Historical Marker

Shady Grove Camp Ground

OFF U. S. HWY. 178, JUST SE OF THE ORANGEBURG COUNTY/DORCHESTER COUNTY LINE, ST. GEORGE VICINITY · St. George · Dorchester

South Carolina marker

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

AddressOFF U. S. HWY. 178, JUST SE OF THE ORANGEBURG COUNTY/DORCHESTER COUNTY LINE, ST. GEORGE VICINITY
CitySt. George

Sources


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