Seeing History Come Alive- Where
is The St. Barthlomew Parish
Church?
May
2008
Written by James
Banfield
Back in 1650's – 1700's River's Bridge wasn't
much. For a fact I don't even think it was named
River's Bridge.
Close to around the time of the Revoluntionary
War. there were indians through out and the
settlers were migrating north out of Charleston
to Columbia. Circulating throughout the
area was a soldier who was well respected by
both sides, “The Swamp Fox,” or General
Francis Marion (1732-1795) The General fought on
the side of the Revolutionaries.
Because he was all over the South Carolina
Territory, I believe he had various stations
throughout the South Carolina Territory,
including The St. Bartholomew's Parish area
(1706 started -1798 when it was abolished) The
Indian War of 1715, with the Yemassee Indians
,caused four forts to be built along a course
that was basically parallel to the later
constructed Charleston – Augusta Stage Coach
Road. That road ran through Bamberg County. We
found a publication that stated in a side note
“The old St. Batholomew Parish Church was about
300 yards east of the Otto and Mel Copeland's
homestead, which was about 1.5 miles north of
the Mt. Pleasant Luthern Church.” We know where
the old Copeland home is but the parish has yet
to be rediscovered.
There were several settlers who came into the
territory (in the 1700's) and their names are
memoralized on a 5 foot stone at River's Bridge
Battlefield State Park. At the same time, the
Revolutionary War was taking place and across
the sea sailed many a soldier to come to America
to help the colonists fight the British and also
to help the British fight the Americans. For
some reason ,originally a soldier by the name of
John George Bamberg, came from Germany or
Bavaria. There are several ideas of where he
came from and in what capacity he came over as.
As near as I can tell, he came from Bavaria and
was a Bamberg from the city of Bamberg, Bavaria.
John George Bamberg , after the war, decided to
settle down in SC and chose our neck of the
woods. River's Bridge / St. Bartholomew Parish
area. From the looks of the information on hand,
John George Bamberg became Revernd John G.
Bamberg after the War and served at St.
Bartholomew Parish . As like many Revolutionary
fighters, no matter what side they were on, many
respected the Swamp Fox so much that like other
South Carolinians , John George Bamberg's
son, John Fredrick Bamberg, named one of
his sons Francis Marion.
James
Banfield, at the gravesites of Rev. John
George Bambeg, & John Francis Bamberg,
at
Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church at Ehrhardt,
SC.
James Banfield,
with Local historian Betty Jane Miller,
who
was responsible for the moving of the
remains of these two bodies to the current
site.
Reverend John George Bamberg (see
gravestone above) became the first pastor of Mt.
Pleasant Lutheran Church in 1798. John Fredrick
Bamberg was born to John George ( 1793- 1851)
and was only 7 years old when his dad Reverend
John George Bamberg died in 1800. There is
nothing notable about John Fredrick Bamberg
except that he named one of his sons William
Seaborn Bamberg, (1820-1858) became a major and
was instrumental in the building up of Bamberg,
the city. His brother, Francis Marion Bamberg
(1838-1905) became a General and was also active
in county politics and the county of Bamberg is
named after the General. Imagine The City and
County named after two brothers of the Bamberg
family.
So,
now this is where this article takes on a
strange twist. We are going to concentrate on
the years 1706-1798. The Years of the St.
Bartholomews Parish Church.
Where is St. Bartholomew
Parish?
In the
Bamberg County Historical book by Margret Span
Lawerence, Betty Jane
Miller and Nancy Ray Foster, we found a
couple of statements that were pertinent to our
search for The St. Bartholomew Parish
Church. Here are the quotes:
“For the
first 85 years (1750 – 1835) of its history, Mt.
Pleasant was known as St. Bartholomew and was
located about a mile to the south of its present
building. There is no trace today of the
original building or burial ground.
“
“It is
probable that the church moved to its preesnt
site in 1835 because a public road there meant
greater accessability for the congregation and a
way to attract more Worshippers. (The Charleston
– Augusta Stagecoach Road ran right next to the
new Church). A name change could have come at
that time for the Mt. Pleasant school house was
there on the property.”
That
was the first clue that the parish might be
there even though there was the statement “There
is no trace of today of the original building or
burial ground”.
So
what made us continue the search to verify where
it was? It was a side comment in passing in a
book on Mt. Pleasant 1750-2000 ,250 years
serving God, again edited by Betty Jane Miller,
local historian. When reading the paragraph on
page 39 it really blew us away spiritually
speaking of course. Here is the paragraph.
“Admistrative esate documetns indiscate that
John Sease (17?? - 1811) and his wife Margaet
lived in the St. Johns community in what is now
Bamberg County. Evidence seems to say that he
died when his son John was a baby. His
administrative papers were drawn up at St.
Batholomew Lutheran Church, located 300 yards in
front of the Otto, Tom, and Mell Copeland home.”
My
wife, nee Martha Clayton, is from this area and
went to school in Ehrhardt and drove a bus in
Ehrhardt to Bamberg. She exclaimed, “I know
where Otto,Tom, and Mells house is!” as if she
knew them personally. She did. She went to
church with them. Martha (Marty) also used
to go home to spend the night with her friends
Brenda and Glenda Chassereau, whose home is not
far from the old Copeland
house.
We got
in the car and drove to Ehrhardt and drove past
the Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church and came to a
“Y” in the road and took the left fork. We went
through an “S” turn and came upon an old old
house in the trees, And Marty said, there it is
on the Right. The Front of the house, what was
left of it was facing east, which meant to us
that St. Bartholomew Parish Church was 300 yards
to the east of Otto, Tom and Mell's house! ....
we estimated 300 yards (900 feet) and Voila! I
could see a natural landmark that could have
been there for at least 250 years!. Not saying
what that land mark was, we were very excited.
Mikey roping
off the distance from
the old porch of
Ott, Tom & Mel's
old now
dilapidated
home.
That
following Sunday we spoke to Brenda Chassereau
Bazzle about the possibility that the
Parish might be on her land and that we would
like to get up an expedition to check out the
area and see if we might be able to find some
remnant of the foundation of the building and at
least some of the gravesites that were within
the property of The St. Bartholomew Parish
Church. She was open to the idea. However, we
have since found that the land is adjacent to
Brenda's and is owned by Harry Mears of
Ehrhardt, who is also a descendant of the
Copeland family. Harry has given us
permission to look on the land for the remains
of the old church site.
Now it is spring 2008 and we are excited to go
forward with the expedition to locate the
missing church building. Next, putting
together the search team. Stay tuned for part
II-The Expedition!
Some photos
current up to June 30,
2008:
