Note: This section is still under construction. There is much to add, and it will take time.

The Beginning Years

The following was copied from the History or BFBC 2001 (Copied as it was published):

"The history of the Bruton's Fork Baptist Church, as of every other Baptist Church in Marlboro County, is inseparably linked with that sublime event which first marked, both the establishment of Baptist principles in this community, and the beginning of its civilization. The Baptist Church has exercised a powerful influence over the destiny of this county. The pages of history relate the simple and heroic story of the establishment of civilization on the banks of the Pee Dee River late in 1736, tell posterity of the deep debt of gratitude that it owes to the Baptist Church. It was a little Baptist colony that first brought civilization into the savage and unknown wilderness that in those days bordered the Pee Dee River. Marlboro County was a trackless forest in a new land inhabited by savage beasts and still more savage men. A devoted little band of Welsh Baptists, pining for a larger liberty than they could enjoy in their native land, encountered the unknown dangers of land and sea for the purpose of making an asylum in which they would be free to worship according to the dictates of their own consciences. After encountering and overcoming many hardships and dangers, they settled upon the east bank of the Pee Dee River in January, 1738. They erected in Marlboro County, the old Welsh Neck Baptist Church. The beauty and moral grandeur of this scene cannot be depicted. This feeble little band of men and women, far from the land of their birth, hastened to erect their simple altar to the God of their fathers. They were the pioneers of our church, and their memories should be forever enshrined in our hearts. They were few, simple, and humble, yet what grand proportions does their lifework now assume.

Bruton's Fork Baptist Church traces its lineage back to the old Welsh Neck Baptist Church and as long as time shall endure, the memory of the toil and sacrifices of those ancient founders of the church should not depart from the grateful recollections of their posterity. We should never fail to recognize with grateful hearts that we flourish today as a church and as a people because that little band of self-exiled Baptists suffered and conquered the hardships of the hostile wilderness."

In 1782, the old Cheraw Baptist Church was dismissed from the Welsh Neck Baptist Church. In December 1820, part of the membership of the Cheraw Church decided to become an independent church, and after being regularly dismissed, they established Saw Mill Baptist Church. This old church was the mother of Bennettsville Baptist Church and the grandmother of Bruton's Fork Baptist Church. The church continued to worship at Saw Mill until September 1832 when the new building in the town of Bennettsville was first occupied and the name changed to Bennettsville Baptist Church, now known as Thomas Memorial Baptist Church.

On the 21st day of October 1837, Bruton's Fork Baptist Church was organized.

The following, taken from the old church records, shows the manner in which this was done:

We, whose names are underwritten, conceiving it will be for the glory of God and our mutual edification, to be constituted into a regular gospel church; and having received letters from the Bennettsville Baptist Church to which we belong, have called our beloved brethren, Patrick C. Connelly and John Culpepper, Jr., to officiate, set us apart, and constitute us agreeably to the gospel order, on this the 21st day of October 1837, at Bruton's Fork, in the District of Marlboro and State of South Carolina, and we do mutually unite in the following solemn covenant:

1. We do solemnly profess to believe and support those doctrines and principles contained in God's Word and set forth in the abstract of principles of the Welsh Neck Association

2. We do solemnly agree to give ourselves to the Lord, and to one another in the Lord, and submitting to the government of Christ in His Church.

3. We solemnly agree to pray for our ministers, deacons, and fellow members; watch over each other in the Lord, and, if need be, will reprove and admonish each other agreeably to our Lord's direction.

4. We do solemnly engage to receive the Christian admonition of our brethren in the spirit of meekness and love.

5 . That we will endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

6. We do further engage to attend upon the means of grace in public worship upon the Lord's Day and other meetings appointed by the church; keeping our places in the house of God, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

7. We do agree that, if in the course of providence, we should be removed at a distance from this church, and into the vicinity of some other of the same faith and gospel order, to take letters of dismissal, to the end that we may be under their care and partake of their church privileges.

8. We do engage as far as our temporal circumstances will permit, to contribute of our worldly substance to the support of him whom God may place over us in the gospel, or who may administer to us in spiritual things.

9. We do solemnly agree that in case of difference with each other in the secular matters, if we cannot settle same ourselves, we will refer the matter in dispute to a committee chosen from amongst ourselves.

10. Lastly, we do, in the presence of God, solemnly agree to the above specified articles;

adhering to them as far as God shall enable us and that whosoever amongst us deviates shall be deemed worthy of church censure and dealt with accordingly.

The members who subscribed the above article of agreement were:

Thomas Stubbs, Sr., Sion Odom, Sr., Lucy Sparks Stubbs, Elizabeth Herndon, Holden W. Liles, Elizabeth R. Liles, John Speight, Elizabeth Bristow, James Herndon, Amelia (Milly) Stubbs, and Margaret Bennett Those underlined were previously members of the old Cheraw Hill and Saw Mill churches.

Thus the ancient record runs, and it gives in bare outline the story of the founding of Bruton's Fork Baptist Church. The inconvenience of attending services in Bennettsville and increased population in the community, naturally led to the desire to form a local church organization. Little is known of the men and women named above who first founded this church, but they left a numerous posterity whose names and lives are still associated with this community. Many of those descendants uphold, even now, the same faith that animated their forefathers.

The Old Man of Marlboro…

J.A.W. Thomas was the second Pastor of BFBC, he is known for writing the History of Marlboro County and kept a record of everyone he has ever baptized and married in the 40 years that he pastored in the area.

You can buy a copy of Thomas’ book on Amazon today. Click on the book to find a copy.

John Alexander William Thomas is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Bennettsville, SC, in the heart of the area in which he served as Pastor for 40 years.