Church Record Sunday~Elizabeth Baptist Church

The Elizabeth Baptist Church was founded in 1825 by Elder Joel Gulledge and Samuel Timmons.

Elder Joel Gulledge and Samuel Timmons were dismissed from the Deep Creek Baptist Church in Anson County, North Carolina for the  sole purpose of establishing this church in Mount Croghan, South Carolina.

It’s one of the oldest churches in the County and is located just
north of Mount Croghan, Chesterfield County, South Carolina. “This Church is the oldest Baptist Church In the Chesterfield Baptist Association.”¹

In 1836, the church establish and built the Elizabeth Academy considered one of the finest schools in Chesterfield County. It was burnt to the ground by union forces under General Sherman and Johnston in March 1865. The school was rebuilt but never obtained it’s pre-civil War prestige. Eventually it was closed and torn down.  

Many early pioneers of the county buried in the Churchyard Cemetery. Most of the buried pioneers buried at Elizabeth Baptist Cemetery² can be found on this website. Click here for a listing of 550 burials within the cemetery.

Also assisting genealogist and family historians are the preservation and easy access to the early minutes of the Elizabeth Baptist Church. Minutes from the church with many names of former members  can be found here: Elizabeth Baptist Church Minutes³

Typical entries consists of:

• Aug 1854 - Brother Wilson Chambers from Mount Olive Church was present and requested our church to send delgates <sic> to meet in Convention at the Mount Olive church on Friday before the Third Sabbath September next to Consider the propriety of forming a new association on motion of Brother J Baker it was agreed to lay over for the consideration of the church till our next meeting.⁴
• Church met in Conference Saturday before the first Sunday in April 1855
• Members present Wiley Allen, Charles Hendrick, J B Timmons, W K King, Jesse Allen
• first  Brother Joel Baker stated as the Committee of the church that he had seen sister Sellers and that she satisfied him that absence from the Church was on account of her inability to attend and not from a want of desire to do so Report received and Committee Discharged ⁵
• July 1857 - first opened a door for the reception of members when Margaret Alsobrooks came forward and said that she had been Pardoned for her past conduct and in a full Confession of her guilt. She was unanimously restored to the fellowship of the Church ⁶
• 1859 - first Brother Joel Baker preferred <sic> a charge against sister Martha Hancock stating the fact that she was in a family way ⁷
• 1874 - Joel Baker reported Margaret Alsobrook not living as she should with her husband, abusing of him and causing him (as) her abusing Language to leave home for some days    On Motion she was Excluded ⁸
• A Protracted Meeting was held in August 1875 for ten days.  Persons joined and Baptized were: Sarah A Green, Frances Huntley, Elizabeth Steele, William H. Horne, James Horne, William Burch, Moultrie Burch, James Burch, & David J. Hendrick by letter from Cross Roads ⁹

This is an excellent resource if you have ancestors that were born and reared in the neighborhood of Mount Croghan, South Carolina between 1825 and 1884.












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[1] Marie Gulledge Wiggins, James Pigg, Pigg Genealogy (https://chesterfield.scgen.org/elizabeth-baptist-church/: viewed 2 January 2012), Minutes of Elizabeth Baptist Church, 1825-1919, Introduction, page 1 and https://chesterfield.scgen.org/elizabeth-baptist-church/
[2] http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=69938
[3] Marie Gulledge Wiggins, James Pigg, Pigg Genealogy (https://chesterfield.scgen.org/elizabeth-baptist-church/ : viewed 2 January 2012), Minutes of Elizabeth Baptist Church, 1825-1919, Various, Various.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.