| South Carolina Events |
National and World Events |
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1737 - John Wesley visits the South Carolina Lowcountry
1738 - George Whitfield makes first visit to South Carolina, establishes societies
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1738 - John Wesley's Aldersgate experience |
1784 - Methodists begin to move into South Carolina, some from England and Ireland, others from Virginia, societies form in the Upcountry
1785 - First visit of Bishop Asbury (annual visits until 1816), first appointments of preachers in Charleston and Georgetown, four circuits created (Charleston, Pee Dee, Santee, Broad River); vigorous evangelization of African-Americans |
1775-1783 - American Revolution
December 1784 - Christmas Conference in Baltimore begins the Methodist Episcopal Church in America; Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke elected bishops
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1787 - first meeting of an Annual Conference in South Carolina
1791 - Primitive Methodist Schism (William Hammett) |
1787 - Delegates write the U. S. Constitution in Philadelphia |
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1795 - Mount Bethel Academy opens in Newberry, first Methodist school in South Carolina
1796 - South Carolina Conference established
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1800 - Anti-Slavery Address adopted by General Conference
1800 - Camp meeting movement begins nationally
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| 1800 - Methodist society membership in South Carolina includes 3399 white and 1283 black members in 10 circuits |
1800 - Membership in Methodist societies in the United States reaches 64,000, with 13,000 of those being black members. |
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1802 - Camp meeting movement spreads into South Carolina
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1804 - Two Disciplines published over the issue of slavery |
| 1812 - first General Conference composed of delegates from the Annual Conferences rather than of all conference members |
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1829 - missions to slaves on plantations established
1837 - Southern Christian Advocate begins publication on June 24 in Charleston
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1830 - Methodist Protestant Church organized |
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1846 - William Capers elected bishop; first South Carolina native elected to the episcopacy
1848 - First South Carolina missionaries travel to China - Charles Taylor and Benjamin Jenkins
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1844 - Methodist Episcopal Church splits over the issue of slavery 1846 - Methodist Episcopal Church, South organized in Louisville, KY |
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1854 - Wofford College opens in Spartanburg after a bequest from Methodist minister Benjamin Wofford. That same year, Columbia Female College is approved by the conference. Other women's colleges open in the late 1850s in Spartanburg and in Lenoir, NC.
1856 - South Carolina Conference Historical Society established
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1861-1865 - American Civil War |
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1862 - first Northern missionary among Black Carolinians - T. Willard Lewis; Alonzo Webster comes in 1865.
1866 - South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (the northern branch of Methodism) established
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1865-1877 - Reconstruction |
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1869 - Claflin University opens in Orangeburg
1873 - Williamston Female College opens under the leadership of Rev. Samuel Lander, later moves to Greenwood and becomes Lander College.
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1878 - South Carolina Conference Missionary Society established
1880 - Thomas B. Jeter becomes the first South Carolina Methodist to serve as governor
1896 - Epworth Orphanage opens in Columbia
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Temperance movement, revivalism, holiness movement begins
Rapid growth of the textile industry in South Carolina and in the South
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| 1911 - Textile Industrial Institute opens in Spartanburg, later becomes Spartanburg Methodist College |
Progressive Era |
| 1914 - South Carolina conference divided, Upper South Carolina Conference meets for the first time in 1915. |
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1939 - The Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Methodist Protestant Church reunify, creating The Methodist Church.
1940 - First meeting of Jurisdictional Conferences
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1948 - The Upper South Carolina Conference and South Carolina Conference merge into the South Carolina Conference
1948 - The Southern Christian Advocate becomes the South Carolina Methodist Advocate
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| 1951 - The South Carolina Christian Action Council is formed |
1950s and 1960s - the Civil Rights Movement |
| 1960 - The Columbia Area is created; Paul Hardin Jr. becomes the first bishop of the South Carolina Conference to serve exclusively in South Carolina. He serves until 1972 |
1956 - General Conference approves full clergy rights for women |
| 1964 - James Thomas becomes the first black South Carolinian to be elected a bishop |
1968 - The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren join to form The United Methodist Church
Segregated Central Jurisdiction is abolished
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1972 - The historically white South Carolina Conference (1785) and historically black South Carolina Conferece (1866) merge; Edward Tullis becomes bishop.
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1980 - Roy C. Clark becomes bishop
1988 - Joseph B. Bethea becomes the first African-American to serve as bishop of the South Carolina Conference
1996 - J. Lawrence McCleskey becomes bishop
2004 - Mary Virginia Taylor becomes the first woman to serve as bishop of the South Carolina Conference
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