101 North Zion Street
City Directories and History: Bethel Associate Reformed Presbyterian (A.R.P.), church in Winnsboro, SC organized circa 1820, is one of Fairfield County’s oldest and most picturesque. By 1823, a Pennsylvania minister, the Rev. James Lyles, preached here and continued preaching here as well as at Little River and Salem churches until 1834. About 1840, the Rev. Thomas Ketchin became the stated supply at Bethel and at Perry’s Church in Lancaster County, S.C.
The present church was completed in circa 1900 and in 1903, the Rev. Oliver Johnson was called to preach at the new church. The church facilities were enlarged by James Orr Boag and Mary Ann Lemon Boag, benefactors, with the construction of the Sunday School and recreation building in 1937 at an approximate cost of $27,000.
Also see Bethel A.R.P. church and cemetery on Fairfield Street for additional and early information.
“Bethel, “House of God,” 1820, Winnsboro, S. C. See Genesis 28:17 and 19—“This is none other but the house of God. . . . And he (Jacob) called the name of that place Bethel.”
Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC
BETHEL ARP CHURCH – Written and contributed by P.M. Gettys – 2015
The date of organization of the Bethel Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is not known. It is generally accepted to be about 1820. Records are unclear because Bethel was originally part of the Associate Presbytery of the Carolinas. The ARP Church was created in 1782 by a union of the Associate Presbyterians (“Seceders”) and the Reformed Presbyterians (“Covenanters”). Although the majority of each group entered into the union, some stayed out and continued their separate denominations. By the early 1800s, there were a number of Associate churches in the Carolinas, formed into a Presbytery. Bethel appears in their minutes in May 1823 and in December of that year, they called a minister, Rev. James Lyle. He served Bethel beginning in 1824, and he also served Associate churches Smyrna in Chester County and Sterling’s Meeting House in Fairfield County. Rev. Lyle was a native of Pennsylvania. He remained as minister for about ten years and left the area about 1834. During this time, the Associate Presbytery became unsettled over the issue of slavery. In 1831, the national Associate church had demanded that all members of the denomination free their slaves. Many of the ministers left their congregations because they were unable to enforce this order, and some Associate members sold their slaves and moved to free states such as Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana. Many of the Associate churches during this period moved their affiliation to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian denomination, whose position on slavery was that it was the duty of slave owners to instruct their slaves in the scriptures and seek to have them baptized. The Associate Presbytery ceased to function by 1844.
During Rev. Lyle’s pastorate, Bethel’s first church building was erected at the corner of Vanderhorst and Fairfield Streets and was the third house of worship in the community. It was present at least by 1826, as it is mentioned in Mills’ Statistics of that year. The simple frame structure had a cemetery, which continues to serve the church.
Bethel was under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Ketchin beginning in 1840 during this time of confusion. Under his leadership, Bethel was reorganized as an Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in May 1842. The minutes of that meeting and subsequent session records are in existence, providing a much greater detail of information from that point. The four men present at the reorganization meeting were James Elliott, John McMaster, James Cathcart, and John McDowell. Two of these four were natives of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The first two elders were John McDowell and George McCormick. James Elliott was later named an elder. Rev. Thomas Ketchin was a native of Scotland, and had earlier served the churches of Shiloh in Lancaster County and Neely’s Creek in York County. Like many early Presbyterian ministers, he taught school as well as serving as pastor. Ketchin also served part-time as pastor of the Ebenezer church (also known as the Old Brick Church) west of Winnsboro on the Little River. Ketchin served Bethel and Ebenezer until 1852, when he moved to a church in Cleveland County, North Carolina.
The church pulpit was vacant for several years. Rev. Charles Bowen Betts accepted the call to serve at Bethel and Ebenezer in 1855. He was a newly ordained minister, a native of Dickson County, Tennessee and a recent graduate of Erskine Theological Seminary. Rev. Betts served the church during the Civil War, a time of great upheaval in Winnsboro. Betts served for a time as a chaplain on the South Carolina coast, and has left a diary of his experiences. Twenty of Bethel’s members served in the Confederate Army. During February of 1865, a large portion of General Sherman’s force moved through Winnsboro, leaving great destruction in the village and the surrounding countryside. The Episcopal Church was burned, and the silver communion service of Sion Presbyterian Church was stolen, but the small ARP church was unharmed.
