of the spot on which the first cabin was built by white inhabitants in the upper country. There seems to be a general and growing desire among the people to encourage learning. The first preacher among these early settlers was the Rev. Mr. Thain, from New Jersey, who in the year 1754 preached under an oak tree. His congregation consisted of about six families, which was then nearly the whole population of that part of the country. This settlement was broken up by the Indian war which raged between 1755 and 1763. Soon after the establishment of peace the inhabitants returned to their deserted cabins. While they re-established their plantations they were equally careful to re-establish religion, and had divine ordinances administered among them by the Rev. Dr. Alexander, and the Rev. Messrs. Tate and Simpson, and have ever since been an orderly church. Near the spot where the first sermon was delivered in 1754, there is now a large congregation and a regular Presbyterian minister. Something similar took place in other settlements. There are now among them many orderly well educated clergymen who receive from four to six hundred dollars a year for their ministerial services. Divine service is devoutly performed and decently attended. Among the professors of all denominations there is a growing and general desire to promote religion. The first iron works in South Carolina were erected in the upper country by Mr. Buffington in 1773. These were destroyed by the tories in the revolutionary war; but several have been built since the peace of 1783. In the year 1760 a great whirlwind began about King's Mountains and passed in a southeast direction through the Waxhaw settlement. It took off the whole roof of a large dwelling house of Mrs. Pickens so completely, that no one shingle of it has ever since been traced. In 1808, November 15, at 9 o'clock P. M., a large ball of light about 20 feet long, appeared in the heavens and moved in a southwest direction. The light was so great that a pin might be easily picked up. There was soon after an explosion with a sound equal to that of a cannon. A rumbling noise followed for a few minutes. All this time the horizon was clear. It is observed by old settlers that the lands have washed away much more of late than formerly; and that the spring season is several weeks later than when the country was first settled. In the year 1755 the country from the Waxhaws on the Catawba across to Augusta on Savannah river did not contain twenty-five families. Within the same limits there are now twelve large and populous districts. FINIS. |