http://www.magoo.com/hugh/cahans.html#abbeville
An article on the Long Cane Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on the website of the McCormick County South Carolina GenWeb Project tells us:
"The beginning of the church at Long Cane was in a fort where the settlers would go for safety. After the Cherokee and the Creek massacres people built Fort Boone which served as a haven of safety as well as a 'school house' and also served as a 'meeting house' where the settlers assembled for worship. In an Act, dated February 7, 1780, the church at Fort Boone was incorporated as the 'Presbyterian Church called Fort Boone congregation at Long Cane settlement.' Prior to this Long Cane Associate Reformed Presbyterian church was organized in 1771 as Associate Presbyterian church. A number of the congregation [left] Ireland for America. They arrived in New York on the 28th of July on the ship John. This large body of passengers were all part of the Rev. Clarke’s congregation from Ireland. Part of this group went to Salem, New York and the other part migrated to Long Canes section and formed the congregations of Little Run, Long Cane and Cedar Creek (later Cedar Spring) churches. Dr. Clark visited his congregation in 1771 as a result of this visit the church was organized. He also visited the church in 1779, as an order of Presbytery and again he visited in 1782. Dr. Clark spent the remainder of 1782 and the greater part of 1783 at Long Cane, Little Run (Little River) and Cedar Spring (organized in 1782). In the summer of 1783 he was called North and identified himself with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (organized in 1782); and during this time he labored as a missionary among the churches of this branch in the North.
"Sometime between 1772 and 1775 Rev. William Martin [who] came to America in 1772, from Ballymena, Ireland, and who was pastor at Catholic church, Chester County came, preached at Long Cane. Another supply minister Rev. William Ronaldson also preached at the church as well as at Joppa, Jefferson County, Georgia, and at Poplar Springs, Georgia. Dr. Clark preached his last sermon at Long Cane Meeting House, December 25, 1791, he died soon afterwards. A larger church replaced the same site of the original log church on land that was given by James Hutcherson survey. Following Dr. Clark’s death Long Cane had supplies for four years. The first year, the Rev. Peter McMillan (frequently written as McMullan) pastor of Due West, supplied when he was able.
"In 1770, Rev. Alexander Porter, the first native-born minister of the Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia was born. He was born and grew up near Parsons’ Mount (named by the owner of this mount and surrounding land, James Parsons, a lawyer, of Charleston), Abbeville County. After completing his education and theological training at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania and having been licensed to preach by the Second Associate Reformed Presbytery of Pennsylvania, he returned home and began to preach at Long Cane and Cedar Spring, January 1, 1797. On March 22, 1797, a call was moderated for him, and signed by the following members ... "
From The Centennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1803–1903, by the A. R. P. Synod, 1905, page 507:
"Long Cane, Abbeville Co., SC, is the historic church of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South. About the year 1779 or 1780 Rev. Thomas Clark of the Presbytery of Pennsylvania paid a visit to those of his old charge *(pastor at Ballybay, Co. Down, North Ireland from 1751 to 1764 when he and 300 others sailed for Salem, NY. He was there until 1780.)* who had settled on the 'Long Canes' in the Carolinas, and organized the congregation of Long Cane, so-called from the creek on the west bank of which the house of worship was built. On March 7, 1786, the congregation of Cedar Springs and Long Cane united and subscribed a call for Mr. Clark, and on May 5, the same year, the call was sustained by Synod. In 1791, when the Associate Reformed Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia met at Long Cane, a petition was presented praying that Rev. Thomas Clark be installed pastor of Long Cane, but it is not known whether the installation ever took place, probably not, as he died at the close of the following year."
Reverend William Ronaldson
Reverend William Ronaldson is another Presbyterian minister whose history is intertwined with the history of Presbyterians in the Abbeville District of South Carolina. A notation of Ronaldson's earlier history was published by Southern Historical Press Inc., c/o Rev. Silas Emmett Lucas Jr., P.O. Box 738, Easley SC 29641-0738. ISBN: 0-89308-350-X:
“The Irish Presbyterians of Saint George Parish (Burke County) built their own churches, on Big Creek and, apparently, on Briar Creek and Walnut Branch. They also had their own ministers starting in 1769 with Reverend Thomas Beattie who died two years after immigrating to Georgia from Ireland. Reverend William Ronaldson replaced Beattie in 1773. Although born in Scotland, Ronaldson was ordained in Ireland where he had a bad record of causing political dissension, something that did not change when he moved to Queensborough in Saint George Parish. During the American Revolution, he fled to Charleston because of his Tory sympathies. He died there in 1783.” (page 82). Contact: KHatcher@alum.mit.edu."
