Williamsburg County, South Carolina - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 34 of those read), 1923

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 34 of those read)

The several churches in Williamsburg were usually sup¬ plied with ministers during the War between the Sections, but most of them were without regular pastors during the Reconstruction period and for many years thereafter. Few churches were able to support a minister during these trying times. Even as late as 1891, when the Rev¬ erend R. W. Spigner was first licensed as a local preacher and sent to the Salters Circuit, for two years he was the only white minister of any denomination residing within that more than three hundred square miles of territory between the Santee and Black Rivers in Williamsburg County. And then he was licensed only to preach the gospel - was not authorized to administer the sacraments or even to marry a couple.

Most of the heat and burden of religious labor for one or two score of years after the War was borne by saintly men and women and by local preachers and exhorters. The outstanding local preacher of Williamsburg, earnest, eloquent, effective, wrns Daniel Durant, who died in 1922, more than four score years of age. He preached the simple gospel all over this County and his preaching brought forth fruit an hundred fold. Some of the especially outstanding Christian men and women of this Santee section of this period may be mentioned, William J. Clarkson, Mrs. Elizabeth Lesesne, R. P. Hinnant, Jack Parsons, Bradford Keels, Dr. Robert Henry, and Dr. James M. Burgess. All other sections of Williamsburg had such beautiful char¬ acters as these named from the Santee.

The Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, the oldest de¬ nominational organization between the Santee and the Cape Fear Rivers maintaining continuous unbroken ser¬ vice, remained on its ancient and original churchyard on the eastern boundary of Kingstree until the new build¬ ing was erected on Academy Street in the town in 1890. In 1885, Mrs. M. L. Singleton deeded to the Williamsburg Presbyterian Congregation the one-half acre lot on which this new church was built. There is a limitation in this deed to the effect that "the said lot herein granted is to be used for church purposes and for none other." In 1913, this congregation replaced this frame church by the excellent brick building now used as its place of worship. The building committee was composed of Louis W. Gilland, chairman, H. E. Montgomery, secretary and treas¬ urer, W. R. Scott, E. C. Burgess, M. F. Heller, R. B. Smith,

Since 1866, the following ministers have served the Wil¬ liamsburg Presbyterian Congregation : Robert Bradley, William Banks, James McDowell, W. C. Smith, H. G. Gilland, J. E. Dunlap, E. E. Ervin, P. S. McChesney, J. W. Herndon, and John W. Davis. Mr. Davis was installed minister in 1920. In 1923, the Reverend W. C. Smith was living on his own farm at Reidville, South Carolina, all his faculties undiminished, and with physical strength sufficient, as he wrote, "to plough and weed corn." The Reverend P. S. McChesney in 1923 was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Anderson, South Carolina, and the Reverend J. W. Herndon was serving the Church in a city of West Virginia. All the others here named except the Reverend Mr. Davis, in charge of the Williams¬ burg Church, had been gathered to their fathers.

The Indiantown Presbyterian Church had as its stated supply from March 7, 1858, until March 26, 1867, the Reverend James R. Gilland. He was succeeded at that time by the Reverend James McDowell. In 1868, Dr. J.

S. Cunningham was elected and ordained as elder on the third Sabbath in June. Dr. Cunningham served as one of this session of elders for a great many years. He was living, hale and hearty, and a faithful attendant of Indian- town Church in 1923, when more than ninety-two years old. In 1873, the White Oak Church was disbanded and its property and membership became a part of the Indiantown Church. There were thirteen members who became thus a part of the Indiantown Congregation.

All through these dark days of the reconstruction period Indiantown Church continued its careful supervision over the individuals of the congregation. So often as a man strayed from the straight and narrow way he was sum¬ moned before the session of elders, where he either pro¬ fessed repentance and humbled himself in the dust before the congregation or was excommunicated. The sessional visitations were continued. The records show that on August 8, 1874, the congregation was divided into four classes for this sessional supervision. The first class was assigned to Elder Wilson, second to Elder James, the third to Elder Cunningham, and the fourth to Elder McCutchen. On May 31, 1878, the Reverend Henry G. Gilland became minister of this congregation.

