Chapin United Methodist Church
History
Official records show that a Chapin congregation existed in 1889. There were 19 members in 1890 and Rev. Robert Lee Holroyd was the minister. The first congregation of the Chapin Methodist Church met near Wessinger’s Crossroads near the old site of Martin Derrick’s store. At that time Chapin was in the Lexington Fork charge of the Columbia District.
On February 10, 1891 Martin Chapin donated the land on which the town of Chapin was founded. Then on April 11, 1892, Laura Chapin, wife of Martin, donated land to the Methodist Episcopal Church (which the little brick church is sitting on). The congregation from Wessinger’s Crossroads moved to Chapin and constructed a wooden building.
Chapin was named after Martin Chapin, who was born in Cortland County, New York on June 5, 1821. During the 1830’s he developed tuberculosis, and moved to the area now known as Chapin because he was advised by doctors to live among the pines and inhale rosin fumes. He did return to New York long enough to marry Laura Anne Benjamin before returning to enter the lumber business where he eventually owned more than 3,000 acres along with a mill (the mill was located near the present site of Fat Buddy’s).
Being a “Yankee”, Mr. Chapin was interned during the Civil War in Charleston and assigned to make salt from seawater. Following the war he returned to Chapin and opened a hotel, which operated until the 1940’s. (For more detail on the general history of Chapin, see the history page at www.chapinsc.com.)
C. P. Robinson and his wife Eddie were one of the dominant forces in the early church from the time that they moved to Chapin in about 1902 until moving to Columbia in 1917. During that time they provided great leadership in both the church and community life.
Eddie Robinson was a music teacher and became the organist for the Chapin Methodist Church and was very active in organizing youth group meetings and activities. She was also a State Official of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and would hold the local meetings in her home.
Mrs. Robinson was the sponsor of an annual picnic and invited all of the orphans from the Epworth Children’s Home. Since travel was more difficult at that time, they would come to Chapin on the train. During this time the church was very important in community life and was attended by local Lutherans as well as Methodists.
In 1915 the Lexington Fork charge was renamed the Irmo charge, then in 1921 Chapin moved to the Pomaria charge. The other churches in the Pomaria charge were New Hope, Mt. Pleasant, Morris Chapel and Capers Chapel, with the parsonage centrally located in Pomaria.
Since one minister served all five churches they were not able to have services every Sunday, so they held services every other Sunday, with the time alternating between morning and afternoons. On Sundays that Chapin had a morning service, the minister would always be invited to eat lunch with one of the church families.
During the 1920’s and 30’s economic conditions were very bad and the church
budgets were low. C. R. Anderson was the minister in 1926 and 1927; during that
period his salary was $1,250.00 per year. This was paid by the five churches
split up as New Hope $425, Mt. Pleasant $325, Capers Chapel $250, Morris Chapel
$125 and Chapin $125. During this period the membership was about forty. There
were eight families that attended regularly and kept the church alive.
In 1936 the wooden church building was hit by a tornado and damaged beyond repair, but the furniture on the inside of the building was not damaged (including the altar and pews, which had been moved from the original Wessinger’s Crossroads Church). This was during the latter part of the Depression, when President Roosevelt had established work programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA). A member of the church, Mr. D. C. Lee, was in charge of some of the local WPA projects and was able to furnish labor to work with the church members in rebuilding the church as a brick structure.
The late 1930’s was a period of reuniting of the Methodist Church, which had been separated by the Civil War, but the Pomaria charge minister (Alister Elzy Smith) was a strong supporter of the Southern Methodist Church and urged withdrawal. But the Chapin Church members were almost unanimous in their vote in favor of re-unification and of the charge; only the Morris Chapel withdrew to join the Southern Methodist Church.
During the 1940’s the membership remained at about 40 people, with an average
attendance of about 20, Rev. Q. E. Gunter served as minister during this time
and in 1949 his salary was raised to $1,900.00 per year, of which Chapin
contributed $225.00. Mrs. Gunter was very active in the church and organized the
Women’s Society of Christian Service on April 15, 1948.
During the 1950’s and early 60’s the church membership grew to about 70 in 1967 and in the early 1950’s, Melba Derrick and Helen Rainey began Sunday School every Sunday and organized the M.Y.F.. The members donated money and added stained glass windows to the sanctuary in January 1958, at a cost of $885.00 and in 1966 a Sunday School Class Room Building was added, at a cost of $14,497.00.
In 1967 Mt. Pleasant withdrew from the charge to form a separate church, leaving only three churches in the charge. During the period from 1967 to 1981 the church membership showed tremendous growth up to about 550 members. During this time it became necessary to have two church services to accommodate the membership, and in 1973 the Pomaria Circuit was dissolved and Chapin became a "station" or separate church with Rev. Albert L. Cox as the minister.
In 1972 a 9.8-acre tract of land was purchased for $8,000.00 and the current church building was constructed. The building consisted of a 3,750 sq. ft. sanctuary and a 5,000 sq. ft. education building, for a contract price of $163,840.00. This price did not include the steeple, pews or furnishings, which were donated by members. The new building and cemetery were consecrated on October 12, 1975. The “Old Brick Church” still belongs to Chapin UMC and is under the control of the Board of Trustees. We rent the building to new churches that are just starting up, as part of our ongoing missions projects.
In 1979 the education building was enlarged by the addition of 4,700 sq. ft., for a cost of $109,704.00. The access road and parking lots were paved in 1980, at a cost of $11,715.00. The church purchased a lot in Dutchman Shores and built the present parsonage.
The church continued to grow and add activities including:
With future growth in mind, a long range planning committee was established to
guide Chapin UMC into the future. The Administrative Board appointed a
Building Committee to start the process of enlarging the church. As you can see
the cost of construction has increased drastically over the life of the church:
2001 – Phase II of the building program is in the design stage for renovation of
the Education building and addition of an office area.|
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