Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PART ONE. PAGES, ONE TO EIGHT. VOL. XLII. NO. 127 NEWBERRY. S. C.. TUESDAY NOVEMBER 7, 1905, TWICE A WEEK, $15 &EAR 1868 Returns A By E. I Among the earliest Lutheran set t16ments in South Carolinta were thos< in t!e Dutch Fork of Newberry :an< Lexington counties.. Newberry co6n ,ty has long been colsidered -the cen rer of Lutheranisimtn. South Carolina The Newberry cqllege is 'locate< at the county seat and for severa years the theological seminary -wa there also.. But long before ther, was a Lutheran congregation or Lutheran church at 'the court hous< there was established in the Dutc] Fork .several s,rong congregations In fact a pastor of one of these, Rev T. S. Boinest of Beth;lehem, organize the Newberry Lutheran congregatior and -was its.first past6r. The German settlements of th Dutch Fork constitdted some of th best citizens of South Cariuina sturdy, -frugal, industrious-the: they followed their pursuits in a quie way and attended to their own busi ness, but -took very little interest ii matters political. By that is mean they rarely aspired to politi.cal offic and for many years the p'olitics o 'Newberry county was dominated b: those wi lived in the upper and mid die secfion's and it was very rare -tha a county officer came from the Dutc Fork section. That has been somewhat change< since the iwar. MTihe people have givei more attention to education anid as i told in another article in -Wis pape St. Paul's communityr6 sent -in" young men to Newberr coelltha vossibyan other- cy -th state. For the fourth time the Lutheraj Synod .of South Or,Hua wil mee widi St. Paul's congregation on to woreow. Thougi this congregation is prot -ably more than two hundred years ol it is a remarkable fact that it has: ha a fe.wer number of pastors thanWnian congregations not one-tenth its ag From the records it -has been.serve by Revs. Wallern, Rauch, Aull, Ar Thony, Stingley, Ber.ly (Wmn.), Ma: -gart, Blackweler and Sligch and .pos sibly in its early Ihisto.ry by one c two others. I-t shoul-d be rememberer ~hoyvever, that for one-fifth of .the tim mentioned as covering -the history c existence of the congregation, it ha been served, by its present pasto the Rev. J. A. Sligh. The presept building.wasidedicate Pas"r., [ter 37 Years. 1905 I. Aull. - in 1830 and erected about tihe sa.me time. At -that time -the Rev. Wm. I Berly was the pas*or. - The house has recently been re paired and repainted at a cost of about $500. The old church was built of logs and stood about 150 yards from the site of the present building. The recollection of the writer in re g'ar.d to tihe present !building reaches back to 'he beginning of the pastor ate of Rev. Mr. Sligh, and in fact to Mr. Blackwelder. We are told that we were baptized by Rev. J. P. Mar gart during this pastorate and -v:e were confirmed in this church. Our father at that time live.d only about one and e a half miles from the churcih- on The e place where he was born and which still belongs to him, so the reader can understand the interest we feel in -this t congregation and the old churchi and the pastor. In those days there was 1 the old sounding bell over the pulpit t and the tall box pulpit. When Rev. e Boinest or Rev. A. D. L. Moser ,~Mr.Bons would. reach in this pulpit they woul-d have to stand on a block and -thien their--hins would just come above: t the top of the pulpit. That is all gone 2 now. and a modern pulpit .and altar take the place. The old hook to which .the s'o.unding bell hung is still I in the ceiling. Then the doors enter s ed at the side of .the church under small porticos and the side where -the women sat there was a long bench. outside the churoh under4he:.aks-and 1hickory trees for their comfort when ,babies becam too unruly 'to remain in the church. It was also observed on a visit .there last week that -the old horseblocks for the convenience of the women: are -torn . away whi*h means that 1horselback riding is no d longer the custom but the people now d go to church in -their buggies and car riages. d The same old school house is there aird the spring a few hundred yards aAway thouglh many of 'the oaks and .hickory trees are gone. Many a game r 'of marbles have we played under these old trees at .the dinner ,hour when a .pupil in the old school house. r Rev. Mr. Sligh was our first teach s er. He boarded at my father's for r.two years and took me 'to scdhool with him though then most .too youn~g to attend .school. After .that there were i. Sgh. several teachers. ve remember very well Capt. Jno. F. Banks, Capt. U.B. Whites and Miss Sue Beard, who af terwards married Mr. N. M. Burkhal ter of Edgefield county, now Green wood. The Counts, the Kiblers, ti'e Liv ingstons, the Ep;ings, the Feagles, the Kinards. the Risers, the Wickers, the Schumperts, the Bolands, the Shealeys, the Hipps, the Rikards, the Cannons, the Singleys, the Ellesors, t"Ie Werts, the Epps, and others, were familiar. names in the school then and they are familiar names there today. We would be glad to have a reunion of the schoolmates of those days if we could get them to gether. Our father moved away when we were young and before our school days in the country were fin ished. But this is apart from the purpose of 'this article. When Rev. Mr. Sligfh took charge of St. Paul's as pastor in 1865 the membership was about 350. Now it is about 330. It must be remembered -t-Ist since 1he took charge Mt. Tabor hal been organized and it took about 100 members from St. Paul's. Bach man Chapel was chiefly made up from St. Paul's. The