Hopewell was a name given to a town in England, a tiny ship that brought settlers to the New World, a Quaker meeting house in Virginia, the plantation home of General Andrew Pickens near Clemson, and a small church in Anderson, South Carolina.         

Springing from a truly dedicated group of forefathers after the American Revolution, Hopewell Baptist  Church was founded near headwaters of Six and Twenty Creek in the year 1803.  Rev. Moses Holland preached monthly in the log structure at that location.  That insightful group of pioneers became one of the founding churches of the Saluda Baptist Association that same year.    

In 1822 a 4.4 acre plot near Big Beaverdam Creek was donated to the Hopewell congregation and a new log structure was erected.  Between then and  1891 a third log structure existed during The Civil War era of American history.  The Legendary Manson Sherrill Jolly at times attended.

In 1891 a ceiled wooden plank church replaced the log structure. It was in this plank church that Rev. James Davis Chapman whose wife, Janie, the annual state missions offering memorializes served as pastor in 1906-1907.

Then the brick building replaced the plank building in 1949.  Additions were erected in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  The church parsonage burned in 2003 after which the family life center was added.

Through Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and all recent  World conflicts Hopewell Baptist Church has been at lighthouse on a curve, a blessing to the nearby communities, and a beacon sending out The Love of God and spreading the Good News that Our Savior lives, forgives, and saves. 

What’s Hopewell?  Yes, it’s that little church on the curve clad in colorful history with an alter directly under the spot where the horizontal and vertical beams of THE CROSS intersect.  May her lamp forever glow with the message that “A WELL Full of HOPE” can be found at HOPEWELL!

-Written by our Beloved David Babb

Historical Database: Hopewell Church Historical Marker