About this property
Horn Creek Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church in Edgefield, South Carolina. The congregation was founded in 1768 and the current building was constructed in 1790 and remains one of the oldest buildings in the county. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. == History of Horn's Creek Church and its Restoration == Founded in 1768 just a few years after the first settlers arrived in Edgefield County, Horn's Creek Baptist Church was the result of the evangelical mission of the Reverend Daniel Marshall (1707-1784), the renowned Baptist divine who had founded churches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. In the years following its founding, as the population of the Horn's Creek neighborhood grew and its agricultural economy boomed, this Church became one of the largest and most influential churches in the county, providing a place of worship for both whites and African Americans. Moreover, as one of the “mother” churches of the region, it spawned a number of important “daughter” churches throughout the county. By the closing decades of the 19th century, the Horn's Creek lands, characterized by dramatic topography with high ridges and deep valleys, had begun to wear out from soil exhaustion and erosion, causing many residents to move out. This gradual depopulation of the neighborhood continued for many decades and was rapidly accelerated by the coming of the boll weevil in the 1920s. In 1942, the few remaining members of Horn's Creek Baptist Church met and decided to discontinue services and to turn the property over to the Edgefield Baptist Association for safe-keeping. For the next sixty years the Horn's Creek Church property was under the control of the Association. In 1976, the county made the restoration of Horn's Creek Church its Bicentennial Project. In that year, many individuals expended an enormous amount of time and effort working on the church building and cemetery. However, in the decades following, due to its remote and unprotected location, the building and cemetery were subjected to terrible vandalism. Although a number of efforts were made to repair the damage caused by the vandals, the defacement continued unabated. Finally, frustrated by the vandalism, recognizing their inability to restore and preserve the Church, yet cognizant of the historical importance of the property, the Edgefield Baptist Association deeded the property to the Edgefield County Historical Society in 2002. From the beginning, the Society felt the heavy obligation to preserve and restore this historic treasure. It is one of the oldest – if not the oldest – structures in Edgefield County. The best estimate, based upon architectural and documentary evidence, is that the current building was constructed as least as early as 1784 when the property was platted and conveyed to the original Trustees. It is a monument to the beginning of the religious fervor in the South Carolina and Georgia backcountries in the 18th century. Almost all of the Baptist churches in this region, including Big Stevens Creek Baptist Church in Edgefield County and Kiokee Baptist Church in Columbia County, Georgia, trace their roots to the ministry of Daniel Marshall. The Edgefield County Historical Society was so keenly aware of the importance of this property and the religious revival which started here that it undertook to have a comprehensive history of the early years of the Church written and published several years ago, copies of which can be obtained from the Society.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Horn Creek Baptist Church listed on the National Register?
Horn Creek Baptist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 5, 1971.
What type of historic resource is Horn Creek Baptist Church?
Horn Creek Baptist Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Horn Creek Baptist Church?
The period of significance for Horn Creek Baptist Church is recorded as the colonial era, specifically around 1768.
Can I research the history near Horn Creek Baptist Church?
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