Rev. Betts remained at Bethel until 1869 and later served as pastor of Neely’s Creek and Union (Richburg) ARP Churches. The next pastor was Rev. John McClintock Todd, who served from 1871 to 1879. Early in his pastorate, Bethel built a new house of worship. A lot was purchased from George H. McMaster across Fairfield Street from the original church. A brick and stucco church was built, including a wooden vestibule and bell tower. The church had eight large arched windows. A Session room was added later to the rear of the sanctuary. Also during Rev. Todd’s pastorate, a young widow from the congregation, Rachel Elliott Roseborough, entered college in Due West. She met a young divinity student, Neill Erskine Pressly. The couple decided to become missionaries, and they were the first ARP missionaries to Mexico. Later, Miss Rachel McMaster also served in Mexico. The Winnsboro church continued to grow, and it became wealthy enough to send money for the erection of new ARP church buildings in Charlotte and Statesville, NC. A Women’s Benevolent Society was organized in 1871, and the group undertook projects to help the needy of the community. Rev. Todd resigned in 1879 because of ill health. He later served as professor of Latin and French at Erskine College.
Following Rev. Todd’s resignation, Bethel had preaching from interim ministers, including Rev. Robert Lathan, a native of Fairfield County who was outstanding as a minister, teacher, and historian. Rev. John T. Chalmers was the next minister, serving from 1881 to 1891. He worked to improve the congregational singing and organization, and wrote many articles for the Associate Reformed Presbyterian, the denominational magazine. After leaving Winnsboro, he served as pastor of the Fourth United Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and First ARP in Charlotte.
Rev. Charles Edgar McDonald was the next pastor. Son of a minister, he was born in Richburg, SC and brought a new energy and innovative spirit to the Bethel church. He organized a major evangelistic meeting in 1893, featuring Rev. W. W. Orr which lasted for over a week and resulted in 29 new members for the church and 40 members in other churches in Winnsboro. The church purchased a manse in 1894 on West Liberty Street for the use of the pastor and his family. In 1901, the leaders began discussing the erection of a new building to accommodate the growth of the congregation. A lot was purchased for the new church at the corner of Washington and Zion Streets. The architects were Edwards and Walter of Columbia and W. O. Martin of Columbia was the contractor. The building contained a sanctuary, seven classrooms, an assembly room, and a Session room. The new church was used for an important meeting of the Centennial Synod. The meeting of the General Synod is the annual business and ecclesiastical meeting of the
denomination. The meeting of 1903 was designated as the 100th anniversary of the organization of the first Synod in the South, which occurred in 1803 at the nearby Ebenezer, or Old Brick Church. The five-day event in November included regular business sessions as well as special historical events. The Bethel Church was honored to host this important event and to show off its new and beautiful church. Rev. McDonald left to serve the church in Chester in July 1907.
The next pastor of Bethel was Rev. Oliver Johnson, who had been serving the Neely’s Creek congregation. A native of Abbeville County and a graduate of Erskine College and Princeton Theological Seminary, Rev. Johnson had the longest pastorate at Bethel, from 1908 to 1945. He was recognized in the denomination as a brilliant scholar and eloquent speaker. In 1911, the church installed a Moller pipe organ, with assistance from the Carnegie Foundation. The congregation had developed a reputation for its church music, and the organ enhanced the work of the choir. The congregation struggled through the Great Depression. In 1933, lightning struck the tower of the church, but the resulting fire was extinguished before it could do great damage. In 1937, Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Boag made a generous contribution which enabled the church to build a modern educational building. The first church in Winnsboro to have a separate educational building, Bethel celebrated the completion of the Boag Memorial Building in December 1937. Rev. Johnson suffered a stroke in 1943 and was forced to resign within two years.
Rev. Russell M. Kerr served the Bethel Church from 1945 to 1952, followed by Rev. Frank L. Shannon from 1952-1978. Later ministers have been Rev. Jerry Wolfe, Rev. James D. Graves, Rev. Clyde T. McCants, Rev. Gregory Slater, and Rev. James McManus.
The Bethel Church is unique in that it is perhaps the first ARP church in a town or city. Most of the old churches were in rural areas, reflecting the settlement patterns of the Scots-Irish pioneers who brought the church to the United States.
Sources:
History of Bethel Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of Winnsboro, South Carolina, Nelle McMaster Sprott, published by the church, 1982.
Centennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, published by the General Synod, 1905.
Sesquicentennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, published by the General Synod, 1951.
ADDITIONAL ARCHITECTURAL IMAGES by Bill Segars, Photographer
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