Cross Roads Baptist Church
1860 - Present
Westminster, South Carolina
Brush Harbor Church
The “new church”, no longer standing, was constructed around 1889 after the congregation was donated land by Dr. John Henry Johns.
Earliest records indicate Cross Roads Baptist Church to be the oldest known African American church in Oconee County, South Carolina. The original church was a log structure built in 1860 in the Crossroads Community now Westminster, South Carolina. Then in 1889 the family of Westminster physician Dr. John Henry Johns donated land to the church located across the road from the original structure. The congregation built a new church on the acquired property and shortly after they also built a school behind the new church. The school, Cross Roads School, remained open until the late 1930s. Early church deacons included Force Allen, Warren Early, Richard Oglesby, Big John Oglesby, Tom Oglesby, Fran Perry, and Saul Wakefield.
From research conducted by Clan Mother Amanda F. Allen and shared in 2006, the following information was recorded:
The surnames of some of the descendants in the ECSIUT include: Allen, Adair, Nicholson, Martin, Sizemore, Butler, Oglesby/Ogilvy, and Thompson.
By the mid 1800s, some of the families separated from the Chauga and Old Westminster churches to form their own congregation, Cross Roads Baptist Church.
The church became the center of tribal/clan activities for a number of years and several tribal members were buried in the church cemetery. Their graves were indicated with handmade stone markers placed at random (not at the head or foot of the gravesite) and did not include names.
In 1974, the current church structure was erected next to the older building. Cross Roads Baptist Church is still a thriving and important part of the Westminster, SC community and the Seneca River Missionary Baptist Association. Many of the original families remain connected to the church through their membership and annual family reunion celebration and continue to celebrate their ECSIUT connection.
