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VOL. LXXXVI. RICHMOND
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Your ancestors were blue-blooded Soots. Their
original home was In the southwest counties of Scotlaud.
From their mountains and glens they could
look across the Irish sea and see the green hills of
Ireland glistening in the sun like gems. Little did
many of them think that these same hillsides were
to <be the future homes of their children for many
generations.
Those Scottish men and women were artisans and
small farmers. They had hard work to win their
bread from the unwilling soil. Their homes were
poor, their implements of labor of the most primitive
kind. Tney had to pay big rents to the lords who
owned the land, and when the harvests turned out
badly they were often brought to the verge of starvation.
They were Puritans of the sternest type. Their
Bufferings had made them so. No people had sacrificed
more than they had done In the cause of civil
and religious freedom. They were Protestants hefore
the Reformation. Although the old Culdee
church seemingly had disappeared from Scotland
for three hundred years and the Roman Catholic
church had control of the nation, yet in the hearts
and lives of those people the ancient church of their
native land found a refuge. They loved her simple
rites, her Inborn love of the rights of man was Interwoven
into the fiber and woof of their characters.
Do you wonder why they were willing to give their
lives during the "killing time" of Charless II. rather
man surrender ir.Cilr Frefrby-.c'riun principles9 Why,
ihey could not heflip it. It was part of their very being.
Not even when nearlj thirty thousand of their numbers
hud become martyrs for their faith would they
desert the 'blue flag of yieir church. Christ's crown
and covenant were of morJ. value to them than the
favor of kings. No church on earth has a grander
roll of saints on her calendar than ours. When they
left their native lamd to seek a new home in Ireland
they carried their religion with them. Hiey have
been living there now 1n the province of Ulster for
three hundred years, a nation within a nation, still
Scotch to the core and as devoted and loyal to the
h^retfbyterlan Church as they were in rhe days whan
they lived in Caledonia. In some things, however,
there has been a marked change. Iheir 1 evidence
in Ireland has not baaa one of continued peace.
They havo if en oppressed and havj suffered much
from the native Irish, who have always looked upon
therm as intruders. This environment has produced;
a type of men we call the Scotch-Irish. They have
caught something of the warm-hearted, witty nature
of the natives, while retaining in an intense decree
; he strong manly character of the Soot. These characteristics
have made them a mighty force in the
world and we have felt it here in America. At least
five of our Presidents have been 3cotoh-Iri?h, and
November may bring us another.
It was the 'Most High and Mighty Prince James
styled King of Great Britlan, Prance and Ireland,
that conceived the Idea that your fathers might
prove a blessing to his turbulent province of Ulster
If he could only induce them to settle there. Historians
tell up that this prince was far from being
the mighty being that he was described on the fly
leaves of our Bibles. He was called "the wiseet foot
In Ohrstendom" and was a queer mixture of weakness
and learning. Although brought up under the
influence of the Presbyterian Church he had no love
for our, coanonunion, declaring that our system of
government was too democratic and antagonistic bo
his kingly dignities. He declared that without hi shops
there could be no king, therefore called our
church "God's silly people" when he would have
forced bishops upon our fathers against their con
, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, DECEV
M\ni I r /c r~
IM V 1L.L.L VO. V.
Address Delivered at the Unveiling of Tablet to the
Memory of the Scotch-Irlsli In Old Greenville
Church, Sunday, October 6th, 1912.
By Rev. J. M. Dallas
victions and consent. He, however, had wisdom
enough to know that his Scottish subjects were even
in those days the best farmers in the world, and
just the kind of men to transform the wild lands of
Ulster into productive farms, and at the same time
prove a buffer state to the native, nn>"> <? ?
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continual state of rebellion against Ms authority.
Offering thean new and cheaply rented lands he induced
your fathers to leave Scotland and found a
new home in Ireland in 1611. The emigration thus
JBnm
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REV. J. M. DALJjAS.
