City Directories and History: Established in 1725 by an Act of the General Assembly, Pon Pon Chapel of Ease was one of two churches serving St. Bartholomew’s Parish after the Yemassee War (1715) aborted plans for a parish church. The chapel site was located on Parker’s Ferry Road, the busy stagecoach thoroughfare that connected Charleston and
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- Historic Pon Pon Chapel Images – 1979
Savannah. In 1754, a brick chapel was erected to replace the earlier wooden structure. This brick chapel burned in ca.1801, causing Pon Pon Chapel to become subsequently known as the Burnt Church. The chapel was rebuilt between 1819 and 1822, and was in use until 1832 when it was again reduced to ruins. The façade of Pon Pon Chapel had a central, rounded arched entrance flanked by rounded arched windows on either side, all 
constructed in a brickwork pattern of one stretcher alternating with two headers. The two round windows in the façade’s upper level utilized the same brickwork pattern. The walls were constructed in Flemish bond. The chapel’s historical significance is due in part to Rev. John Wesley preaching two sermons here on April 24, 1737 and for its burial ground that contains the remains of Congressmen Aedanus Burke and O’Brien Smith, in addition to numerous local leaders. Listed in the National Register January 5, 1972. [Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History]
Chapels of Ease was known as Pon Pon Church. The Yemassee Indians devastated the parish in 1715. The inhabitants had sufficiently recovered by 1737 to welcome John Wesley when he preached at Pon Pon Church. The first frame chapel was replaced with a fine brick Church in 1753, which was accidentally burned in 1796, since which time the picturesque ruins have been known as the “Burnt Church.” The second of the St. Bartholomew Parish Chapels of Ease was Edmundsbury Chapel on the Ashepoo River, which bore the name of the settlement which it served, and which in turn was named for the First Landgrave Edmund Bellinger of Ashepoo Barony, on which the town of Edmundsbury had grown up. An Act of 1745 authorized the chapel of ease, originally of wood but built of brick. This was replaced by a second chapel at Edmundsbury in 1810, which for some years was the only chapel in the Parish. Ed-mundsbury was on the west side of the Ashepoo River. Only graves now mark the site of the Chapel and the town of Edmundsbury, though an historical marker records the site.
NATIONAL REGISTER – IMAGE(S)
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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