I believe too that Beaver Creek Church was originally a Dunker or Tunker meeting house for the Germanic and Palatinate settlers in the area. I can send some topographical maps for the area to help locate this cemetery if I have a better idea. Someone suggested that Antioch Methodist seemed to be near here but Antioch is on the south side of Dave Jenkins Rd. It appears from the directions, that the old cemetery mentioned would have been on the north side. -Pelham -----Original Message----- From: eytvwt@ftc-i.net [mailto:eytvwt@ftc-i.net] Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 12:34 PM To: scchest2@rootsweb.com Subject: [SCCHEST2] Beaver Creek Baptist Church Re: Beaver Creek Baptist Church discussion for those interested could this shed more light on the original location of Beaver Creek Baptist Church?? In my mind I always believed that Beaver Creek Baptist Church was in Chester county since my Chester county ancestors were members there and buried in it's churchyard. I had heard my grands etc speak of this church all my life. However, on visiting realized you drive just a tidbit into Fairfield County as you arrive at the PRESENT DAY church. All those in my family who attended the older church were buried in family burying grounds and not the present day churchyard. Only after the new church was built did I have a great grand buried in the location of the present day church. >From the History of Beaver Creek Baptist Church written by Charles C. Adams [which was read at the Sesquicentennial celebration September 21, 1947*] * the original location of the church stood near the ''headwaters of Beaver Creek'' ''This location can best be identified by saying that the first church stood approximately one mile, more or less, in a general southward direction from the home of the late John Simpson and Daisy Crosby Stone.'' **Question: *** Is there anyone on the list who knows where John Simpson lived? That's the clue ... where did John Simpson live? I thought John Simpson had lived in Chester County SC?? If so, the original church ?could? have been in Chester County SC or almost in Chester county. If it were further N of the present church, it would have had to have been in Chester county. googlemaps.com will show that the 'headwaters of Beaver Creek is actually in Chester County SC. look at a map of Ashford Ferry Road and Dave Jenkins Road on googlemap. for example: googlemap 'David Jenkins Road, Chester, SC'' Just South of where DJ Rd. comes into Ashford Ferry Rd you see headwaters of Beaver Creek. look at the 'terrain map' from there you can follow Beaver Creek into Fairfield Co. also you can follow Ashford Ferry Rd to the Fairfield Co Line and this is the exact spot of the present day church as you cross over into Fairfield Co. the history also says this: '' The committee has been unable to locate any record whatsoever, on this first church, and there are verbal differences of opinions concerning the first building. So the best this committee has been able to do is to piece together that which has been handed down by mouth to ear for several generations.'' More from the 1947 history by Charles C Adams: this is where he mentions the 2nd site of Beaver Creek Church ~ ''This is the third church building, and the second in number, to stand on this site. also ..... ''Records of our church for the entire 150 years are scant and incomplete, and as a result, we find ourselves in the position of the five foolish virgins, who along with the five wise virgins, took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps, but the five foolish ones took none. And while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept. At midnight there was a cry made, "Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." Then all the virgins arose, but the five foolish ones found themselves in the darkness of the night without oil for their lamps. So it was necessary for them to go to those who sold and buy oil. But upon their return, they found the bridegroom had arrived and gone in, along with those who were ready, to the marriage and the door was shut. And so it is with us. There is much we would like to know about the church, and much we could have known. For only a few years back, there were those still among us who could have, and would have gladly, told us much. But now death has stilled those tongues and sealed those lips, and that knowledge which we so yearningly desire today lies buried with out loved ones here in the cemetery beside this church. There are several periods during these 150 years in which the committee has found nothing, History records that sometimes between 1758 and 1760, Edward Mobley, with six sons emigrated from Maryland to South Carolina and settled in Poplar Ridge on the east side of Beaver Creek in Fairfield County. As the Mobleys came through North Carolina, near the Yadkin River, their caravan was joined by Hans Wagner, a Hollander, and his family, which consisted of himself and his six daughters. Wagner and his daughters settled in Fairfield County near where Reedy Branch empties into Beaver Creek. The Richard Winn Chapter, D.A.R. has erected a marker on Highway 215. The inscriptions on this marker says Fort Wagner, built by Hans Wagner as a refuge from the Cherokee Indians, stood one mile east of the marker. History also records that a house of worship was built by these early settlers somewhere near Poplar Ridge on the east side of Beaver Creek. All denominations congregated in that house to worship God in the Christian faith. (During the Revolutionary War the Patriots, under command of Major Winn, defeated a body of British and Tories who had assembled at Mobley Meeting House in June 1780.) Since that was a house of worship for settlers of all denominations, it is evident that as the various denominations grew larger in number they withdrew and built their own separate churches. Hence, within a few miles of the location of the Mobley Meeting House there are Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Universalist churches, and it is very probable the Baptist from that house of worship were those who founded Beaver Creek Church that was built on the east side near the head of Beaver Creek in 1797. What this building was like, or how long it was used as a church, we do not know. We do know in the course of time the membership of the church drifted northward and it was decided to move the church nearer the center of the membership. Consequently, the church was built on this location. The land of the church lot was given by Robert Wylie Coleman, grandfather of the late John Wylie Coleman, in 1884, consists of four acres. The plat shows a very narrow path like strip of land running from the back of the lot down to the branch. When he gave this land, Mr. Coleman said he included the narrow strip in order that the church might never be cut off from a water supply. In the cemetery the earliest marker bears the name of Rhoda Colvin, who died October 13, 1848. From this date and the date the land was given, we are led to believe the church was moved to this location about 1845 or 1846.''