Ware Shoals, S. C.
started has continued more or lees up until the
precept day when we find no less than a million of
your race still living there. They have by their
thrift and Industry transformed the bleakest part of
Ireland Into smiling farms and have founded an industrial
city, the capital of the province, Belfast,
that is the pride of Irishmen of all creeds and conditions.
It Is nearly two hundred years since the attention
of your ancestors was directed to the Carolinas as a
suiuiDie country to seme in. A few hart dared the
awful terrors of voyage across the Atlantic which
in those days of slow sailing ships occupied about
six months and had found homes in the then unbroken
wilderness. Eager to have as omany of thedr
countrymen about them as neighbors and to help
defend them against the Indians those early settlers
did all in their power to bring their friends over
from Ireland. 'Many of them who left Ireland never
reached America. They died at sea from the lack of
proper food and unsanitary comMttone on board *hip,
while scurvy and smallpox killed them by the hundreds.
Many came to this country by the way of
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hl Presbyter/an z
hern Presbyterian
IBER 11, 1912. NO. 4V JQ)
:.) CHURCH
Charleston, while others landed in Virginian ports
and made their way south by ox-teams. We have no
conception of the sufferings your forefathers went
through PTA tihAV mnro oKla ?- - ? * *
ww ivtiii tt svaiemeut in
tne then trackless woods. It took brave hearts, Indeed,
to stand the awful ltonellness of the forest,
not saying anything about the danger from the savage
Indians. Nor can we forget that not very far
from here a company of your people were massacred
in cold blood by these ancient fiends.
One of the first things your ancestors dlid after
founding their homes was to build a church. They
never forgot their duty to God who had brought them
safely across the sea, and had given them a goodly
inheritance in this fair land. So the church was
built of logs, perhaps on this site or somewhere near
it. This is holy ground that must always be held
in reverence. They were simple folk with a simple
faith, those fathers and mothers of yours, and their
house of worshvp was very plain, but they carried in
their hearts a faith that has been the consolation of
f hpir r?Qno a -J
... .?. ,Vi a uiuuwuu years. Along with. their
holy religion they also brought from Ireland their
love of liberty, and 1 am sure it was around Presbyterian
churches that the first plans concerning the
Revolution were matured. They also made an early
impression on the political fortunes of the state
which remain to this day. The Bonnie Blue Flog
that we all love Is only the banner of the Presbyterian
church with a palm tree engrafted on to it,
while the legislature is honored by having borrowed
the name of our highest Church court and called Itself
the General Assembly.
We do not know wnen our fathers buikt their first
church here. They were long without regular ministration
of the Word, relying chiefly on traveling
preaoheis who went on horseback throughout the
country, being only alple to visit churches once or
twice a year.
We know that the Saldua church (as the name
was then), had in 1773 been without the means of
grace for a long time, and the people were anxious
for the service of a minister. The sacraments had
not been celebrated for a long period and many of
the young children were growing up without 'baptism,
which was a matter of great concern to their parents.
Meeting together in the spring of 1773, the people
resolved to send a representative to the meeting
of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia asking
for a minister to be sent them. The mission was
successful and the Rev. John Harris, of Maryland,
wu? appointed missionary la charge of the churches
composing the held. Mr. Harris was not only a
preacher but a doctor as well and was a big powerful
man, who went about his parish ministering to
the bodies as well as the souls of 'his hearers. He
was greatly loved and continued pastor for ten years,
at the expiration of which he retired, advising his
congregation to organize into a regular charge in
1784. This was done by the Presbytery of South
Carolina in that same year, 'Rev. Robert Hall 'being
installed as pastor of Old Greenville church.
Through all its long history until the present the
church has been faithful to the faith of the fathers
aud to the great head of the church, our Lord Jesus
From her have gone out three flourishing
daughters, congregations that are doing good work
to the people of a wide neighborhood. The venerable
organization herself shows no sign of decay, or that
her work ie done. She has more Christian vitality
and is doing a better work today than at any time
of her history. Her ancient waits are full of young
life with the promise of a brighter and better future.
L/ike the eagle she is renewing her youth. How true
she has been to the emblem of the Presbyterian
(Continued on page 6.)