as there are some facts connected with our family’s stay in South Carolina which have not been clearly understood by that part of the family which later- came to Ohio, it is necessary for us to get a fuller picture of this period, in order that we may have a clearer understanding of our religious forebears. Mr. Cooper in his family narrative sums up the whole story of Hugh McMillan’s coming to South Carolina by saying that he arrived, bought a farm and built a church1. Yet, there is much more to the story than this. There were heartaches in connection with his acquiring a farm. We wonder if there were not heartaches, in connection with the building of the Rocky Creek Covenanter Church? 1Published in 1907. Hugh McMillan came to Chester at a late date so far as Presbyterianism is concerned, just as John MacMillan of Balmaghie appeared late on the scene during the days of the persecution in Scotland. Whether the family was early or late in Ireland in making its contribution there, we do not know. When Hugh McMillan reached Chester district, South Carolina, a Union Church was already in existence in which the several branches of the Presbyterian Church were worshipping. They were worshipping in a church significantly called the “Catholic Church”. This church had three Presbyterian ministers from Ireland before Hugh McMillan arrived. The last of these was the Rev. William Martin of Revolutionary fame, a Covenanter from Ireland, whom Hugh McMillan probably had known in Ireland. But before Hugh McMillan arrived in South Carolina, William Martin, due to intemperate habits, had been required to withdraw as pastor of the Catholic Church and had built a strictly Covenanter Church of his own. The records tell us that Hugh McMillan first worshipped In the Union Catholic Church, but later because of his strict Covenanting principles, which doubtless included the matter of temperance, did not join William Martin’s church, but with a number of other Covenanters, “whose number in the meantime had increased in the district,” built what came to be known as the “Brick Church” on Rocky Creek, a strictly Cameronian Church. Here he and the members of his family and other like minded people worshipped for nearly thirty years, or until his son, Rev. Hugh McMillan, who had strict views upon the subject of slavery, 13
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