Long before its founding in 1871, Aiken County was a community of faith.
Its many churches and religious organizations are closely tied to the history of the county and its communities, dating back to before the American Revolution.
Silver Bluff Missionary Baptist Church
One of the most historic churches not only in Aiken County or South Carolina, but also in the United States, is on Beech Island in southwest Aiken County.
Established perhaps as early as the 1750s and organized around 1775, Silver Bluff Missionary Baptist Church is one of the oldest independent African-American Christian congregations in America, according to the website. scencyclopedia.org.
Indian trader and planter George Galphin, an Irish immigrant, played an important role in the development of the Church as he allowed black and white preachers to minister on his plantation on the banks of the Savannah River.
Galphin was unusual, allowing his slaves to worship independently without his supervision, according to the website. scpictureprojet.org. Under the leadership of David George, an enslaved African American, these men and women formed the early foundations of the Silver Bluff Missionary Baptist Church. The first congregation is believed to have been Presbyterian through the influence of Galphin and his Irish heritage. The Church later practiced Methodism before finally becoming Baptist in 1773.
The church is at 360 Old Jackson Highway, Jackson.
St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church
St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church
Its cornerstone laid in 1842 just seven years after Aiken’s founding, St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church on Pendleton Street is closely tied to the city’s history, particularly its early ties to the railroad.
A planned city, Aiken was laid out in the 1830s by the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. The plan reserved land for churches, including St. Thaddeus, according to the church’s website.
Throughout the 19th century, the church had few resident communicants, but Charlestonians who fled the coast to Aiken to escape yellow fever epidemics maintained the church.
But as the town of Aiken grew and new visitors from the North who fled the harsh winters of the Northeast and Midwest and established the Winter Colony arrived, Saint Thaddeus grew as well.
St. Thaddeus has experienced its greatest growth since 1950, when the Savannah River Plant was built in southwest Aiken County and attracted thousands of new residents to support U.S. nuclear weapons programs.
Today, St. Thaddeus is a large parish, according to its website, that offers outreach programs to its parishioners and the community, including a soup kitchen every Saturday that serves about 100 hot lunches each week.
Adath Yeshurun, Aiken’s synagogue, was founded in 1921 and is located at Greenville Street and Barnwell Avenue. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Adath Yeshurun Synagogue
In the late 19th century, Jewish immigrants, many from Eastern Europe, found new homes in Aiken and became leaders in business, politics, and civic affairs.
By 1890, the city’s Jewish community was well established and its members held services in private homes or buildings, including the Masonic Hall. As the population grew, the congregation needed its own synagogue.
In 1921, the group received its charter as Congregation Adath Yeshurun, meaning Congregation of Israel. Meyer Harris, JS Poliakoff, M. Poliakoff, BM Surasky and Jacob Wolf represented its members, according to a historical marker erected in 2014, outside the Pendleton Street synagogue.
The synagogue, built in the neoclassical style, was completed in 1925, according to the synagogue’s website. Since its construction, the synagogue has been used continuously as both a place of worship and a community center for Aiken’s Jewish residents.
Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Center in Gloverville is among dozens, if not hundreds, of religious organizations in Aiken County facing massive schedule and program changes this month, amid the coronavirus epidemic.
Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church
Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, located on Augusta Road in Gloverville, has been committed to serving the spiritual and physical needs of its community for nearly a century.
In the 1930s, Mgr. George L. Smith, pastor of St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church in Aiken, enlisted the help of wealthy residents to build a mission center in the nearby Horse Creek Valley, which runs southwest from the city towards North Augusta.
In 1939, the Horse Creek Valley Craft and Welfare Center, later known as Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Center, became the first social service agency in the Horse Creek Valley. During the Great Depression, the Valley, then made up of several unincorporated textile mill towns, was considered the second largest pocket of poverty in the United States, according to the center’s website.
The center was staffed by Sisters of Christian Doctrine, who taught kindergarten, visited homes to care for the sick, and formed groups to provide services and recreational programs for all ages.
In 1941, the center established a multi-purpose rural community center to meet the needs of Horse Creek Valley residents without regard to religious beliefs, age, race, sex, national origin or disability.
Today, the center’s mission continues by identifying and responding to the unmet needs of Horse Creek Valley residents in the name of Jesus Christ. Through its ministry, led by Catholic Charities of South Carolina, the center provides educational training, financial assistance and emergency food through its food pantry.