On November 23, the folloAving persons were dismissed from the Indiantown Congregation for the purpose of uniting with the Lake City Presbyterian Church : J. T. Gaskins, Mrs. S. L. McCutchen, Mrs. T. M. Perkins, Wil¬ liam C. Brown, Mrs. H. H. Singletary, Mrs. S. G. Gas¬ kins, and the following children of Mrs. Singletary, John Duncan, Barfield, Lamar, and Virginia Vernon. The elders of the Indiantown Church at this time were J. D. Daniel, Colonel James McCutchen, T. M. McCutchen, P. D. Snowden, and Dr. J. S. Cunningham.

On August 24, 1889, the Reverend J. E. Dunlap became pastor of the Indiantown fold. Colonel James McCutchen died on September 25, 1897. He was born March 8, 1830, and ordained as ruling elder on November 6, 1853. It will be seen that he served on the official board of his church forty-four years. His son, Hugh McCutchen, was elected elder "in his room." Since Mr. Dunlap the fol-

Religiuos Denominations, 1865-1923 483

In 1917, the old Indiantown Church building, which had stood as a place of worship since 1835, was remodelled. It was raised about ten feet and below the main audito¬ rium twelve Sunday School rooms constructed of solid concrete. A modern heating plant for the Sunday School rooms and the main auditorium of the church was then installed.

Among the Presbyterian ministers who served Elon, Union, Central, and Gourdins in the long ago, old men now living remember Dr. Hampton DuBose, Dr. J. W. Flinn, Chalmers Johnson, and Augustus Henderson, John LaFar. Dr. Flinn was a young man when he preached in this County. Later he developed into one of the leading ministers of his denomination. For manv vears he was a professor in the University of South Carolina. Reverend W. I. Sinnott, formerly of Alabama, in 1923, was minister in charge of the churches at Union and Central and Lake City. He had been serving these congregations many years. Reverend R. H. Ratchford was minister of the Greelyville Church in 1923. Reverend Philip Pierson served Bethel Church from its dedication in 1858, until he died, while preaching in its pulpit, November 9, 1873. He was succeeded by W. B. Crawford, Robert Adams, R. D. Perry, A. M. Hassell, S. E. Bishop, W. H. Workman, and James McDowell, D. M. Clarke, and Dr. F. M. Hawley, Elders of this church in 1923 were G. W. Burgess, E. F. Epps, T. E. Duke, and R. C. McElveen, clerk of the ses¬ sion, who succeeded his father in 1906.

In 1923 the following were active Presbyterian Churches in Williamsburg County with the number of com¬ municants in each : Williamsburg, 285 ; Indiantown, 1 67 ; Union, 95; Central, 118; Lanes, 47; Greelyville (Mc¬ Dowell Memorial Church), 110; Bethel, 125; McGill

About 1880, Miss Caroline Simons, an enthusiastic mem¬ ber of the Protestant Episcopal Church, came to Kingstree as a school teacher. She was the only communicant of this church in the town of Kingstree until in 1882, through her influence, Bishop W. W. Howe conducted services in the county court house, and confirmed a class of four, composed of Mr. and Mrs. P. B. Thorne, Miss Minnie Porter, and Mr. Charles Porter. For several years these five communicants from time to time obtained the services of missionary ministers and "kept the faith."

On the 29th day of June, 1882, William J. Lee and Vir¬ ginia E. Lee granted to the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina "all that lot of land in Kingstree meas¬ uring and containing in width on the front and back lines one hundred and five feet and in depth on the said lines two hundred and ten feet, bounded on the north by a lot of John Dozier, south by Church Street, east by Hamp¬ ton Street, and west by land of W. J. Lee." It was pro¬ vided in this deed that no part of this lot should ever be used as a cemetery or place for the interment of the dead.

