had acted as stated supply, and had effected the organization of the Society as he had been directed. At their next meeting, March 4th and 5th, 1807, the call from Camden was presented to Presbytery, placed in his hands, and by him accepted, and the Rev. William C. Davis was appointed to embrace the earliest opportunity to install Mr. Flinn as pastor of the congregation. The first of these dates are from the MS. account of the church by the venerable Jas. K. Douglas, written late in 1852; the last is from the minutes of Presbytery.
ANDREW FLINN, D. D.,
The Rev. Andrew Flinn was born in Maryland in 1773. His parents removed to Mecklenburg County, N. C., when he was little more than a year old. When he was twelve years of age his father died, leaving his widowed motner with six small children, and with stinted means. The extraordi- nary promise of his youth induced certain of his friends to encourage him to pursue a life of study, and to aid him in its prosecution. He prepared for the University of North Caro- lina under the instruction of Rev. Dr. James Hall and some others, where he graduated with distinction in 1799. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Orange some time in 1800, and his first pulpit efforts excited great attention. Hav- ing preached at Hillsborough and some other places, he accepted in January, 1803. an invitation to supply the pulpit in Fayetteville, vacated by the resignation of Dr. Robinson, where he was ordained in the month of June and installed as pastor. The labor of teaching, which he was obliged to add to those of the pulpit, proving too oppressive, he felt himself obliged to resign his charge and accept the invitation to Cam- den. He remained here till 1809, when his pastoral relation with the congregation of Bethesda of Camden was dissolved. A temporary arrangement for the supply of the pulpit was made with the Rev. W. Brantly, until a regular pastor could be procured. On the 16th of October, 1809, the Rev. B. R. 6
82
ZION CHURCH, WINNSBORO.
[1800-1810.
Montgomery was called, with a salary of $600. Bethesda, of Camden, was reported as having thirty-three communicants in September, 1809.
As our thoughts turn towards the Zion Church they pause for a moment on the locality of the GERMAN REFORMED PRES- BYTERIAN CHURCH ON CEDAR CREEK, and to the name of Du- bard, its preacher, at the period of the revolution. The organ- ization has long since passed away, and been superseded by one of another denomination, but the name of the ancient minister still remains, and was borne by A. F. Dubard, a Christian man of many virtues, well known and much appre- ciated, who was killed a few months since, in these times of misrule, by an assassin's hand as he was quietly returning in the evening on the public highway, from the town of Colum- bia to his own dwelling.
ZION CHURCH (WINNSBORO') had applied to be received under the care of the Presbytery of South Carolina in Octo- ber, 1799.
It had been agreed at the fall meeting of the Presbytery in 1798, that the Presbytery of South Carolina should be divided, and that Broad River, in its whole course to the Ocean, should be the dividing line between the two bodies thus constituted. The Synod of the Carolinas was to act on this proposition, at its impending meeting at Hopewell Church on tne 3Ist of October, 1799. This division was effected. The members on the northeast side of the river constituted the First Presbytery of South Carolina, and the members on the southwest side were to be known as the Second Presbytery of South Carolina. This action was taken by the Synod of the Carolinas, and The First Presbytery of South Carolina held its first session, as directed, at Bullock's Creek (alias Dan) on the 7th of February, 1800. At its second meeting, at Unity Church, on the 29th of September, 1800, Zion Church re- newed its petition for supplies. These occasional supplies, the first of whom is said to have been the Rev. Robt. McCul- loch, it was privileged to enjoy, and the administration of baptism to their children. Their next supply was the Rev. John Foster, who had been called in March, iSo1, from Salem Church, Black River, to the Presidency of Mount Zion Col- lege. He was employed to preach to them a part of his time, and this arrangement continued during the two years of his presidency.
83
REV. GEORGE REID.
1800-1810.]
On the 27th of September, 1805, a letter was laid before the First Presbytery of South Carolina, at its session at Richardson Church, endorsing a call from the congregation of Zion Church, for the pastoral services of George Reid, a licentiate under the care of the Presbytery. The confidence of the Presbytery in the ability of this young nian in matters of business, is mani- fested by their electing him their treasurer on the resignation of his predecessor in that office (Minutes, p. 43, 72) .* The call, on the next day, was put into the hands of Mr. Reid, and by him accepted ; but it appeared by an accompanying letter that the congregation had elected elders who were willing to serve, but had never been ordained. The Rev. Samuel B. Young, of Lebanon Church, was appointed to or- dain and install them in their office before the next regular meeting of Presbytery, which it was agreed should be held at Zion Church, Winnsboro'. The ordination of the elders took place according to appointment, and was duly reported. (Minutes, p. 79.)