church at 'Little Mountain has perhaps some 6o or 70 members from St. Paul's. When Mt. Pilgrim -was organized it drew largely an t: from. St. Pals and St. Paul's has te members at Prosperity, Newberry, t Columbia and o1ther* places. That is th they joined the clhirch at St. Paul's. The fist colony that went ouc from t this congregation to set up a bethel e of their own was the Colony ,church, some fifty years ako: m lMstory -othose who have gone t out from this congfegation. to enter th the. minis7ry is told ir another article as well-as of those.who went to col- th lege and to engage in other vocations. .C The mention' of the new congrega- so tions that have been organized out of dr this one and the st'atement of the membership 'today as compared 'with in forty years ago 'will give some idea a of the growth of the coommunity in if population. This is als'o true of the er schools and .school 'houses. .Public ed roads have been built, rural -deliveries is established andi everythin'g has kept m< pace with tihe progress of -t:he age. co Of the old men or middle aged men vi< in the days of our youth in th:is com munity very few are left now. Jacob Epting who was the superirntendent pa of t:he Sunday school, Dr. Joel A. Ber- at 'ly 'who was prompt in attendange, wi Mr. Geo. A. Counts 'wiho was always ab present and grew the best watermel- on ons of any man in the community, Mr. Jacob Kif>ler who lived just up. bei the hill from the spring, Dr. D. H. Werts who was the family 'physician, jn Mr. Levi Monts who enjoyed good i singing, Uncle Geo. Feagle where we . lways got a good dinner, Uncle John IW; Riser 'where -thiey made good potato Re, :usard, and many others are all gone, j ut they are represented by a good ing nd sturdy posterity who 'have taken car h'eir places in the community and the 185 :hurch. Mr. Jonas Livingstone, M-r. . T. Liv'ingstone, Mr. Jim Wicker, re a 'few of the older men whom we emember 'who are still left.I The officers of the church -at pres nt are: Elders-J. D. Shealy, J. A. C. Kib er, 3. H. Livingstone, L. I. Epting, J. . Richardson and Jno. C. Aull. Deacons--Geo. B. Aull, L. A. 'healy, Ed. Shealy, . B. Bedenbaugh, '. A. Epting and J. W. Riciardson. Mr. Jno. C. Aull is the superintend nt of the Sunday school at present nd has bern fo.r several years. In looking back it seems but a very ~hort time since we lived in this com nunity and were a pupil at this old c'hod1 house and yet when we 'look t Will Kibler with grandchildren, Eraneus Epting witlv grandchildren rnd Counts and Ben Schumpert, and hu.. Kahn and Pierce Ellisor .... .... Rev. J. A. Sligh a d Tucker Livingstone -and Wal- Ir r Counts and some of those dh her old men -who were at school le ere to Mr. Sligh we ainost feel -te at we are not assyo,ng as we'ised of be. It must be remembered, how- th er, that we- were.the baby in 'that ool and- hat thbse namesehave a entioned . were some years our nior. We should not omit W. B. inest and Ed. Hipp for Ithey were ere too. We are g.ad Synod is going to meet ere again M'd -we hope to be with em and get better acquainted with N me of the -children and grandchil en of .the boys 'we have mentioned. .c( Mr. Sligh's pasto.rate of forty years W the service of one congregation is V th very remarkable one and we doubt it thias a paxal1el.* There is a Lath- m an pastor in Virginia who has serv one congregation for 38 years. It fitting too that -the Synod should ,to ~et here 'on the annivers,ary of -t'he to pletion of.tlhis forty years of ser- Sa e. P he Rev. 3. A. ligh, the present Jc tor of St. Pauil's ,chiroh was lborn ( M the .place ahdf nearly on the spot ere Capt.' H. H. Folk now lives ty ut four' miles north of Newberry the 12th:d'ay of December, 1835. th Then yet a boy he became a mem- ed of Beth Eden Lutheran church. fri e attended school at Beth Eden tw Iothier places in the cormmunity, re peceptors being Mr. Bulyer, W. tr. Houseal, Mrs.. Wilson, William to son, Henry Wilson, E. Williams. th( . Jacob Hawkins and oThers. .ab e then entered the sc'hooA'at Lex- tur on, S. C., which afterwards be- mi e Newberry college in January of and continued there until 1857- i89 -i4 .Va ~ ;. -'~~/4k~ The School tage 45. t November.of 1857 he was called by e board of trustees of Newberry col ge to assist Rev. Mr. Whittl 'in aching the preparatory department the -college. He was a student of e college in 1859 and i86o. In i861 he entered the Confederate y. He studied theolo'gy at odd times ider Dr. J. P. Smeltzer as -he 4ad op onity and entered the Lutheran inistry in 1864 Rev. Mr. Siigh was insraled pastor St. Paul's on the second Sunday in ovember, 1865, and h'as served this ngregation conti*ously since and ill, at the conclusion of his for.tieth ar commence another year. During ese many years he has held to a re arkable degree the affection of thess d people. T connection with his work as pas at St. Paul's 'he 'has served as pas or supply: Prosperity, S-t. Luke's, Matthews, 'Colony, Mt. Tabor, St. iips and Bachmrnan Chapel in New ry county, and Macedonia, St. n's (Calk's Road) and Rightwell thel) in Lexington county, and St. 7 k's and Corinth in Edgefield -cu now Saluda). hile Mr. Sligh has been active in work of the church and matters cational, having been a life long nd of Newberry college and for enty-five or more years either sec ay or president of the board of Lsees, he has found time .to devote atters of state. He rhas served eople 'o.i Newberry vei-y accept yin bot'hbranches of the legisla and oKie term as railroad corn soner. He was -also a member e constitutional convention of