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Barnwell Presbyterian Church
BARNWELL
The
Barnwell Presbyterian Church was organized in the early part
of the last century. The families of Clarke, Gantt, Hay,
Hagood, and
a few others, with
their servants, composed the early congregation. The building
was erected around 1830, on a lot given by
Frederick Jay
Hay.
The court house and many other structures in the
village were burned when Sherman's army passed through
Barnwell in 1865
during the campaign
of the Carolinas, and the church was used as the county court
house. It was at this time that Judge A. P. Aldrich,
distinguished
jurist, resigned his judgeship, seeing that the judiciary
would be subordinated by military despotism. On this dramatic
occasion he
addressed the jury in these words: "Gentlemen of the jury, the
Court stands adjourned, the voice of justice is stifled in our
land. Pure and
unstained, I lay aside this ermine, but I will wear it again,
please God."
The church, recognized after the war, has at
times been inactive, but it stands today, after a century, an
active organization in one of
South Carolina's
most attractive little towns.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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