Inscription
(Front) This camp ground, established about 1870, is the largest of 4 Methodist camp grounds in Dorchester County. Tradition holds that Ceasar Wolfe and a group of former slaves, caught in a storm, stopped in a grove here for shelter. Rice planter S.M. Knight asked them to help harvest his fields, and after they did so he gave them this spot as a place of worship.
They named it Shady Grove. (Reverse) The group first met under a brush arbor but later built “tents,” the rough-hewn cabins typical of church camp grounds. The first tents burned in 1958 and were replaced; fires also occurred in 1969 and 1976. The “tabernacle” here is the centrally-located shelter where services are in session ending the fourth Sunday in October.
A trumpet call on a ceremonial horn opens the meeting. Erected by the Upper Dorchester County Historical Society, 2010
Location
Sources
More markers in Dorchester
Old Dorchester
Summerville, SC
Laid out in 1697 as a market town for the Congregationalist colony from Dorchester, Mass.
Fort Dorchester
Summerville, SC
A brick powder magazine enclosed by a tabby wall eight feet high was built here in 1757.
Middleton Place/Arthur Middleton
MIDDLETON PLACE (Front) These famous gardens were laid out about 1741 by Henry Middleton (1717-84), President of Continental Congress.
Old White Meeting House and Cemetery
Summerville, SC
(Front) This church was established in 1696 by settlers from Dorchester, Mass.
Newington Plantation
Summerville, SC
(Front) Newington Plantation was established on this site in the 1680s after Daniel Axtell received a royal grant of 300 acres.
