Some tent-holders arrived at the campground the day before the meeting opened and stayed until the day after it closed. Worship services went on day and night. Fires built on elevated platforms scattered around the campground illuminated nighttime services. When a nearby meetinghouse became a church, it took the name Smyrna Methodist Church, such was the local importance of Smyrna Camp Meeting. 11 Louisa Jane, the youngest child of Francis B. Clinkscales and Eleanor Brownlee, was born 15 January 1828 probably on their plantation in northwest Abbeville District where she grew up. 12 She was born three years before her mother died. 13 If after her mother’s death her father followed the Methodist program of family worship for children aged two and up, the Methodist environment in which Louisa Jane was raised consisted of “due respect for public worship, a quiet and sober demeanor in the house of God, and love of virtue and religion.” 14 Shortly, Louisa Jane’s father re-married and her grandfathers died. Grandfather Brownlee left her mother’s share of his estate to Louisa Jane and her brothers and sisters. Grandfather Clinkscales during his lifetime gave her father his share. 15 11 Albert Deems Betts, History of South Carolina Methodism (Columbia: The Advocate Press, 1952), 159-166. Rev. Betts wrote that camp meetings were a movement that “grew up to meet a great need of Christian people without Conference action or overhead planning.” 12 Greenwood Co., S.C. Cemetery Records , 2:61. Also, Abbeville District, South Carolina , Surveyed by Wm. Robertson, 1820, Improved for Mills’ Atlas, 1825. Clinkscales lived on the road “From the [Pendleton District] Line to Abbeville.” Also, State Plats, Columbia Series, S213192, vol 47:271, Francis B. Clinkscales (20 July 1824); South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia. The 1824 plat was a survey of 268 acres on a branch of Spur Creek, which the Mills’ Atlas map showed was east of where Clinkscales lived. Spur Creek is a tributary of Little River. Mrs. Fox, John Swilling, Samuel Black, John Burnett and James Brownlee were abutters. No vacant land abutted this tract. 13 Ancestry, Find A Grave , database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : 3 July 2020), memorial 48374306, Eleanor Elsey Brownlee Clinkscales, Shiloh Cemetery, Abbeville, Abbeville County, South Carolina; gravestone photograph by Jim Ravencraft. Also, “Louisa Jane Clinkscales,” Life Sketch, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : 29 June 2020). 14 Lewis P. Jones, “What It Was Like To Be a Methodist In the 1820’s” (typescript, 1978); South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia. 15 “United States Census, 1850,” entry for Frances [Francis] Clinkscale [s], Abbeville county, part of, Abbeville, South Carolina, United States. Also, South Carolina Will Transcripts, George Brownlee, 25 February 1836; Series S108093, microfilm 9, reel 3, frame 144; digital image, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Online Records Index (http://scdah.sc.gov : 9 July 2020). Also, South Carolina Will Transcripts, Francis
52
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator