FORT HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CEMETERY, Pickens County, SC Version 1.0, 17-Apr-2001, H-26.TXT **************************************************************** 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. **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula@innova.net in Apr-2001 Nancy S. Griffith at ngriffit@mail.presby.edu in Apr-2001 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula@innova.net in Apr-2001 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Nancy S. Griffith at ngriffit@mail.presby.edu in Apr-2001 LIBRARY REFERENCE: Nancy S. Griffith at ngriffit@mail.presby.edu in Apr-2001 LOCATION WRITE-UP: Paul M. Kankula at kankula@innova.net in Apr-2001 TRANSCRIPTION .. : Paul M. Kankula at kankula@innova.net in Apr-2001 LOCATION: --------- Church was located in Oconee County prior to 1967. Locate intersection of Highways 76/123 and 133 (College Street). Drive 0.5 miles south (towards Clemson University campus) on Highway 133. Church is on the right side of road. HISTORY: -------- GENERAL AREA HISTORY: It is estimated by Ramsay in his history of South Carolina (1808) that in 1755, there were not even 23 families settled between the Waxhaws on the Catawba River and Augusta on the Savannah River. Since much of the upcountry was Indian land, settlement had centered in the coastal counties. Prior to 1768, the only court held in South Carolina was held at the City of Charleston. In 1768, however, South Carolina was divided into six judicial districts, with courts to be held in each. What is now Oconee County was in the Ninety-Six District. At the end of the Revolutionary War, all of present-day Greenville, Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties was Cherokee land. There was some white settlement in this area, and forts had been erected in various places to protect the settlers. The judicial set-up in South Carolina becomes quite fluid (and quite confusing) from this time on until 1868. A law passed in 1783 recommended the division of the judicial districts into counties of not more than forty square miles, with each county to have its own courts. This was accomplished by 1785, with the Ninety-Six District being further divided into Abbeville, Edgefield, Newberry, Laurens, Union and Spartanburg counties. The lands of present-day Oconee County were temporarily attached to the adjoining counties of Laurens, Abbeville and Spartanburg. The Indians had sided with the British during the Revolution, and were forced to surrender their land. In 1785 a treaty was signed with the Cherokee Indians at Hopewell, the home of Andrew Pickens; the following year, a treaty was signed with the Choctaws at the same location. At about this time it was estimated that the white population of the area was 9,500. By 1789, the residents of present-day Oconee County were having difficulty with their judicial assignment, and the area was separated off into Pendleton County. A courthouse was set up at the site of the present-day town of Pendleton in 1790. The next year, however, the Ninety-Six District was divided into upper and lower regions. The upper region, composed of Pendleton and Greenville counties, was named the Washington District; a district courthouse was set up at Pickensville near the present-day town of Easley. In 1798 the name "county" once again changed to "district"; Oconee County was in the Pendleton District, and court was held in Pendleton. The population was increasing rapidly; according to Ramsay's history, by 1800 it stood at 17,828. The area was, however, still sparsely settled. In 1808, according to Ramsay, there was only one acre of cleared land for every eight acres of uncleared land, and only one inhabitant per 36 acres. Education was "at a low ebb," although some schools had been established; one newspaper was being published, by John Miller in Pendleton. In 1826 Pendleton District was further subdivided into Pickens and Anderson districts. The county seat of the Pickens District, which encompassed present-day Oconee County, was located at Pickens Courthouse, or "Old Pickens." While some of the settlers during this early period had come from the lowcountry of South Carolina, many were Scotch-Irish immigrants who had fled Ulster for Pennsylvania to escape religious persecution. They then traveled down the Great Wagon Road from Harrisburg, through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and into the piedmont region of the two Carolinas. Some wealthy plantation owners from the lowcountry did begin to build second homes in the upstate, mostly to take advantage of the more moderate summer climate. John C. Calhoun was one of these; his home, Fort Hill, was later deeded to the state by his son-in-law, Thomas Clemson, and became the site of Clemson University. In 1868 Pickens District was divided into Pickens and Oconee counties. The area was still a rural