Category: Religion

The Oeland Churches

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History and Genealogy, Local, Miscellaneous, Religion

For many years I was music director at McCarter Presbyterian Church here in Greenville. McCarter is a small church located prominently at the intersection of Pelham Road and East North Street, a spot it has occupied for the past 123 years. It seemed a unique little church in the bustle of a major neighborhood that somehow managed to survive.
But then I found out that it wasn’t unique.

Journey to Nazareth

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History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Religion

I worked in Spartanburg county for fifteen years. During all of that time I never got around to visiting Nazareth Presbyterian Church. I knew it was one of the first churches in the area, having been established around 1765, but for some reason I thought that the building had been updated and no longer retained its historic character. I was wrong. When I had driven by it I had seen the new Family Life Center (a.k.a “gym”) and had thought that IT was the church, somehow missing the older building right next to it. While out doing some research on another project about church architecture Alan Russell and I finally paid Nazareth a visit.

Finding Camp Meeting

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History and Genealogy, Religion

Wilmore Camp Meeting circa 1960, Wilmore, Kentucky My Background Growing up in a Pentecostal preacher’s household, one of my earliest memories is attending camp meeting each summer at Beech Springs Campground near Pelzer, South Carolina. Those earliest memories were of an open wooden tabernacle with sawdust on the floors. The activities lasted all week with … Read More “Finding Camp Meeting” »

Reformation Day at the Old Brick Church

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History and Genealogy, Religion

Ebenezer A.R.P. Church, otherwise known as “The Old Brick Church,” is one of my favorite places to explore and photograph. It’s on my list of historic churches where I would love to attend a service.  I finally got the chance this past Sunday, Reformation Sunday on the liturgical calendar. Originally founded as Little River Church, … Read More “Reformation Day at the Old Brick Church” »

The New Modern Prophets

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Miscellaneous, Music, Religion, Weirdness

TL;DR jump to audio file. Also, see the note at the end for disclaimer regarding names mentioned in this post.

Flashback – Summer, 1981

I was in-between semesters at Furman and was trying to earn a bit of cash for school by working maintenance for Laurens School District 55. This particular summer I was painting Sanders Middle School with an older guy (and by older, I mean probably in his mid-30s) whose first name I could only remember – Willie. Willie was a hard worker, and taught me lots about commercial painting, most of which I’ve long since forgotten. I liked Willie, and enjoyed my work with him that summer.

Willie was a devout Christian, and enjoyed listening to a local Black Gospel station on AM radio. I got into it, too, listening jealously to some of the piano chops these guys had. However, the one thing that made my day were the advertisements for Reverend Yuri. At precisely 11:25 am and 2:25 pm these would air.

Reverend Yuri was a spiritual advisor and reader located on Cedar Lane in Greenville. To this day I can point out his former establishment, which still looks rather weird. (I only know it was the place because there was a large billboard proclaiming it as Yuri’s, and not from any actual visits to the establishment.) His advertisements featured him using the vernacular, and started like this…

Is you tired? Is you lonely? Has your friends let you down? Reverend Yuri can help…

In the following years I’d tune in every now and then to listen to the ads, simply because I loved the use of the lilting vernacular. A couple of years later Reverend Yuri was replaced by “Sister Yuri.” I don’t know what happened. Sex change? Had I misunderstood the gender from the get-go, and the voice I was appreciating was that of the announcer? Who knows? Eventually Yuri closed shop and the ads ended.

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The Mystery of the Cross(es)

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History and Genealogy, Local, Religion

North Carolina Cross

As you drive through several communities in Western North Carolina, you will see wooden crosses dotting the countryside. These crosses are free-standing, about ten feet high, and bear a message, usually something like “Jesus Saves from Sin” or “Jesus Died for Sinners.” These are found in front of Baptist churches in the area, and occasionally in front of private homes.

North Carolina Cross
North Carolina Cross
North Carolina Cross

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The Unknown Tongue

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Family, History and Genealogy, Religion

Speaking in Tongs

A weird chain of events led to an interesting investigation into history tangentially related to my family. This morning I participated in a webinar on the South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program, sponsored, in part, by the University of South Carolina Libraries. One of the presenters mentioned the possibility of doing genealogy research using the archive. I decided to try a few search terms associated with my family history to see what I found. I actually didn’t find much about my family, but I did find another tale, full of conflict, misunderstandings, racism, and corruption.

The newspaper archives are hosted on the Library of Congress website as part of their Chronicling America series. The newspapers cover all states from 1836 – 1922. Any family search would have to be within those target dates.

I decided to start with my grandfather, Rev. O. E. Taylor, since he would fit within the tail end of that time frame. I restricted my search to issues of the Laurens Advertiser. Unfortunately, his name didn’t return any hits, even when I expanded it to all newspapers in the state. It did return a Rev. E. O. Taylor, who was an episcopal bishop in the state at the same time.

I changed tactics and started searching for churches where I knew my grandfather had preached, and there I hit pay dirt. The first term I tried was “Long Branch.” I grew up in Long Branch Pentecostal Church, which was founded by my grandfather and which my father later pastored. My grandmother taught at Long Branch School, and I have lots of other relatives in the area. The term returned several hits in The Laurens Advertiser, almost all of them relating to an issue of religion being taught at the public Long Branch School.

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Return to Long Branch

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History and Genealogy, Religion

Long Branch Pentecostal Holiness Church

Long Branch Pentecostal Holiness Church…

The name is long in our family lore. The church was established by my grandfather in 1911, as were many of the Pentecostal Holiness churches of this area. My father pastored the church for most of the 1960’s, and it is here that I have my earliest memories of church.

The church was small, and our large family made up a sizable bit of the congregation. My father preached and led the singing, and my mother played the piano after Mrs. Annabelle Brown left that position. It was just a tiny, unique country church, but its effect on us was indelible. The place is etched in our memories, and the myths and legends of Long Branch have grown over time, and have been embellished through retelling. So, today, nearly forty years since I last set foot in the church, I decided to see how close those myths were to today’s reality.

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