“The Mount Vernon Record of June 1860, in a sketch entitled ‘Origin of the Mount Vernon Movement,’ shows that the meeting of February 22, 1854, at Liberty Spring Presbyterian Church was the beginning of the movement to purchase Mount Vernon for the nation.”
City Directories and History: Liberty Springs Presbyterian Church
“The area in and around Cross Hill Township was settled by Scotch Covenanters. Naturally, the first groups to organize for the purpose of public worship were of the Presbyterian faith.
In 1787 a church was founded by the Reverend John McCosh, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. It was named the Liberty Springs Presbyterian Church because of a bold spring near the building site. It is said that the spring had been a camp site of an American officer and his command during the Revolutionary War. Victims of a smallpox epidemic among the American soldiers were sent there to recuperate. Thus the soldiers named the place Liberty Springs.
The church has been enlarged several times, the most recent addition being made in 1857. In April of 1890, the congregation celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of their organization, and gravestones in the churchyard show that the dead of four generations are buried in the adjoining cemetery. The first two edifices were of logs; the third was built of rock and called the Old Rock Church. A fourth building and the one in present use is constructed of wood. The Old Rock Church was purchased by a member of the congregation and converted into a dwelling which is in excellent condition even today.
It was fitting that Liberty Springs Church should be a meeting place in later years for a group of patriotic women bent on preserving the home of George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and first President of the United States. The meeting resulted in the organization of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, which later became a Southern project and ultimately a national undertaking. An odd fact in the history of this venerable church is that for more than one hundred years all of the sessions’ clerks serving the congregation were men of the medical profession.
The Presbyterian Church of Mountville, a few miles distant, was founded as an arm of the Liberty Springs Church.”
Information from: The Laurens County Sketchbook, Author – J.S. Bolick, 1973
Eugene B. Chase, Jr., of Columbia sends a note on an historic Presbyterian Church: “Liberty Spring Presbyterian Church of Mountville has a name both inspiring and possessing an interesting origin. During the Revolutionary War a British Troop was camped on one side of the spring and an American Troop on the other side. Since the spring was the only source of water, a truce was made between the two camps in order that both sides would be at liberty to obtain water. Thereafter the spring was known as Liberty Spring, as was the surrounding area and later the church that was built there. “Liberty Spring Presbyterian Church was the birth place of the movement by Ann Pamela Cunningham to save Mount Vernon. A letter which Miss Cunningham wrote to The Charleston Mercury on December 2, 1853, made little impression at first. However, the appeal struck the hearts of Miss Cunningham’s friends and fellow church members according to a communication captioned “The Home and Grave of Washington,” which appeared in the Laurensville Herald on March 3, 1854. This article reports a meeting that was held by the ladies of the Liberty Spring Presbyterian Church in the church building on February 22, 1854. The ladies proceeded to form themselves into an association which was called Mount Vernon Liberty Spring Association. Mrs. Robert Cunningham was elected President and the following Vice Presidents: Mrs. Dr. Anthony Foster Golding, Mrs. George Anderson, Mrs. Martha Carter, Mrs. Dr. Watts, Mrs. F. Nance, and Mrs. H. Carter.
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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