Allendale County, South Carolina on the Savannah River, Welcome! The Barnwell Baptist Association, by Clara Johnston Hitt,  236 pages, published 1914

Fran Bundy, a descendant of one of the original founders of The Association, Rev. John Knox Johnston, found this book in her grandfather's home in Elko.  He was Horace Johnston Crouch, Sr., who lived to be 89.  She kindly made a copy for the purpose of putting it on the web, and granted permission to put it on the web.  She has also placed copies in the Barnwell and Allendale libraries.

Ms. Bundy dedicates this web implementation of the book to the memory of the author, Clara Lillian Johnston Hitt b. July 22, 1866 d. November 18, 1952? She was the daughter of John James Johnston and Ellen Elizabeth Willis of Elko, SC, Barnwell County. She was married to Herman Hitt.

A portion of the preface: "The work has taken more time than many of you suppose. It is not done wholly as I would like. Accurate information has been hard to obtain. It was not a little task to collect a file of the minutes. In a few more years some of them would have been irretrievably lost.  A few of the early ones are already beyond recall. For the work of those years I am indebted to Dr. L. H. Shuck's History of the Barnwell Association which covers the work of the first ten years. I have adopted his arrangement re-covering and carrying on his work. Prof. H. T. Cook, of Furman University, kindly allowed me the use of minutes from Furman library not otherwise obtainable. Some came to me as a result of a kindly inquiry by the Baptist Courier."

This text may have OCR errors.  Please report anything that looks odd so that I may check it against the original.  This is a massive project.

The Barnwell Baptist Association

By

Clara Johnston Hitt

1914

The Baptist Courier Co.

Greenville, SC

To the Brethren who have labored and sacrificed to make this Association efficient to the Master’s service, this little volume is dedicated

THIS little book is a very small part of the history of the Baptists of this Association. This is only a beginning of what ought to be done. The histories of the individual churches ought to be preserved, and the biographies of the men and women who have lived and served in this Association ought to be written. Some of the brethren may think I have written too much. I think it has been too little. Some may think it too lo-cal. It has been my intention, as well as the intention of those who gave me the work, to make it local. It has been hard to hold to the truth and give to each brother his part in the work. The effort to do this has added to the length. Perhaps, the names of your father and grandfather are recorded here.

 The work has taken more time than many of you suppose. It is not done wholly as I would like. Ac-curate information has been hard to obtain. It was not a little task to collect a file of the minutes. In a few more years some of them would have been irretrievably lost. A few of the early ones are already beyond recall. For the work of those years I am indebted to Dr. L. H. Shuck's History of the Barnwell Association which covers the work of the first ten years. I have adopted his arrangement re-covering and carrying on his work. Prof. H. T. Cook, of Furman University, kindly allowed me the use of minutes from the Furman library not otherwise obtainable. Some came to me as a result of a kindly inquiry by The Baptist Courier.

 I am also indebted to the following brethren for suggestions and help : J. J. Ray, W. T. Walker, W. P. Blume, S. G. Mathews, H. J. Hair, R. R. Johnston, J. A. Jenkins, G. W. Boylston, S. G. Mayfield, D. W. Key, R. W. Sanders, W. H. Dowling, T. J. Counts, W. M. Jones, R. P. Galphin, W. G. Britton, J. K. Goode, J. C. Collum, C. C. Brown, and others.

This work was unsought by me and has carried no remuneration with it. It has been a labor of love. If this backward glance shall in any way enable the brethren to do the work of the future better, I shall be satisfied.

Brethren, this is your book. Do with it as you will.

Elko, S. C., Feb. 9, 1914.

There are probably numerous errors, despite my checking.  Please try to be very explicit about where errors are in the text when you Email me.  I have broken this up by date.  FOC

Copyright ©2000-2004, Frances B. K. Bundy, all rights reserved. This document is copyrighted and may not be sold, nor given to anyone who may attempt to derive profit from same.