NAZARETH ON THE BEAVERDAM PRESBYTERIAN CEMETERY, Anderson County, SC A.K.A. Townville Presbyterian (1877) Version 2.3, 21-Jan-16, A193.TXT, A193 **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula Seneca, SC, USA Anderson County SC GenWeb Coordinator Anderson County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.sciway3.net/scgenweb/anderson-county/ **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Mar-2004 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Mar-2004 G.P.S. MAPPING . : Gary L. Flynn at (visit above website) in Mar-2004 HISTORY WRITE-UP : ____________ at ____________ in _______ IMAGES ......... : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Mar-2004 LOCATION WRITE-UP: ____________ at ____________ in _______ TRANSCRIPTION .. : ____________ at ____________ in _______ **************************************************************** CEMETERY LOCATION: ------------------ > Latitude N 34 32.152 x Longitude W 82 55.503 CHURCH/CEMETERY HISTORY: ------------------------ 4-34 Roadside Marker: Side 1 This is the first know site of Townville Presbyterian Church, founded in this area in 1803 as Nazareth on the Beaverdam Presbyterian Church. The church held its services at members homes until 1849, when the congregation purchased a frame building and half-acre site here for $1.50. Side 2 In 1877, the congregation built a new sanctuary in Townville, 2.5 miles west. The church was renamed Townville Presbyterian Church in 1885. The cemetery includes the graves of many early church families. In 2002, the Stevenson family donated this site to the Old Nazareth Cemetery Preservation Organization. -------- They Brought Us The Word Anniversaries, and history, are what you make of them. Most of our church histories tell us that in 1940, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of our church. Indeed, Vol. III of the History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, edited by Drs. F. D. Jones and W. H. Mills and written by Dr. W. S. Bean, supports this. The book, which covers, the period from 1850 to 1925, when the book was published, says our church was organized as Nazareth on Beaverdam in 1840. Even some of our own church histories say that on one page, but on another quote a history of Anderson County saying it was organized in 1803. Some sources say it was REORGANIZED in 1840. But "reorganized," by definition, means something came before. And, yes, we have proof that 1840 was a milestone, not a beginning. If we could but talk with Benjamin Bonneau Harris, whom our Session minutes record as having been baptized in 1811 and whose remains lie in our cemetery, we would get a truer picture of our church's early days. If we could but talk with his son, John Caldwell Calhoun Harris, who also rests in our cemetery, we might sweep some of time's cobwebs from our church history. But wait! We have John C. C. Harris' written word, in Townville Presbyterian Church Session minutes on file at the Historical Foundation Library at Montreat, N.C., that our church existed in 1829. He was our Clerk of Session when his father died Sept. 7, 1894. His entry after the Session met Nov. 11, 1894, expresses the Session's official sadness at the passing of "our oldest and most faithful ruling elder," saying B. B. Hams had been a member of the church for 65 years and had been an elder for 45 years. Elsewhere in that Session book are recorded B. B. Harris' baptism in July, 1811, and ordination and installation as an elder of Nazareth on Beaverdam, in July, 1849. So if B. B. Hams had been a member 65 years prior to 1894, that would roll our historic curtain back to 1829. And other evidence takes our story even further into the past. The Anderson lntelligencer newspaper of Nov. 29, 1877, reporting the dedication of what is our present sanctuary, said that "somewhere between 75 and 100 years ago, a small body of Presbyterians built a little house for their worship three miles from the present village of Townville and christened it 'Nazareth Beaverdam,' the appendage being the name of a creek close by." Beaverdam had been added to distinguish it from a Nazareth church in Spartanburg County. To be more specific in 1990 terms, our Beaverdam predecessor was located on the east side of Fair Play Road, 2.5 miles south of our present church, a tenth of a mile south of Jolly Road and 1.2 miles north of Route 243, on interior property now (2000) owned by the Stevenson family, behind the Vern Ramage family home. We know a little about that church property. The recorded Anderson County trust deed (Book 1, Page 71) tells us we bought the church building and the half-acre tract on which it stood on Jan. 3, 1849, for the good round sum of $1.50. That's the amount Salathiel Bradberry accepted for the prop- erty from Nazareth on Beaverdam trustees Matthew Martin and Samuel P. Hams and "their successors in office for the use of the Presbyterian Church at Little Beaverdam whereon said church now stands." Incidentally, the Salathiel Bradberry of the deed is probably the Salathiel Bradbury who is buried in Townville Baptist Cemetery, and the Salathiel Bradberry Jr., who married Margaret Fant on September 30, 1838. Margaret Fant was a daughter of James Reddish Fant, the great, great grandfather of Handy Bruce Fant, a member of our church now (2000) living in Gaithersburg, Md., at the age of 96. Vern Ramage told the author in 1990 that when his family built their home there in 1967, he was told that some stones at the rear of his tract were vestiges of the Beaverdam church foundation and cemetery. Some graves on the Stevenson property are marked with simple field stone. Others are more formal but illegible. But some can still be read. One is dedicated "To the memory of Mattie W. Dickson, departed this life June 29, 1869, age 89." Nazareth on the Beaverdam clerk of Session William Alexander Dickson's family history says his grandmother and grandfather, Mathew