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Cedar
Spring
Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church
ABBEVILLE COUNTY
Cedar Spring Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church, originally called Cedar Creek, is an old red brick
house of worship used by a congregation founded in 1782 by Dr. Thomas
Clark, who was originally from Scotland.
This, with the
Lower Long Cane Associate Reformed Presbyterian, formed the
necleus of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the South.
The original
site of Cedar Spring Church was about two miles south east of
the present location, and gained the name "Cedar Creek"
from the handsome cedar tree
and the fine spring nearby on Cedar Creek The first house of
worship was built of logs.
The second was erected on the present site before the
death of Dr. Clark in 1791. The Presbytery of the Carolinas
and Georgia was organized at "Cedar Spring Meeting House" on February
24, 1790, by Dr. Clark, the Reverend Peter McMillan, the
Reverend John Boyse, and the Reverend David Bothwell, ministers, and
the Reverend James Rogers, probationer, and James McBryde and
William Dunlap, ruling elders.
In 1802 the church had five
hundred and twenty members, and as many as seven hundred are
said to have taken communion at one time during this period.
The early
pastors of Cedar Spring Church were: Dr. Thomas Clark, Alex
Porter, John T. Pressley, the Reverend William R. Hemphill,
and H. T. Sloan.
The
present building was erected in 1853.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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