The Baptist collection at Furman College is the first place to go for most early Baptist church records. SC genealogist Theresa Hicks, in "South Carolina: A Guide to Churches", lists the church records available at Furman as of 2003. The Newberry Co. Baptist churches with records archived there are Bethel (1841-1910), Bush River (1791-1949), Cross Road (1839-1925), Newberry First (1831-1872, 1898-1972, 1885-1901), and Whitmire First (1841-1955). Unfortunately, no records for Rocky Springs. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 8:12 PM Subject: Re: [SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS] Subject: Rev. Thomas Frean ... RockySprings Furman College in Greenville, SC would be the place to check for Baptist Records. Another good resource would be the Southern Christian Advocate (I believe this is the name of the paper). In a message dated 10/26/2008 2:28:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Yes, this is the same Thomas Frean. According to the Annals, he had quite a rough life, joined the Methodist church, and then was baptized 24 October 1835 and united with the Baptist church. He then was licensed and later ordained to preach. Rocky Springs Baptist Church was received into the Reedy River Baptist Association on 14 September 1838. Rev. Frean was listed as the first pastor and probably helped form the church. A recommendation was made for the dissolution of Rocky Springs Church at the 16 September 1853 meeting of the association. I doubt there will be any records for Rocky Springs Baptist, since it was dissolved so early. Unless by an rare chance someone took the records to a church where the members started attending after Rocky Springs dissolved. The church is not mentioned in Pope's History of Newberry and just a couple of lines in the Annals of Newberry. Chris Prince ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Iverson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 11:04 AM Subject: [SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS] Rev. Thomas Frean ... Rocky Springs Hello. Just got the latest update and saw that Rocky Springs Meeting turned into Rocky Springs Baptist Church and that Rev. Thomas Frean was the first pastor. Is this the Thomas Frean (1793-1851) that was married to Hannah Elmore (1795-1859)?? One of Thomas and Hannah's sons was named "John Belton O'Neill Frean", born and died as an infant in 1831 in Newberry County. Thomas Frean is buried in Bush River Quaker Cemetery, Newberry County and was a native of Tipperary, Ireland. His wife Hannah Elmore was a child of Matthias Elmore (1755-1835) and Rebecca Kelly. I am related to this family through Matthias' first wife, Elizabeth Appleton. Are there minutes from the Rocky Springs Baptist Church that survive? How can I locate them? Pat Iverson Roundup, MT