one, centered around courthouse towns which usually had a courthouse, several churches, a school, and a few dozen citizens. EARLY PRESBYTERIANISM: The early settlement of South Carolina took place along the coast. The first minister to preach to Presbyterians in South Carolina was Rev. Archibald Stobo, who arrived in Charleston in 1700. Until 1704, he was the pastor of the "Mixed Presbyterian and Independent Church" there, the only place of worship for Presbyterians in the entire colony. There was probably no organized presbytery in South Carolina until the 1730s. Early Presbyterians were organized under the Presbytery of Orange, Synod of New York and Philadelphia. By 1760 there were eleven Presbyterian ministers in the colony, concentrated in areas near the coast. By 1784 membership in the Carolinas was increasing, resulting in a desire to form a local presbytery. Following the various Indian treaties signed in the late 1780s, settlement of the Upstate accelerated, mostly by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who had traveled down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania. By 1789, the year the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was established, there were ministers appearing in some upstate areas, including the Waxhaws, Saluda, Rocky River, and Upper and Lower Long Cane. Among churches which had been organized in the upstate at this point were Richmond/Carmel (1787), Bradaway/Broadway (1788), Good Hope (1789) and Roberts (1789). It was also at this time that Hopewell (Keowee) or the "Old Stone Church" was established. In 1790 the list of Oconee County churches expanded with the addition of Bethlehem and Philadelphia (or Ebenezer). Rev. Thomas Reese, who was serving Hopewell (Keowee) Church at the time, eloquently described the possibilities for church growth in the region. Noting that circumstances were "favorable to virtue and religion," he also noted that "As the country is in its infancy, we have yet to expect that these congregations will soon become much stronger, and in the course of a few years, if peace continues, it is probable that each of them will be able to support a minister. It is a pleasing reflection to the friends of religion, that as the people travel westward, the gospel travels with them, or soon follows after them; that God inclines the hearts of ministers, respectable for learning, worth, and piety, to settle in these uncultivated regions." Southern representation at early meetings of the General Assembly was limited, since meetings were always held in the North, and travel was complicated and expensive. Thus figures on the development of churches in South Carolina are scarce. The western "frontier" of South Carolina was considered a missionary territory, with ministers traveling around and "supplying" a number of churches. Indeed, a number of the same ministers served the various Presbyterian churches in Oconee County. Salaries were often left unpaid; the largest contribution toward the salary of Rev. John Simpson, first pastor at Roberts Church, was $5.00, and some members were only able to give a few pennies, or gifts in kind such as corn, wheat, and whiskey. Often these itinerant preachers were not even reimbursed for travel and lodging. Consequently, some ministers turned to teaching, opening early academies and schools. Often they found this work more congenial, and left the ministry, contributing further to the shortage of qualified pastors. In 1796 Rev. Andrew Brown was appointed to spend time as a missionary on the South Carolina frontier, at a salary of $16.66 per month. In 1797 he apparently had charge of the Bethlehem and Philadelphia churches on Cane Creek in present-day Oconee County. In his history of South Carolina, Walter Edgar estimates that only 8% of the white population in the upstate belonged to churches at this time. Church membership, however, was increasing, largely as a result of massive ecumenical camp meetings. The early churches were simple, usually built of undressed logs. They had few windows, and were furnished with benches rather than pews. No musical instruments were employed in the services. It was during this time that Nazareth/Beaverdam (1803) and Bethel (1805) were organized. Edgar states that membership had almost tripled, to 23% of the white population, by 1810. As for the Presbyterians, by that time there were only 9 ministers to serve 25 churches and 634 congregants in the entire Presbytery of South Carolina. By 1826 Mills' "Statistics of South Carolina" indicated that there was a dominant Presbyterian presence in Abbeville, Chester, Fairfield, Greenville, Laurens, Pendleton, Richland and York districts. In Oconee County, Westminster and Richland had been organized in 1834. Ministers continued to be scarce, however, and most only stayed in one church for a short time. It was not until 1859 that the concept of a