Anglican
Baptist
Methodist
Presbyterian
Bibliography

Please note that churches of Old Upper Marion will be found on the Dillon County Churches page.

ANGLICAN RECORDS AND CHURCH HISTORIES

"The oldest church in the county is the 'Old Neck' Methodist Church, twenty-three miles below Marion, built in 1735 by the first settlers of that region, as an Episcopal Church, or the Church of England [Anglican]. It was used as an Episcopal Church until some time after the Revolutionary War, when by some arrangement agreed upon, it was used by both the Episcopalians and Methodists together..."

-- W.W. Sellers, "A History of Marion County"

BAPTIST RECORDS AND CHURCH HISTORIES

• Antioch Baptist Church, Org. 1829
  Located near Sellers, SC
  Cemetery - complete survey dated 1953, plus a few updates
  Furman University Library, Special Collections, holds records for Antioch from 185l-1878

• Gapway Baptist Church
  Furman University Library, Special Collections, holds records for Gapway, organized in 1776, from 1833-1867

• Little Bethel Baptist Church
  Furman University Library, Special Collections, holds records for Little Bethel, organized in 1874, 1874-25, 1929-42, 1953-54, 1958, 1964-73
  Minutes of first meeting, Membership Roll, contributed by Bill Snipes 1998

• Marion Baptist Church
  Furman University Library, Special Collections, holds records for Marion, organized in 1858, from 1885-1915, 1920-1941
  Membership Rolls, contributed by Bill Snipes 1998

• Mullins First Baptist Church
  Furman University Library, Special Collections, holds records for Mullins First, organized in 1880, from 1880-1920, 1924-1934, 1957-1972
  List of Charter Members, 1880, contributed by Bill Snipes, 1998

• Reedy Creek Baptist Church
  Furman University Library, Special Collections, holds records for Reedy Creek, organized in 1850, from 1893-1927; Sunday School records, 1894-1912; WMU, 1904-1920
  History, Minutes, Membership Rolls, contributed by Bill Snipes, 1997

• Tyrrel's Bay Baptist Church
• Union Baptist Church
  Northwest Marion County; established 1889
  Cemetery

A few notes about THE FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH:

THE FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH can be traced back to the early seventeenth century in England, and a bit later to the American colonies when an entire church, consisting of pastor and congregation, came from Wales and settled on the Delaware River on what was known as the Welsh Tract. From this group came several men who preached the Arminian doctrine in contrast to the prevailing Calvinistic doctrine of the day. One of these men, Paul Palmer, is credited with organizing the first Free Will Baptist church in 1727 in Perquimans County, NC. Palmer had previously ministered in New Jersey and Maryland, having been baptized in the congregation which moved from Wales.

The movement in the northeast was instituted under the leadership of Benjamin Randall, who organized the first Free Will Baptist Church in New Durham, New Hampshire, June 30, 1780. The General Conference of Free Will Baptists was organized in 1827.

For additional information on Baptist churches in South Carolina, you may wish to visit the Furman University library website for a list of their microfilmed Baptist Church holdings:

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METHODIST RECORDS AND CHURCH HISTORIES

• Center Methodist Church
  history by Gladys Taylor and Alton Rogers. Contributed by Betty Jo Stewart.

• (Old) Ebenezer Methodist Church
  Northwest Marion County, near Dillon Co. line
  Historical Notes from the journal of L. F. Jernigan, written c. 1940, and contributed by Frank Jernigan, son of the author.
  1986 Birthday Celebration from Friends of Ebenezer leaflet
  Cemetery
• Flowers Meeting House
• Miller's Methodist Church
  Located North East of Mullins
  Cemetery (Not online)
• 'Old Neck' Methodist Church
• Tabernacle Methodist Church
  Northwest Marion County, Rowell Township
  Cemetery

For additional information on South Carolina Methodist church records, you may wish to visit the Wofford College Archives website:
http://www.sandorteszlerlibrary.org/archive/, The South Carolina United Methodist Collection

"The records of the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church are housed in the Archives. These records, which date from 1785, include the minutes of the sessions of the Annual Conference as well as the conference newspaper, the Southern Christian Advocate. The Methodist Collection also has an index of the obituaries appearing in the Advocate from 1837 to the present.

The Methodist Collection is the official repository for the records of Conference agencies and holds the records of a number of South Carolina Methodist churches, an index of appointments to churches in the conference from 1785 to 1954, and published histories of the conference and a number of churches."
Source: Wofford College

Please note that some obituaries from the Southern Christian Advocate newspaper are/were searchable on the Wofford library site: http://www.sandorteszlerlibrary.org/archive/Obits/search.htm

As of August 2000, surnames beginning A through F had been extracted and placed in their database. On a recent visit to the web site (27 June 2001), however, the search function was not working.

