About Us

Our Cemetery & Property

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Map to Bethel Presbyterian Church

About Us

Our Cemetery & Property

Give

Tithe/Contribution

Map to Bethel Presbyterian Church

Galleries

History of the Church

The original records of the first fifty years of Bethel Church were lost. Samuel McFall was elected a Ruling Elder and Clerk of Session, after which he purchased a Minutes of the Session book and a Church Register.

On the first page of the Minutes of Session book, Samuel McFall wrote down the early history of the church and the names of the founding families. Or to use his words: “From the most authentic information ….”

Samuel McFall purchased the church a King James Bible, published in 1854. He then inscribed it with the name of the church and the date.

Rev. William McWhorter was born in the bonds of Bethel Church, 16th March 1811. His parents, John McWhorter and Elizabeth Willson, were a founding family in 1805. He was the first Presbyterian minister born and raised in the Old Pickens District.&

The handmade wooden marker belongs to Nicholas Word . He was from Ireland and was killed in 1859 while working on the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel in Oconee County.

Though he was beyond the age limit, Samuel McFall enlisted in the Confederate Army. He was killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill near Richmond, Virginia, on June 27, 1862.

Even though the sale was not completed until 1908, the church negotiated with J.D. Verner about extending the cemetery 1¼ acres as early as 1895, according to the survey.

On August 10, 1905, at 3:30 o’clock the centennial monument was unveiled by Cornelia Pickett, a descendant of Samuel McFall, and Kate Sharp, a descendant of John Sharp. The marble monument stands 8½ feet and has engraved on it the names of the off

Floor Plan for the “ Classroom Addition ” drawn by Rev. Trent Howell Jr. during the summer of 1952.

Classrooms Groundbreaking Ceremony, August 24, 1952 L-R: Rev. Ace Tubbs, Rev. Trent Howell Jr., J.J.D. Cowan, Sam Cowan (Robert Emory Alexander is in the background) Joseph John David Cowan was selected to break ground as the member with the

1952 construction of the classroom addition to the church.

The first female elder in Bethel’s history, Catherine O’Neal Rankin, was ordained June 24, 1979. Front Row: D.L. Hanvey, Mrs. Rankin,     Frankie Galloway, Rev. Stevenson Back Row: Paul Chalmers, Hoyt Lee,  Joe McAlister, &nbsp

Church Renovation

Church Building

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Sunday service starts at 10:30 AM

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