The Saint Paul Methodist Church Historical Marker can be found at 1575 Harllees Bridge Road, Little Rock, South Carolina. The marker stands in front of the historic church building and cemetery on the east side of Harllees Bridge Road.

The Saint Paul Methodist Church Historical Marker can be found at 1575 Harllees Bridge Road, Little Rock, South Carolina. The marker stands in front of the historic church building and cemetery on the east side of Harllees Bridge Road.

OUR HISTORY: Saint Paul Methodist Church

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 26, 1977, St. Paul’s Methodist Church sits quietly on the north side of Little Rock, South Carolina, a few miles south of the Robeson County Line.

As denoted by the flaking historical marker that stands in front of the structure, St. Paul’s holds historical significance for both its architecture — “an example of the transitional Italianate Victorian vernacular style that developed between the Greek Revival and Queen Anne periods, according to the National Park Service’s registration form — and its ties to the early American Methodist congregations in the region.

In 1786, Bishop Francis Asbury, one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the burgeoning days of both America and Methodism in the new country, visited the South, organizing “preaching stations” for congregants to hear sermons.

According to an essay by the South Carolina Picture Project, one of these preaching stations sat on the banks of the Little Pee Dee River. Soon after a meeting house was constructed. The congregation that met in that early structure took on the name “Liberty Chapel sometime before 1814.

According to research from the South Carolina Picture Project as well as the National Register of Historic Places, land for a new church in Harlleeville, which later changed its name to Little Rock, was given by Thomas Harllee Sr. to trustees of Liberty Chapel in 1823.

“Records of the church from this time have been lost, leaving no details of the new Liberty Chapel. However, the deed shows that it was located where St. Paul’s presently stands,” according to the SCPP essay.

THIS WEEK IN ROBESON COUNTY HISTORY

100 Years Ago: Three members of the Lumberton baseball club “were ruled out” by Dr. Jas. G. Pate of Gibson and president of the league, “on the ground that they had played ‘big league’ baseball,” according to a story in the June 15, 1922 Robesonian.

50 Years Ago: A 17-year-old Fairmont man — Frederick Ray Hunt — drowned on June 17 while swimming in the Lumber River about three miles west of Lumberton, according to a report in the the June 18, 1972 Robesonian

25 Years Ago: Robeson County school board members decided not to give year-end bonuses to Superintendent Purnell Swett and three associate superintendents, according to a story in the June 18, 1997 Robesonian. “Until there is a way for us to award classroom teachers for their hard work, …Then I am against bonuses for the top administrators,…” said John Campbell, a board member.

Five Years Ago: According to a story in the June 20, 2017 Robesonian, The Robeson County Board of Commissioners adopted a budget that keeps the tax rate, bumps some fees, and provides almost $1 million to increase local supplements paid to teachers.

One Year Ago: Local Realtors said Lumberton, like other rural areas in North Carolina, are having a hard time finding homes for the influx of residents fleeing bigger cities in part to escape the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a story in the June 19, 2021 Robesonian.