by Margaret McNab Gale
The maternal grandparents of my husband, Larry Baker Gale, Dr. John Stover Gaskin, MD and Dr. Madge Baker Gaskin, MD were early 1920s graduates of the Medical College of South Carolina. Madge Baker Gaskin was one of the first female physicians in the Palmetto State. We recently found out that Dr. Madge’s father was Reverend Andrew Charles Baker, a Baptist minister who pastored several churches in Aiken.
I found that interesting, since I have family from the Barnwell and Blackville area near Aiken.
My husband did further research on his family and found an article on the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website. The article was from an issue of the Baptist Courier dated October 5, 1905. The article stated. “Rev. A.C. Baker, whose home is at Monroe, N.C. has been called to the Salley and Wagener Churches and recalled to the Rocky Grove Church for next year. He will be called to one of two others and will move in to his field about December 1. Rev. Baker will receive a warm welcome to South Carolina.”
The article goes on to say “Along with A.C. Baker and wife and Bro. L.J. Bristow, the writer was entertained in the hospitable home of Bro. J.T. Dorrity. He is a large cotton planter and owns an orange grove in Florida, where he spends the winter.”
It was exciting news to me that Rev. Baker had pastored churches in Aiken County since my family once owned Hampton Hill Plantation in present day Aiken, South Carolina.
Editor’s note: Aiken’s Hampton Hill Plantation was located near the present-day Dibble Road in Kalmia Hills. The 114-acre farm was bought in 1852 by distinguished botanist, Henry William Ravenel, whose experimental efforts with various fruit crops led to the successful establishment of productive orchards where he grew grapes, figs, peaches and other fruits.
This research led me to learn more about Rocky Grove Baptist Church. Rocky Grove Church was founded in 1812. It is located in Salley, South Carolina. The current church was built in 1951 using some of the timbers from their older building. The church website states that, in 1954, the church records were sent to Furman University for copying and preserving.
Mount Pleasant Memorial Baptist Cemetery, Aiken County, S.C.
I also wanted to learn more about Bro. R.T. Dorrity whose name was mentioned in the Baptist Courier which stated Rev. Baker was “entertained in the hospitable home of Bro. R.T. Dorrity”.
Reports and Resolutions of the General Assembly of South Carolina Regular Session Commencing January 8, 1901 Volume II, Part 1 lists “Thirty-Second Annual Report 318009 of the State Superintendent of Education of the State of South Carolina 1900”. Under Township and City Assessors ORANGEBURG COUNTY Appointed February 23, 1899 Rocky Grove Township… R.T. Dorrity.
The Report of M.R. Cooper, Secretary of State to the General Assembly of South Carolina for the Fiscal Year Beginning January 1, 1900 and Ending December 1900, under Township and City Assessors Orangeburg County Appointed February 25, 1899 under Rocky Grove Township also lists R.T. Dorrity.
Researching Rev. Baker’s companion, Bro. L.J. Bristow also interested me. According to a Baptist Journal, Pastor L.T. Bristow of Abbeville attended a meeting with Dr. Howard Lee Jones of Charleston L.T. Bristow married Caroline Winkler. Caroline’s father was Edwin Theodore Winkler, DD, LLD. The Newspapers by Ancestry obituary website states “Dr. Winkler was born in Savannah in 1823, entered Brown University in 1839, attended Newton Theological Seminary in 1843, and in 1845 was assistant editor of the Christian Index.”
The obituary also noted that Winkler was at one time the pastor of the Citadel Square Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and in 1872 became pastor of Siloam Baptist Church in Marion, Alabama. His Doctor of Divinity degree was conferred upon him by Furman University in South Carolina.
Dr. Winkler authored several theological commentaries that are currently still in print.
It was a great surprise to me that Baptist pastor L.J. Bristow’s daughter was Gwen Bristow, born in Marion, SC, the best-selling American author and journalist who was a close personal friend of notable science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Bristow attended Anderson Baptist College in Anderson, South Carolina for one year before transferring to Judson College in Marion, Alabama. Bristow graduated from Judson College in 1924, the year her parents moved to New Orleans.
After college, she attended the Pulitzer School of Journalism at Columbia University, where she became a secretary for a Polish baroness of Riverside Drive. Gwen then moved back home to live with her parents in New Orleans on the grounds of Southern Baptist Hospital, where her father had become superintendent.
According to the South Carolina Academy of Authors, Gwen Bristow wrote over a dozen books, some translated into eleven different languages, and several of which were made into movies. I remember as a young girl reading her book Celia Garth: A Story of Charleston in the Revolution.
Bristow earned a place in such biographical and critical works as Current Biography, Contemporary Authors, Atlantic Monthly, Times Literary Supplement, New York Times Book Review, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in American Women.
South Carolina has a rich history of distinguished residents with interesting stories to tell for all who call the Palmetto State their home.
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Margaret McNab Gale (“Peggy”) holds a Master’s in Information and Library Science from the University of South Carolina. She has written over 50 articles on the history of South Carolina in journals and newspapers throughout South Carolina, and she has given many presentations to audiences around the state. A passionate genealogist, she is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century, the Daughters of 1812, and the Jamestowne Society. With her husband, Larry, she owns computer consulting and security firm Perceptual Systems and a photography company, Larry Gale Photography.