Click on any photo or photo-link to view a pop-up enlargement.

Hopewell on the Keowee Church

The small Hopewell on the Keowee Church sat on this site from 1791 to 1796 when it burned in a forest fire. At that time, this property belonged to Ezekial Pickens, second son of General Andrew Pickens who had given Hopewell Plantation to him and his brother, Andrew Pickens, Jr.

Following the Revolutionary War, General Pickens established the 593-acre Hopewell Plantation. The plantation house still stands on the Clemson University Cherry Farm. The name "Hopewell" was taken from the church where the General had been an elder in Abbeville District. "Keowee" comes from the Keowee River, later called Seneca River or Seneca Creek.

The Pickens brothers and Colonel Robert Anderson were instrumental in starting a Presbyterian congregation in the area. The log "meeting house" was constructed "about 80 rods east of the Ezekial Pickens dwelling on the north side of the road which leads from Fant's Grove to Clemson." Today, that road is named Seed Orchard Road.

The church was first mentioned in South Carolina Presbytery minutes on October 13, 1789: "A people on Seneca [River] apply to be taken under our care and receive supplies." At the same meeting, the Reverend John Simpson was appointed to supply the new church on Sabbath once a month.

Hopewell-Keowee, sometimes referred to as Hopewell-Seneca, was formed in union with Carmel church (formed in 1785) of the Easley area. For many years any ministers appointed served both churches. At that time most churches had full services under the guidance of a minister only once a month.

Dr. Thomas Reese, a graduate of Princeton and a gifted orator, and who had moved to the Pendleton District from the Low Country, agreed to lead the two congregations. The first elders included Andrew Pickens, Robert Anderson, and Thomas Dickson. They were elected to serve for a lifetime, or until they moved away.

An account by Dr. Reese stated that the church was organized "by the spirited exertions of a few men who removed from Abbeville. They were not so numerous as the people of Carmel, but better united, more catholic in their principles and dispositions, and liberal in their sentiments. A few of their number are wealthy and very forward to support the Gospel; among whom are General Pickens and Colonel Robert Anderson, both men of great influence in the state of South CarolinaŠOwing to these circumstances, their ability to support religion in proportion to their numbers is greater than that of any other congregation in the upper part of the State." (Thomas Reese, 9/15/1793)

In 1796, a forest fire destroyed the log meeting house and work began on a new church, now known as the "Old Stone Church" located at the Junction of Old Stone Church Road and Highway 28/76, near Pendleton, on land donated by John Miller the printer. Dr. Reese's health failed and he died that year at the age of 54. He was the first to be buried in the cemetery of the "Old Stone Church" before construction of the new building was finished.

In 1912, a stone marker was erected to commemorate Hopewell on the Keowee Church and the people who had served it. The monument and stone fence that surrounded it were vandalized in the 1980s. This prompted its transfer to the Old Stone Church where it sits inside, safe from vandals, but regrettably relieved of its duty to proclaim "It happened here."

Kathleen Dooley, Ph.D.
Gene W. Wood, Professor and Extension Trails Specialist
Clemson University