Along the Jefferson Davis Trail
City Directories and History: Lebanon Presbyterian Church (5 miles west of Abbeville on the Vienna Road), was the location of General Samuel Ferguson’s brigade (one of the three brigades protecting Jefferson Davis’s route). It remained behind on May 2, when Jefferson went from Cokesbury to the Savannah. Ferguson left the church about 2 a. m. on May 3rd. Harrison spent hours across the road from the church in the preacher’s dining room paying off soldiers, which was also done in Abbeville, at Lebanon Church, and at the Savannah on both sides of the river.
Lebanon Presbyterian Church (Brian Scott)
Lebanon Presbyterian Church was located about 5 miles south of Abbeville and a mile and a half off SC Hwy 7. It was organized in June 1821 by the Rev. Richard B. Cater who was its pastor until January 1832. The first preaching was in the open with a flat rock which was said to have served as an altar, and, in 1939, this rock was “still shown to visitors.” Members told Carlton that the current building was the fourth on or near the same location. The last erected, which was in 1876, was about 75 yards off a dirt road on a knoll and was a rectangular frame structure (33′ by 50′). In 1884, several members withdrew to organize the Warrenton Church. In 1939, its pastor was the Rev. John R. Hooten, Jennings, Ave., Greenwood, who had served since 1925, and it had a membership of about 150. (Ben Carlton’s 1939 WPA Notes & Sketches, compiled by Lowry Ware)
Bullock, W. P, and Paul L Grier. Official topographical map of Abbeville Co., South Carolina. [S.l.: P.L. Grier, 1894, 1895] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress
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