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Lower
Long Cane Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church
McCORMICK COUNTY
(Formerly Abbeville
County)
Lower Long Cane and Cedar Spring have often been
called the twin churches. Their earliest houses of worship
were very crude log cabins.
The first preaching service, according to tradition, held for
the Long Cane congregation was behind an improvised pulpit
made by putting a board
between two trees. Time has saved the slump of only one of
these.
The church was built by "Seceders" from
traditional Presbyterianism, who came over about 1704 and
settled in Abbeville County, establishing themselves as one of the
oldest Associate Reformed Presbyterian communities in the
South. During the Revolutionary War these people were visited by a
Reverend Mr. Ronaldson (sometimes spelled Donaldson) who was a
zealous supporter of the Crown. He did not meet with much success
among these liberty loving colonists.
Long Cane united
with Cedar Spring Church, March 7, 1786, in the call of the
Reverend Thomas Clark. Withdrawing from that organization September 15, 1803 (a part of
the congregation was under the Presbyterian Church 1813-1819)
Long Cane reunited with Cedar
Spring February 28, 1828, and again withdrew from that church
January 13, 1892.
In 1853 a new building was erected at
Cedar Spring, and in 1S50 a new one at Long Cane. Both
buildings are used by these congregations today.
Dr. H. T.
Sloan, one of the outstanding Associate Reformed Presbyterian
preachers of his day, (pastor 1850-1890) ministered to these
people during the trying days
of the Confederate War and Reconstruction.
Another
prominent minister, Dr. John T. Pressly, one of the
early pastors, resigned this double charge, November 10, l831,
to accept the presidency of
Allegheny Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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