These transactions occurred on the 28th of September, 1805, at a meeting held at Richardson Church. The next regular session of Presbytery was held at Zion (Winnsboro') on the IIth of March, 1806, and on the 13th, Mr. Reid was ordained "to the whole of the Gospel ministry, the ordination sermon being preached in the college by the Rev. John B. Davies, from I Thess., ii : 4, and after the rite of ordination was performed, " a suitable and pathetic charge was addressed to Mr. Reid and the congregation by the Rev. Andrew Flinn." (Minutes of First Presbytery, p 79.) In June, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was dispensed to this Church for the first time. Twenty-seven communicants and two elders united in celebrating the sufferings and death of their Lord and Saviour.f In 1807 their pastor left them." (MS.
* A two-fold delegation waited upon Mr. Reid, at this time, of men held in high esteem, one in behalf of the Mount Zion Society, which had elected him President of the College, and one in behalf of the con- gregation, expecting, between the two offices. to secure to him a com- petent support. At that time there was no division in the community, all apparently favoring the Presbyterian faith and order.
+ The communion was held in an outbuilding in Mr. Creighton Buchannan's yard (afterwards Mr. McMaster's), and was an occasion of great joy to the Church. Measures had already been inaugurated for the constructing of a church edifice; a suitable lot had been given as its site by Maj. Thomas Means. The corner-stone was laid in 1809, but the church was not finished until 1811. The Court House was the or- dinary place of public worship.
84
LEBANON CHURCH, FAIRFIELD. [1800-1810.
Hist. Session Book.) The record in the Presbyterial Minutes dates the dissolution of the pastoral connection by act of Presbytery, on September 29th, 1807. ( Minutes, p. 90. of First Presbytery of South Carolina.) At the same time, Mr. Reid applied for leave to travel out of the bounds of Presbytery for six months, which leave was granted. and Mr. Reid and Mr. Stephenson, who had obtained leave for one year. were furnished with certificates of their standing. The Zion Church was de- clared vacant, and John Foster was twice appointed by Presby- tery to supply it. Mr. Reid appears to have returned from his travels after a brief absence, and to have resumed nearly his former position in the community. The congregation were satisfied with him as a preacher, and those who had children and relatives in college, and the students themselves, recog- nized his abilities as a teacher. The Society in Charleston, however, withdrew their countenance from him. For a season he continued to teach on his own account in the col- lege, until notice was served upon him that another pro- fessor would be appointed. The trustees in Winnsboro' recommended Rev. John Foster, who was appointed a second time as principal in the school. The congregation, however, or the large majority of them, desired him to con- tinue, both as their pastor and the teacher of their children. As soon as it became necessary to give place to Mr. Foster in the college building, other and desirable quarters were procured for him, and he continued his usual labors in both capacities through the remainder of this decade. During the entire period of Mr. Reid's ministry, the general interests of religion prospered.
Mount Zion Congregation was incorporated by the Legis- lature December 20th, 1810. (Statutes, Vol. VII, p. 258.) An earlier incorporation had been made March 19th, 1778. (Ibid, p. 139.)
The Elders in Zion Church : James Beaty, elected in 1805, had been an elder in Mt. Olivet Church ; John Porter, elected in 1808, an elder elsewhere before; Wm. McCreight, elected in 1808, installed January 15, 1809, had been. an elder in Lebanon Church, Jackson's Creek.
LEBANON CHURCH (Jackson's Creek) FAIRFIELD was minis- tered to by Rev. Samuel Yongue, during this decade. We have been able to learn but a few facts pertaining to its his- tory. The two congregations of Lebanon and Mt. Olivet
85
1800-1810.] OFFICES IN CHURCH AND STATE.
