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St. David's Episcopal
Church
Cheraw
St. David's Parish was
established by Act, April 12, 1768 but the church, a white
frame building set in the midst of a very beautiful old
cemetery, was not finished until 1773.
During the
Revolutionary War a part of Cornwallis's army, the 71st Scotch
Regiment, known as the "Prince of Wales' Regiment", used the
church as a hospital. While quartered here about fifty of the
soldiers and officers died of smallpox, and they lie buried
under a low marble dome at the back of the church. A grave
nearby is said to be that of an English general.
During
the Confederate War, the building was again used as a
hospital, and blood stains are still to be seen upon the floor
when the carpets are lifted. A large number of Confederate
dead are buried in the cemetery, and in their midst stands the
first monument ever erected in memory of the soldiers of the
South, an impressive granite shaft.
Buried in this
graveyard are veterans of seven wars.
Among the most
noted graves are those of Bishop Alexander Gregg, historian
and first Episcopal bishop of Texas, Captain Moses Rogers,
commanding officer of the Ravannah, first steamer to cross the
Atlantic, and Dr. Cornelius Kollock, president of the American
Medical Society. Here lies also the body of Mrs. H. E.
Godfrey, who was for sixty-three years the organist of the
church.
Cheraw now has a new church and the old
building is used for a mission.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS - South Carolina
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