There is a hint that Reverend Ronaldson may have been in Ballybay in 1751, the year that Doctor Clark was ordained there. Here is material from the web page: Long Cane Presbyterian Church:
1. From white on black copy in the Carolinana Library, 9/4/1991.
Newspaper, The Leader, (Serving) Dromore, Ballynahinch, Saint Field, Hillsborough, Dromama, Castlewellan, Etc., Etc., 36th Volume, Number 1788, Friday, December 21, 1951, Reg. @ CPO as Newspaper (From ) Loughaghery Presbyterian Church.
1750 Burger Seders [Seceders?] County Downs
1st Rev. Andrew Black of Boardmilk
Rev. Thomas Main of Drumgooland
1st Building close to lough
Rev. Rawlingstone of Rawlingston
Scottish Minister Presbytery Ballybay in 1751
Removed to America in 1773 and from 1774 to 1781 acted as stated supply at Long Cane, SC, Poplar Springs, and Joppa, Ga. Succeeded at Long Cane by the noteworthy Rev. Thomas Clark, formerly of Ballybay. At the revolution Rev. Rawlingston remained loyal to Great Britain and was banished as a Tory. He returned in 1783 to Charleston, SC, and died there of ship fever the same year.Here are more excerpts from An Historical Sketch of the Long Cane A.R.P. Church by Nora Marshall Davis:
"The first stated supply of Long Cane Meeting House was the Rev. William Ronaldson (sometimes written Donaldson) [Rawlingstone?], who came to America in 1773. The Rev. William Martin, who came to America in 1772, from Ballymena, Ireland, and who was pastor at Catholic church, Chester County, preached at Long Cane some time between 1772 and 1775. Whether other visiting ministers did we have found no record. The Rev. William Ronaldson was the stated supply from 1774 to 1781, at the same time he was stated supply at Joppa and at Poplar Springs, Georgia. This term of service at these churches is supported by Dr. Lathan's statement that it is probable that from the fall of 1779 to the summer of 1782, there was no Associate minister in the South, in good and regular standing, except a Mr. Ronaldson. Because of Mr. Ronaldson's strong Tory sentiments, he was requested to discontinue his preaching at Long Cane.
"Very little has been recorded about this Rev. William Ronaldson. He was a man of wealth and influence; was born, educated and licensed in Scotland, and was ordained at Scavvagh, near Loughbrickland, in 1759. As previously stated, he came to America in 1773, and became a member of the Associate Synod. He served as stated supply at Joppa, Jefferson County, Georgia, at Poplar Springs, Georgia, and at Long Cane, South Carolina, 1774-1781. After being banished from these charges for his objectionable Tory views, he returned to Charleston, South Carolina, where he died of ship fever, 1783. ...
"In May, 1785, Long Cane Church and others destitute of a settled ministry desired to be taken under the care of the Associate Reformed Synod; whereupon the Synod Resolved, 'That the desire of these people be complied
with, and that the Second Presbytery be directed to take them under their immediate change, and that Mr. Clark and Mr. Houleston be appointed to supply the people in North Carolina and South Carolina as soon in the fall as practicable'.
"Dr. Clark came South sometime during the latter part of that year (1785) and began to labor permanently, as subsequent events proved, in Abbeville County.
"On June 1, 1786, at the meeting of the Associate Reformed Synod, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a call to the Rev. Thomas Clark, with a petition from the united congregations of Little Run, Long Cane, and Cedar Creek (Cedar Springs) to admit the said Dr. Clark to the pastoral charge of the said congregations was read. This call had previously been made out, March 7, 1786, and, according to tradition was signed by Robert Foster, John Cochran (two of those who had accompanied him from Ireland), Elijah Sinclair, and a Mr. Patterson. Synod sustained the call; and as Dr. Clark was then laboring among the very people who petitioned for his settlement as pastor, Synod directed that he continue to labor among them till provision be made for his regular installment.
"Since Dr. H. T. Sloan, who had the Minutes before him when he wrote his sketch of the two churches, states that the Minutes contained no record of an installation service, the natural inference is that Dr. Clark refused to be installed on the same ground that he had refused a similar service at the Salem, New York congregation: that he had been installed pastor at Ballibay, Ireland, July 23, 1751, and that the relationship had not been severed. That he was not installed is given definite support by the fact that at the meeting of the Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia at Long Cane, June, 1791, a request was made for the installation of Dr. Clark over these two churches. Dr. Clark died the following December, and there is no known record of his installation between June and December.
"During Dr. Clark's pastorate, a larger and better church replaced on the same site the original log church. The enthusiasm of the pastor was shared by the members. All the nails in that new church were wrought. Too, tradition relates that Miss Jennie Young, who lived where Mr. Cowan Young now lives, forded Long Cane Creek each day with warm dinner for the workmen, a deed that is still a memorial unto her. ...
