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Fairview Presbyterian Church
—GREENVILLE
COUNTY
Fairview Presbyterian Church was organized in
the late fall of 1786, by the Reverend Samuel Edmonson of
Virginia, who preached the first sermon. The following families
composed the organization: John Peden's, Samuel Peden's, David
Peden's, James Alexander's, and James Nesbitt's. The Reverend
John McCosh served as first minister.
The membership of
Fairview has had as nearly uninterrupted growth as an unmixed
Scotch Presbyterian congregation as any church on American soil. In it we find a
homogeneous body progressing not by sudden expansion, but by a
regular increase. It has the proud distinction of being the mother of
Presbyterianism in Greenville County.
There have been
four church buildings, two of logs, one of brick, and the
present one of wood, dedicated in 1858. With its white square
columned portico, it stands
in a grove of tall pines, near its graveyard, in which lie
buried soldiers of all the wars of this country.
The
land that is now used for cemetery and manse was donated by
James Alexander, Andrew Joyce, James E. Savage, Mrs. M. E.
Britt, and H. B.
Stewart.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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