There’s a Seat Saved for You

Homecoming is the Sunday we set aside to worship together, share a meal, and remember where we came from. If you grew up in these pews, were baptized or married here, or have family resting in our cemetery, this day is for you.

And if you’ve never been to Florence before, come anyway. You’ll be welcomed like family.

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”Psalm 90:1

166 Years of Faithfulness

Florence began under a brush arbor, lost its first church to war, and rebuilt more than once. Every Homecoming is a chance to tell that story to the next generation.

1. Early1800s

   A Brush Arbor and a Spring

   Long before there was a Florence Baptist Church, believers of every denomination around here shared one building, called Boiling Springs or Center Meeting House. In time a group of Baptists began meeting on their own under a brush arbor about half a mile south of today’s church. Plentiful spring water drew them to the present site. They named the church for Florence Hutto, who had given to a mission cause.

2. 1860

   Twenty-Three Charter Members

   Florence Baptist Church was formally constituted with 23 members and a log meeting house on the ground where we still worship. On October 5, 1860, the Edisto Baptist Association received the new church into its fellowship.

3. Feb.1865

   The First Church Is Burned

   With most of the men gone to war, wives, children, and older folks kept the farms going. Our church history tells of a rider who came through on the night of February 12, 1865, warning families that Union soldiers would pass the next morning. People hid food and valuables, mostly without success, and many were left with nothing. As Sherman’s army moved north toward Columbia, soldiers burned Florence’s first house of worship.

   Union army reports match the timing. A brigade of Sherman’s left wing camped at Jeffcoat’s Bridge on the North Edisto River on February 12 and crossed at 5 a.m. on the 13th, the morning the rider had warned of.

4. By1870

   Rebuilt from Sawn Lumber

   Men came home to ruined farms and houses, and still made rebuilding the church a priority. Sawmills were just appearing in the area, so the second house of worship was a frame building, raised sometime between 1865 and 1870.

5. Oct.1877

   A Young Messenger on Horseback

   Florence had joined the Orangeburg Association in 1872. In November 1876 the church sent Caston Busbee, 21 years old and riding alone, to ask Orangeburg to release Florence so it could sponsor a new association closer to home.

   On October 10–12, 1877, messengers from eight churches met here at Florence and organized the Lexington Baptist Association. That first meeting happened 149 years ago, the same week as this Homecoming.

6. 1888

   A Third House of Worship

   A finished frame church replaced the building put up after the war.

7. 1945

   The Sanctuary We Know

   The present church building was completed. Additions followed as the congregation grew: an education building in 1959, the parsonage in 1969, an enlarged sanctuary in 1992, and the Family Life Center in 1998.

8. 2010

   One Hundred Fifty Years

   On October 10, 2010, the congregation celebrated its 150th anniversary.

9. Oct. 112026

   Homecoming

   One hundred sixty-six years after twenty-three believers organized a church in a log building, we are still here, still worshiping, still welcoming. Come be part of the next chapter.

“When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them…”Joshua 4:6–7

This history draws on the congregation’s records as reported in The Baptist Courier (2010), the Lexington Baptist Association, and the Union army’s Official Records. Have a correction or a family story to add? Let us know.