and Martha Anderson Dickson, were buried at Nazareth on the Beaverdam and that his grandmother died in July, 1869, at age 89. Another stone marks the resting place of Lucinda M. Gambrell, daughter of R. A. and Mary Gambrell, the apparent birth date being 1836 and death Nov. 16, 1850. Another is "Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Mary Sheldon, departed this life March 31st, 1868, aged 64 years and 3 mos." Hiram A. Herring lies there, born May 18, 1846, died April 16, 1879. So do Lucinda M. Harris (May 9, 1859-Oct. 12, 1862) and Cornelia F. Hams (May 28, 1863-Feb. 13, 1864). Samuel P. (for Pickens) Harris, a Confederate soldier and one of the Nazareth Beaverdam trustees who signed the deed Page 9 for the church, is there under a stone some of his 16 children erected. The inscription says "Here rests our father, Jan. 9, 1816-April 26, 1876 (or 1875)." The stone of Mary Pickens Hams (1810-Sept. 2, 1855) is there. Also legible are the stones on three Whitworth graves, Charles H. Whitworth (Feb. 3, 1790-April 22, 1874), his wife Rebecca H. Whitworth (July 2, 1793-July 18, 1876) and John R. Whitworth, a Confederate soldier born Feb. 24, 1824, died 1864. R. M. Smith's Book of the Dead also lists a Nazareth Beaverdam grave for S. G. Whitworth Harris, (May 19, 1793-July 1, 1874), describing her as the "relict (widow) of (War of 1812) Col. John Harris, father of Benjamin Bonneau Hams and son of Rev. John Harris." Col. John Harris' wife, according to the Hams family history at the Pendleton Historical Commission, was Sara Gillis Irving or Erving. Samuel P. Hams also was one of the colonel's sons. So, that was where our our ancestors heard the Lord's Word through the trying days leading to and through the Civil War before we moved into Townville in 1877. But when did it all start? To digress, the lntelligencer account of our present church's 1877 dedication was signed by "\V.A.D." Vandiver's History of Anderson County, as revised by R. M. Smith in 1970, says W. A. Dickson was "for many years a conspicuous teacher and newspaper correspondent from Fork Township," in which Townville is located. Elsewhere, Vandiver refers to Dickson as a "gifted teacher" and "forceful newspaper writer." This Dickson background is important because W.A.D. and W. A. Dickson are almost certainly William Alexander Dickson, a member and officer in our church. In 1902, two years before his death, he dictated a family history which his son, James Walter Dickson, took down stenographically. That document, on file at the Pendleton District Historical Commission, quotes W. A. Dickson as saying his grandfather, Mathew Dickson, and grandmother, Martha Anderson Dickson, and aunt, also named Martha Anderson Dickson, are buried in the Nazareth on Beaverdam Cemetery. So when he wrote in 1877 that our Nazareth on Beaverdam ancestor began operating "somewhere between 75 and 100 years ago," while perhaps exaggerated, was not an idle guess and could push our founding back at least to the turn of the 19th century. Indeed, the annual report of the Synod of the Carolinas, October, 1791, lists Beaverdam among vacant (i.e. without a pastor) Presbyterian societies in South Carolina unable to support a pastor. Dr. George Howe, who wrote the first two volumes of the "History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina" preceding the Jones and Mills volume, apparently quotes that report in his Vol. I and adds, "The locality is unknown." Perhaps that was our church's ancestor, but probably not, for we do have a specific date. That specific date is found in Howe's Vol. II description of the 1800-1810 period, and is confirmed in the minutes of the Synod in the Montreat, N.C., Historical Library. Those minutes say that On the 12th of September, 1803, "a society in the fork between Tugaloo and Keowee (rivers) known by the name of Nazareth on the Beaverdam desires to be entered on our minutes and supplied with the gospel (Minutes, page 162). Supplies (pastors) are ordered, viz: Messrs. (John) Simpson, (James) Gilliland Jr. and (James) McElhenny, in 1803, James Gilliland Sr., (Andrew) Brown and Simpson in 1804, Simpson and Brown in 1805 and 1806." Before going further, take note that the geography of "the fork" is a bit different these days, thanks to Hartwell Lake, and map-drawing custom. The Keowee of 1803 would be the Seneca of today (formed by the junction of the Keowee River and Coneross Creek). The Tugaloo River, like Keowee and Seneca, also is still there as the Fork's southern boundary, albeit now a finger of Hartwell Lake. Anyway, those two sentences in the Synod minutes about the "society in the fork" refer to us, and that's where we begin our tale. It's a story of pioneering people who knew they needed God's help as their hard work turned the Upstate frontier into productive farms and a lifestyle which maintains its attractiveness today. It's a story of stubborn struggle, of a church frequently so small that its existence is a continuing miracle. Session minutes of 1887 record Sunday collections totaling as little as $2.75 for a month which included two preachings. A bit later, deacons had to collect from members privately some $3.70 to reimburse Elder J. L. McCarley's expenses for attending a synod session at Darlington. The March 13, 1893, narrative to the Presbytery said plaintively, "Our collections are small and we are not financially able to meet the assessments laid upon us." As for the Depression days of the 1930s, long-time member Clara Whitfield remembers hearing her late husband, Norman Whitfield Sr., tell of church officers buttonholing members after services for emergency collections necessary to pay the pastor's salary. Taken from "From Nazareth to Townville:3 miles, 3 Centuries by Mel Woody TOMBSTONE TRANSCRIPTION NOTES: ------------------------------ a. = age at death b. = date-of-birth d. = date-of-death h. = husband m. = married p. = parents w. = wife