permanent pastorate became popular in the church. By 1870 there were still only 29 ordained ministers in South Carolina Presbytery, and only 13 of these were devoting their full time to the ministry. During this time the Presbytery continued to employ "domestic missionaries" to supply vacant pulpits. By the late nineteenth century, after a restructuring of the Presbytery to form Enoree Presbytery, there were 19 ministers left in the Presbytery of South Carolina to serve 39 churches, and rural churches continued to languish on into the 20th century. (For more information on the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, see: Howe, George, History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina; History Of The Presbyterian Church In South Carolina Since 1850, edited by F. D. Jones, D. D. And W. H. Mills, D. D.; and Strupl, Milos, History of the Presbytery of South Carolina, 1784-1984.) FORT HILL CHURCH HISTORY: The Fort Hill Presbyterian Church is named after the estate of South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun. The first building on the site of Calhoun's estate was built by James McElhenny, minister of the Old Stone Church, who built a small home near the church which he named Clergy Hall. He, as well as his son-in-law Rev. Murphy, used this as a residence. After McElhenny and Murphy died in 1912, the building was passed to John C. Calhoun, who renamed it Fort Hill because Fort Rutledge, a Revolutionary War fort, had been located there. He incorporated the smaller building into his magnificent Fort Hill Plantation. Calhoun lived in the house from 1825 to 1850. Calhoun's son-in-law, Thomas Green Clemson Clemson, gave the land to the state in 1893 for the campus of what would become Clemson University. The first Presbyterian minister to visit the area where the new college was being built was Rev. James Adam Wilson of Seneca,who held services in a partially completed college building around 1893. When the building was required for use by the college, services were moved to Doyle Hall in Calhoun, South Carolina, approximately a mile from the campus. In 1895 the Presbytery of South Carolina sent out a commission consisting of Rev. D.E. Frierson, Rev. J.N.H. Summerell, Rev. J.A. Wilson, and elders H.P. Sitton and B.F. Sloan to organize a church. The commission met at Doyle Hall on July 21, 1895. Reverend Benjamin Palmer Reid, who was then at Kershaw and Heath Springs churches and was well-known for organizing churches, was asked to join them. Thirty-three people in attendance at the meeting, sixteen males and seventeen females, were organized into a church. The first elders were J.F. Calhoun, J.P. Smith, and Dr. E.A. Hines; deacons were F.S. Shiver and J.G. Evans. Fort Hill was chosen as the name for this fledgling congregation, and Reid was called to the combined pastorate of the college church and the Pendleton church. According to a memoir written by Reid, although he "moved reluctantly to Pendleton and Clemson in the spring of 1895.the prospect of development at the College induced me to undertake the work in the whole field." Reid was to preach at Pendleton on Sunday mornings and Fort Hill on Sunday afternoons until 1900, when he became the evangelist for the Synod of South Carolina. Land in Calhoun was offered by Aaron Boggs, but the site eventually chosen, midway between Calhoun and the campus, was given by the Land Company. This small lot was later augmented by additional lots purchased by Rev. Reid. The church building itself was built during the winter of 1895 and 1896, and was first occupied in April of 1896. It was built at a cost of $1171.04 ("a heavy tax on our little church"), and was described as "a neat brick structure" capable of holding 260-300 people. Indeed, part of the fundraising for the church involved the sale of bricks at $.10 apiece; $60 was eventually raised in this manner. The first report of Fort Hill Church to the Presbytery of South Carolina in 1895 indicated that the congregations were "usually good, and we are encouraged to believe that interest in Presbyterianism is increasing.there is no other organized church at Calhoun, nor is there any church within about four miles of the College. We feel that this is an important point, and that there is a great work to be done here for our church.." In 1897 the church reported to Presbytery that the membership was "comparatively free from intemperance or other flagrant forms of sin." They had, however, done "nothing as a church for the religious instruction of the colored people," although they had "succeeded to some extent in reaching the spiritually destitute in its vicinity." After Reid's resignation in 1900, Reverend J. W. Flinn supplied the church during the summer of 1900. Reverend W.F. Strickland was pastor from 1900-1902, when ill-health forced him to resign. Reverend F.W. Gregg served from 1903-1905. At first, the