Bush River is rightly regarded as the principal early Baptist church in Newberry County. From this mother church came Cross Roads Baptist Church near Chappells, Lower Duncan's Creek Church, near Whitmire, and First Baptist in Newberry. It still flourishes, with a strong congregation, a well-kept cemetery, and a beautiful church building. The organizer of this church was the Reverend Samuel newman. A native of Cecil County, Maryland, he was the thirteenth child of Walter and Mary Newman. Born on March 15, 1713, he moved to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania where, on July 12, 1740, he and his wife Martha were received by Montgomery Baptist church. Later he moved to the Valley of Virginia where he and his wife became charter members of the Linville Creek Baptist Church on August 6, 1756; on the date he became the first church clerk, and the Reverend John Alderson, the pastor. The Newmans first moved to Virginia in 1744, Samuel and Martha Newman left Virginia in 1765, the Journal of Smith Creek Church (formerly Linville Creek Church) reciting in an entry for April 20, 1765, that Samuel and Martha Newman were moving away to some parts of North Carolina or South Carolina and were granted letters of dismission. Newman received grants of 450 acres and 150 acres on the spring branches of Bush River; the former was surveyed by Edward Musgrove, deputy surveyor, on September 11, 1765, and the latter by John Caldwell, deputy surveyor, on August 25, 1766. On these lands Newman built his home and erected a small meetinghouse. The Reverend Daniel Marshall held meetings in Newman's home before the meetinghouse was completed, and with the Reverend Philip Mulkey constituted a church. Two meetinghouses were built about three miles apart, one on land given by George Goggans and the other on Newman's land. Newman wrote his will on November 12, 1770, and in it devised two acres of land "where the meeting house now stands for that use to the Sepparate Baptists as long as they will repair the same forever. This recital proves that the congregation of Bush River was in existence before 1771, the year that the church journal state it was organized. This journal was commenced by Michael Landers after his election as church clerk in 1792 and has been carefully maintained from that time to the present. It is understandable that the clerk commencing the journal more than twenty years later could have erred as to the date of organization. Newman was then dead. It is certain that Samuel Newman was ordained in 1771 and that he was pastor for a few months before his death in November 1771. He was succeeded by Thomas Norris, who preached non-resistance during the Revolution and who according to tradition was imprisoned at Ninety Six for his refusal to fight. Despite the split in his congregation because of Norris's views, it continued to meet throughout the critical period. Following his death in 1780, John Cole, Sr., was licensed in 1781 and ordained in 1783; he served as pastor from the latter date to his death in 1816. The church became known as Cole's Meetinghouse during his long pastorate. One of the charter members of the Congaree Association when it was formed in 1771, Bush River later became a member of the Bethel Association when it as formed din 1789. The Baptist of Bush River, like the other Separates in the backcountry, were sternly puritanical. In a raw society, they endeavored to supply moral standards needed to improve local society. Drinking, gambling, dancing, card playing, failing to attend church meetings, overreaching in trading horses, speaking disrespectfully of other members, and the use of profanity all brought severe condemnation and sometimes excommunication. Heresy-embracing beliefs not sanctioned by the church - meant dismissal, as did adultery. In short, this church actively sought to regulate the behavior of its members and to improve that of the community. Lower Duncan's Creek was a post-Revolutionary church, organized in 1786. Located a short distance from the present town of Whitmire, the church was moved to the town a century later and became the First Baptist church of Whitmire. Townsend found that it joined the Bethel Association in 1790 when Reverend Micajah Bennett was pastor and Jacob King a licentiate. Reuben and John Rowland were candidates in 1792, and Reuben was licensed to preach. In 1794 the Church had a membership of only thirty-four members; by 1800 the congregation had grown to forty. The great religious revival of 1802-03 brought the membership to seventy-six. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com