"Dr. Clark's last sermon was preached at Long Cane Meeting House, December 25, 1791. On the same day he read the citation of the death of Robert McCarter. Dr. Clark died in the evening of the following day, December 26, 1791. (His probated will and the sale of property and the notice of his death in the Charleston Gazette prove that he died in 1791, NOT 1792, as is frequently stated). On his desk, at which he was found dying, was A Pastoral and Farewell Letter to the Associate Congregation of Presbyterians in Ballibay, Ireland, the last sentence of which was, 'What I do thou knowest not now, but shalt know hereafter.' Thus passed a man whose godly example was his best advice, a man of great eccentricities, but wholly devoted to the cause of Christ, and in active labors exceeding abundant."
Kathryn Hatcher was kind enough to furnish two references to records of the emigration of William Ronaldson to South Carolina from Ulster in 1773: Passenger and Immigration Index, 1500s-1900s, page 67, from "Names of Some Ministers, Licentiates, Students, or Emigrants Who Went from Ulster and Served in the Ministry of Presbyterian Churches in North America during the Period 1680-1820" by William Forbes Marshall, (The Quota Press, [1943], pages 61–68, reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1984.) (Permanent entry number: 2592964, Accession number: 8005766.) Also at pages 16–20 of "Ship Passenger Lists, National and New England (1600–1825)," edited by Carl Boyer, 3rd (Newhall, California, 1977, 270 pages. Reprint. Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD, 1992.) Kathryn Hatcher also called my attention to this reference from the section of the website of Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on Loughaghery Presbyterian Church:
"A meeting-house was erected near the lough, and the first minister, Mr. William Knox (lic. Down) was ordained in Aug. 1755. In 1762 by a movement unrecorded we find Mr. Knox installed in Scarva and the Rev. William Ronaldson, the minister of Scarva installed in Loughaghery. There is also evidence which appears to nullify this. Mr. Ronaldson was born, educated and licensed in Scotland, and was a friend of Mr. Knox (see Scarva and Glascar).
"The demission of Mr. Ronaldson and the ordination of Mr. Samuel Edgar (lic. Down) were announced to the Synod in May 1771, the date of each not being stated. Mr. Ronaldson removed to America in 1773, and from 1774 to 1781 acted as stated supply at Long Cane, S. C. Poplar Springs and Joppa, Ga. It is noteworthy that he was succeeded at Long Cane by the Rev. Thomas Clark, formerly of Ballybay. At the Revolution Mr. Ronaldson remained loyal to Great Britain, and was banished as a Tory. He returned in 1783 to Charleston, S. C., and died there of ship-fever the same year. The Rev. Samuel Edgar erected a new meeting-house on the site which still remains in the possession of the congregation. Like many of his brethren, he conducted a classical school to eke out a scanty livelihood. He died at the age of thirty-eight on 9th May 1785. His widow survived him for upwards of forty years. Rev. Samuel Oliver Edgar, Armagh, was his son, and the Rev. Samuel Edgar, Brookvale, a grandson."
She also included this excerpt from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Website:
"History
"One Sabbath day in August 1750 the Rev. John Semple of Anahilt was absent from his pulpit, assisting at a Communion elsewhere. The Seceders seized the opportunity of conducting a service within the bounds of Anahilt congregation, and accessions followed. Really the prime cause of disaffection was distance from Anahilt, for Mr. Semple was strictly orthodox and evangelical.
"The Rev. Andrew Black, lately installed in Boardmills, conducted services occasionally at Loughaghery, and was assisted from time to time by the Rev. Thomas Mayne, Drumgooland. A meeting-house was erected near the lough, and the first minister, Mr. William Knox (lic. Down) was ordained in Aug. 1755. In 1762 by a movement unrecorded we find Mr. Knox installed in Scarva and the Rev. William Ronaldson, the minister of Scarva installed in Loughaghery. There is also evidence which appears to nullify this. Mr. Ronaldson was born, educated and licensed in Scotland, and was a friend of Mr. Knox (see Scarva and Glascar).
"The demission of Mr. Ronaldson and the ordination of Mr. Samuel Edgar (lic. Down) were announced to the Synod in May 1771, the date of each not being stated. Mr. Ronaldson removed to America in 1773, and from 1774 to 1781 acted as stated supply at Long Cane, S. C. Poplar Springs and Joppa, Ga. It is noteworthy that he was succeeded at Long Cane by the Rev. Thomas Clark, formerly of Ballybay. At the Revolution Mr. Ronaldson remained loyal to Great Britain, and was banished as a Tory. He returned in 1783 to Charleston, S. C., and died there of ship-fever the same year."