These four women were the first members of the Methodist women’s group who founded Greenwood Methodist Church. During the 1850s, they would add four more women and formally organize themselves. Socio-economically Elizabeth and Emily set the tone for the entire group as it expanded. Elizabeth, a well-off woman, and Emily, a working woman, discovered what they had in common outweighed their differences. As the group expanded, membership probably was self-selecting. Women comfortable with a broad-based group may have wanted to be a part of it, whereas women comfortable only with their own were not interested. Ultimately, a broad-based membership probably was one of the group’s strengths as it pushed Methodist decision-makers to expand in Greenwood. Elizabeth and Thomas had been married nearly 14 years when Thomas died 9 February 1857 at age 58. His grave marker indicated he had been a Methodist for the last 25 years of his life. 25 After Thomas died, Elizabeth’s youngest son and daughter-in-law moved in with her. She probably still lived in the Main Street home where she had lived since moving to Greenwood. She no longer boarded students. She had inherited property from Thomas and probably still owned property inherited from William. 26 Greenwood Methodist Church was the first church founded in the village proper. In its infancy, Elizabeth likely continued to nurture the women’s group and financially backed the Church. Re the latter, she almost certainly put-up part of the property needed to buy the Fuller Institute building and land. In addition, she with others probably oversaw planning and renovating the building to convert it for use as a church. Rev. William H. Lawton, the organizing pastor of the Church, was so pleased with the renovation that he called the building “a neat brick church.” 27 25 Greenwood Co., S.C., Cemetery Records , 3:250-51. 26 1860 U.S. census, Abbeville District, South Carolina, population schedule, Greenwood, p. 110 (penned), dwelling 805, family 780, Eliza [Elizabeth] Byrd; digital image, Ancestry.com (access through participating libraries : 20 December 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 1212. Also, Abbeville District, South Carolina, Court of Ordinary, Thomas B. Byrd will, Thomas B. Byrd Estate; Box 144, Pkg. 4051, Abbeville County Probate Court, Abbeville. 27 “Brother James A. Bailey,” obituary, Southern Christian Advocate (Macon, Georgia) , 14 February 1872, p. 24, col. 5, South Carolina United Methodist Collection, Wofford College, Spartanburg.
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