The first sanctuary was an L-shaped log structure located on a high hill overlooking Steele Creek across from the grist mill and the Catawba Trading Path (today’s Springfield Parkway). Unity’s first site was selected due to its proximity to Webb’s Mill (grist mill) on Steele Creek which had become the center of activity in this remote area with several log homes, a store, and a tavern in the vicinity. Just six months after the Constitution was signed, one year before George Washington became the first president, and 85 years before the town of Fort Mill was incorporated, Unity Presbyterian Church was organized in a wilderness area of upstate South Carolina by pioneer settlers. Practically all were of Presbyterian denomination and had brought with them a strong Christian faith. They had come to America to make a new life for themselves and to escape religious persecution and prosecution for their beliefs. The “fort” and the “mill” would 70 years later provide the name for a growing village, Fort Mill.Īlmost all of these pioneers were farmers who had recently emigrated from England, Scotland, and Ireland. Then in the 1760’s, Webb’s Mill, a grist mill, began operating on Steel Creek, a short distance from what would become Unity’s first site atop a nearby hill. In 1756, the British army began construction on a fort to protect the native Catawba and Cherokee tribes from enemy tribes. During the years immediately following, they were joined by other families including the McKee, White, Springs, Harris, Barnett, Webb, and Garrison families, which began to populate the remote backwoods area. Spratt became a great friend to the Catawbas, and was given a large tract of land on which Fort Mill would eventually evolve. He and his wife, en route from Charlotte to Abbeville, SC, had intended only spending the night here, but during their overnight stop they were persuaded by tribal leaders to become permanent residents. Known initially as “Little York”, the area that would 113 years later officially become the town of Fort Mill had its beginning in the 1760’s when Thomas (Kanawha) Spratt settled in Catawba territory. Timeline of Presbyterian History in AmericaĪll of the land in the area that now encompasses Fort Mill was originally Catawba Native American tribal territory. (UPCUSA) (the so-called “northern branch”) to form the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA). (PCUS) (the so-called “southern branch” of Presbyterians) reunites with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church as a Minister of Word and Sacrament.ġ983 – The Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Presbyterian minister Jonathan Edwards was a prominent leader in the revivals.ġ776 – Presbyterian minister and president of Princeton Seminary John Witherspoon signs the Declaration of Independence.ġ842 – Henry Highland Garnet, a freed slave, is ordained by Presbyterians in New York as a Minister of Word and Sacrament.ġ861 – The Presbyterian church is split over issues of slavery and states’ rights.ġ956 – Margaret Towner becomes the first U.S. Migrations of Scotch-Irish in the early eighteenth century brought Presbyterianism to the Americas.ġ560 – John Knox brings Calvinism to Scotland.ġ689 – Presbyterianism becomes the established religion of Scotland.ġ706 – The first Presbyterian Church is established in the Americas in Philadelphia.ġ739 – The First Great Awakening begins in the colonies. John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, took Calvin’s teachings back to Scotland and started a movement that would become the Presbyterian Church. Some 20 years later, John Calvin, a French theologian influential in Switzerland, further refined the reformers’ new way of thinking about the nature of God and God’s relationship with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed theology. In 1517 he posted a list of 95 grievances against the Roman Catholicism on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany and was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Early in the sixteenth century, Martin Luther, a German priest and professor, started the movement known as the Protestant Reformation. Early in the eleventh century, the western portions of Europe came under the religious and political authority of the Roman Catholic Church, while Eastern Europe and parts of Asia came under the authority of the Eastern Orthodox Church. As Christianity spread and became a politically recognized religion, theological and cultural differences led to splits within Christianity. The Christian church’s birth was at Pentecost, as described in the Book of Acts.
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