moved to the town of Charlotte and called Queen's Museum, or College. After the Revolution began, the name of the school was changed to Liberty Hall AcadAlexander himself went to Bullock's Creek in York District, South Carolina, and there for nearly thirty years he was pastor of the church and the principal of a famous Greek and Latin school.

emy.

CHAPTER XII

JOHN WITHERSPOON, OF THE LOWER SANTEE RIVER, and JAMES CAMPBELL, OF THE UPPER CAPE FEAR RIVER.

In the year 1732, a small company of Scots came from the North of Ireland to the coast region of South Carolina. They were given a tract of land on Black River, between the lower Santee and Pee Dee rivers. This country was called Williamsburg Township, in honor of William the Third, King of England. In the autumn of the year 1734, another group of Scots sailed from Belfast, Ireland. Storms tossed their ship sorely during the voyage across the Atlantic, but just three weeks before Christmas they landed at Charles Town. After Christmas they were put in an open boat with food to last them for a year. Each grown-up man was given, also, an ax, a broad hoe and a narrow hoe. The boat shaped its course by way of Georgetown Harbor and thence up the Black River to Williamsburg Township. The leader of this company of Scots was John Witherspoon, kinsman of the famous John Witherspoon, Presiden of Princeton College, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He brought the emigrants ashore and they began to build houses not far from a large white pine tree on the bank of the river. For the reason that trees of this kind were kept for the use of the King of England, this beautiful pine, which threw its shadow over the homes of the Scots, was called the King's Tree. Such was the beginning of the present town of Kingstree, in South Carolina.

John Witherspoon was a man of stout heart, for we are told that he and his sons comforted the people whom

he led into the wilderness. When the emigrants found nothing on the shore of the Black River but a great forest and a few log-cabins built by the Scots who had come two years before, their spirits sank. Then, says Robert Witherspoon, grandson of John, "My father gave us all the comfort he could, by telling us we would get all those trees cut down and in a short time there would be plenty of inhabitants, so that we could see from house to house."

The fire, which the settlers had brought with them, went out, but John Witherspoon's son hastened through the pathless forest to the next group of houses, and brought some live coals. When darkness came on "the wolves began to howl on all sides." John Witherspoon loaded his gun and kept his people in safety. For a long time there was no door to his house and the earth itself formed the only floor. Wild beasts and Indians were driven away and under the leadership of John Witherspoon the axes of the settlers were kept at work in the woods. Corn was planted and in the autumn there was bread in abundance from their own fields.

"Well, we must have a minister," said one of the Witherspoons, whose first name was Gavin. John Willison, of Dundee, Scotland, was the preacher whom he named when asked about his choice. "But the minister must have a muckle sight o' money for his living." "An' that we must gie him," said Witherspoon. "An' how much, Mister Wotherspoon, wull ye gie?" "Ten poonds," was the ready answer. "But, Mister Wotherspoon, whar wull ye get the ten poonds?" "Why, if warst comes to warst," said Witherspoon, "I can e'en sell my cou [cow]." Willison was sent for, but he could not come. Robert Heron came, however from North Ireland, and in August, 1736, he organized a Presbyterian Church among the Scots of Williamsburg. About three years afterwards, however, Heron returned to Ireland and remained there until his death. Soon after the

founding of the church near the King's Tree, Presbyterian Churches were organized at Salem, on the Black River, at Indian Town, at Aimwell, on the Pee Dee, at Mount Zion and at Brewington. Most of the people who established these churches bore the family names of Cooper, Gordon, Irwin, James, McCutchen, McDonald, Wilson and Witherspoon.

In 1743 John Rae came to be the preacher at the King's Tree. He continued his labors there until his death in 1761. He was "a man of heavenly spirit," we are told, who went about "reproving the negligent, encouraging the doubtful and desponding, visiting the sick, comforting mourners and relieving the distressed." Under his wise care harmony was preserved in the congregation, "the piety and graces of the parents seemed to have descended upon their offspring, and the young, as they grew to manhood, became with few exceptions, members and ornaments of the church of their fathers." New settlers came and wide fields gave their harvests each year. From Sunday to Sunday, all of these churches of the Santee and Pee Dee country were filled with earnest worshippers. David McKee, a godly man, followed Rae in the work of the ministry at the King's Tree. After three years, McKee went to Salem, on Black River, and Hector Alison became shepherd at the King's Tree.

While these people from the Lowlands of Scotland were growing in numbers and strength near the coast of South Carolina a large body of settlers from the Scotch Highlands was worshipping God in the Presbyterian way, on the upper waters of the Cape Fear River. They began to enter this region about the time when John Witherspoon and his followers were building homes near the King's Tree on the Black River (1734). Soon after the year 1746, the Highlanders came in large numbers and established themselves in the region around Cross Creek, now called Fayetteville, on the Cape Fear.

From that point some of them moved gradually westward across the upper Pee Dee River. Today their descendants hold a large part of the land in the counties of Cumberland, Bladen, Robeson, Sampson, Moore, Richmond, and Anson, in North Carolina.

These Scots from the Highlands were Presbyterians. Some years passed away before they could secure a preacher. In 1757, however, James Campbell became their spiritual shepherd and he held that office until his death in 1781.

James Campbell, a minister of the Church of Scotland, came first to the colony of Pennsylvania (1730) and preached there to a congregation of Scots. His mind became clouded with doubt concerning his call to the ministry, and after a few years he ceased to preach. Then Whitefield came through that land and Campbell heard him speak. He sought out Whitefield and told him of his spiritual unrest. Whitefield gave good counsel and urged Campbell to take up again the work of the ministry. In 1755, therefore, when Hugh McAden set forth upon his journey southward, he found Campbell in charge of a congregation in western Pennsylvania.

Two years later, that is, in 1757, James Campbell came to North Carolina and began to speak the gospel message to the Highlanders of the Cape Fear country. His home was on the left bank of that stream, thirteen miles above Cross Creek. The Scots required him to become a member of the Presbytery of South Carolina and this he did at once. On his own plantation, "beneath the shade of his own lofty oaks," he first preached Christ to his countrymen in their native language. The news that a Gaelic, or Highland, preacher had settled among them passed throughout the region occupied by the Scots "almost with the speed of the fiery cross in the Highlands, when sent to summon the clansmen to the fight. Soon multitudes came to hear the Word ex