In 1890 St. Alban's Episcopal Chapel was erected on this lot and has since been used by the Episcopalians. In 1887, Miss Simons married M. F. Heller. Although a Presbyterian himself, Mr. Heller joined in with Mr. Thorne and they were largely responsible for the building of this place of worship. The same force of carpenters built St. Alban's Chapel immediately after completing the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. This Presbyte¬ rian Church donated the use of the pews of its old church to St. Alban's until St. Alban's secured some of its own. The Reverend E. C. Steele, Protestant Episcopal mis¬ sionary, was largely instrumental in the establishment of St. Alban's. The Reverends H. M. Jarvis, R. W. Barn¬ well, H. B. Bull, Dr. Robert Wilson, and Dr. Walter

Religiuos Denominations, 1865-1923 485

Mitchell were ministers of St. Alban's prior to 1922 when the Reverend John Ridout became rector. Messrs. Jarvis and Bull were resident ministers; the others named vis¬ ited the charge at stated intervals.

In 1922 the handsome rectory of St. Alban's Church was built and furnished. In 1923, the Protestant Epis¬ copal had only one place of worship in Williamsburg County, St. Alban's Church on Hampton Street in Kingstree, and thirty-one communicants.

On February 16, 1875, R. C. Logan conveyed to J. W. Staggers, W. J. Lee, and J. Marion Staggers, trustees Kingstree Baptist Church, a lot of land in the town of Kingstree immediately across Academy Street from the Methodist Church Parsonage, said lot two hundred ten feet on Academy Street, and one hundred fifty-five feet on Brooks Street in the form of a rectangle. It was expressly provided in this deed that no part of the lot conveyed should ever be used as a cemetery or place for the inter¬ ment of the dead. It was at this time that the Kingstree Baptist Church was moved from its old location on Main Street near Black River. This Church was used bv the

Baptists in Kingstree until 1913 when it was removed and replaced by the handsome brick structure, the home of the denomination in 1923. The Reverend W. E. Hurt was minister of the Church while this new church was being erected and the building committee was as follows : Dr. W. L. Wallace, M. A. Ross, W. R. Funk, C. M. Hinds, J. B. Gamble, G. F. Williamson, J. F. Rodgers, A. C. Swails, and S. C. Anderson.

In 1878, Dr. Robert Henry conveyed to J. M. Keels, E. R. Lesesne, N. T. Pitman, W. S. Varner, and J. W. Net¬ tles, trustees of the Mount Hope Baptist Church, four acres of land whereon the church stood at that time. This church served the people of the Greelyville community for many years and until it was moved into the town. There

In 1884, Mary Cade, Sarah E. Cade, and Charles W. Cade conveyed to H. J. Williamson, Jacob Rodgers, and C. W. McClain, trustees of the Midway Baptist Church, one-half acre of land in the present town of Cades, and the Midway Baptist Church was then moved to this new location.

During the past fifty years, the Baptist denomination has had a remarkable growth in Williamsburg. In 1923, there were fifteen hundred seventy-five members of the missionary Baptist Church in Williamsburg County and this denomination had the following active growing con¬ gregations : Antioch, Hemingway, Bloomingvale, Cades, Cedar Grove, Kingstree, Johnson ville, Lanes, Mount Tabor, Trio, Taft, Paron, Piney Forest, Piney Grove, Spring Gulley, Pleasant Hill, and Nesmith.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Kingstree used the building erected in 1853 as its house of worship until 1911, when it was removed and replaced by the handsome church now standing. At that time the Reverend W. A. Fairy was minister and the building committee was composed of F. W. Fairey, Chairman; A. C. Hinds, Secretary and

Hebron Methodist Church was built in 1874. W. E. Smith "for and in consideration of the love I bear for the Cross of Christ and for an earnest desire to promote His heritage on earth, I do give, grant, and by these presents convey unto W. D. Coker, Jesse Christmas, J. M. Kennedy, A. DuBose, C. W. DuBose, one acre of land on the East side of Long Branch and on the South side of the road leading by J. M. Coker's to Cades Turnout."

