Restoring the Lower Long Cane ARP Church
A long wooden bench sits in front of Lower Long Cane Associated Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church, and it is from there on a rainy and cool South Carolina morning that I tried to imagine that time when hundreds of people gathered here to worship.
Those people have all died, the road in front of the church is long gone, and so too are the fields of cotton. When the boll weevil worked its way across South Carolina in the early 1920s, it destroyed the crop and devastated the economy.
“I don’t know what we will happen to our generation passes,” church member John Grier tells me. “There will be no one left to take care of this church. We are down to eight members and I’m the youngest. As you would guess, most of us have family connections to this church. Mine go all the way back to Dr. Thomas Clark.”
Dr. Clark and one hundred families emigrated from Ireland in 1764. After a few years in New York, he eventually moved to this area to live in what was called “the Calhoun settlement.” A few miles from here, the matriarch of the Calhoun family, Catherine Calhoun, was one of twenty-three settlers massacred by the Cherokee Indians on February 1, 1760. The iconic John C. Calhoun was born in this area in 1782.
The Sunday morning service, scheduled for 10:00 a.m., presumably began after I took my leave at 10:30. My friends at South Carolina Department of Archives and History tell us of the important role that this church, organized in 1771 with a structure dating to 1856, had in revitalizing the Associated Reformed Presbyterian tradition.
Now a handful of faithful remain, hoping that their historic church will not return to dust. Learn more about the church and its community below.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
To date, the few members have been able to keep the church in good repair, without any outside funding.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
The church was organized in 1771. The sanctuary was designed by William Henry Jones of Atlanta and dedicated in 1856.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
David Cain, Al Dansby, Cindy Cain (Al's wife), Cyndi (Dansby) Gary, John Grier, Wayne Gary (Cyndi's husband), Ebie Grier (John's brother), Reverend Michael L. Horne, Pastor.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
A few miles from the church is the Long Cane Massacre Site, a place significant to the history of exploration and settlement in South Carolina and for its association with the Cherokee War of 1760-61 and the Calhoun settlement of Long Cane. The property includes the gravestone which marks the place where twenty-three of the Long Cane settlers were killed in a bloody massacre by the Cherokee Indians on February 1, 1760. Among those killed was Catherine Calhoun, matriarch of the Calhoun family, who figured prominently in the settlement of upcountry South Carolina. Long Cane Massacre can be attributed in part to a boundary dispute between the Cherokee Indians and white settlers over a parcel of land lying between Long Cane Creek and Little River.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
Sunday morning, a few minutes before the 10:00 a.m. service.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
A road once ran in front of the church; now, it is in the back.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
This stump is believed to be from one of the trees cleared to build Lower Long Cane ARP Church.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
The church as seen on Sunday morning, November 1, 2015.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
Reverend Michael L. Horne (Pastor), Al Dansby, Ebie Grier, Cindy Cain, John Grier (Ebie's brother), and David Cain.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
Its cemetery of more than 500 graves includes burials of several charter members of Long Cane Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church from the period 1790-1856, when this church was exceptionally significant in the formation, growth, and development of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as a whole.
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
Lower Long Crane ARP Church and Cemetery
photo by: Bill Fitzpatrick
John Grier, the youngest member of the congregation, wonders what will happen to the church when his generation is gone.