remained united under his pastoral care. (See vol. I, p. 599.) Mr. Yongue's compensation from his churches was small, as it was wont to be at that time, and alas, still is with ministers, his family was increasing, and he sought and obtained the offices of Clerk of Court and Ordinary, whose duties, with the assistance of his family, he continued for a length of time to perform, and which enabled him to live in spite of the small compensation for ministerial services he received. His ab- sence from the meetings of Presbytery were, under these cir- cumstances, quite frequent. In reference to cases of this kind the Presbytery exhibited great solicitude, as it was faithful also in other cases in watching over the conduct of its members. On the 7th of October, 1807, we find the fol- lowing action recorded : Whereas the Synod of the Caro- linas at their last sessions, in consequence of an overture introduced through the Committee of Overtures, requesting their opinion respecting the propriety of ministers of the Gospel accepting and holding civil offices which divert their attention from their ministerial duty and bring reproach upon the sacred ministry, have expressed their disapprobation of such conduct and passed a resolution requiring those Pres- byteries where such instances are to be found, to adopt the most effectual measures to induce such ministers to lay aside such offices and devote themselves wholly to their ministerial duties. Therefore
Resolved, That the Rev. Samuel W. Yongue and the Rev. William G. Rosborough be cited to appear at our next sessions, that the Presbytery may enter into a conference with them with respect to the inconsistency of their continuing in those offices which they respectively hold.
Ordered that the clerk furnish each of those members before mentioned with a copy of this minute, accompanied with a citation to appear at our next sessions.
At their next session, held at Bethel Church, " the Presby- tery entered into a free conversation with the Rev. Messrs. Yongue and Rosborough, and, after some time spent on the business,
" Resolved, That the matter, as a general question of disci- pline, be referred to the General Assembly for their decision.
86
MT. OLIVET-HOREB.
[1800-1810.
" The question is in the words following : 'Is it inconsistent with the discipline of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that ministers of the Gospel hold any civil office under our civil Government ?'"
The Rev. William C. Davis, who represented the Presby- tery in 1808, reported that the General Assembly answered this question " in the negative, i. e., that it is not inconsistent." (Minutes of the First Presbytery of South Carolina, pp. 85, 88, 103.) The direct action on this case was to reaffirm the decision of the Assembly, in 1806, in the case of Rev. Boyd Mercer, of Ohio (who, being too infirm in health to discharge the regular duties of the ministry, devoted himself to the functions of an Associate Judge), that " there is nothing in the Scriptures, or in the Constitution, acts, or proceedings of the Presbyterian Church in these United States expressly prohibitory of such union of office." That decision, however, is accompanied with a caution to the clergy "against worldly-minded- ness," exhorts them " not to aspire after places of emolument or civil distinction ; " reminds them " that the care of souls is their peculiar business, and they who serve at the altar ought, as far as possible, to avoid temporal avocations." (Minutes 1806, p. 363 ; 1808, p. 399; Baird's Digest, p. 69.) Lebanon Church reported 120 members in 1810.
MT. OLIVET .- This Society, which had usually been called, from the stream near which it stood, the. WATEREE CHURCH AND CONGREGATION, requested Presbytery (the First Presby- tery of South Carolina) at the fall meeting in the year 1800, that it, in future, should be known on the Minutes by the name of Mount Olivet. It was a portion of the charge of Rev. Samuel Whorter Yongue. He was licensed April 16th, 1793, and supplied this congregation some two or three years. He received a call to this charge in conjunction with Lebanon, and was ordained in February, 1796, and became pastor here in 1798. The salary voted him, October, 1799, was £40 sterling for half his time. The full organization of the con- gregation, as indicated by the rules adopted by it, was in the year 1796. The first house of worship was a frame building, which served the uses of the congregation for about forty years.
HOREB CHURCH .- This church was formed, according to the recollection of the oldest member of the congregation who was living in 1850, about the time Mr. McCaule resigned
87
CONCORD-AIMWELL.
1 800-1810.]
the Presidency of Mt. Zion College and the charge of Jack . son's Creek; i. e., about 1791 or 1792. Its first elders, ac- cording to her recollection, were James Brown, one by the name of Boyd, and another, name not remembered. It is near Crooked Run, a tributary to Cedar Creek, and affluent of Broad River, and was first known on the Minutes of the Presbytery by the name of the stream, " Crooked Run." It requested, on the 8th of February, 1800, that it should be known by the name Horeb, and should receive supplies. It presented, through Presbytery, a call .to Wm. G. Rosborough for his services, September 30, 1800, simultaneously with Concord Church. On the 4th of February, 1801, Mr. Ros- borough was ordained by the First Presbytery of South Carolina (then holding its third session at Horeb), as pastor of the united congregations of Concord and Horeb, Rev. John B. Davies preaching the sermon from 2d Cor., iv., 5. Rev. Robt. B. Walker presided, and gave the charge to the pastor and people. On the 13th of March, 1806, Mr. Rosborough was released from his pastorate here, and the church declared vacant. The church was often called by the name of its first settled pastor, and is so named in Mills' atlas and map of the State. It was now dependent for some time on occasional supplies. Horeb Church is about eight miles south from Winnsboro.
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