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As of year-end 2007, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 36,141 members in six stakes, 46 wards, 14 branches, one mission, and one temple in South Carolina.
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History
The first LDS member in South Carolina is believed to be Emmanual Masters Murphy, who was baptized in Tennessee in 1836. When Elder Lysander M. Davis arrived in South Carolina in 1839 (nine years after the Church was organized in New York), he found the Murphys had people prepared for baptism. Seven of these were baptized.
Opposition arose and Davis was briefly jailed. Murphy had reportedly spoken with Church President Joseph Smith in the late 1830s, and was told to warn South Carolinians of the destruction soon to hit their state, "the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls ... the Southern states will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain..." This warning saw reality in 1861, when the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter, and the Civil War commenced.
Catawba tribe
The South Carolina Conference was organized on March 31, 1882. Some of the earliest branches were established at King’s Mountains beginning March 3, 1882, and among the Catawba Indian community beginning July 31, 1885. Conference headquarters were established at the plantation of John Black, a man who remained unbaptized in order to provide refuge for the Church. Many converts, including Indians, moved onto his plantation to escape persecution. The Catawbas also shielded missionaries from persecutions. Two families were noted in Missionary journals as being home base, James and Elizabeth W Patterson's home shielded them on the occasions of the mobs hunting them. Evan and Lucy Marsh Watts were the host family when Elder C E Robinson died, and they were again helping when the two Elders were injured, Elder W C Cragun and F A Franughton. Most of the Catawbas joined the Church and remained faithful in South Carolina.
One of the more known LDS members of the Catawba tribe was Samuel Taylor Blue (Chief Blue). Blue was baptized in 1897. A few years later he served as branch president of the branch of the LDS Church on the Catawba Reservation. In the early 20th century he would often help missionaries escape mobs. In 1950 Blue traveled to Salt Lake City and gave a talk at General Conference on April 9.
Another Catawba, the first Lamanite Patriarch, William F Canty came from 5 families who moved west with the Migration in 1887. His father John Alonzo Canty was the first Branch President of the Gaffney area, and James Patterson, his grandfather was the first Branch President of the Catawba Branch. William (Buck) Canty spoke at the BYU Indian school graduation many times in the 1970s and toured with the Lamanite Generation in 1978.
Genealogy of the Western Catawba, Missionary Journals of Joseph P Willey and Pinkney Head, and My Father's people, all written by Judy Canty Martin. News articles from the Church news in 1978 and other sources of family.Church growth
Progress and persecution continued in the 1890s. Mobs often gathered to persecuted missionaries. In 1897, mobs burned one of South Carolina's first Latter-day Saint meetinghouses in ab area called by locals Centerville near the small town of Ridgeway South Carolina. It was rebuilt and burned again in 1899.
Branches organized included Society Hill, Columbia, Charleston, and Fairfield. However, as converts migrated to the West, branches dwindled, and some were reorganized later with new converts. The South Carolina conference included six branches (four with meetinghouses) and 10 Sunday Schools.
On November 20–21, 2004, President Hinckley spoke to nearly 12,000 Church members in Columbia, S.C., with proceedings carried to 11 meetinghouses in 11 other stakes in South Carolina and Georgia.
Humanitarian efforts
LDS Church in South Carolina have been involved in a number of humanitarian services. Some of these include disaster relief, aid to the needy and sick, along with other services. Some of the more significant relief given by the church or its members in South Carolina are mentioned in this section.
The Church has provided relief to many natural disasters including: Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Andrew, flooding from Tropical Storm Alberto in Georgia, Hurricane Opal, and Florida's Hurricane Jeanne.
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, several thousand Latter-day Saint volunteers from South Carolina and other areas, went to Louisiana and Mississippi. Many of them taking time out of their jobs or came down on the weekends to help anyone needing assistance.
In 1996, the LDS Church authorized $100,000 and service to help rebuild 28 of the predominantly black churches across the South (including in South Carolina) that burned in the previous 18 months. These funds were divided according to need.
In 1996, the LDS Church donated 41,000 pounds of food to the Crisis Ministries Center in the Charleston area.
Stakes
South Carolina’s first stake was created in Columbia on October 19, 1947. It included the entire state with wards in Columbia, Greenville, Charleston, Gaffney, Hartsville, Ridgeway, and Spartanburg. Its branches included Augusta (Georgia), Sumter, Society Hill, Winnsboro, and Darlington.
The South Carolina West Stake (Later known as Greenville South Carolina East Stake), was organized 1963. In 1968, the South Carolina East Stake was organized which later became known as the Florence South Carolina Stake. The Charleston Stake was then organized in 1972.
Missions
South Carolina was originally part Southern States Mission when it was opened in 1876. In June 1971, the Southern States mission was divided and renamed the Georgia-South Carolina Mission. On June 20, 1974, it was renamed the Georgia Atlanta Mission in accordance to the new church naming policy for missions. On July 1, 1975, the South Carolina Columbia Mission was organized.
Temples
On 16 October 1999 the Columbia South Carolina Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley.