HOPEWELL BAPTIST CHURCH CEMETERY, Oconee County, SC
A.K.A. Seneca, SC

Version 2.3, 16-Jan-2003, C090.TXT, C90


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AUTHORS: Paul M. Kankula-NN8NN & Gary L. Flynn-KE8FD

*********************************************************************** 05-01-15


CEMETERY LOCATION:
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Locate intersection of 76-Business & 59 in downtown Seneca.
Drive S 0.7 miles on 59.
Go straight on W South 7th and drive E 0.2 miles.
Turn right on E South 7th and drive SE 0.3 miles.
Go straight on S Walnut Street and drive SE 0.6 miles.
Total distance 2.0 miles.

Latitude N 34 39.663 x Longitude W 82.56.133


CHURCH/CEMETERY HISTORY:
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LAND FOR HOPEWELL BAPTIST GIVEN BY ABBOTT IN 1858

SENECA - Hopewell Baptist Church was founded by Willis Washington Abbott, a 
prominent religious figure during the early days of Oconee County. 

Abbott, seeing the need for a place of worship in his community of Hopewell, 
donated the plot of land on which Hopewell Baptist Church has stood for over a
century.

Church members have been told by descendants and a tombstone in the Hopewell
cemetery that the land was given in May, 1858. 

Located on the site of the present Hopewell Baptist Church, the first church was 
a small one-room structure facing the cemetery.

THE FOUNDATION was of
hewed logs held together by wooden pegs carved by hand. A door was in each end 
of the building and wooden shutters served as windows as was the custom in those 
days. The doors of the church remained unlocked at all times

The congregation was very small in those early days. Roads were rough and, in 
winter, often impassable. The people went to church on foot,  horseback, wagons, 
or buggy.

Church conferences were held on Saturdays, and preaching on Sundays. 

THE REV. W. W. Abbott served the Hopewell church as its first pastor. He was 
ordained into the ministry in December of 1865. He served other churches 
throughout the county as well as the Hopewell church.

During his lifetime he married 555 couples and baptized far more than that. Rev. 
Abbott died May 5, 1912, and was buried in the Hopewell cemetery.

Since there was no organ during the early days of the church, Ike Hopkins 
directed the singing with a tuning fork. The church received its first organ
as a gift from George L. Abbott.

UNDER THE Rev. W. T. Land, the first Sunday School was organized, and, in 1927,
Mrs. Charles Knox helped organize the first B.Y.P.U.

It was 1920 before the church received its first repair and addition - a coat of 
paint, a change of the entrance, and an addition to the side of the building.

Up until 1927, the pastors had been paid whatever was taken up in the 
collection; at this time, the congregation voted to pay the pastor a yearly 
salary of $75, although this still was seldom reached.

As the congregation grew through the years, the need for a new church grew with 
it.

THE FOUNDATIONS of the new church were laid next to the old church. When the 
building was completed, it contained an auditorium, 10 class rooms, a study, and 
a library. The first service was held in the new church on July 2, 1950.

A brick pastorium was completed in 1952 on Hopewell Road, and a recreation 
center was constructed in 1955. In April, 1954, Hopewell church organized a 
mission in the Bounty Land community; in January, 1955, it was constituted
as a Missionary Baptist Church.

IN 1955, the original church, which had been standing for 98 years, was replaced 
by a new sanctuary, and the building used previously as an auditorium was
converted to a Sunday School building, which included primary, nursery, and 
adult educational areas, a kitchen, and two church offices. The new auditorium 
has recently been paneled on the inside.

Hopewell Baptist Church a current membership of proximately 400 and is under the 
ministry of the Rev. Ch Candler.


TOMBSTONE TRANSCRIPTION NOTES:
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a. = age at death
b. = date-of-birth
d. = date-of-death
h. = husband
m. = married
p. = parents
w. = wife