New Market Methodist Church was built in 1876 on land donated by G. D. Rhodus to W. R. Coskney, Joseph S. Cantey, William M. Tobias, Dr. James M. Burgess, and Gabriel D. Rhodus, trustees.

Concord Methodist Church was built in 1882 on land granted by D. Z. Martin to J. M. McCants, R. J. Morris, Charles Boyd, J. E. Timmons, Hugh Boyd, W. J. Jeffer¬ son, and William W. Boyd, trustees.

Prospect Methodist Church was built on one acre of land granted by James and Elizabeth Eaddy to William Johnson, James Snow, Edward D. Eaddy, B. H. Stone, and James H. Stone, trustees, on the sixth day of June, 1891.

Dr. Cleland B. Graham in 1901 deeded two acres of land to Jackson Gordon, Hugh Cooper, Sr., Thomas Pressley, Samuel McCutchen, William Morris, Benjamin Cun¬ ningham, D. S. Cooper, R. H. Cooper, trustees of Bethesda Methodist Episcopal Church.

S. E. Cade in 1901 donated one-half acre of land in the town of Cades to the following board of trustees for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, S. B.

In 1907 Orange Brewington conveyed to B. S. Smith, R. B. Marshall, and Lemuel Smith, trustees, one acre of land on which the church then stood for the use of the Elim Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1923 there were the following Methodist Episcopal Churches, South, active in Williamsburg: Kingstree, Trio, Suttons, Concord, Harmony, Greelyville, Lanes, Cedar Swamp, Elim, Beulah, Cades, Bethesda, Hebron, Pergamos, Workman, Mount Vernon, Salters, Heming¬ way, and Ebenezer. There were twenty-six hundred and thirty-eight communicants of this Church in the County.

It has been practically impossible to secure accurate sta¬ tistics as to the membership of the Free Will Baptist Churches of Williamsburg. There were probably more than twenty places of worship for this congregation in the County in 1923. They were all small buildings in rural dis¬ tricts and several of them had considerable congregations. A conservative estimate of the number of members of this denomination, growing out of careful study for the pur¬ pose of securing accurate statistics, indicates that there

Until the Constitution of the United States had been adopted in 1789, every person, man, woman, and child, who settled on land in Williamsburg, had been required to swear to and subscribe an oath that they were Protes¬ tants. The inhabitants of Williamsburg unanimously approved of this non-admission of Roman Catholics into the district. While the Constitution of the United States required religious freedom, public sentiment in Williams¬ burg continued strongly hostile toward Roman Catholics and much of this averse sentiment was existent in the County in 1923. There were, however, in Williamsburg in 1923 fourteen adults who were communicants of Roman Catholic Churches and twenty children who had been taken into this Church by baptism. Of these fourteen adults who were Roman Catholics, not one of them was born in Williamsburg County and only five of them were native born Americans. There has never been a Roman Catholic Church erected in Williamsburg County.

In 1923, there were twenty Hebrews in Williamsburg, still faithful worshippers of Jehovah, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. No Jewish temple has ever been erected in this County, but the Law that Moses brought from the summit of Sanai has ruled this land since Roger Gordon settled at the King's Tree.

This County has furnished a number of ministers and missionaries during the past fifty years, among whom were : Samuel Fulton, Presbyterian missionary to Japan ; Darby M. Fulton, the past thirty years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Darlington; J. Screven Brockinton, a Presbyterian minister in New York, who died about 1915 ; N. B. Clarkson and G. F. Clarkson, Meth¬ odists; F. A. Budden, now pastor Bethel Methodist Church in Charleston ; Ernest Epps, Methodist, serving on special board duty of his denomination ; Miss Leila Epps, daugh-

In 1923 the number of white church members exceeded the adult white population in Williamsburg. In the town of Kingstree there were only six white adults who were not members of a church, and every one of this six was a new comer into the municipality. These facts are remark¬ able. It must not be understood from all this that Wil¬ liamsburg has actualized the Kingdom of Heaven within its domain, even though it is a good place in which to live. It is very much like other American communities, not¬ withstanding its almost unanimous church membership.

