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First Baptist Church
Anderson County, South Carolina Genealogy
Trails
Organized in
1821, the building was erected in 1859 and remodeled in
1892. The church was orginiall known as
Mount
Tabor, and was located one
and a half miles south of Anderson. The
Rev. James
Burriss began his ministry here in 1817. The congregation gathered under a brush
arbor which was later replaced by a log
house in 1819, and the
church became a mission of the Shockley Ferry Baptist
Church. Mount Tabor
was constituted as an independent church in July 1821. The
church had 56 members with
the Rev. Sanford Vandiver as the first pastor (1821 -
1842). By 1834, the 86 members moved
into the Village of Anderson. A small white frame building was erected
on the present site and the name was changed to the Anderson
Baptist Church.
The Rev. J. Scott Murray became pastor
in the Fall of 1851
and a Sunday School was established in the early 1860's. A
woman's Missionary Union was organized on April 20,
1875.
In 1892, the name of the church was
changed to the First Baptist Church, being incorporated by the State
of South Carolina on February 2, 1903.
The Johnson Female Seminary (which
stood where the church is now) was organized in 1848, and
named for Dr. William B.
Johnson, the first president of the Southern Baptist
Convention. He came to
Anderson in 1853 as the Chancellor of this institution,
the forerunner of Anderson
College. Dr. Johnson was buried in the
church
cemetery.
The
First Baptist Church Bell Marker reads:
Originally mounted
in the church tower during the alterations to the building in
the year 1892, and removed in 1976 when the old tower was
razed.
The bell is mounted
here as a symbol of the influence on the community of this
church for the last one hundred and fifty-five years, and as a
challenge for those who follow to work diligently for the
advancement of the kingdom of God throughout the world.
May it still be used
to mark significant events so that all who hear the clear
tones ring out will be reminded anew of their divine mandate
to witness at home and abroad.
First Baptist
Church cemetery is located
right next to the
church. |