college held union services in its chapel on Sunday mornings, leaving only Sunday afternoons or evenings available for services in the Fort Hill church. This made it possible for a pastor to be shared with the Pendleton congregation, who had their services on Sunday mornings. By 1903, however, the need was apparent for a pastor to devote his full time to the Fort Hill congregaton. After several years of discussion with Synod and the church at Pendleton, Reverend Gregg, who had been serving the Pendleton and Fort Hill congregations, resigned in June 1905, and Rev. William Haynie Mills was installed in his place, living at Fort Hill rather than at Pendleton, as had earlier ministers. Mills was to serve the church for eleven years. For the first three years of his pastorate, he preached in Pendleton on Sunday morning, and Clemson on Sunday afternoon or evening. After that, he confined his efforts to the Fort Hill congregation. Apparently Mills also organized a Sunday School at the Old Stone Church, where he preached one sunday afternoon each month. When he resigned in 1917 to take the Professorship of Rural Sociology at Clemson College, he described his pastorate as "in the main a pleasant one," in which he had shared both the joys and sorrows of his parishoners, and "tried to enter heartily and sympathetically into the whole life of your community." He stated in a memoir that he "gave the work the best that was in me, and the people gave me their friendship and respect." In 1912, with union services due to end, the congregation decided to enlarge the church to handle the anticipated influx of Unversity students. This was done in 1913-14, with the addition of a wing on the north side of the sanctuary. Pews, a pulpit, chairs, and a communion table were added at the same time. The steeple was removed, the front entrance enlarged, and the tower finished off "in turret fashion." Stained glass windows were added in 1916. Following the departure of Rev. Mills in 1917, the church was served by Rev. W. Emmet Davis, who had just graduated from Columbia Seminary. He was to serve from 1918 to 1922, when he left to accept a call to Staunton, Virginia. Upon his arrival in 1918, he and his wife were almost immediately greeted by the 1918 influenza epidemic, which left many of the students sick. When he resigned, his congregation regretfully accepted his resignation, noting that he had served the church with "earnestness, zeal and conspicious (sic) ability." Rev. J.M. Wells served the church as stated supply during the summer of 1923, after which Rev. John McSween was called. McSween, who had been an army chaplain, was very popular, and was once referred to in a Clemson newspaper as "the Fighting Parson of the Fort Hill Presbyterian Church." He had apparently won the affections of the students "by his pleasing personality, strong manhood, and noble example." McSween resigned in June of 1925 to accept a call at Central Curch in Anderson; he later became the President of Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. At this time, the membership of the church was 87, augmented by 200 Presbyterian students from the College. Rev. Sydney James Leonhardt Crouch, a native of Australia, was called to the pulpit in 1925. Plans were underway almost immediately for a new church. It would take six years to bring this dream to fruition; the first service in the new sanctuary was held on November 22, 1931. The new stone building featured the first pipe organ in any of the campus churches. Unfortunately, the building was to burn on December 4, 1932, only a little over a year after it was occupied. It was the midst of the Depression, and money was in short supply. However, with the help of the state R.F.C., and funds raised by the Synod of South Carolina, work was begun on rebuilding the church. The new building was dedicated on May 17, 1939, debt-free. On April 7, 1946, the church celebrated its golden anniversary. Dr. F.W. Gregg, who had served the church from 1903-1905, preached the sermon. Finally, after serving the church for over 29 years, Rev. Crouch resigned his pastorate. While noting that his "ties to the Church bind pretty closely," Crouch also realized that the new challenges and opportunities facing the church required the services of a younger man. At this same time, the student work at Clemson was severed from the pastoral work at Fort Hill, with separate individuals to be hired for each work. Dr. Crouch was then hired as the minister to Presbyterian students at Clemson. On January 9, 1955, Reverend Charles E. Raynal was installed as pastor of the Fort Hill Church. During his tenure, in 1961, the church added a two-story wing to the existing building to serve as an educational facility. Rev. Raynal resigned in 1974, and Zebulon North Holler replaced him in 1975. During his tenure, the church plant was extensively remodeled and