Bethel Presbyterian Church

Front inscription

This church, originally located at Jacksonboro, was founded in 1728 by Rev. Archibald Stobo (d. 1741), father of the Presbyterian church in S.C. The first building at Jacksonboro was replaced in 1746 by a “handsome sanctuary” that stood until it was destroyed by a forest fire in 1886. A summer chapel built on this site in 1821 was a branch of the Jacksonboro church.

Reverse inscription

) By the 1830s the Walterboro church became the main sanctuary under the leadership of Rev. Edward Palmer (1788-1882), minister here 1827-32, 1844-45, and 1862-74. A second frame church, built here in 1860-61, was destroyed by a tornado in 1879. It was replaced by another frame church in 1880, which burned in 1966. The present brick sanctuary, the fourth on this site, was built in 1969.