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Duncan's Creek Presbyterian
Church
—LAURENS COUNTY
The first settler in the historic Duncan's Creek
neighborhood was John Duncan, a Scotch-Irish pioneer from
Pennsylvania. Finding the country to his liking, he induced two
friends, Joseph Adair and Robert Long, and their families to
join him. Both Long and Adair were later to become soldiers of the
Revolution.
The Reverend Hezekiah Balch commenced
holding services at Duncan's Creek in 1752. It was not,
however, until 1763 that a church building was erected. The
present structure erected in 1842 is the
third.
Duncan's Creek Presbyterian Church is known as
the "Mother Church" of the Presbyterians in this neighborhood.
About 1788 there arose a
quarrel between the adherents of Rouse's and Watt's versions
of the Psalms which were sung at services, and a large portion
of the congregation seceded
to form a Baptist Church.
Many Revolutionary soldiers
are buried in the large graveyard, in which the earliest
marked grave is that of Susannah Long, 1776.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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