Ministers of Protestant religious denominations have labored in Williamsburg continuously since 1736. With two or three notable exceptions, they have preached that the Bible is the sole source of revelation of God to man, and that its King James version, supplemented by Usslier's chronology, must be accepted verbatim et literatim et punetatim upon pain of eternal Death. They have pro¬ claimed the Roman triune divinity, making God synony¬ mous with Fear, substituting the pope and king created Christ for the merciful Nazarene, and declaring the Holy Ghost too much clothed in power for human contempla¬ tion. Their Trinity is an arbitrary Thing working its will on helpless man for its own glory; their Heaven is a jasper walled city where these three awful Gods receive after death certain immortal souls to praise them forever ; their Hell a lake of solid and liquid fire, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, into which are hurled the souls of those human beings who while on earth failed to please this awful Three.

Williamsburg ministers, almost without exception, have preached that this world exists only for life beyond the grave. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" has been the basis of nearly all of their sermons. From these selections from songs these minis¬ ters taught the people to sing may be gathered some idea of their theology : "This world's a wilderness of woe, this world is not my home." "What is life? 'Tis but a vapor. Soon it is vanished away. Life is like a dying taper. Oh! my soul! Why wish to stay?" "We should suspect some danger nigh when we possess delight." "Oh could we die with those that die, and place us in their stead; then would our spirits learn to fly, and converse with the dead. We should almost forsake our clay before the summons comes, and pray and wish our souls away to their eternal home." "I am but a stranger here, Heaven is my home. Earth is a desert drear, Heaven is mv home."

The Reverend Mr. Ervin, in 1830, recommended to Sam¬ uel McGill the singing of hymns instead of dancing as an amusement. Practically every minister who has preached in Williamsburg for the past century would have done the same thing. Their theology has made them preach that all human desires are evil and that the nearer a man can overcome them the purer his heart will be. Since these ministers preach the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of the origin and development of things, they have resisted strenuously everything along this line that biology, geology, and allied sciences have revealed. Prob¬ ably there is not in South Carolina in 1923 a denomi¬ national college president who would openly admit to a Williamsburg audience that the theory of Evolution is earnestly taught in his institution. Nor would any of them admit thus that India, China, Chaldea, Egypt, or even Greece taught the world anything about God.

These ministers of Williamsburg have talked a lot of Jesus Christ, but little have they known the Nazarene. In their pulpits, they have preached that monstrous god made by mediaeval papal and consistorial bulls. Jesus of Nazareth taught unmistakably of God in man, of Heaven here and now, and of worship as the love and ser- vice of humanity. These ministers have preached that the Devil is in man, that this world is a lesser Hell, and that true worship consists mainly in attending church, supporting its institutions, and paying tithes. From their pulpits they have never established the connection between Jesus of Nazareth and human life, although Jesus was the most intensely human personality of all the ages. The most passionate appeals revivalists have ever made were based on what is to happen to one after death.

A circuit rider in Williamsburg said the other day: "I was often unable to preach in three of my churches during last winter. It was so cold and these churches had no stoves for heating them." Not one of these churches has less than fifty members, and there is not less than three high powered automobiles owned by in¬ dividual members in each of these three congregations. There are ten members in each one of these three congre¬ gations any one of whom could have placed a stove in his church without considering the cost. Either these church members do not know Jesus of Nazareth or they are little concerned in promoting His cause.

Within the last few years, many men in Williamsburg have learned in spite of ex cathedra utterances that Jesus Christ is the most lovable character of the world and that His spirit shows the way, the truth, and the life. One of the most successful business men in Kingstree, a man of highest intelligence and most approved church standing, said the other day : "If every theological seminary in the country were burned to the ground and every book of theological learning abolished from the face of the earth, it would be easier to bring the world to a knowledge of Jesus Christ." This man was thinking of the Christ that he himself knew and of the monstrous god usually preached in Williamsburg as the only begotten Son of God.

