City Directories and History: This lovely church was organized as early as 1789 and constructed in 1844. The historic church burned in 2009.
Historical sketch of Mountain Creek Church
Read at the dedication of the Sunday School Annex on June 29, 1947 by Ernest C. McCown, Church clerk.
The first recorded minutes of Mountain Creek church are dated Oct 4, 1798 but there is evidence that the church was organized by 1789 or perhaps a few years earlier. At first Mountain Creek Church was established as an “arm” of Shockley’s Ferry Church, but in Feb. 1812 it was formally organized as an independent church. At this time the name was changed from the Mountain Creek meeting house to Bethesda Baptist Church. In 1869 the name was changed back to Mountain Creek, probably because the Methodist had a nearby church with a similar name.
There have been four Church buildings. The first was a log building which stood about three hundred yards to the rear of the present building near the old cemetery. The second stood about where our Sunday School rooms are now. It was also a log building. The third was a frame building which was just in front of the site of the present school house. The fourth building is the present one. Erected in 1870 by Preistly Masters at a cost of $1550. Three times this building has been altered and improved, including the recent addition of eight Sunday School rooms.
In looking over the early records we find many familiar names among the founders of the church and members and deacons in there first few years. Among these names are, Burriss, Chamblee, Davis, McGregor, Watson, Chastain, Hembree, Armstrong, and Stevenson and others. The Halls, Masters, McCowns and McGills came only a few years later.
Mountain Creek along with the other early Baptist churches was noted for it’s strict discipline. Members were dealt with sternly for minor infractions of church rules. One man was churched for cheating a neighbor in a horse trade. Another was excluded for charging a brother the exorbitant price of sixty cents a bushel for corn. One was excluded for playing baseball. (There were fanatics even then)
Mountain Creek was involved in the mission controversy which rocked the Baptist denomination in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1823 Cooper Bennett who had been pastor since the beginning was dismissed for the then heretical doctrine of foreign missions. He was never formally re-elected pastor, but in his extreme old age he preached from this chair with great force and effectiveness. The mission controversy raged for quite a while. In 1838 Mountain Creek along with a number of other churches withdrew from the Saluda Association, because the association had after long controversy joined the State Baptist Convention which was missionary. But after two years the church voted to return to the Saluda Association. Some of the anti-missionary or Hard shells withdrew but gradually drifted back. Since then there has been no serious division in the church although everything has not always been unanimous.
Until the 1870’s Negroes were members at Mountain Creek Church. Generally they were very devoted and well thought of by their while brethren although they were slaves. But soon after they were freed they began to drift away. Some of the older ones died as members of the church.
Early church gave the pastors wheat, corn and other produce but the first recorded salary was paid to Rev. Baxter Hays in 1867. The salary was $40. Per year.
The church had pastors deacons and church clerks from the beginning but not until 1847 did it have a treasurer. Sunday school and WMU aroused opposition from some of the old timers as being unauthorized by the bible.
Three pastors deserve notice because of length of service. Cooper Bennett served 34 years, W.B. Hawkins 20 years and Baxter Hays 17 years. Cooper Bennett’s service was continuous.
Five ministers of the gospel have been ordained by Mountain Creek. In the order named they were Jacob Burriss, Asa Avery, R.H. Burriss, John Shaw and Frank Hawkins.
Through the years the church has made steady progress in membership and in service of the Lord. There has been no sensational growth, but most of the time the promotion of Christianity has gone steadily forward.
It is believed that about 1789, Elder James Chastain founded both the church at Shockley’s Ferry and one at Brown’s Ferry Road called Mountain Creek which was an arm of Shockley’s Ferry until it became a separate church in 1811. Dated October 1798, its first record in existence follows: ‘The church met together at Mountain Creek to do all things touching fellowship by a unanimity. Mary Price restored to the church upon confession of her sins. Adjourned.” Also noted for strict discipline in its early days, Mountain Creek’s records show that one man was “churched” for cheating a neighbor in a horse trade and another was “excluded for charging a man the exorbitant sum of sixty cents for a bushel of corn.”
The Saluda Baptist Association having been formed in 1803 at Salem Creek, Mountain Creek Church became a member of that body in 1812 and thereafter took part in its annual sessions. At some time the church became known as Bethesda, as the records show that in 1869 “it was resolved that this church be known hereafter as Mountain Creek Church, instead of Bethesda.”
Elder Bennett, having been “baptized into the fellowship and chosen pastor,” was still serving both Shockley’s Ferry and Mountain Creek in 1823 when there was a “great trouble” arising from the missionary zeal spreading within the Association. “The pastor, Cooper Bennett, was not only a strong advocate of missions, but he also renounced the extreme Calvanistic views held by most of the Baptist of this country at that day and time, taking a position that Christ died for all, and that all must be saved.” For this he was excluded from the fellowship of Mountain Creek and rejected by the other churches he served with the exception of Shockley’s Ferry which stood by him only to have its congregation so disrupted that it ceased to exist in 1826. In 1830, however, attitudes having softened, they adopted a “resolution of forbearance towards their former pastor, Cooper Bennett,” and though never again a pastor, he was allowed to preach; age preventing his standing, “he would sit in his chair, his silver locks falling over his shoulders, and with all earnestness declare ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’.”
Later pastors were Richard Madden, James Burriss, and James Hembree; then Jacob Burriss who served from 1832 until 1855. Early names in the congregation were Chamblee, Davis, McGregor, Watson, Burriss, Chastain, Hembree, Armstrong, and Stevenson.
The sketch above shows the fourth building erected on or near the same site. It was built in 1870 by Priestly Masters as a cost of $1,550 but has since been altered, improved, and Sunday School space has been added. (Source: Anderson County Sketches by the Anderson County Tricentennial Commission, 1969)
Additional Links:
- Mountain Creek Baptist Church Find-a-Grave Entry
- Gallery of Mountain Creek Fire (Anderson Independent Mail, February 9, 2009)
- Morning bring reminder of Anderson church fire’s tragedy (Anderson Independent-Mail, February 9, 2009)
- Church gutted by fire will continue to worship, according to pastor (Anderson Independent-Mail, February 11, 2009)
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