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Stony
Creek Presbyterian Church
McPHERSONVILLE
Stony Creek Presbyterian Church was founded in
1743 as The Independent Church of Indian Land, near
Pocotaligo. The first minister was the Reverend William
Hutson, who continued as pastor until 1750, when he removed to
the Circular Church of Charleston.
The original
building was destroyed by Union soldiers in 1865, but the
summer chapel, built in 1832, was spared as it was being used
as a hospital for the wounded. It is this chapel that stands
today, among its tall pines, the only ante-bellum building of
McPhersonville.
The Stony Creek Presbyterians have
never rebuilt on their original site, but the congregation
meets for one service each month in the church at
McPhersonville, the site of the old church near Pocotaligo now
being used as a cemetery. The two silver communion cups used
today were presented by Evans Palmer, Esquire, in 1753, while
the "fair white linen'' dates from 1847.
It is
interesting to note that there is a record on the books of the
church of the marriage at Roswell, Georgia, of President
Theodore Roosevelt's parents, Theodore Roosevelt and Martha
Bulloch, grandparents of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the
ceremony being performed by the Reverend James B. Dumwody, a
cousin of the bride and pastor of Stony Creek. Another
interesting member was the daughter of the Reverend Edward
Axson, who served the church through the early years of the
Confederate War. In after years she became the first wife of
President Woodrow Wilson.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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