A man naturally follows the customs of his fathers. Normally he accepts the religion that he finds and tries to work out his relationship with his God along established lines. It has always taken an unusually strong man to contribute something to religious life. The priesthood in all ages has been powerful and has not hesitated to use any means within its control to suppress and to destroy any individual who even attempted to approach God other¬ wise than he had been taught. Jesus Christ was crucified on Calvary because he showed the Sanhedrin a higher God than it had theretofore known. Since Christ was crucified, priests and sanhedrins in every age have crucified as far as they were permitted by the laws of the land every man who has dared to evidence a closer walk with God. Even so has it been in Williamsburg.

Almost without exception the ministers who have served in Williamsburg have been good men - far more human and divine than the mediaeval Christ they have preached. God only knows how earnestly they have labored and how much they have suffered - how often they have preached to vacant pews and looked into empty lard¬ ers. The Reverend James Wallace has not been the only one who has realized that the more fervently he has preached the more certainly his congregation has turned away from his god. Their yoke has not been easy nor their burden light. The general moral influence of their lives on Williamsburg has been good, for they have lived better lives than their doctrine could have made. They have practiced a reasonable religion, and men have learned the wav, the truth, and the life from their conduct much more than from their conversation. Their theology has been bad; their religion, good. Few of them have ever realized that active and productive faith comes only by way of understanding, and that the true God is best known to the man of the highest general mental development. Not many of them have ever touched the average normal man,

Many complaints from pulpits have been heard in Wil¬ liamsburg that so few of the "most promising young men" enter the ministry. The reason is perfectly clear to every¬ body but "orthodox" theologians. The very highest type of mind finds its supreme delight in the contemplation of God. The best young men of the age would enter the ministry if they did not know that ordination to the priest¬ hood means perpetual incarceration in darker prisons than mamertine walls can make. There were some of the "most promising young men" of Williamsburg in 1923 who were praying fervently for being allowed the privi¬ lege of preaching the Gospel, but whose divinely given honesty and intelligence absolutely prevented them from taking the required vows for ordination.

One of the most distinct outward evidences of the in¬ ward spiritual growth of the church members of Kingstree was the formation in 1921 of a denominational feder¬ ation in which the Protestant Episcopal, the Presbyte¬ rian, the Baptist, and the Methodist churches, all in town, united for the purpose of holding union services in one of the four churches on the first Sunday evening in each month. In turn, these four denominations worship to¬ gether at the several churches and the four ministers preach in order to these massed denominational congre¬ gations.

In 1921, the Baptist Church in Kingstree secured the services of the Reverend Frank C. Hawkins as its minister. Mr. Hawkins had just completed his theological course at Harvard, having learned of some of the leading men of this age. Mr. Hawkins began his work in Kingstree quietly and earnestly. He felt that Jesus of Nazareth was first of all a teacher, and that teaching God is the primary function of a minister. Mr. Hawkins taught his congre¬ gation that God is Love and that Love Law rules the

Universe. He taught his congregation the Christ that Peter and James and John and the lepers and the lame and the halt and the blind knew about blue Galilee. After about two years some people in Kingstree realized that Mr. Hawkins was preaching a more human Christ than they had theretofore known. These people could not understand the divinity of the Christ Mr. Hawkins preached. Whereupon, some of them began to declare that he denied the divinity of Christ and all other things religious teachers usually are charged with denying. The Reverend John Davis, minister of the Presbyterian Church, one of the four churches in the Kingstree federa¬ tion, asked his elders in official session, whether or not their church should withdraw from the Union on account of the "unorthodoxy" of this Baptist minister. When this was written, June 1, 1923, this Session of Elders had not withdrawn from the Union.