Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-06-05
CENTENNIAL SERVICE.
Red Oak Grove Church Cele-
brated Its One Hundredth
Birthday in Most Befit-
ting Manner.
A Foreword

pots heel, builded well after setting
foot upon the virgin soil of the new
world. The government which they
founded was at the time the marvel,
and afterwards the envy, OF many
nations, vcuchsafing to every IN
dividual, whether of high or low
birth, equal rights, together with
liberty of conscience, of thoNght, and
of action. This signal achievement
was made possible by their reliance
upon Him, the first liberator of hu-
manity. His word was not only a
lamp, unto their feet but held Ugh
place in their councils. knowing
then what Master laid her keel,
what workman wrought her ribs of
STEEL" one does not wonder that
the Old Ship of State has weather
ed every storm for upwards OF a
hundred years.
cay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod.
They have left unstained what there
they fouud,-
Freedom to worship God''
The purpose of the coming of the
early settlers to this country was
unique. History records but few, if
any, parallels. Casting their lot In
the wilds of America was not for
the purpose of conquest, or for pro-
noting their selfish ends by win
ming fame and fortune, but for the
purpose of worshipping God after
the dictates of their own conscience.
Unselfsh worship and service then
being the regnant passion of their
souls, it was but natural that
co-existent with the founding of a
colony, and with the building of
the log hut, was the crude house of
worship. These settlements appear
ed first along the coast, and later,
as the ranks of the early colonists
were reinforced by others from the
mother Country, the hitherto unex-
plored fastnesses of the interior
were gradually reclaimed from the
Red Man and opened up to clvlli-
zation.
The first church founded in this
immediate section of the interior,
at least the first Baptist church, so
far as the records show, was Horns
Greek, which was for number of
years connected with the old Char
lesion association. This was after
the colonies had thrown off the
English yoke and gained their in
dependence. but several years before
the Union was actually formed. In
the decade that followed other Bap-
tist churches were organized in this
section.
Red Oak Grove Church
1t was not until February 18th,
1872, that Red Oak Grove church
was instituted, Antioch being the
mother church from which it
sprang. We do not know whether
4 it was due to coincidence or to the
alleged penchant of the Baptists for
4 an abundance sof water, yet it is
nevertheless a fact that several of
4 the earliest Baptist churches were
given the name of some nearby
4 stream. For example, we have
A Horns Creek, Mountain Greek and
4 Stevens Greek churches. However,
in naming the subject of this story
] the usual custom was departed from.
Judging from the present environ
ment of the church, one would
think that the name was suggested
by the preponderance of stately red
oaks that added dignity to the
primeval forest, through which the
blows of an axe had probably never
echoed until the trees were felled to
provided site for the crude house of
worship. The word crude" is not
used in disparaging sense. Our
foreparents, the pioneers, of what
ever name or wherever found, led
simple life and of necessity. then
lived in a log cabin. And doubtless
their houses of worship comported
with the other buildings of that
day.
Though the ''long drawn aisle
and fretted vault" were absent, one
can easily believe that the simple
worship of those Red Oak Grove
folk, whose initial services were
doubtless held out under the red
oaks themselves, was far more ac-
ceptable to Him than that of manj
of the fashionable city churches of
to-day.
When Red Oak Grove church