FRIENDSHIP METHODIST CHURCH CEMETERY (c1830), Pickens County, SC a.k.a. > Version: 3.0 Effective: 30-Jul-2006 Text File: P052.TXT Image Folder: P052 ******************************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the recording contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the following USGenWeb coordinator with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn (visit above website) SCGenWeb "Golden Corner" Project Coordinator Anderson: http://www.rootsweb.com/~scandrsn/ Oconee: http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Pickens: http://www.rootsweb.com/~scpicke2/ DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Jul-2006 GPS MAPPING .... : Gary Flynn at (visit above website) in -2006 HISTORY ........ : ____________ at ____________ in _______ IMAGES ......... : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in -2006 RECORDING ...... : ____________ at ____________ in _______ ******************************************************************************** CEMETERY LOCATION: ------------------ > GPS = Latitude N x Longitude W CEMETERY HISTORY: ------------------------ FRIENDSHIP METHODIST CHURCH The first Friendship Methodist Church was a small hand-hewn log building on a mountain side north of Sunset, SC and the present Highway #11 built about 1830. It was deep in the forest in rugged terrain, isolated, on a dead end road, almost inaccessible and not easy for the elderly to attend. (This location is listed in Pickens County Cemetery Book, Vol #3 as Gilstrap-Walker Cemetery. Due to the unsatisfactory location and increasing population over a period of years, the old log church was abandoned and a larger white boarded church was erected on Sunset Post Office Road about a mile south of the first one on land said to be given by the Gilstraps; land very likely owned by Bright or John Ash- more Gilstrap. This new Friendship Methodist Episcopal Church, South was constructed about 1865 on the south side of Old Sunset Community Road, which is now south of Scenic Highway #11. The church was used until 1955 when a storm wrecked it, and it was never rebuilt. Some tombstones and many unmarked graves remain. The earliest death date at this new location recorded on a stone is 1891. Some names on stones at this one are: - Gilstrap, Alexander, Tomes, Wooten, Powell; and in the first one are found Gilstrap and Walker. Submitted by: Era M. Davis, 714 Ireland Road, Pickens, SC 29671 Sources: A leaflet Gilstraps from 1749 Genealogy and Migration by Ernest Gilstrap, some from Cemetery Book, some my research by: Pickens County SC Heritage Book 1995 TOMBSTONE TRANSCRIPTION NOTES: ------------------------------ a. = age at death b. = date-of-birth d. = date-of-death h. = husband m. = married p. = parents w. = wife