The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-08-16

brothers united in building a house of
worship. In 1865 they were visited by
Mr.. Dufield, Mr.. Fuller and MIR. Camp
bell. Mr.. Dufield was from New Jer.
sey, sent by Synod of New York to
Carolina in 1765 and afterward settled
in Carlisle and Philadelphia. Campbell
afterwards went to Bluff Church, North
Carolina. Afterwards, Duncan's Creek
was visited by Rev. Hezekiak Balch.
Mr.. Balch advised the people to choose
elders, Andrew McCrory, Joseph Adair
and Robert Hanna were elected and
ordained by Mr.. Balch. James Pollock
and Thomas Logan, having come re-
Gently into the congregation, Pollock
from Pennsylvania and Logan from Ire
land, both having been ordained elders
before, were also elected and installed
as elders at Duncan's Creek. There
were about sixty communicates. Mr..
Hezekiah Balch, who thus may be called
the first organizer of the Church, was
not its pastor. He was from Hartford
County. Maryland, and grew up in
North Carolina, where his father moved
when he was a child. He graduated at
Princeton Princeton College in 1862,
and labored as evangelist, south of
Hanover Presbytery. In May 1771, he
with six others was set off by the
Presbytery of New York and Philadel-
phia as the Presbytery Of Orange.
This was the mother P~resbytery of the
Synod of South Carolina, from which
South Carolina Presbytery was set off
in 1884, the boundary line being drawn
between the Presbyteries, along the
line between the States of North and
South Carolina.
Just as Orange Presbytery was the
mother of South Carolina Presbytery,
afterwards the Synod of South Caro-
lima, so the South Carolina Presbytery
was the mother of Hopewell Presby-
terry in Georgia, out of which was to
grow the Synod of Georgia and the
Synod of Florida. Hopewell Presby-
terry was set off in 1880 with the Geor-
gia line as the boundary and embraced
the whole territory of Georgia. The
Synod of the Carolinas was set off in
1888 by the Synod of New York and
Philadelphia, and embraced the Presby-
teries of Abingdon, Virginia; Orange,
North Carolina and South Carolina.
The General Assembly of the Presby-
terrain Church was organized in 1889,
the same year that the Constitution of
the United States was adopted, and was
made up of four Synod, New York and
New Jersey, the Synod of Philadelphia,
the Synod of Virginia and the Synod of
the Carolinians.
To return to Duncan's Creek. The
Church was served for ten years from
l770-l780 by James Cresswell, John
Harris and Joseph Alexander-probably
to the close of the Revolution. There
was a considerable stir in the Church in
1888 when Mr.. John Springer from
Georgia undertook to sing one of Watts
Psalms instead of the old Rouse's YER
sion. MI. Springer was teaching at
Ninety Six. A MI. McCarra pretend
ing to be a Presbyterian minister from
Scotland, came among the Churches in
this section and using Erskine sermons,
gained much applause for awhile. But
he lived a loose life, was detected as
preaching other mems ermon and
finally the Churches were closed
against him.
Duncan's Creek lost a good many
members at this time; some went to
the A. r. p. Churches on account of
the Psalm trouble, others went to the
Baptists. In 1888, Rev. James Tenn
pleton served the church for five
nroutris. ~ meeJlng Ur Presbyterian
was held here in 1888 and the Mr..
McCorra who had troubled the church
was charged with d~isorderly conduct
and interdicted from preaching. At
this meeting, Mr.. John Newton was or
dained by the Presbytery of South Car
DINA as Pastor of the Bath-Salem
Church afterwards Lexington church
Georgia) and he was the first Pastor
ordained over any Presbyterian congre-
cation. MI. Newton lived at Licking
ton, Ga, where he died and is buried.
He began the theological class in his
home which was continued by DR..
Thomas Goulding, and was removed with
DIR. Goulding to Columbia when the
Theological Seminary was established
there about 1880. So Duncan's Creek
was the ordination place for the first
Presbyterian pastor in Georgia, and he
became the father of the Theological
Seminary at Columbia.
In 1889 Mr.. Humphrey Hunter visited
Duncan's Creek Church and preached
for the people and also at Little River.
In April, 1880, these two churches
presented a call to Presbytery for
his services, but Mr.. Hunter hav.
ing used some other hymns besides
the Rouse's version the congregation
cooled off toward him, and he declined
to call. After this the church was sup
piled by James Templeton. Messrs
Williamson, Hunter, Wilson, A. Brown
and John B. Kennedy. Mr.. Kennedy
was called to the pastorate and was or
dained by Presbytery at Duncan's
Creek church 1856. Mr.. Kennedy
claimed the liberty of using either YER
sion of the psalme in uorsb;n hut at,