upgraded, but lack of funds prevented the addition of a new sanctuary or any other new buildings. Dr. Holler resigned in 1979; for a time after he left, Marc Weersing, the president of Presbyterian College, supplied the church. In 1980, James T. Richardson took over the ministry. In 1984, the church purchased a nearby building from the South Carolina National Bank, and used it to house its ministry to Clemson students. In the autumn of 1990, a new sanctuary was opened, the former sanctuary having been converted into a fellowship hall. (For additional information on the earlier days of Fort Hill Presbyterian Church, see Katy Austin Crouch's 2-volume history Illustrated History of the Fort Hill Presbyterian Church, Clemson College, S.C. 1895-1955 and Sean McMahon's Country Church and College Town.) CHURCH RECORDS: Although there is a Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, the best place to find material on the "Southern" church is at Montreat. Here's what the Society says about this on their website: The Presbyterian Historical Society serves its constituency from two regional offices, one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and one in Montreat, North Carolina. The Philadelphia office documents "northern stream" predecessor denominations and their work, congregations, and middle governing bodies in thirty-six states, and the work of the current denomination's national agencies. The Montreat office documents "southern stream" predecessor denominations and congregations and middle governing bodies in fourteen southern states. For records from congregations, synods, and presbyteries in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia, contact the Montreat office first. For all others, contact the Philadelphia office first. Presbyterian Historical Society P.O. Box 849, Montreat, NC 28757 Telephone (828) 669-7061 Fax (828) 669-5369 http://www.history.pcusa.org Presbyterian Historical Society 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia PA 19147-1516 Telephone (215) 627-1852 Fax (215) 627-0509 http://www.history.pcusa.org The Special Collections area at the Thomason Library, Presbyterian College, Clinton SC contains a quantity of Presbyterian materials, including minutes of the Synod of South Carolina (and its successors, the Synod of the Southeast and the Synod of the South Atlantic), the Minutes of the General Assembly, incomplete sets of South Carolina presbytery minutes, many histories of churches in South Carolina, biographies of area ministers, sermons, and the papers of 19th century ministers Ferdinand and William Plumer Jacobs. The library also has extensive information on Presbyterian College and Thornwell Orphanage. The library's catalog can be searched online at: http://library.presby.edu/. Special Collections librarian is Nancy Griffith, e-mail ngriffit@presby.edu. South Caroliniana Library at USC has over 474 titles listed on South Carolina Presbyterianism, including local church histories. They also have over 800 issues of the "Southern Presbyterian," which was a prominent journal during the late 19th and early 20 centuries. Their catalog can be searched online at: http://www.sc.edu/uscan/ TRANSCRIPTION NOTES: -------------------- a. = age at death b. = date-of-birth d. = date-of-death h. = husband m. = married p. = parents w. = wife BECK, Dorothy Jane, b. 6-feb-1923, d. 15-jul-1996 BISHOP, Willis E. (II), b. 18-feb-1909, d. 21-dec-1996 DANIELS, William Mason, b. 26-aug-1918, d. 23-sep-1996 DIXON, Linda A., b. 30-aug-1943, d. 22-aug-1996 ELLING, Rudolf E., b. 7-sep-1927, d. 11-sep-1991 HETH, Virginia Fowler, b. 23-jul-1914, d. 1-aug-1993 HYATT, Jack Wesley, b. 11-nov-1915, d. 6-sep-1992 JENKINS, Woodrow R., b. 15-jun-1918, d. 13-jan-1995 JESTER, Alvin H., b. 22-jul-1927, d. 30-nov-2000 KOONCE, Arthur H., b. 22-nov-1908, d. 19-oct-1994 KOONCE, Esther Ray, b. 2-nov-1908, d. 30-apr-1995 MAAS, Gerald Lee, b. 13-jan-1937, d. 7-feb-1996 McAFEE, Daniel B., b. 20-jul-1919, d. 19-dec-1999 McCALLUM, Terese, b. 10-dec-1910, d. 11-may-1998 McHUGH, Sybil Pruitt, b. 6-sep-1917, d. 2-jan-1999 MILLER, K. Henry, b. 25-jul-1914, d. 17-mar-1999 OLSON, Edward S., b. 18-nov-1916, d. 27-may-2000 POSER, Ingrid A., b. 17-dec-1928, d. 28-sep-1996 RAYNAL, Charles E. (Jr), b. 6-may-1915, d. 17-sep-1998 ROEDER, Elton Mohr, b. 24-aug-1903, d. 7-sep-1997 ROLDER, Sarah Engler, b. 26-may-1904, d. 23-sep-1994 RUTTER, Evan Dickson, b. 7-aug-1926, d. 27-mar-1995 STEARNS, Winifred S., b. 18-mar-1912, d. 23-jan-1991 WARNER, Katherine S., b. 5-nov-1923, d. 26-nov-1997 WILEY, Anne E., b. 15-jan-1912, d. 26-feb-1999, body donated to science WILEY, William H., b. 19-feb-1913, d. 14-oct-1992, body donated to science WILLIAMS, Ralph Roger, b. 20-nov-1913, d. 2-dec-1989 WILLIAMS, Virginia Ann P., b. 18-aug-1914, d. 18-nov-1989 WOOD, Edwin I., b. 3-sep-1911, d. 19-jan-1992 YOUNG, Rupert Hewitt, b. 20-jan-1907, d. 25-jun-1990