History

The First Presbyterian Church of Laurens gives credit for its beginning to God’s power and to the work of the Reverend Samuel B. Lewers, who met with a small group at the Laurens County Courthouse in March of 1832 and began its organization with fourteen charter members. Mr. Lewers served as pastor of this young church from 1832 until 1850.

There was no church building in the early years, but at least part of the time the members worshipped not too far from where the old depot on East Main Street once stood.

By 1840, the membership had increased to sixty-nine, and a few years later, Negro slaves were admitted as members. At this time observance of the Sacraments was only once a year with meetings beginning on a Thursday evening and continuing through Sunday evening, and with the Ordinance of Baptism being administered on a week day while Communion took place on Sunday afternoon. Services closed with a sermon on Sunday evening at Candle Lighting.

By 1850, the congregation had its first building, an oblong brick place in which to worship in the pines on Church Street. The Reverend Samuel B. Lewers gave the dedication in a service which closed his ministry in Laurens.

The church, however, was not long without a pastor.  From 1851 until 1860, the Reverend David Wills served not only as minister but also as a professor for the Laurensville Female College. During his tenure the church’s membership reached one hundred and seventy-six, forty-six of whom were Negro slaves.

The Reverend John R. Riley, the third minister, served the church for seventeen years until 1877. Work on the first manse began in 1860 but was interrupted by The War between the States and was not completed until 1865. The last house in Laurens to be built by slave labor, it was located on East Hampton Street.

The church felt the weight of the war. In 1863, the congregation voted unanimously to send its minister to the war, after his having already been appointed chaplain in the Confederate Army by a committee of the General Assembly of the Church. The members also voted to continue his salary and to furnish him an outfit of suitable clothing. Hard times followed. In the church there was evidence not only of the impoverishment of its members but also of the loss by death of male members and by a gradual withdrawing of its black members. Those who remained helped raise their pastor’s salary by paying rent for their pews. They left some free pews for non-members, but families sat together and supervised their children during services. On January 8, 1870, elders and deacons met to endeavor to find ways of raising the pastor’s salary. They divided the deacons into teams representing the four wards of the town and assigned a deacon from each team to be responsible for collecting money for his ward.