Ebenezer United Methodist Church
In 1736 John and Charles Wesley came to Charleston, South Carolina. The state was fertile for "circuit riders" as they carried the message of Jesus from house to house on horse back. Sixty of America's circuit riders' gathered at a historical moment in Baltimore, Maryland. The Methodist Church was organized at this meeting which begain on December 24, 1784 and ended January 2, 1785. One of the most promising circuit riders was Francis Asbury who was ordained as a bishop in this newly found church. He made 31 trips to South Carolina.
He recorded in his journal, Vol. I that in February 1785 he visited Georgetown and the surrounding territories, establishing churches in various sections. Among the places he visited was the community of Muddy Creek where Ebenezer Church now stands. The area and church was known as Muddy Creek from The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury Vol I.
The first building to house the church, constructed in 1786, was a one room log structure with side doors, a clay chimney and no windows.
Bishop Asbury's route included this area. Before then Asbury met with some of these early congregations in bush arbors with a tree stump for a pulpit.
The Reverend James Jenkins from Brittons Neck was sent to the Pee Dee circuit in 1796. According to records in the Williamsburg County Courthouse there was a meeting house in Muddy Creek in 1808, probate records of Timothy Britton.
In 1829 June 5 an entry in Bartell's Journal states that he went to Sunday school at Muddy Creek.
Information above compiled by Rebecca Hughes Dunahoe
In William Willis Boddie's History of Williamsburg he mentions Ebenezer Methodist Church as the earliest Methodist Church in Williamsburg County:
"In 1820, Ebenezer Methodist Church was built on Muddy Creek in Williamsburg on the land of Samuel Haselden. When Mr. Haselden died in 1822, he left in his will two acres of land on which this church was located to the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was the first parcel of land that the Methodist Church owned in Williamsburg District. Samuel Haselden was one of the men in Williamsburg who received Bishop Asbury kindly from his first visit.
A History of Williamsburg, William Willis Boddie, 1923
Samuel Haselden's 1822 will stated the following regarding the dispersal of his lands to his heirs: "except two acres freely given to the Methodist church where it now stands at Muddy and shall be here after known as Ebenezer."
The congregation built a handsome new sactuary between 1917-1919. It cost $15,000 and was paid for in full by 1919. On November 24, 1969 a fire completely destroyed the historic sactuary. The current sanctuary was dedicated on Oct 20, 1974 and features cathedral-style exposed beams and a balcony. It is the fourth building since the church's founding.