Source unknown pages 94-97
Dorchester Church
"In that year, as we all know, a colony under English auspices settled on Ashley River. Ten years afterwards this colony removed to the junction of the Ashley and Cooper, the present site of Charleston. Here was a little aggregation of humble homes, placed amid all forms of peril and privation. There were in it some four feeble churches, whilst, outside of the town, there was neither a single church organization, nor minister of the Gospel. This destitution the little hamlet of Charleston could not supply, but tidings of it were borne to the Dorchester colony in Massachusetts, and in 1695, that colony, with fasting and prayer, ordained a minister, the Rev. Joseph Lord, and organized a church of nine members. This church and pastor were sent forth upon their beneficent work. After experiencing most tempestuous weather at sea, this floating church came to anchor upon the Ashley River, four miles from where we worship to-day, and there and here has kept itself, by Divine help, until the present hour. Recall the scene! Twenty miles from any white habitation, surrounded by an almost unbroken forest and by hostile Indian tribes, this faithful few made homes for themselves, in the midst of which rose the house of God. Their first communion was observed in the open air, and under the boughs of a spreading oak.94
"Yea, recall the scene more in detail. Let us seek to look upon that little assembly of worshipers, and upon the house in which they worshiped! We may do so, measurably, by remembering what was true substantially of the Church from which they came, and which they would be certain to reproduce. The church edifice was precisely what most of us remember--a meeting house, and not a church in the Anglican conception. Its four sided peaked roof had, presumably, a tower in the centre, in which were placed a drum--for this was the New England bell-- to call the people together, and a sentinel to warn of danger. A single door admitted to a single aisle, leading to a lofty pulpit, with a sounding board above it. In front of the pulpit was an elevated seat for the ruling elder; a little lower and just behind the communion table was a seat for the deacons. On either side of the aisle were several plain benches, capable of seating four or five persons each. Along the sides of the house were two or three long seats, and at the side of the pulpit were several shorter ones. Back by the door two seats were fitted up for the guardsmen, with their old matchlocks.95
"But what of the religious life and services of this people? Unless they had forsaken the paths to which they were born then this may be easily reproduced. On Tuesday evening the brethren and sisters met in various private houses for prayer. Friday afternoon they assembled in the meeting house for lecture and prayer. Saturday was a busy day, for food must be prepared for the Sabbath, and that Sabbath began at Saturday's sunset. On Saturday afternoon the young people resort to the meeting house to be catechized and instructed. The Sabbath-school was not yet known to the world, or the Church.
"Early on Sabbath morning, before 9 o'clock, the drum sounds, and the congregation wends its way to the sanctuary. Upon entering it the guards are stationed at the door, and the men seat themselves upon the benches upon the right of the aisle, and the women take those on the left. The minister is in the pulpit, the elders and deacons in their appointed seats, the elder having a psalm book in his hand. The service begins with a long and earnest prayer during which the people stand. Then follows a careful exposition of a chapter in the Bible. When this is ended the elder rises and slowly reads and afterwards lines out a psalm, which the people sing. The congregation sit during the singing, but when the pastor rises to announce his text all rise until it has been given, and then seat themselves to listen to the sermon. It will not be a short one, we know, for there stands the hour glass before him, and he may have to turn it before he finishes his discourse. He has no manuscript, but speaks fully and freely. The prayer and benediction follow, and the people move quickly away to eat a cold lunch, and then return at 1 o'clock to another service of a like kind. The collection is part of the afternoon service. No plate is passed, but all who have aught to give come forward to place their offerings in a box upon the communion table, the civil magistrate and the Church officers coming first. The gifts are sometimes a piece of silver, but more often a book or promise of produce. At sunset the Sabbath is over, and social amenities are exchanged, but all surcharged with the sweet sanctity of the hours which have just passed.
"This, in every material detail, was the character of that life and religious service which began at Dorchester two hundred years ago.
"The White Meeting House, the church of the colonists, was built over a mile from the town.96 Why at such a distance is not known. Erected in 1696, in the course of time it fell into disuse and decay. In 1794, almost a hundred years later, it was rebuilt. The foundations and some of the walls, being in good preservation, were utilized in the restoration.97
"The money for the work was raised by subscription, all denominations joining in the contributions. Here are some of the names of the subscribers, many of which are still familiar: Matthias Hutchinson, Thomas Smith, James Pendarvis, Mary Droze, Thomas Gelzer, Dr. Richard Waring, Lewis Poppenheim, Samuel Prior, Samuel Perry, George Parker, William Wragg, Peter Horlbeck, Sr., William Henry DeSaussure, Susanna Postell, Polly Ann Smith and others.
"In the spring of 1796 the work was completed, the'meeting house,' as they called it then, was re-opened.98
"Of the after spiritual and ecclesiastical history of this infant church of devoted Christians you need scarce be told. Joseph Lord,99 pastor for twenty-five years; Hugh Fisher, pastor for fourteen years, and until his death; John Osgood, pastor for eighteen years, when he led another colony out into Georgia, whose descendants have made their place of settlement a centre of power for the truth of God in our sister State. The illustrious George Whitefield preached in the Dorchester Church in the course of that journey of missionary effort in which he turned the world upsidedown.100 You remember the record, for one of your beloved elders has written it for you, how there followed in time the British occupation of Dorchester, the desecration and dismantlement of the church edifice, its rehabilitation and the goodly succession of its Pastors and stated supplies.101
"After the building of the Summerville Church, in 1831,102 that structure came to be more and more used in the summer season, whilst that at Dorchester served for the members of the church and congregation who resided on their plantations in the winter. This, at least, was the condition of things when your present speaker came to Summerville in 1861. But the winter service in the Summerville Church was not wholly intermitted. Preaching at Dorchester in the forenoon, the pastor returned to preach in Summerville at night.102a When the war between the States had made the plantations near the Dorchester Church practically valueless for agricultural purposes, the need of Church privileges at the old sanctuary ceased, and the venerable structure fell into decay, which the earthquake of 1886 made an utter ruin.
But the Summerville Church had been duly organized under the Presbyterian System, before the war, viz: in 1859,103 and the two churches became for a time, technically, but not practically, separate--technically, because the Dorchester Church possessed an endowment, which it was compelled to use for its own support--but not practically, because its fund was available to aid in the maintenance of a pastor who should serve both churches. In 1882, after the necessary abandonment of the Dorchester edifice, the Legislature vested the Dorchester Endowment in the Summerville organization,104 the white members of the Dorchester Church having some time before, transferred their membership to the Presbyterian Church of Summerville.