Pickens Chapel
Not far from Slabtown on Three and Twenty Road we arrived at the site of the old Pickens Chapel. A historical marker sits at the entrance to the site.
Sadly, the old chapel was torn down just recently. I’m not sure why, but it was demolished intentionally – not burned or fallen to natural processes. Here’s how it looked in 2021…
This was the site on Monday. There was a locked gate, but it looked like it was easy to drive around, and it looked like many had. We didn’t. We just parked beyond and walked up.
We walked down to the old cemetery. Here we found lots of historic headstones, including many Revolutionary War veterans. As with Slabtown, it looks like the site is well-maintained, and new markers sat side-by-side the older ones they replaced.
One of the replacement stones had the earliest birthdate I had seen in the Upstate – 1697. It was for Robert Pickens. This must have been the Captain Robert Pickens mentioned earlier. If so, he died only two years after donating the land for the church.
OK, self-correcting here after looking at my photos more carefully. This was Captain Robert Pickens’s father. Here’s the grave of the one who donated the land.
Another headstone that caught my eye was that of “Aunt Jemima Pickens.” Jemima, along with several other slaves, were buried at the back of the cemetery. Her headstone had the most elaborate carving, indicating that she had been highly regarded. She live to the amazing age of 105.
We left Pickens Chapel and headed to our next stop, Carmel Presbyterian.
Carmel Presbyterian
The exterior of the church is much as it was in the 1800s. In between the entrances is a monument to Rev. John L. Kennedy, founder of the Thalian School. At one time this monument was further from the church building, but it looks like it was moved closer to create more parking. Here’s a photo from a 1957 Greenville News article about the church.
To be honest, I think I liked it better without the awnings over the doors. We explored the cemetery. The headstones weren’t as old as the Pickens Cemetery. Even after Carmel moved to this location, members still wanted to be buried in the old cemetery. There were lots of Woodmen of the World headstones, as well as Masonic symbols. There were also some unusual concrete vaults over the tombs.
The cemetery was split between an older section near the church and a newer section across the road. The section across the road actually had connections to my family. There were lots of Ellenburg graves.
I found the grave of H. W. Ellenburg, a Confederate War veteran.
Hezekiah Watson Ellenburg was my great-great uncle. The family called him Kaiser. His brother, Thomas Franklin Ellenberg, was my great-grandfather. Notice that they spelled their names differently.
From Carmel Presbyterian we drove over to Pendleton for lunch. Since we were so close, we stopped by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
There were many notable names in the cemetery, including members of the Calhoun family. Probably most notable was the grave of Thomas Clemson, for whom Clemson University is name. There was a brick pathway leading to his tomb for those making a pilgrimage.
With families of this prominence, it’s not surprising that we found lots signature stones. There were several from W. T. White, but also some from J. Walker and others.
By this time we were getting quite tired. We’d had a full day’s cemetery tour, or “cemetoury,” and it was time to head home. It was another good MLK Day ramble and I got more information for a possible podcast episode.
I really enjoy learning more about South Carolina from your blogs. My dad grew up in Greenwood, but he joined the Army, so naturally we did a lot of traveling. Every summer we spent time visiting family in the area. Even now, my favorite trips are to visit family still in the area. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Hope things are going well for you and your wife as you continue to recover from the storms in the fall.
Regarding the portion of your article concerning Jasper “Jap” Davis, is it possible that his behavior was the result of what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD? Could he have suffered some trauma during the Civil War which led to his later ill behavior? One can only speculate.
That’s what I thought while reading this.
My mother’s family, the descendents of Captain William Griffith, moved to Slabtown from Mauldin after the civil war. My grandfather, Ellison Capers Griffith, attended the Slabtown Academy. He was a self taught fiddle player and blacksmith and served as Chairman of the local school board. He and my grandmother, LB Bradley Griffith, are buried in the Slabtown Cemetery. As a small child, I remember going to clean up that cemetery around the middle of May. My Aunt Velma Griffith built and ran the corner store until her death in 1995.