Hampton County · Marker 25-22
Steep Bottom Baptist Church
Steep Bottom Church, Steep Bottom Road, Estill vicinity
Front inscription
Steep Bottom Baptist Church was constituted in 1814 through the efforts of Rev. Hezekiah A. Boyd and Rev. James Sweat. Steep Bottom, along with Prince William and Cypress Creek Churches, was admitted into the Savannah River Baptist Association in that same year. Across the road is a pond referred to as the “Punch Bowl,” which was long used as a baptismal pool.
Reverse inscription
During the Civil War the XX Corps of the Union Army camped near the church in early February 1865. Union forces fired the nearby town of Lawtonville, which never recovered, and tradition holds they also burned Steep Bottom Church. A new church was built in 1872 and served as the sanctuary until the present church was built in 1982. The 1872 church remains and is now the social hall.