The Circuit Riders of the Methodist Church in Early America

John Wesley's Methodist plan of multiple meeting places called "circuits" required a force of preachers willing to travel to, or make a circuit of, the congregations in their charge. A circuit was made up of two or more local churches (sometimes referred to as societies) in early Methodism. A pastor would be appointed to the charge, or circuit, by his bishop. During the course of a year the minister was expected to visit each church on the charge at least once, and possibly start some new ones. At the end of a year the pastors met with the bishop at annual conference, where they would often be appointed to new charges. A charge containing only one church was called a station. The traveling preachers responsible for caring for these societies, or local churches and stations, became known as circuit riders, or sometimes saddlebag preachers. They traveled light, carrying their belongings and books in their saddlebags. Ranging far and wide through villages and wilderness, they preached daily or more often at any site available be it a log cabin, the local court house, a meeting house, or an outdoor forest setting. Unlike the pastors of settled denominations, these early Methodist preachers were constantly on the move. Their assignment was often so large it might take them 5 or 6 weeks to cover their circuit. Francis Asbury (1745 - 1816), the founding bishop of American Methodism, is said to have traveled 270,000 miles and preached 16,000 sermons as he traveled the circuits.

Peter Cartwright (1785-1872) described the life of the circuit rider in his Autobiography: "A Methodist preacher, when he felt that God had called him to preach, instead of hunting up a college or Biblical Institute, hunted up a hardy pony, and some traveling apparatus, and with his library always at hand, namely, a Bible, Hymn book, and Discipline, he started, and with a text that never wore out nor grew stale, he cried, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.' In this way he went through storms of wind, hail, snow, and rain; climbed hills and mountains, traversed valleys, plunged through swamps, swollen streams, lay out all night, wet, weary, and hungry, held his horse by the bridle all night, or tied him to a limb, slept with his saddle blanket for a bed, his saddle-bags for a pillow. Often he slept in dirty cabins, ate roasting ears for bread, drank butter-milk for coffee; took deer or bear meat, or wild turkey, for breakfast, dinner, and supper. This was old-fashioned Methodist preacher fare and fortune."

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PRESBYTERIAN RECORDS AND CHURCH HISTORIES

• Marion Presbyterian Church
  

Some Presbyterian church records for congregations of Southern states are archived at the regional office of the Presbyterian Historical Society in Montreat, N.C.

Presbyterian Historical Society
The Montreat Office
P.O. Box 849, Montreat, NC 28757
Telephone (828) 669-7061 Fax (828) 669-5369
(Address and telephone as of 2000)

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Bibliography

Anglican/Episcopal:

• The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution: The Journal and Other Writings of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant ed. Richard J. Hooker
  (Chapel Hill; Univ. of N.C. 1953)
• Marion churches and churchmen, 1735-1935 : a narrative of the Church of England and its successor, the Episcopal Church Stanley, Victor Bland, Jr
  (Charleston, S.C. : Southern Print. & Pub., c1938 )
  Copy available through LDS
• Prince Frederick Winyah, 1729-1763 : W.P.A. Project 165-33-7172 Polk, Mrs. Louie H
  LDS Microfilm
• The Register book for the parish Prince Frederick Winyaw, Ann: Dom: 1713 Prince Frederick Parish
  LDS Microfilm

Baptist:

• Minutes of meetings and lists of members, 1802-1971 Catfish Creek Baptist Church
  LDS Microfilm
• Church minutes, 1833-1867 Gapway Baptist Church
  (Nashville : Historical Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1967)
  Available through LDS
• Minutes of the union meetings of Ebenezer, Elim and High Hill Creek Baptist Churches, 1818-1843 : including minutes from Lake Swamp, Willow Creek, Sparrow Swamp, Swift Creek, Gapway, Terrills Bay, Little Pee Dee, Bosticks, Bethlehem, Mizpah, Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, and Bethel Baptist churches Smith, Thomas E and Eaddy, Elaine Y
  (Hemingway, S.C. : Three Rivers Historical Society, 1983 )
• Welsh Neck Baptist Church, South Carolina, 1737-1841
  Available through LDS

Methodist:

• The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury. Elmer T. Clark, ed.
  (Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press, 1958) Bibliography:
• Francis Asbury, the Prophet of the Long Road. Tipple, E. S.
  (The Methodist Book Concern 1916.)
• Cartwright, Peter, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright
  (Abingdon Press 1956)
• If Saddlebags Could Talk Maser, Frederick and Simpson, Robert Drew
  (Providence Press 1998. )

Modern USGS map locations of churches

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